by Yuu Miyazaki
She clenched her fists.
“My word… You really want to defeat Miss Enfield, don’t you?”
“I admit it, I do. I can’t lose to her, no matter what.”
Yes. She had to defeat Claudia Enfield. When next they met, Laetitia would win.
She swore it on her honor as the second ranked at St. Gallardworth Academy—Gloriara, the Witch of Shining Wings.
“You weren’t satisfied with the last Gryps? A win is a win, isn’t it?”
“I know we won as a team—but still!” Recalling what had happened two years ago, Laetitia ground her teeth.
Even though her team had won that match, Claudia’s swords had destroyed Laetitia’s school crest—that hateful Pan-Dora.
“I’ll never forget how she humiliated me…!”
That wasn’t the only reason Laetitia needed to beat Claudia, of course. But her pride wouldn’t allow her to leave a defeat unavenged.
“Hmm…” Ernest closed the air-window and sat in thought. The smile had faded. “There is another reason why I’m interested in him.”
“There’s something else?”
“It seems that Dirk Eberwein has made contact with him.”
“The Tyrant?” Laetitia made no effort to conceal her displeasure.
Gallardworth and Le Wolfe had no shortage of disagreements. To Laetitia, and the rest of their school, Le Wolfe’s notorious student council president was a mortal enemy.
“There are also reports that he’s mobilized the Cats,” Ernest said, “although we’re not sure if it’s related to the boy.”
“That…would seem to indicate some disturbance,” Laetitia remarked.
If the intelligence apparatus of Le Wolfe was in motion, trouble was sure to follow.
Whether that trouble would ever reach the public consciousness was another issue entirely.
“We can only hope that nothing will come of it…” Ernest turned his eyes, now shadowed with apprehension, to the scene outside his window.
“W-wow, another unbelievable turn of events! Sasamiya’s landed a clean hit on Rimcy! Needless to say, this is also the first time all tournament for Rimcy to take a hit! Could the invincible team from Allekant finally fall today?!”
The elated cry of the commentator filled the arena over the thunderous cheers of a frenzied crowd.
Flora was no exception to the madness, shouting from a corner of the stands with sweat in her balled fists and ecstasy lighting up her face. “Miss Sasamiya, Miss Toudou! You’re both awesome!”
A pure admiration swirled in her chest along with a wish that she could be like them someday. She waved her arms wildly.
The spectators were standing up in their excitement, and soon everyone in the audience was on their feet. Flora, being so short, was lost in the crowd. As she hopped up and down on her seat, trying desperately to get a view—
“Hey, you.” A deep, dark voice spoke from directly behind her.
“Huh…?”
Just as she turned, a sharp blow landed on her neck.
Not a single person in the feverish crowd noticed the girl disappear.
AFTERWORD
Hello, Yuu Miyazaki here, delivering Volume 4 of The Asterisk War to you.
You did get it, didn’t you…?
Well, as it happens, while I was working on this volume my schedule got thrown completely off the rails thanks to a mystery toothache. The symptoms got worse, especially at night, and for a long time I couldn’t sleep because of the pain. Even when I ran to the dentist, the X-rays showed no cavities, and the medicine they gave me for hypersensitivity or whatever didn’t work at all.
In the end, they figured out it was pulpitis and gave me the right treatment—but what a mess. They gave me only local anesthesia, so I was surprised to find I fell asleep in the dentist’s chair for the first time in my life. Sleep deprivation is serious business.
So, long story short—things got more down to the wire than ever before, and I was terribly worried about whether this volume would make it safely into your hands. Well, I guess if you’re reading this, everything must have turned out okay.
Now, enough about my life. Let’s talk about the story.
The Phoenix, which started in the previous volume, is finally heading to a climax.
This volume revolved around the Jie Long Seventh Institute. With Seisenjutsu and a particular aesthetic, it’s one of the more distinctive of the six schools. I’m glad I finally got to turn the spotlight on them. One way or another, so far I’ve been able to give you a glimpse of four out of the six schools.
I’m hoping to wrap up the Phoenix in the upcoming fifth volume, so please bear with me a little longer.
By the way, I asked my editor, Mr. Iwaasa, to include a brief summary of the characters and the story so far. This series has a pretty sizeable population of characters, so I hope that helps if you find yourself asking, Huh? Who’s this guy, again?
Once again, okiura has given us wonderful, awesome, and adorable illustrations. I was thinking about how tiring it must be to work on the Jie Long designs, since their costumes are so unique. But I’m very excited—what he came up with exceeded my highest expectations.
I had left everything to him, including the mech team of Ardy and Rimcy, and Saya’s new weapons, which made it onto the front cover. I couldn’t contain my excitement when I saw the finished illustrations. Just really amazing stuff.
And the manga adaptation of The Asterisk War by Ningen is running in Monthly Comic Alive to great acclaim. The character designs have a lot of rigid lines to them, okiura admits, and I imagine that must be hard to turn into dynamic scenes for a comic. But Ningen has really refined characters like Claudia to shine in that medium. Neither okiura nor I could stop repeating how amazing it was.
I can’t wait to see the paperbacks!
And finally, I received help from a great many people in completing this volume.
To my editor, Mr. Iwaasa, I am so thankful for his hard work pushing the project forward despite the problems with my work schedule. Likewise, to Sakai with production, I’m so sorry for all the trouble I heaped on you, and so grateful. Thank you so very much. To Shimizu, Ohrui, and all the editorial staff, all the staff at the bookstores who made my signings possible, and most of all to my readers who keep supporting this work—thank you, everyone.
Until next time!
Yuu Miyazaki, August 2013
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