AFTERWORD

Hello everyone, my name is Tôwa. Thank you so very much for picking up The World’s Strongest Rearguard. This book was originally published online, like many other works of the same nature, on the website Shousetsuka ni Narou. Again, I really can’t thank you enough for reading this official print version.

This book is actually a revised version of the web novel, so some parts have been changed quite significantly. The following will likely be spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read this book yet, so please only continue if you don’t think that will be an issue for you. I’ll put a line break between this paragraph and the spoilers just to be safe. I personally think the changes were quite shocking.

What I’m referring to is the beautiful twenty-five-year-old demon manager Ms. Igarashi (that was kind of long), who is four years younger than the main character. I ended up reducing the tyrannical acts of her previous life by 50—or actually closer to 80—percent.

I received a lot of feedback from readers of the online edition regarding how Igarashi would act as a manager. I also used my own experiences as a reference. I wouldn’t say the company I worked for treated their employees like complete dirt, but it was the kind of place where you’d have to either use overtime for any tasks that didn’t directly benefit your department or the company as a whole, or come into the office on your days off. When I wrote Igarashi based on that period of my life, I got a lot of feedback from readers saying she was horrible or that they had a hard time believing she and Arihito could even form a party together.

I read those comments and just thought, Yep, I get it. I didn’t even have a good rebuttal; I just completely acquiesced. I knew that as the author but still plowed forward. I knew it would make it hard to read for many people, but I just decided that was the way Igarashi was and went with it. I had no intention of upsetting my readers by writing her like that. Even though she had high expectations for the protagonist, she couldn’t be upfront with him and instead ran hot and cold. But even taking that into consideration, Igarashi said and did a lot of awful things to Arihito. The web novel readers were experiencing the hardships and absurdity of corporate life day in and day out, and they went to this website as an escape. But then, for some reason, even the novel had a realistically demonic boss. They questioned why it needed to be that way. And I realized that they were absolutely right.

I had an earnest discussion with my editor about the “Igarashi Problem,” and we came to the conclusion that I should make her more sympathetic so readers could forgive her even if she did join the party. That ended up giving me slightly more hope for the book.

I am really quite curious to hear my readers’ impressions if they decide to read the web version after finishing this edited and revised one. Regardless, any manager who cuts up someone’s time card and makes them work extra hours is out of line. My hope is that the managers of the world can be consistently kinder to their employees. In the web novel, Igarashi did slowly become kinder, so I don’t think you’ll hate her too much if you decide to read beyond the first volume.

I’ve come this far writing about Igarashi, but when I asked the wonderful Huuka Kazabana for illustrations, I had in my mind, as the author, a beauty in a knit sweater who could knock the main character’s socks off—and there she was. Neither do I have any qualms about her Valkyrie equipment. However, I imagine I might get some comments about whether it’d really be suitable for a serious battle or how the protagonist is able to keep his cool even though he’s stuck staring at her rear all day like that. Thank you, Kazabana, for your wonderful designs.

Speaking of design, there’s also Theresia the lizardman. I get the impression she’s been the most popular heroine among readers ever since it was first published online. I had a lot of really complicated requirements for her design, like she needed to be wearing a “lizard mask” that only showed her mouth, but you still needed to be able to tell she was beautiful. When I saw Kazabana’s first sketch of her, it felt like I’d been hit with an electric shock. Was that what Theresia looked like? True, a person like that would be a strange sight, but she was supposed to inspire affection in the protagonist, like he could understand her intentions. This kind of equipment made that all seem just a little more natural. If she had been a lizardman wearing a mask that actually looked like a lizard, it wouldn’t matter how much you trusted her; you’d get a nasty shock running into a face like that in the middle of the night. This kind of mask, however, you could really get used to in almost any situation.

I also gave a detailed description of Theresia—for instance, the slit in her armor that extended from her chest to her navel and how some of her black hair was visibly peeking out from under her mask. Every single one of those details was included in the illustration. The result is something really cute with parts that still catch your eye, in my opinion.

The last person on the cover is Elitia. She was perfect from my very first draft; no one brought up any issues about her. I am very grateful to my editor for helping to refine each character. They combed through every detail of the manuscript and pointed out any areas that needed fleshing out, which really helped me make the story a much smoother read. If the readers are also able to feel that, then as a writer, I will never be able to express the true scope of my gratitude to my editor.

As the story continues, Arihito and the others will meet new friends with a variety of different jobs, different people who live in the Labyrinth Country, and more powerful monsters, so the battles will get more intense. The series will continue as they each accomplish their various goals and Arihito eventually becomes The World’s Strongest Rearguard.

I expressed my gratitude earlier, but I am actually cutting it very close to the deadline as I write this afterword. I would like to offer my sincerest apologies for all the trouble I’ve caused my editor. I plan to submit all future work as far ahead of schedule as possible.

I would like to extend my thanks once again to Huuka Kazabana for capturing the spirit of the Labyrinth Country and for portraying the characters in such a beautiful and fresh way. The illustrations gave the characters shape and breathed a new life into them, which makes me feel like I need to get them out and going again.

Thanks to the proofreaders who painstakingly combed through the entire text, I was able to identify various inconsistencies, particularly when it came to how the license displayed things. That allowed me to publish something that I wouldn’t be ashamed of. Moving forward, I would like to maintain that consistency even in the serialization so that everything reads more easily.

I can never express the depth of my gratitude for the support from all of my readers, from the people who have only just picked up this book to those who have been with me since I first began posting the web novel.

Good-bye for now. I hope we meet again in the next installment.

Tôwa