Chapter 52

Sorry for the long wait. And thank you, everyone, for reading Demons’ Crest, Volume 3: Demonspawn∞Awakening. Most of this book was initially written from July to August 2024, which was the hottest summer of my lifetime on record and definitely felt that way, too. I thought I was taking care of myself, but the heat started to get to me toward the end. Of course, I’m writing this afterword on a day in September, and it’s still 35 degrees Celsius right now, so it doesn’t really feel like summer is over yet… I think I included this detail in Volume 3, but it makes me jealous to think about how Althea, which serves as the setting for Demons’ Crest, always maintains a pleasant temperature and humidity level. Does it ever strike you as odd that the electricity and water inside Althea is still running, even though the building is cut off from the outside world by mysterious forces? Well, I actually meant to touch on why in this volume, but I decided to leave that until a later installment due to pacing. But in turn, lots of exciting events unfolded this time, and the number of characters in the spotlight increased as well. Sugamo, Aria, and Kisanuki, as the counterparts to Yuuma and the other main characters, finally had a chance to do their thing, and I enjoyed writing their parts, so I hope everyone enjoyed reading them as well. (Warning: Some spoilers to follow.) I recall mentioning this in an interview once before, but I’m generally not very good at writing ensemble casts. The reason for this is that I tend to want to really dig into whatever character is center stage at the moment, but once you start doing that, it doesn’t matter how many pages you have, it will never be enough. Which is why, with Demons’ Crest, I’m intentionally trying to limit the focus to Yuuma as I progress through the story. But that also leaves me with the dilemma of not being able to write out all the things I think up about the other children in my head. For instance, I felt very conflicted over not writing more about Tomori, who played a big part in Volume 2, or Aoi (especially Aoi), who got to be the focus in this volume. I suspect that feeling is only going to grow as the number of volumes continue, so maybe at some point, I will just veer off into parts written from a point of view other than Yuuma’s. I hope you’ll bear with me if that time comes! I’d like to say a little something about the final scene as well. Obviously, I was planning for Kisanuki to do what he did from the beginning and chose this volume’s subtitle with that twist in mind. We’re really getting to the good stuff now! Starting from the next volume, I hope to pack in some big conflicts between the two Monster Tamers, Yuuma and Kisanuki. I hope you’ll all join me for the ride! Now for the customary updates on my own life… Like I mentioned at the start of the afterword, it’s hot! And that’s all that I can remember! Of course, even if it was nice and cool out, that wouldn’t change the fact that I was behind on deadlines, so I’d like to offer my sincere apologies to everyone involved for whom I’ve caused problems, starting of course with the illustrator, Yukiko Horiguchi. I’ll do my best to get the next volume delivered ahead of schedule. Reki Kawahara September 2024