Hello everyone, chuuni lover Ryo Shirakome here. Thank you so much for picking up volume 11 of Arifureta. What did you guys think of it? It’s basically the prologue of the final battle. I changed a lot from the web version to give the other students in Hajime’s class a chance to shine. Since this is an isekai story where the whole class gets transported, I figured it was only right to make use of the original premise in some way. I hope I did a good job. It’d make me happy to hear if Yuka and Kousuke’s triumphs got you guys excited, even if only a little. By the way, as I was writing this, I realized there are still nine students who haven’t gotten names and are basically forgettable NPCs. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I should suddenly make them relevant to the story or just accept that I won’t be able to give everyone their time in the spotlight. In the end, I decided to give up on them, since this volume would end up thicker than a dictionary if I wrote cool scenes for everyone. But hey, maybe I’ll get a chance to put them in the after stories...? A man can always dream.
On the other hand, I did at least get to bring back (almost) all the characters that have shown up in the series so far. I wonder if you guys remember them all... I think my favorite of the minor characters is the guild master. His name’s a little too similar to Hajime’s new laser, and I feel like I kinda messed up by making them overlap, but it’s too late to change either of them now. Everyone who followed me during the web serialization is already used to the old names, so I didn’t want to change them. The guild master has nothing to do with lasers, and Hajime definitely didn’t name his upgraded ones after him, so just consider it a funny coincidence and leave it at that. Oh yeah, there were still several characters who didn’t make it into this volume, but I tried to put as many of them as I could in the short stories. A couple of those stories include scenes I wanted to include when everyone was visiting Hajime up on the fort’s roof, but couldn’t. Incidentally, one of those characters is probably going to end up in the battle maid group later, so pay attention to her. Those of you who’ve been following my updates on Narou probably know what I’m talking about, so definitely check the short story out. Now then, it’s time for the acknowledgments. As always, a big thanks to my illustrator, Takyaki-sensei, the manga artist, RoGa-sensei, the artist for the Arifureta everyday manga, Misaki Mori-sensei, and the artist for the spin-off Arifureta Zero manga, Ataru Kamichi-sensei. And, of course, thank you to my editor, proofreader, and everyone else at the publishing company. This book only exists because of all your effort. As always, last, but certainly not least, I’d like to thank all of you for supporting me by reading my books! There’s not much left of the main story, but I’d love it if you would stick with me until the end! Ryo Shirakome
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