Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 12 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

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

It’s been three years and two months since I started the web version, and two years and eight months since the first novel was published, and in that time we’ve released twelve whole volumes. And that is all thanks to the support everyone has given to the series.

On top of that, in September of this year the manga will finally kick off. And once again, that’s something that I never could have accomplished on my own. I simply cannot thank everyone enough.

In general, this seemed like the type of work that would be difficult to move into other forms of media. The cast of characters is massive, and it’s stuffed with old folks and kids on top of that, plus it would require showing stuff like the dissecting and cooking of giba, which sounds like a real handful. And shortly before this work was novelized, I was told how brave I was being for how little attention I paid to the idea of it being adapted.

But since I started writing it, I started thinking about the matter of commercial publishing.

Before that, I had applied for rookie of the year awards and the like, but I found it difficult to keep my stories within the size limits and preferred to just keep contributing to web publishing sites where I could write as much as I pleased.

It’s also not like I even had a firm image of how my work would function as a novel, so the idea of it being adapted to other media felt like some far off dream.

As for what I’m actually trying to say, it’s that I never even considered this work being drawn as illustrations or manga while I wrote it. If I had, I probably wouldn’t have gone and decided the main Ruu house had thirteen members right from the start, for example. It just feels like such an imposition on the artist, after all.

And the one suffering for my thoughtlessness as the author is Kochimo, who is in charge of both the illustrations in this work and the manga. I really must use this opportunity to give them my greatest thanks for that.

I can still vividly recall how moved I felt when I first saw Kochimo’s initial rough character designs for Asuta and Ai Fa back before volume one was published. Ai Fa’s angry expression with the popping veins made me feel like they had hit the bullseye, and I was thoroughly satisfied. And of course, I was positively elated seeing the characters I had come up with in my head so ideally visualized.

Now that Kochimo will also be making the manga for this work, I feel every bit as overjoyed as I did back then.

Just like all of you readers, I’ll be looking forward to watching how the manga develops.

The manga version of Cooking with Wild Game is being published on Hobby Japan’s website Comic Fire, so please check it out if you’re interested.

Anyway, I’m just so excited about the manga that I’ve gone on overly long about it, but I have to talk about this volume, too.

If volumes 1-6 were the Suun clan arc, then volume 7 onwards has been the Cyclaeus arc. And with the next volume, that arc will finally be hitting its climax.

But the Suun clan arc and the Cyclaeus arc are all tied together, so you could say it’s all been one big Conspiracy arc since volume 1. As the author, I consider it all the first part of the story.

At any rate, though, I’d certainly feel grateful if you’ve been looking forward to how Asuta and company handle the various nobles like the wicked Cyclaeus, his daughter Lefreya, and his younger brother who still hasn’t appeared, Ciluel.

Of course, the series will still continue on after that. Even the rather extensive web version still hasn’t reached a conclusion just yet. I believe it will finally wrap up next year, but I had thought as such last year too, so the schedule remains up in the air.

I’m truly overjoyed to not only have this novel version but also the manga in development, but I’ll keep up my responsibility of continuing to write the original web version too. There’s no shortage of stories I want to tell, but I also intend to keep aiming for the final scene I imagined without needlessly stretching things out, so I’ll keep on writing at my own pace.

It really is a first for me, writing such a long story over such an extended period of time. Even though over three years have passed now, I haven’t fallen prey to fatigue, and want to keep writing just as much as I did when I started. And I know that’s thanks to all of you enjoying this ride alongside me.

Of course, none of the changes in these novels or the manga version have been things I didn’t approve of, and it’s all been according to what I felt is best.

I’ve been enjoying all this more than anyone, and all of you enjoying it alongside me has made me happiest of all, giving me the fuel needed to keep on writing.

Over three years have passed and I’ve written who knows how many millions of characters by this point, so there are certainly points that have diverged quite a bit from my initial plans. Characters intended to become bit players have become core members of the cast, while characters meant to fall to ruin have been saved instead. There really is just too much to count.

At any rate, I want to keep on writing this story up until the bitter end, enjoying each and every moment along the way.

I know I’ve certainly gone on long here, but I’ll be truly grateful if you keep on enjoying this story in its many forms, be it on the web, in these novels, or in the manga version.

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.

I hope to see you all again with the next volume!

October 2017,

EDA