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That was a name she would never forget, even if she fell into the abyss of wandering.

We met in the thick fog of Frozenwater Town, and became acquainted on the long street of the Watchtower...

They met through betrayal on a rainy mountain cliff, and cherished each other through farewell on a broken coastline...

A tearful embrace amidst the burning ruins of Canaan.

And this moment is the very last moment—

They fell in love during this reunion after a thousand years of separation.

"Grey, let's go home."

……

(End of the book)

Author's Closing Remarks

I've finally finished writing this book, and to be honest, I feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.

First, let me explain the slow updates in the last two months: I originally planned to finish writing it all in one go in August, but the Australian universities started in August, and I underestimated the intensity of the last semester before graduation.

Countless group meetings and various client requirement meetings have given me a huge headache, so I've never been able to update regularly. Every time I think I'll take some time to finish an update, but I always end up exhausted and fall asleep as soon as I hit the bed, which has led to me putting it off time and time again until now.

However, no matter how you look at it, these are all messy things that happened to the author in real life. It's a mistake I should have made to properly resolve and balance my real life, studies, and writing, but ultimately failed to do so.

As a former novel reader, I know all too well the agonizing experience of following a book when the author is unreliable and only updates every few days. I also know that readers, as consumers, are simply meant to read and have no obligation to empathize with or understand the author's feelings.

If the updates are bad, then the updates are bad. This is my own problem no matter what. I'm sorry for affecting everyone's reading experience.

……

Now let's talk about the content of the book.

Compared to my previous books, the creative approach to "The Fool's Library" was different from the very beginning.

The older books like "Miss Witch" and "Soft Rice System" are typical examples of the creative logic behind gimmicky novels: first, come up with an interesting, novel, and attractive gimmick and idea, then develop a story of 15 to 30 words around that gimmick, and finally bring the expectations of that gimmick to life at the end of the story.

Once this 15-30 word story ends and a highly anticipated plot is realized, then we'll figure out how to upgrade this gimmick and create a new cycle.

The advantage of this writing style is that it generates a lot of hype and traffic in the early stages, but the disadvantage is that the viewing experience will decline rapidly after the first big expectation is met. Even if you try to make this imaginative idea a loop, the thing about imaginative ideas is all about novelty. The first time you see it, it's novel; the second time, it's passable; and after the third or fourth time, it will inevitably feel boring and tedious.

Moreover, since the titles and synopses of imaginative fiction rely on the gimmick of the imaginative premise itself, readers come for that gimmick. Many people click in with the mindset of just having fun and don't have high expectations for anything other than the imaginative premise from the beginning. If the plot deviates from the fast pace of the imaginative premise and instead turns into a slow-paced serious drama that gradually builds up the world view and unfolds the main storyline, it will actually deter a considerable number of readers who clicked in because of the imaginative premise.

Therefore, "The Library of Fools" can be considered one of my attempts.

The previous structure, which revolved around gimmicks and wild ideas and repeated three or four times until the anticipation was completely exhausted, is now being modified to construct a complete story of a million words, with a beginning, an end, and a consistent, closed loop.

Therefore, I spent several months before starting the book to conceive a complete plot framework and finalize several key nodes of the main plot:

For example, in Gray's route, their first meeting in Frozenwater, the betrayal and transformation on the mountaintop on a rainy night, and their farewell on the Broken Shore...

The engagement dinner in Hiltina's route, the two years of companionship in the hospital ward after the male protagonist became a vegetable, the toasting ceremony on the eve of the final night world challenge...

Several encounters with Amys, the unraveling of Canaan's past, and finally, a back-to-back confession under the winter night sky.

From the perspective of plot structure, this attempt should be considered successful, because I did write the entire plot line that I initially conceived, and depicted most of the climaxes that I had conceived before starting the book. The foreshadowing of "Amys and Canaan's past" that was planted at the beginning was not officially resolved until the book was nearly a million words long, forming a complete plot loop.

Some readers may feel that the second volume is shorter, but in reality, although the updates are very unstable, I did not compromise on the plot of the ending and completed it entirely according to the planned outline.

This book has three main female characters: two overt and one covert. The two overt storylines are the Royal Selection of Hiltina and the Gray (Echoes of the Sixth Epoch) storyline, while the covert storyline is the Canaan storyline of Amys.

