How a Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom

Midword

To everyone who bought volume four of Realist Hero, thank you very much. This is Dojyomaru, having just the other day finally updated my Ichitaro word processor to the newest version. Thank you for everything, 2006 version...

For this afterword—or midword, rather—I was given three pages. This volume marks the end of the first part of Realist Hero, so I secured the extra space because there’s a lot I wanted to say.

In terms of the story, this volume concludes the calendar year 1546 CC, the year in which Souma was summoned. It may seem strange to say this myself, but the composition of this story is pretty strange. The first volume is all internal politics, the second volume is all war, the third is the post-war process, while volume four is the continuation of that process and resolution to the remaining problems.

I think you’ll understand, now that I’ve put it that way, but volumes one through four of this series form one larger story. It was written as one long serialization online.

Basically, I’ve spent one volume on each of the four stages of the ki-sho-ten-ketsu (introduction-development-twist-conclusion) structure. That was why the foreshadowing often stretched across volumes. The intentions of the three dukes become apparent in the second volume, the intention of the Empire in the third, and the reason why the throne was given to Souma back at the very beginning in this fourth. That’s the sort of thing that brings reviewers to tears, huh? I think it makes coming up with an opinion on each volume very difficult.

I spent a decade sending my work in to newcomers’ awards and failing to win them. If I had sent a book with this composition to a newcomers’ award contest, I doubt it would have passed the first screening. If I’d sent one volume’s worth, it would have just been an incomplete manuscript. If I’d sent it all in, I would have gotten screened out by one of the contest criteria (word limit), and they wouldn’t have even looked at it. I’m kind of amazed it’s been able to see print myself.

I think a large part of why I have been able to get this novel printed was because it was a web novel.

I was able to write what I wanted, without having to worry about word counts, and there were readers out there who would read the long text. Thanks to that environment existing, the story was able to be well rated, and I was approached by a publisher. People often point to the benefits of advance advertising and rankings, but I think this may be where the true value of releasing as a web novel lies.

I couldn’t be more grateful to the old home of this novel on the web, the people who followed the web novel version there, as well as those who are still following the ongoing serialization on Pixiv. Thank you all very much.

Now, on that note, I’ll talk about this novel, which has reached a good breaking point. For me, I had been thinking of this volume as a sort of cancellation line. That is to say, if I could just make it this far, then even if the series was canceled, I would at least have something worthwhile to show for it. That’s because, in the web version, this is where the title changes from How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom to How a Realist Hero Redeveloped the Kingdom. It looks like I’ll be able to keep writing, though, so I’m relieved to hear that.

By the way, because I’m told a title change after only a few volumes would cause confusion, the plan is for the next volume to be How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom V.

...Though the rebuilding is pretty much done at this point, you know.

Still, there are a lot of long-running programs that have titles that don’t really match what they do anymore, aren’t there? Like a certain show that hardly ever talks about law, but still has Consultation Office in its title, or that show that went to the ends of the world, then stopped doing quizzes, but still has the Q in its title. While taking advantage of the same jinx used by those long-running programs, I hope I’ll be able to keep writing for the time being.

Now then, if you’re wondering why we have a “Midword” this time, that’s because there’s another short story after this. People who have been following me from the web novel days might recognize it. This short story that takes place after the end of volume 4, on New Year’s Eve, was posted not as part of the main text, but through my activity updates. It was in the middle of this story that I announced the series would be getting a print edition, too.

I liked the fluffy feeling of that short story, and I wanted to fit it in somehow, but it felt slightly redundant after the conclusion to this volume, so I decided to mark an end to things with this Midword, and then include it as a sort of bonus.

I do hope you’ll stick with me until the end.

Now, I give my usual thanks to Fuyuyuki, who draws the illustrations, my former editor, who I congratulate on being promoted to assistant chief editor, my new editor, who will be looking after me from here on, the designers, the proofreaders, and everyone who now holds this book in their hands.

This has been Dojyomaru.