Afterword

Afterword

 

HELLO, THIS IS kiki, the author of Roll Over and Die: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with my Love and Cursed Sword. Thanks for picking up Volume 4.

How did you find Episode 5—what I like to call the Children arc? I guess the biggest new development from Episode 4 was the change in a certain girl’s fate. Of course, there were also the exploits of the shady church knights, along with the appearance of a new figure within the church who may or may not have a personal connection to Flum and Milkit.

I hope you’re looking forward to the rest of the story!

Anyway, I can’t believe that the first volume of the manga adaptation is finally coming out right as Volume 4 is hitting shelves. Sunao Minakata, the author of the manga, has done a great job adding her own original scenes to the story. You’ve just gotta pick it up—a must-buy all the way!

It’s an amazing manga all around. Not only do you finally get to see our favorite receptionist (who was never illustrated in the novel), but you also get to see the members of the heroes’ party looking pretty cool, along with some original scenes between Flum and Milkit that’ll melt your heart. I really hope you pick it up when you’re grabbing this one. Origin agrees!

Oh! And the little extra side story is just to die for! (Seriously, I’m so excited!)

I even added some dialogue for some of the original scenes and provided a short story for the manga that involves all the members of the heroes’ party and takes things in a strange new direction. I hope you’ll give it a read!

…And you know, I just realized how hard it is to write an afterword.

I guess that means that I should resort to the time-honored tradition of having a dialogue with some of my characters to kill some time.

“…An afterword?”

“What is it, Shizuka?”

“I heard a voice. It said something about talking about something fitting for an afterword.”

“Huh, I wonder who it was? And what’s an afterword, anyway?”

“You didn’t hear it, Katsuki? I heard it clear as day…”

“Nope, nothing. Fuuto, you hear anything?

“Not a peep. Are you sure your ears aren’t playing tricks on you?”

“No, I heard it. I’m sure of it.”

“Huh, well I guess that’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility. I mean, Shizuka is pretty tuned into these things. Anyway, I think it’s Shizuka’s turn to take Nekt and Ink out for a walk.”

“Ah, that’s right. They’re both just staring at me and drooling. And look at their tails wagging all over the place!”

“They’ve been waiting on you, ya know. I don’t have a lot going on, so maybe I’ll go with you guys.”

“Hey, hey, don’t leave me behind! We’ll all go together.”

“Sounds good to me. Spending time together is what being a family is all about.”

Hmph. I think I tuned in to the wrong channel there. To be brutally honest, it’s really hard for me to keep things in check enough to actually hold a conversation with characters. It takes a real skilled person to do it, and failure can lead to dire consequences. I always heard that authors go through a brutal training regimen to prepare themselves, but that’s nothing more than an urban legend, a lie.

Anyway, I’d like to thank all those responsible for bringing this book into being.

Kinta did a fantastic job beautifully depicting all the characters my mind could come up with, from old men to little girls and everything in between. I felt my heart flutter with excitement every time I saw these different characters brought to life. I’m eternally grateful.

I’m also indebted to my editor, “I,” whom I no doubt caused a great deal of consternation as this book got longer and longer. I greatly appreciate your assistance.

And of course, there were the many other people working in publishing and you, my dear readers, who also deserve a lot of credit for making this book a reality.

Finally, of course, I want to extend my thanks to all of you who purchased this book.

I hope to see you again if this story gets a chance to continue. If everything goes as planned, there will be threats of incoming nuclear missiles, skies filled with flying Chimeras, and finally, humans and demons will fight together on the same side in an epic battle against the church in its flying city of Tokyo!

See you around!