AFTERWORD

In the afterwords of light novels from a generation ago, you’d often see phrases like, “You there, reading this in the bookstore! Take this to the register right now!”

I’m the type of person who doesn't look at the contents in the bookstore much to avoid spoilers—I like to read it carefully after I’ve bought it. So, whenever I read those kinds of sentences after having already purchased the book, I’d feel a bit disgruntled, as if I’d been falsely accused.

Because of that, regardless of the quality of the story itself, having an afterword like that would always deduct 0.5 stars from my internal rating.

However, now that I’m in the position of writing an afterword myself, I find I can sympathize with the author’s desire to increase sales even by a little bit. I find myself quietly putting back that half-star I once took away.

Now that the ways we buy books have diversified into online shopping and e-books, I feel like this kind of afterword has become an endangered species. It might just be the changing of the times, but this is a culture built by our predecessors. I feel a bit sad to let it end with my generation. (I suppose it’s because of indecisive people like me that outdated customs never truly disappear from society.)

So, with that said... you there, reading this in the bookstore! Take this to the register right now!

To those of you who have already purchased the book, I offer my sincerest apologies, so please don't lower your star rating!

Below are my acknowledgments.

To Uiri-sama, who handled the illustrations: thank you so much for giving a lovely form and color to these characters who only existed as words. I’m sure they are happy as well.

To my editor, A-sama: thank you for all the advice you gave me during the writing of this work. I look forward to working with you in the future.

And finally, to all the readers: I would like to express my deepest gratitude to you for reading this far.

I hope to see you again.