The storyline of Grey/Echoes of the Sixth Age ends when she becomes the Angel of Destiny, opens up the Night World at the end of the Sixth Age, and bids farewell to the male protagonist.

The emotional connection between Hiltina and Last fully blossomed at the end of the first volume, and by the time the second volume, two years later, that initially hazy feeling had completely transformed into a real and unforgettable love.

As for Amys, needless to say, Amys's affection level was full from the very beginning. Therefore, when Canaan's past was fully revealed and the two confessed their love back to back under the winter night sky, this storyline had already ended.

I've always believed that for romance novels, once the male and female protagonists confess their feelings to each other and officially establish their relationship, the main storyline is over... What remains are just the subsequent daily life, sweet moments, meeting the parents, dramatic situations, marriage, and other concluding events.

Therefore, Volume Two itself serves as the concluding section of this book, and the outline for the Final Night World was determined before the book even began, intended to be skipped and left blank, much like the ending of Sword Art Online: Alicization and the two hundred years after Star King Star... No foreshadowing or anticipation was laid out before the First Era, and the affinity between Amys and Hiltina was already maxed out when they entered the Final Night World—

To put it bluntly, given the abilities of the three main characters at the time, I don't think the Night World of the First Age of Gods could pose any real threat to them. It was only a matter of time before they cleared the final Night World... Therefore, given that it was impossible to design a dramatic, interesting, and engaging climax, leaving things unsaid was, in my opinion, the best solution.

……

In conclusion, although "The Library of Fools" is only half as successful as the previous book, I still believe it is the most complete of all my books and my personal favorite.

I can proudly say that this is a work unlike any of my previous gimmicky and imaginative stories, possessing a complete plot loop and truly showcasing my own style.

That being said, this does not mean that The Library of Fools is without problems—on the contrary, the book exposes far more shortcomings than any book I have written before.

I have always believed that the success of online novels is directly proportional to their quality. "Good books don't become popular," "I didn't catch the trend," "I was unlucky," "I didn't do any ranking or marketing," or even "This generation of readers is no good and can't see my strengths"... These excuses may be used to comfort oneself when a book flops, but if you want to keep improving and enhance your writing skills, then these reasons are not excuses.

As a step outside my comfort zone with imaginative storytelling, and an attempt at a completely new plot structure and writing style, I'm quite satisfied with *The Fool's Library*. However, since its success is only half that of *The Witch Girl*, it means it has many shortcomings and flaws—

Many of these shortcomings already existed in my old books, but they were overshadowed by the high expectations, sensationalism, novelty, and rapid pace of my imaginative writing, which led to a series of explosive climaxes. However, they are now exposed as major flaws in my new book.

The biggest problem is my own ingrained habit and path dependence on sensationalism and wild ideas.

Even though I knew very well that this book wasn't some kind of gimmicky novel that I'd write a couple hundred thousand words and then run away with, I still subconsciously wanted to pursue early data, early hits and readership because of my past successful experiences... So when I started the book, the original title was still a typical gimmicky title like "I've already speedrunned it, and then you told me it was a plot-driven kill," and I even set up an Amber-style setting similar to "traveling through the Western fantasy game 'Snow Moon Emblem,'" but in reality, this setting was never used later on.

These designs may indeed help attract readers in the early stages, but in essence, they are a misalignment of expectations that leads to short-sightedness. Readers attracted by the imaginative gimmicks leave after reading the first Deep Blue Harbor episode, while readers who really want to read the long story are deterred by the gimmicky title and synopsis. In the end, neither side is satisfied. It is for this reason that the book changed its title several times, and finally changed to the title "The Library of Fools" at the end of the first volume.

And

As mentioned earlier, my approach to designing outlines has always been centered around climaxes. I set up a series of climactic moments throughout the book, and then find a way to connect these climactic moments together—that's the outline.

Before I even started writing this book, I had already decided on most of the climactic moments, and I repeatedly rehearsed them in my mind, making the climactic scenes I imagined more real and concrete...

The advantage of this writing style is that it is indeed very enjoyable to write the climax, but the disadvantage is that... a book cannot be composed entirely of climaxes. There must be a lot of foreshadowing, transitions, and somewhat bland daily scenes between climaxes.

