Epilogue
“Gee, I still can’t believe it,” mutters Captain Kerioyl in a voice that one could take as bafflement or admiration, staring at the magic item that was, a short while ago, simply a thing a blond-haired girl carried around.
“Believe what?”
“Running into two stratum lords in such a short period of time, for one thing. But the fact that a magic item with a human soul inside beat them. If we told other hunters, they’d never believe us.”
“I agree. Even we have trouble believing it, despite seeing it firsthand,” says Vice Captain Filmina, combing her hair up and sighing a little.
“Maybe there’s something about Boxxo that draws them near,” says Shui.
“Maybe he’s actually got the makings of a hero, and this is destiny? Anyone called a hero always gets wrapped up in trouble wherever they go, after all. That’s how the stories we heard at home went, right, Red?”
“But those were just fairy tales, White.”
The three members speak lightly about it, but the captain remains silent for a moment, watching Boxxo. “You might be more right than you think. The thing is worthy of a checkered fate, isn’t it?”
“A soul…,” says Filmina, “inhabiting a magic item we’ve never seen before.”
“Yeah. I don’t know whether it’s fate or a curse, but it could still be a negative Blessing.”
In this world, there exist special powers called Blessings. But not all of them are positive ones. Some are equivalent to curses, abilities that bring misfortune to whoever possesses them.
“Well, I don’t have proof, but it’s a little too well-done to shrug off as coincidence,” says Kerioyl.
“It may be the devil’s luck for Boxxo, but it’s real fortune for us.”
“You’re right,” says Filmina. “Normally, you’d think it impossible to acquire two of the stratum lord coins we’ve been seeking in such a short time.”
The other members all nod.
The Menagerie of Fools wander the labyrinth in search of the coins dropped by defeated stratum lords. In these past few years, they’ve only gotten three. To even see two without a year going by is a first for the captain.
“Maybe it’s not Boxxo,” suggests Shui. “Maybe something strange is happening in the dungeon itself.”
“We had a king frog fiend come up, after all,” says White. “Something could be going on.”
“Yeah,” says Red. “I feel like the encounter rate for monsters has been high, too. Didn’t Hulemy mention something about it?”
Shui cocks her head to the side in confusion, and the red-and-white twins do the same, as though prompted by her gesture.
One of the conditions for Hulemy being a temporary member is that the menagerie will give her regular, detailed information on the strata in exchange for her giving them intel and advice regarding monsters. They must be remembering that.
“Come to think of it, rumor has it the Monster King’s forces are getting more active,” mentions Kerioyl. “Could be one of the factors causing all this shady stuff in the world.”
“That may be too far a leap,” says Filmina. “The Monster King’s forces, though… They were after the bastion in the north of the empire, right? They’re apparently managing to hold out, but I hear it’s only a matter of time before it falls.”
A being that controls the monsters living in the northern wastelands: the Monster King.
The monsters living in those lands have excellent individual ability, but their self-willed attitude leads them to frequent fighting among themselves, meaning they’ve never had the time to invade other nations—but then, one appeared who forced those monsters to yield by force.
It called itself the Monster King and, with the monsters it bent to its will, began to attack neighboring kingdoms. Their power is great, and one nation has already been destroyed.
The empire is blessed, too, though, for the bastion city sits on the only path connecting it to the Monster King’s lands. Though it manages to endure the attacks now, there have been whispers that an imminent fall is plausible.
“But still, who calls himself a Monster King anyway?” says Kerioyl. “You’re the king of the monsters—we get it. Such terrible naming sense.”
The captain shrugs, failing to see the point, but everyone looks at him as if to tell him “You’re one to talk.”
For certain, the Monster King would probably not want the captain to tell them that, considering he came up with the name Menagerie of Fools.
“I don’t know whether it’s a coincidence or if some power is at work, but that Boxxo really gets your gears spinning…,” he says. “He might be essential for granting our wishes.”
The Menagerie of Fools’ eyes all gather to one point.
The vending machine, which Lammis worried over and Hulemy teased, didn’t notice their gazes, leaving his mechanical body to its fate.
Afterword
Thank you very much for purchasing the second volume. Boxxo’s range of action has broadened a fair bit compared to Volume 1. I was going for a “cool-guy” vending machine. What did you think?
