Afterword

We’ve finally made it to the commemorative tenth afterword. Greetings, readers. I honestly can’t believe I’ve made it to the tenth volume. I didn’t think Der Werwolf would be such a beloved series. Thank you so much for supporting me until now, everyone.

This volume is one of those “there’s a traitor hidden among your allies” scenarios that...happens surprisingly often in real life. In this case, Veight could just kill Zagar and move on, but his personality won’t allow it. For better or worse, the idea of doing something that would result in civilian casualties is anathema to him. Friedensrichter told him his weakness was his inability to make cruel but necessary decisions as well, which is why I started thinking about what might happen if Veight was put in a situation where if he didn’t make a cruel choice, things would only keep getting worse. It will all be resolved in one way or another by the next volume, though, so look forward to that.

Part of my writing philosophy is when you’re writing a transported-to-another-world story, you should make the challenges characters face as realistic as possible. That’s basically what I went for this time around, too. I was actually unsure if this was the kind of problem I wanted to present to my characters, but with how much experience Veight has now, I thought it was about time he faced a truly difficult dilemma.

By the way, the whole segment about morning sickness comes from personal experience. I’m a guy, so I have no idea what it’s actually like to go through it, but Veight’s reactions are exactly the same as mine were when my wife was pregnant. Pregnancy and childbirth (and child-rearing) are extremely taxing endeavors, and I have infinite respect for my wife for going through it all. I wasn’t as helpful to my wife as I could have been, but hopefully Veight will succeed where I failed. Though, he’s an awkward guy too, so it’s hard to say he’s going to be an ideal husband. Still, he’ll probably manage better than me.

Now then, it’s time for the acknowledgments. Thank you Nishi(E)da-sensei for your wonderful drawings. (I’m sorry the characters all ended up being burly dark-skinned men this time around.) I wanted to make sure Rolmund, Wa, and Kuwol all had their distinctive styles of dress and appearance, so I’m really glad that he went the extra mile to differentiate everyone. I’d also like to thank my editor Lord Fusanon for his valuable guidance. When I was trying to think of what to write for the bonus stories, he gave me a bunch of ideas, which really helped. I can’t count how many times he’s saved my hide now.

Incidentally, I’m working on a new novel with him as my editor again. It’s called The Voyage Log of a Small-Time Captain, and it’s being updated on Narou as well. Der Werwolf is about Veight making his way up the ranks in an organization, so I wanted this new series to focus on a protagonist who grew bigger and bigger outside of one. Go, small-business owners! (I’m also a small-business owner, so I can understand his struggles.) There are a few fanservice-y connections between the world in this work and in Der Werwolf, so I definitely recommend it to Werwolf fans. I can’t go into details since that’s spoilers, but be sure to check it out. The Der Werwolf manga adaptation by Kosumi Yuuchi just released its third volume too, so give that a shot if you’ve got time as well. It really captures the gentle yet relentless side of Veight really well, I think. There’s also some short stories in there written by me, so it’s packed with content (sorry for the shilling.)

Now then, volume 11 will be the end of the main story. Will Veight be able to calm this maelstrom of malice before it consumes the nation whole? Will he even be able to make it safely back to Meraldia? Most important of all, will he finally be able to keep one of his promises with Airia and make it back in time for the birth? Find out next time, in the final volume of Der Werwolf’s main story.

I hope we all meet again, then.