-To question gods.
-To answer gods.
They are in the cosmos.
They are over the hills.
They are flowing in the oceans.
And... they are in the shape of your hands.
-
Who are you, who got your hands on this story?
Are you being introduced to Type-Moon's works (famous mostly for the Fate/ series) through this novel, or have you already read all of Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files, the prequel to this series? As its author, I pulled all stops to make this something you could enjoy whatever you answer is.
That being said, I have something to explain specifically to the older fans.
As the hardcore fans must already know, Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files was a story set in the same world as Fate/stay Night. Fate/stay Night is game where you make choices, causing the events to subtly branch out into the Saber Route, Rin Route, or Sakura Route; but as prequel, Case Files could be incorporated to all of these possibilities.
However, portraying Case Files' future would require selecting one of those routes. This is a choice that would great affect the format of the Holy Grail dismantlement that is bound to happen in Fuyuki City - The Dismantling War, Fate/stay Night's last vestiges.
For that reason, I talked to FsN author Kinoko Nasu, and we agreed to write imagining an
original route that will eventually lead to the Dismantling War. That's not directly related to Adventures' story, but to write certain characters, like Toosaka Rin, who appeared in this book, knowing which route they experienced is a very necessary background. (In our talk, I also asked about many other finer details, like how much of what was said in ALL AROUND TYPE MOON, and obviously, Fate/Hollow Ataraxia could be taken as canon. Huge special thanks to Nasu for all the patience it took to hear me out for so long)
-
Our stage left London, and expanded to the world.
And with that, the story dedicated to mages has restructured itself into a story centered around the word "gods". In this case, gods are beings of higher status, our history, culture itself, and much more. Even in our modern era, they're still very close to the center of our consciousness.
How will El-Melloi II interact with them?
How will Gray, our Watson, confront them?
Who is our newly created character, Ergo?
That's what this story is about.
If I were to assign a genre to it, I'd say it's a literal adventure, with some
very few mystery elements.
An adventure that uses Type-Moon's rich lore to pursue three unconventional whodunits. The word "whodunit" normally means "who is the culprit?", but that's not how it's being used here. I think that's an idea that feels very true to Type-Moon's branding, and really hope you enjoy it.
Last but not least, special thanks to everyone in the Type-Moon, especially to Kinoko Nasu and OKSG for all the revisions and proofreading, to Kiyomune Miwa for researching even more carefully than he'd do for the stories in London, to Mineji Sakamoto for making illustrations for this entire new series, and to Ryougo Narita for suggesting and personally writing Flat's entire scene.
And of course, to you for getting your hands on this book.
See you again, most likely on the summer of 2021.
Makoto Sanda
PS: I'm currently reading Blue Man: The Man Who Ate God, by
Hideyuki Kikuchi. Huge thanks to the author for gladly allowing me to put a reference to his work as this book's subtitle.