Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside - Volume 2 - Chapter Aft

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Afterword

Thank you for picking up this book! I’m Zappon, the author.

It’s thanks to your support that I was able to release a second volume!

After the first one came out, I was so nervous that I couldn’t focus on anything. So when I found out there were enough readers to warrant a second printing, I was both incredibly happy and more than a little relieved.

Those of you who read the first volume surely know this already, but in case there is anyone who read this book first, this story was originally published on the website Shousetsuka ni Narou. From there, Sneaker Bunko contacted me and offered to publish it. That’s how this novel ended up in your hands.

Sneaker Bunko has been putting out famous stories since the dawn of the light novel era. I always feel a surge of happiness imagining the spines of the first two volumes of this story lined up in the middle of a shelf in a bookstore. My goal is to fill an entire shelf with my work someday!

This story has also been made into a serialized manga in Monthly Shounen Ace by the wonderful Ikeno Masahiro! The manga is also available on ComicWalker and NicoNicoSeiga. Feel free to check it out, if you’re interested! Rit has a different sort of cuteness in the manga that I’m sure those of you who enjoy this book will like!

All right, let’s discuss some of the points in the narrative. Even in the second volume, the theme of the series remains unchanged—a slow and easy life.

The protagonist, Red, has been kicked out of the Hero’s party but still manages to live a happy life out in the frontier town of Zoltan. There’s no great deed to be done in such a place, but he has his little shop and a cute heroine by his side. That’s all he needs to enjoy an easygoing life.

In order to depict that sort of a theme in a fantasy world, it was essential to establish how normal people lived, too. A simple life could only appear as such with something busier to compare it to, after all.

I considered what the standard sort of way to make a living in an RPG-esque world would be for a while. Eventually, I realized that the most efficient way for people to advance in a world where everyone’s growth charts were predetermined was to simply live according to their skill set. For example, those whose strength increased as they leveled up would be warriors. Those whose magic power grew would be mages, and so on. Anyone who ignored their stats and chose to lead a life contrary to them would have a hard time.

For this story, that idea of preset capability became the Divine Blessings granted by God. Whether heroes, villains, animals, monsters, or even insects, living according to one’s ascribed role is the correct way.

Aiming to enjoy a slow life that allows you to live free and unrestricted by your Divine Blessing becomes all the more precious precisely because the world has such strict rules on everyone’s lot in life.

Basically, what I am trying to say is that no matter what lands lie beyond Zoltan, whatever anyone else may be doing in the world, and regardless of what befalls the Hero and the demon lord, this will be a story about Red and Rit’s happy life in Zoltan!

So long as everyone enjoys how things pan out for them, I’ll be satisfied as an author.

Much like with the first volume, many people helped me complete this book and get it into your collection. I would like to take a moment to thank them.

To Yasumo, thank you for doing the illustrations for the second volume. The way Rit and Red are so close together on the cover really conveys just how happy they both are, and it’s great! Thank you to the designer who managed to fit the long title so neatly onto Yasumo’s illustration as well! Thank you to the proofreader who sifted through my typo-laden script for the second time and made it into the kind of writing I could proudly show my readers!

To Miyakawa, my editor, I’m genuinely grateful that you worked harder than anyone to help decide what sort of illustrations to include in the novel, how best to advertise the book, and all the other stuff. I’m truly indebted for all that you did. Thank you very much! I look forward to working together on many future publications!

Lastly, to all the readers who picked up this volume, those who have continued to follow this story since Volume 1, and those who’ve supported my work since its original Internet version, thank you. This book could not exist without you!