The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village

Volume 4, Afterword

Volume 4!!

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

This volume took the three chapters published in the magazine and added a final fourth chapter. For that reason, I wrote this to make sure you would be glad you bought the book in addition to the magazines.

That’s how it gained this irregular structure. Those who have read the final fourth chapter should understand that it completely overturns the first three chapters.

This is straying from the main point a bit, but a few book titles were given in Chapter 1. Did you notice a common theme between them? It was how they gather one’s interest with negative wordings in the title.

It might be easier to think of it as a business model of making people think they will come to harm by not knowing something rather than making them think they will gain money by knowing it. Because of the trick in Chapter 1, I added that kind of maliciousness into the information coming from the TV and radio as well. What did you think?

If you thought you might want to read a book like that if it existed, you may be a little susceptible to suggestion. If you analyze which title interested you the most, you might be able to find where that weakness lies.

An information society (and the leadership thereof) may bring the big city to mind, but I think the coincidental or intentional bias of information can be greater in rural areas where fewer TV channels and magazines are available. What do all of you think?

Also, any of you who noticed something off about the Major Arcana of tarot in Chapter 2 might be connoisseurs. We may simply call it all “tarot” but there a variety of different designs and ideologies hidden therein. If you’re interested, why not look into it?

The Aburatori was the main focus of Volume 4. As mentioned in the novel, that Youkai does not have a moral like most ghost stories do, be it “don’t lie” or “treat your parents right”. He is an extremely unusual Youkai that simply kills and simply spreads fear. There is no way of avoiding him and there are no magic words. He first showed up during the Meiji period, so he may be closer to a modern urban legend than a “good old Youkai”. And of course, he is a Youkai created by viewing the perpetrator as a monster.

On the other hand, the Zashiki Warashi is another Youkai closely related with child killing. The Zashiki Warashi is like a collection of the children killed by their families during food shortages and it holds the position of the innocent victims who will continue protecting their families as guardian deities even after being killed.

This was perpetrator versus victim.

I came up with this story by thinking I could bring more focus on the titular Youkai by pitting her against another Youkai from Tohoku.

I give my thanks to my illustrator Mahaya-san and my editors Miki-san, Onodera-san, and Anan-san. I am very thankful for all their help, including help with the magazine serialization.

I must also thank the readers. The Zashiki Warashi was back in the spotlight for once, but how did you like it? I hope you will stick with me in the future too.

And I will end this here.

I just hope I can write a fifth volume.

The story has finally begun to move in a number of ways.

-Kamachi Kazuma

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