Youjo Senki - Volume 12 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

I understand some of my readers may be buying all twelve volumes in bulk to read them all at once. You. You are the real heroes. And for those of you who have been following me throughout this journey—hello, it’s good to see you again. Carlo here, and I was able to pull off the incredible achievement of being published two months in a row. No, that’s not a typo, but the truth and nothing but the truth.

I can now claim without any reservation that my work has been published twice in two months. That’s an objective fact now. Although I suppose I should mention it took a year of preparation to make it possible. This was, of course, for good reason. A reason that I feel compelled to share with you all in detail as I want you to understand why you were forced to wait so long for this.

I’d like to start by saying that 2019 was a very hot year by all official records. I was planning on finishing this volume before summer, but it was just so, so hot all through the year that, in my pursuit of a summer finish, the heat fooled me into thinking it was summer until the very last minute.

I’m very confident that the majority of my faithful readers will be satisfied with this explanation, but if I were to supplement this with an off-the-record explanation, I should add that I was also a bit busy on top of the unprecedentedly long “summer.”

This is something that can be said of all those involved in a creative career, but we are similar to elegant swans. The hurried patter of our tiny feet underwater isn’t something we have many chances to show the public. Eventually, all creators, too, must take flight…which isn’t necessarily always the case and can make things tough. What I’m trying to say by this is, well, without going against my NDA, let’s just say I’m prepared for some of you to somehow misconstrue this as the second season of the Saga of Tanya the Evil anime being canceled.

Getting asked when the second season is coming out on Twitter and other social media is something that makes me both happy and very impatient. You see, I, too, am one of the many people waiting eagerly for the second season. I’m writing these books looking forward to the day when I can have my characters meet you all again in animated form. With me being busy with various things, it is still difficult to get a bead on the date, but please bear with me.

Which brings us to this book. What did you think of it? I feel it was a more generic light novel. One about a boy phoning his friends for a nice dinner, talking about champagne. You know, slice-of-life stuff. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I do have one regret, and that is that I had the older gentlemen steal a bit too much of the spotlight for this book, and I say that as someone who fancies dandy older gentlemen. I’ll make the next installment of my slice-of-life story about the young girl it is supposed to be about.

I also, with the advice of my editor, decided to bring back some of my Carlo-style footnotes for this volume. If my fans take a liking to them, I may do this more in future volumes, so let me know what you thought of them.

Let me finish by saying thank you to everyone who should be thanked.

To the designers; the workers at the Tokyo Printing Service Center; my editors, Fujita and Tamai; and my illustrator, Shinotsuki. Thank you all again so much for your work to make this volume happen.

And to my readers. I appreciate you all from the bottom of my heart. I am so grateful when you send me words of encouragement and, even more, when you tell me you love my books. It’s what gives me power when I need it most. I am truly sorry for keeping you all waiting for this for so long. I am truly thankful for your continued support.

Thank you, and until next time.

February 2020, Carlo Zen