No Game No Life

Vol 4 Epilogue



Epilogue - Interrupt End


Part 1


She felt voices conversing behind her by the beach.


Miko, who was walking alone in the darkness, looked up at the moon and


began mumbling to herself.


“...Did he realize – I was testing him?”


No...Miko shook her head, denying her own words.


Even if he did find out, that man’s actions still wouldn’t change.


Sora from the start – never planned to sacrifice Ino at all.


The sounds of his heartbeat didn’t change at allfrom the beginning, and it


sounded incredibly relaxed.


- Yes, Miko was testing Sora and the others.


If Miko was in that position, being forced to make the same decision, what


would she have done?


It was very possible – no, it was unquestionable that she would choose to


sacrifice Ino.


Because it was an unnecessary risk, and that just by one sacrifice they would


acquire many benefits.


Because to ask for even more – would be 「Idealism」.


And to give up on her ideals -


- Was her limit.


“...Can we expect them?”


If it was those two, they would simply nonchalantly overcome their limits.


Just to confirm this – Miko who had used the decision to 「Save or sacrifice


Ino」 to test them, closed her eyes.


Sora and s.h.i.+ro – would they choose to 「Sacrifice him」 like she would...


She had stubbornly 「Tested」 Sora and s.h.i.+ro, attempting to make them


surpa.s.s limits that even she could not.


- To punish herself, to force her to live with extreme guilt for the rest of her


life, she had intentionally chosen Hatsuse Ino (him) as the sacrifice, and -


“...Maybe we really can expect them.”


At this point, Miko finally realised.


The ruckus coming from behind her – Imanity, Werebeasts, Flügel and even


Dhampirs.


- Sora and s.h.i.+ro never had the concept of 「Racial Discrimination」.


“...If it’s them – maybe we can trust them with it.”


As she spoke, she clutched her chest.


Miko felt her own heartbeat – an emotion long forgotten.


She murmured to herself while looking up at the blood-red moon.


Part 2


“Jibril.”


“I’m here.”


Upon hearing Sora’s calls, Jibril immediately teleported behind him.


“You know how the Empress went into hibernation, and the conditions to


awaken her, don’t you.”


When they met Plum, it was Jibril that had explained the situation to them.


“Yes – but that was false information...”


Thinking that she would be scolded again, Jibril’s voice softened slightly, but


then Sora said:


“It’s not that, where did you get the information?”


“My hometown – Avant Heim.”


Sora continued half expectantly, half helplessly:


“...Anyway with the way you Flügel do things, you must have gathered all


sorts of written resources from all over the world, right?”


“Yes, of course ♪ “


Jibril nodded proudly in confirmation.


Looking at her expression, Sora couldn’t help but smile bitterly in


helplessness, thought to himself “Never mind” and continued pondering the


situation at hand.


- To beat the Empress’ game.


Victory conditions that n.o.body knew and practically didn’t exist, and there


were extremely limited ways to find them.


But – there were still ways.


They needed – information, and -


“Steph, please work together with Izuna to search for information in the late


king’s books.”


“- Huh?”


“Regarding the continent Elkia originally possessed that bordered the Seirens’


seas.”


And then – Sora said:


“I don’t believe that the king that had exposed the Eastern Federation’s game


wouldn’t do any other research regarding neighboring nations.”


The man that had pretended to be a foolish king with n.o.ble aspirations –


probably wouldn’t have a complete answer.


Because if he did, the Empress would’ve been awakened by now – but -


“...Even if there’s no answer, there could be observations that might lead us


to them.”


Upon seeing Sora’s eyes that contained trust in the King, trust in her


grandfather.


“Please, Steph.”


“- Alright, leave it to me.”


“...I understand, des.”


Izuna and Steph nodded in agreement at once.


“...Um, about that...w-what should we do...?”


“Ah yes, Jibril, s.h.i.+ro and I.... and Plum, you come along as well.”


“Oh, a-alright... huh, where are we going?”


“Didn’t I say it earlier? - We intend on conquering three races, not two.”


Sora continued with a smile:


“Alright, here’s the problem, in order to find out about this game where the


victory conditions aren’t clear, the only surefire way is to look for records of


people that have taken part in the game previously, and deduce the victory


conditions by comparing them – so where’s the only place we can go that


probably has the most records?”



- A second’s pause, and then...


A whoos.h.i.+ng sound was heard, and another one – but that was a sound


carrying a completely opposite meaning.


“Finally – finally! A new Master to rule us Flügel are to sit on the throne – ah,


to think that such a grand day would come so early!”


“Kyaaaaaaahhhhh please no! I don’t want to go to the lair of monsters like


those!”


Jibril knelt on the ground and began to pray with a force that kicked up all the


sand around her.


