Afterword

 

 

 

Afterword

 

MY name is Ryuuou. It’s a pleasure to meet you and thank you very much for picking up my book. This is my first printed novel, thanks to my winning a prize in the 8th Web Novel Awards. This story is virtually the same as what you’ll find on my novel previously published online, so I imagine some of you might be familiar with this story already.

The main draw of this story is Leo who, even after going from cute little Maltese to unstoppable silver Fenrir is still fawned on by the protagonist, Takumi. In my original drafts, though, Leo wasn’t even present. The plan was to have a protagonist with fantastic abilities who just toured around different countries in a fantasy world. I needed some way for them to get around, though.

I thought about using a usual horse-drawn carriage since there weren’t any cars in the world. But I didn’t want him to spend too much time getting from place to place. Instead, I thought about having him ride a monster, like a fenrir, since I’d seen a few other novels that used a similar concept. It was only then that I thought to have his mount be his dog from back in Japan and make his cute little pup into the strongest thing alive.

So I made the Maltese a giant fenrir, then upgraded it to a silver one, just in case Takumi needed the extra help. I knew that Leo still needed to be cute, though, since it’d be more interesting if Claire and the mansion’s other residents fawned over her. I hope you found Leo just as cute!

With that, I’d like to move into the thank-you section. First, I’d like to thank the talented Ririnra for their hard work in taking my vague descriptions and turning them into such amazing illustrations. I know you were very busy but thank you for putting so much effort into making all the characters look great.

Next, I’d like to thank my editor Kawaguchi and the rest of GC Novels’ editing department. It’s all thanks to your hard work that this book was even possible. Thank you so much for everything. I would also like to thank everyone who joined in GC Novels’ Twitter competition and sent pictures of their own beloved dogs. It was incredibly hard to choose just one pup out of all of them—they were so cute! Thank you again to the winners Rin and your human friend Akatsuki Nero, for your pictures.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has supported me and this book, from my web readers to everyone who bought this book. Really, I can’t thank you enough.

I hope to see you again in the second volume. Until then, take care.

 

November 2020

Ryuuou