Wortenia Senki (LN) - Volume 12 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

I doubt there are many such readers left, but I welcome any new readers who picked up the series with this volume. And to those of you who have kept up since volume 1, it’s been four months since the last volume. This is Ryota Hori, the author.

We’ve reached volume 12. It feels like reading books has been going out of fashion in recent years, and sales haven’t been going up. I hear many of my fellow authors in the industry have had their publications canceled. Thankfully, Record of Wortenia War has been selling favorably, both in ebook format and manga, and so we’re still trucking along. The fact that this work, which isn’t award-winning or anything of the sort, is lasting so long is something of a miracle. That’s all thanks to your support as readers, so allow me to take this chance to thank you again.

I started working on the web novel in October 2009, meaning it’s been ten years since Record of Wortenia War started its serialization in Shōsetsuka ni Narou. Back then, I never imagined a day would come when this story would be printed as a book. I just wrote it with the intent to use it as practice. But the reviews were better than I expected, and when the first publisher approached me, I was both on cloud nine and unsure if this was really happening. I’m honestly impressed that the series has continued this long. I only hope it will reach its conclusion successfully.

Incidentally, I mentioned this in volume 11’s afterword, but last year I ended up in the hospital for the first time. Well, actually, it was twice. Soon after I finished volume 11’s manuscript, I was hospitalized again. I wasn’t taking good care of my health, and it was time to pay the piper, it seemed.

I have another job besides my writing. Stress from that made me drink more often, and it only aggravated a case of the flu. It was a close call, but it gave me a chance to look back on my life. I’m sure it must sound inappropriate coming from an author with such an unhealthy lifestyle, but do take care of your health, good readers.

I asked for my own room in the hospital, both for privacy’s sake and because a roommate can be quite taxing, and it made my hospital bill quite high. I spent eight days in the hospital, and imagine my surprise when it turned out that the room fee was more than the treatment fees!

It was a huge financial blow, and it caused me a great deal of trouble in my main job. In retrospect, 2018 wasn’t a very good year for me. But despite that, there was some good to that year. I caught up on a lot of foreign TV shows during my hospitalization and got to think about Wortenia’s future.

I believe I’ve mentioned this before, but I prefer foreign TV shows to Japanese ones. I used to rent DVDs, but now I’m into streaming services. I mean, I couldn’t run home to pick up my DVDs when I was in the hospital, so I couldn’t watch them that way.

After all, spending your days in bed is boring, even if you know you have to. You can only play phone games so much. But then I remembered Netflix. Honestly, I wish I’d considered its usefulness before. Besides, even if I have DVDs mailed to me, it takes them a while to get there. And if someone else borrowed a DVD I want, I naturally can’t have it. A streaming service doesn’t have those problems. My one complaint is that it doesn’t have many old shows or movies.

Of course, someone could tell me off by saying that if I have that much time to watch shows, I could spend it on writing something new or continuing Wortenia. But watching those shows does give me inspiration, so do forgive me.

Enough of my excuses, though. For the sake of those who begin with the afterword, let’s start with this volume’s highlights, as has become our custom.

Two key figures in volume 12 are Robert Bertrand and Signus Galveria. The source of their troubles is that while both of them are nobles, neither of them are firstborn sons. Tragic heroes, as it were. These two, enemy generals who boast absurd skill, stand in our protagonist’s way. Robert in particular shines in volume 12, both on and off the battlefield, so do look forward to that!

Another key figure is Count Salzberg’s wife, Lady Yulia. While she looks like a virtuous woman on the surface and is seen as the de facto ruler of House Salzberg, she is in fact a pitiful woman who has been subjected to years of emotional abuse by her husband. In this volume, she finally resolves to make a choice. And let me tell you, she’s not thinking of divorce. It’s not that divorce is unheard of among the nobles of Wortenia’s world, but since Yulia is originally a commoner’s daughter, the class difference between her and the count is too great.

Another point of interest is the backstory of the enchanted katana Kikoku, the one the Igasaki clan’s elders gifted Ryoma.

I’ll stop here since I don’t want to spoil too much, but there’s a lot of promising threads in volume 12, so I do hope you enjoy it.

Lastly, I’d like to thank the editors and everyone who helped me in the production of this book. I’d like to think that this time I didn’t cause you as much trouble as I sometimes do. But if I’m deluding myself here, please forgive me.

And of course, the fact that I can continue writing this series for this long is all thanks to your support as readers. Hopefully, I’ll have the next volume done by July, so do continue supporting Record of Wortenia War.