Afterword
ON an unremarkable day of an unremarkable month in the year 2022, a thoroughly unremarkable novelist hurried toward a meeting with their editor and the illustrious illustrator, Harenochihareta.
Clutched in their hands were a stack of printouts—reference images, each one showing people drawn from behind.
When the news had come that their series would be published, that idiot of a novelist had failed to consider what that actually meant: Sophie would have to be illustrated. Panicking in the days leading up to the meeting, they scrambled together this haphazard collection of materials and a few feeble arguments, desperately hoping to convince everyone involved to only ever depict Sophie with her face hidden from view.
Sophie’s skin—her appearance—was essential to the story. It had to be the way it was. But to have it displayed, front and center, on a book cover? That felt far too cruel to do to a seventeen-year-old girl.
As it happened, the meeting went well. The novelist was especially overjoyed when Harenochihareta-sensei burst out laughing at the suggestion, somehow having things just so happen to block Sophie’s face every time she appeared, like an old Showa-era comedy sketch. And in the end, they all agreed to go with the cover the book has now.
I cried when I opened the image for the first time.
“Sophie’s Salon.” And there she was—Sophie—standing under the light, facing toward the audience.
Never did I imagine I’d see the day when I’d get to see Sophie’s smile, just as I’d pictured it in my mind all this time, captured so perfectly on paper. Harenochihareta-sensei—I can’t thank you enough.
With that, my deepest worries about the book vanished like mist, and Sophie was immortalized in a storybook world.
Here’s a memory that comes to mind now when I think about it: Ozhorn’s full white suit scene.
I was suffering from the flu when I wrote that part. If I looked down, I coughed; if I looked up at the screen, it was Ozhorn in white. Even now, thinking back on it, it feels like some fresh kind of hell.
When I received the full-spread illustration of that scene for the first time, there was Ozhorn—his handsome face, his beautiful white suit—and for a brief moment, I almost forgot.
I almost forgot that when I wrote that scene, I had meant for him to be lame as hell.
Thus, out of no fault of their own, I had to send a message to Harenochihareta-sensei:
“Can you please make him dorkier? I mean, really go for it?”
And in the end, they really did.
The version we ended up with, its sheer, unrelenting dorkiness, was almost dazzling. It had this refreshing, brilliant quality, like a cloudless blue summer sky. It felt absolutely wonderful.
By the way, I literally squealed when I spotted the hidden Mamoryllis in the illustration. Ganpo is there, too. Have you spotted them, too?
Sophie’s Salon is complete now.
There was a lot of scrambling. A dizzying amount of back-and-forth. But in the end, the destination was every bit worth the journey.
Thank you so much for picking up this book. I hope that at least one of the stories inside finds a place in your heart.
To everyone who so kindly cheered me on during the serialization, to those who helped bring Sophie’s world to life alongside me, and to every reader who picked up these pages, I offer you my deepest, heartfelt thanks.
Truly, thank you.
Sachi Konzome