AFTERWORD TO VOLUME ONE

   Hello, everybody.
   I don't know when it started, but there's been a Romance of the Three Kingdoms boom recently, and as a result, Chinese-style fantasy stories are getting popular. It startled me because I was afraid that the readers would immediately see through my superficial knowledge of China.
   This story is a sequel to the previous work that I did for White Heart, Shadow of the Moon, Sea of the Shadow. They contain two separate stories, and this one happens at an earlier time than the other one, but it is still basically a sequel.
   The following is something I want to say to the readers of the previous work.
   It seems like everything Taiki says goes through, but actually the people on Mt. Hou can't understand him. That's right, it's just like in the last book where everything needed to be translated. Because the story this time is more complicated (there are a ton of kanji that Taiki doesn't know), and also whether or not I mentioned the translators wasn't important, so I didn't write out that portion. However, in my head, I have established that all their words go through an interpreter, so fellow readers, please keep this in mind as well. (To think that I had to ask the readers to accommodate me like this...) *pekori* [note: this is the sound of ono-sensei bowing her head quickly]
   The previous book received a good response from readers, so it's because of you that there is a sequel. Thank you very much! I hope that I can write yet another sequel. However...I need to get rid of this habit of needing to separate books into two volumes... Tohoho.
   I hope everyone can continue on and read the next volume.

   --Ono Fuyumi