It seems I enjoy writing villains.
That doesn’t mean I love people who do bad things.
I love people who know what they are doing is wrong and yet are forced into doing it. You feel their humanity. There’s the nobility in the attempt to follow through with their unbending conviction and the foolishness in staining their hands with evil deeds for that sake. When I’m able to write characters with both of those, I feel it, like “Oh, I was able to write a person,” and I come to love that character.
Brunhild is that character in Volume 1, and in the second, it’s Fafnir.
In the third, it’s Warren.
I feel that he’s a difficult character, compared with Volumes 1 and 2. He’s the villain, and he’s not a handsome man or beautiful woman. He’s an old man, and he does a lot of cruel things. As expected, my editor wasn’t all that fond of him (this is not a complaint).
I was unsure. I wondered if maybe I should make Warren’s character a little milder, in order to make Brunhild and the others, who really are the main characters, stand out more. Since no matter how much I like Warren, if the readers can’t enjoy the story, then it’s just self-indulgence.
But in the end, I chose to write a story that placed Warren in a leading role.
I remembered I’d begun to put together this story in the first place in order to depict his nobility and foolishness. It seemed like taking out all that would make the whole story a lie.
It’s true that perhaps there aren’t many people who will like this character. Perhaps it would be best not to highlight him too much. I’m sure these worries are legitimate.
But I felt certain of something else, too.
There were sure to be readers for whom this character would really hit home.
I decided to bet on this feeling of certainty. This is an issue of the point of writing a story. A story is not written to have people read it. You write not only to have it read but also to leave something in the hearts of the readers. If not, then I don’t think there’s a point in writing stories.
If this story could leave something in your heart, I’m glad.
Of course, I will also be very glad if you like the characters aside from Warren. I don’t mean to have cut corners writing any of them. If there’s anything else of special note, it’s that I also like the virtuous Kriemhild in contrast with the villain Warren. I like to write about bad people, which also means I like to write about good people.
Finally, the acknowledgments. To Ningen Rokudo and Laila, who read this draft when they were busy and gave me their thoughts, thank you very much.