Afterword
Hello, everyone — this is Yuri Kitayama. Thank you very much for picking up Seirei Gensouki, Volume 4: Eternal You.
So, the fourth volume of the Seirei Gensouki novel has finally gone on sale. Two years ago, I would have never imagined myself having a career writing books, and now I’ve already released four volumes. You really don’t know what’ll happen to you in life.
That being said, I haven’t quite gotten used to the idea of myself as an author, or maybe my identity as an author is still too weak, and I haven’t quite gotten used to calling myself Yuri Kitayama.
For example, when someone suddenly calls me Kitayama out of the blue, I sometimes think: “Who’s that?” in confusion... In another instance, someone from the editing department called me on the phone and I nearly answered with my real name; my nerves made my head completely blank and unable to recall my own series title, leaving me mumbling over my words. Embarrassing. (laughs)
But, well, as I’m living the busy author life doing this and that, I’m returning to my early days of writing for fun and enjoying it.
However, I seem to have trouble switching from my usual leisurely pace, so it takes me a while to get into the zone and my writing time is rather unstable. This is something I only noticed recently (I’m slow!).
Well, I’m also the type to get lost in concentration once I get in the zone, so I’ve been training myself to focus more consistently lately. Thanks to those efforts, the process of writing volume 4 felt like a much smoother experience.
Furthermore, with this volume, we finally get a glimpse of the heroine that appeared in volume 1 once more, so I was keen to finally start the real story from here onward. The subtitle “Eternal You” has a few different meanings, which will be revealed as the story continues. For now, I’d appreciate it if everyone took in the meaning in their own way after reading what happened in this volume.
I touched upon how the light novel version will have similarities to the web novel version — while also being an independent series on its own — in the afterword of the first volume. However, I believe the readers of both novels will find that the independence of this series has strengthened now with the release of volume four. The reason for this is that volume one through three have stuck to the storyline of the web novel fairly faithfully, but volume four has branched off from the web novel in order to include new adventurous developments and possibilities.
From here on out, there is a great chance volume five and beyond will get into parts of the story not covered in the web novel (some of which have been touched upon already), so readers who read the light novel alongside the web novel can look forward to those changes.
And, for readers who choose to only read the light novel and not the web novel, you may be able to enjoy this work more by comparing the differences to the web novel at a point further along in the light novel’s storyline (of course, the timing to read the web novel is the reader’s choice, and you are free to choose not to read the web novel at all).
With this, I have gone through great pains here and there with the light novel and web novel to make many ways of enjoying the series, but I’m sure the biggest thing on the readers’ minds is Professor Celia, who hasn’t appeared since volume one.
Professor Celia finally appeared at the very end of this volume, but I’ve had many readers tell me “Give us more Celia, quickly!” ever since volume one went on sale.
And so, to the 300,000 Professor Celia fans around the nation (this is an arbitrary number based on my own personal wishes [laughs]), thank you for waiting!
With volume five, it’ll finally be Professor Celia’s turn! I’ve actually had the subtitle of volume five decided ever since volume three went on sale, with all the events I wanted to write having been decided, so please look forward to what happens in volume five!
But, I also have good news for those who say: “I can’t wait until volume five!”
At the same time as the sale of this volume, the completely free novel site “Yomeru! HJ Bunko,” officially operated by HJ Bunko, will post side stories from the perspective of Professor Celia in the light novel Seirei Gensouki (timeline-wise, the stories take place after the epilogue of volume one).
Furthermore, I’ve also been interviewed by Light Novel News Online with the release of this volume, and thanks to them, I’ll be hosting a signing event. Please check online for further details regarding those.
Finally, to everyone who has supported Seirei Gensouki, I’d like to use this space to thank you all. I am only here as an author thanks to all the wonderful support that everyone has given me. I hope we can continue our relationship for a long time.
Thank you very much.
30 April 2016 Yuuri Kitayama
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