Strange Grief Wants to Retire ~ The Weakest Hunter Dreams of a Hero ~ - Volume 5 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

Allow me to offer my deepest thanks for picking up this book! Tsukikage here, I’m glad to be meeting you all again in volume five. Roughly two and a half years have passed since volume one of Let This Grieving Soul Retire went on sale. Time really does fly by.

Some of the childhood friends have been hinted at since volume one and have appeared only in bonus stories, but now they’ve appeared in the main books. It almost feels like the end of a veeery long prologue!

In fact, the themes of this series are misunderstandings and friendship! Friendship! Krai’s already a troublemaker on his own, but when all his friends are around, he becomes even more leisurely. With his increased sense of safety, the rate of “Yeah, uh-huh,” goes up even further. Please look forward to his upcoming escapades.

Let’s talk about the volume itself. This volume was the latter half of the vacation arc. We had hot springs, dragons, and Cave People. The cast got to bathe, but Krai, Tino, Liz, and Sitri also got to run amok. We also had bandits and the rest of the childhood friends. What a packed volume. Honestly, who came up with this plot? I sure can’t recall.

And with the presence of hot springs, this volume’s illustrations are full of skin. Skin, dragons, and Killiam. What an ample volume. To tell you the truth, illustrations were one of the reasons I wanted to have a hot spring volume.

I want to go to a hot spring.

Surely, drawing all these naked bodies will help Chyko forgive me for making them draw that macho and chimera.

I want to go to a hot spring.

What a nice cover we had this time. It’s very final volume-y. This is the power of a united Grieving Souls. It feels like they put the logo in the center because there wasn’t anywhere else to put it.

But despite the cover’s vibe, this is not the final volume. I WILL WRITE AROUND ONE HUNDRED VOLUMES (NO, I WON’T). But thanks to everyone, volumes one through four have received an additional printing. WITH MY CURRENT MOMENTUM, I’LL WRITE AROUND ONE HUNDRED VOLUMES. A HOT SPRING VOLUME ONCE EVERY FOUR YEARS (NO, I WON’T)!

Also, the manga adaptation is still ongoing. Volume three of that should be coming out around the same time as this book. It covers the final parts of the first novel. Comparing it with this volume, I found it funny when I realized Krai was a bit more serious(?) back when he didn’t have his childhood friends around.

Tino was both pitiful and dignified. Liz was both cute and terrifying. And then there’s dopey Krai. With all of that, the manga is wildly expressive. Please give it a read if you haven’t already! Hebino Rai’s depictions of Krai are overall awesome, but Krai only gets worse from that volume on, so I can’t wait to watch that unfold! Make him say ryuu-ryuu! C’mon, ryuu-ryuu!

Now then, I’d like to wrap this up by offering some thanks.

Thank you very much, Chyko, for once again handling the illustrations. I love the yukata, the dragon, and Lucia on the cover is just perfect. It’s your illustrations that make writing this series so fun! I hope we continue on like this.

Thanks to the editor and water-lover, Kawaguchi, as well as everyone in the editorial and related departments at CG Novels. Once again, you’ve all done so much for me. You’ve arranged so much more than just the editing of this series and I can say with confidence that it’s thanks to your effort that Grieving Soul has gone on this long. Thank you so much! Please continue to save me! You can even edit from a riverbank, I don’t mind!

And last, I’d like to offer my deepest gratitude to the readers who have stuck around this long. Thank you and I hope to meet you all again in volume 6!

Tsukikage, July 2020

PS: As with volume 4, there’s a QR code that leads to a survey. Answering it leads to a side story. Please check it out.

(Note: This does not apply to the English edition.)