AFTERWORD
Nice to see you again.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is now on its fourth volume. I know I say this every time, but I couldn’t have done it with all of your support.
Thank you very much!
So I’m here writing another afterword…but writing these causes me a lot of grief each time. To be honest, I don’t know what to say. As a result, this time I think I’ll share a conversation that I had with Mr. I, my editor back when we agreed to put two of these books out within a month of each other (a lot of you might already know this, but Volume 5 will go on sale in May, a month after this volume comes out in Japan).
Note that there may be some very mild spoilers ahead.
The time was mid-October of last year, right when we completed the rough draft and revisions to Volume 3. We were all taking a breather.
“Say, Fuse, around when do you think we’ll be able to get Volume 4 on sale?”
“Well, what time frame works for you?”
“Hmm… I’ve already got January and February booked up, so maybe around March?”
“In that case, when should I have a manuscript ready?”
“Umm, the end of December should keep us on schedule.”
“December?!”
My brain made several quick calculations regarding whether or not I could get one volume done between November and December, but…
“Well, I’m also in the middle of writing a spin-off volume that I’d like to prioritize, so that might be a little tricky…”
So I had them wait. At the same time, though, I realized the manga version was set to launch sometime in the spring. If I could get a book out in the same month, that’d help with advertising the series, right? Right!
“Actually, I have an idea. Why don’t we release one volume each in April and May to go with the manga? You mentioned that’s due to start in the spring, so that’d be perfect, right?”
“Huh? One after the other? Hmmmmm…”
“Oh, that’s fine if it’s not plausible. In that case, let’s go with April or later for Volume 4!”
So we left the conversation at that.
A while later…
“By the way, Volume 4’s been scheduled for April, but will that be a problem for you at all?”
“Oh, um, no, April should be fine. I want to extend out the ending scene a little, so if it’s possible for you to slot Volume 5 in the schedule sometime soon, that’d be great!”
“Okay, so how about the following month?”
“Um, are you sure?”
“Well, I guess I should ask: Are you sure, Fuse? That’s gonna be a lot of work for you to handle, isn’t it?”
We were still at the end of October at this point. If Volume 4 was coming out April, my deadline was the end of January. That meant a May release needed to be submitted by the last day of February. November, December, January… Three whole months is more than enough time! Or so I thought.
My original story plan called for a fair amount of original content in Volume 4 of the printed novel; meanwhile, I figured Volume 5 would mostly be modified material from the web version. Looking back, this was foolishly optimistic.
“April and May’s no problem at all!”
“Great! Let’s do it, then!”
So as in my first idea, we planned to release Slime novel volumes in April and May.
However!
My side story for the web update took longer than expected. Then I got a cold. Then I got busy with my regular job before New Year’s. Then I went over to Tokyo for meetings and other errands…
I’m out of time!!
“…Ummmm,” I began, realizing what a desperate situation this was all turning out to be, “about that consecutive-month release, I was wondering if Volume 5 could—”
“Oh yeah, yeah! Volume 5’s all set to launch in May!”
“Yeah, um, that’s not exactly what I meant…”
“I got Mitz Vah all scheduled out for that time frame, and the company’s ramping up for it!”
Oh, crap! This is not the kind of atmosphere I can ask for an extension in!
“Okay. W-well then! I’ll just be hard at work getting that all written up…”
Unable to make the request for an extension, I wound up falling into a daily cycle of frenzied writing. A trap of my own creation, no doubt about it. The lesson I learned this time around: Never make overoptimistic predictions! I swore to myself, right then and there, that I won’t create schedules that serve to do nothing but tighten the noose around my neck.
And so, Volume 5 will be coming out next month. Right now, as I write this afterword, we’ve just wrapped up the first draft, so I think I’ll be all right. In that case, I would be delighted if you could all make it to Volume 5 as well.
Changing the subject for a moment, the manga version of Slime debuts in the Kodansha magazine Monthly Shonen Sirius, the issue going on sale March 26. This’ll be last month’s issue by the time you read this, but you’ll still be able to check out Chapter 1 any time you like on the web. That way, if you read it online and like it, you can grab the June issue and pick up the story from there. Check it out if you’re interested!
Thanks again to all of you for supporting That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.
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