Rakuin no Monshou Volume 5, Afterword

Volu 5, Afterword

This marked the start of the second part of "Rakuin no Monshou".

The stage is the western region of Tauran.

As the (body double of the) prince, Orba previously played an active role, sotis leading an army of several hundred, sotis ambushing enemies whose numbers were twice that of his own forces. This ti however, he is just a single rcenary.

Tauran is rougher and more savage than the centre of the continent, and there he is destined to fight a mysterious sorcerer who claims to be Garda, but... Yep, that is the outco we are headed towards.

Now then.

As the author, I felt quite uneasy for a number of reasons when I started this second part. The first cause for concern was of course that the stage had moved from phius to Tauran. phius has been the setting for four books and I was silently worried about leaving that familiar land in which so many of the characters are rooted.

But...

Right, starting with Taúlia and then Helio and Cherik, describing the cities, people and customs of the western regions was really, really fun. The sky and wind are free there, unlike in phius, where the atmosphere is oppressive because of Emperor Guhl's wilfulness and of his constant attempts to checkmate the relations between the three countries.

Of course, Tauran is a land of incessant warfare and the current invasion by Garda's army has left the people terrified. Even so – because it is a land that has long experienced war – warriors would feel more at ho there than in phius or Garbera. It was fun to write about since although each of the individual western countries are only small powers, their statesn have a wide range of personalities.

So.

Because I was engrossed in depicting all of this (although that isn't the only reason) the all-important phius didn't appear. Which also ans that Princess Vileena, the heroine who up until now had a perfect attendance record of appearing on the covers next to Orba, didn't get her turn either this ti.

However, no matter how wide the world becos, "Rakuin no Monshou" is first and last Orba's tale and it goes without saying that Vileena's existence is indispensable to that tale. We will just have to wait a while for the two to et again.

-- Tomonori Sugihara