Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 9 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

“Mister Shiraishi…starting today, your teeth are going to hurt, and you probably won’t be able to eat anything, so please prepare yourself for that, all right?”

If the alignment of your teeth isn’t an absolute disaster, then whenever you mention your distress or discuss your plans to have them fixed, people around you actually question it, like, “Huh? Are your teeth really that bad?” That’s about how mine were.

But struggles with your body are a very personal sort of thing, hard for other people to understand. So at age twenty-five, I finally got around to fixing the misaligned teeth that had been troubling me since middle school. Those words up there were what the dentist said to me when I went in for the procedure.

And I said, “Ha-ha-ha! I’ll be fine! I’m stronger than the pain, you know!”

My words were filled with an unearned confidence. Maybe it was because the dentist I had been going to—Y Dental—was an extremely conscientious clinic that had recently acquired some new equipment. Maybe it was because every procedure I’d had to date had gone very smoothly. Whatever the reason, I placed tremendous confidence in the orthodontic prowess of Y Dental.

And, in fact, the installation of my braces went extremely well, without any pain at all. Before I knew it, the dentist had finished attaching them, and I left the clinic in an extremely good mood.

“Ha-ha-ha! I knew this would be no big deal!”

Just before I got out the door…

“Please don’t eat anything too tough, starting today, okay?”

The dentist gave me that advice, which I immediately, completely forgot.

That evening—

“…I’ve finally gotten the braces I wanted for so long, so I ought to have a big celebration tonight, right?”

I said something intensely idiotic like that and rushed into a nearby restaurant. I ordered a fried pork cutlet. Promising myself that I would do my best to fix my teeth, starting that day, I ate the cutlet that was set down in front of me.

Why, this doesn’t hurt at all; what was I scared of? Heh-heh-heh-heh! I was totally calm and collected.

But the more I chewed, and the more time passed, the more my teeth gradually began to scream from the pressure of the braces and the force of my jaw chewing the meat.

And then, once I was done eating a small slice of pork cutlet—

“Ah…………………………………this hurts like crazy…………………………………!”

I set down my chopsticks.

In the corner of the restaurant, at the booth by the window, there was a twenty-five-year-old man pressing his hand against his mouth and shaking. To all appearances, he probably looked like a man who had gone out into the world and had the first hot meal of his life. But actually, he was just a pitiful, unlucky man who was seriously on the verge of tears despite his age, just because his teeth hurt.

I decided I would listen carefully to everything my dentist said from then on…

Anyway, leaving such stories aside, before I get to the proper Afterword, I’ll give some comments on each chapter. Anyone who wants to avoid spoilers, skip forward a few pages, please!

• Chapter 1The Giants’ Kitchen

The original sources of inspiration for this story were Gulliver’s Travels and “The Restaurant of Many Orders.” I’d been wanting to write a short story based on “The Restaurant of Many Orders” for some time, but since our main character is allergic to cats, the only outcome I could see was her refusing to go into the restaurant at all. “Huh? I’m not going into a suspicious place like that!” So I rejected the idea for a long time, but by Volume 9, one way or another it came out as a restaurant run by tiny little women. Personally, I like the captain best.

• Chapter 2A Country Girl, a History Addict, and a Potion Dosing

This is Alte and Linaria’s second appearance. I had fun writing dialogue for the Alte and Linaria that I remembered so fondly. Originally I was planning to have Priscilla and crew appear in a “Wandering Through Time” chapter in Volume 7, but much to my chagrin, we had to cut that one for length, so I was happy to be able to fit it in now.

• Chapter 3The Resurrection Lily That Blooms in Solitude

I have a strong emotional attachment to the resurrection lily. It was possibly the first flower that I ever thought was beautiful. I decided that if I ever put a resurrection lily in one of my books, I would have it show up in a symbolic story, and I held on to that idea for a long time. By the way, resurrection lilies are often seen blooming alone in the countryside, and apparently that’s because they’re grown as mole repellents. That is to say, more so than the multicolored blossoms lining florist shops, I saw a flower that was just quietly carrying out its task and thought it was beautiful. What’s up with that?