However, I have a clear problem of being top-heavy when writing. Because of the drop-off after the climax, I struggle to write about daily life because I lack strong expectations, exciting moments, and emotional outbursts to support me. I often feel tormented by writing about daily life for four or five days a week, and I repeatedly get stuck. Only when I write about the climax do I not get stuck and feel great. This cycle repeats itself.

On the other hand, because of the path dependency I had when writing gimmicky, mind-blowing stories in the past—"deviating from the mind-blowing gimmick is death, if the data declines, then speed up the pace even more"—when a major plot climax ends and the readership naturally declines, I subconsciously feel anxious and want to speed up the pace as much as possible, skipping the transitional daily chapters and fast-forwarding directly to the next climax, ignoring the fact that this is actually a normal data fluctuation.

Mindlessly accelerating the pace and constantly creating climaxes to keep readers hooked is a short-sighted and unsustainable approach. If you want to write a complete, long-running story, you must learn to slow down the pace and maintain a balance. It's normal for the data to be high during climaxes and low during transitional moments.

This flawed mindset resulted in the book, which I originally expected to be over 1.5 million words when I finished the outline, ending up with only 1.1 million words. Even though I followed the plot exactly as outlined and wrote out most of the plot points, the final product was only 1.1 million words.

The result is that the book's pace is too fast, often having climaxes but lacking transitions between them and everyday background... If a work with a normal pace is balanced and full of life, then "The Fool's Library" lacks many details of life, having only a skeleton but feeling somewhat dry in terms of flesh and blood.

I think the main reason for this problem is the reliance on fast-paced, imaginative, and gimmicky articles, coupled with a lack of experience in writing slow-paced, long-form articles.

Just practice more when cooking, there's not much else to say.

There are other issues, such as the update speed. I am well aware of the problems mentioned above. In fact, if I could update more than 8000 words a day, these issues could be compensated for and covered up. With fewer updates, the shortcomings such as filler content, lack of detail, and flaws in character development would become more obvious. However, I was unable to do so due to my studies.

However, this is ultimately a practical issue of my own, so I won't go into details.

……

Finally, another goal I set for this book when I started was to try a new logic for character development—the core of a character must match their setting and the plot.

Or, to put it another way, "virtue must match one's position."

I've written several light novel harem romance stories that did quite well, so I know very well that there's actually a fixed formula for creating a likable female character in a light novel.

First, this female character's strength comes from her identity and her established character setting—for example, in Western fantasy, she would be labeled with tags such as "the world-destroying witch of the end," "the empress who dominates all ages," "the female sword saint," "the ancient dragon in human form," and "the true ancestor of the vampire clan."

The same action performed by female characters of different statuses can evoke drastically different reactions. For example, if a lowly maid steps on the male protagonist's head, the normal reaction would be something like, "Who the hell do you think you are?" or "Who gave you the right to be so arrogant?" But if an all-powerful empress steps on the male protagonist's head with her jade feet, a significant portion of the reaction might be, "Why is he being rewarded?"

Then, the female character's past experiences are tragic and evoke sympathy—for example, she was imprisoned in a tower without windows and no light from a young age, and the male protagonist was the first ray of light in her life; for example, she was cursed with misfortune from birth, and outsiders would die if they touched her, so she was regarded as a monster by outsiders from a young age; for example, she was a world-destroying demon who could destroy the world in front of outsiders, but she was a well-behaved little girl only in front of the male protagonist... The most typical example is Erii from Dragon Raja.

As for the "beauty" in "beautiful, strong, and tragic," it is actually the least important element, since there are no female characters in anime who are not good-looking.

Furthermore, regardless of the female character's status, her attitude towards the male protagonist must always be one of inferiority. In other words, what the male protagonist receives from her must be greater than what he gives, which is what is known as "giving away money" or "getting something for nothing."

Female characters created using this formula will always have a minimum standard and will be relatively likable... After all, who can resist a beautiful girl who is wholeheartedly considerate of you, never makes things difficult for you, and has top-notch status, position, and strength? Even if she doesn't quite suit your taste, at least she will never be disliked.

The female characters in the old book "Miss Witch" were all created following this formula.