And the sounds of Plum struggling, yelling in an attempt to get away but was


being restrained by Jibril.


Sora ignored the commotion, and grasped s.h.i.+ro’s hand.


He nodded slightly.


“Alright, let’s go – we’re heading to 「Avant Heim」.”


Afterwords


Phew~ I’m really tired w. That’s it for now! (TL note:j.a.panese people often


add ‘w’ to the end of words. Kind of how we say ‘lol’ a lot.)


To be honest, it allstarted with my editor discussing with me to turn the


episode preview I made originally as a joke to a reality.


Honestly, I never really thought about what I was going to write ←


But I couldn’t turn down the editor’s well wishes, so I decided to try it out


anyway w.


So here are the messages to you readers from our editors -


Second-generation editor S: “Kamiya-sensei, please don’t adopt such poor


work att.i.tudes any longer.


If it weren’t for the fact that the author and ill.u.s.trator is the same person, this


novel might even be delayed for another month.


Also on online message boards, please limit yourself to about three lines.” (TL


note: The author’s first few lines came from the j.a.panese message board 2ch,


as one author there went overboard and got famous on the internet for being


overly emotional.)


- I’m sorry, I’ll work seriously from now on, and I’m Kamiya Yuu.


『NO GAME NO LIFE 』 that was supposed to be published every five


months or so – was delayed by one month. (TL note:j.a.panese publis.h.i.+ng


time.)


First, I deeply apologize for the delay.


“Sensei, please reflect on this deeply. Even deeper than the Marina Trench.”


Also, one of the reasons for the delay is because the editors got my work


progression completely wrong.


“I’m reflecting on this already, even deeper than the earth’s mantle.”


Alright, now regarding this time’s 『NO GAME NO LIFE Volume 4』.


Just like what I had planned, I attempted to write a volume with a rather


cheery, relaxing atmosphere.


Because I wanted to let up on the plot from the first to third volumes, and


continue from there.


Also, to help the story progress for the following volumes, just a cheery,


happy, relaxing volume -


...That was what I had planned, so how did it turn out like this?


“I had heard originally that this was going to have a cheery, relaxing plot, so


why is the first draft over four hundred players long? I personally really want


you to explain this mysterious scenario that seems straight out of the X-Files.”


...Yes, the truth about this entire affair is actually even deeper than the


Gutenberg.” (TL note: A layer located between the earth’s mantle and core.)


Do you want to know?


“Even deeper than the earth’s mantle? Spit it out then.”


I’ll be honest.


Wasn’t it because some editor wanted to make this series into a manga with


my wife?


Because of that, I ended up spending one week of each month on drawing


manga instead – essentially returning to my roots as a manga artist.


“...Eh...about that...”


Also it was because I took up one of the series my previous editor S sent


over.


Over here there isn’t much work since everyone cooperates on everything,


but just as I was rus.h.i.+ng to finish the volume up my typewriter broke, and as I


was going to get a new one I was run over by a car that smashed my bones


to bits, but luckily since I was short on cash my insurance helped my purse


quite a bit so never mind.


“...Is that all?”


The problem is after that, because my lead editor completely messed up my


work progression, wanting me to work on three volumes, and due to the


process of dividing the workload being rather complicated, I was at my limit


just writing half a volume.


So it became four hundred pages, but since it’s half a volume the structure of


the story began to have problems, with the most worrying one being the story


lacking a climax -


Thus, I began pondering and editing the structure of the story with regards to


that.


So? Did this explanation reach the Guten-whatever?”


“It’s the Gutenberg, how should I put it, um – thank you for your hard work


♥ “


Yeah, the situation could be mostly attributed to 「Human error」, so please


say a few words about this incident ♥


“To think that such devilish editors exist... what a horrifying working


environment...”


Yes, to think that a devil could say such words with a straight face... how


scary (trembling voice)


- Never mind, I won’t mention human error for now, but actually a lot of


other things happened that I just didn’t write down.


Such as diabetes, I was scolded by my doctor, and got food poisoning just


from going out to eat yakitori once.


- But just let me say this, all this isn’t made up.


“Kamiya-sensei, I suggest that you go for an exorcism!”


I already have!


“...Huh?”


I went to Meiji Shrine before I got cancer.


I visited Fus.h.i.+miInari-Taisha after I got cancer.


This year I went to visit Kawas.h.i.+ka Dais.h.i.+. But all this still happened anyway.


If I hadn’t been to visit all these places, I might even be on the other side of


the Sanzu River by now. (TL note: All the places above are places significant


to j.a.panese Buddhist beliefs. Sanzu River is a river that traditionally divides


the border between life and death.)


Ah, but at the end of the year I went to check my bank book only to see that


it had only the number 「0」written on it, I don’t even have money to pay the


ferryman across the river... what happens if I don’t pay him? WillI come


back to life?


