AFTERWORD
Hello!
Here we are with Volume 5 of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime , a mere month after the previous volume came out in Japan. As always, quite a bit of this volume is original material that wasn’t in the web version—hopefully you’ve found it up to snuff.
I’ve been given a decent number of pages for this afterword, so I’m having trouble figuring out what to say. Maybe I’ll go into some behind-the-scenes stuff about the production? It might include some spoilers, so I’d recommend reading the whole book first before proceeding further!
As a rule, the general plot of the light novel edition of Slime is the same as the web version. However, in order to maintain integrity with the original material, there have been a few small changes, not to mention a few bigger ones thanks to the new characters appearing.
Volume 2 was mostly just editing and revision, but from Volume 3 on, I started adding new content and such. The same was true for Volume 4. If I’d been running at the same pace as the web version, I would’ve had Rimuru saving the kids in Volume 3 and evolving into demon lord form at the end of Volume 4. However, I selfishly wanted to flesh out Volume 3 to talk more about how the town was developing, and my editor was kind enough to agree to the edits.
This called for a change in plans. The original idea was to have Volume 4 end in a cliff-hanger as we see Hinata for the first time, and with Volume 5 coming out right afterward in Japan, that’s where Rimuru would wrap up the encounter, become a demon lord, and then there’d be a bit about his meeting up with the other demon lords. However, as I wrote Volume 4, I began to feel like, This ain’t gonna happen, is it?
Here, from memory, is the phone conversation I had with Mr. I, my editor.
“Hello. Do you have a free moment?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“Well, ummmmm… Regarding Volume Four, I think I’m gonna have a ton more new content than I was planning for…”
“Again?! Didn’t you say the same thing for Volume Three?”
“Yeah… I’ve been cutting out a lot, but if this keeps up, I dunno if I’ll be able to fit the Hinata battle in or not.”
“…Well, let’s do it! Just keep on writing! We’ll add in more pages if we have to!”
“Huh? Are you sure? I’m talking a whole lot of stuff here, so…”
“Sure, it’s fine. I’ve kind of resigned myself to the fact that this is how it’s gonna be with Slime , so don’t worry about it!”
“Um… Well, all right! Talk to you later!”
That kind of thing.
At this point, my thought was that Volume 4 would be a bit expanded, but Volume 5 would remain mostly the same length. But! Thanks to being given carte blanche to expand as much as I wanted, Volume 4 wound up having a lot of…um, volume. This was even after I cut out a whole section involving an expedition to the Dwarven Kingdom.
Thus, by the time I was into the second half of the book, the reality was that I was way the hell over my word count. Bad news, probably.
Time for another phone call.
“Hello? This is Fuse calling. I wanted to talk to you about something, but did you have a moment?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“Wellllll, I think Volume Four’s gonna be a lot bigger by the time I get done writing it, but the real issue is with Volume Five.”
“How so?”
“If we’re gonna cover everything we planned to, I think we’re gonna have some serious trouble on our hands.”
“Oh? But if we round out Volume Five with the evolution to a demon lord, that’s gonna be kind of thin content-wise, isn’t it? There won’t be a lot of quantity at all, I don’t think.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m a little worried about. It might get a bit thin on that front, but there’s this bonus arc that I wanted to write at around this point in the plot, so I was wondering if I could add that to the book…”
“Hmm…”
So Mr. I and myself fleshed out what we wanted to do in detail. And the result…is the very book you have in your hands right now. Bonus arc? you may ask. What bonus arc? No, it’s not your imagination, as anyone who’s read the book—or even the table of contents!—would know.
Why not? Well, it happened again. By the time I finished writing, the number of pages was through the roof. How did this happen? Oh, the usual way—more dialogue, more scenes added, more of this and more of that, and it just sort of turned out that way. You’ll get that bonus arc in the next volume.
—Not that I know exactly what the next volume is gonna cover yet.
And getting back to that content…
Oh dear, we’re starting to gradually diverge from the web version more and more over time, aren’t we?!
People familiar with both versions would certainly have noticed this by Volume 4. The Church is in a rather different position from the one it takes in the web plot, and with that change, it only follows that other changes trickle down, affecting future developments. I think I’ll have to deal with more problems like that in the next volume, too.
I mean, is it okay if I just, like, ignore the web version from now on?!
I’m starting to imagine the devil whispering something along those lines into my ear.
When Rimuru officially declares himself a demon lord, you know the other lords won’t take that sitting down. The Western Holy Church—and Hinata, its most powerful of paladins—will be making moves, too. We have a few people behind the scenes as well, and every nation will have its own reaction that we’ll want to know about.
For people who’ve read the web version, maybe they’ve taken some solace in the fact that they know how things will turn out. But there are no absolutes in this world. In fact, I can no longer deny that our assumption back at the start—that the web and light novel editions will follow the same general plot—might be falling apart.
Maybe, just maybe…
So I know all of this is irresponsible and capricious of me, but I’m thinking very intently about the story content, trust me. Even if that assumption falls to pieces, you know, the web version’s always gonna be there for you! (But come on…)
Anyway, not to end it on a weird note like that, but here’s hoping you’ll continue to support That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.
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