Afterword

Author: “What do you want for Christmas?”

Editor: “Maybe the finished manuscript for Executioner, Vol. 3.”

In the dead of winter, this cold conversation took place at the end of the first year of the Reiwa era.

Christmas flew by faster than you could shake a jingle bell, but Santa Claus didn’t leave a manuscript under my tree, so the book wasn’t done in time for Christmas. Damn you, Santa…! Why wouldn’t you bring good little Mato a manuscript as a present…? Oh, it’s because I was naughty by not meeting my deadline…? But listen, Santa! I wouldn’t be asking you for a manuscript if I met my deadline! So technically, couldn’t you say I did the right thing by not meeting my deadline so that I could ask for it in my letter to Santa Claus?! This is a question of the chicken or the egg… And as I was struggling with this philosophical quandary, I couldn’t even get my manuscript in to my editor Null as a New Year’s gift. Whoopsie.

Oh well. At least I didn’t end up having to send it in February as a Valentine’s Day gift. February 14 is practically the release date.

Let’s move on to the thank-yous.

To nilitsu, the illustrator:

I am sincerely sorry that you were forced to work on an unbelievably tight schedule because of me. I can’t thank you enough for turning in such beautiful, high-quality illustrations in spite of all that.

To my editor, Null:

You have no idea how apologetic I feel that you had to deal with a nightmarish level of progress management because of me. Really.

I hope to continue writing a world with Menou at the center even as it threatens to leave her behind, along with the changing relationships between the characters.

If we can meet again in Volume 4, nothing would bring me more joy.

Until then.