Afterword

Afterword

 

HELLO, my name is Yuka Tachibana.

Thanks to the support of all of my readers, The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent has reached Volume 2. Thank you so much.

This time, I would like to talk about the Behind the Scenes chapters for this volume. There will probably be some spoilers, so be sure to read the whole novel before you read any further.

Due to Volume 1 ending on a bit of a cliffhanger, lots of people clamored for the next volume to come out soon, but it wound up being published a bit late. I apologize for that. Things were even crazier this time, and I despaired a little over how poorly I managed my schedule.

I must have asked Editor W at Kadokawa Books to change the schedule a hundred times. I am indebted to him yet again. So, thank you. I caused a ton of trouble for other people, too. I would like to take the opportunity to both thank and apologize to them.

I mentioned how Volume 1 ended on a cliffhanger, but I somewhat modified the plot I had first come up with when I first started serializing this story.

I had intended to continue the plot in Act 5 straight into Volume 2. However, as a result, the climax of Volume 2 would have wound up landing in the middle of the book. Therefore, I took some ideas from the comments I received when I posted the story on Let’s Be Novelists and the additions to Act 4 became the focus of Volume 2. I was worried it might be a bit redundant, but what did you think?

“Act 1: The Appraisal” and the Behind the Scenes that came right after were both born from everyone’s comments. Then there’s the new character, the grand magus of the Royal Magi Assembly. He was unexpectedly a good plot device, or perhaps it would be more apt to say that he helped drive the plot on his own, so I think he was probably the new character who appeared most often in Volume 2. I expect he’ll probably appear a lot in Volume 3 and beyond…

“Act 2: Special Training” was derived from Act 1. I came up with this chapter after thinking I needed to add something related to Act 5 when contemplating the composition of the story as a whole. The aforementioned grand magus really helped make this one work. I came up with ideas one after the other thanks to him. I have a feeling that the other theme of this act was showing off his obsession with his research and how he’s the kind of person who charges in without thinking.

“Act 3: Lady” was added when developing the composition of the story as a whole. When I drew out the new plot for Volume 2, I had meant to make it romantic, but I realized it was lacking in that department and came up with this chapter. The dance part in particular wasn’t really related to the main plot of the story, so part of me worries that some people might find this chapter meandering. I apologize, since there really were some people of that opinion.

“Act 4: Herb Enhancement” was also added when I was trying to support the greater story. By adding this chapter, I explored the descriptions of the Saint’s powers. The plot I thought of was rather loose, so I kept adding these sorts of scenes along the way. Later, it seemed to get out of hand, so I did feel a bit nervous about it.

“Act 5: Expedition” was part of the original plot, and it’s the first battle scene. This is supposed to be a romance story, so it felt a bit strange having a fight scene in here, but it was necessary for the story. I worry that it might have gone too smoothly.

Finally, “Act 6: The Saint” was also part of the original plot. Sei is finally recognized as the Saint, and the crown prince gets condemned. At first, I had considered making this condemnation be like in the genre of villainess stories that were popular at the time, where the crown prince would be stripped of his title and exiled with Aira. There were a lot of people eagerly looking forward to just that, but after publishing the Behind the Scenes story after Act 4 on Let’s Be Novelists, there were a flood of comments hoping Aira could be saved, so as a result, I made this chapter much milder than I was originally planning for it to be. Prince Kyle’s future may be uncertain, but Aira’s looks like it will be bright.

To tell the truth, I had only thought of the story up until this plot point when I first started publishing it. I had intended for Sei and Knight Commander Albert’s relationship to have reached the point where they were very close, but how did things turn out like this…? Therefore, I plan to keep writing, so I hope you will continue to keep reading.

Shuri Yasuyuki did the artwork for both this volume and the first one. Thank you again for such beautiful illustrations. The design for Yuri Drewes was exactly as I had imagined it in my head, so much so that I did a triumphant pose when I first saw it. Just as I expected!

Lastly, thank you so much for reading up until this point. I hope we meet again in the near future.