Chapter 124

AFTERWORD Hello, it’s me, Hasekura. My shoulders are stiff, and they’ve been really hurting, so I am in pain when I have to change clothes or roll over in bed. As of writing this afterword, I’ve only seen the rough sketch of the cover image, but I think Col is going to look very, very cool this time around. I think he acts cool in the story, too…or so I hope I’ve written him that way. The greatest objective of their journey has finally come into view, so it seems he’s starting to finally act like a protagonist. And now I’m starting to wonder how many volumes are left in this series, and at the same time I’m at the age where I start thinking things like, how many more years can I keep writing? When I first debuted, I felt like I had an endless road in front of me. I would love to reach 100 books published, but even if I manage to write three books a year, that’s still seventeen years. I’m not even halfway there yet… And when I realized Dengeki Bunko would be reaching its 50th anniversary at around that time, I shuddered. I bet AI with full human rights will be writing light novels by then. I wonder if humans will have a place anymore. I think we’d start selling books like, “Written by a human!” Like they’re traditional handmade craftwork. I feel like there could be a short story collection about AIs talking about how there’s a warmth to human-written stories. There probably already is. I wrote all that so quickly, but I still have half a page left… I really have nothing to say. I see many authors who often get asked to write essays and columns, and I think it’s incredible they can do that. Oh, I ordered a fugu hot pot set through the hometown tax, so I’m looking forward to that. If I never release a next volume, please blame it on the fugu. I once received a tip that if my hands stopped moving, I should write that down. And so now I’m writing that my hands stopped. And now I filled two lines. I think I should just aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa to fill up space. People would be very angry with me if I did that on a manuscript that cost manuscript fees, but it’s probably fine for the afterword, right? Aaaaaaaaaaaaa… Almost there! Five lines left! Four! Three! Two! I’ll see you in the next volume! Isuna Hasekura