Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume Short Story-2 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

Hello again, it’s Miya Kazuki. Thank you very much for reading the second volume of Ascendance of a Bookworm’s short story collection.

This installment, collecting sales bonuses and previously unpublished short stories, was a long time in the making. Readers of the e-books have been requesting many of these stories for quite a while, but we had to wait for enough of them to accumulate. Seeing them all together in one place reminded me just how many I’ve written.

Of course, another short story collection means more beautiful illustrations by Shiina-sama. In an ideal world, there would have been one for each chapter, but I once again ended up having to pick and choose. There aren’t many stories from Rozemyne’s point of view in this volume—sales bonuses are inevitably written from the perspectives of other characters—but that means a wide variety of artwork covering the lower city, the temple, nobles, retainers, and members of the royal family.

This volume marks the first time Shiina-sama has drawn Barthold of the former Veronica faction, though we have the illustrator of Part 4 of the manga to thank for his design.

Because the stories in this installment span Part 2 to Part 5 Volume 4, the cover art shows Rozemyne as both an apprentice blue shrine maiden and a third-year at the Royal Academy. In both cases, she’s carrying a plant-paper book. The color illustration is a gathering of this volume’s narrators. Shiina-sama commented on how many characters there were but still managed to make room for them all. I applaud her excellence.

Oh, and the four-panel manga are as adorable as ever. Thank you!

And, as always, my utmost thanks to everyone who read this book. Let us meet again soon.

November 2021, Miya Kazuki