Epilogue
[The year-end song festival is over, and now we just wait for the year to change. For now, maybe I’ll watch the other programs I recorded.]
“It’s New Year’s Eve; shouldn’t we enjoy the lingering atmosphere a bit more?”
[You say New Year’s Eve, but that’s only for this world. It’s just counting days on a cycle similar to Earth’s.]
“But we’re watching the song festival and everything.”
[It’s just synced with Earth’s broadcasts to get a feel for the passage of time. Lately, I’ve been pulling programs from parallel worlds to enjoy the differences.]
“So that’s why Sazae-san felt strangely like a suspense thriller recently—it was from a parallel world.”
[The fact that another year has passed doesn’t change, but on a human scale, it’s just another day. I’m not in the mood to soak in ‘lingering atmosphere.’]
“Now, now, let’s at least look back on my isekai reincarnations.”
[Your reincarnation destinations aren’t exactly things to be enjoyed as ‘lingering memories.’]
“Starting with a Hero’s rib and ending with a Hero’s pouch. Isn’t that a lingering feeling full of classic fantasy?”
[Just because it involves a ‘Hero’ doesn’t make it good. Besides, your second isekai was a hermit crab.]
“But I was the Hero’s weapon!”
[There is no ‘fantasy’ in the image of a Hero tightly gripping a hermit crab. You’ve been a door, dirt, a plate… the only time you were properly human-shaped was during the level-up notifications, wasn’t it?]
“Even then, I was like a faceless stagehand, so I can’t really say.”
[You’re a mental existence, like an imaginary friend.]
“But in every destination, there were various good points, so honestly, I enjoyed it.”
[Even though they were all destinations that were nothing but a net negative?]
“The inconvenience only lasts for a bit at the start. Once you accept that ‘this is what I am,’ all that’s left is to find a way to enjoy it.”
[Your ability to only see the good points is a talent, in a way.]
“Stop, you’re making me blush.”
[I wasn’t… well, I suppose it counts as a compliment.]
“—Ah, the New Year is here.”
[It arrived right in the middle of our trivial chat. I guess we couldn’t soak in the atmosphere after all.]
“But it’s the anniversary of our first New Year together. In other words, the anniversary of the first time we stayed up late together.”
[What a childish anniversary.]
“It doesn’t matter what it is. Finding even a small new thing and thinking of it as special later—that’s how a ‘lingering atmosphere’ is born.”
[…I suppose so. If you ever pass on without regrets, there’s a possibility I’ll have a similar relationship with a similar human. I might as well keep you in my memory enough to compare the differences.]
“When that time comes, I’ll make sure you’re always sighing about how I was better.”
[In terms of being a handful, you’ll probably be top-class for all eternity.]
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
Afterword
Hello, it’s the author. Thank you very much for picking up this work.
This piece was originally something I wrote as a distraction while serializing a fantasy work on a novel-posting site. Due to my personality as a writer, when I continue a serious story for too long, I inevitably start thinking of ridiculous developments. I often found myself thinking, “Is it really okay to make a joke at this timing?” So, I decided to write a comedy piece to refresh my feelings. I think I was originally supposed to be writing a horror scenario… I wonder when this bad habit took root. Maybe it was there from the start.
For a comedy piece written as a distraction, I felt that if I thought too hard about detailed descriptions or settings, I wouldn’t be able to let it all out. So, I decided to make it consist almost entirely of dialogue, thinking that this way I could constantly write banter. Furthermore, while writing comedy, I occasionally get “seizures” where I want to end on a heartwarming note. Those became things like the birth episodes in the after-stories. Novelists have many chronic ailments.
Although this work was born in such a way, its popularity actually surpassed the fantasy work I was writing first. Riding that momentum, the view count for the fantasy work also grew, and that one ended up getting a physical publication. Before I knew it, this “distraction” piece had become one of my representative works.
Thinking about this representative work reaching all of you makes me feel quite sentimental as I write this afterword. I wonder if this is how Conan Doyle felt when Sherlock Holmes gained popularity? Regardless of the scale, it’s certainly a deeply moving experience in my career as a writer.
With such a high ratio of dialogue, regardless of what I was thinking as the author, I’d like to offer words of praise to the publisher for their challenging spirit in deciding to turn this into a book. Their flexibility in incorporating things like web-original after-stories and recruitment projects for the protagonist’s next reincarnation—rather than just the usual process—is important in creation, but also a high hurdle. Being able to deliver a unique work in a slightly different way to everyone is a result of that willingness to take risks.
I hope to announce more projects when the next volume comes out, so I’d appreciate it if you kept your antennas up.
Thanks to the people at the publishing house, the illustrators Mebaru-san and Kohpo-san, everyone who participated in the projects, and everyone who picked up this book, I was able to share this story. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude. Thank you very much.
Antai
TLNOTE : Sadly, this novel doesn’t have a next volume, although good news: it’s getting an anime adaptation that will air in April. Although the animation studio is pretty eh… it’s getting an all-star cast. Plus, the story actually works well even with static images, so unless there are major fuck-ups, the anime will be good. Hopefully, the anime will be successful enough so the novel can get a continuation.
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