Afterword

Thank you for picking up this book. I'm Ishinomiya Kant.

We've finally made it to Volume 5. This time around, things are a little different from usual. Rather than focusing on the march of civilization, this volume is more about the characters' inner lives and serves as a grand settling of accounts for the story so far.

That said, civilization has still been quietly chugging along behind the scenes, so let me introduce a few of those developments here. To pad the afterword's word count.

Eyeglasses: Due to fire dragons living in the area, Scarlet has always been well-developed in technologies requiring intense heat, like metallurgy and glassmaking. Eyeglasses, though, weren't invented until long after glass itself. If you just wanted to read text, you could press a hemispherical piece of glass against the page, no vision adjustment needed. Incidentally, the glasses Nina wears were designed by Mentor.

Clocks: Magical wall clocks. Magic is notoriously bad at producing stable, continuous motion, but Innis managed to create a clock with an accurate second hand. The catch is that it needs to be manually activated every day, so mass production hasn't taken off. They're only installed in select spots like the central plaza tower and the school building.

Magilights: Magical lighting. By capturing light spirits and sealing them inside lanterns, you get illumination without sorcery or open flame. The downside is they can't be switched on and off, so when you want it dark, you have to lower a blackout curtain over them.

Now for the acknowledgements. To my editor, who always has my back, and to Farumaro-sensei, who handled the illustrations. Thank you so much. To the brilliant people who always bail me out when I'm stuck on the epigraph text: this time, Arabian literature and the great Shakespeare came to my rescue. To my adorable daughter, who should be turning five by the time this book comes out, and to my wife, who supports me through thick and thin. To everyone involved, and to all the readers who've followed Mentor and company's story, my heartfelt thanks.

-Ishinomiya Kant