Afterword

I am terribly sorry to spring this on you, but first, let me give a very important warning and apology.

This "Afterword" is seventeen pages long.

Did you doubt your eyes? It's okay, the author is doubting his eyes too.

If there is anyone who looked at the remaining page count of this book and expected "There's still more story," I am truly sorry. From here on, it's all "Afterword." It's not a rom-com, but the author's grumbling. It's unbearable, isn't it.

But please rest assured. The author, who is bad at composition, finds it even more unbearable. Help me.

Now, putting the page count talk aside for a moment. Let me greet you again.

Nice to meet you, or perhaps long time no see. I am the author, Aoi Sekina.

Originally, I am a light novel author who debuted after receiving an honorable mention in the Fantasia Feature Length Novel Award, and it seems my industry history is nineteen years. ...Yeah, writing it like this makes me sound like a mid-level or veteran author. In reality, I'm an author with a mentality who still trembles every time I send a manuscript to my editor, thinking "Ah, what if they tear it apart... scary... yikes, I'm gonna cry...". I have so little "Nineteenth Year" vibe that I surprise myself.

Um, I have a question, but when does the evolution event happen where you become the type of author seen in TV dramas who makes the editor come to their house to pick up the manuscript and laughs Gah-hah-hah? Somehow I feel like only I have been fighting as an Eevee for nineteen years... No, surely, something will happen in the twentieth year. Yeah, must be.

So, if my attitude in the afterword of future publications is suddenly arrogant, please watch over me gently thinking "Aoi Sekina has turned over a new leaf."

Now, returning to the self-introduction.

I said "Light Novel Author History: 19 Years" earlier. But actually, I haven't been working solely on light novels for these nineteen years. For the past few years, I've been allowed to work a little in other media like games and manga.

As a result, in terms of the light novel medium, this work seems to be my new publication after a whopping five years. Holy cow. How could I boldly call myself a "Light Novel Author" until today? My skin is thick beyond belief.

However, since I was allowed to eat solely from light novels for about fifteen years from my debut, the "thinking way of light novels" is still ingrained in my foundation even when doing other work. It's like a kind of "mother tongue." So I would be happy if I could continue to call myself a "Light Novel Author" in the future if possible.

By the way, I am currently working on manga original stories in parallel with this work, so if you are interested, I would like to advertise those too... but. Yeah, surprisingly, they were stories from other publishers. Let's stop. ........................P-Please search for them!

Anyway, it's a new publication after five years in the light novel medium. At this point, even those who have read my past works might have forgotten what kind of author "Aoi Sekina" was.

So, let me explain in one word. The author called Aoi Sekina is—.

—An author whose Afterwords are long.

Did you remember? Yes, yes. That's it. Leaving aside whether I write interesting works, I was the author whose afterwords were uselessly long. That is me. Although, I didn't acquire that style (individuality/character) because I wanted to...

So, mainly for those meeting me for the first time, I will explain a little about "Aoi Sekina and Afterwords" from here. Existing readers might think "I saw that explanation before," but since it's been five years, I would appreciate it if you could accompany me with the feeling of watching "The Story So Far."

To begin with, do you know why "Afterwords" exist in light novels—or rather, in Fantasia Bunko?

Greetings from the author? Reader service? A bridge between the story and reality?

I think there are various interpretations, and they are all correct. But the most compelling reason in a realistic sense is page adjustment.

I apologize as it's a story hard to realize for those reading on electronic media, but paper media is basically created in units of sixteen pages.

So, for example, if the main text and illustrations fill exactly three hundred and twenty pages (a number divisible by sixteen), there is no room for an "Afterword." However, if the main text is only three hundred and ten pages, ten pages remain. If left as is, they are blank.

Here, the author is given two choices.

One is to adjust the length of the main text to make it a book of three hundred and four pages, or three hundred and twenty pages. As mentioned earlier, the increase or decrease of book pages is in units of sixteen pages.

And the other is... simply filling the remaining ten pages with supplements. Advertisements, or indeed, the "Afterword."

