Volume 11, Afterword
Here we are at Volume 11.
This is Kamachi Kazuma.
As you know if you’ve read the book already, this volume takes a deeper look at how the nobles like Heivia do things. Normally, Quenser and Heivia are looking at the external enemies like the Capitalist Corporations or Information Alliance and pointing out the twisted side of those world powers, but this time they’re looking at the twisted side of their own Legitimacy Kingdom. I tried going for the reverse of the usual pattern where the suspense grows from Chapter 1 to Chapter 3 and I think it gave a bit of a different atmosphere from normal. I will leave it to you to judge that.
The task I gave myself this time was to make an almost too obvious villain. Yes, it was just like something from a two-hour suspense drama! I made it so Azureyfear was suspicious from the start. Almost too suspicious! But she was getting along so well with them, she was cute, and she almost seemed suspicious to a suspicious extent, so surely she had to be innocent!! I was trying to build up that kind of confusion, but was I successful? To be honest, this was my first time trying it, so this will be a useful experience whether I succeeded or not.
I got into some pretty harsh stuff with the mines and drugs, but while looking through information on them, I realized that humans have a way of finding infinite possibilities in a negative way too. The evolution of mines is completely insane. When a mechanical sensor sends an explosive raining down from overhead, does it even count as a mine anymore? And the world of what is commonly called “white powder” apparently has designer drugs that are remade to slip past the latest tests like a computer virus with security software, so we really are hopeless.
Well, let’s set aside the awful accomplishments of mankind and talk about a different sort of possibility. I’ve generally made Heavy Object so you can start with Volume 1 and enjoy the following novels no matter where you start, but this was a test of having certain people reappearing more frequently and in a position necessary for the story to progress. I tried to make sure you could understand their characters well enough even with only this volume and I intend to continue with the original concept of this series, but if you’ll accept what I did here, maybe it’s possible some other characters could show up in important scenes to go on a rampage?
I give my thanks to my illustrator Nagi Ryou-san and my editors Miki-san, Onodera-san, and Anan-san. With all the small things like the various mines, the bulls, and the Armadillos in addition to the Objects, I doubt this one was easy. Thank you for sticking with me this time too.
I also give my thanks to the readers. I snuck in the series’ first space battle and a knight’s duel, so I think I ended up playing fast and loose with the structure on this one. But what did you think? I hope you sensed more and wider possibilities there.
And I will end this here.
I hope this book will remain in your heart in some way.
I really like the astronauts and the bodyguard who ran away.
-Kamachi Kazuma
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