Hello again. It’s been a while.
I highly doubt there’s anyone who started this series from the third volume, but just in case it’s your first time... Hi. Nice to meet you. I’m Yusaku Sakaishi.
When you spend all day at home doing nothing but writing novels, you tend to have a severe lack of content for afterwords like these. I have no idea what I should write. Also, I remember having the exact same problem for volume two.
From the publication of volume two to now, nothing worth mentioning has happened in my private life, so I guess I’ll mention a few things about the content of volume three. This story puts the spotlight on one of the heroines, Melia, as it touches on her past and pits her against the rival character Cain in an intense battle. This is a scene that I’ve been wanting to write ever since I started this series, so the writing process for this part of the story went pretty smoothly. I feel like the more volumes I write, the easier it gets for me. It’s probably different from person to person, but that seems to be the kind of writer I am.
This volume was also sort of an experiment for me, in that I approached it with a slightly differently mentality than before. The idea came to me after reading the reviews of this series. As I went through them, I found that people enjoyed the comedic parts more than I’d expected. To be honest, I’ve never been very confident in my ability to write comedy, and whenever I had to trim my stories down to fit a page limit, the comedy scenes were always the first to go.
If I had to describe myself as a writer, I’d say I’m the type who constructs his stories logically. When seen from the perspective of someone like me, it’s hard to point at comedy scenes and argue for their necessity. Until recently, I only ever saw them as parts whose function was to vary the pacing by providing slower sections to complement faster ones. It’s the fast parts that are important to a story, and slow parts should be kept to a bare minimum. That’s what I thought. However, I might have been wrong. Recently, after reflecting on the opinions of various readers, I’ve started to think, “Maybe fleshing out the comedy parts a little more will better satisfy reader expectations.”
So, I approached volume three by having each character follow their inherent motivations and move freely. I’m not sure if this is a good thing (I think it’s not), but I’ve always had the tendency to run into the situation where my characters start moving around on their own, forcing me to use all sorts of methods to keep them under control. For volume three though, I decided to loosen my grip on the reins a little. As a result... well, my characters had a field day. Like a bunch of crazy idiots, they just did their thing, which made for a lot of comedy scenes that weren’t at all in the original plot.
By slightly letting go of something I’ve always kept a tight grasp on, it also made it easier for me from a psychological perspective. Like, thanks to that, I started thinking, “Well, if it looks like I might end up short a few pages, I’ll just pad it out with comedy.” I don’t know if this is lazy writing or strategic writing, but the circuitry in my head is definitely taking on a new shape. Is this really okay? Like... seriously?
Overall, I feel that I managed to write in all the content I wanted to include in the third volume. Not only was I able to write about the romcom surrounding Sain, I also got to delve into his exciting battle against his rival Cain, so I’m pretty satisfied. I love these kinds of battles where each side is putting their beliefs and ideals on the line. It is my earnest wish that I will be able to convey this love of mine to the readers and share this sense of satisfaction. As an author, that would be a great blessing.
I think that will do for this time. I hope to see you again.
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In writing this work, I received generous help from my editors, proofreaders, and a number of other individuals involved in its creation. Thank you for your contributions. I am once again deeply grateful for Heiro’s beautiful illustrations (Marni was especially adorable). Finally, to everyone who took this book in your hands, you have my endless gratitude.