Afterword

In the modern entertainment industry, the term "Royal Road" (Oudou) is used with a positive image. A Royal Road story, a Royal Road protagonist, a Royal Road worldview. It is as if the "Royal Road" is the only correct answer.

However, according to the dictionary, "Royal Road" also contains the negative meaning of an "easy path" or an "easy choice." Now that I have released a new work, I cannot help but be concerned about the reactions of readers who love the Royal Road of light novels.

Especially—on the rom-com front!

So, hello. I am Mato Sato, the type of author who will drop my own characters into rom-com hell even if they are shown affection.

Once again, how did you find this work?

I wrote this piece with the goal of making it "entertainment that my fourteen-year-old self could get excited about." Unfortunately, both the author and the editor on the production side are long past being fourteen; we are creative ghouls clinging to the concept of commerce, having lost our hearts as pure readers.

The pure reaction of the readers is the only way to prove whether I have achieved my writing goal. If all of you who picked this up were able to enjoy it with excitement, then this work is a great success.

...Eh? You say the current light novel readership isn't fourteen either? That's fine! Everyone who reads light novels keeps a fourteen-year-old trapped in their heart!

Now, allow me to move on to my acknowledgments.

To Niritsu-sama, the illustrator. Thank you for following up the previous Executioner and Her Way of Life series with more wonderful illustrations. Seeing my world expressed in a visible form through your art is something I look forward to and serves as one of my driving forces for writing.

To my editor, Null-sama. Thank you for sticking with me from planning to publication. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in the various departments who worked hard to get this book from publication to the bookstores.

Finally, some happy news. Believe it or not, a manga adaptation of this work has been greenlit! Please look forward to further news on that!

Of course, I will continue to ramp up the story in the novels as well. So, to you, right there, who has just finished reading this afterword.

With the greatest of thanks, I pray that we may meet again in the next story.