Volume 14, Afterword

Volume 14, Afterword

That was the final volume of Owari no Chronicle. It’s thanks to all of you that I could do this for three years. Thank you very much.

And while this ends Owari, the Ahead series itself continues. Sayama, Shinjou and the others have finished the “Ending” that their ancestors left behind and they will now be creating a “Chronicle” of their own world, but the stage and focus of the story is not just on them. It is a story of the entire world growing livelier. I think the viewpoint will jump all around the world.

When the Ahead world is opened up again someday or the Chronicle summing it up is released, I hope you will want to know what has happened in this world.

In all seriousness, thank you so much for these three years. And with that, the usual chat.

“Today, I’ve invited in a special guest.”

“C’mon, I’m no one special. I’m just a normal person. What kind of introduction was that?”

“Come to think of it, most people would probably understand you. …How does it feel to get thrown through the air by an elephant?”

“I thought I was going to ele-faint. …Didn’t like that one? Then it felt ele-fantastic.”

“I hope it throws you again and breaks your neck. Anyway, did you read it?”

“Of course I didn’t. I checked the afterwords for 1-5, and didn’t only one of them read it?”

“Yeah. 6 isn’t out yet, but they didn’t read it for that one either. In other words, you all are statistically the worst!”

“Shut up. Besides, your books take up too much space on the bookshelf! Oh ho ho ho ho. How about you go die!?”

“Don’t you dare complain about that in the final volume of those books that take up so much space!”

“Also, you need to thank the readers who have bothered to stick with you. C’mon, bow down.”

This was kind of all over the place for the last one, wasn’t it? …Anyway, thank you very much, everyone. I’ll do my very best to get a proper afterword for my next book.

I thought this volume’s background music would be Silent Night, but I feel like that’s more the background music for the series as a whole. Instead, I chose Soldier’s Song from the video game Alien Soldier. I wasn’t sure I should choose it since it’s a Mega Drive game and nearly impossible to get your hands on, but these days you can download Sega’s games (for a fee) and they’re rereleasing it. It’s strange how things from the past continue to live on in the present without deteriorating.

Anyway, I was listening to that while proofreading.

“Who was the most uneasy with themselves?”

I also thought about that.

Now then, now then. I’m currently trying to figure out where I’ll go next.

October 2005. A suddenly chilly morning

-Kawakami Minoru