Afterword
THANK YOU SO MUCH for picking up Volume 9 of Survival in Another World With My Mistress!
I’m so glad I managed to get Volume 9 out…but I can’t keep this pace up! My schedule’s going to kill me at this rate!
I’m writing this postscript at the beginning of April. It’s probably spring already in the Tokyo area, but here in Hokkaido? Nowhere close. It’ll be at least another month before the cherry blossoms start to bloom.
On top of that, the changing seasons here make for some rough changes in temperature. And when it starts to rain you’ve got that one-two punch of atmospheric pressure to the body that just knocks you out. Man, aging is rough. It really is.
Now then, time for a little life update. More specifically, what games I’ve been playing.
Recently I’ve been playing that monster hunting game that’s popular all over the world. I’ve been chipping away at it whenever I’ve had openings in my mega-tight schedule. Up until the previous game, I thought you had to be crazy to want to get up close and personal with such huge monsters, so I always used projectile weapons. But this time around, I picked up the supercool gun lance.
Man, it’s so much fun!
It’s fun being all “I’m gonna blow up that rugged face of yours!” before using that one big explosive move. Or jamming that spinning move right into a wound. Looks painful, but it’s mega fun. Still, the best thing is blocking a giant monster’s attack with your shield and pushing it back. Way too fun.
Man, there’s no way hunters are human!
Oh, and I also got totally addicted to this one Western game a friend recommended where you lead a group of mercenaries and walk across a Middle Ages-esque world. It feels good to hire outcasts like a former thief or a hunter. Pay them like 120 gold coins to do a job that pays out 400, then be all like “I’m finally in the black! Hell yeah!”
Where’d my sense of morals go…? Where are you?
But it’s not just about fighting. You’ve gotta manage the food resources your people need, manage your mercenary band—like their wages—plus keep morale high. The various factions in the world also have their own affinity levels, so it’s a super deep game and crazy fun.
I also really want to play the newest Atelier game and a bunch of others, but…where’s the time? Oh, time, where are you?? My schedule’s been so packed that I haven’t had time to play! I’m happy to be busy, but still!
Changing the subject—this time around, I’ll be talking about magic and magic energy within this world.
There are some setting spoilers here, but I think it’s about time I cleared things up. Stealthily! In the postscript!
In Survival in Another World, magic energy is a vast energy network set on the planet. Specifically, underground. When an underground conduit suffers damage, whether minor or severe, high-energy particles erupt out of it. Areas where those energy particles flow out from lightly damaged conduits are known as magic energy pools, while areas with heavily damaged conduits that gush out energy particles are called vein hollows.
These energy particles can’t be wielded unless an individual possesses a special organ in their body. And even if they do have that organ, their ability to wield this phenomenon that at first glance appears supernatural (magic) depends entirely on how well that organ performs. Kousuke, for instance, doesn’t have this organ, so no matter what he does, he’ll never be able to use magic.
Races known for their talent in magic-casting—such as elves or cyclopes—possess powerful versions of this organ thanks to genetics. You could even say it’s a special trait of their respective races. As for the Overlords—Melty’s race—the organ underwent abnormal growth in this respect. Like a mutation.
If all this sounds like science fiction, that’s because it is. The world may look like a fantasy realm of swords and magic, but in reality, it’s actually a sci-fi world.
Obviously, there is a group that intentionally installed the energy network and implanted the special organ into certain people, allowing them to use said energy. Whether all is right with them or not, well, I’ll leave that unsaid for now. Putting that aside for later: What elves refer to as spirits aren’t actually a fantasy element of the story either. They’re a kind of AI, drone, or support tool designed to manage and use the high-energy particles. The same applies to what the Adolist priests call holy spirits, angels, or the voice of God.
At their core, spirit magic and the miracles the Adolist priests refer to are the same phenomenon. Creating phenomena using only one’s own organ is magic, while using a support tool to produce phenomena is spirit magic or miracles.
As for what Ira and Ifriita referred to as mana and od in the story represent raw, unprocessed high-energy particles as well as high-energy particles that have been gathered and shaped in the organ.
I could go into far more detail, but I’m already pushing up against my page limit, so that’s all for this volume!
Finally, I’d like to extend my deepest gratitude to O-san from GC Novels, to Yappen for the illustrations, to everyone involved in publishing this volume, and most of all, to everyone who picked up this book.
If possible, I hope we can meet again in the next volume!
—Ryuto