Chapter 100

Afterword This is the third volume, so there’s no one new I have to introduce myself to, right? But betting on that one-in-ten-thousand chance—it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name is Hirukuma. For those of you reading this afterword in Volume 3, or perhaps Volume 4, it’s good to see you again. How did you like Volume 3? There’s a lot more Shui in this book than before. We get to see an unexpected side of a girl whose traits include tomboyishness and being a heavy eater. She might seem like she has too much in common with Lammis, who is also tomboyish and full of energy. But in this volume, we learn that in addition to Shui’s particular manner of speaking and her appetite, she turns out to have been a big-sister character all along. Mishuel also appears as a new character, one who is good-looking, strong, and seems to have a tranquil personality. This is my own work, so even characters who seem perfect tend to have a quirk to them. Personally, I quite like his personality. I think that if he were around as a real-life friend, there would be some problems, but it would be fun. And then he shows up at the end. Stories always need to have someone like this, of course. Other than that, in terms of the story, I’ll touch on the eating contest. We have all these big-eater characters in the Band of Gluttons as well as Shui, so I wanted to have them take the spotlight. If they were to participate in an eating contest in Japan, the organizers would probably lose a lot of money. If it were me, I wouldn’t let them in. That said, I’d like to express my appreciation for all the people involved with this book. I continued the unreasonable requests of having a vending machine as the main character and, since Volume 2, Tasmanian devil beast people, but there were no conspicuous, colorful characters this time, were there? Thank you as always for your wonderful illustrations, Ituwa Kato. To M, my editor, I know you’re busy with advertising and editing, but please take care of yourself. And to everyone else in the editing department, I hope I can thank you with my books’ appeal. Once again, my mother has been advertising to my relatives and friends every chance she can get. My older brother and his family, too. I’d like to thank all my friends, too. If you’ll allow me to say one thing to them: Quit calling me sensei on purpose. And to all my readers who purchased this book, thank you very much! Hirukuma