by Ryo Mizuno
“I wish it had all been a dream…” she said, her tears spilling silently. “If only all of this were a nightmare I could wake up from back at Tarba temple. But… But this is reality…” A sob rose in her throat, and soon she was crying and cursing herself uncontrollably.
Slayn stood by and waited for the tears to purge her sadness.
Leylia thought she might cry forever, but gradually her sobbing subsided, then stopped.
“What I’ve done can never be taken back,” she said, voice shaky but tears at bay for now. “I killed Ghim and so many others…and brought war to Lodoss. How could I possible atone for a sin that horrible?!” She looked to the robed man who’d been sitting beside her when she woke, desperate for answers.
“Live on,” he said simply but firmly. His eyes were gentle, but she didn’t see pity in his gaze, just deep knowledge and understanding. Looking at him, the pain in her heart seemed to lighten, just a little.
“This isn’t your sin,” he continued. “You weren’t the one who did all of those things. It was Karla, the witch of the ancient kingdom. You should put it all behind you, if you can…though I suspect that won’t be possible.” He gave her a knowing look. “So, you must confront it. Save as many lives as you can. Do whatever you can to bring peace to Lodoss. As a priestess of Marfa, there is so much you can do. But before all of that…return to Tarba and put your mother’s worries to rest. Ghim’s one goal through all of this was to bring you home.”
Leylia sat silently, biting her lip so hard it drew blood. “All right,” she murmured. He was right—her death would accomplish nothing, and the war had just begun. “I will offer the rest of my life to serve Lodoss…and I’ll go home to Tarba to see my mother.”
Slayn nodded and shot her a smile. “I’ll come with you, Priestess of Marfa. My name is Slayn Starseeker, and I’m a wizard from the Wizard Academy. I’d like to help you.”
“I remember you,” she said. “I remember everything from the past seven years.”
Slayn’s heart ached for Leylia. It would be hard for her to move past her pain, but her smile would come back one day. He would help her any way he could. He couldn’t wield a sword like Parn, but his magic would surely come in handy.
Slayn took Leylia’s arm and led her out of Karla’s mansion. Along the way, he cast combustion spells to light fires around the mansion, and soon the entire building was engulfed in flames.
In that fire, Ghim’s soul would depart peacefully and find its way home to the world where the fae folk of the earth dwelled.
They stayed by the mansion until the last of the embers died down. After that, they started walking, Slayn letting Leylia lead. The fog lifted, and early autumn sunlight shone down on them.
Slayn suddenly remembered the hair ornament in his pocket. He took it out, looking it over one more time.
“May I…?” he asked, and when she nodded, he placed the ornament in her hair. He took in the sight with a sigh. “Ghim was right…” As soon as it was in place in her hair, the ornament that had seemed so plain started to shine. It caught the light and turned it to rainbows, like it had finally found the one place it belonged. Ghim had known exactly what he was doing. “Beauty from harmony,” he said, then explained, “Ghim made this hairpin as a gift for you.”
As Slayn gazed into her red-rimmed eyes, he found he couldn’t look away. The hairpin twinkled against her jet-black hair, and as he gazed upon her, a new thought gripped him.
I may have found my star.
Afterword
by Hitoshi Yasuda
Lodoss was a remote island a fortnight’s voyage south
of the Alecrast continent. […] Some people on the
continent called Lodoss “The Cursed Island”…
This brings back so many memories for me. Whether you read this book in Japanese when it first came out, or became a fan later, this passage has probably always been somewhere in a corner of your heart.
When I opened the book, I thought I’d come across that passage immediately, but it turns out, it was actually at the beginning of section two of chapter one. I thought I’d remembered most of the book fairly accurately, but memories are strange—I was slightly off. But I guess that’s to be expected since it’s been 25 years since Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch was first published.
Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch was released in Japan on April 10, 1988, soon after Kadokawa Sneaker Books was founded. At the time, the “light novel” genre was new (only represented by Asahi Sonorama Books), so Sneaker Books was a sort-of pioneer.
Before then, I had been involved in the industry as a translator of science fiction, but I had no way of knowing how a title in this brand new field would fare. The anxiety and accompanying anticipation practically kept me up at night. (Okay, I admit I was also under deadline to translate Dragonlance, which was published at around the same time.)
They say fear is often worse than the danger itself. Once published, Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch flew off the shelves, and the series came to its conclusion in seven books containing five story arcs. After that, the sequels came out smoothly, the genre expanded, and after a quarter century, what began with Lodoss War grew into light fantasy and the “light novel” genre we know today.
Before I go any further, since most people probably don’t know, I wanted to explain the relationship between myself, Ryo Mizuno, Lodoss War, and this new genre.
First, the novel itself was the brainchild of Ryo Mizuno, the author. However, in the process of its creation, those of us who belonged to Group SNE (or its predecessor) along with Ryo Mizuno provided contributions through RPGs and “replays.”
The RPGs (Role-Playing Games) I’m talking about here aren’t the video games that are so popular in Japan. I’m talking about their root form, the dice-throwing, talking-out-loud “tabletop RPGs.” A TRPG is first and foremost a game, but ideally has a robust, ever-changing story at its center, and the players become the characters and take an active role in creating that story. People who enjoy computer RPGs are familiar with how fun they are. But, as they are the original form, TRPGs far surpass computer RPGs in their versatility and realism (though they take a lot more work). You understand if you’ve ever read an “RPG replay,” which is basically a session report documenting the playthrough of a TRPG.
So Lodoss War was first played as a TRPG—Ryo Mizuno described this wonderful world, and we took that and expanded it humorously, and sometimes irreverently. It gained wider visibility through a new format called a replay RPG (adapted by Ryo Mizuno and myself), and it gained general recognition with the novel Lodoss War (that Ryo Mizuno rewrote entirely).
I think this makes the novel Lodoss War unique. A world that began in Ryo Mizuno’s brain was honed through playing in it via TRPGs; sharing that story gave rise to the new format—replays. It then went through another round of rewrites by the original world creator, who transformed that adventure into a brand new novel.
For me, a TRPG is a game, but it’s also a story advanced through group discussion. So I think it’s a format where the collective unconscious comes through more easily. When it’s adapted into a replay or a novel, the honing process doesn’t simply discard the excess elements present in the game. The group summons all these interesting impurities, and these emergent odd and remarkable bits remain, while the unnecessary elements are pruned. I think this intensified as Lodoss War went through the adaptation process.
Every medium has its own charms, of course. It’s fascinating to see this common world expressed in all those different ways.
After that, the subsequent novels further expanded Ryo Mizuno’s world. The sequel, Record of Lodoss War 2: Blazing Devil, was a great lyric poem written without first going through a game iteration. The series then returned to its TRPG roots in part 3… Lodoss continued in this changing style all the way through.
I hope people will continue to enjoy this archetypal series beginning with this book: Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch.
Ryo Mizuno was born in 1963 in Osaka. His first book, Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch, was published in 1988 by Kadokawa Sneaker Books. An author and game designer, he penned the Lodoss series, its sibling franchise Rune Soldier, the sci-fi series Starship Operators, and the fantasy series Record of Grancrest War.