Queen's Blade: Sword of the Unicorn, chapter 6-Afterword

Now that we're back, a little candymaking battle poll! :3

And here's the first of SOU's afterwords! Next time, we finish the whole book, yaay!

Enjoy!




Author’s Afterword

How do you do, I’m Eiji Okita.
It’s my sincerest hope that you, the reader, had fun reading this book.
My first introduction to Queen’s Blade was with the series that started it all, around ten or so years ago, in an import game corner within a certain large bookstore in Kanda, Tokyo. At the time, I was looking through untranslated TRPGs with friends when we spotted it. “Lost Worlds”, the world’s first battle type visual gamebook.

Wholly unique, the one-on-one battle system it specialized in was both incredibly innovative and fresh. There were no uncertain factors like dice rolls, it all came down to reading your opponent’s next attack and choosing your best move accordingly, making it a thrilling play by play game reminiscent of actual fighting. Familiarity with your chosen character’s abilities was a must and all in all, it was just a really fun game that made you feel one with your character.

Because I was a geek back then, I remember telling my friends: “Boy, I wish there was a novel about this with a cute girl or some sexy cool lady in it.”
Who could have guessed such a fantasy might end up coming true ten years after the fact!?
So when they asked me, the guy still fantasizing: “Would you be interested in writing a Queen’s Blade novel?” of course I said yes.

It was destiny. I’d instantly regret it if I didn’t jump at the chance.
Thinking that, I decided to tackle Queen’s Blade head on.
Having accepted, imagine my surprise when the editor-in-chief Mr. H, the director Mr. M, and QB’s director Mr. Hans, the three sides from HJ suddenly approached me.
One conversation later, well more of a chat, with Mr. H, the keywords that would make up the story were set.
“Leina’s the protagonist.”
“There’s a crossdressing boy.”
“It’s a little racy.”

And so the first book was written bearing these three major elements in mind.
Early on, it was decided to pair Leina up with Tomoe but, soon the issue of who would play the antagonist came up.
Each Queen’s Blade character fights for what she believes in. So they all have their different viewpoints but there’s no one single character you could call a true villain among them.
As such, to make things easier, I called for an emergency audition. Going above and beyond the already released visual books, I sought out opponents likely to butt heads with our two heroines.
And the three candidates were: Menace, Airi and Echidna. So I picked Airi, while also deciding to sneak in a little Echidna screen time too.
It’s not like I was smitten by her figurine or anything. Or attracted to its butt…
Okay, if I keep beating around the bush, it’ll just eventually come out on its own but one of Queen’s Blade many charms is its wide cast of attractive characters.

After reading this, if you’re even the slightest bit interested in the tabletop game, by all means pick up a visual book. Trying to reproduce the fight at the end of the book with the tools you have on hand is pretty neat. So in closing, allow me to announce the in-game stats for the “Serenading Blade, The Sword of the Unicorn.”
“Serenade Blade, The Sword of the Unicorn: Whenever faced with an opponent with the Undead attribute, add +2 to your attack. Whenever you turn to page 57, recover all lost body points.”
Quite the powerful weapon.
Incidentally, for Airi’s ultimate technique where she wraps herself in lesser spirits during the decisive finale, I assumed her to have a damage modifier of +2.

If you have the visual books on hand, I say give recreating the fight a try and if the outcome ends up being a little different than in the novel, well that’s interesting too.
Now then, please look forward to Leina and Fio’s next adventure.
I’m pumped up! Okita, signing off.