Afterword

Heya! This is the afterword to Volume 9. This is also the largest number any of the one-digit volumes will have. Eye am the strongest! Circle nine and all that. Circle nine! Yeah, I’m just having fun writing whatever, like I usually do.

I think I’ll casually write my words of thanks now. I would like to give Youta-san the artist, the proofreaders, and Mister I the editor my usual thanks. I also thank all of you for still reading. It’s thanks to you that I can keep producing volumes at the same pace.

Incidentally, the manga version by Nanaroku has started. There’s a new chapter every month on the 25th, and chapter five will be published alongside this volume. The timing just happened to match up. I should give my thanks for that, too. I’ve made some mistakes while overlooking the manga (like the Goblin noses), but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Now, it seems like I’ve got four pages worth of afterword this time, but as always, I’m not entirely sure of what to write. I struggle with this every time. So much so I sometimes waste two, three days just writing these four pages. I wonder how much time other authors spend writing these afterwords on average? Anyway, I guess I’ll talk about secret behind-the-scenes stuff.

Uhhhh, the truth is, the arc in this volume wasn’t anything like the web novel’s small ninth chapter. Ninety-five percent or so of this volume was original writing. I edited a lot in the second and third chapters of this volume while expanding the events quite a lot. I find it important to respect my web novel readers, but the details keep getting further apart. The end result was basically the same, though...? Kind of? There are a few changes that I’m a little worried about, but they’re close enough that I think I should be safe. I hope you agree.

Incidentally, all the wedding stuff was completely absent from the web novel. I added enough loving romance to make the story sweeter than a cream puff.

Oh, but now that I think about it, we were already in the web novel’s ninth chapter by the end of Volume 8. What a world.

Putting that aside, in Volume 9 we finally got art for our beloved regular Wataru the Hero! He’s kind of like Keima’s rival in a way, and he got a character design plus art before he showed up in the manga, just like everybody (?) wanted. It all happened because the cute girl in love with Wataru showed up here too. In a way, Igni is kind of Wataru’s savior. She’s the human-morphing lizard heroine who got a design and space on the cover before her mother Redra did.

But she’s still inexperienced with human morphing, so her chest and belly button aren’t entirely perfect yet, but we can expect that she will work hard and improve. The problem is whether the speed of her growth will match Wataru’s lifespan. This is an unavoidable problem when members of two different species are involved, and it’s something Rokuko and Keima have to deal with too.

...No jokes about how his savior is a loli, or that he would be fine just being with Neruneh.

By the way, about Igni’s sharp teeth and scales. Both of these were slightly inspired by a certain princess (Bowsett*) who got enormously famous on Twitter and Pixiv in record time. The fad’s already dying down, but hey. I love me some sharp teeth and a strong gaze. Redra probably looks closer to the princess in question, all things considered.

Also... I used the name Je*ga a lot, and I sure hope it doesn’t cause any problems. I am censoring it just to be safe, but well, there was just no other way to convey what I wanted. What other game is so simple, so well known, so perfect for practicing finger dexterity... Despite the copyright I had to risk it, even at the cost of censoring letters. I just couldn’t think of anything that could take its place.

Anyway, I wrote this elsewhere too, but my younger cousin got married. It turns out that her husband reads LDM, which is, uh. Is that okay? Is he okay? I’m the writer for it, but still, I gotta ask. That’s actually why I included a wedding in this volume, on top of it being a good place for it. Thank you and congratulations.

...It hurts to admit, but it really taught me that writing about things you know is a lot easier than things you don’t. Oh, that’s not to say that, uh, my friends don’t invite me to weddings or anything. It’s just that none of my friends are planning any weddings. Though it is true that I don’t have a ton of friends. And it is true that I have no significant other. Recruiting GF... preferably someone with an understanding of my job and tastes. Though even if I did get a girlfriend, I spend most of my days off writing and probably wouldn’t be great to be around.

Sigh. I want to fall in love tooo. I want to flirt with a girlfriend tooo.

Wow, there’s still a whole page left. What should I write to fill in this space...

By the way, I asked if I could put up fanart sent in from readers here in the afterword, or maybe hold like a Q&A thing like you see in magazines, but I was told no. I do want to do something special for Volume 10 though, something like a crossword puzzle. Maybe Picross? Well, who knows if I’ll have enough afterword pages to do something like that.

Which reminds me. Total sales of LDM have finally passed 100,000 units. Volumes one through six got reprints with simple typo fixes and such. Maybe now I can call myself an actual writer? Can I count the manga volumes as part of the total sales of the series? Hurry up and come out.

I kinda want to bundle up all the bonus short stories and release them as their own book... alongside character design illustrations and so on. That might happen if enough people ask for it in the online questionnaire for this volume. Oh, is this going to turn into one of those fanbook things? Those need to sell a lot to be worth it. Will it happen, or will it not... All depends on the questionnaire. You know what to do, my friends.

Anyway, I’ve managed to fill up all the afterword space yet again. May we meet again in the next volume.

This is completely irrelevant, but の and 9 sure look a lot alike. Depending on the font they may even look identical.

Supana Onikage