Afterword

You have my deepest thanks for picking up this book, the second volume of “Cooking with Wild Game.”

This volume ended up being a rather unique composition. The way things turned out, roughly a fourth of the book is a freshly written side chapter.

As I explained in the previous afterword, this work was originally published on a website, so I didn’t need to pay any heed to how many words went into an episode. As a result, I had to squeeze down the last volume to fit it into one book, while this time around I ended up writing around 70,000 characters of extra content. I could have added more to the main plot this time around as well, and I actually did consider that method, but I felt like it would awkwardly throw off the tempo, so I went with the method you see here.

From the next volume on, whenever the main story comes up short, I intend to look at what would be best for the story as a whole in order to hopefully deliver the best book possible.

I called that extra chapter an “apéritif,” and it stars Ai Fa and is set two years in the past. That was when Ai Fa had lost her beloved father and earned the disdain of the clan that leads their people, making it the hardest time in her life.

I’d been thinking for a while now that I would like to write about Ai Fa from before she met Asuta, which made this a very enjoyable experience. I actually wanted to include an epilogue of where she met Asuta at first, but it felt redundant, so I decided to leave that for when I could concentrate more time on it.

Asuta is the main character but he often plays the part of the fool, so when he’s not around, the story becomes a lot less comedic. That resulted in an apéritif that’s a bit different than the main story and may have been a little rough, but I hope that you still enjoyed it.

As for the main story, I wanted it to be easy to read in book format, so I went back and read over it, then fine-tuned the parts that caught my eye. And just like with last time, I gave it my all to make this something that both folks picking it up as a book for the first time and those who already read the web version could enjoy.

The story is quietly, slowly moving forward.

Next time around, that certain matter related to the Rutim clan will be the main event, but I’ll also show you a bit of the scenery outside of the forest’s edge, and there will be new character introductions, too.

Kochimo-sama, I’ve greatly enjoyed seeing you bring Asuta, Ai Fa, and the various people of the forest’s edge to life perfectly, and so I really look forward to seeing what you’ll do with these new additions to the cast, too.

Also, next time will be a long episode just like last volume, so I’ll need to squeeze it in tight, too. I’ll strive my best to sift out just the off flavors, leaving you with something even nicer.

Now then, this has ended up turning into a rather long afterword.

I would be positively overjoyed if you keep on enjoying the interweaving story of Asuta and the rest of the cast.

Just let me finish by giving thanks to my editor at Hobby Japan, Kochimo for your wonderful illustrations, everyone else involved with the production of this book, and of course all of you who purchased it.

Well then, I hope to see you all again with the next volume!

March 2015,

EDA