I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level Max Level Witch - Volume 4 - Chapter Aft

AFTERWORD

This is Kisetsu Morita—it’s been a while!

I have now safely delivered Volume 4 of I’ve Been Killing Slimes… to you!

Volume 1 came out in January, Volume 2 came out in April, Volume 3 came out in July, and now Volume 4 is out in October—I’m glad they’re being published at such a fast pace. This is all thanks to those of you who are purchasing them. Thank you very much!

Now, in this volume, we’ve had a new character appear who we’d call an unsuccessful band member (well, she’s working on her own, so she’s not strictly a “band”). That is Kuku, the bunny-eared girl.

There is an element of real life in her story.

I currently live in the west side of Tokyo, but a few years ago, I lived in Fukui Prefecture.

There, I met an unsuccessful band member.

His musical work didn’t go so well in Tokyo, so he came back to his home in Fukui. He stopped playing music and was trying to find a proper job. He talked to me about this.

To me, it felt like he had no ambition; I could feel it rolling off him: “I guess I’ll look for work now.”

So I said to him, “You still seem to have regrets, so why don’t you settle that however you see fit before moving on to the next thing? You need money, of course, but this is your only life… Aren’t you going to regret it if you just start working now?” (Something like that.)

In the end, he thanked me a lot.

I don’t know what happened to his music after that, but it’s at least true that he realized how lost he was, and I think that itself was a good thing.

Also, there’s no theme like that behind Pondeli, the ex-NEET, but there are probably people who have a similar history. Someone who used to be a shut-in NEET like that is now working very hard as an author.

I also know people who didn’t even have a place to live at one point but overcame that situation and are now working at some major enterprise. That sort of sounds like Halkara.

And so, the contents of this story are generally leisurely, but if you think about it, many of the characters here were on the brink of a downfall.

Now that I mention it, your very own author Morita has been just about to fall many times but just barely managed to find footing. Now I’ve gotten all the way here…

I want to continue writing the series about happy lives for these kinds of characters, so if any of my readers are going through tough times, then I hope this series can lift your spirits, even just a millimeter.

We’ll leave our serious talk there for now and go into announcements and acknowledgments.

First, you can find the comic version and spin-offs in GanGan GA!

I’ll paste the URL here! You can read it all for free, of course!

http://www.ganganonline.com/contents/slime

Thanks to you, the initial views of the first chapter reached a record high in the history of GanGan GA… It feels like this has reached heights I never imagined…

I give my heartfelt thanks to the illustrator, Yusuke Shiba-sensei! Azusa’s personality is so much clearer than in the original! (Wait, if it’s clearer than the original, then that’s my problem…)

Even my very critical friends in the manga industry texted me to say, “It’s a really great comic adaptation!” And my non-nerdy classmates from college were texting me their thoughts on the comic. I really felt like it had a reach on a totally different level.

The spin-off also illustrates Beelzebub’s past, which we’ve never seen in the main story—or, rather, is very hard to portray in Azusa’s first-person view. This also reached record-breaking page views on the GanGan GA short story section. I’m so happy! If I can expand even more on the I’ve Been Killing Slimes… world from here on out, I could not be any happier as the author!

Also, when the fifth volume comes out in January, there will be a version that comes bundled with a drama CD!

And do you know what that means??? That means Azusa and Laika and the others will get voices!

I’m so excited to see what sort of voice everyone will get! And I might have the chance to meet the voice actors, so I’m really excited about that, too! (I’m serious!)

A sincerest thank-you to Benio-sensei, who created wonderful illustrations this time around, too! As the volumes go on, Azusa and company are growing more and more at home in the highlands, and the pictures are starting to look less like insert illustrations and more like snapshots of real life. I can’t wait to see what you produce next!

And I have never been more thankful to all the fans who’ve been following the book series so far! Thanks to everyone, the series is proceeding very well.

Just as this book goes on sale, I’ll be reaching my tenth anniversary as an author. I’ve somehow kept this up for quite a while now. I will be more than happy if I can make something that everyone can enjoy.

And so, we will meet again in January, when the fifth volume with the drama CD (there will also be normal versions without the CD) goes on sale!

Kisetsu Morita