Chapter 24

Hello there, my name is Mochimaru Sakaki! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this story! I’m so glad that I get to meet you all like this! For this series, I wanted to answer the question: What if a character from a game world had access to a walk-through site? But I didn’t actually start with that idea. At first, all I was thinking was, “I’d love to write a story about a witch,” and “It’s been a while, so maybe I should write a comedy,” and also “I want to write a story about journeying through a game world.” And while I thought all those things, I tried out a few different story elements until I finally settled on the one you’ve just finished reading. By the way, I just looked, and I wrote the first forty or so pages of this book back in April 2021. It’s scary how fast time flies. I can’t believe it’s already almost 2022… Anyway, that’s the tale of how this book came together. I just hope that all you readers out there have enjoyed it. Finally, a few words of thanks. I would like to thank everyone on the SQEX Novel editorial team. I’m so grateful for all the hard work you put into making this novel a success, despite the difficulties of COVID-19. Incidentally, this is the first time I had one of my stories novelized after bringing it directly to the editorial department… And since I’d never had this sort of experience before, I was constantly thinking, I really hope this is okay and I hope I’m not being a bother. I was very nervous, but about a week after my submission, the editorial team sent me a long, thoughtful email with their comments and said, “We’d love to turn your story into a novel!” I’m so grateful. I would also like to thank riritto for drawing the illustrations in this volume. Thank you so much for creating such cute and incredibly detailed images! To be honest, when I heard riritto mentioned as a possible illustrator for the series, I thought, Whoa, I’ve totally heard of them… I was practically trembling. I still can’t believe they wound up taking on my story! In fact, not long before, I had been looking at one of riritto’s covers and thinking, This illustrator is so amazing. I’d love it if we could work together sometime. I was practically daydreaming about it. I was so surprised when it actually happened. And once I saw the illustrations, I was even more shocked by how spot-on all the characters were! And then I saw just how sparkly (?) the cover was and the look on Lorna’s face when she summoned the dragon of flames; it was all just so perfect… I know I asked you to include a lot of troublesome details and setups in the illustrations (I’m really sorry about that!), but I am just so, so grateful that you read the text as carefully as you did to get everything right. And finally, a special thanks to all my readers. Currently, Kodansha plans to release a manga of this story as well, and I intend to continue working hard to make it a fun series, so I hope you’ll keep reading. Mochimaru Sakaki