Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 7 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

Jougi Shiraishi.

A light novel author active in Japan. His Wandering Witch series, which in 2016 marked his debut into the self-publishing trade and was simultaneously picked up and had its first issue released by GA Books, has now reached its seventh volume.

This man is now about to attempt a new challenge.

Am I really going to buy this?

“I mean, lately, I’ve been really keenly feeling my lack of physical strength, so if I want to exercise…there’s nothing to do but buy the thing, right?”

He has a problem that has been aggravating him.

Inactivity.

Whether working at his principal job or at his writing, he never has to move very much. And when it comes to days off, he spends all day long just eating, sleeping, watching anime, and reading books, and before he realizes it, the sun has set and he’s muttering to himself, “Huh, seriously? It’s already night? I haven’t done anything…”

Is anyone surprised that this zombie, human in name only, would fall into a pattern of inactivity?

Fresh in everyone’s memories is the utter nonsense that he included in the afterword of Volume 6: “I want to make 2018 the year when I do a moderate amount of exercise.”

If you’re going to exercise, can’t you go running outdoors?

“Well, I can’t run when it’s raining, now can I? And then you know what would happen, right? Really, it would be bad! Whatever happened.”

Isn’t it a waste of money?

“No, of course it’s not! Absolutely not a waste of money! Seriously! If I buy it, I swear I’ll go running every day! Really!”

Fresh in everyone’s memories is the time when, one year ago, this man purchased a robot vacuum, then ended up being stuck cleaning the corners of his room himself because the carpet that covered the floor was the type that can’t be cleaned by a robot vacuum. Also fresh is the memory that, since he had the robot set to start cleaning automatically every morning at five, he would wake up irritated every day. You could say that instead of a robot vacuum, the man purchased a very obnoxious alarm clock.

If you buy it, will you use it every day?

“Of course I will! With gusto! I’ll get back the stamina that I’ve lost over these past two years!”

With a raised voice, he places his online order.

For a treadmill.

And that is how this man got himself a treadmill that allows him to easily exercise in the comfort of his own home, both solving the problem of his inactivity as well as fulfilling his desire to never step foot outside the house. Ever since that day, he has continued running over the rattling roller just like a hamster in a wheel.

His challenge continues…

And so, I am Jougi Shiraishi, new owner of a treadmill. It’s been a while. Hello.

The series has continued for a long time, and we’ve come to the seventh volume.

There are all sorts of things I’d like to tell you, but as usual, I’d like to start first with my comments on each chapter, including spoilers. All right, here we go!

Chapter 1: “Once Upon a Time, in a Certain Place”

This is the prologue to the first six chapters of Volume 7. This time around, the book has a split structure. Chapters one through six are their own stories, and everything from chapter seven on is a separate part.

Chapter 2: “Sharon the Liar”

This is the last chapter I wrote for Volume 7. Since much of the book is devoted to serious stories, I thought I would write something silly.

Unlike the character of Alte in the final chapters, Sharon has no magical talent, but even without talent, she never loses sight of her goals. Sharon’s a character who takes a different approach to get what she wants.

Chapter 3: “Things Unseen”

Medusa was the inspiration for Elfriede. It’s common knowledge that Medusa turns anyone who looks her in the eye to stone, but I wondered what would happen in the case that the other party was blind, and I more or less made a story out of that simple question.

I like to think that after the end of their tale, the two characters who weren’t able to look anyone in the eye lived peacefully as two normal people.

Just as an aside, I quite like the situation of a man and woman living quietly in the forest together.

Chapter 4: “Of Statues and Witches”

This happened quite a while ago, but I’m sure you remember the story of the old woman who was chastised for trying to repair an old painting without permission. It was in the news for a while. That was more or less the inspiration for this story. I feel like it had been a long time since I had written a story that featured Saya.

Chapter 5: “Village of Beauties”

This chapter was originally intended to be part of Volume 6, but Volume 6 already had several heavy stories, and on top of that, the page count was getting long, so it got pushed into Volume 7.

There are several species of spiders and praying mantises where the female will consume the male after mating. The behaviors of such creatures were the inspiration for this story.

By the way, the name for sheep’s meat changes depending on how grown the sheep is. Baby sheep’s meat is lamb, while adult meat is mutton.

