Sword Art Online - Volume 27 - Chapter Aft

AFTERWORD

Thank you for reading Sword Art Online 27: Unital Ring VI.

At this point in time, I’d really like to get away from my habit of starting off with apologies in every afterword…but…I’m very apologetic about how long it took me to finish this book…To make excuses for myself, the first half of this year was chock-full of nonwriting work that kept me very busy. But I’ve been doing this for thirteen years now, and you’d think I would have gained a few levels in my schedule-management skill by this point. I’ll make that one a goal of mine for next year!

(This next part will contain spoilers for this book.)

As for this volume…here comes apology number two! In the afterword for Volume 26, I wrote, I think we’ll be finding out more about the commander’s mysteries next time, and in Volume 27…we did not. There were too many things to cover from Alice’s perspective, but that’s no surprise, as it’s been two hundred years for her. Perhaps you’ve all gotten a glimpse at what happened in the time after the Moon Cradle arc now. Central Cathedral and the space force base are in big trouble, but in the next volume, we really should be focusing more on Commander Eolyne at last…Also, I’m sure that Tiese, Ronie, Selka, and Fanatio will play a major part now that they’re awake!

Also, a minor clarification: Stica and Laurannei are the descendants of Tiese and Ronie, but the number of generations apart they are has been hazy from book to book, so I’d like to clear that up now. If Tiese’s generation is the first, then Stica’s is the seventh, so the proper answer is that they are six generations apart. Perhaps you might wonder about the second generation, Tiese’s and Ronie’s children, but that could be something I write about later.

Also, the older Integrity Knights who haven’t appeared in the story get mentioned here, at least by number. Airy claimed that they can’t be unfrozen at the moment, but if that problem gets solved, they might finally make an appearance. So for now, please use your imagination to guess what the Ancient Seven might look like: numbers Four, Five, Nine, Ten, Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen.

That’s all for the story. Let’s talk a bit more about real-world things.

At the time this book is coming out in Japan, it should have been a month since Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night hit theaters. Sadly, because of the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the movie’s release had to be delayed, and at the time that I’m writing this, a new date has not yet been set. I’m very sorry to everyone who’s been looking forward to it, but it was necessary to deliver the best possible movie to the fans. Have a little more patience and please do come out to see the movie when it’s released.

Also, there will be a tenth-anniversary memorial event for the SAO anime in November called Sword Art Online: Full Dive. I wrote the script for this, and all the parts will be new stories. It will be streamed as well, so I’d love it if everyone gets a chance to watch.

And now the usual apologies. In this volume, I set a new record for slowness and made things very difficult for my illustrator, abec, and my editors, Miki and Adachi. But now that I look back at the afterword from the previous volume, I wrote almost the exact same thing…I even wrote, I’ll do my best to make things smoother next time…Well, I know I have zero trust remaining, but next volume! Next volume! I want to keep that mentality going!

See you in the exciting and turbulent Volume 28, everyone.

Reki Kawahara—September 2022