Afterword

—I told you so.

One day, when I win a rookie novelist award, I’m sure that’ll be the thought that explodes within me. That’s what I had believed, but when I was notified that I was awarded the prize, I was only happy and surprised, to the point where that ‘I told you so’ feeling was nowhere to be found... Okay, that was a lie. I’m sorry. I felt that way a little bit. I’ve been told, “You have no talent,” straight to my face before, so I’d be thankful if you could forgive the odd disgraceful thought.

But, well, my response to such a statement now would be simply, “I will write anyway.” I know my own incompetence more than anyone else. However, that isn’t an excuse for me to not write. That’s all it is. So that I can continue to write until I one day inevitably reach my end, all I can do is to humbly concentrate my efforts and push onward.

I apologize, my introduction is rather late.

I am Shiki Oriori, recipient of the Sixth Overlap Bunko Awards Gold Medal.

To all of the readers who completed this novel and are here reading the afterword: thank you very much. I would be overjoyed if there was anything at all that stuck with you from this story.

To those of you who have yet to buy this book, flipping through to the afterword because your heart was captured by Hyuuga-san’s illustration: I will not disappoint you. Please, if you would be so kind as to purchase this book, nothing would make me happier.

Now, then. I wonder, what do you imagine when you hear the words, ‘social game?’ I believe most of you would think of an application for your smartphone that you can download off of the app store. However, the truth is that a ‘social game’ is meant to be a more concrete term to describe online games that can be played via social media. That being said, it is now common usage to refer to a great deal of things under the umbrella term, ‘social game,’ so I beg your pardon for the stretching of the term in both the title and text of this book.

It seems I’ve run out of space due to my rambling, so let me conclude with an address of thanks.

Hyuuga Azuri-san, you understood the characters on a deep level and drew such wonderful illustrations for them. Thank you so much. My editor, Y-san. I believe it was during our first meeting when I realized that you happened to know of the novels I had previously uploaded online. I was happy from the bottom of my heart. I hope to continue writing novels and to continue to be in your care.

Other than them, I’d like to offer my heartfelt thanks to all the people involved in producing and selling books, my friends who celebrated my award more than I did, and—most of all—to everyone who is reading this novel now.

I pray that we may meet again.

Shiki Oriori