This marks the second time I’m writing an afterword. In the first volume, I wrote about what led me to writing the novel. It ended up being a little heavy, so this time, I’ll aim for a brighter afterword.
It isn’t as though I particularly liked novels growing up. I was bursting with interest in manga, but I could never read them when I was little.
The way my family raised me was rather strict, and I was forbidden from reading manga or watching anime until middle school. My mother hated all that stuff, so the only anime I got permission to watch were Sazae-san and Doraemon. (Although I watched other things in secret when my parents weren’t around.)
The only manga in our house, too, were historical ones about famous people from Japan and the rest of the world, but starved for manga as I was at the time, I read them front to back, over and over.
Normally, placed in a situation like this, one would concentrate on his studies, but I hated studying with a passion. Then I had the easygoing idea that if I couldn’t read manga, then I could just read novels, right? That led to me reading every novel I could get my hands on every day.
They weren’t limited to pure literature and the kinds of stories you’d find in textbooks; I mainly read action-adventure novels, historical ones, and books about the ecology of animals and insects. I was reading them as a stand-in for manga, so I remember liking books with interesting stories or ones where I could learn things I didn’t know.
That’s the kind of kid I was, so looking back on it, there were quite a few odd things about the way I spoke and acted. Whenever everyone else would have conversations about what they’d read in shounen manga magazines, I hadn’t read them, so I couldn’t keep up. If someone asked me directly, I’d say things like “Anyway, can we talk about Thomas Alva Edison?” I was a weirdo.
At the time, we had a biographical manga about Edison in the house, and being able to say his full name like that was a small pride for me. When I think about it now, I was the kind of kid my friends didn’t like too much because I always showed off my book smarts.
When I entered the later years of elementary school, after learning how interesting novels were, I was taken in by short-short stories, began to enjoy stories with sophisticated endings, and dabbled in Sherlock Holmes as well. That was how my twisted, unchildlike personality strengthened.
Once my grade school days were over and I began middle school, my mother suddenly lifted the ban on manga. She told me that now that I was in middle school, I should judge the good from the bad myself. I remember her talking about things like how she raised me the way she needed to in elementary school, and now she wanted me to take responsibility for my own actions.
Then I had a thought. Was this…a clever trap of hers? Was she letting me swim, waiting for me to slip up, get ahead of myself and buy manga, only for her to say how unhealthy the things I was reading were, claim it’s harmful, confiscate it, and talk to me about how I should be studying harder? I decided she was.
I was eager not to let her catch me with that one, so I thought about it long and hard.
At the time, I enjoyed watching Sherlock Holmes, Tuesday Suspense Theatre, and Western detective dramas, so I had started to fancy myself a deductive expert. I put my skills to work, looking for an answer as to how to go about living in the future.
Continuing to read novels like I always did would be the safest method. On the other hand, my desire to read manga grew by the day. Finally, I had an epiphany.
Couldn’t I just read light novels, many of which were fantasy, instead of the regular ones my parents liked? I could just take off the cover and it would look like a normal book. I would skip over pages with pictures on them while my parents were around, then enjoy them on my own time in solitude.
In that way, I enjoyed my days buried up to my shoulders in light novel worlds for my three years of middle school. Incidentally, I understood that my parents really wouldn’t get angry even if I read manga or watched anime when I entered my second year of middle school.
Well, after that, I ended up getting absorbed in stories about the human heart, like psychology and multiple personality disorder, when I got to high school. But when I look back, I also feel like that was the height of my youth, or a rather late chuunibyou phase.
When I talked to my mother about it, she was proud, and boasted “Well, I guess the fact that you’re writing novels now is thanks to me!” She’s not wrong, but why do I feel weird about it?
Anyway, if you’d told me at the time that I’d be in a position to let other people read stories I’ve written like this, I’d never have believed you.
Ituwa Kato not only provided the gorgeous illustrations once again, but also added to the main character’s vending machine shenanigans, and those beast people, too… Thank you so much.
My editor M and everyone in the Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko editing department, you’ve all been a great help on both Volume 1 and Volume 2.
To my mother and older brother—thank you for telling our relatives and your friends about this.
Thank you to my friends who went to the bookstore to purchase this, too.
And to all the readers who purchased Volume 2—I ask for your continued support in the future.
Hirukuma
