Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

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

The first volume of this series was published in February of this year, so half a year has passed since then.

It’s been quite a bit of time, but it feels like the blink of an eye... It certainly is a strange feeling.

At any rate, it’s thanks to the kind support from all of you that the volumes have managed to pile up this far. And so, let me express my sincerest gratitude.

Oddly enough, this time around things ended on a “Our fight’s only just getting started!” sort of note, but Asuta and company’s true struggle really is still to come.

Fortunately, the continuing publication schedule is already all planned out, and I will feel truly blessed if you’re looking forward to seeing the series onwards.

At last, the story’s stage has transitioned to the post town. The next volume is planned to have various events there as its main focus, too.

There are still a number of troublesome issues left regarding the settlement at the forest’s edge, though, so it’ll also be essential to simultaneously make sure things keep advancing there as well.

And next time around, those troublemakers who didn’t make an appearance this time are sure to stand in Asuta’s way.

Still, this series sure has become one with a lot of characters. We must be at around 30 named ones by now.

Things were pretty wild to start with, though, what with volume one introducing the 13 members of the main Ruu house, including the baby.

When the novelization for this series was put into motion, the first big concern my editor from Hobby Japan raised was, “Will it really be alright to have this many characters around?”

But as the author, I can’t help but look forward to seeing which new characters Kochimo-sama will bring to life with each volume.

This time around, Kamyua Yoshu got to have a color image up front. He’s an aloof character and you don’t know if he’s an enemy or an ally, so everybody’s image of him tended to differ. And so I thought it would be very difficult to draw him, but as the author, I’m extremely satisfied with how things turned out.

I’m also very grateful that the merchants from the east who I’m personally fond of got illustrated, too.

It’s a strange feeling, seeing these characters that sprung forth from my mind taking visual shape by someone else’s hand, but it also makes me feel incredibly blessed.

I hope to keep that feeling firmly in my heart as I keep on writing from here on out.

Now then...

Let’s go ahead and cut off my rambling here.

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.

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

Our fight is only just getting started!

August 2015,

EDA