Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 21 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

Cat: “WE ARE SO SORRY WE ANNOUNCED THIS VOLUME FOR SUMMER, YET RELEASED IT IN AUTUMN!”

Xun: “I’m Xun, shOrt for Xunyu. StArtin’ off with thE apology, huh?”

Cat: “The announcement has been off for four volumes in a row nowww... Oh, and I’m the Cat, Cheshire.”

Xun: “Well, the maximUm frequEncy of releases beforE was six months, yet it endEd up bein’ sevEn this time, sO...”

Cat: “This may sound like an excuse, but the author has yet to miss a single deadline...”

Xun: “There’s lOts of people involved in gEttin’ these books out, so not everythin’ wOrks out all the time, y’know?”

Cat: “Yeah...and that’s why WE’LL MAKE THE NEXT ANNOUNCEMENT EVEN LESS SPECIFIC!”

Xun: “Bro, that’s nOt it at all.”

Cat: “This is the only way the author can prevent any further misses with the limited power he has!”

Xun: “ReallY...?”

Cat: “Anyway, time for the author’s own words!”

Dearest readers, thank you for your purchase. I am Sakon Kaidou.

Volume 21 is closer to a collection of short stories, which is something we haven’t had in a while—volume 10 was the last one like this.

This time I ended up adding various scenes and tried to make them more connected. A good example of this is how AT’s baby steps in original magic are used as groundwork for the later introduction of Candy’s impressive and powerful False God Imitation. And that is far from the only Candy-related thing that you can find here that is not in the WN.

Now, as far as writing goes, it was mentioned above that I haven’t missed a single deadline, and that is the truth. However, it should be noted that I’m pushed to the limit fairly often—I’m writing this very afterword on the final day before the deadline.

This is a result of the volume creation process. The problem is that I can’t know how many pages I have for the afterword before the edits, illustrations, next volume announcements, and advertisements for other works are in place and the amount of pages they will take up has been nailed down. The afterword always comes after everything else and has the tightest deadline. It’s quite scary, if you ask me.

Now, as for the reason I’d write about that topic... It’s because I was told I have four pages to work with, yet all I can really write here is an apology and an announcement. Yes, I’m simply dragging this out.

Anyway, this volume 21 came out at the exact same time as volume 12 of the manga. That shows the end of the long battle against Franklin, drawn with Kami Imai’s immense skill, so please do pick it up and have a look. Personally, I love just how obvious it is that Baldr can transform, as well as the zany background Masters that really stick out like nothing else.

Speaking of the manga, the deadline for the short story about Lobohta’s adventures that would come with the new volume is the end of September, and I intend to work on it right after this. Do go and see if I made it in time.

Next, I have an announcement about the next volume of the LN.

I imagine that the character who made her debut at the end, complete with an illustration, was quite a surprise for both readers of the LN as well as readers of the WN.

Volume 22 will focus on two things—the final day of The Tournaments and Overlord Invidia. There was no sign or trace of her at this point in the WN, but here she is now.

The events involving her are just like volume 17, in that they were both things I’d plotted out and planned to write in Crow Record if it happened to continue. Sadly, that did not work out, but I am glad to have a chance to bring it to life here in the LN. As you could see in the last illustration, Taiki quickly whipped up a wonderful character design for her, which I found very motivating.

Having to add vast amounts of text to the story makes my job noticeably more difficult, but I will do what I can to satisfy all those of you reading, as well as to not miss any of my deadlines.

Please continue supporting Infinite Dendrogram.

“When I’m done writing the draft, I’m gonna make an Embryo crest decal in Armored Core VI...”

Xun: “...Did oUr guy just put up a deAth flag?”

Cat: “Looks like iiit... Anyway, that’s it for the afterword. That means it’s time for the announcement!”

Xun: “I feEl like we should just stOp doin’ them. You can’t gEt the date wrong if you don’t annOunce it.”

Cat: “No! That’s the pessimist’s way of dealing with it! We won’t miss the release period this time! VOLUME 22 IS SET TO COME OUT IN THE FIRST HALF OF 2024!”

Xun: “All that mOtivation, and you shOt out the vaguest announcemEnt ever.”

Cat: “That should work as insurance, but we’ll try to get it out in March!”