Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 37 - Chapter Aft

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Afterword

Long time no see. Takehaya here. This marks the thirty-seventh volume of the series. The world can be a bit gloomy right now, so I hope this book helps brighten your day. This volume consists of three previously written short stories and a new half-volume story. I’d like to start with the latter.

It’s a simple story about everyone going to the beach over summer vacation. We’ve had nonstop fighting from volume 34 to 36, so I wanted to do something more relaxed. I’m sure there’re quite a few of you who’ve been waiting for a story like this too. At the same time, this will also be the last summer vacation in our characters’ high school lives. The girls’ intentions and Koutarou’s are slightly out of alignment, making for a tumultuous time when Nefilforan and her unit join in for the fun. If you’re reading this, does that mean that you’ve finished the book already? I hope you enjoyed it!

The previous short stories unfold in pairs, focusing on Clan and Harumi, Theia and Ruth, and Shizuka and Sanae. Clan and Harumi are mutually worried that Koutarou doesn’t see them as women. He teases Clan and regards Harumi as a princess. Their treatment is opposite, but their worries are basically the same, so their story is about working together to resolve that. Theia and Ruth look back on how they met the Blue Knight when the public wants to know more about him. Their story is a nostalgic one as they reflect on their past selves and everything that’s happened since they came to Earth. The third story is about Shizuka and Sanae doing some spring cleaning. It tends to be a slow process as you uncover things like old books you used to love, so what will come up as these two girls spruce up Corona House? And what kind of effect will that have on them?

Now that I’ve briefly touched on the contents of this volume, I’d like to move on to the next. We ended last time with Sanae falling from the sky. Timeline-wise, this is right after summer vacation and everyone’s had a chance to recharge their batteries a little. So just what is Sanae up to? Was she flying around for fun? Or is there more to it than that? Volume 38 will answer these questions.

Now then, since the next volume is centered on Sanae, I’m sure there’s something that’s been on your collective minds: why is Sanae the only one of the original four invaders who hasn’t gotten more than two feature volumes? Kiriha, for example, had volumes 6, 10, and 15 (plus 16). Theia and Yurika’s counts are roughly the same, but Sanae only had volumes 3 and 11. The answer is because her third feature volume needed to be strategically placed for story reasons. I think I’ll expound upon that more next time. If the series had ended up shorter, I would’ve put it out much sooner. Now I can finally reveal the secret, however, and I no longer need to play it off when asked about it. As such, you can all look forward to volume 38 moving the story forward in a big way.

I still have some space left for the afterword, so I thought I’d give you all an update about what I’ve been up to lately. As a writer, I tend to stay at home, so my life personally hasn’t changed much with the worldwide emergency. However, since I haven’t been able to go out as much, I haven’t been getting much exercise, so I started training with Fitness Bo*ing 2 on the Switch.

On my first try, I was told I have the fitness age of a 51-year-old. I had a harder time with the steps than the punches. But with enough training, I’ve come down to 43 years of age. I sweated a lot and my muscles ached, so it really felt like working out. I think I’ve finally reached the starting line since I’m able to keep up with the steps now. I’ll gradually increase the intensity from here. What’s that, you ask? Who am I using for training? Well, it’s those on rotation, haha.

Speaking of video games, I’ve also started playing the PC game Escape fr*m Tarkov. It’s the first Russian game I’ve played since Tetris. I haven’t played a lot of FPS games before, so it’s new and fun to me. You can put together the parts how you like to customize your gun to your preferences, and when you die, you can lose it permanently. It’s a system that always keeps you on edge.

I’m struggling to handle a mouse and keyboard since I’m not big on PC games, so I still need some more practice. Most of the time, I get shot while I’m struggling. I’ll get used to it eventually, but I’ll have to be careful until then. I won’t die if the enemy never finds me, after all. In general, I feel like games are really helping me out. It’s a lot of fun to mess around with friends over voice chat. Thinking back on the epidemics of centuries past, people must have felt even more isolated then than we do now. Ebooks are another great comfort we have thanks to all kinds of advancements. What a strange time we live in.

That just about fills up the space I have, so I’d like to end with the usual. Allow me to express my gratitude to everyone in the editorial department for their assistance, to Poco-san who nicely drew Nefilforan in casual wear when I asked for it, and to all of you readers all over the world who’ve stuck with me and this story.