Thank you so much for picking up this milestone volume! Lots of fun occasions this time around, like the novel and comic book coming out at the same time, and the anime coming just around the corner after this book hits the shelves.
There are plenty of hardships I could reminisce about: from the planning of this story to the unfolding of it, from winning the award to signing these book deals... Is my life flashing before my eyes?
Jokes aside, let’s do a quick recap of volume 10. So far, I’ve written a lot about what each faction did and how they changed through the civil war. In this volume, Hummer—the shining hope for all middle-age men—finally unlocks his full potential. He was one of the precious few normies in this story full of whacky characters, but I wanted to write people who excel in all sorts of fields beyond combat.
Back when I was an honest working joe, I was told over and over again that there were winners and losers in life, and I think that sentiment has only gotten more intense with time. Now people are talking about the parent lotto, the teacher lotto, the boss lotto... It’s a “lotto” nonsense if you ask me!
At my age, I can’t help but feel that life isn’t that simple. You can’t just say the richer you are the better person you are. My point is that the true winners are the ones who don’t give a crap what the world thinks of them and do what they want.
No one’s controlling me, for example. And I only hope that you, dear reader, also live the way you want to live.
I want to write a little about the anime, but I’m sure a lot more details than I can share now will have come out by the time this book hits the shelf. Last time, I mostly gave some edits to each week’s script, but I’ve been involved in the read throughs and the recordings through online calls. I can’t thank the production team and voice cast enough, who all tackled my story with their whole hearts week after week. I created that part of the story years ago, but those characters are hard to forget. I’m hoping we can all enjoy the anime together.
See you in volume 11!
8/28/2024 Kurone Kanzaki