Afterword

Good morning, hello, good evening.

For those I'm meeting for the first time, it's a pleasure to meet you.

I am Nagayama Hisaryuu.

I often hear that people who achieve their dreams are people who never gave up on them... but I don't think so.

In the end, it's a story that requires blood-curdling effort.

I'd rather live a little more easily if I could, but it seems the world is not so sweet.

I, too, was once a dreamer.

Not just writing, I wanted to be a lot of different things.

A carpenter, a jockey, a stablehand, a band member...

Although I was lucky enough to be discovered as a novelist, I was completely useless at everything else.

Come to think of it, I just thought I wanted to be them, and I never really put in the effort.

Even if I did, it was just a shallow self-satisfaction, like scooping up only the fun top layer.

I had mistaken desire for a wish.

It's not just about wanting to be something, but about how you act towards it.

I believe that only when you think that far does a 'wish' take shape... that's the feeling I tried to put into this work.

I would be very happy if the actions of Shuuya and the others in this story could give even a faint outline to the 'wish' that sleeps deep in your heart.

May your earnest wish breathe gently, somewhere in this world.

Now then.

This work was also published with the help of many people.

To my editor, Satou-sama.

I'm sorry for breaking the deadline because I wasn't satisfied with the manuscript.

And thank you for creating this work with me.

Every time we had a meeting, your pointing out were so on point that I thought, "Editors are amazing."

Really.

To jizell-sama, who was in charge of the illustrations.

I think the heroine, 'an AI girl projected into the real world,' was a difficult thing to draw, but you expressed the world of the work with illustrations that have a sense of reality, as if she really existed in this world, and I am so grateful.

Thank you very much.

And to you, who have picked up this book, I also have a great deal of gratitude.

Thanks to you, my 'wish' was able to take shape.

Well then, praying that your life is filled with 'wishes.'

I will put down my pen here.

Let's meet again someday.

Nagayama Hisaryuu