Chapter 54

Afterword Thanks for reading. This is Kuji Furumiya. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of Babel, Volume 4, the final volume of the series. Shizuku’s journey, which lasted around a year, comes to an end here. As the subtitle suggests, this marks the dawn of a new era. How has our powerless protagonist changed over the course of her travels, and what sort of choices has she made? It makes me happy for you to be able to see the story through to its end. The story of the continent’s language has also come to a close, but I think there are still a few mysteries that weren’t related to the main plot. There’s the mystery of the sudden appearance and disappearance of an army during the war two hundred and forty years earlier—the incident that motivated Erik and Shizuku to start their journey in the first place. We also don’t know exactly why Farsas retracted information related to this event or the details the oral tradition passed down through the Farsasian royal family encouraging them to exterminate interlopers. These stories are told in the six volumes of Unnamed Memory and its sequel, so I hope that those of you who are interested in not only Shizuku’s journey, but also this world and the fight against the interlopers’ cursed artifacts, will take a look at those. Now I’d like to take this opportunity to thank a few people. As always, I’m incredibly grateful to my editors. I’m sorry for making every volume so thick. I couldn’t have concluded this story in four acts if it wasn’t for you two. The publication of these books, alongside Unnamed Memory, came about so quickly. Thank you so very much. I’d also like to thank Haruyuki Morisawa for beautifully illustrating this isekai fantasy series with so much emotion. I was truly fortunate to get to see the world you portrayed on such a large scale. I am extremely grateful that you, once again, kindly accepted this job and conveyed Shizuku’s transformation and growth so vividly. Thank you so much. Lastly, I’d like to extend my gratitude to all the readers who’ve joined me on this journey. I couldn’t have completed this story if it wasn’t for your support. Thanks to you, I came fifth place in the paperback category of This Light Novel is Amazing! 2021 published by Takarajimasha. There has always been a wide variety of stories about teleporting to another world, but I hope that this one, with its focus on language and the growth of an ordinary person without powers of their own, will retain a place in your memory. I hope we can meet again in another era, on another continent, or on someone else’s journey. Thank you so much for reading! Kuji Furumiya