Afterword

Afterword

 

HELLO, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Yuka Tachibana.

Thank you so much for purchasing this book. I would like to use the afterword to make some special thank yous.

This book was published thanks to the following:

First, the website Let’s Be Novelists, where I published this novel. Without this site, I never would have been able to post my work publicly. A family member introduced me to it, and after reading all sorts of different stories, I was inspired to write as well, and one day, I began this novel.

Second, the readers of Let’s Be Novelists. I initially posted this story wondering if anyone would even bother to read it. I was so grateful that there were people who read it from the very first day it went up and that my novel even entered the top daily ranking at the end of a long break. All of your comments and ratings were incredibly encouraging. Thank you so much.

And then, approximately one month later, as I was slowly adding to the story, I got a message from an administrator at Let’s Be Novelists. It was titled: “Inquiry About Publishing Your Novel.” I had to do a double take because I thought I had read it wrong. I was on my way home from work at the time and wound up refreshing the browser on my phone three times to make sure it was real.

The message was sent by the third person I would like to thank: Editor W from Kadokawa Books. Editor W was incredibly helpful every step of the way to getting the book published. I am incredibly grateful to them. So much so, that I don’t have enough words in this afterword to thank them. Thank you so, so much.

The fourth person I would like to thank is Yasuyuki Syuri, the illustrator for the book. Thank you so much for the incredibly beautiful illustrations for my book. I adored the character designs and the cover artwork you came up with. I nearly skipped on the train home from work as I looked them over on my smartphone.

And last, I would like to thank all of you who purchased this book. Thank you so much for reading up until this point. I wrote this book hoping to heal the hearts of those who read it. I hope I managed to bring a little bit of warmth and joy into your daily lives.

There were many others who did an incredible amount of work to help get my novel published. I am so deeply grateful to you all. Thank you so much.