Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 8 - Chapter Aft

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Afterword

Long time no see, everyone. It’s the author, Takehaya.

This volume was published in three months just like the one before. Because of that, it’s only been half a year since we last saw the invaders.

This volume takes place a few days after the events of volume 7. After what happened, the characters have now begun moving to fulfil their own wishes, which will lead into the next story. The spotlight this volume is cast on the return of Maki and her confrontation with a powered up(?) Yurika acting like a magical girl again, as well as Yurika’s circumstances changing greatly.

The next volume will be 8.5, just like I promised in the afterword of 7.5. It will correspond to the second manuscript Theia wrote. Alaia’s party will reach their destination: the Pardomshiha territory. There, they will create the Reborn Forthorthian Army and wage war on Maxfern’s coup d’etat army. That’s all I need to write, but I’m still racking my brain trying to figure out how I’m going to fit it all in one volume.

Speaking of conundrums, I’m a bit concerned about my schedule as well. I want to put out the next volume—where most of the main characters will be missing—as fast as possible, but my schedule has been thrown for a loop because of the earthquake. Based on the rolling blackouts, I might be able to return to my normal work pace as long as they don’t happen too often, but that’s all up to luck.

This volume featured a closer look at magic, but magic is actually a very problematic technology. Magic makes use of a much more complex power than we think. In a lot of stories, a magician will create fireballs, shoot lightning, or use magnetism and gravity. However, if magic like that really existed, it would serve as proof of the Grand Unified Theory.

The Grand Unified Theory is a theory Einstein tried to form that would unify all the fundamental forces, such as electricity, magnetism, and gravity. By the way, electricity and magnetism have already been unified. There are four well known principles that prove the relation between them. However, the principles regarding the other fundamental forces, especially gravity, are still a mystery. Even the closest theory to explaining gravity, string theory, has five different variants, and we’re nowhere near getting to the bottom of it.

But in this world, magicians do create fireballs, shoot electricity, and use magnetism and gravity. They convert the energy known as mana into all kinds of forces. In other words, these magicians are casually using science that scientists are dying to understand. Conversely, if the Grand Unified Theory weren’t true, magicians wouldn’t be able to use magic. Really, this all means there is a high chance that magicians are creatures that can recognize the higher dimensions that string theory is advocating to a certain extent. They can sense mana, for instance.

So since all the technicalities were bogging me down, I decided to ignore reality to some degree. I want the world to be a place where anyone can learn magic if they train. It wouldn’t be fun otherwise. It’s sort of like not thinking too hard about the giant robots in anime, or how detectives run into far too many mysteries. Since it’s a premise for the story, let’s not be too critical.

Reality is unexpectedly boring (ha!). Anyways, on to recent news.

I came to the conclusion lately that it would be bad to shut myself in at home and work all the time, so I’ve started riding a bicycle. Since the movie theater is only about thirty minutes away by bike, I’ve taken to watching a movie whenever I get some time off. As a result, I’ve been able to sleep better and gain an appreciation for exercise.

Back in high school, it took me forty minutes to get to school on my bike. The wear and tear on my tires was so serious that I could see the casing from time to time. I don’t bike as much as I did then, but I will try to continue exercising regularly.

Also, I signed an autograph for the first time the other day. Someone just came up and asked if I was Takehaya. He worked at a bookstore and mentioned holding an event. Since I’d been working on drafts, I ended up staining the colored paper and smudging my name some when I signed. I couldn’t help but think at the time that I just shouldn’t do things I’m unused to. While I was thinking that, a different bookstore said something about renovating and asked if I could sign thirty copies. And so I suddenly found myself practicing my signature. I hope I can do it well now. Yurika, fight! Yurika, fight!

I’ve been told I can have a few more pages for the afterword, but since I don’t think I can write that much, I’m going to wrap things up here. I would like to thank everyone at the editorial department for their hard work; Poco-san who’s always on time with the illustrations; my band of friends who always join me for a drink when I’m tired; and all the readers who bought this book.