Afterword
Afterword
(This contains ending spoilers. If you haven't finished the story, please hit the back button.)
Hello. This is Mainuel.
"I Became the Witch Who Destroyed the World," which began serialization on July 12, 2022, has now come to an end. I want to once again express my gratitude to the readers who have followed along for these 217 days, and to the PD who helped me.
I don't know when I will write my next work. To be honest, I do have something planned, but it seems I will need to focus on my studies now. The abrupt pacing in the latter half was largely due to my academic situation. Until now, I was on a leave of absence from university for military service, and I hadn't been attending. With my return to school confirmed for March, I absolutely had to finish before then.
I thought it was better to provide a definite, if imperfect, conclusion rather than leaving the serialization hanging halfway through.
Though it did unintentionally turn the regressors in the latter half into one-note villains.
Actually, Aria became one because of that, too. I also wanted to go into the Clues and tell stories about the Academy... T_T.
In truth, the very first regressor Olivia met was the Imperial Princess. Stories about chess, stories about magic. I was going to naturally weave in the Academy tales as well. I apologize.
I have many regrets, but I also feel relieved. I believe I managed to show you most of the scenes I wanted to write.
Still, if I do end up writing another story, I think it will be a possession narrative.
However, this time it looks like the protagonist will be male. I'll drop him into a complete dumpster-fire of a world setting, like Cyberpunk 2077, and make him possess a penniless street kid.
The origin of the name Olivia was, honestly, because of MapleStory.
When you choose the Adventurer class, one of the four friends is named Olivia.
Actually, the character with the most unusual name origin is the Martial King.
Ashe Baltar. The first word that popped into my head when I thought of this muscle-monster was "ah-sseh-ee".
So, "ah-sseh-ee" (Ashe) + a Viking-style name (Baltar).
That was the genesis of Ashe Baltar.
Anyway, thank you for reading all this time.
Thanks to all of you, I was able to make it this far and received an excessive amount of love that outmatched my abilities.
Thank you! I love you!
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Below is a Q&A.
Q1. What are your thoughts on the [One Who Never Did Bonus Chapters Until the End] achievement?
A1. Actually, I did want to do bonus chapters at least once. However, real-life issues and various other matters overlapped, and the environment for doing extra chapters just never materialized. Still, I think I somehow kept my promise of uploading one chapter a day, apart from the early days when I was still inexperienced. I recall a time when some personal business forced me away for five days, and I wrote two episodes a day just to maintain that one-a-day upload streak.
Even so, I'm glad I managed to keep that promise to myself to serialize diligently.
Q2. How did you initially conceive of this novel?
A2. To be honest, the planning for this work was a little impulsive. It hadn't been long since I was discharged from the military, and while I was searching for something to do, MapleStory just happened to launch its Hyper Burning event. The character I leveled up back then was an Ice/Lightning Archmage. Yes. That was the very genesis of the current Olivia. Possessing a game character that uses ice and lightning. That's where The World-Destroying Witch began.
Q3. What was the most difficult part or episode while writing this novel, and why?
A3. I think the hardest part was the Loss() episode, where the Clues overlapped. I was already in the middle of writing the second regressor, and the Clues had become so entangled that it took an age just to sort out the timeline. I could only breathe easy after I'd properly established the timeline.
Q4. Who is the author's favorite character?
A4. My favorite is Melina. That's why I put my heart and soul into writing Melina's episodes. As an aside, Melina's name was taken from 'Melina' in Elden Ring. The blond hair and golden eyes were borrowed from there as well.
Q5. Do you have plans for your next work?
A5. I have something in mind. But I wouldn't quite call it a scheduled plan. Since I'm an engineering student, I have so much to do that I don't know if I'll have the time.
Q6. How long is the setting bible for this novel?
A6. At this point, it's about four A4 pages. If you include everything that was scrapped and revised along the way, it's probably around ten pages.
Q7. Were there any characters whose screen time increased or decreased compared to the original plan?
A7. The Demon Hunter's screen time decreased, and Serial Killer (Cain)'s screen time increased a lot. The Demon King's screen time decreased by a really huge margin.
Q8. What did you think when the "Asmodeus is the mastermind" theories started appearing in the comments?
A8. The reason the Demon King was only mentioned in a few lines was actually because of those mastermind theories. Up until the early parts, Asmodeus was nothing more than a 'lie to deceive Rebekah,' but at some point, she ended up becoming the final mastermind. So I adjusted the story so Asmodeus could appear as the true final villain.
Q9. What was a disappointing aspect of this novel?
A9. I regret that I was forced to cut the length short due to personal circumstances. If it weren't for that, I would have written at least 300 chapters and truly tormented the hostile regressors until they were completely broken.
Q10. How many times did Olivia regress?
A10. It would have been at least two thousand times.
Q11. What is a memorable event from writing this novel?
A11. Honestly, up until I was writing this, I thought of it as just a light-hearted chaos romp. That was why the early parts were especially heavy on comedy.
But after the 'Clue' mechanic appeared, the atmosphere of the work changed dramatically. Enough to even surprise me. In fact, that was the biggest reason I couldn't do bonus chapters. The tone of the story changed so drastically that I had to overturn the existing plot and come up with a new story on the spot every single day.
Q12. Will we ever see the hostile regressor torment aftermath?
A12. I had been planning for it originally. I wanted to single out characters like Dark Lord, the Demon Hunter, or Carsian and write a tear-jerking, regret-fueled epilogue, wringing out a bucket of tears from them. But doing that would have taken too much time. Now that I have to return to university, I simply couldn't bring myself to write that much. I'm sorry.
Q13. I was most looking forward to changing the Demon Hunter's past. Are you perhaps considering a side story about changing the pasts of other regressors?
A13. To be honest, the Demon Hunter is a character I have mixed feelings about. She was one of the characters I agonized over until the very end about whether to put her on Olivia's side or Aria's side. But as expected, time constraints forced me to scrap that. T_T. For now, I'm not considering any other side stories.
Q14. Did the Imperial Princess lose all of her memories?
A14. Given that the Imperial Princess eventually becomes the Empress, you can assume she retrieved her memories. After all, when she reincarnated, the memories of Run 0 flashed before her eyes like a life review.
Olivia's Run 0 -> N-th Run, as Empress -> No-Kill Run Empress -> (Birth of the Imperial Princess) -> Olivia's Run 0
Q15. What was the reason Olivia attacked Cain when she went to find Aurelia?
A15. It was because the Demon God's Immortality went berserk. It didn't escalate into a major catastrophe because 'Olivia' was somehow holding it back from within.
Q16. When Kiel entered the memories, why did Genocide-Via laugh while looking at empty space?
A16. You can interpret all instances of 'Genocide-Via' as the result of the Immortality going berserk.
Q17. Even though there was descriptive narration showing that Dark Lord realized Olivia was holding back these enemies alone, why did he still hinder Olivia?
A17. To be honest, a Dark Lord torment epilogue was also in the works, but I had no choice but to scrap it due to time constraints. I wanted to brew a nice, drawn-out torment-fest like I did for Melina and Kiel, but I ran out of time. I'm sorry T_T.
Q18. What jobs has Olivia held up until now?
A18. The setting is that she played a Warrior twice in the early runs, and a Mage for all the rest. As a Mage, she mastered every elemental school.
Q19. Did Aria create the game?
A19. Wouldn't only God know the answer to that?
Q20. Why did you abandon Rebekah?
A20. I would be grateful if you interpreted it as Rebekah staying in that world because she was able to overcome her sorrow.
Thank you...!
If you have any more questions, please leave them in the comments!
Thank you for all your love!