Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? Volume 8.5 afterword

Long time no see everyone, it's the author, Takehaya.

This time I have managed to safely deliver Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? Volume 8.5 'The Silver Princess and the Blue Knight, Chapter two' to everyone. I am grateful to everyone for picking it up.

The contents of this volume is a direct continuation of volume 7.5. It's the equivalent of the ma.n.u.script that Theia wrote in volume 7, and the second half of the legend of the Blue Knight, or perhaps it could be called the Koutarou arc.

There are several highlights in this volume, but one of the best might be the appearance of the dragon. The dragon is sort of a cliché in fantasy stories, but in a novel with some Sci-fi elements, they can't just be explained as existing for the sake of it. So the dragon had to be persuasive in the context to some degree. Because of that, the dragon was the hardest part in the novel for me to write.

In terms of biology, a creature like a dragon has a rather unreasonable body. There are two really unreasonable points, and that is that they can fly with their gigantic body, and that they can breathe fire.

There has been examples of large flying creatures on Earth as well, such as the pterosaur. Specimens as large as 10 meters have been found. So there are thoughts that dragons of that size would be able to fly as well, but that's not how reality works. In reality, Pterosaurs were incredibly light and they would only weigh between 20-30 kilos. Despite their size they would only be about as heavy as a large dog. That's what let them fly. But when looking at a dragon, one can't imagine them weighing below 100 kilos. With such a powerful, gigantic figure, they would weigh in the tons. And when looking at dragon bosses in games, they would quite clearly way above 20 ton. So with that, they would in no way be able to create enough lift with their wings to get off the ground.

And the other point being that dragons could breathe flames would serve as a reason that would keep them from being real. On Earth, there are creatures that could spew out chemicals with high temperatures. However, the temperature would only be around 100 degrees Celsius. When spewed, the creature needs to be able to withstand the temperature as well, so 100 degrees would be around the limit. A part of the creature's body would have to be able to create such heat, and the rest of the body would have to be heat-resistant. So the question is if creatures like that could naturally evolve. Thinking about it seems quite obvious that the chances for that would be very low. Adding to this there are dragons that could spew all kinds of things, from blizzards or poison gas, to electricity. In fantasy works, a large variety of dragons appear. So a.s.suming that each of these dragons naturally evolved down different paths, and then coincidentally all appear in the same time period is a little bit too forced.

So, as I was troubled by this, I decided to make the entire species magicians. Their bodies aren't much different from dinosaurs, but they were born with strong magical power. Using that power, they would be able to fly and spew their special and powerful breaths. With that, I wouldn't have to worry about any biological problems since magicians already exist in this work. And from this, I reached the conclusion that intelligent specimens would be able to use magic like normal.

In a normal fantasy, I believe it's perfectly fine for dragons to have a flame sac or electricity sac. It would be fine if the G.o.d of that world designed them as such. Once Rokujouma is done, maybe I'll try my hands at a normal fantasy. I'm starting to feel like fantasy would be a lot of fun to write. Of course, that would be much later. Probably.

And I've just about run out of s.p.a.ce, so I think I'll wrap this afterword up here.

I would like to extend my warmest thanks to everyone at the editorial department, Poco-san for always drawing such cute ill.u.s.trations, my friends for always going out with me for a drink when I get stuck, and to everyone who bought this book.

Then let us meet again in the afterword of Volume 9.

October, 2011

Takehaya