Paladin of the End - Volume 2 - Chapter SS

Bonus Interview with Kanata Yanagino

We asked the author your questions and a few of our own!

 Q. If you were to be reborn and could only train with Gus, Mary, or Blood, who would you choose?

This question got me thinking... and the next thing I knew, ten whole minutes had passed!

I spent a long while going back and forth between the three of them, thinking things like: If I was going to be living in a dangerous world of fantasy, surely it would have to be Blood... Ah, but wait, knowledge is important too, and my intellectual curiosity would be satisfied as well if I went with Gus... But training with either of those two seems like it would be really hard, so maybe Mary...

However, in the end, I think my answer is Blood, because I have a lot of admiration for strong and brave warriors of fantasy like Conan the Barbarian. I’m extremely far removed from those muscular warriors, but if I were reborn, I think I’d like to try becoming someone like that.

Who would you like to train with?

Q. Which race in The Faraway Paladin are you most interested to write about? Are there any plans for entirely unique, never-before-seen races for the fantasy genre? I feel like the Genre is in a bit of a rut for racial creativity intrinsic to the fantasy genre. Also, will any character ever be as great as Meneldor!? You’ve set a super high standard with him!

I like dwarves.

Brawny arms! Thick chests! Bushy beards and bright smiles! Warriors of the mountains, skilled at smithing! And I wrote the heck out of them in Volume 3. I feel very satisfied right now.

I don’t have any plans to depict races of my own creation at the moment, but it is something I’d like to try my hand at one day, as long as I’m writing fantasy novels. The great creations of hobbits, elves, and dwarves left to us by Professor J.R.R. Tolkien are very easy to use, but I think it’s important to “fly the nest.”

And thank you very much; Meneldor is a character I’m very fond of as well. I may have set the bar high, but I will jump it, just watch me!

Q. There seems to be a great deal of devotion in this book, are you spiritually minded or is that part of the characters’ motivation strictly fiction?

When I was younger, there was a period when I had a strong interest in spirituality and the teachings of traditional religions. During that time, I read all kinds of books relating to gods and Buddha, and experienced meditation for myself a number of times. So the depictions of spirituality and devotion in the book are not strictly fiction, but based on a small amount of actual experience. The things Blood talked about regarding fighting, too, contain some elements of martial arts that I studied a long time ago.

Of course, not everything in there about devotion and martial arts comes from real experience, but knowing even a little about a subject makes it that much easier to write about.

Q. How many hours a day do you write? About how long does it take to finish a volume? 

Writing novels is a side job which I have to balance with my main job, so there are some days when I don’t write at all and others when I write an awful lot. As a rough estimate, I’d say about three hours per day. The story itself, I’m constantly thinking about whenever I have a free moment. The time I spend writing is many times shorter than the time I spend every day dreaming up the story. I bring it to life in my head, and turn it into writing as a finishing touch. When my imagination is working well, the writing flows easily... and when it isn’t, it can be hell!

It takes two to three months in the best case for me to finish up a volume, and sometimes longer. Some people are fast at this, and those people can be really fast. I’m a little envious of them.

Q. If you found yourself transported to the world of Faraway Paladin, to which deity would you pledge loyalty and why?

The Earth-Mother Mater, I think. She seems like the god who would show the most compassion to an unfortunate soul thrown into another world!