Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 6 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

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

Time certainly flies, as it has already been over a year since the release of the first volume.

As I write this afterword, it’s already nearing the end of February, but I wish you all the best in this new year.

Now then, this is the sixth volume. This time around, we get away from Asuta’s business in the post town and focus again on the settlement at the forest’s edge.

At last, it’s time to directly confront the root of what is wrong there: the Suun clan.

There may be some of you who read the afterword before the book, so I would like to avoid spoilers, but I think the feel this time is a bit different than in the last volume, where business was still ramping up in the post town. But Asuta and Ai Fa’s goals remain the same, so I hope you look forward to seeing them overcome various challenges as they try to push forwards toward a bright future.

Now that I think of it, the main heroine of the story had been missing from the front cover for both the fourth and fifth volumes. But now, she finally gets to smile, too.

Also, each time there’s a new volume it means a chance for new character designs, but this time it ended up being all men. On top of that, there were six of them. That makes this the most since the very first volume! As the author I had strongly been pushing for three of them in particular to get designs, so I’m truly grateful for that.

It would be spoilers to say any more, so I won’t specify who I’m talking about, but they were drawn as a single set. I still haven’t revealed their names, but they were like a symbol of the volume, so I really wanted them to get drawn. And in a way, they ended up looking even more frightening than Donda Ruu. When the initial rough sketches were delivered, it was even more impactful than I had expected.

Let me just formally state that it made me truly appreciate once again that Kochimo was assigned as my illustrator.

As for the intermezzo for this volume, I decided to focus on the easterner Shumiral, who wasn’t actually introduced this volume. At first I wanted to do something with a certain charming daughter’s day-to-day life to contrast the serious nature of the main book, but then I realized it wasn’t a proper fit. Still, Shumiral was one of my favorites, so I hope you enjoyed it.

Now then... Next time, Asuta and company will face even more turmoil as he resumes business in the post town, and Kamyua Yoshu will appear yet again after being quiet for a while.

As the author, I’ll keep pushing onwards in the hope that you all are looking forward to what comes next.

Now then... 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!

EDA, February 2016