Afterword
WELCOME, welcome. Come on in. I just finished boiling some water. Now then, let’s have a cup of tea.
It’s an unusual smell, you say? As a matter of fact, this tea is slightly different from the black, green, and oolong tea you are all accustomed to. This is tea I’ve made by specially picking the leaves of herbs to dry them with flowers and fruit. I’ve also roasted barley to extract its flavor for tea, which is quite delicious as well. Regrettably, I lack any chocolate or coffee. But we might be able to pick some up from Fairy Forest… For you see, Little Princess in Fairy Forest is a story that takes place in such a land.
A young princess, ruby-red dragon, and a black knight are the key characters. A wicked nobleman who hunts them to obtain the throne; a beautiful young noblewoman with blue eyes and golden hair; an exotic witch from a distant land who controls a spider’s silver threads are just as important to the story. And lastly we have a light-purple fairy known as Lady of Dawn, a large yellow steed, and brownies that restlessly run amok in the story.
But this land isn’t just pretty and fun. Winters are freezing, and it hurts if you cut your hand. It hurts even more to get punched or kicked. And the strong win. Yet, here you can resolutely declare, “I hate what I hate!” You can take up your shield and shout, “I won’t accept it!” This land is filled with people who stand against injustice because they long to do so. (Naturally, there are also beings who aren’t “people” per se).
In following the story courses taken by games, novels, manga, movies, anime, and dramas, you will find that they contain different elements. Little Princess in Fairy Forest borrows parts from each medium to create its own world and story.
In 2016, I read a book titled, The Hero Came to the Demon Lord’s Employment Office. I guzzled down the book like a glass of ice-cold water. Then, when I happened to take a glance at the back cover, I noticed the paper wrapper said, “Accepting New Book Submissions!” …That was what triggered my first step toward this book. Afterwards, a bunch of things happened, I came to be under the care of Japanese publisher Hakkou Shuppan, and here we are. I was able to write this book thanks to the guidance of that novel’s author, Tomoyuki Fujinami, and illustrator Ryo Sasaki, as well as the heroine Holic. So a big thank you to all of them.
Now then, it’s time for me to explain several aspects of this story. For those of you who like to start reading from the afterword, there aren’t any spoilers here, so feel free to read on.
Reverfeat, the main kingdom’s name, is an anagram for “ever after”. I came up with it because I wanted to write a story that began with “Once upon a time” and ended with “Happily ever after”. However, I didn’t use either phrase in the end. I kind of wonder why. Fairy tales are relatively unforgiving. Hands and heads are chopped off left and right. It happens so fast and out of nowhere, like someone was simply cutting up paper dolls. Moreover, when the fairy tale moves on to the next scene, no one seems to mind what happened previously. Wanting to bring about that same effect, and through much trial and error, this story became one that couldn’t be finished off with, “…and they all lived happily ever after.”
Maybe it’s because one of the main characters is a middle-aged man.
You know, I love middle-aged men. They’re the product of salty experiences, while being calmer and more…hmm, rusty compared to their younger days. But in some respects, they’re men who are still incomplete somehow. They’re in the middle years of their lives, where they still haven’t found enlightenment and can’t give up on life yet. There’s also the other type of middle-aged man, the ones who can’t control themselves and run wild because they have reached the peak of their power. Hence, here we get middle-aged man versus middle-aged man, fighting over the throne.
I also adore monsters. Since this story has a dragon as a main character, I really wanted to have a flashy air battle…so I rewrote the plot I’d already finished composing down to the last details to fit it in. I’m glad I added it in. It took a lot of work to do it, but it was even more fun to write.
Interestingly enough, the thing I wrote after the roaring climax and subdued ending was actually the title. There wasn’t even a hint of the words “Little Princess” in the title at first. The phrase came up through an email exchange with the editor, and the moment I read it, I thought, “This is it!” and so this title came into being. This is weird to say considering that I’m the one who decided on the title, but it was exhilarating in a sense to see the phrase “Little Princess” steadily fill the schedule book.
So then, where did the story start from? I refined the idea for it in 2016 at the venue of Japan’s largest analog game convention, the Japan Game Convention (JGC). I’m more than thrilled to have had inspiration for this story sparked by the creator of Nobinobi TRPG (Novice-Novice Table-talk Role-Playing Game), Konno Takashi, who also serves as this book’s illustrator! When I saw the character designs for Princess, Dragon, Knight, and the others, I trembled with joy thinking, “So this is what they look like!” and “Oh yeah, I remember writing that they should look like this.” Basically, when a writer sees the sentences they wrote manifest as illustrations, they faint from an overstimulation of sheer delight.
Oh, it looks like we are just about out of tea. So please allow me to once again thank you from the bottom of my heart for picking up a copy of this book. I hope you enjoyed the story while you flipped through the pages. Hopefully, we shall meet again in the pages of another book someday…
Tsubaki Tokino