Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 31 - Chapter Aft

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Afterword

Long time no see. It’s the author, Takehaya. This is rather sudden, but I have an announcement to make.

It’s Invaders of the Rokujouma!?’s tenth anniversary! The first volume of this series was published on March 1st, 2009. This volume will come out on March 1st, 2019, so it’s exactly ten years to the day. A light novel seeing continuous serialization over ten years is very rare, so I’m over the moon. I am also very grateful to all you readers who’ve stuck it out with me. Ten years is no small amount of time, no matter how you look at it. And I am deeply grateful to everyone who’s stayed with the series all this time.

Now then, as this is the series’ tenth anniversary, there are several anniversary projects underway. The first of which is the first part of the “going out with X” series, which is the latter half of this book. It’s an irregular episode where Harumi takes a peek into a world where she and Koutarou are together. The story is, of course, about their journey and how they ended up as a couple. There’s also a little bit of a bonus after that. It’s a celebratory episode, rather fitting of our tenth anniversary if you ask me.

There’s something else I wanted to share about the “going out with X” series as well. In this episode we saw two Harumis, the Harumi we know and the Harumi of the world she’s looking into. This was to convey why and how she ends up seeing the parallel world. As we move forward, however, everyone will be familiar with the setup. That being the case, the “current” perspective won’t be necessary unless it’s for a special reason. In other words, the episodes from here on out will be written in the usual style. Long story short: don’t be surprised when the writing changes next time (ha!).

Now, as for the second project... Those of you who’ve already bought this volume are probably aware, but there’s a special edition that comes with a drama CD. BOOKWALKER is also selling a digital version of it for a limited period of time. Things sure have gotten convenient over the past ten years! As for the drama CD, it too contains an episode of the “going out with X” series—and the heroine is none other than Princess Alaia. The title of the episode is “Powder Snow in Harukaze,” and it features Princess Alaia being brought from two thousand years ago to the present day. Modern Japan is a world of wonder to Princess Alaia, so I hope you all get to enjoy a new story featuring her.

The drama CD is set in one of countless parallel worlds, just like “Episode Harumi” is. Just think of it as being one of the worlds the girl from the ruins mentioned to Harumi—that’s the connection.

I started off writing a short story for the contents of the drama CD. I handed it over to Mr. Yasukawa Shougo, the anime’s scriptwriter, who turned it into a script just like he did with the anime. The sound production team and even the voice actors reprised their roles. And, just as I did during the anime production, came to watch bearing gifts in the form of snacks (ha!). I think the drama CD will have the same caliber quality the anime did, so you can rest assured knowing it’s in good hands. If anything’s different this time, it’s that the actors have gotten even better. Listening in on the recording, I could really tell they’ve grown these past four years.

As for why Alaia was chosen as the star for the drama CD, that was me. I figured that she would rank highly if we polled the readers. Moreover, while Harumi might be her reincarnation, Princess Alaia has made her exit from the story, so revisiting her for the tenth anniversary felt rather fitting. As for those of you who wanted a drama CD about another character, fear not! That’s where the third anniversary project comes in.

The third anniversary project is a character popularity poll. It’s sponsored by BOOKWALKER, so you’ll need an account with them to vote. There are no requirements otherwise, so even those of you who swear by physical books can participate as long as you make an account. Voting will open on March 1st when this volume is released.

Now, the really exciting news is that the winner of the popularity poll will be featured in the next drama CD(!!). That means that there will be another drama CD within the year, or possibly the first half of next year. And while the first place winner might not be directly next in line, I believe the rankings will influence the order of these half-volume stories too, so get out there and vote! Also, depending on how this one sells, we might have even more drama CDs down the line, so please let me know who you want to hear and read about next.

There is something I should say, however. Since we’ve already had Episode Harumi and Episode Alaia (on the drama CD) now, their results won’t influence the order of drama CDs and short stories until we’ve gone a full round with everyone else. That said, I wouldn’t want voting for them to be meaningless, so I’m thinking of doing something special if either one of them takes first place. I think it’ll be something like including the short story I wrote for the drama CD as a half-volume side story, or maybe even continuing their respective episodes. Something along those lines. But there are plenty of fans of other characters (previous winners of popularity polls were the characters who had a chance to shine the volume before—I think that this means that the story that time played a big part, so there aren’t much of a difference between them), so I ask for your understanding.

I had a lot to write about this time, so I’m out of space in the blink of an eye. It pains me that this was practically just one long announcement, but I need to wrap things up here.

I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to the editorial department for their assistance in the production of this book and drama CD, to Poco-san for the many illustrations, to all of the voice actors as well as the production team, and finally to all of you readers who have come along on this ten year long journey with me. This is a major junction for the series, but I aim to keep on going just as I always have.