Afterword

Thank you very much for purchasing Black Summoner 2: The False Champions. I am Doufu Mayoi. With this being the second volume, I believe that there are many for whom this isn’t our first meeting, but just in case, it is my pleasure to make your acquaintance. To those who have picked up this book from the beginning as a web novel or from the first volume, please accept my heartfelt gratitude for your continued support.

Well, well, well, here is Volume 2 finally published. This volume is the entirety of Arc 2: Heroes from the web novel. In the web novel version, the Heroes of Deramis, who appeared only briefly in Volume 1, finally get their time in the spotlight, though in a way that Kelvin and his party are deeply involved in. Whether this is a blessing or a curse for the Heroes...well, it’s a bit of a toss-up, isn’t it? All because the main protagonist is such a battle junkie...no, but the Heroes still got character growth out of the encounter, so this was a good thing for them. Yep, it was a good encounter, and that’s that!

Aaaand I’ve already kind of run out of things to write about. What do other authors write in their afterwords? As a last resort, guess I’ll give a bit more exposition on the characters that feature prominently in this volume.

With the Heroes of Deramis, we have a relatively common party comprising a justice-obsessed leader, Kanzaki Touya; the leader’s childhood friend, who’s always being dragged along on his shenanigans, Shiga Setsuna; the girl who’s secretly in love with the leader, Mizuoka Nana; and the airhead who loves stirring things up, Kuromiya Miyabi. To be honest, I brought them in more as a foil for Kelvin, just because the protagonist of this series is so un-protagonist-like. I’ll work hard to ensure that these guys don’t lose to the other weirdos that are going to show up later. I’ll work really hard.

When speaking of Deramis, we can’t very well not mention the Oracle herself, Colette. I didn’t actually plan for her to be such a Melfina fanatic, but my pen just went crazy by itself and wrote her as a total weirdo. If I can be open with you, I actually liked her illustration the most out of all the other ones in this book. Uh, why has the word “weirdo” already come up so many times even though I haven’t really gone anywhere with this afterword yet? I’ve got to control myself...so, yeah, that “weirdo” was actually even better received than the Heroes in the web novel version, if you can believe it. Talk about a happy surprise. As the author, I also feel quite attached to this girl whose emotions go up and down juuuust a bit more abruptly than the average person. Even today, she is dedicating herself to Melfina, staunchly resisting Touya’s lucky lecher disposition.

Well then, next would be Sera, who graces the front cover of this very volume. She looks super cool, doesn’t she? The military uniform is great, and the gauntlets are great too. I cannot thank the illustrator Kurogin-sama enough! Thank you so very much. With her straightforward and unfettered personality, Sera brings cheer to her surroundings just by being there. Thanks to how whimsical she can get, I myself had a pretty easy time writing the parts where she shows up. Also, I like side tails. Yep, I’m a happy camper.

Umm, I still haven’t met my word count yet? Oh my god, Overlap-sama...this is pretty much the same word count as a short story, but takes me almost double the time to write. Um, so, yeah. Let’s do a preview of the next volume. Might as well.

There were about three months between the release of Volume 1 and Volume 2, so if all goes well, Volume 3 should be coming out sometime in December or January. In Volume 3, she is going to that thing and the cute you-know-who is going to go poof. The circumstances surrounding Kelvin and his friends will also be changing quite drastically. Well, I mean, they are still going to be doing pretty much whatever they want, but still. And there you have it, that’s going to be Volume 3! What, that doesn’t count as a preview? Isn’t it more fun when you don’t know what I’m talking about so then you wouldn’t get it? Though I suspect that was enough for those who read the web novel version to catch on. At least, I hope it was. But anyway, that’s going to be the next volume, and I’ll do my best to really polish it up.

With that, I hereby leave Black Summoner in everyone’s warm hands, praying that we might meet again next volume.

Doufu Mayoi