You know, this story would never have seen the light of day if my prompter hadn’t been so adamant about adding dark fantasy to their prompt after I had received it (for an event), outing their identity in the process. For some reason, my dear prompter was talking about The Witch & The Soldier with another member of the BLP server—most likely because this author is being slow and hasn’t worked on that story in ages—and the topic of conversation diverged to a fanfic of it, that they would write it themselves if I didn’t get my ass moving.

This petty author took it as a challenge, especially since I owed some payback to my prompter for another event. It’s alright if I make my readers cry; it’s not alright when the readers make me cry!

Pettiness aside, I went into Willow’s DM, saying something like: 

Geoffrey (side character who supposedly died in the main story) had a sunshine vibe, didn’t he? 

From then on, I went down the rabbit hole. A whole story and lore were created, and yes, this is a prequel, meaning that we will get a novel for these two one of these days, where they have both reincarnated and are meeting again. I’m planning to set it in an apocalyptic world, tee-hee!

Also, I want a story for Richardson now…

Ahem. Thank you for taking the time to read this story, and a big thank you to Willow, without whom this story wouldn’t be what it is. She helped me during the brainstorming stage, then helped me edit the whole thing, slapping on my wrists here and there. I learned a lot, and it was an immense pleasure to work with her! 

And to my friend, I hope you have enjoyed the ride~

R.S. Vaesen

Note: The professionally edited and illustrated version, if everything goes well, should be available at the end of the year as an ebook and a paperback version! It’ll come with a bonus chapter from Marveck’s POV! Stay tuned! The best way not to miss any updates for my stories is on my Discord: https://discord.gg/ZF36zmcMPp

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Also... my friend, Lukiyo, to whom this story is dedicated, drew a magnifiant fanart for Cerwin!!! He's so beautiful I could stare at him forever...! oQo ♥