First, let me sincerely thank you for getting your hands on Miss Savage Fang: The Strongest Mercenary in History Is Reincarnated as an Unstoppable Noblewoman. I’m the author, Kakkaku Akashi.
I truly have so much gratitude in my heart for my illustrator Kayahara, my editor, and the proofreading and marketing teams for all their help in releasing this book.
So with the customary thank-yous out of the way…
I finally have a moment of peace now that I’ve somehow managed to get my new series out into the world. Yaaay!
Seriously, so many things came up during this project.
I overbooked myself (which is unusual for me), I wrecked my health, I started writing a modern-day fantasy for fun, which wound up turning into a whole book… I truly do believe I made life difficult for people in many ways.
Wait a minute… Is it just me, or do I always spend my afterwords apologizing for making life difficult for people?
Okay, if I think about this anymore, all the conflicting emotions will tear my heart apart, so let’s just end it there. But seriously, I am so sorry, everyone…
So anyway, I’d like to talk a little about this new series… All my projects up until now have had long titles, but yes, this one is especially long. I guess you could say it’s in a main title: subtitle format. From this point forward, whenever I talk about it in the afterword or to myself, I’ll refer to it simply as Miss Savage Fang.
Content-wise, Miss Savage Fang is my first reincarnated-in-the-same-world story since my first series: Devoting My Life to Martial Arts for One Hundred Years and Counting: Repeating My Warrior Training as an Elf. But unlike my first series, instead of being reborn in the same world after their death, the main character is reborn into the past before their death and in a different person’s body. So it’s a twist on the idea.
So how did you like my little story about a savage mercenary who got reborn to live his life as a little lady? I hope I was successful in expressing the garish manliness.
At the start, this project was a real struggle to get through, but once I got halfway through, I started to vibe with it. I hope you didn’t notice—that would be awkward.
And truth be told, compared with past projects, during this one, I was changing and fixing things up until the very last minute. I really do owe my editor a big thank-you for joining me in a three-legged race to get this book over the finish line. With your help, I was able to ditch the insecurities I had over my first draft and turn in my final copy with confidence!
I also need to give a multitude of thanks to my illustrator, Kayahara. When I got the character designs while I was revising the first draft, I felt the character of Miss Savage Fang come to life in my mind. When I was working on the last battle, I was like, Ooh, I wanna see a character like her kick ass like that! It gave me the creative fuel I needed, and it really did greatly impact this book.
Once again, I express my sincerest gratitude to you!
Okay, I think that’s all I’ll say about the story itself.
As I write this afterword, my friends and I have been really into a certain monster-hunting game. I haven’t been playing it since the first one, but new installments of it are still coming out after nearly fifteen years. What’s more, the story is finally getting close to coming to an end. I truly do think that’s a wonderful thing.
It’s just so awesome having a series be so beloved for that long… And a part of me is envious of that, but I’m genuinely happy to see a long-running series evolve and improve into the best it can be and to receive such high praise.
To continue to evolve for so long without compromising the foundation you started with is truly a tremendous accomplishment. I only hope that I can achieve a fraction of what that game did.
Okay, now that I’ve finished talking about my main hobby (gaming) like I always do, I’ve run out of pages for this afterword. When you’ve written as many of these as I have, you start thinking you’ve run out of things to say. But then before you realize it, you’re close to the end, and you’re surprised to find that you actually kind of like writing afterwords.
Let us end this afterword as we always do, by leaving everyone with a final thank-you as I set down my pen. Thank you, sincerely, for reading Miss Savage Fang! The world is in such a terrible state right now. I hope that this story gave you a moment’s escape from the increasingly stressful lives we live.
And on that note, I hope we get to meet again soon!
Kakkaku Akashi