“No way,” breathed Adlet. “That’s just…unbelievable, though…”
Dozzu ignored him and continued. “And then, with our new god, we will storm the human realms, destroy the rotten kings, the nobles that drown themselves in decadence, and unify the world. That is our ultimate goal. And that’s all we can tell you at present.”
It was all so extravagant, Adlet’s brain just couldn’t parse it.
“What do you know, Dozzu? Answer me—what on earth is the Evil God?” Fremy pressed, her tone agitated.
Dozzu’s expression was still calm as it looked at the group and said, “The Evil God, the fiends, the Saint of the Single Flower, the Crest of the Six Flowers, the conflict between Tgurneu, Cargikk, and me, and the two fake crests might all seem like independent elements, but in truth, it’s all one single complex matter.”
The group said nothing. They just waited for Dozzu to continue.
“I’ll start from the beginning. Three hundred years ago, I encountered a Saint. Together we took on the mysteries of the world. Her name was Hayuha Pressio, Saint of Time.”
All the Braves’ eyes widened. Everyone who lived on the continent knew that name. Hayuha, the Saint of Time, had defeated the Evil God three hundred years ago. She had been one of the Braves of the Six Flowers.
“The first fake crest, the one that Nashetania has now, originally belonged to her, and she gave it to me three hundred years ago.”
It’s been a long time, everyone. This is Yamagata.
I finally submitted Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers volume three without incident.
Did you enjoy the book?
I have five whole pages for my afterword this time, so I’ve been thinking I have to add more lines somehow.
This is an advertisement: The manga adaptation of Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers, which is currently being serialized in SD & GO! (Super Dash Bunko’s bimonthly manga magazine), has been published in volume format. The artist for this series is Mr. Kei Toru. His art is beautiful and powerful. He’s drawn such wonderful work. Mr. Kei Toru, thank you very much, and I’m very happy you’ll be working on this series.
I think his work has a certain appeal that’s just a touch different from the novels, so I’ll be glad if you pick it up.
Now, I suppose I’ll report on my current state of affairs.
My poor quality of sleep has always been a source of anxiety for me. Just about every night, immediately after falling asleep, I’ll have a nightmare and jump off my futon.
Typical nightmares include strange women strangling me, hands growing from the floor to drag me underground, something really heavy and creepy sitting on my stomach, or something holding my legs to keep me from moving when I really have to go to the bathroom. Less common dreams include a character from an eroge I played before bed cutting off my legs and taking them away, and a dream of a plump, fortysomething male I’ve never met before coming into my apartment to take a dump.
I get these kinds of nightmares at least once a night, and at worst, two or three times a night. Every time, they wake me up.
I’ve been dealing with these nightmares for more than ten years now, and I’ve tried many times to fix the problem—like by taking a long bath before bed, or listening to relaxing music before bed. The psychological approach has had some effect, but ultimately, wasn’t enough to resolve the problem. I’ve tried various other schemes, like exhausting myself with exercise before bed, or just staying up so late that I couldn’t keep my eyes open, but that just made it worse.
I’ve also tried more spiritual methods, such as leaving salt in my room for luck, or visiting the temple, or reading sutras before bed, or meditating before bed, but none of these worked, either. It seems my problem is not within the jurisdiction of the gods and buddhas.
If I drink to my heart’s content, the nightmares stop, but that just causes other, health-related problems, so it’s not something I can do often.
I was utterly at my wit’s end. What should I do? I wondered. But I found an unexpected solution: a body pillow.
When I fell asleep holding a body pillow, the frequency of nightmares decreased dramatically to once every three days. It seems that the body pillow is most effective when I wrap both my arms and legs around it, holding it firmly while I sleep curled up on my side. I experimented with sleeping without the body pillow again, and I had nightmares, just like before. So I can understand just what an immense effect the body pillow has.
Before, going to bed has always been accompanied by fear and pain, but thanks to the body pillow, I’m now able to sleep normally. I never could have anticipated that this cheap thing I bought casually for just two thousand yen would be so effective. It actually makes me frustrated that I didn’t realize the possibilities of the body pillow earlier. If anyone else has a similar issue, I would very much recommend trying a body pillow.
But there is just one thing about this body pillow that rather gets on my nerves. That is, whenever I tell people about it, they always snicker a little at me. Some people will ask, “So which character?” or they’ll say, “If you want a pillow case for it, I’ll give you one.” It seems that society has a very strange view of body pillows. So I’ll take this opportunity to be very clear: The one I use does not have a pretty girl on it. It’s a plain, normal body pillow. Furthermore, I don’t use it to satisfy my sexual desires. I
