Afterword
HELLO, EVERYONE. Long time no write. Honobonoru500 here. Thanks for picking up a copy of The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash, Volume 12. Thanks to you all, this series has sold a total of over 1.6 million copies! Also, the Blu-ray box set goes on sale June 5th. You’ll get to see Ivy and Sora in all their cute glory, so do check out the anime as well.
In Volume 12, I wrote a little about the war that happened very far in the past. That war is one of the most significant plot points of this series, especially the kind of war it was. That’s the key. So I really struggled with how I wanted to introduce this war into the story. After a lot of thinking, I settled on the painting. That way, I could describe the painting and express what the war was like through Ivy. Then I needed to figure out how to display the painting to signify its importance. I had a lot of ideas, but none of them were really screaming at me, so I agonized over it all the way up to my deadline. But as I wrote the story, I suddenly envisioned a destroyed village in the middle of the forest. It feels funny saying this, but I was shocked at how perfectly it suited my needs, so I decided on the ruins of an old village not found on maps. And since it had a lot of dark and heavy themes, I lightened up the mood with serpents, which was a bonus. I wound up really liking that part of the story, since everything I wanted to accomplish worked out.
In Volume 12, I also featured another deep relationship between tamer and monster. It became a much more tragic story than I originally thought it would be, but I wanted to write about a monster’s self-sacrifice, so I was satisfied by it.
Thank you to everyone at TO Books for your help with Volume 12. My editor K-sama, thank you for always putting up with me. We managed to get Volume 12 published thanks to you all.
Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who read this book with all my heart. I hope you’ll give Volume 13 a read, too. The manga version of The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash is also selling well. May we meet again in this “Isekai’ed into a world…where proper waste disposal rules!” light novel and manga series.
—Honobonoru500
February, 2024