AFTERWORD

First, I want to thank all the gentlemen and gentleladies who bought this book. This is the first time in three months I’m writing to you… I’m sure there must be those of you who just saw this today, but that is what we call a cliché (or something like it), so I’d ask you to pardon me for not going down that road.

The Irregular at Magic High School now has three volumes on the shelves, safe and sound. Episodically, this is the first part of the second chapter. I have to apologize for ending things at such a tricky place again. Still, the beginning of the fourth volume will demarcate where the freshmen (in other words, the main characters) will start really getting into the thick of things.

Next up will be the second part of the second chapter. There will be no third chapter, so you can rest easy…though in place of that, it ended up being a fairly thick book. Dengeki Bunko may allow some pretty hefty tomes, but they obviously can’t keep doing it every time, so I’ll be prudent starting with the next volume—or I would be, but the tough part is that I can’t say that for sure.

As those of you who consider the afterword to be read after the rest of the book, you’ll know that this episode mainly focuses on the competition between the high schools.

They use fictional, magical competition to decide the victors, and magical skill to compete with each other.

However, the players’ skill levels aren’t the only important thing—the technical skills of the staff backing them up play a great part in whether they win or lose. It is perhaps closer to motor sports than ball games and track events in this respect. It doesn’t have the same sort of floridity, the same showiness that MotoGP and F1 racing have, though.

…I know it’s a little late, but I feel like I might have missed out on a good chance. Maybe I’ll have the next Nine School Competition have a race-like setting to it. There could be sponsored goods and ___ queens and things like that. And then my editor might be able to put together an observation tour under the pretense of collecting data. (Maybe? Probably not.)

All jokes aside, this chapter of the story was inspired by the fourth entry in a world-popular series, as I’m sure some of you have already realized. Of course, in said world-popular series, they fought individually, whereas this one is in team format. And besides, the entire way magic works is completely different, so the matches and contests don’t really bear the slightest resemblance to one another.

If there was one similar thing in terms of that world-popular series…it would actually be the Qui****ch part of the rest of the series rather than its fourth installment, but in reality, I worried about how to put together such fictional competitions.

Well, I mean, maybe the author of said series didn’t have much trouble actually creating Qui****ch, but I sure did have trouble. And I wasn’t entirely satisfied with it, so I must be hitting my limit. Each individual event doesn’t have very complicated rules (at least…I don’t think so), so I’d like it if you sat back and watched the students of the magic high schools casually. The main characters will all be making a big ruckus in the magic events in the next volume, Nine School Competition Arc (2). Not only will they be in the stadiums, but the main character will also be putting on a full demonstration of his antihero powers outside the stadiums as well. I would appreciate it very much if you were to stay and watch how this “nonstandard work,” with all its mixed reviews, progresses.

And now, I’d like to thank everyone involved in the making of this book once again.

Mr. M, thank you very much for all the accurate advice you’ve given. In particular, without your advice that group field trips always had baths involved, that scene, along with its color and monochrome illustrations, would never have been created.

Ms. Ishida and Mr. Stone, once again, I have to apologize for how many things I made you do. I can’t express in words how grateful I am that you patiently bore with my hard-to-understand requests and delivered such fantastic illustrations. The heroine’s melty face (in Mr. M’s words) in particular brought out a surprising amount of her charm.

I’d also like to thank everyone else on the staff, starting with Ms. Suenaga, the color coordinator. It’s because of all of you that another volume turned out this fantastic.

Above all, my greatest thanks goes to the readers who picked up this book. Thanks to your support, it seems you’ll be able to gaze upon the next chapter of the story as well.

I look forward to meeting you again next month for Nine School Competition Arc (2).

Tsutomu Sato