Afterword

Nice to meet you. This is Nyun.

I’d like to express my gratitude to everyone who has chosen to read this book. Also to Raifuu-sama, Higure no Michi Ginjou-sama, Yuuri-sama, and Miru Porun-sama for drawing insert pictures for me on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website.

To Tadano Bonjin-sama, Shirataki-sama, Mumin-sama, Koumei no Wana-sama, Yellowcake-sama, L+F-sama, Gypsy Suzuki-sama, and pai-sama for providing ideas for misunderstandings.

Special thanks to (in no particular order) ku☆wa☆ma-sama, Kyuukyoku Futsuu-sama, Kurk-sama, inten-sama, Kansatsu-kun #5103-sama, and Shiokonbu Kyabetsu-sama for their determined efforts to point out every last one of the large number of typos that appeared every time I released an update.

It’s thanks to everyone’s support that my crude novel has actually turned into a published work. To tell you the truth, it still doesn’t feel real.

In winter of last year, I was approached by Overlap who wanted to talk about creating a book. It feels like the time has gone by in an instant since then.

I will always have great respect for S-sama, who went to the trouble of coming to Hokkaido in the middle of winter to explain publishing to me, and who was then ready to talk everything through with me in detail in the time that followed.

I fondly remember the time we used Skype to hold a meeting, but then we got into a discussion about something else, and before we knew it, we’d spent about five hours talking about things that were completely unrelated.

I’m truly grateful to the illustrator Sakana-sama for providing the beautiful insert images. When I first saw them, I spent about an hour staring at them and grinning. I’ve actually set the lock screen image on my phone to one of the first rough images I received.

When I selfishly said, “I want to see a cool-looking drawing of a powered suit,” Sakana-sama met my wishes perfectly. I barely have any sense when it comes to drawings, so these insert images that were drawn from my explanations seem like magic to me.

How did you like this novel? The theme is misunderstandings, so I tried my best to express the differences in feelings between the main character and the other characters skillfully. As the author, I’d be pleased if you were able to laugh at the absurd and surrealistic way that the main character Kouki and his mother Miki increasingly find some shared understanding of each other.

Foreshadowing for the next volume has been scattered throughout this first volume, causing some differences from the web version.

I’ll give you a small hint: During the Second World War, one piece of foreshadowing is that the country that should have been the “Soviet Union” is actually “Russia.” I’d be pleased if you find other parts that make you think, “Hm?” and wonder what they’re foreshadowing.

Furthermore, the world in which the story takes place in this book is different from that of the web version. The print version is a “What if?” story that looks at the web version and asks, “What would have happened if they’d made a different choice at that time?” Slightly different choices and changes to a conversation transform this story into one possible “what could have happened” story.

That’s why I’d encourage everyone reading this book to also read the web version published on Shōsetsuka ni Narō. As you read, you’ll find yourself thinking, “Huh? This part is different.”

This afterword has gotten quite long, so I’d like to leave it at this until next time.

Everyone, please look forward to our next meeting in the second volume.