Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

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Everyone, nice to meet you. Satou Tsutomu here.

Thank you very much for picking up this book.

This "Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei" that became my debut work in a novel-posting site since October 2008 was edited and revised in the published serialization.

This work was written entirely as a hobby, then received an offer to be published out of luck.

It was started from an email I received from the great administrator of the novel-posting site.

That email was sent by the people from ASCII Media Works, and the text transmitted was a words of invitation, "We want to discuss the terms for publication."

To be honest, I doubted my eyes.

Entertainment novel is my number one hobby. I also love reading and writing.

Therefore, as an entertainment novel writer, I had the desire to publish my works in the stage of books since long ago.

While being a salaryman who will never get promoted, I applied this novel that I wrote in my spare time to the publisher's rookie of the year award.

However, this kind of thing was allowed precisely because "Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei" was freely published on the web by an amateur and a self-evaluated work.

Dealing with a reputable publisher is an adventure isn't it~?

I remembered how I wished that this was somebody else's problem.

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Actually, the aforementioned publisher's award I applied to was Dengeki Novel Prize by ASCII Media Works, but my competition entry was easily defeated.

If you allow me to make an excuse, it was because I had to tightly compress the amount of sentences of this work into half due to the application's regulation.

I even felt, "Isn't this unreasonable?" But I accepted my defeat.

"The world is not that sweet" is one of the few useful lessons I learned in my life as a salaryman.

However, an "unexpectedly nice" event also occurs in life once in a while.

After a chat started with a usual greeting with the person from editorial department of Dengeki Bunko that I met (although probably keeping his name secret is unnecessary, I will call him M-sama in accordance to the custom(?)).

I was really surprised when asked, "Aren't you 'XXXX'-san who wrote 'XXXX'?".

The work that I applied to Dengeki Novel Prize was this work, although they shared some settings, the style of the SF was completely different, moreover the pen name was also written using kanji notation of an English-American name by the phonetic equivalent.

Please remember that it somehow happened with my rejected work, but if you read this work on the web and a "This setting, I remember seeing it somewhere before" caught in your antenna, it seems that was the reason I was called out.

It seems M-sama was also hesitating to change a free content into a paid service, he was very worried about what the web readers would think were he in their position.

I also thought about that. However, because of the long economic recession, downturn of the company, and overtime's restriction, headwind was blowing my salaryman profession, so I thought "It'll be hard if I don't look for a side job huh. But then, I will no longer have any time to write a novel."

That being the case, this was the best thing I could ask for in order to continue writing this work.

The world is really not that sweet, but sometimes waiting for good luck = sweet event.

And of course, this good luck was the offer of publication from M-sama.

And since we were publishing a work that originated on the web, this publication also received various help from the administrators of the site "Let's Become a Novelist".

But above all, thanks to all of you who have supported this work so far. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude.

I also want to express my gratitude to Kawahara-sensei who gave me a great honor with his recommendation words, Ishida-sama who added substantial value to this work with his illustrations, Stone-sama who did the mechanical design, Suenaga-sama who did the color coordination, and all of the staff who were involved in the making of this book.

And more than anything, to all of you who picked up this work, this book that I am so fortunate to be able to deliver, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

This is not the end of my good luck, so I'll do my best to deliver the next volume of this story to everyone, please also support me in the future.

(Satou Tsutomu)

The Late Great Favourite

Kawahara Reki

Errr, when I was asked to write the recommendation words for "Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei" from the editor in charge of the story, Mr. M, I immediately replied in excitement "I'll do it! I'll do it! I'll write two thousand pages!" while looking at him with a rather presumptuous or maybe a rather arrogant look... Since the container for a recommendation commentary that long is impossible to exist, I humbly ask you to please read these pages as column instead.

In this preface, I'm afraid I would suddenly start from my personal affairs. I, Kawahara Reki, got his first book published by Dengeki Bunko in 2009. At that time, there was almost no case of a novel published in the web as amateur work will be published as it is commercially (aimed at young adults). In these two years, considerable amount of Web Adaptation were published by all companies. I felt that web novel's existence has been completely recognized. Then this time, there is the long-awaited publication from Dengeki Bunko, "Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei" ("Mahouka" from now on).

If you are a reader, then I think you already know that "Mahouka" was serialized in novel-posting site Let's Become a Novelist from October 2008, and concluded in March 2011 as a very long work. What's more, it was leading the popularity ranking by a large margin for a long period of time and gained a remarkable 30 million page views (!).

Although I can't possibly have enough space to thoroughly write about the charm of "Mahouka" which has gathered so much support, in short, I think I can say it was an Online Novel that has Unique Deviation that effectively and splendidly exhibited.

For example, if "Mahouka" was written as a competition manuscript for rookie of the year award, even with its persistently constructed magic theory and many colourful characters who made an appearance one by one from the start, it didn't omit a significant portion of the story to fit the regulation. Also, online novel do not have any limitation other than the Author's Limit. So it is possible for the author to write a massive amount of settings, lot of characters, and a gradually breathtaking developments to one's heart's content.

Certainly, it was also a large deviation from the theory of business. What can convert that deviation to charm, in my personal opinion, is only the Amount of Material, in other words only the amount of the text written. Although earlier I said it was the author's limit, I'm having difficulty with the two series I'm writing as its scale become larger and larger. Anyway, with online novel, what gives an author motivation is only the readers' comments (in the early stage, even that is nonexistent...). When we have passion as the energy source to create, and earnestly connect it when writing something which deviates from theory, surely that work will emit a dazzling charm.

"Mahouka" is a rare work that breaks through that very limit and rapidly ascended to the top. The total amount of text the author, Mr. Satou Tsutomu, written in two and a half years surpassed the production pace of most professional writers. For all of you dear readers who just entered the world of "Mahouka" from Dengeki Bunko, please look forward for the work to keep expanding its world from now on.

And, although so far I regrettably had been writing in formal language, the prime example of the deviation's charm in "Mahouka" is, if you want to be loved by Miyuki-san more than her Onii-sama, I believe that you have to take Tatsuya-kun's position as the strongest first! For Tatsuya-kun who got magnificent illustration from Mr. Ishida Kana and became more excellent and brilliant than ever, I think Miyuki-san will surely show us even more rampage if that ever happens and continuing publication would not be fun anymore.

"Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei" is certainly the Late Great Favourite from the world of online novel.

Notes

An azusayumi is a kind of sacred bow used in some Shinto rituals. Rather than an archery bow, it is more of a musical bow instead.