Nice to meet you, or perhaps, long time no see. My name is Hiroshi Nagamatsu, and I’m starting to worry about my sugar intake lately because I’ve been drinking too much café au lait.
First of all, thank you for choosing to read this book. How did you enjoy Abducted Princess Running Rampant: Wielding Forbidden Magic in the Demon King’s Castle?
It’s the story of a princess who’s abducted by a Demon King and then lucks into finding forbidden spells and magic swords in his castle before going on a rampage. The concept sounds a little wild out of context, doesn’t it? Though it actually develops into a rather simple story about a princess traveling home.
This is a change in subject, but I like video games. Hear me out before you ask, “Why’d you suddenly bring that up?”
I particularly like the RPG genre, and I especially love a particular RPG series with “Dragon” in the name. I played it over and over as a child, and sometimes still play it now. Whenever there’s a new game in the series, I always check it out.
I arrived at the idea for this work after playing a few classic RPGs of that sort. Mil was conceived when I asked myself, “Wouldn’t it be interesting if a princess started stealing items from the Demon King’s Castle after getting kidnapped?”
In this story, Mil beats up the soldiers in the Demon King’s Castle using the magic and weapons she stole from them. When you put it like that, it makes it hard to judge whether the princess or the Demon King’s forces are the bad guys. On the one hand, the Demon King is in the wrong for kidnapping her, but still...
Anyway, Mil was born thanks to RPG games, and companions are a big part of RPGs. The first companion often becomes a reliable partner who sticks around to the end.
In this book, Mil’s first companion becomes the first friend she makes after leaving the castle. As a bonus, she’s every bit as powerful as Mil herself.
A friendly party of girls who go hunting for ferocious monsters. I hope I’m not the only one who thinks it sounds scary when described like that.
My hope is that you’ll agree that this work breaks from RPG norms a little.
One such RPG norm is that the story starts in front of a king, in a starting town populated by humans. Having the adventure start from the Demon King’s Castle—usually the scene of the final showdown—is a little unconventional.
Adventurers normally journey from the royal capital to the Demon King’s Castle, with the aim of defeating the Demon King. In this work, it was reversed—Mil started from the Demon King’s Castle and headed for the royal capital. It’s another little break from the norms.
If these things made you laugh at all, or if they entertained you, then that’s everything I could hope for as an author.
This is another change in topic, but RPG games are also what inspired me to be an author in the first place. It wasn’t part of the RPG series with “Dragon” in the name, but a certain RPG had a story so interesting that I enjoyed writing fanfiction for it in my notebook in bed each night.
Without that RPG, it’s hard to say whether I would have written a novel like this. I’m sure everyone has encountered works that leave a lasting impression on them. And it’s not just novels; many forms of entertainment can change someone’s life. It’s such a wonderful thing that I guess it’s what made me want to write a novel of my own.
All this serious talk is making me feel embarrassed, so I’ll talk about my beloved café au lait that I just can’t quit instead.
I rarely drink proper drip coffee. I normally enjoy café au lait that’s sold in a can or a cup since it’s convenient and I can drink it immediately. I’ve loved café au lait for over ten years.
Oh, I’m running out of page space, so I’ll have to leave this discussion for another time.
Thank you once again.
Firstly, I’d like to express my gratitude to the readers who chose this book. It would please me to know I’d entertained you at least a little.
Also to Tsubame Nozomi-sama who drew the illustrations. It excited me to see such a strong yet cute Mil.
To my editor, thank you for always being there. I always benefited from the advice you gave me during all of our scheduled phone calls. I’m happy to have met such a good editor.
My sincere gratitude to everyone else who assisted with this work as well.
Well then, I hope we’ll meet again some time.
Hiroshi Nagamatsu