Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 30 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

Long time no see. It’s the author, Takehaya. I’ve been given a longer space for the afterword this time around, so can take my time with this one. I could even write about how good the ramen I had yesterday was if I wanted. That said, I have plenty of things I do want to talk about, so let’s get right to it.

This is volume 30 of Invaders of the Rokujouma!?. That’s right, were finally at the big three-oh! Out of thousands of light novels, only a few last this long and they are practically all handled by major publishers. Being able to carve a piece of that for myself is thanks to the unending support of readers like you. Of course, I also owe special thanks to Poco-san, everyone in the editorial and publishing departments, the anime production team, the voice actors, and many more. If anyone above had been a little lazier, I don’t think we would’ve made it this far. I think we’re only here because of the miracle everyone involved in this series has managed to achieve. To each and every one of you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Please continue to help me out going forward.

Now that the important bit is out of the way, I’d like to move on to discussing what actually happened this volume. There was a lot, particularly building off of the previous installment.

First up is our transfer student from Forthorthe finally making her appearance, Nalfa Laren-san. She triumphantly arrives at Kisshouharukaze High School, but her inborn klutziness rivals (or even surpasses?) Yurika’s. So, with a camera in hand, she loses sight of her surroundings and puts herself in great danger. She means well, however, so Koutarou and the others can’t bring themselves to be mad at her. Instead, they suffer right along with her. The result is a slightly more tense everyday life for everyone. And on top of that, it seems Nalfa has some secrets. That may eventually become a problem, but this time I decided to put the focus on her character. I hope everyone enjoyed it.

Also, McKinley—Matsudaira Kotori—who has been name-dropped before, officially makes her debut. She’s Mackenzie’s little sister, but they’re practically opposites. She’s serious, timid, and especially romantic. She’s always idealized Kenji as an older brother, so imagine her surprise when she begins high school and hears the rumors about him. It completely ruins her image of him, leading to a major crisis for Kenji as a doting older brother. He’s really only reaping what he sowed, but Kotori’s high standards are also at fault here. Strictly speaking, she and her brother are both quite romantic, but Kenji has a much more realistic approach to things. Kotori is definitely more on the dreamy side, so they unfortunately can’t see eye to eye on the matter. Of course, as a writer, I’m also a bit of a dreamer. Sorry, Kenji, but I’m on Kin-chan’s side here. But don’t worry! Soon we’ll get to see the siblings after making up. Even if they aren’t quite on the same page, their hearts are in the same place. They’ll find some way to work it out.

On a separate note, we see Kiriha drawing—or being forced to draw—the short straw. The end result of all the craziness from last volume gets dropped in her lap while everyone else gets to go about their lives as if nothing ever happened. Because of the letter, she knows that something happened, and she’ll have to try and resolve any discrepancies that arise because of it. Nobody really noticed it this time, but if anyone had seen Nalfa glowing and started to wonder why, Kiriha would’ve had to step in. But in exchange for this troublesome job, she’s decided to get even by teasing Koutarou a little. I think Koutarou and Kiriha both knew that would happen when they wrote the letter. I can imagine it now...

“So you’re asking me to go through all of the hardships on my own?”

“Th-That’s not...”

But in the end, Kiriha would have agreed. And that’s how she’s ended up in this position, pursuing the truth while keeping it secret from Koutarou and the others. Look forward to her playing a big role in the future too.

Oh, and since it might have looked like Nalfa was going to upstage Yurika as the most pathetic character, Yurika really steps up her game this volume. She blossoms, and shows off a totally new kind of patheticness. That’s right! Yurika’s been growing too lately. She’s way more than just physically pathetic now. In the future, she’ll leave all that to Nalfa while she moves on to bigger and better things. Please watch over her warmly when it gets to be her turn in the spotlight. She’s going through a lot.

And now, after reading through this volume, I’m sure you can imagine what’s going to happen going forward. Not only will there be the interpersonal problems I mentioned above, but also the problems of various worlds coming into contact. The introduction of new technology always has socioeconomic consequences. And not only do we have Forthorthian technology coming to Earth, we have magic and spiritual energy technology reaching Forthorthe. The people who get their hands on it will want to monopolize it, but there will be plenty of other people who don’t want that. They may even use violence to try and keep it from happening. That said, things are on the verge of getting dangerous. And that’s all on top of the Corona House crew now mostly becoming third-years. Really, there are all kinds of problems popping up here and there. Koutarou and company are going to need a guide to navigate everything while trying to graduate high school.

While we’re on the subject of the future, now’s probably a good time to bring up the next volume. If we keep up the current pace, volume 31 will go on sale in the spring of 2019. Now, if you recall that the first volume of Invaders of the Rokujouma!? went on sale in the spring of 2009... That’s right! The next volume just so happens to overlap with the series’ tenth anniversary. Truth be told, volume 30 hitting that benchmark would have worked out nicer, but oh well. Maybe I should have slacked off more (ha!).

As I’ve mentioned before, there’s been talk of doing something for the ten-year anniversary. The volume will contain three stories from Invaders of the Rokujouma!? Hercules! from Read it! HJ Bunko, which will be getting illustrations in book form. But the real focus should be on the second half of the book, which will be all-new content. I’m planning on starting the “Koutarou is dating X” series, and I put a lot of thought into who should be featured first. We tossed around the idea of having a popularity poll, but that’s exactly the kind of fare we’d also been considering for a tenth anniversary special. We likely also wouldn’t have gotten the results in time. That’s where Sakuraba Harumi-senpai stood out. The thought was that even if she didn’t take the top spot, she’d surely end up second or third. We couldn’t go wrong by starting with her, so Harumi will be the star of the first installment.

