AFTERWORD
This is Okina Baba, reporting live on the scene and so forth and so on.
Here we are at Volume 11.
Two of the same number—a repdigit.
People love repdigits for some reason and place a kind of special value on them.
Honestly, even I get excited about repdigits.
And since this repdigit volume is coming out at the beginning of the new Reiwa era, it feels like an especially auspicious occasion.
Yet, in order to get a repdigit, you need to reach two digits first.
And to reach the next repdigit, Volume 22, I would need to double the amount of volumes I’ve put out so far.
In fact, I suspect that this series might be over before we reach the next repdigit.
If not, I’m sure I’ll go on about repdigits again in the afterword of Volume 22.
Maybe I should even aim for the next repdigit to be the last volume?
Although, as a creator, I do feel like a repdigit or a multiple of five is always a good number for the last volume of a series.
Realistically, I think it would be difficult to end this series on the next repdigit.
I don’t even know if it’s going to last until the next repdigit.
Did I mention 11 is a repdigit?
Now, Volume 11 is totally different from the previous volumes.
There have been previous volumes with a different tone or format than usual, true.
But I don’t think any of them has been as distinct as this one.
This series has gone on long enough to break two digits and even reach a repdigit, but now I’ve gone and made an unbelievable blunder in this volume.
The protagonist barely shows up at all.
Where is the titular spider content? Where?!
There’s such a huge lack of spiders that they should probably change the title just for this volume!
What the hell is the author thinking?
Oh, that’s me.
Yes, the protagonist of this volume is Julius the hero, older brother to our reincarnated friend Shun.
There have been plenty of other narrators besides the protagonist thus far, but this is the first time that we don’t get the protagonist’s point of view a single time in the entire volume.
And instead of being someone close to the protagonist, the narrator is someone who’s both physically and mentally very far removed from her.
But I think that by distancing ourselves from the protagonist, we get to see things that she would never have mentioned, things that the protagonist knows but other people don’t, and even some things that the protagonist doesn’t know about at all.
And then there’s that final scene!
It would never have been completed without my editor W and the talented Kiryu.
Which brings us to the thank-yous.
Thank you to Tsukasa Kiryu for the excellent illustrations as usual.
I think anyone who read this book to the end will see how wonderful that last scene is.
So wonderful! So beautiful! Really, thank you so much!
Thank you to Asahiro Kakashi for your hard work on the manga.
In Volume 7, which goes on sale at the same time as this novel volume, you’ll get to see even more of dear old Ronandt and his explosive sayings!
I’m impressed as always with the characters’ expressions that you don’t get to see in the novels.
And thank you to the anime staff as well.
They’re all hard at work as we speak, so please wait for more information.
Thank you to my editor W and everyone else who assisted with the production of this book.
And to everyone who picked it up and read to the end:
Thank you very much.
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