Heyo, light novel author Sakaki here.
Today, I present you with Bluesteel Blasphemer Volume 3.
On this occasion, I want to give my profound thanks first to my readers, as well as my editing team and my illustrator, Tera Akai.
As I’ve been saying since the Afterword of the first book, the concept for Bluesteel Blasphemer was an “other world cheat-harem” story with guns. When I actually wrote it, though, the “harem” part turned out a little thin, or rather, there was a noticeable difference in how real Dasa felt versus how real the other girls felt. Especially Berta. Once Ulrike showed up, I found that as an author the familiar was easier to handle, and Berta kind of got left by the wayside, the poor girl.
In a comedy, there are a number of different ways to add realism to your characters, but there aren’t too many funny scenes in this story. So the upshot is, I decided to focus on Berta this time around.
Rest assured, this doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about the harem proper. Not at all. Last time, I added a “loli”-type sub-heroine, so this time I added a couple of sub-heroines from the “older sister” archetype. And one of them is an enemy! So after the battle they can ABC and XYZ and finally EFG...!! ...Or maybe not. Anyway, it can only be good to have more girls in the cast, right?
Veronika kind of got shoved into the background on the cover, but anyway, I was shooting to write her like a character out of Record of Lodoss War. You know, she’s a mercenary, but secretly of noble heritage... eh. That’s why she has red hair.
As for Angela, she was actually planned to show up in Volume 1, but I ended up having more material than I expected in that book, so she was omitted. She ended up not seeing the light of day until here in Volume 3. Originally she was just going to be a sisterly character, but by the time we were laying out Volume 3, we had turned her into a vice-captain of the Missionary Order, so she’s not quite the character I initially imagined.
And then, although I don’t think she’s pictured anywhere in the book, that person finally shows up. Ah, to fight one’s own kin! (*eyes sparkle*)
Anyway, this volume also focuses on Berta, so you get a lot of these older-sister types. It had been my plan all along to include characters like that, so from an authorial perspective I kind of feel like, Ah, I finally managed it. The story being what it is, though, they can’t all be flirtatious.
From the standpoint of series structure, we’ve hit a major turning point. What is it? Well, stay tuned. Truth be told, we’re coming to something I actually haven’t written too much about, so I’m a little bit nervous.
But don’t worry about me. All I want is for my readers to enjoy themselves.
Okay, then! See you next volume.
Ichiro Sakaki
2015/12/8