Post-Bath – The Author’s Booth

Nice to meet you, everyone picking up this series for the first time, and to my long-time readers, apologies for making you wait for so long. I was able to get volume 5 in your hands thanks to all of your support. I hope you enjoyed it.

In this volume, Touya and co. learned the secrets of the demon lord’s army, but what do you all imagine when you think of a “demon lord”? A great and dignified king? A wise and kind old man? Maybe someone the hero isn’t supposed to fight, but who becomes the heroine of the story? It might be nice for the hero to be a girl, too. In that case, the demon lord might be of the “wise and kind” variety.

Anyway, in Mixed Bathing in Another Dimension, I aimed for a demon lord that’s “a little weirder than usual, but still fearsome.” Perhaps he never intended to be fearsome but was still viewed that way by others, and if the others ended up mistaken in their viewpoints... well, it gets complicated.

This volume cleared up one mystery surrounding the battle between the first sacred king and the demon lord, and personally I wrote it out imagining that it was something the “Demon King of the Sixth Heaven” would actually do. Most people would think of rakuichi rakuza if you mentioned the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven and economics. He was often considered a strongly business-minded person due to all that.

On another note, Haruno appeared on the cover for the first time in four volumes after our hero finally reunites with her, but did you notice one little thing different about her from the cover of volume one? If you haven’t figured it out yet, try comparing her with volume one’s cover. It was mentioned in the volume itself, too.

Thank you so much to Masakage Hagiya, who not only drew the beautiful cover but the stunning two-page color spread of the bath scene, to my new editor Y, and to everyone who was involved in the publishing and selling of this book.

It’ll be getting hot by the time this volume goes on sale. Make sure you don’t get heatstroke, stay healthy, and enjoy the rest of summer full of energy.

Nagaharu Hibihana, May 2017.