Chapter 212

Afterword Thank you for your support. Keiso here. While this may be a bit boring to chronicle in the afterword eight volumes in, I would like to explain the origins behind this series, Ishura, up until it was published by Dengeki’s Shin Bungei imprint. Ishura was originally serialized on the web novel site Kakuyomu, and the printed edition of Ishura is a significantly retouched and revised reconstruction of this web novel. The end. You could get the general match results and story itself up to the seventh volume from reading the web novel (though with significantly less content). As such, the story in this eighth volume is a brand new part of the story that hasn’t been fully released anywhere else. I was able to successfully deliver the story that laid beyond the web novel thanks to all you readers who have supported this work, to Kureta for always providing the most badass illustrations that perfectly match what I’m looking for, to my editor Satou who is always ready to give me his advice no matter what state I’m in, and to the all the other people in involved with publishing and advertising the series. I am truly grateful to you all. Also, as a new policy starting from this volume, I’ve created a new Q&A corner concerning the worldbuilding of Ishura, as proposed by my managing editor. Some areas will spoil the story in the volume itself, so I hope you’ll enjoy it as a nice extra after finishing the rest of the book, and to prep yourselves for the Ishura anime beginning in January. There is another new experiment I wish to try. A spaghetti aglio e olio peperoncino recipe. Regarding this dish, while I don’t really think there’s much new in regard to the recipe itself, what I’d like to present to you this time is version that doesn’t use actual peperoncino, but wasabi instead. Spaghetti aglio e olio peperoncino is said to be challenging because of how simple it is, but if I’m just eating it at home and not showing it to anyone, as long as it tastes good, I don’t particularly care about if I’m good at it or not. Spread a layer of olive oil enough to soak two cloves of garlic in a frying pan and cook them on low heat. During that time, boil the spaghetti in the microwave. I’ve been boiling pasta in a microwave cooker for a long time now in these Ishura afterwords, but a microwave cooker is especially important for this spaghetti aglio e olio peperoncino recipe. This time, please set the cooking time to be about two to three minutes less than what you normally use to boil the pasta. I’ll explain why further on. Once the garlic’s turned a golden brown, take it out and place it in a dish, while in the same pan, fry chopped bacon in the garlic-infused oil. This is where you also add salt, but a scant teaspoon should be plenty. It might be better to adjust the amount to match the saltiness of your bacon and the amount of spaghetti. When the bacon has been browned nicely, turn the heat off. Once the spaghetti is finished cooking, add it to the frying pan along with all the pasta water left over in the microwave cooker. Turn the heat on once more and mix everything together, emulsifying it until all of the pasta water has boiled down. We needed to shorten the initial cooking time earlier since this will heat up the spaghetti even further. Once it’s completely boiled, mix it up well with the garlic in the dish to spread the flavors, put in your preferred amount of wasabi, and it’s finished. The wasabi version of the dish has a bite and freshness to it that’s slightly different from the peperoncino’s spiciness, and wasabi paste in a tube is much easier to use and prepare than peperoncini. I encourage you to try it out as it’s a simple, yet novel, dish. Even now that the story has gone past the scope of the web novel, I still have more and more intense plot developments planned. I hope you’ll continue supporting the new Ishura going forward as well.