Afterword

Hello again, everyone. Broccoli Lion speaking. I’d like to extend my thanks to you for reading volume seven of The Great Cleric as well as express my endless gratitude to all the readers and publishing staff who helped make this book a reality. I truly can’t thank you all enough.

So, as of this writing—it being early November—by the time these pages reach your hands, the web version of this series will likely be nearing its conclusion. I first started writing The Great Cleric as a web novel all the way back in October 2015, and it’s hard to believe that it’s already been four years, though certain matters have made it difficult for me to post many updates these days.

Anywho, I decided to run my ideas for the ending by my editor, Mister I, and this is about how it went.

“So, I’m thinking about wrapping up the web novel.”

“Didn’t you say that a year ago?”

“I did, but this time I really mean it.”

“Mister Broccoli, didn’t you also say that during the very first talks for publishing volume one?”

“Maybe...”

To tell you the truth, I was originally aiming for The Great Cleric to be about a hundred thousand characters in length, but when publishing talks started, the ideas just kept coming, and so was born the Yenice arc. I sort of lost myself in the fun of it after that, and now here we are at a little over one million characters long.

You have my undying thanks, Mister I. You have your work cut out for you. On an unrelated note that absolutely no one asked for, here’s how a typical conversation between us goes:

“Great, you’re wrapping up the web novel. Now, about all those red squiggles in volume seven...”

“I know, there are so many typos, but the deadline’s really creeping up.”

“Ahem, and whose fault is that?”

“Mine. I’m an escapist.”

“I know you’re not very confident about self-editing, so I have an idea. Why don’t you try using text-to-speech?”

“Text-to-speech?”

“It’ll read your writing out loud and make it easier to tell which parts need work. Apparently. I’ve never tried it.”

“Does it fix typos?”

“That, Mister Broccoli, we will have to work on.”

“Yes, sir...”

And that’s about how it goes. Every single time. But the work’s been fun. By the way, in case you’re wondering, I did not end up meeting this volume’s deadline, but I did buy a text-to-speech program. I am now filled with whimsical hope that my proofreading will finally see improvement.

Moving forward, I will do my utmost to get that first draft in well before the deadline. And then maybe one day I’ll be able to live up to sime’s gorgeous illustrations or repay Hiiro Akikaze for the wonderful work they’ve done on the manga.

I hope that even once the web novel reaches completion, you readers will stick with me through the published version, because I’m going to keep working hard to be deserving of your support. You and everyone who makes this possible have my sincere gratitude!