AFTERWORD

I was fishing through old files on my computer looking for something when I stumbled across the “alpha version” of Kieli Volume 1 (this is an earlier manuscript than the one I submitted for the ninth Dengeki Game Novel Awards; really a very clumsy one from when I was just starting out). I read over some passages, and discovered that since the Corporal’s speech patterns and age hadn’t been established firmly in my mind yet, he was in his thirties in some places, in his forties in others, and in some places much older than that, even. He wasn’t frank like he is now, either. He spoke in more of a tough-guy military way, and sometimes referred to himself as washi, like an old man would…I don’t want a Corporal like that. The fact that he ended up the way he is now is…more or less a coincidence.

While I was writing the first volume I never dreamed I’d be able to write any sequels for it—or, more accurately, the very idea that my book would be published at all naturally seemed like a concept from some faraway other world. And yet now it’s like, “Wow, I’m on the sixth book,” and I feel both profoundly moved and as if it doesn’t quite seem real.

Er, hello. I’m Yukako Kabei.

So, I’ve somehow managed to present you with the second half of Kieli: The Sunlit Garden Where It Began. It’s an undeniable “second half,” picking right up where the first one left off, so although if you look at Part 2 by itself the amount of action is unusually high, the Kieli novels are…probably not action novels. Not that I think anybody is misunderstanding me on that point, particularly…Normally I like to write low-key, leisurely scenes and places (and it’s also strangely fun to write the parts where Joachim shows up).

At this point in the story’s development, I do have the whole thing decided right up to the very end in my mind, but in any event, Kieli will keep going for a little longer…um, if they let me keep putting it out.

I hope you’ll do me the favor of following the story of these characters’ for a while longer.

Well, I used up the standard “girl with a complicated personality” line in Part 1, and I don’t have much to write, so I worried about what to do with this Afterword, but luckily the Kieli radio drama was recording as I was working on this volume, so I’ll write a little bit about that. Oh, wow. It’s a radio drama. The day has come when I can hear the radio’s voice over the radio.

The manager brought me to the studio on recording day, and I forced poor busy Taue-san to come along, too, for moral support. We watched the recording session from the back of a room with a thrillingly large machine in it (I think it’s called a “mixer”). Since I guess I’m technically the author, sometimes they would ask for my opinion: “How was that?” And I would say things like, “Um…I think it would be good a little more spaced-out, like ‘durr’…” A highlight of the whole experience was seeing the cast and staff’s masterful job of intuiting, and reflecting in their work, the fine nuances that I was trying to express with such clumsy language and endless sound effects that any sane person would think, Do you seriously write Japanese prose for a living? The thing that made me the happiest is that Hiroshi Isobe, who played Harvey, struck up a casual conversation with me. His first words were, “Kabei-san, have you been eating properly lately?”…So that’s the image people have of me, huh? I was so excited I couldn’t talk sensibly, but I’ll treasure the memory for a lifetime.

Isobe-san was a distressingly wonderful Harvey, and Hochu Ohtsuka fit the part of the Corporal so perfectly that I got goose bumps the very moment he said his first line. Kieli had strangely few lines for a heroine (I-I’m sorry about that, now that I think about it), and yet Mai Nakahara brilliantly brought her personality to life with them. I truly appreciate the hard work that you, and all the other cast and staff, did so well. Thank you very much.

And now my acknowledgments for the novel itself. To my managing editor; and all the other publishing staff I’m indebted to; and Taue-san, who enriches the Kieli world from the visual side of things: thank you again, from the bottom of my heart. Plus, we were able to include the comic Taue-san serialized in Dengeki hp at the end of this book! This is a truly deluxe edition. Wow.

Thank you to all my family, friends, and acquaintances, and most especially to Reiko and Fujiwara-san, who always took the time for me and gave me advice. I’m getting along okay, as always.

Thank you to all the readers who’ve sent me warm letters of support. Several people who wrote to me asked me, “Are you reading this on the train?” and quite often I really was on the train, and I couldn’t help grinning (I’m a sketchy passenger).

And I give my very finest thanks to you who are holding this book in your hands. It’s thanks to all of you that I’m able to write novels the way I am.

I hope we get the chance to meet again.

Yukako Kabei