It’s been a while, everyone. I’m fukurou, the author. I’m unbelievably happy that we can meet again. Thank you so much for picking up the second volume of One Last Hurrah! I imagine that if you put this one next to the first volume on your bookshelf, you’ll end up seeing a bright “Hurrah! Hurrah!”
How have you all been doing? I’ve started walking regularly, and while I’m out, I can smoothly put together the descriptions or scenes I’m stuck on, so by the time I get home, I’ll be thinking, “Let’s go with that. I’ll do it like this.” Well, once I’ve finished showering, it’s all gone from my head, so instead of sitting down at my PC after that, I start by trying to remember.
For the first time in maybe fifteen years, I walked along the route to my alma mater, though not because I was writing about a school. The scenery from back then mixed with the current one, which is completely different from what I remember. I made note of every little detail along the way as I walked: The houses that used to be there but were no longer, the lack of paddy fields; the roads were clean, but that one house was still the same; this is the irrigation canal I once fell into, etc. I thought that perhaps this was how Ferd and Elrica felt, but the two of them were secluded for seventy whole years, so I reassessed that their case was probably much more extreme. After such a span of time, there would only be faint traces left of the objects in their memories, or they would have been remodeled so many times they would be practically unrecognizable.
Now then, the next part of the story where all the main characters are elderly has been published, but what do you think about it? (whisper) By the way, the main characters’ children, including Falke, are also old, which is crazy in all sorts of ways... But this time, Connie, Franz, Emmeline, and Hagen were also there, so the average character age has significantly dropped since the first volume! Oh, I had quite some fun writing Falke’s “class observation day,” but I also ended up laughing awkwardly as I remembered my time in middle school when I forgot to tell my parents the date for the class observation day. I didn’t think much of it back then, but I guess your sensibilities change with age.
While there were young people in this volume who study for the sake of the future, there were also people who wanted to undo their past mistakes. That’s about it, I guess. Since the Hero’s party—who are on their final journey before they die—were there, many different values were present together. But since it was a school, perhaps it was expected for people of many values to be all mixed together. Connie, Franz, Emmeline, and Hagen are also individuals with their own values, but accepting each other and moving forward is another form of friendship.
Furthermore, the much-mentioned Great Demon King finally made an appearance, albeit only as an inferior copy, and we also got to understand some of his values as well. The Hero’s party fought for the sake of life, and the Great Demon King, roused by the dead, fought to kill. Light and darkness, tomorrow and yesterday, past and future, hope and grudges. The two conflicting sides fought a fierce battle during the great war, and things ended with another victory for the Hero’s party. In any case, it might be some kind of fate that the Hero’s party traveling toward tomorrow would be fighting those trapped in the past. What will happen from now on as their journey continues?
Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the editor working on this book, johndee for providing the illustrations, Drecom, everyone else involved, and all the readers!
fukurou