“No, I don’t think those sort of lifelines exist...”


Fine – just like that, I’llstop here.


The content of this volume is relaxing, cheerful(with a deeper meaning).


But this is also approaching a sprint – the plot of this series entered its climax


in the previous volume, so to surpa.s.s it! I willsprint forward even faster, so


please support -


“Ah, Kamiya-sensei, Kamiya-sensei.”


Huh? Ah, I’m here, what is it? I’m just preparing to finish this up.


“The editor of Alive is here to rush you, is your storyboard draft completed


yet?”


…........


“And the special volume and the script for a booklet ofsome project, and


don’t forget – huh? Kamiya-sensei? Hey~ are you still there?”


References


1. ↑ In j.a.panese tradition, architecturals.p.a.ces designed to be used for


tea ceremony (chanoyu) gatherings are known as chas.h.i.+tsu (茶室,


literally "tea rooms").


2. ↑ -kou (公) is a suffix generally used for lords at governmental


occasions.


3. ↑ Four of a kind plus a joker (wild card).


4. ↑ To execute an extremely unsuspected or well-planned out trick that


others do not know is upon them until it is too late.


5. ↑ In the original text, her body laid on the floor shaped like the kanji


character, 大.


6. ↑ Translated as Miko’s home in Volume 3, Chapter 4. 巫社, read as


Mikoja, literally means Miko’s Shrine, and is adapted from神社


(jinja/s.h.i.+nto shrine) which is where realj.a.panese mikos reside in.


7. ↑ A girl who has already reached adulthood (18 years old) but retains


the looks of a loli.


8. ↑ A popular dating sim, see here


9. ↑ Over-Powered


10. ↑ See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanten


11. ↑ TL note: Originalreads 光精, fits with the anime translation. Spirits


are basically Disboard chakra...? Edits welcome.


12. ↑ TL note: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thala.s.sotherapy


13. ↑ TL note: Whoa! There goes gravity. Whoa! There goes Rabbit, he


choked, OK this isn’t funny.


14. ↑ TL note:Cthulhu are evil beings created by American writer H.P.


Lovecraft in his Cthulhu Mythos. They signify ‘water’. CL note: They


look like mutant octopuses


15. ↑ TL note: Tokimeki Memorial is a popular j.a.panese dating simulator.


Probably censored for fear of… copyright issues.


16. ↑ TL note: Time for some explanation. In the “Tokimeki Memorial”


series of dating simulation games by Konami, there is a well-known


cheat that sets all the player’s stats to 573 if they change their names to


Konamiman. Konami in j.a.panese is p.r.o.nounced the same way as 573.


However, this affects negative stats as well, like susceptibility to


injuries, things like that. Since the game they’re in is presumably based


on it, this cheat should work as well.


17. ↑ TL note:In the popular light novel/manga/anime series “I Have Few


Friends/Boku ha Tomodachi ga Sukunai”, the character Mikazuki


Yozora changes another character, Sena Kas.h.i.+wazki’s username in a


dating simulator to Kas.h.i.+wazaki Semoponume.


18. ↑ TL note: Yos.h.i.+o Saotome is one of the characters in the very first


edition of Tokimeki Memorial. His role is to provide the player with


info on the girls, phone numbers, blood type, hobbies, etc.


19. ↑ TL note: Another character from the first edition of TokiMemo. Rei


Ijuuin is at first introduced to the player as a guy but halfway through


the game it is revealed that “he’s” actually a girl. It’s a trap!


20. ↑ TL note:Riajuu – j.a.panese word for someone that’s living his/her


real-world life to the fullest. Think this term was used way back in


Volume 1 or 2.


21. ↑ TL note: TokiMemo 1st gen, of course.


22. ↑ Tokimeki MemorialReference. School name derived from Tokimeki


Memorial Online


23. ↑ TL note: Well, Katou Taka is a j.a.panese p.o.r.n star. You don’t want


to know what I had to go through to find that out.


24. ↑ TL note: Abdomen is an approximation. For the accurate term:"Gut"


Gut http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dantian


25. ↑ TL note: Go-home club i.e. no clubs. Go home.


26. ↑ TL note: That was a line from one of the first-gen TokiMemo


characters, Fujisaki s.h.i.+ori.


27. ↑ TL note: Ah. Bombs. Hugest pain in the a.s.s in this game i.e.


TokiMemo. Essentially if the player knows multiple girls but only has


high affections with some of them, the neglected ones will have “bomb”


icons and will begin to spread bad rumors about the player, ruining the


player’s relations.h.i.+ps. This forces careful planning/dating.


28. ↑ TL note:烈立铁in Chinese, edits welcome.


29. ↑ TL note: Elchean?



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