Long time no see, everyone, Hyougetsu here.
I’m sorry it took so long to get this volume out. All of it is new content not in the web novel though, so I hope you’ll forgive me. Chances are, it’ll take me about as long to get the next volume out too. Most of volume 15 is ideas I wanted to include in the web novel version but never got around to writing.
I imagine some perceptive readers suspected there was more to the Windswept Dunes and the forest than meets the eye, since they’d just been plopped down onto the map without much time dedicated to them. I’m happy to say that you were right. There’s a little bit more I still want to do with the forest, but I’ve covered all of the important stories related to it for now. I went to the trouble of making it part of the overall setting, so I’m glad I finally got to do something with it.
As you may have noticed, there haven’t been any monsters capable of flight until now. There aren’t any demon races that can fly either. I explained this in the work itself too, but I want this world to follow the same laws of physics as the real world. Flight is a rather difficult thing to accomplish. You can’t just have giant flying monsters unless they’re also capable of using magic in some way. Hence why this dragon was such an unprecedented threat.
Well, I admit part of why I didn’t want flying monsters was because then I’d have to think about how human societies would evolve to defend against those monsters. Walls and castles would be built totally differently, and I didn’t want to spend that much time figuring all that out. Just think about it: Veight would have had to do so much more to invade Ryunheit and take Rolmund’s castles if they had anti-air defenses prepared. And then I would have had to come up with far more ingenious solutions for Veight’s victories. I really didn’t want to go through all that effort. There’s already so many things I need to put in effort for as it is—though I end up shoving a lot of that effort onto my wonderful editor. Writing a volume of all-new content was pretty tough, and without his support, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do it. Thank you so very much.
I ended up causing a lot of trouble for my illustrator, Teshima-sensei, as well. When I asked him to draw a dragon for me, I was worried it might be too much work, but he really went and did it. He did a really good job with Shumar as well for his introduction scene. Thank you so much for all your hard work!
On a side note, the eighth volume of the Origins manga should be coming out soon, and I’ve prepared a fun little short story for the end of it. Kosumi Yuuichi-sensei is such a good artist that I’m starting to think the manga is surpassing the source material (look, I know all authors say this, but really it’s true). If you haven’t already, I highly recommend reading through it. It’s amazing how he managed to draw cute slice-of-life scenes and gritty battles at the same time.
Finally, I’d like to announce that the next volume of Der Werwolf will be the last.
Meraldia and the surrounding nations are at peace, Veight’s finished raising the new generation, and they even slew a dragon. We’re already at the happily ever after part of our tale, but there’s just one last loose end to be tied up. And that’s what the final volume is going to be for.
May we meet again there. ...Assuming I ever finish it. I’ll do my best.
✦ ✦ ✦
