Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 4 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

When I opened my eyes, I was in the middle of a battle. It seemed that I had fallen asleep at some point. The controller was still in my hands. When I restarted the battle, I noticed one of my party members was dead.

Why are you dead? I don’t remember, I thought. I’ll have to bring you back to life. Well, whatever.

I was just slaughtering weak monsters to level up, so I could handle losing one person.

Would you usually die, though? Fighting enemies of this level? I’m sure, in my hazy semi-conscious state, I must have neglected to heal while continuing my mass murder. When I looked, my surviving party members were pretty low on health, too.

Ahh. There goes another one. Well, whatever. Battle’s finished.

Two people were dead, and one of them was the one who could cast the revival spell. I could also have used an item to revive them, but that would be a waste, so I used magic to warp back to town. I revived them, healed them, and now what? I had money saved up, but I’d more or less bought everything I wanted already. When I thought about it, there was no need to be such a cheapskate about using the items.

Guess I’ll go level some more, I thought. Nah, I think I’ve done enough. Time to advance the story, I guess. Wait, where do I go and what do I do next, anyway? What was I supposed to be doing?

I’ve had similar experiences—or actually, practically the same experience—time and again, cutting into my sleeping hours to do it. Did I waste my time? I don’t think so. I mean, if not for the time I spent doing that, I wouldn’t be writing this book, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, right now.

Out of habit, or to escape, or in search of pleasant, mind-numbing work, I was idly spending my time leveling up. Looking back to a time long before then, I had seen a new world inside video games.

With the advance of technology, open-world games and 3D action RPGs like Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls are now made all the time, inviting me back into that world I feel such nostalgia for, but at the moment, my greatest hope is reserved for VR headsets. I am certain that a VR headset will immerse me in newer and more different worlds. I am hoping the next-gen gaming experience will be able to win against the act of writing novels, something which plays out inside my head and stimulates all five of my senses. But, I dunno. Novel writing is difficult and, at times, painful, but it really is fun.

I’ve run out of pages.

To my editor, K, to Eiri Shirai-san, to the designers of KOMEWORKS among others, to everyone involved in production and sales of this book, and finally to all of you people now holding this book, I offer my heartfelt appreciation and all of my love. Now, I lay down my pen for today.

I hope we will meet again.

Oh, that’s right, please support my other series, What’s Wrong with a Hero Being Jobless?, too.

Ao Jyumonji