As always, I’ll start with thanks.
Thank you to everybody still supporting my work, those reading it on Shosetsuka ni Naro, and the people who send me letters. Thank you to the book’s editing staff, the proofreaders for their excellent work, Kinta for all the illustrations, and the book’s designer. Thanks also to Yumbo and their assistants for the manga adaptation, and the editing staff on that version of the story.
I know I say it every time, but thank you all so much! We’d never have gotten to volume 13 without you!
Volume 13 focuses on a trip to the Beastland Kingdom and introduces a new character. It’s a lively volume, that’s for sure. We’ve got ships entering the mix, and you can just tell that the sea is going to play a role in future volumes.
Dias is as Dias as always, so I think it’s safe to say he’ll make things work with the new character. It’s a really meaningful volume for the twins and for Aymer, but there’s lots still to come on the horizon.
Volume 13 went on sale in 2025. Volume 1 was released in 2018. That’s seven years, and all of it in the blink of an eye. I knew it was coming, but it just doesn’t feel real. I still feel like it crept up on me somehow. I was just so engrossed in writing the story that I feel like it brought me all this way...and I feel like I’ll say exactly the same thing when I get to ten years too.
2025 also happens to be Earth Star Novels’s ten-year anniversary, so congratulations! Thank you so much for publishing my story over seven of those ten years!
But you know what I did realize? I’m an old hand now. I can’t believe it. I’m supposed to still be a rookie—the new guy. There were so many authors I looked up to for their work, and I was just a newbie who squeezed in. But now I’m an experienced hand.
What the heck?! What happened?!
It’s true what they say—time flies. A lot has changed, but also it feels like everything’s still the same. I just hope for days of peace to continue into the future.
Earth Star Novels is doing an event for their ten-year anniversary, and if you’re interested, check their X account for details.
On to volume 14! Winter arrives, and this year it’s a season of births! It’s going to be busy and bustling, but expect energetic little ones, maturing little ones, and another story from Dias’s past! I think his old stories are going to become a winter staple in Iluk.
I sure hope you enjoy it when it comes out!
I’ll sign off here, but I look forward to writing you all again at the end of volume 14!
Fuurou, Spring 2025