Afterword

I would like to sincerely thank you for picking up the first volume of my humble work, “The World’s Least Interesting Master Swordsman.”

This book is a version of the story of the same name found on “Shousetsuka ni Narou” and has been expanded and edited for print.

Whether you are readers of the web novel or are being introduced to this story through the print version, thank you very much for your purchase.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but getting this ready for print was a lot of work.

The amount of writing was certainly a major endeavor, but there was also a lot of effort required to tweak the story format to make it easier for first-time readers to enjoy.

I also asked the illustrator to redraw the pictures several times, and my editors had to edit quite a few of my sentences. It made me realize just how much work is needed to finish a single book.

However, if the book reaches the hands of you, the reader, and you are able to enjoy it, then all of that hard work is worthwhile.

Now, the main character of this work is, in a phrase, an effort-type hero. He’s strong because he put in a lot of effort while being trained by a good instructor, or because he put in more work than other people, or, really, because he did both. The story is primarily about that hero using his strength to win battles.

That means that within the work itself I spend a lot of time praising the value of hard work. However, the hero himself doesn’t really emphasize that effort himself. This is my own view, but I feel hard work is an extremely precious thing, yet it is also the bare minimum you need to put in.

No doubt that Sansui’s years spent training are a form of hard work. But that doesn’t mean that other people haven’t also put in their own hard work. The opponents he defeats must necessarily have also put in their own effort.

In the end, I don’t think hard work and effort are things that are solely reserved for getting stronger. For people who are working, the sweat from their brow as they labor to gain sustenance is a form of effort. The chores that a homemaker does to support their household’s lifestyle are a form of effort.

To me, hard work and effort are things that everyone put in every day of their lives, and the cost that people pay to protect those lives. In many pieces of fiction, the effort put in by people other than the hero is often dismissed, or characters other than the hero don’t put any effort into things at all. Of course, it’s true that there are people who put no hard work or effort into things, but there’s no way that they’re the majority in our society.

As an author, I hope and strive to make this a work where I show the hero’s effort and hard work, while I also avoid dismissing the efforts of people other than the hero, and thus respect their hard work and effort, as well as praise the people who put in the hard work and effort, regardless of whether they are allies or enemies.

I wouldn’t have been able to turn this work into a book without the help of many people. I’d like to take this opportunity to give thanks to the illustrator, Shiso, who brought my characters to life with their wonderful illustrations; Kuroda of the PASH! Editing department; and Kondo, who gave me advice about how to get this published.

I’d also like to send thanks to my family, who have supported me in my dream of becoming a light novel author, and my grandfather from Okinawa, who saved my life when I was little and thus made this entire thing possible.

Finally, I would like to once again thank all of you, the readers, who were kind enough to purchase this book and read it to the end.

I hope you will join me for the next adventure.

-Rokurou Akashi, A Blessed Day in May, 2018