Afterword

“Mojikakiya” is not a good name—I’ll admit it. In fact, naming is probably what I’m worst at. At times, I get struck by a perfect name like a gift from the heavens, but in most cases, I draw a complete blank. I end up pilfering from various mediums and putting together things that just barely fit. A lot of the names in this work actually come from music, but it would be a pain to list out all of them, so I’ll leave that to your imagination.

The same can be said for my pen name. When I was publishing my works online, I just saw it as a bit of fun, so I didn’t put much thought into my name. “Mojikakiya” means “The Word Writer,” by the way. I’m a person [Ya] who writes [Kaki] words [Moji], so I thought Mojikakiya was good enough, and now I’m starting to regret it. You could say I tried imitating The Band, despite not being even half as skillful, and I wouldn’t even say you’re wrong about that.

There are plenty of people who write words. There are literary masters and plenty of people whose works will have their names remembered throughout history. And yet, here I am, calling myself “The Word Writer” as if I’m the only one on the block. It’s not the best look. It kinda feels like I’m picking a fight with people.

If I continue inviting such enmity, I might just be erased in secret. But even if I am eliminated, there will be a second, a third—countless “Word Writers” shall rise in an unbroken chain. Just like I randomly started putting out books, there’s no telling what could bring about the next Mojikakiya. To everyone reading this, it might even be you.

Putting that aside, the name of our protagonist Belgrieve didn’t come from anywhere in particular. The fact that his name does not overlap with any other characters does help him stand out a bit. I feel I did a good job there, for what it’s worth.

In regards to Belgrieve, he seems to be incredibly tired on the cover. Naturally so, as he has to deal with Angeline who’s on cloud nine from their long-awaited reunion. The photographer actually had to redo the cover illustration over twenty times. A few of them had Belgrieve smiling, but after all the retakes, they ultimately decided his tired face was the most interesting. He has my sympathy. I don’t think I even have to mention that Anessa was relentlessly teased afterward over that cheeky wink she sent the camera.

Personally speaking, I really love the cover this time. Don’t you feel that this single picture tells a whole story? If you don’t, please put in a bit of effort until you do.

As always, Master toi8 does magnificent work. This must be what it means to be a professional. The fact that this book is good enough for you to even take a peek into is largely due to the master’s illustrations. Thank you toi8!

Now then, this is just a personal matter, but I changed a few of the phrases in the book. To be more precise, “gypsy” was changed to “traveling people.” The word “gypsy” always left a good impression on me: I think this came from the Gypsy Kings, and famous songs like The Band’s “Acadian Driftwood,” Van Morrison’s “Caravan” and “Into the Mystic,” and Curtis Mayfield’s “Gypsy Woman.” The word itself has a sort of exotic ring to it, which I am really fond of.

During the proofreading stages, someone actually pointed out the term, but due to my own lack of knowledge, I left it in as “gypsy.” After that, I had a few opportunities to read up on them, about their hard fight, and how “gypsy” was used as a derogatory term. I decided against using it. I suddenly swapped it out during the grammar check, so I might have startled my editor M-san. Allow me to hide my apology here.

While “Roma” would be a more appropriate term, I’m sorry to say it isn’t as charming to me personally, and after mulling it over, I settled on “traveling people.” To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t trying to denote a specific race or ethnicity by using “gypsy.” I used it in a vague sense to mean “those without a permanent residence who wander the lands, making a living off performance and fortune-telling.” “Roma” is used for a specific group of people, and the gypsies who appeared in this story were not Roma.

The reason I had to change this term was not due to the existence of the actual Roma people, but because of the people who persecuted them. Their shortsightedness is making me go through such trouble. What a bothersome bunch they are.

Now then, enough messing around. I just wanted to show that I do put in some serious thought from time to time.

There aren’t too many people out there who start reading at volume 2, so thank you everyone for continuing after the first volume. I hope we can meet again in volume 3.

Mojikakiya, April 2018