Chapter 21

Afterword Nice to meet you—or perhaps nice to see you again. Thank you so much for picking up A Mysterious Job Called Oda Nobunaga! This work was originally (or rather, still is) a serialized novel on the website Shousetsuka ni Narou. At the time, the site’s rankings had many stories involving an unusual profession in a parallel world. (At least, that’s my personal impression, not backed by data…) That made me wonder whether I could maybe take a stab at a war story, something I’d always wanted to try, by adding some kind of unusual profession to it. Right around the same time, my historical novel (purely a historical novel) Date Elf Masamune, which I was writing for GA Bunko, was reaching its climax. It was full of enemies, like Oda Nobunaga as Satan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi as Hanuman, and Tokugawa Ieyasu as the Yeti. So I naturally had the idea to try putting Sengoku-period references into a fantasy war story. Of course, at first I couldn’t come up with a good idea for a profession; my thought process went like this: “Ashigaru? Too plain. Warrior’s probably been done to death by now… I could say they’re an unmatched gunman, but those came from Europe, the home of fantasy…” As I racked my brain over what profession to choose, I had a brilliant (?) idea: I’ll make a job called Oda Nobunaga! Thus was born this work, where the protagonist is a young lord with the profession Oda Nobunaga. With everyone’s help, it earned first place in both the daily and weekly rankings on Shousetsuka ni Narou. Thank you so much to all those who gave their support back when it was a web novel. For those of you starting with the book, I’m still posting new parts online, so please take a look there, too! Next, I have to give credit to the illustrator, Kaito Shibano: Thank you so, so much for your beautiful artwork! You can feel the spirit and bravery of the protagonist, Alsrod; he looks super-cool! That’s why—and I think this might be a first for any of my books—I decided to have only a male character on the cover! Of course, the leading ladies, like the half-elf Laviala, are gorgeous enough to drool over, too. I’m jealous of Alsrod, and I’m the author. Ha-ha. Thank you so much, too, to everyone who purchased this book! GA Bunko also published the third volume of I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years… on the same day, and that series is getting a manga adaptation by Yusuke Shiba for Gangan GA. It’s another really fun story, so I’d be thrilled if you checked it out as well! Respectfully yours, Kisetsu Morita