Horizon:Volume 8C Afterword

Afterword

And that was Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon VIII-C. This volume ended summer break and it feels like a big turning point has arrived, but to the commanders at the time, I think these turning points had to feel like, “Huh? The tides are suddenly turning?”

I mean, it’d be a real shock to have half your class swapped out after summer break. Given the way things happened back then and because they were so cut off from information, the impact must have been at about that level.

In that sense, the real winners were whoever went to the usual hangouts at the convenience store, mall, or wherever else (Kyou was a lot like that back then), but if you were playing in a regional tournament or busy studying, you wouldn’t have heard any of it.

And Europe wasn’t much different on this front. Most of those countries had systems for sending messengers or letters, but rumors and delays were still a problem. The larger the country, the more they turn into dinosaurs where the actions of the extremities can’t reach the head. That was why absolute monarchy could be seen as a way of simplifying communications and speeding up the country’s reactions. Meanwhile, the Holy Roman Empire had all of the principalities to worry about, so communications and instructions would conflict and the entire country declined. In that sense, one reason behind France’s success was using their king to manage their information infrastructure and army as much as possible.

Now, the chat.

“Got any embarrassing stories from your school days? We’ve started including kindergarten ones lately.”

“How about the time they opened the pool at nursery school, but I fell on the poolside and stood back up with my forehead split open? I was bleeding bad and I collapsed into the pool, so no one got to swim that year.”

“You people have been causing trouble all your lives, haven’t you?”

“Then how about the time I insisted on helping clean at nursery school, so I went up into the attic to help the teacher and got so overexcited I jumped right into a nail sticking down from the column above me? My head bled a whole bunch and I fell down the stairs to the floor below.”

“What is it with you and head injuries?”

I think I did hear children are prone to hurting their heads. Anyway, my work background music this time was Be Free by GReeeeN. Every time I hear it, it feels like a song for taking the first step.

This time, I was wondering, “Who took the biggest first step?” The next one will be after Hexen and GT, so wait a bit.

March 2015. A morning for visiting Makuhari.

-Kawakami Minoru

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