Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 29 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

Long time no see. It’s the author, Takehaya. This time around I have some more room for the afterword, which is just perfect since there’s a lot I want to talk about and I’m sure there’s a lot on everyone’s mind. As such, there will be spoilers in this afterword. Please read the book before you continue.

I’ll choose not to touch on the actual content of the volume this time, however. There would be no end to it if I tried to answer everyone’s questions right now (ha!). Instead, I’ll stick to the biggest thing. And that is if this series will continue.

Skipping to the answer, yes. Like I wrote at the end of the first volume, this is a story about Koutarou’s high school life. He’s got another year of it to go, so the story will naturally continue. So I bet you’re wondering why something this important happened now. I believe there are plenty of readers who think it would have been better to leave this development for the end of his third year. The reason I couldn’t write it that way was because there was no guarantee the series would be that long.

Invaders of the Rokujouma!? started roughly ten years ago now. Back then, I was writing scenarios for visual novels, and I had only just debuted in HJ Bunko with the work Ano Hibi wo Mou Ichido. (It wasn’t even that long after HJ Bunko first got started!) Of course, game scenarios aren’t the same as novels. The only way for me to find out if I could make a living writing books was by actually doing it and seeing how it worked out. In that sense, I was just a beginner who was lucky enough to get his debut work published. It’s not like I had the go-ahead for a long series back then, which is perfectly normal. I was just an amateur. I hadn’t proven myself yet, so there was no reason for anyone to trust me with a major project.

Back then, it was also the trend for light novels to have shorter runs. Once upon a time, there were plenty of titles with over ten volumes, and it wasn’t strange to see titles with more than twenty. But that started to change. Nowadays lots of light novels end after just a few volumes, and even series with anime adaptations tend to end around the ten-volume mark. So with shorter series being the trend, books written by well known authors and released by major publishers naturally had an advantage.

Because of that, the relatively new HJ Bunko making a big commitment with a fledgling author like me would have been a very risky move ten years ago. While taking some risk is a good thing, I don’t think it would have been the right choice. But I’m the type of author who writes with big themes and foreshadowing, so I knew there was a good chance I wouldn’t be able to do what I wanted in a shorter work. I wanted to make it longer if I could.

Of course, having no achievements under my belt at the time, I never would have gotten greenlit for a long-running series. That’s where I had the idea of dressing up a long-running series as a shorter one. I’d spread out the foreshadowing and make it subtle enough that readers wouldn’t notice it. That proved to be easier said than done. It was hard work. Of course, I didn’t tell the editor this either (ha!). To that end, I used tropes because they were a good way to disguise the foreshadowing. The strong landlord, for example. The reason Shizuka is so strong is because of the Fire Dragon Emperor inside of her, but I couldn’t have the readers realize that right away. She would only really get involved in the story starting with volume 8, so I needed to prepare something in case the series was canceled before then. That’s why I made her a cute girl. The cute landlord who’s really strong when she snaps is a common trope, so if the series ended prematurely, it wouldn’t feel unfinished if her story never got told. I disguised a lot of foreshadowing this way, playing off of tropes and readers’ assumptions. (Including why so many girls gathered in one place, though that was finally explained in this volume.) As a result, the series looked like a simple comedy in its early stages.

But doing something so reckless also meant taking on a big handicap. I had to be able to adapt whether the series ended up being long or short, so I was unable to explore the minds of the characters too deeply in the beginning. I also had to be careful with the setting, since that would change depending on the lifespan of the work. As a result, volumes 1 and 2 were by far the most risky. Thankfully, I gained the support of the readers and was able to get through that trial period. I got to make use of the foreshadowing starting in volume 3. Afterwards, I gradually gained a greater degree of freedom when writing, and eventually got the green light to go all the way when it was decided that the series would be getting an anime adaptation. I believe that was around volume 13 or 14, which set the precedent for how freely I write now.

But since that was how the story came to be, it left me with a big problem. How would it end? If the series was canceled after the first volume, that would have been that. But I’d planned potential endings at volumes 3, 8, and 13 in case the series got canned at any of those benchmarks, meaning I created a total of four endings including this one. Excluding pure entertainment works, stories normally have two endings: the end of the thematic elements and the end of the events. The ideal would be to have both at the same time, of course, but I had no reason to believe I’d be able to do that. At the time, I thought the chances of me getting to this point were very low, and that I’d have to rely on—as Kiriha would put it—coincidences piling up on top of one another. To be honest, I thought the actual odds were less than 1 percent. And the odds of me being able to write through Koutarou finishing his third year of high school were even lower. That’s why I decided to split up the two endings, and figured that it would be wise to at the very least show the thematic ending.