In that case, if the volume of the afterword is unreasonable, it is normal to fine-tune by adding/cutting the main text or inserting advertisements. ............Normal, but.

Um, I, Aoi Sekina. Saying it myself feels weird, but despite being bad at "adjustments," I'm a fairly problematic type of author who starts saying "I don't really want to put in ads either."

Result: Every time, I challenged the "Afterword" with a "No Additives" approach, playing it by ear.

Any "margin" left after finishing the main text is filled entirely with the "Afterword." That's what it meant.

So, what do you think happened?

...Yeah, right.

It turned into a disaster, didn't it?

When the afterword is about four or five pages, it's just right. Things about the work, behind-the-scenes stories, previews of the next volume, acknowledgments to related parties, and a slight private report. If you write those reasonably, well, it fills up. It's reasonable. Even I, who am bad at composition, smile at this.

However, the problem starts around eight pages. ...What do you expect me to add to the topics listed earlier to pad it out?

My style doesn't basically have "grand hidden settings" that can be talked about at length. I can't write too much for the preview either. The volume of acknowledgments is always about the same. Then, the only thing left is to add depth to the private report but...

Unfortunately, I am plainly a shut-in.

There is no way I have interesting private reports. Rather, if my private life were that fulfilling, I wouldn't have become a light novel author in the first place (Extreme Argument).

Then, in that situation, there is only one thing left to write. Yes. This is exactly what you are witnessing right now.

Long complaints about the long afterword.

So from my perspective back then, it was seriously a "desperate measure," and I was just scattering curses and vomiting blood toward the "Afterword."

But for some reason, that "Afterword" was strangely found amusing by some readers.

No, well I understand. I love "How Do You Like Wednesday?" (Suiyō Dōdeshō), and what I like most about it is the scenes where the cast encounters hardships and spills complaints. Others' laughable hardships taste like honey. I understand. I understand, but I would like to be spared from it happening to me.

Despite that, perhaps due to the readers' thoughts taking effect, after a certain period, for some reason, upward deviations in afterword page counts continued excessively.

Double digits were common. Eventually, it reached the point of hammering out a meaningless number like "Afterword: 18 Pages," as if aiming for some kind of record.

What does it mean to give eighteen pages to an author who runs out of topics in basically four pages? I suffered so much back then that I wondered if the Fantasia Bunko editorial department was doing it on purpose to "suppress Aoi Sekina's growth as an author and raise him as an Eevee."

By the way, just to report for reference, this afterword has only filled seven pages so far at this moment. Everyone, you feel like you've read complaints for quite a long time, right? I feel like I wrote them too. In fact, I've already been writing for several hours.

Yet, I haven't even reached half of the quota of seventeen pages for this time? It's seriously insanity. What are you being made to read right now? What am I writing? I mean, at this point wouldn't it be better to just honestly put in ads? Both for me and the readers. If so, what am I obsessing over to do this? I don't know, I don't knooooow...

Well, I derailed enough to completely lose my mental balance, so returning to the main topic—the explanation of "Afterwords."

Some of you who read the system and purpose of "Afterwords" up to this point might be incredibly sharp individuals who realized something: "No, if that's the case, isn't it weird after all?"

Yes. It's weird, isn't it? Because this afterword is seventeen pages. What's more, I mentioned a past maximum afterword of eighteen pages earlier.

What's weird about this information is that at this point, the reason of filling margins doesn't hold up anymore. Because we are talking about "Afterwords" intended to "fill the margins of books assembled in sixteen-page units."

For that to exceed sixteen, what on earth...?

Are you confused? It's okay, I am far, far more confused.

To explain step by step.

Earlier, for convenience, I said something like "If the main text fills it up, the afterword isn't needed." However, since "Afterwords" have become something like a culture, it is customary to include a few pages even so (Of course, there are many exceptions).

And amidst that, the surplus page count calculated for this work "Asobi no Kankei" was, shockingly, one page.

