Hello, everyone. It’s been a while. My name is Satoru Yamaguchi. My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! has just reached its thirteenth volume. I feel truly grateful for everyone who has read this far. Thank you very much.
By the way, as I’m writing this afterword, it’s still summer, so it’s extremely hot, but since this book will be released near the end of September, I can hope that it will be a little cooler by then.
This volume focused on Cezar, one of the hidden characters. He comes to Sorcié to study, triggering an event?! Maria and Cezar finally meet, but in the end, will love bloom between them?! That’s more or less the story of volume 13. I would be delighted if those who are curious are kind enough to read it.
Now then, though some might already be aware of this, a movie is scheduled for release this December. I, the writer of the source material, took the liberty of writing the script for this adaptation. I did the very best that I could, so I hope you will go and see it. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing Katarina and company on the big screen.
Typically the afterword would end here, but this time I’ve decided to make it a little longer and talk a bit about my summer. I feel as if, each and every year, summer temperatures are climbing steadily higher, but summer this year was filled with some incredibly hot days. Whenever I step out of my air-conditioned room, the difference in temperature between the inside and the outside leaves me dizzy. I’ve even said to some people, “Give it ten more years and we won’t even be able to go outside without protection.”
Also, Niigata Prefecture, where I live, is one of the snowiest regions in the country. When summer gets this hot in spite of that, I really feel downhearted. For some reason, there are still a number of days when we get stuck with the highest temperatures in the country. I always feel like muttering, “Have snow, or get hot. Pick one.” Plus, it’s also very humid, so summer feels really muggy. When the temperature gets to 40 degrees, I feel like I’ve stepped into a mist sauna.
Also, elementary school children start their summer holiday at the end of July, so kids have started doing radio calisthenics in the square next to my house. The voice on the radio is cheery, but these days it’s really hot even in the morning. So those kids have to be struggling. Back in the day, the kids always seemed to have a lot of fun playing, but with this heat the risk of heat stroke is high, so I hardly see kids playing at all during the day. Perhaps they’re all enjoying playing games or watching videos indoors. I guess parents can no longer tell their kids to stop playing games and go play outside, the way they used to. It’s so hot outside these days that it’s dangerous.
So far I’ve only written my complaints about summer, so now I’ll write something positive. This year, the vegetable patch at my house was really productive; I had an incredible harvest of cucumbers, eggplants, and tomatoes. And now I’m getting a lot of watermelons. I hope you can all make it through the heat with summer vegetables too!
Finally, I’d like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Hidaka Nami-san—for always providing such wonderful illustrations—my chief editor, and everyone else who lent their efforts to the publication of this book. Everybody, thank you so much.
Satoru Yamaguchi