Chapter 31

Afterword Every reader has the liberty to decide where they start reading or where they stop reading. However, just as stories are rarely constructed with the assumption that you will start reading them from the end, I write this afterword with the presumption that it will be read last (there are crucial spoilers). Please understand. It’s easier to just copy and paste this. The title of this book is Dragon and Ceremony 2: The Passing of the Witch, but Dragon and Ceremony was the title made for the content of the previous book, so it would be more accurate to call this book simply The Passing of the Witch. Or, if we’re sticking to the same format, maybe Witch and Meat. That sounds a bit macabre, though, so let’s just not. As I said, this is the second book in the series, a direct sequel to Dragon and Ceremony: From a Wandmaker’s Perspective. It’s set in the same world and takes place after the events in the first volume. However, both this volume and the previous entry were each wrapped up within their respective pages, so it’s not a problem if you read this one first or if it’s the only one you read (though I feel there aren’t too many people who would do that). I wrote this book in October and November of 2019, and it took just over four weeks. I spent the first two weeks writing the first half, then deleting it. I spent the remaining two weeks and change rewriting the whole thing from scratch. That’s how I scheduled it. This was my first time writing a sequel. To be honest, I’d actually planned to finish with the last volume. I think that was why I ran into so many issues. At one point, I might have asked, “Can I leave Yuui out of Volume Two?” to which I got the reproaching response of, “No, it’s a light novel…” It’s a good thing I didn’t start by asking, “Can I change the main character?” One difference from the previous volume is that this story is primarily set in lively places with large crowds. There is generally an atmosphere of excitement and busyness, which might heighten the sense of a festival. The “inside and outside” key words make an appearance in this book as well. And then there may have been some performances by the cast that I used to mislead the readers, but…we’ll leave that there. Since it is a series, this volume shares some themes with the previous entry, but the approach is different. Readers might have felt some difference in that regard. On the content side, it also contains some counters and answers to the first volume. That is to say, it’s like the relationship between point A and point B. If I had to boil them down to one word, I would say the first volume was about records while the second volume is about emotions (that’s the crucial spoiler). Just like Volume 1, I wrote Volume 2 with the intention of ending things there, but to my complete surprise, I am now planning on putting out a third volume. It will be set in winter. April 2020, Ichimei Tsukushi