Tasogare-iro no Uta Tsukai:Volume2 Afterword

Afterword

Long time no see, everyone.

It’s been four months since ‘Evhe Smiles At Dawn’ was published in January. Thanks to many warm voices of support, I was able to start writing the second volume of the ‘Tasogare-iro no Uta Tsukai’ series.

Four months. Whether it’s because my sense of time has become numb or time flowed mercilessly without my knowing— Strangely, I always felt impatient during these four months. ……It’s odd, I shouldn’t have been lazing around…… Ah…… I wonder…… I might have been lazy after all (timidly)

Well, aside from a lazy person’s confessions—

The second volume, ‘The Path of the Songstress’— I personally classify it as a novel about classmates, but what did you think?

The atmosphere in the class of Neight and his friends, the scenery outside the campus, civilization. Moreover, there appeared a special job other than Reciters called GillsheExorcists, as well as songs with a different feel than those of the first volume. Both are part of the ‘outside world’ not described in the first volume, but are things I wanted to portray even before the previous volume was published.

This time, I carefully aimed for an atmosphere similar to the one ‘Evhe’ had, yet also slightly different. I would be happy if you enjoyed it.

……But even though I say it is a novel about classmates, by the time I realized, it had completely turned into a story with GillsheExorcists as the main focus. I feel like it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it an Ada-themed novel.

Editor K-sama: “Sazane-san, you like Ada, don’t you?”

He had bluntly pointed out. ……T-That’s wrong. Rather, it’s because of Klaus (eh?)

After all— just like the first volume, each and every character that appears in ‘Tasogare-iro no Uta Tsukai’ has an important scene. Furthermore, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this is a story where the scenes when each character became a main character are compiled into a complete volume.

This second volume was about Ada. I’m sure there are some people who have noticed, but to prepare for Ada being the main character of the second volume, even though Neight’s classmates weren’t described very much at all in the first volume, only Ada showed her face in various places.

The protagonists of this story are Neight and Kluele, but they are sometimes helped by Xins, the other teachers and adults, and sometimes other classmates around them. I would be happy if you would warmly watch over them as they gradually grow from here on.

—Also, I will explain a little about the third volume that will be published in July.

There was an old promise made by Night and Rainbow. The next volume will be a story revolving around that ‘old promise’.

The second volume showed a bit of the situation in the outside world.

The third volume will continue the story that has been progressing until now.

What I truly mean is that the following books will finally feel like they have the theme of a Twilight-colored Song User. There was the old promise, and after crossing over a long span of time, there is a new promise. That theme, which could be called the ‘New Testament’, will the focus of the third volume.

The third volume— It is a story about the new songs and promises created by the ‘Night-colored boy’. I hope to gradually uncover the mysteries and questions left over from the stories up to this point, so I would be glad if you would follow along with me.

<Information about the publishing of the short story>

The second volume in May. The third volume in July. Between this two-month publishing interval— are the three months May, June, and July.

Within these three months, I will publish a short story about ‘Tasogare-iro no Uta Tsukai’ in Fujimi Bunko’s ‘Monthly Dragon Magazine’.

Planned schedule for 2007:

May: Tasogare-iro no Uta Tsukai II published

The first part and special feature serialized in ‘Monthly Dragon Magazine July Edition’

June: The second part serialized in ‘Monthly Dragon Magazine August Edition’

July: Tasogare-iro no Uta Tsukai III published

The third part serialized in ‘Monthly Dragon Magazine September Edition’

—It will be something like that. You may check for the detailed schedule in bookstores and other such locations. It will also be on my home page and blog, so please check that as well.

Three months of serializations mean that it will be a short story with three parts. What the story is about should be obvious. I have been worrying about the publishing order and I am currently in the middle of working on it. Sometimes I feel like saying things like ‘……There’s no way that I can make it in time,’ but I will try my best. (I actually mutter that to myself every night, but please keep it a secret)

By the way, as for the first serialization, it is an episode that will take place between the second and third volumes. Additionally, because it will have a significant number of pages, please definitely look forward to it.

About the second and third parts…… The plot is a secret, but nearly all of the characters we’ve encountered so far will be in it. These are all episodes that I was unable to write into the main storyline, so I would be glad if you could enjoy them as much as the main volumes.

* Additionally, if you could write ‘Tasogare-iro no Uta Tsukai was interesting’ on Dragon Magazine’s reader survey postcards and send them off, I would be extremely grateful! (straightforward)

—Well, I’ll end my self-promotions here—

<From the time when I finished writing the first volume until now>

I said so in the beginning as well, but I have received a lot of letters and emails with your comments and I truly thank you very much. I treat each and every response very preciously. I reread them about once every week. A fair number of characters have appeared since the first volume and a wide variety of them are liked by readers. I am truly happy that you guys like so many of the characters. As for popularity, many readers voted for the Night-colored flying lizard, which makes him (it) very happy. (It might even make the top three)

……Would you be fine with a lizard standing on the podium, all of you humans?

……Also, are you fine with how the story is going so far?

<Lastly>

As the second volume is currently being published, I have relied on a truly large number of people to have made it here. Firstly, the lead editor K-sama has carefully checked the manuscript over and over again and polished the work. Like in the first volume, Takeoka Miho-sama has drawn beautiful illustrations for this volume as well.

Both of you, thank you very much for finding time in your busy schedules to help me.

When I caught a cold and stayed in bed for a week, my family supported me in various ways.

And also, more than anyone, thank you to those of you who have read the first volume and continued onto the second one.

Thank you very much. I will continue trying my best from here on, so I hope that you would please continue to support me.

* P.S. To everyone who sent me an email or a letter

Whether it’s by email or a letter, I will try my best to reply to you within three months from now. If you still have not received a reply in three months, please remind me with an email or a comment on my blog, which you can find the link to below, and I will reply as soon as possible. Please continue supporting me from here on.

Well then. I pray that we can meet again in the short story and in the third volume—

Thank you very much for having volume two in your possession right now.

On a certain day in March, while listening to ‘Souheki no Mori’ by Shikata Akiko—

Sazane Kei

HP: “Room of Fine Noise” http://members2.jcom.home.ne.jp/0445901901/

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