Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 11 - Chapter Aft

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Afterword

You have my deepest thanks for picking up this book, the 11th volume of Cooking with Wild Game.

If it was published as scheduled, then it must be right in the middle of the rainy season. That’s quite a temperature difference compared to May when I’m writing this afterword, so you readers must be feeling quite worn down.

But at any rate, this is volume 11.

During this book, Asuta finds himself in quite a pinch.

I’d prefer to avoid spoilers here for those who read the afterword first, but I’d imagine you may already have some idea from the cover, color images, taglines, and the like. But as I’m writing all this, it’s still unclear to me exactly how that will play out.

Were Asuta and Ai Fa in unfamiliar clothing? Did any new characters appear in the color images? I’m honestly excited to see just what sort of art Kochimo will deliver.

Oh, and this time around I had extra pages to play with, so I ended up putting together an intermezzo that was on a bit of the long side. Around 50 pages or so, I’d say. It’s probably the second longest, after “Aperitif: The Hunter’s Path” way back in volume 2. Even though the main story certainly isn’t shorter than that volume, I just couldn’t stop myself from writing more and more.

There isn’t any logic to making the bonus stories as long as I can, but I just find it easier to write longer vignettes than shorter ones.

Plus, it’s the least I can do as a show of gratitude for those who read the web version but still pick up these volume releases. I truly hope that you enjoy them.

As for the bonus content this time, it ended up being a bit of an experiment.

Writing stories set in the past that are unrelated to the main book is all well and good, but since things were so urgent this time around in the volume itself, I wanted to try writing out what was happening behind the scenes.

However, I already released such a story in the web version. As long as things keep going smoothly, it should appear in the 14th or 15th volume.

After racking my brains on what to do, I ultimately decided to write about how things played out in the post town rather than at the forest’s edge.

And for the protagonists, I chose a pair who hadn’t had any contact up till now. It was a very novel and enjoyable experience as the author, writing interactions between a duo with such different personalities and backgrounds.

I also currently have no intention of introducing the titular Drunkard Way from the tale into the main story. Writing about a place Asuta will never see from a whole new perspective really was fun for me.

Are the residents of Drunkard Way spending their days out of Asuta’s view even now? Maybe they’ll suddenly appear looking all innocent to order food from Asuta’s stalls. I find such thoughts fluttering through my head.

At any rate, though, I only have a little space left for this afterword.

I’ve made it all the way here to volume 11 so quickly, so those of you who have joined me on this journey truly have my gratitude.

As always, let me finish by giving thanks to my editor at Hobby Japan, my illustrator Kochimo, everyone else involved with the production of this book, and of course all of you who purchased it.