The definitions of serial killers that Sheila alludes to in the chapter are based on the serial killer classifications that the FBI uses to sort them into systematic-nonsystematic types. This is a fantasy series, so I changed it a bit, though.

By the way, in flower language, the resurrection lily signifies, among other things, “passion, isolation, reunion, resignation, and sad memories.”

• Chapter 4Cinderella

I intended to make this a crisp, short comedy chapter, but as I was finishing it up, I realized that it had become quite long. I think it’s because once I decided to write a story on the theme of Cinderella, there were lots of points that I had to be sure to touch on…

I realized that once I’m done writing them, the princes that appear in this series have a really high chance of turning out stupid.

• Chapter 5Familiars

This is a bit of insider information, but when Journey of Elaina was optioned for commercial publishing, my editor floated the idea of giving the witches familiars, but I rejected the idea out of hand. “No way! Absolutely not!” I didn’t remember this until I was in the middle of writing this chapter, not until I had reached Volume 9 of the series, but now, finally, a familiar has made its first appearance. This is similar to what happened with Chapter 1 of Volume 9—actually there are quite a lot of stories on subjects that get pushed back due to various considerations, like the balance of each volume as a whole.

Take your best guess as to why Karen didn’t have a father.

• Chapter 6A Country Girl, a History Addict, and the Aroma of Wheat

I tried to split the time line within one story, as I did in Volume 3 with “The Wall That Travelers Inscribe.” I didn’t have enough time, and tried rearranging it in every which way, but I’m glad that I was finally able to arrive at this punch line.

This book is a continuation of Volume 8, with Elaina and Miss Fran traveling together.

I haven’t written the manuscript for Volume 10 yet (actually, I’m sure you could have guessed that), but in Volume 10, I’m planning for Elaina’s journey with Miss Fran to come to an end. Timing-wise, there was no other place where we could put Chapter 3, “The Resurrection Lily That Blooms in Solitude,” so this book ended up having a lot of longer chapters.

The next book is going to be a Limited Special Edition with a drama CD included (preorders are open now!), so that’s one more reason why I’m glad that I could write some stories in Volume 9 that will continue into the next book. I don’t have any plans to conclude the series with Volume 10, but it would make me very happy if you would stick with me at least until the end of Miss Fran and Elaina’s tandem journey.

Now then, on to the acknowledgments.

To M, the head editor: When we first met, you were kind enough to be concerned for me. “You don’t eat much, do you?” you asked. Now that I’ve gotten braces installed, I’m back to being Jougi Shiraishi, who doesn’t eat. Moving forward, I’d like to become Jougi Shiraishi, who appreciates quality over quantity in food, and I’d just like to say it makes me very happy that you’ve stuck with me for so long.

To Azure: Thank you for your work on the illustrations, as always. Your illustrations for the Amazon limited edition of Volume 9 are really preposterously lovely, and a primo work of art. The moment they arrived, I decided to keep them as family heirlooms.

To Ikki Nanao: I’m really enjoying all the updates in the comicalized version of Journey of Elaina. I’ve already said this many times on Twitter and my other social media accounts, but your original plot twists in Book 2 were just the best…

To everyone involved with these books, everyone at SB Creative, everyone in distribution, all the bookstore employees, and everyone who had a part in the publication of this book: Thank you all very much. And thank you in advance for next time.

To all my readers: Thank you so much for sticking with me through Volume 9. Volume 10, as well as the Limited Special Edition with drama CD, should go on sale simultaneously around mid-August. Thank you so much for your support!

That’s all I have to say, but between when I got my braces and the time I’m writing this now, my body weight has dropped by about ten kilograms.

I wasn’t really all that fat to begin with, but after I got the braces, I was surviving on porridge and energy jelly every day, so my weight took a sudden dive like the Black Monday stock market, and now I’m below average. It’s pretty bad.

The pain in my teeth has finally let up, and I’m back to being able to eat again, but it doesn’t seem like the size of my stomach has gone back to normal, which has improved my undisciplined eating habits. Thanks to that, my treadmill can take a little break.

I hope that, even as my weight declines, the popularity of the Journey of Elaina series only continues to grow from here. Well then, let’s meet here again in August, shall we? See you then!