Afterword
I’ve always loved the flaming-sword attacks in a certain classic manga.
And here we have the twelfth volume of the series, which begins a new storyline.
I initially planned to start this volume by jumping straight into the story of the tavern elf, but I couldn’t help wanting to see just how much our hero had grown since returning to his roots in the epilogue of Volume 11. I therefore rapidly changed my plans and took the liberty of writing a pure Dungeon book. From the perspective of the story as a whole, which is still a long way from over, it’s something of a detour, but I’m glad I took it.
As the author, the part of writing this volume that made me happiest is the fact that the characters have reached the stage where they are truly changing and growing. Of course, the structure of the storyline dictates how the various characters develop and grow to a certain extent, but in this volume the main character stepped away from my hand and took a great leap of his own. To borrow the language of the series, even the deities didn’t foresee his development. That seems like an appropriate way to put it. This strikes me as evidence that the characters are alive within the story and not at all controlled by my own plans. That’s what I want to believe. And to think that at the beginning they were so weak and helpless!
The downside of all this was the question of how to depict the reactions of the women in Bell’s life to his slightly excessive growth. In particular, it was quite hard to rein in the sexual attraction of the Amazon. In my first draft, she threw herself onto Bell without taking no for an answer, so I was in quite a panic to revise that. That was another time I realized that the characters are alive.
There were no intrigues or evil plots by the deities in this volume. It was unadulterated Dungeon, and in personal terms, I had a terrific time writing it. The characters were on a pure Dungeon adventure, encountering atrocious monsters and cute girls in this fantasy world. I struggled here and there, but all in all, I was very happy to return, along with the hero and his companions, to that initial state of enthusiasm.
With that, I would like to move on to acknowledgments.
I am deeply grateful to Kotaki and Editor in Chief Kitamura, who rescued me numerous times when I was moaning with indecision; to Suzuhito Yasuda, who created such beautiful illustrations in the midst of a busy schedule; and to all the other people who supported me once again in this project. Finally, I extend my most sincere thanks to all my readers, who, when I stop to think about it, have now accompanied me through more than twenty volumes of this series. I’ll do everything I can to continue bringing you good stories into the future.
I hope we will meet again in the next volume. Until then, good-bye.
Fujino Omori
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