Afterword
THIS IS ENNKI HAKARI, the author of Skeleton Knight in Another World. Thank you so much for picking up Volume 9 of this story.
I regret that it’s been so long since Volume 8 went on sale—a whole year, in fact—but all I can say is that I am eternally grateful for your patience. I’m relieved to finally be able to get this out to you.
It’s been a while since your last adventure with the Skeleton Knight, but how was it? Did you enjoy it?
In the afterword of the previous volume, I mentioned that I wanted to write this volume like an after-story of sorts, but as I’m sure you noticed, it turned into a proper continuation of the main plot. Now how’d that happen…?
The previous volume ended with two of the cardinals in hiding, the dueling empires on the verge of action, and a lot of stories still left untold. Personally speaking, I like ending stories with plenty of potential still remaining.
(When watching movies or reading manga, I often get lost imagining all sorts of developments with the side stories and subplots, completely losing track of the main story. If there’s anyone else out there like that, I’m sure we’d be fast friends.)
However, quite a few people reached out to me to tell me that they wanted to hear what happened next.
When it was decided that my book would actually be published, I honestly never expected it to make it all the way to nine volumes. People say that the publishing industry is on a downward trend, and I own more than a few book series that were cut off abruptly after the second volume with no further releases. All I can say is that Skeleton Knight must be quite lucky indeed.
Even when sequels are published, I’m told that fewer and fewer copies are printed with each new volume, but that simply wasn’t the case with Skeleton Knight . In fact, it did so well that a manga was made. Part of me feared what might happen if I continued to push my luck.
Therefore, I decided to continue the story in a second series.
When I first started writing the story for Volume 1, I already had the events through Volume 8 planned out in my head. (I figured I’d write about a million characters by the time the battle with the pontiff took place.) I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do after that, but I actually had to sit down and really think things through as I wrote this volume.
I guess I’m the type that has a hard time writing if I don’t set things up much earlier in the story, because this volume took a really long time to write. I’m truly sorry for the long wait, but I hope you enjoyed it.
The cover kinda gives the feeling of returning to a normal, slow life and is also intended to tie in to Volume 10. I plan for the next volume to feature the pursuit of the cardinals, but first, I need to hope and pray that this volume actually sells well.
If you happen to have any friends who haven’t heard that Volume 9 came out, I’d really appreciate it if you’d let them know.
Finally, I’d like to thank all of the people who helped make Volume 9 a reality. It’s only through your efforts that this saw the light of day. To my editor, my illustrator (KeG), and my proofreader, you have my eternal gratitude.
That’s about it from me for now. If there ever is another volume to our beloved Skeleton Knight’s story, I suppose I’ll see you then!
FEBRUARY 2019 – ENNKI HAKARI
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