Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 6 - Chapter Aft

FOR THE AFTERWORD: MY GRANDFATHER

When I was a little boy, it was my grandfather on my mother’s side who taught me how to play Shogi.

Raised by a single mother, I consider him to be the closest thing I had to a father figure growing up.

As I was his first grandchild, he spoiled me quite a bit when I was young. It was all thanks to him that my mother and I never had to worry about money in those days.

My relationship with my loving Grandpa only faltered when I made a certain decision.

That decision was to start writing light novels.

For a man born before World War II, light novels didn’t qualify as literature. There was no way he would accept that light novel author was a legitimate occupation.

I changed all sorts of details in my profile when my first book was released, all to keep my identity a secret from my family.

However, the truth couldn’t stay hidden forever and my grandfather told me to “get out of his house.”

That’s when I left home.

My grandfather died three years later.

I didn’t get to be at his side when he passed away.

I came back home for the first time in a very long time when my mother sent a message saying, “Your grandfather passed away.” When I walked inside, there was one major difference from the home that I remembered.

It was full of my work.

Volume 2 of Nourin was right next to his pillow with a bookmark peeking out from between the pages.

Several anime posters had been neatly framed and hung up on the walls and there was a box of sweets from Minokamo City, where Nourin was set, that had been sold at a special collaboration event sitting in the kitchen. Every volume of manga, DVD and Blu-ray based on my work was carefully lined up on his bookshelf.

This man, over eighty years old, was reading light novels, reading manga, watching anime and visiting the places within the stories. All the while he was dealing with the aftereffects of a stroke and could barely walk …… 

“I’m sorry ……”

That was all I could say.

I could only sit next to his body, crying, as other family members who’d gathered came up to speak with me one after the other.

They said he bragged that I was his grandson.

Upon briefly returning to my apartment to prepare for the funeral, I stopped to grab a bundle of papers off my desk.

It was the manuscript for Volume 1 of The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done.

I had typed up the manuscript and printed it from my computer before revising it over and over again, to the point where all of my different colored corrections looked like confetti on every page. I took that pile of pages and put them in my grandfather’s casket to be cremated along with him.

It was a hot day, not two months before the book would make its debut.

I’ve poured my heart and soul into The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done.

This story was born from my decision to write what I wanted to write and create a story that I wouldn’t be embarrassed about no matter who read it.

That desire came from wanting my grandfather to be proud of me.

I wanted him to recognize what light novels, my chosen profession, could be.

If I have one regret, it’s that the one person I wanted to read this book never got the chance.

Because my grandfather went to a place books can’t reach.

I’m sure, however, that even if he can’t read it, he’s watching over me on the other side.

Grandpa. Another one of my stories is being made into anime.

Let’s watch this one together next time.