Even I smiled at this. As expected, if you leave light novels for five years, the readers' grudge power resets. Yeah yeah, it's good to keep a distance once in a while. Now then, let's hear the continuation of the report from the editor—

Editor: "Therefore, the afterword page count this time will be a threatening seventeen pages!"
Aoi: "Whhhyyy?"

—Yes, what does this mean? Let's return to the explanation.

A while ago, I said regarding afterword page count that four to five pages is just right. The amount that fills up nicely after writing explanations and acknowledgments is about that much. However, flipping that around means anything less than that... one or two pages, is difficult in its own way.

Especially with one page, it hardly stands. If I can just convey "Thank you for reading," that would be "Splendid" (Chōjō).

What do most authors do in such cases? Simple. They tweak line breaks in the main text a bit to squeeze out a few pages and allocate them to the afterword. Truly a smart solution.

How about in my case?

Yes, that's right. I'm the type of author who starts asserting strangely complicating things like "I don't want to mess with the main text content" at the initial stage. Seriously do something about this guy with youthful indiscretion.

A means to avoid a one-to-two page afterword while not messing with the main text. There's only one other way.

Yes. Add a whole sixteen pages of afterword. Thus, the crazy concept of a seventeen or eighteen-page afterword is created.

...No, asking again, what is this story? Why am I logically talking about nonsense forever? Does this logic really hold up?

Well, if you say it's getting what I deserve, that's the end of the story. Seriously. However, the one thing I want to assert clearly in this story is that I have truly never adjusted the afterword page count to be large on purpose to run with this kind of joke. I mean, I don't have the guts to choose hours of asceticism just for the sake of "it's delicious as a joke."

So basically every time I seriously pray "Let it be about four to five pages!"

Yet, when I write a new work like this... it's this. I feel like I've finally remembered the "true cause" of why I left light novels. I'm home, dammit.

Yeah, my language is getting rough, so let's change the topic around here.

Now, about this work "Asobi no Kankei" (Actually, I feel like this was the topic I should have touched on first).

Actually, after my previous work "Gamers!" ended, I was writing a completely different full-length work (Past Alteration Rom-Com Mystery) little by little in between other jobs. But well, this one just wouldn't finish. Also, since it's nominally a mystery work, it's like it's finally complete only after writing the punchline. Hard to submit to the editor midway.

However, at this rate, I really don't know when it will be finished. So, I decided to launch a completely different light serial short story format work, send it to the editor every time one short story is finished, and make it into a book when several episodes accumulate; that was the start of this work "Asobi no Kankei."

Initially, I envisioned a work with really no content, close to "Seitokai no Ichizon" (Student Council's Discretion), where several people just play "Board Games," which is also my hobby. But.

"If they're going to play board games anyway, let's give the players separate hidden agendas."
"Chain of unrequited love is good basically. If playing board games, close friends (Nakayoshi) are best."
"Right, since it's a board game theme, having hidden identity elements is fine too."

While doing that, it became the work of the current taste. S-Somehow I feel like I came to a place far from the initial standpoint of "Just playing board games"...! Why...!

Just to offer an excuse. Just like video games in the previous work "Gamers!", this work is strictly a "Novel" and not a game introduction article. So I try to narrow the focus strictly to the "story" of the characters. So, I am truly sorry to those who expected dense board game depictions.

However, board games, if you try to explain rules and strategies in earnest in a novel, it becomes quite a brutal amount of text. Especially if I were to explain the rules of medium-to-heavy games that the real me prefers, I would waste practically dozens of pages of this book! Is it okay to do that in a commercial magazine? No, absolutely not—.

Ah, I was just in the middle of throwing seventeen pages into the gutter right now. Yeah, in that case, explaining the charm of "A Feast for Odin" or "Terraforming Mars" would be far more...

Ko-Kohon. Well anyway regarding this work, I would be happy if you could read it strictly as a "Rom-com where board game topics appear often." On the other hand, for those who don't understand board games well, the games named in this work are all insanely interesting, so if you have even a little interest, please try touching them.

Now, about this work "Asobi no Kankei." Another characteristic point is that the chronological order is slightly tricky.

