Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 21 - Chapter Aft

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Afterword

Thank you so much for picking up this book, the twenty-first volume of Cooking with Wild Game.

It’s currently the last third of May as I’m writing this afterword, and the havoc wrought by the coronavirus finally seems to be winding down. I can’t even imagine what the world will look like when this volume is published toward the end of June, but I hope that we’ll be even closer to returning to the peace and tranquility we used to have by then.

When the world is thrown into chaos and it takes all you have to make it through each day, it’s important to always find some time to enjoy creative works. A good story can give you the energy you need to keep going, or soothe your heart.

I fall into the latter category. I’ve been enjoying many different works of fiction in order to bolster my strength so that I could continue working on my own series, and it would make me very happy if my work helped to bring you at least a little rest and relaxation in turn.

Now then, as for the volume itself, it picks up immediately after the last one ended, with the sun god’s revival festival at its core. When you include the preparations for opening the outdoor restaurant, the festival part of the story has really been going on for quite a while, but here it finally reaches its climax.

It also marks the end of a long year for Asuta and company. From Asuta’s perspective, it’s only been around seven months or so, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a turning point. I’m sure that he must be looking forward to the year ahead of him and feeling renewed.

I suppose the next important date would be Asuta’s birthday, the twenty-fourth of the yellow month, when he appeared at the forest’s edge. In the setting of the story, there’s a leap month which occurs once every three years, so Asuta’s birthday will be in roughly half a year.

Since I have some room to spare in this afterword, I’ll write a little about the world’s calendar. The new year begins with the silver month, while the leap month that gets added after it is the gold. Then you have the brown, red, vermilion, yellow, green, blue, white, gray, black, indigo, and violet months.

Asuta arrived at the end of the yellow month, the clan head meeting was in the blue month, and the showdown with Cyclaeus was at the end of the white month. Then he met Myme and Varkas, traveled to Dabagg, and acted as support in the effort to deal with the lord of the forest, before finally arriving at the violet month.

It was an extremely busy seven months, and the days to come are going to be just as full. I hope you’ll all continue joining everyone on their journey.

For the bonus short story, I decided to focus on Jiza Ruu.

The idea was to show Asuta during the revival festival from an unexpected point of view. I figured it would be fun to go with someone who stood opposed to him and ultimately settled on the heir to the Ruu clan.

Asuta finds Jiza Ruu incredibly difficult to read, so it felt meaningful to be able to show his internal thoughts, which would normally never be on display in the main story. Hopefully, I managed to show you all at least some of the emotions swirling just under the surface behind his narrowed eyes.

Then we have the final Group Performance story, centered on Granny Mishil.

When she finally showed up in this volume, a lot of folks might have thought, “Wait, has this character been part of the story before now?” As a matter of fact, she really hasn’t appeared in the main story prior to this, even though her name’s been mentioned many times, with the first one being all the way back in the fourth volume.

Since Dora doesn’t sell gigo and chatchi at his place, Asuta has to purchase them from elsewhere. Dora recommended Granny Mishil’s place, as her gigo were known to be especially plump and sweet. Ever since then, Asuta has always bought his gigo and chatchi from her. Gigo are like yams, while chatchi are similar to potatoes, so they’re very important vegetables for Asuta’s business.

It also makes me pretty happy to have a character who appeared in name only back in volume four serve as the main character of a bonus story in volume twenty-one. This can only be the will of the mother forest and the four great gods.

At any rate, with this, the curtain has finally closed on the Group Performance stories, which began back in volume fourteen. There have been thirteen of them, with a total word count equivalent to 1.6 volumes, so thank you for sticking with these very long bonus stories.

That said, I’ve been writing more Group Performances every other year for the web version, so it’s almost time to unveil the second round for the print version. I’m thinking of including them in any volumes with pages to spare, so I hope you’ll be looking forward to their return.

Let me finish by thanking everyone involved with the production of this book, and of course, all of you who purchased it.