Afterword

Afterword

 

NICE TO SEE YOU, I’m Necoco!

Thank you so much for picking up Volume 3 of Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling! This volume is the first part of the Harunae Desert arc, and the next volume will wrap up that story.

What will happen to the catgirl slave Nina, and will the protagonist evolve? And what about that mysterious hero who shares the same name as our dragon? The next volume contains the first- and second-most-intense scenes in the entire series in my opinion, so look forward to that!

The dragon Illusia is a monster with a human heart, and the other Illusia is a human with a monster’s heart. But in some ways, the two of them are very similar, although I doubt they will ever become friends.

In an unusual move, I’m actually talking about the plot in my afterword! I know there are some people who read the afterword first; I won’t discuss any more details so I don’t spoil them.

I realized something about the status screens during this volume; the dragon’s stats didn’t change much this time. Even my editor said, “Hm, it didn’t get much bigger than last time,” when they were looking at the layout. I’m pretty sure I heard a sigh of relief. But just so you know, Illusia’s status screens get way bigger in the next volume, so be ready for it!

Maybe in the fourth volume the dragon’s status screen will have to be written in super tiny script and you’ll need a magnifying glass to read it? If that happens, you’ll know we had no other choice. I’m only joking…maybe. I have a feeling if we did that we’d end up in the Guinness Book of World Records. Tiniest print in the world, or something like that. Hopefully that won’t give us a bad reputation…

Oh, that reminds me—I have an announcement to make! I’ve mentioned my avocado tree here briefly before, but it’s really grown since last time. Now that I think about it, six months have passed since the second volume went on sale. No wonder the avocado tree has grown so much.

It was just a little bud on the verge of death when the first one came out, but now it has lots of big leaves and is very healthy. I guess I can’t say that it’s because of me, though.

I didn’t do very much. I put some water in a glass and stuck a toothpick in an avocado pit, then put it over the glass. Apparently when an avocado is small, you don’t have to put it in soil. I don’t know the details, but you can look it up if you want to grow avocados yourself.

At first you have to change the water every day for a few months, but after the bottle tipped over and it spilled water all over my room, I put it out on the balcony where I couldn’t see it. After a few days I forgot about it and more days passed without me changing the water.

Then one day I realized that I hadn’t changed the water for a week. So I went out in a panic to check on the avocado, and it was surprisingly healthy and looking strong, even though you’re supposed to change the water every day. I was so relieved when I saw it and thought, “Hm, I guess avocados don’t need their water changed at all.” But I wouldn’t have thought that if the avocado had been a little weaker. I guess there’s no sense in thinking about the what-ifs.

I decided to take a hands-off approach with the avocado, and then we got into monsoon season, then July and the hot months of summer. I thought the hot weather and sunshine were perfect conditions to make the avocado grow nice and strong. I thought how nice it would be to be reincarnated as an avocado and enjoy the summer weather. I watched it grow for about a month out on the balcony like that.

Then one day I noticed it had withered.

I ran out in a panic and saw that there was no water inside. It was really hot in the beginning of summer, so of course, since I had just left it on its own, the avocado was parched.

Please make sure to be careful if you try to grow avocados. It’s pretty easy when you don’t have to pay attention to it, but that can lead to other problems…

Gazing at my withered avocado out on the balcony,

 

—NECOCO