Hello, this is my eleventh time greeting everyone! I’m Tamamaru, the part-time light novel author who’s nearing fifty. The previous volume was the first “To be continued...” in the series, and this volume is the continuation of the previous arc. I doubt any readers did this, but if you skipped straight to this afterword without reading the tenth volume, I highly recommend you do so before you crack this one open.
Now then, volume 11 was jam-packed with all sorts of events, including the orichalcum knife, learning of Maribel’s true identity (though I already revealed that she’s a fire spirit), Juliet and Romeo, and the end of the fake knife debacle. I think it was a hefty read! I hope that readers like you enjoy it.
I wrote in volume 10’s afterword that Maribel had been set to appear since pretty early on in the series. She made a swift retreat from the series for a short while, but her reappearance really allowed her to shine and use her powers to her full potential. This volume was the payoff for the bit of foreshadowing I did in the previous volume, where she was set to fill a certain role. She’s also one of the few people who knows about the past hero’s true identity. This is a freebie nugget of info here, but I thought it was an important turning point for Eizo, who would eventually forge a blade for the hero and Demon Queen.
I think Maribel’s abilities will shine every now and then from here on out, so if you’ve taken a liking to her character, please look forward to it!
Now, for Juliet and Romeo, I had them appear a bit more in this volume. As for the infiltration route of the siblings into House Eimoor, I haven’t touched upon it yet since Eizo doesn’t know either, but there might be an opportunity to shed light on it later on. The siblings are also well-versed in the seedy underbelly of society, and I hope that they can become characters who’ll provide some more context about unexplored parts of Eizo’s world. Mercenaries like Helen and Flore might know a bit about the less savory bits of the world too, but not as much as Juliet and Romeo.
The siblings will continue to work behind the scenes to support this story, so if you enjoy stuff like that, please look forward to it!
And now for some acknowledgments. As usual, thank you to my editor, I-san, who helped me out a ton, and to Kinta, who creates the illustrations for every volume. They’re always spectacular, and they help me imagine what the characters are supposed to look like. Whenever I look at the illustrations, those visuals really lock in, and that’s how I’ll begin to envision the characters in my head.
Thank you to Yoshino Himori, who’s in charge of the manga version. Every time I read those books, my eyes are always blessed with the most wonderful images and stories. By the time you’re reading this, the fifth volume of the manga should be out, so please give it a read!
Thank you to everyone involved with distributing the series to foreign nations. I know there’s an English version along with a French and German translation of this series. Thank you so much.
Thank you to my mother, younger sister, and my cats Chama, Konbu, and Shijimi. They give me so much energy every day. Oh! And Konbu’s finally taken a liking to me recently! Thanks also to both my online and offline friends.
And of course, a huge thank you to you, the reader! I’m most grateful to you for reading this series!
I hope we’ll meet again in the next volume!