Here is an amateur novelist who has been taking care of himself recently - Sou Mengmi.
Volume 5 "Kyoto Summer Formation" is finally finished.
The total word count is what I expected at the end of Volume 4 - about 300,000 words.
There are a total of 45 chapters from Chapter 288 to Chapter 333 of this volume, all telling the story of "One Night", with a total word count of about 230,000 words.
The longest night in Shin Ogata's life. (laughs)
The inspiration for this volume came from the encyclopedia entry of "Tianming Fire" when I was searching for information.
After learning that such a horrific fire occurred in Kyoto in 1788 AD, a steady stream of inspirations and ideas began to pop up in my mind.
I combined these ideas to create this volume.
When this volume was first serialized, many book friends speculated whether the Tianming Fire was man-made.
In the end, the mystery was finally revealed - the Tianming fire was not man-made.
But such huge damage is man-made.
There are also many historical figures appearing in this volume.
The Daimyo of Owari Domain [Tokugawa Munumu], the Kyoto Governor [Toda Tadahiro], the temple official [Ota Shiai], the Osaka Castle Representative [Hotita Masajun], the founder of Natural Rishin-ryu [Kondo Uchizosuke], the above
The helpers are all historical figures.
Although I have made some magical modifications to these historical figures (laughs).
Historically, Toda Tadahiro's term as Daishi in Kyoto was from 1784 to 1789.
After Toda Tadahiro resigned, Ota Shiai took over the position of Kyoto Governor. Ota Shiai's term was from 1789 to 1792.
In other words, if the plot is arranged according to historical facts, in the timeline where Ogata and the others are currently (1790), the person in charge of Kyoto should be Ota Shia.
But in the end I decided to let Toda Tadahiro serve as the Kyoto Governor for one more year (laughs).
The reason is simple - the character of Toda Tadahiro is particularly suitable for magic transformation.
What did Tadahiro Toda do after he resigned as Kyoto Governor - I can't find out at all.
This kind of person who doesn't know what he will do next is the most suitable person to use for magic transformation (laughs).
The serialization of Volume 5, to be honest - was very difficult.
It’s not that Volume 5 is so difficult to write, but that the reality on the author’s side came up frequently during the serialization of Volume 5.
First, at the end of January, I will work on the internship materials.
After finally finishing the internship materials, I suddenly felt unwell, not knowing whether it was due to staying up too late or some other reason.
It took a lot of effort to get my body back into better shape, but I got involved in extra activities again.
The three days of writing the extra were really difficult. While ensuring that the main text was not interrupted, I had to write a 30,000-word extra.
After successfully finishing the episode, the author successfully started to adjust his physical condition from scratch (the leopard head cried).
But overall, Volume 5 ended very smoothly and successfully.
"While describing the story of Ogata and others, it also shows the various aspects of Kyoto at that time" - I wrote this volume with this idea in mind.
So you can see in this volume: Grandma Kua, whose family was destroyed by the Tenmei Fire but still lives a strong life, ordinary people in Kyoto who are looking forward to the "Shanboko Parade", and those "unseen people" living in "Uhara"
"People", the Shimabara wandering girls whose only way to participate in the Gion Festival is to watch the fireworks, the residents of the burnt-out areas whose homes have been unable to be rebuilt, those who feel that they are being bullied as a matter of course, who are being bullied and kept hidden.
Bureaucrats, officials who are forced to perform tasks they do not want to perform...
The overall psychological feeling of serializing this volume is painful and happy, but after seeing that this volume finally took shape and was successfully completed, I still feel a sense of relief.
Anyway - thank you all so much for your support!
Starting tomorrow, the serialization of the sixth volume "Edo Castle Gozen Trial" will begin.
I hope everyone can subscribe on time~~
I can’t think of anything else to say, so I’ll stop here for this postscript.
My deepest gratitude to everyone who supports this book!