AFTERWORD

Thank you for purchasing another volume of The Irregular at Magic High School. For those new to the series, I’d like to take this chance to ask for your continued support in the future.

Volume 7 was probably an adventure as far as light novels go. What did you all think? Did you enjoy reading it? Although it wasn’t quite up to the level of extremity that was rather commonplace in the Showa era, I do worry a bit whether this book, as outdated a form of entertainment as it is, hasn’t fallen out of favor with current trends.

The one thing I struggled with the most in this volume were the diagrams showing the battle’s progress (the maps and sketches). I don’t know the official way to make these, and those more knowledgeable will probably look at them and ask themselves, What on earth is this? Please forgive me on this point.

Ms. Ishida, the illustrator for this novel, put in a lot of hard work as well. I asked her to change the protagonists’ combat gear designs several times purely out of an uncouth obsession. As the author, I think they look cool… They look cool, right?

Also, I believe the main characteristic of Volume 7 were all those special movers showing up. If you enjoyed the extreme plot, then as a writer, I couldn’t possibly be happier.

Now, allow me to make some announcements as to future plans.

To begin with, Volume 8 is scheduled for release this winter. I believe its subtitle will be unchanged as “Reminiscence Arc.” Past episodes will be the focus. The plan is to have more reveals than the Web novel did.

Next, and this announcement was on the advertisement on the book as well, but I’ve been allowed to write a voice drama. Its release is planned for the same time as Volume 8. It might actually come out earlier. It will be a drama version of the main story in the Reminiscence Arc. It will come with a newly written short-form booklet.

Also, as announced on the ad wrapped around Volume 6, the first volume of The Irregular at Magic High School’s manga, serialized in GFantasy, was released at the same time as this book. The first volume of Dengeki Daioh’s serialization, The Honor Student at Magic High School, is planned for release on October 27, 2012. Please show both of them your support.

Finally, as I’m sure many of you are aware, starting next month in Dengeki Bunko Magazine, I’ll be serializing a story. It will be the first episode of the Second-Year Arc—a version based on having read up to Volume 7 without any spoilers. Therefore, when the serialization is made into a book, there will be extra episodes, but I’ll be writing the whole main story for it.

Between the Dengeki Bunko Magazine serialization, the voice drama, and the main Dengeki Bunko book, I’ll be working at full capacity from this autumn to winter, so please continue all your support for The Irregular at Magic High School in the future.

(Tsutomu Sato)