Spy Classroom - Volume SS3 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

Takemachi here! It’s been too long.

This here is Spy Classroom’s third short-story collection. It’s got stories about Avian and Lamplight’s exchange period.

I made a pretty bold call here. When you consider the second season as a whole, it would have made more sense to give a proper depiction of the girls’ time with Avian, and this is content that by all rights should have been in Volume 6. If I’d done that, though, it would have been absolute murder on the book’s pacing. After agonizing over my options, I decided, “I know I need to show their time with Avian, but I can cut almost all of that from the mainline series and move it to a short-story collection.” Being able to do that is one of the big advantages of the way Fantasia Bunko lets me publish short stories in Dragon Magazine.

…Now personally, I was blown away. “Wait, this is awesome!” I said, but maybe other authors consider this sort of thing to be old hat.

Next up, I have some notes on each of the stories.

Pharma’s Case, ft. Sara: Pharma’s a nice girl who gets to shine way more in her short story than in the mainline books. I had a lot of fun with this one.

Lan’s Case, ft. Monika: Prithee, prithee. What more is there to say?

Queneau’s Case, ft. Annette: This was my favorite story out of the whole collection. I really love this pairing.

Vics’s Case, ft. Grete: I wanted to make Grete talk to a man other than Klaus. That, and I wanted her and Klaus to revisit where they stand with each other.

Qulle’s Case: This chaotic story had a full fifteen characters all running around higgledy-piggledy. They’re a lively bunch, that’s for sure. The culprit behind the Case of the Floating Erna was so obvious, nobody really gave it a second thought.

Honeymoon Raker: It probably goes without saying, but this one was Vindo’s story. He truly is the lead character in Avian. I touched on it in the story, but Lamplight could never have succeeded in the Fend Commonwealth if not for him.

At this point, I have some people I’d like to thank, starting with Tomari. As I mentioned in the Volume 6 afterword, the only reason I was able to depict Avian in such detail was because you, my number one reader, gave them your seal of approval and gifted me with such wonderful character designs. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for that. I’d also like to thank the many fans who loved Avian as well. The positive comments you wrote about them on social media were the tailwind pushing me forward as I wrote this collection.

Now, I’m thinking the next short-story collection will take place in the period surrounding the Fend mission. It’ll have the lead-up to that ordeal, things that took place during it, and the cleanup that followed. Volume 9 is slated to come first, but that short-story collection is definitely on the agenda, so I hope you look forward to it.

…After all, a certain someone is going to need to find a new home for herself. Prithee.

Takemachi