A-ha! What a twist this Volume was! You thought you were getting a calm, mellow, Slice of Life ending for the final few Volumes, but trouble is always afoot in the Vast World!
Olya makes his grand return from Volume 17 (Well, 22 technically), and he's never been closer to finally bringing back his old pals Schnell and Shaid to the land of the living! It only took him, what, under a thousand years, give or take? Not bad for someone who lives from every Universe Cycle's Big Bang to its Heat Death!
We'll also finally get the chance to visit Schnell's Archipelago, in other words the final continent in the Vast World! We found out who Schnell truly was, the Archipelago's origins, and a ton of other things about it, but when it came to actually visiting it, we never did get to properly explore it! It's a shame that the circumstances are so dire, but at least it'll make our protagonists' trip in these final three Volumes interesting.
Oh yeah, did I forget to mention this? TRANSCONTINENTAL IS ENDING IN 3 VOLUMES!!! Uwaah~, that's scary! Time is passing by way too fast—I feel like it was just yesterday when I wrote the afterword for Volume 1! But it's also exciting, because after this story will come another one, and it'll definitely give some more insight into the Vast World's plethora of mysteries. I'm honestly stoked, and I hope you as the reader are too.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
This Volume was primarily written in the third person, something I never really dabbled in much. I hope I did it right, because it was honestly way easier than writing in the first person. Still, it feels way smoother to transition between characters and their respective mini-arcs now than it did in say, Volume 10. Really shows my progress as a writer, I'd say. It's always good to see how far you've come from a certain point.
The Generals, Auros and Pierre, as well as Aru are making a grand return next Volume. Really, there was just no way I could have an exciting finale without those guys, so I'm happy they'll all converge for this ultimate event! Speaking of, we've come across many interesting developments in just this one Volume alone. Meil has his entire Raamic people as a combined imaginary friend, Bamb and Navi made an appearance from Volume 16, I got to tease you guys with Jorgen's backstory that involved a certain health advisor from Stringwood, Aru and Meil finally met (though they didn't figure it out), Lune and Cecily are trying for a third kid, Ed rode an airbike, and Nel just might be conspiring with Olya of all people because of this latest development! I can't remember the last time we had such a packed Volume, if there even ever was one to begin with! I'm extremely happy from start to finish regarding this one.
That's about it. Once again, I thank you all for reading Transcontinental as intently as you do, and I hope you'll continue to support me from here on. This is Mikan Akai, and I'll see you in Volume 25!