Thank you to everyone reading this book and to everyone who bought it. It’s great to meet you—and to those who I’ve already met, it’s great to see you again. I’m the author, Yu Okano.
I’ve been fortunate enough to publish a good number of books so far, but every time I have to write an afterword, I find myself on guard. I just don’t know what to write about. I could talk about myself, but I don’t lead a very interesting life, so I can’t think of much to discuss. But when I’m writing stories, I feel like I’m going on an adventure. It’s thrilling. It’s set in a fictional world, a fictional continent, or a fictional country...and yet there’s an actual, living protagonist who meets people, makes friends or enemies, and journeys around the world in a frenzy.
One might think that the adventure’s all just artificial anyway, crafted according to the author’s intended plotlines and manipulations. But surprisingly, this isn’t quite the case. Authors hailing from all times and places have commented that their characters “take on a life of their own.” I dislike this phrase and have always thought that it just isn’t realistic. But lately, I’ve started to understand it a little.
Of course, characters don’t act through their own free will, but as I make them walk and talk in the story, I gradually get an idea of what actions the character would prefer or the kinds of things they would absolutely not say. When there’s a choice to make in the story, wild ideas like “this character definitely wouldn’t lean this way” or “this character would probably say this” keep popping into my head. That’s when it almost seems like the characters “take on a life of their own.” I think that’s what it means. When I’m in this state, story developments quickly come to mind and it’s more fun to write. I feel like my fictional characters and worlds are brought into existence at these moments.
I hope that Noah’s group and their adventures will take root in the minds of everyone reading this book as well.
May we meet again in the next volume. Thank you, and see you then.