Chapter 6: “A Tale of Monsters and Misguided Humans”

People often say that time heals all wounds, and in Luciella’s and Natasha’s cases, both of them were simply born before their time. I think that most people, once they become adults, start to think more about the villains of the fairy tales we read as children, wondering whether they really are nothing more than villains, or whether they might not be all that villainous after all.

By the way, an editor appears toward the end of this chapter, but you must absolutely not take this character to be based on the editor who has taken such good care of me! I’m serious!

Final Chapters: “Many Years’ Journey”

Adult Elaina appeared in this volume, so with the next book, we’ll start stories from seven years later! Not really. In Volume 8, I’m planning to revert Elaina to her usual transparent teenage self, the same old scheming, sharp-tongued yet polite girl we know and love, so please look forward to that. I’d be gratified if you would be so kind as to read this story as one of many possible futures.

I wrote all sorts of things, and this became my longest story to date.

When I look back on my own school days, I like to think that not a single thing from that time was pointless. It’s not all wonderful, nice memories, but since there’s certain to come a time in the future when even the regrets, even the experience of hardship, even the incidents when things end in failure despite your efforts will be useful to you, I think going through them is vastly better than doing nothing.

By the way, I’m changing the subject, but back on April 1, there was a light novel author named Jougi Shiraishi who got carried away and tweeted that, “Adult Elaina is going to appear in Volume 7! That’s a lie, though!” But in reality, by that time, it was already a certainty that adult Elaina would be appearing, and when Volume 7 first went on sale, he tweeted again, “Ah, did I say that it was a lie back then? Actually, that was the lie, though.” A few days later, he came to his senses and thought back on his actions, Huh…what was I thinking with those lies…? I’m an idiot, aren’t I? If I had a time-reversing watch, I would for sure have booted myself back to April 1.

So those are my comments on each chapter.

This time, the manuscript took longer than usual, and before I realized it, I was really cutting it close to the deadline. I’m really sorry for any trouble I caused…

By the time Volume 7 goes on sale, I think this information will be public, so I’m going to take the liberty of writing about it in my afterword. We’re planning to start selling Journey of Elaina drama CDs this November! Thanks in advance for checking them out. By the way, since the day I received the cast list, my fingers haven’t stopped trembling from excitement, but…what to do…? As things stand, I feel like my fingers might fly right off when I get my copy of the recording!

As I write this afterword, I’ve also been allowed to read the first manuscript for the manga version of Journey of Elaina. The drawings by Ikki Nanao, who has taken charge of turning it into a manga, are really, really incredible, and I ended up reading it over and over again. As I was reading the manuscript, I was tearing up in my room and shouting words that weren’t quite words to myself the whole time, like, “Aaah! Amazing! Ah! Yes, yes! Ahhh!” Manga writers are incredible…

When I see the stories and characters that originally existed only in my mind get put into illustrations, and now have voices put to them, and even get drawn as manga, I feel like the path to get here has been a long one, but I’m sincerely glad that I kept on running down it without stopping. Together with my new treadmill, I want to keep on running, so thank you for your everlasting support.

Well then, on to the acknowledgments.

To the head editor, M:

Thank you for always taking good care of me. Especially this time, thank you so much for sticking with me as I made amendments until the very last second. You’re the one who told me earliest that, “Sometimes good material will come to mind while you’re running, so I recommend it,” but since the only thing that came up when I went running outside was a wave of nausea, I’m now running quietly inside my own room. If I puke in my room, it’s no problem!

To Azure:

Thank you as always for your adorable illustrations. I really like the cover illustration for this volume… I always like them, but a scene of walking by the seaside hasn’t come up before now, so…

By the way, this is completely unrelated, but the last time we talked, Azure mentioned a dislike of mushrooms, and I felt a strange affinity between us.

To everyone else involved:

To everyone in operations at SB Creative, everyone in the GA Novels editing department, all of the bookstore employees, everyone at the printer’s, and everyone else who had a part in this publication—

Truly, thank you all very much. I look forward to working with you again.

And to all my readers:

Thank you for sticking with it to Volume 7! The publication of Volume 8 in November is going to be a special edition including the drama CD, so please enjoy! Please, please reserve your copy!

Well then, let’s meet again next time. See ya!