I am the author, Meikyou Shisui, and I wish to thank all of you for picking up this tenth volume of Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon: My Trusted Companions Tried to Kill Me, But Thanks to the Gift of an Unlimited Gacha I Got LVL 9999 Friends and Am Out For Revenge on My Former Party Members and the World!
The Unlimited Gacha light novel series has finally reached the tenth volume milestone! This has only been possible thanks to the commitment of all of you readers out there, and I’m truly grateful for your support!
Before I continue, I must warn you that I’ll be talking about a few spoilers for this volume in the act of sharing my thoughts on it, so for those of you who wish to read the story first without being spoiled, consider yourselves suitably warned.
Are we all good to go now? Okay.
This volume is the first part in a two-part installment, which is a first for this light novel series. In the web novel, the corresponding “Demonkin Nation Arc” was divided up into three parts, but when adapting the arc for the light novel, I figured retaining that three-part format wouldn’t lend itself to easy reading, so I went ahead and rewrote it into a two-part arc.
As a result, out of all the volumes so far, this one (probably) contains the most pages for the main story. On the web novel platform, Shosetsuka ni Naro (“Let’s Become a Novelist”), I’m able to type away without worrying about a page count, but with print novels, there are limits on character counts, which I was reminded of during this process.
That said, I personally enjoyed writing all of the scenes featuring Ellie, Mad Pierrot, and the other members of the Morte Spada, and Light versus the fake Gira, as well as plenty of other highlights. In fact, thanks to that, I ended up writing additional content, which got me into even more trouble regarding the page limit (*laughs*).
Now, without further ado, on to the acknowledgments!
Once again, I wish to extend my gratitude to tef for providing such awesome and adorable illustrations, on top of all the wonderful character designs for this volume. Thank you for your breathtaking artwork in this volume too! I personally love the color illustration of Ellie where she unleashes her massive amount of attack spells. I couldn’t believe my eyes when tef drew that scene, and a superb color illustration of it, no less! When this series was still only in web novel format, that scene with Ellie was a fan favorite (and a personal one for me too), so I couldn’t wait to see how it would be illustrated. So imagine my surprise when the scene was in color, not black-and-white. I was truly overwhelmed!
Of course, the insert illustrations are as wonderful as ever, with one of my personal favorites being the picture where Mad Pierrot is bound to a chair, his hair sheared off and having been changed into a different outfit. And if that weren’t enough, that image was paired with a drawing in the background of what Mad Pierrot looked like before he was captured, and the combination of the two was so striking and surreal, I couldn’t help laughing.
The cover illustration, the color illustrations, and the character designs are also of such high quality that I’m always impressed whenever my supervising editor shows me the latest piece you’ve drawn. I truly can’t thank you enough for drawing such wonderful artwork, tef!
Next to thank is my supervising editor, plus HJ Novels’ editorial team! I’m eternally grateful for your tireless efforts on my behalf, and I apologize for causing trouble for all of you! I’ll probably continue to be a nuisance, but I hope we can maintain a good working relationship going forward.
I also wish to thank Takafumi Oomae, the fine artist behind the manga adaptation of Unlimited Gacha, new chapters of which are published every Tuesday on the Magazine Pocket app. I’d also like to express my gratitude to the editorial department at Kodansha. Thank you for publishing such an enjoyable manga!
Just imagining the day that Oomae gets around to illustrating some of the scenes in this tenth volume of the light novel fills me with excitement. We’ll see: Mera and the Mohawks in battle; all the bits where Diablo is backed into a corner by Light’s attempts to frame him; Light, Nemumu, and Gold taking on the Morte Spada; and the battle between Ellie and Gira! I personally can’t wait for Oomae to draw the manga chapters depicting the events of this volume, and I hope we will get to it soon!
Last of all, I want to thank all of you, the readers! You’re the reason this series has made it to its tenth volume, and I deeply appreciate your unwavering support! The eleventh volume should be released in November of this year, if things proceed smoothly (please bear in mind that this is just my own prediction.)
The eleventh volume will include a lot more in the way of battle scenes featuring Aoyuki, the Level 9999 warrior who has had notably less “screen time” than her peers. Light will finally get his revenge on Diablo, and Light’s older brother will also make an appearance.
As we speak, I’m hard at work penning a bunch of new scenes so that you, the reader, will get to enjoy a story that is more amusing, enjoyable, intense, and emotional than the web novel version. I hope that all of my work will pay off and the book I produce will be highly entertaining to read.
Once again, thank you all for your commitment in reading up to this point! I am deeply honored by the number of readers that are following this series, and I hope you will all continue to support me!
PS: Just like in the previous volumes, I have written a bonus story that is available to everyone who purchased this novel. To access the bonus story, go to my activity updates on the Shosetsuka ni Naro website, click on the entry which has a date of or around July 19, 2024, and follow the instructions in the entry. You will be directed to my personal web page, where you will need to enter a password. (You can also do a web search for “明鏡シスイ活動報告 (Meikyou Shisui Activity Update)” and that should take you straight to the right web page. Once there, search for the entry that corresponds to the date above. Also, the password to my personal website changes with every volume of the novel that’s released, so please bear that in mind. When you have logged in, you should also be able to read all the past bonus stories.)
The password for this volume is: ellie. [Please note: As of this English-language publication, this password has expired.]