Actually, within this book alone, the first chapter is actually the latest in chronology. To put it further, conversely, the Epilogue is the oldest chronology. I can only say this structure was solely because it was the most optimal order for information disclosure in this story.

...Ugh, what happened to the fluffy rom-com project of just playing board games casually...

Ah, by the way, here is a tidbit. As a result of the irregular chronological structure, Chapter 1 of this work has actually become something like an Epilogue to the Epilogue. If you read Chapter 1 again, you might be able to read information that you let slide in the first pass.

And, if you read Chapter 1 like that, somehow you'll want to read Chapter 2 with the flow. Proceeding like that and arriving at the Epilogue again, you feel like reading Chapter 1 again...

You did it! This is it, the Infinite Loop Novel! Best Cost Performance! Just with this one book, it's already complete! This means, we totally don't need a sequel or anything! Aoi Sekina's full-force standalone rom-com work, here stands a magnificent conclusion—

Eh? Oh, Editor? Why does the announcement blurb say "New Series Start"? Um, look, please read this carefully? It's made so you can enjoy just one book forever...

Hohe? Requesting illustrations from Fukamisaki Kurehito-san? No no, wait a moment. It's no use trying to motivate me with such lip service. This is, look, already made to be readable infinitely with one book. Of course, it's not like I don't have the feeling of wanting to write a continuation? But look, so that there are absolutely no regrets even if it ends with one book—

Yes? Eh, Fukamisaki-san is really going to draw the illustrations? No lie?

"......"

Ah, excuse me, Editor. I'm going home soon.

No, why you ask—to write Volume 2, obviously!

So, for that reason. Although tentative, I think Volume 2 of this work will likely come out.

Next time, I think the "True Form" of a certain female Shogi player who is "already practically the protagonist if you realize it" will finally make a full-scale appearance. So please look forward to it.

Now, while doing this and that, fifteen pages have already been consumed. Man, looking at it like this again, it's surprisingly short—is what I wanted to say, but yeah, as expected, impossible. It was long. Normally. I think the readers think so too.

By the way, regarding this afterword, I started writing it from late at night for reasons. Even though I took light breaks, somehow now, it's already noon. The sun is bright.

Even if it's an all-nighter, an all-nighter when you write a good manuscript makes you feel refreshed. However, regarding today, far from refreshed, not even tired, just one word.

"What is this?"

It boils down to this. No, really, seriously, what is this? This labor. ...Labor?

Finally, acknowledgments.

First, to Fukamisaki Kurehito-san who graciously accepted the illustration for this work. Thank you very much. Even hearing the story from the editor, back then I was still doubting for a while, "No, even so, the line of the editor's lip service is strong...". I cannot forget the shock when I suddenly received the rough sketches of Mifuru and Tsukino one day.

"Eh, cute. Eh. For real. Eh, what is this, seriously cute. Eh, for real. ...For real?"

I learned the meaning of the word "upset/flustered" firsthand. You adjusted the direction perfectly to the strangely tricky style of Volume 1, and I truly cannot bear my gratitude. I look forward to working with you in the future. ...Um, well, just, sorry, honestly Volume 2 is also tricky...

Next, the editor and Fantasia Bunko Editorial Department. I am truly sorry for dragging on for several years with only interactions like "New work? Writing, writing—". No, just, I really was writing. A different work. With momentum that wouldn't end.

That I could complete "Asobi no Kankei" now is entirely thanks to the editorial department who patiently stayed with me no matter how you think about it. Thank you very much. Please continue to treat me well.

And above all, the readers who picked up this work.

Thank you very much. Moreover, to read such a stupid afterword to the end. It's already in the realm where apology prevails over gratitude.

However, to reward such readers, I will continue to write this work "Asobi no Kankei" earnestly, so please continue to support me.

Well then, let's leave it around here for this time. Next time, let's definitely meet in "Asobi no Kankei 2" where all relationships, centered on board games, will "move one step forward"!

...I hope the next afterword is just right.

Aoi Sekina