As for the actual chapter, we’ll be sneaking a peek of an alternate world where Koutarou decided to start going out with Harumi after starting his third year of high school. Essentially, it’ll be a different April 6th from the one in this volume. One where Koutarou and Harumi are now a couple. I figure out of the 5,670,000,000 worlds, there’s bound to be at least one where that actually happened. We’ll be taking a little look into their happy life together, so you can look forward to that.

I talked to my editor, S-kun, about whether or not this would be enough to celebrate the series’ tenth anniversary. We collectively agreed it wasn’t and so began brainstorming ideas. What we decided was to have a special edition of volume 31 in addition to the regular one. The regular edition will be the usual book, but the special edition will come with a drama CD. Said drama CD will also be part of the “going out with X” series, but it won’t be about Harumi. It’s going to be about Alaia! It will be set in a parallel world where the Silver Princess had no choice but to follow the Blue Knight back home, so the story will be about her deepening relationship with Koutarou in present-day Japan.

I’ve actually already written the Alaia chapter for the drama CD and it has since been handed over to Yasukawa Shougo, who was the scriptwriter for the anime, to be turned into script format. So by the time you read this, the drama CD will already be in the works. As this is the usual process, I believe it will be of the same quality you’ve all come to expect. I hope you look forward to it. There’s also going to be a digital version of the special edition with the drama CD, though that may come at a later date. I hope that’s not too much of an inconvenience for anyone.

I still have some room, so I’d like to keep going... But what to talk about? Oh, I know. I touched on this in a Hercules! episode, but I’d like to explain a little about the differences between the modern language magic that Yurika and Maki use and the ancient language magic that Harumi uses. This was established a while back, but now that I think about it, it never really came up in the main series (ha!).

If an ancient language and modern language caster incant the same spell, the modern language caster would be able to incant it faster while the ancient language user would be able to modify it more. Moreover, ancient language magic doesn’t require tools while modern language magic requires a staff and outfit. Ancient language magic has no specific rules in place, and it’s activated by reciting special words and using special gestures. Really, all of the spells that Harumi and Alaia use are ad-libbed. But because of that, an ancient language caster’s talent plays a big role in the magic they can use. Very few are talented enough to use it freely.

And that’s where the modern language magic comes in. It has clearly delineated rules, and incanting is performed through simplified chants and gestures. Yurika and Maki’s spells aren’t ad-libbed, but learned from spell books. They can be adjusted circumstantially with modifiers, but modifiers are cast the same way spells are—with simplified incantations and gestures. Therein lies the flaw of modern language magic. Ritual magic is an exception to this, where adjustments can be done on the fly. But since it’s not an easy feat to whip out ritual magic in the middle of a fight, the spell chosen is of utmost importance. For example, let’s say a spell that has a little effect to keep it from killing the opponent. On the other hand, since ancient language magic is ad-libbed, any spell can freely be modified to become nonlethal. It doesn’t require the same kind of preplanning, but it would be harder to perform in the moment.

The other major difference between the two schools is tools. With ancient language magic, a caster’s body is the only tool they need. The mana inside is molded through will and skill. In contrast, modern language magic requires the use of a staff and outfit to assist in casting spells. That’s because, in order to simplify incantations, part of the required procedure to activate them is embedded in the staff. To an ancient language caster, a modern language caster probably only looks like they’re only doing half the work because their tools do the other half. That’s more or less why modern language magic is so fast and easy to use. But should a caster find themselves without the appropriate tools on hand, they’re in for some trouble. That’s the price of convenience.

But the reason modern language magic came about in the first place was because ancient language magic relied too much on an individual’s talents. After being sent to a different world, the Folsarians knew they’d need as many of their citizens to be able to use magic as possible in order to survive. To that end, they basically dumbed-down the magic language to make it easier for people to use. The acceleration in spellcasting was ultimately a byproduct of that, though it wasn’t the outright intention. Another unintended effect was a magician supremacy bias.

Because of the involved nature of ancient language magic, Harumi is stuck on the rear line when it comes to battles. It takes a good deal of time and concentration to cast spells, so it would be too dangerous for her anywhere else. This isn’t a problem for Yurika and Maki, however, who can quickly cast spells even on the front lines. Maki’s favorite, her short-term memory loss spell, is a good example of this.

Looking at them overall, ancient language magic and modern language magic both have their pros and cons, so it’s not like either is superior. If anything, I think Koutarou and the others are better off for having both. If I had to mention a specific strength, I think I’d have to point to Maki’s fighting style, though. It wouldn’t be possible to use physical attacks and spells at the same time without modern language magic. Harumi, meanwhile, is the only ancient magic user of the group. That ended up postponing any explanation of it, but that makes her special in its own way. I suppose it’s also worth mentioning that Theia, even after making a contract with the sword, has very little talent for magic. All she’s capable of is converting her mana into physical strength, which isn’t all that different from what Alunaya does. So while it might be hard to see, Harumi is actually a magical genius.

I was told to really fill up this space, and I think I’ve finally done just that. That means it’s time to say goodbye, so allow me to sign off with my usual acknowledgements.

I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to everyone at the editorial department; to Poco-san whose life I’m sure I made harder with the new character designs; and finally to all of you readers for your continued support over thirty plus volumes.

Let us meet again in the afterword of volume 31 for Invaders of the Rokujouma!?‘s tenth birthday.

October, 2018 Takehaya