Chapter 45 - Volume 3

Character Tidbits & Afterwords

I got the ideas for the names of the main character of this story from poisonous plants.

LYCORIS RADIATA

Both her given name and surname is the technical name of cluster amaryllis. I hear 「Lycoris」 is also the name of a Greek mythology sea goddess.

Though the other names for cluster amaryllis like corpse flower, hell flower, ghost flower, razor flower are pretty wretched, I think it’s an incredibly beautiful flower. There are a lot of different colors for it, but I like the red amaryllis by far.

By the way, in flower language it means things like 「enthusiasm, independence, reunion, resignation, and “only thinking of you”」. It sort of fits her but it also sort of doesn’t.

For her outward appearance, she has a mole under her eye, but may I know whether everyone remembers it? Depicting the appearance of the main character using first-person style is difficult, isn’t it? I was supposed to be writing her with the assumption that she’s a relatively glamorous beauty, but it didn’t turn out the way I planned.

WOLFGANG EISENHUT

Eisenhut is about wolfsbane.* Wolf’s bluish-purple eyes come from this color.

Wolfsbane seems to be also called 「stepmother’s poison」. In ancient times, this is often used to kill the husband’s children from previous marriages in Rome or something like that. Scary. The episode, in which poison was served by the (aspiring) stepmother, came from there.

A yandere. But, at a level widely received, if at all possible, as the hero. I say, my trouble was that he’d been a difficult character. And truthfully, I think this person comes to help Lycoris way too much at the best timing (LOL), he probably always pays attention to everyone around Lycoris, huh?

SHADE

Belladona’s English name originated from 「deadly nightshade」. The name itself has a meaning of「shadow」.

Although a ripe belladona’s content contains poison, it is said to be sweet. This is how the concept of the character of a man who does this and that after inviting girls with sweet words, came to be. He’s a womanizer, you know? May I know whether everyone remembers this setting? (Second time asking this)

Midway, I had an inkling that Shade faded away to simply becoming a siscon, but, his character was received quite favorably. He’d been very easy for me to write.

LILIAM VALLEY

Nickname: Lily

I wonder how many times I made the mistake because I questionably interchanged her name with Lycoris. Thank you very muchhh for all those who pointed out the mistakes. Though I remember feeling the burn of shame as I continued to make the same mistakes without learning from experience... Even though I’ve reread it, I still never notice that trap. The characters’ names didn’t resemble each other at all, I learned.

The “Lilium” in Lily’s name is about Yuri(2), but Lily of the Valley = Valley of Yuris = “Suzuran”(3) is her image. Speaking of which, the lily of the valley is an incredible cute flower, but its poison packs a strong wallop.

Actually, I initially planned Lily to shake off Lycoris’s hands until they were at the basement where Gift was— that is to say, until the last moment. Lily’s character was only supposed to change a little when Lycoris started to investigate Lily and Gift further, but in the end, her personality settled down to this.

It seems she became actively stronger at the end of this volume.

ARUTADO BRUGMANSIA

Nickname: Art

Brugmansia came from the scientific name of angel’s trumpet. Arutad is Datura read in reverse. The meaning of Angel Trumpet in flower language are things like 「charming and deceitful charm」.

He might be a natural character to hate, but he’s rather fun to write.

Since he’s a character in the game, there’s also a route where Art and Lily fell in love. Which means there’s a happy ending with him that’s not yandere.

Seriously worried about it, I thought 「 it would be a blessing (at least for Lily) if he’s tamed by brainwashing him with hypnosis. As expected, it felt cruel, so I didn’t allude to it in the story.

RU XIANG

His name is the Chinese name for Daphne.

Sorry for those who hoped he’d be a serious yandere. He had been a questionable gag member.

If Art’s concept was a 「harmful idiot」, then Ru Xiang’s concept was a 「harmless pervert」. He’s not completelyharmless, right? I wonder if he violated someone’s portrait rights. Since Lycoris was in no mood to worry about it, she didn’t butt in to who he used as the model for his dolls.

I was told by my sister, ‘Because of Oria, he got pushed to the background, didn’t he?’. (LOL) Certainly... he would’ve had more impact if he showed up alone. I also feel that I wanted to portray him with a rather hard personality a bit more.

ORIA

Only this character had a name with no relation to a plant or a poison. He was added on the spot.

He’s a living punch-line that’s related to the story’s overall mystery(?). Honestly, what did you think about the punch-line? Something like, ‘he’s difficult to understand!’, or, ‘what’s up with this punch-line!’, if you give me your opinions, I’ll sincerely accept.

In short, Oria reincarnated into modern day Japan and made the Yandere otome game, fully integrating his interests, using Lily as the protagonist... for all we know, maybe? In that case, he would’ve used Wolf’s lines「I’d rather kill you now」 that he learned in his past visions as the catch phrase. Maybe Lycoris-san should’ve been more angry at him.

But, if Lycoris got angry and Oria gave up making the game, the future (or is it the past?) would end up changing.... Ahh, so bothersome.

GIFT

His name means 「poison」in German. In English, it means 「innate talent」.

Truthfully, his guard, Mr. Hemlock was a descendent of his sister who married into a distant family... well, there was that setting, but since it didn’t appear in the work, it’s the same as not happening at all, right? Yup.

Extra:

UNCLE NARCISSUS RANGURUSTE

Narcissus is read as “Nárkissos” in English. (4)

It’s about daffodils, but I have to make it known that it means「narcissism」 more than anything.

—

One way or the other, I was able to complete the story. Without a doubt, it’s all thanks to everyone who read the story and occasionally provided their opinions and reviews. Every time I updated the story, I would think,「Is this good enough to publicize to other people?」and feel self-conscious, but I’m actually glad that I made up my mind to post it now.

These sites, 『Let’s be a novelist(小説家になろう)』『Read novels(小説を読もう)』are very wonderful, aren’t they? Maybe it’s because I see everyone’s reactions. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster, but I think I finished this story without losing interest thanks to that.

I plan to gradually write extra volumes after this. I wonder if it would be the easiest to understand if I update with similar pages as the normal volumes? Or, should I create a page to use for the extra volumes without messing the normal ones? I’ll observe and study different ways of doing it.

I don’t know how many I can live up to, but if you don’t mind, kindly let me know if you have a request like 「this is the kind of extra volumes I want to read」 or something. If you have a character or a scene you like to see, please let me know and I’ll dance from joy at the opposite end of the PC.

Later.

Translator notes:

(1) Eisenhut is the German word for Wolfsbane. Though the author didn’t state it out here.

(2) Yuri (百合) = Lilium in Japanese

(3) Suzuran (スズラン) = Lily of the Valley in Japanese

(4) Narcissus in the original Japanese katakana was Nashisasu. I’ve been reading it like that too. >.<