Afterword
Cat: “Time for the afterwooord. Brought to you by Cheshire the ‘Cat’ and...”
Bear: “Shu Starling the ‘Bear.’”
Cat: “Anyway... I’m exceedingly sorry for the waaait!”
Bear: “An apology, huh? A beary good way to start this.”
Cat: “Heh... We said that this volume would come in the first half of 2024 and acted like there’s no way we’d miss that deadline...”
Bear: “But it ended up comin’ out a whole year after the last one, deep into the second half of 2024. It feels like every recent afterword announcement just keeps pushin’ the date further and further back.”
Cat: “The author never missed a deadline, though...”
Bear: “Books are made through cooperation between beary many people. Sometimes stickin’ to your own deadline ain’t enough.”
Cat: “The author came to understand that things can be delayed even if no one’s at fault and nothing bad happens...”
Bear: “We got some good news too, though. Fur real.”
Cat: “Yes. There was the delay—but during the wait, we were able to try something new. Those of you buying from stores may have noticed that we released two volumes at once!”
Bear: “The other one is Infinite Dendrogram SP 1: The Southern Cross Part 1, where I’m the star of the show.”
Cat: “We’ll let the author tell you more about that.”
Dearest readers, thank you for your purchase. I am the author, Sakon Kaido.
Let me echo Cheshire and extend my sincere apologies for the long wait on this volume. While certain circumstances greatly delayed the release, through some discussion with the editor, we were able to use that time to start doing something new.
We took the anime Blu-ray exclusive Southern Cross side story, gave it the subtitle of “SP,” and released it separately from the mainline story.
Thanks to Eri Kuroda, the illustrator we got for SP, we were able to do something we’ve never done before—releasing two volumes at once.
Additionally, we are planning to release part 2 of The Southern Cross fairly shortly after this, and we are working on a continuation to the e-reader exclusive EX series.
I intend to do all I can to provide you with new stories to read and hopefully make up for the long wait for volume 22.
Now, with those announcements and advertisements out of the way, let’s talk about this volume.
Those who read both the web novel and the light novel surely noticed, but this volume contained quite a few changes from the original. G’s surprising appearance at the end of the previous volume allowed the creation of a new story that was centered around Ray, reminiscent of how King of Light appeared in volume 12. In fact, it was somewhat of a continuation from that storyline.
With the LN introducing F during the Love-Duel Festival—earlier than originally planned—G’s introduction was also pushed to the forefront and happened during The Tournaments.
It was kind of like how an event in a video game sometimes requires a prerequisite event to trigger.
Thanks to Taiki, this volume also did an incredible job portraying G as both charming and a true Overlord. The work on the other characters was excellent too, and it made me really appreciate our illustrator.
Now, this volume will be followed by volume 23, which will take us back to Caldina for a continuation of the story from volume 20.
And just like volume 22, I hope that it presents you with something unknown and unexpected.
Please continue supporting Infinite Dendrogram.
—Sakon Kaido
Cat: “Anyway, it’s time to wrap this up, but...”
Bear: “But...?”
Cat: “...You think we should announce when the next volume’s coming out?”
Bear: “Ohhh. The delay this time was so bad that you’re beary scared of doin’ that, huh?”
Cat: “I mean, it feels like there’s a jinx making it so we always miss the time frame we set!”
Bear: “Hey, the aufur said they’re gonna pace their releases better now. Have some faith.”
Cat: “O-Okay... Here I gooo...! VOLUME 23 IS COMING OUT WITHIN A YEAR! PLEASE LOOK FORWARD TO IT!”
Bear: “Hmm. Not saying which year, huh? So you went fur a wide range while also minimizing the damage even if it’s late again.”
Cat: “We’ll still do our best to release it within a reasonable time frame...!”
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