Bear: “Time fur the afterword! Brought to you by Shu Starling the ‘Bear’...”
Navy: “And Satomi Yamamoto the ‘Navy’!”
Bear: “Hm? You’re my pawrtner this time? Where’s Cheshire or Xunyu?”
Navy: “They’re not in this SP, are they? I don’t like being grouped with you either, but I was told that I was the only good candidate for this.”
Bear: “Ohhh... I see.”
Navy: “See what?”
Bear: “Dendro afterwords usually have the presenters’ faces on the right.”
Navy: “That seems to be the case. Wait, you mean...?”
Bear: “There aren’t many SP characters with illustrations, so you were picked by paw-rocess of elimination.”
Navy: “Is that why? I’m just warming this seat, then! Wait! What about the adventure fleet commander?!”
Bear: “Riella’s asleep right now. Can’t wake her just fur this.”
Navy: “Well, what about me?! I ended the volume with a death penalty!”
Bear: “Don’t furry about it. Anyway, let’s move on to the main subject—the circumstances behind the creation of this book. First of all, ‘Southern Cross’ was originally an extra you received fur buying the first volume of the anime Blu-ray. The aufur followed the LN anime adaptation tradition and decided to write this bonus story, but when he was told that it didn’t matter how big it was, he went and wrote 544 pages of it, making it pawsitively the biggest Dendro story ever written.”
Navy: “Is the author a fool?”
Bear: “I don’t think you’re in any pawsition to tell someone they made anything too big. Anyway, the author clearly went the extra mile fur this story, but there was a little problem—the price. Blu-ray volume 1 cost 13,000 yen without taxes, making it somewhat of a luxury paw-roduct. That made it a bit hard fur readers of the main story to get it, especially youngsters.”
Navy: “I can imagine.”
Bear: “That’s why the author wondered if there was a way to get this story to more people.”
Navy: “Well, it obviously came out, so I guess it worked out.”
Bear: “We’ll let the aufur say more about that.”
Dearest readers, thank you for your purchase. I am the author, Kaido Sakon.
Now, as mentioned above, “Southern Cross” was originally an extra story attached to the first Blu-ray.
When turning it into a separate release, the biggest thing in my mind were the people who bought the Blu-ray just for “Southern Cross.”
The Blu-ray was by no means cheap, and I was concerned about how those who spent the money for this story would feel about it.
That’s why I used the author’s blog in Shosetsuka ni Naro to ask for the readers’ opinions about the possibility of a separate release, and was deeply encouraged when I saw even those who bought the Blu-ray say things like “I would be happy if it gets illustrations,” “I would like it to be expanded,” or simply “I’d be really excited about it.”
That took the burden off my mind, and I gathered the resolve to find the chance to talk to the editor about it. With 2025 marking the ten-year anniversary since the start of the WN, I felt like it was a good time for something like this.
However, there were circumstances that delayed the release of volume 22 (released on the same day as this one) from spring to autumn, creating a wide gap between releases.
Feeling like this was another good reason to publish it, I consulted the editor about releasing “Southern Cross” separately, and after a talk with the anime side, we were allowed to do it as long as we expanded and edited it appropriately.
And so, we ended up splitting “Southern Cross” into two parts, further separating it into acts, as well as expanding it, editing it, getting it a wonderful illustrator—Eri Kurota—and finally releasing it into the world like this.
This couldn’t have been done without the hard work of those involved and the invaluable support of all you dear readers.
Thank you for your continued support for Infinite Dendrogram.
Bear: “Anyway, with that done, it’s time fur us to end this afterword.”
Navy: “I don’t feel like I did much here. I only commented on some nonsense.”
Bear: “It’s how these usually go. You just gotta bear it. Wanna make the announcement, at least?”
Navy: “I might as well... SOUTHERN CROSS PART 2 IS COMING OUT THIS WINTER!”
Bear: “Look furward to it!”