By altering the wording, depth, and development of the preceding volumes, the contents of this one could have come after volume 7, or between 12 and 13. It would have been harder to connect then than it is now with the rainbow sword, but I believed it would be possible to express the theme I wanted. But defying all odds with the support of the readers, this series was able to reach the longest possible goal. You’re reading right now what I thought had less than a single percent chance of coming to life. As a result, splitting up the two endings backfired. But even then, I was able to express the theme I wanted and present this work in my ideal length and configuration. So I am very grateful to my readers. Thank you so very much.

The last conundrum was where to actually put this ending. With the appearance of the rainbow sword, all the actors were in place, so I had to wonder if I should really drag things out for another year. I can say so now, but the questionnaire I had everyone help me with was mostly concerning this. After consulting all of your opinions and conferring with the editorial department, we decided to put it here. We concluded that we should put this episode where it fit most naturally, and then continue through to the end of the events. If I were to say, it’s the same idea as with the famous ninja manga Na——to.

In the case of Na——to, I think the big theme there is having others acknowledge you, and the protagonist aims to become a leader in order to accomplish that. There are multiple thematic endings there, such as having his allies acknowledge him, or becoming a hero and having the nation acknowledge him. There’s a difference in scale, of course, but by the time we get there, he’s already been acknowledged and accepted by his friends and allies. Building on top of that, the events come to an end, and the story wraps up with him becoming the leader.

I think this volume would correspond to the part where Na——to is ultimately accepted by those around him. So from here on out, I will continue writing about the events coming to an end, including Koutarou graduating high school and how his relationship with the girls plays out.

Now that we’re on the topic of the future, let’s talk about that. The next volume, 30, will pick up with the diplomatic relations between Forthorthe and Japan. Koutarou and the others will enter spring and their third year of high school. Luckily, Sanae and Yurika manage to avoid being held back. And we also have two new girls on the scene. One is Kenji’s little sister who’s been mentioned from time to time, Mackinley aka Matsudaira Kotori. The other is the exchange student from Forthorthe, Nalfa Laren. I’m sure you’re all familiar with Kin-chan, but the exchange student is a mysterious figure. This’ll be Koutarou and the others’ first time meeting her, so I’m sure it’ll be your first time meeting her too. I know it’ll be mine. I think it’ll even be the editorial department’s. Wait, this is the first time we’ve met her, isn’t it? (Ha!) With his little sister, Kin-chan, now going to the same school, Mackenzie finds himself in hot water. Kin-chan is hearing all kinds of unsavory rumors about him. Moreover, with the appearance of Nalfa-san, the parties seeking to steal Forthorthe’s technology begin making their moves. They gather in Kisshouharukaze City to get closer to Nalfa-san, but will Koutarou and the others be able to protect her? And what can Mackenzie do to get Kin-chan to forgive him? Please look forward to volume 30, where all kinds of events will happen.

As for the volume afterward, 31, if we go at the current pace, it’ll come out in March right around the series’ ten year anniversary mark. So the editor in charge, S-kun, has been talking about doing something special. It’s not set in stone, and if we do end up doing something, we don’t know what it’ll be yet. So now’s your chance to make your requests known! The more voices we hear from, the more reassured we’ll feel about deciding what to do.

And as for past 31, I was thinking that I might do the “what if” dating series that I’ve mentioned before. After all, out of the infinite Koutarous, there are lots who have settled on one girl out of the ten. There are even cases where he’d end up choosing someone else, like Elfaria. The idea of the series would be to take a peek into those relationships. As for how they’ll be composed, I think they’d work nicely as the second half of a book with the first half being short stories. In other words, the Hercules! formula. So how about it? The possibilities are endless.

And just like that, I’ve run out of room. Finally, I’d like to give my usual thanks. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to everyone at the editorial department for their endeavors in publishing this book; Poco-san for their work on the cover illustration and for listening to my unreasonable specifications; and to the readers who have continued to support me to the thematic ending of this series.

Let us meet again—and to think we actually got there—in the afterword in volume 30.

June, 2018

Takehaya