Chapter 17

Afterword Thank you very much for picking up this book. My name is Touwa Akatsuki. There were several themes in this volume, but a big one was “vocation change.” A young man who didn’t have any mana in a world of magic held on to his passion for magic even when reverted into a teenager, eventually changing his vocation to Sage. And instead of that being the end of the story, it is actually a rekindling that sets the gears in motion again. As it turns out, he’s not even a normal Sage. Instead, what he’s become is more like an expansion of his previous vocation of Thief. This leads him to think of his vocation change not as having a completely blank slate, but as a way to continue making use of his experiences. I hope this helped many readers reflect on themselves and the paths they have walked so far in life. The members of Might’s new party can be scatterbrained at times, but they’re all highly motivated and filled with potential. When I saw the gorgeous cover illustration that Falmaro-sensei drew of the three girls (and the protagonist), my first thought was, Can true friendship be developed between guys and girls? What I want to say is, the illustration was so delightful that my mind kind of just shorted out. Falmaro, allow me to thank you once again for drawing the heroines so beautifully. As for the protagonist, even though I could only provide the extremely vague prompt of “someone who job-changed from Thief to Sage,” when I saw the suggested design, I was fully convinced that I was indeed looking at Might. I myself felt like I had learned more about the world I was writing from looking at the illustrations that were drawn. I suppose this, too, is a paradox (though probably not). From this point on, I will be giving a few words of thanks. I first want to thank my editor, who was an extremely huge help in the process of converting this story into novel format. I’m aware that I have a tendency to get off track during our phone meetings. It’s really thanks to your tenacious guidance that this book got finished. Next is Falmaro, who was in charge of the illustrations. As I already said, you did an amazing job breathing life into the characters of this book. And for that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I also wish to thank everyone in the editing department of Fantasia Bunko, the proofreaders who brushed up even the tiniest details, and everyone else who was involved with this book. Last but certainly not least, to every single person who picked up this book, I offer you a quadrillion words of gratitude. Thank you very much. Relieved that there are so few afterword pages in this volume, Touwa Akatsuki