Volume 2, Afterword
The second volume!!
This is Kamachi Kazuma.
The battlefield still changed with each chapter this time, but I tried to make it feel more like one single novel than the previous volume did. How did you like the fight against the Mass Driver conglomerate?
A mention of the moon villas could be glimpsed in Volume 1’s prologue, but I focused more on that part this time.
There were fewer direct battles against Objects than in Volume 1, but did you notice that there were about as many Objects present overall in this one?
Sladder Honeysuckle’s strategy was not to use a completed Object, but to use the separate parts that make up an Object to their fullest. He used the main cannon, the secondary cannons, the armor, the reactor, and even the idea that “the enemy has an Object” individually.
I would say the idea to split apart a completed Object like that comes from the irregular way of thinking unique to designers of that world. It was a bit of a different approach from Quenser who mentally disassembles the enemy Object to search for a weakness.
The actual results were as you saw in the novel, but if Sladder’s strategy had succeeded, it might have overturned the theory of war in that world. Perhaps Sladder could have been the protagonist of a different story.
...As the author, my intention was to focus on each individual part to demonstrate to the readers the grand scale of the completed Objects from various different angles. Do you think I pulled it off?
I view the relationship between the mass driver and the laser space elevator as being similar to the competition in the race to develop new fighter planes. The Mass Driver conglomerate was a loser of that race that refused to stop. Whenever I hear about the race to develop stealth fighters or something, I have similar thoughts to what the Information Alliance lieutenant colonel said. It probably just shows that I know nothing about the topic, but I always feel it is such a waste for the loser because it is probably quite good too. Of course, there would probably be all sorts of problems if you tried to enter the production stage with both of them. That’s why the competition to get chosen exists in the first place.
Also, I touched just a bit on the situation of the characters of Heivia, Froleytia, and Sladder. This may have made them seem more human when compared to Volume 1. However, what I wanted to get across first and foremost was the exhilaration of destroying the enemy. I would be lying if I said I was not worried this would have the opposite effect. So which way is better? Quenser, the princess, and even the old maintenance soldier lady have stories like that, but I am trying to think of ways to tell those stories while still bringing out that exhilaration.
I give my thanks to my illustrator Nagiryo-san and my editor, Miki-san. I am certain that it is the illustrations that get the cuteness of the heroines and the grandness of the Objects across to the readers. As before, I am truly thankful.
And I would like to thank the readers. I learned a lot from this novel as well. It is certainly thanks to all of your support that I had the chance to try out this more experimental story. Please continue your support in the future.
This time, they got a lot of help from the Object, but it might be fun to think of ways to defeat the Break Carrier without that help.
And so, I think I will end this here.
I lay down my pen while hoping this book will remain in your heart in some way.
Mach 25 goes well beyond a speed you can imagine in your head, doesn’t it?
-Kamachi Kazuma