Good day, good evening, good morning. I’m the author, Hinagi Asami. Thank you very much for picking up a copy of The Otherworlder, Exploring the Dungeon, Vol. 3.
Volume 3! We’ve made it to Volume 3! Thank you for waiting for what turned out to be quite a long time since the last book!
I struggled quite a bit with the structure of this volume. A straightforward narrative made it redundant as a novel, but cutting out pieces left holes in the story. If I had randomly stuffed it with everything I wanted, it would have been twice the length of Volumes 1 and 2. So in the end, I focused on writing the essential points while adding or editing some of the main characters’ adventures, which I think resulted in a better narrative.
While this third novel in the series is a single volume, it contains three books’ worth of content. I’m kidding, of course, only joking. I was sure my editor would object when I ended this one with a To be continued, but I actually got the approval without any real issue. Even if there wasn’t a next volume, I’d hope to have the story passed down by word of mouth.
What’s going to happen next?!
Looking back, last year was very busy. I had my first novel published, along with the second volume in the series Incredibly, and the story was also serialized as a manga by Kaoru Hoshino on Comp Ace and Comic Walker. Whenever the first volume comes out, please, please do check it out!
Now that I’m on my third afterword, I’ve come to a realization: Ah, I can’t write these for shit………
Come to think of it, in one light novel I read, the author used the afterword to talk about Bell Marks, a system similar to collecting box tops to fund education for kids. Back then, my younger self scoffed at it, thinking, C’mon, who cares about Bell Marks? Talk to me about the story! I want to know what happens next.
But of course, now that I’m a writer, it’s become clear that afterwords are a tricky business. I want to talk about the story you just read, but then again, I said basically everything I had to say on the topic in the novel itself. Plus, what kind of author would give away spoilers in their own book? So what do you say? I don’t know! I’ve got nothing! Someone, give me a question, please!
Now, all these years later, I am painfully aware of how wise my predecessor was. I almost want to start collecting Bell Marks for myself to have something to talk about. Not that I have the time for it, though!
Lastly (though I really, really hope this is not the actual last note I’ll write), I’d like to graciously thank my editor and proofreaders, Kureta for the amazing illustrations, the Dragon Novels editing department, all the readers who purchased a copy of this book, and everyone who collaborated with me on this project.
How far will this series spanning the Heisei and Reiwa eras go? If I’m lucky enough to have a fourth volume, I look forward to seeing you again there!