However, the more female characters I created using this template, the more I discovered a problem—while these female characters were likable and not annoying, they ultimately only remained at the level of being likable.

A persona built on labels is ultimately thin and hollow... In layman's terms, it's like a piece of paper that lacks depth.

Ultimately, no matter how glamorous, powerful, or noble such female characters may be in terms of their character design, their core motivation is simply being driven by romantic desires.

If it's a typical youth romance novel set in a school, or a world like the Japanese isekai (another world) novels that aren't exactly serious and exist purely for the sake of romance... then there's nothing wrong with creating female characters with a love-obsessed mindset.

However, if the art style is more serious and the story's tone is more solemn, then using romance as the core theme inevitably feels somewhat out of place.

It's normal for a 17-year-old high school girl to be love-struck, but if an empress who has ruled the world for ages were also obsessed with love and would die for it, it would inevitably feel a bit "out of place".

This problem doesn't just apply to female characters; it also applies to villains and other male characters. It exists in many works I've seen, most notably in various anime and JRPG games.

The ambitious imperial general who wanted to launch a war that would sweep across the entire continent actually turned to the dark side because of his unhappy childhood and the domestic violence he suffered...

The leader of this evil organization, who wants to reverse time and reset the world's timeline, is only after discovering that the girl he had a crush on in his youth doesn't reciprocate his feelings...

That ancient god, who could create and destroy worlds and annihilate civilizations with the flick of a finger, was actually just feeling lonely and wanted someone to play duos with...

They are clearly just ordinary people, with the motivations and core of common citizens, yet they are forcibly elevated to the dimensions of creation and destruction, planetary extinction and the birth of civilization, the restart of timelines and endless reincarnation. The final result is that all the grand narratives, at their core, become personal grudges and family ethical conflicts... the so-called "mismatch between virtue and position".

My goal is to be as virtuous as possible in relation to my position. If it is the motivation and core of a small person, then it should be matched with the corresponding small scene and plot. If it is a grand narrative and a grand scene of creation and destruction, then the characters in it should also have a grand core and motivation that match it.

The final product of this attempt is the male and female protagonists of this book.

The protagonist of the previous book, Char, is essentially a small-time character. From beginning to end, his motivations are simply "to avenge the destruction of his hometown" and "to live a happy and carefree life with the girls he likes." This core is a perfect match for the female characters created according to the previous formula.

But Raste is different. As a guardian of the shore, as a partner of justice, as a martyr who has never fallen into the abyss of time loops even after hundreds of years, and who still looks up at the stars even when trapped in hell—it would be a bit cliché to pair him with a heroine who is built up by labels and created step by step.

Thus, Hiltina came into being.

The only companions who can stand shoulder to shoulder with the martyrs who gaze at the stars in hell are those whose ideals and beliefs are just as radiant and dazzling, in no way inferior... It was with this thought in mind that I designed Hiltina, a female protagonist unlike any of the books I had written before.

Although the character design for Princess Hiltina was finalized long ago, I deliberately concealed her princess attributes in the early to mid-game because I didn't want the label of "princess" to be too prominent and thus overshadow Hiltina's true personality.

It wasn't because she was an imperial princess or because she wielded the Holy Sword that she became powerful—it was because she first possessed a powerful heart that she was able to become the empress and the master of the Holy Sword.

In the end, I am quite satisfied with the portrayal of Hiltina. She is indeed a female protagonist who is different from all the female characters I have portrayed before, and whose character arc is truly written.

Of course, the price paid for this was not small.

As a female character in a romance novel, Hiltina's personality is too self-centered and distinctive, to the point that she sometimes steals the spotlight from the male protagonist.

In many scenes involving Rust and Hiltina, such as the jump into the sea at Deep Blue Harbor, the scene where Hiltina visits Rust after he becomes a vegetable, and the toast before challenging the Endless Night world—while writing these scenes, I always had the illusion that their roles were reversed, with Hiltina being the male protagonist and Rust being the female protagonist.

As a harem novel with a male protagonist, the female characters do not exist because they depend on the male protagonist. Instead, they are too self-centered and distinct, which inevitably affects the reader's experience in the early and middle stages, and may even make them annoying.

This is a challenge I was destined to face when I decided on this writing style. All I can say is that if I'm not good at it, I need to practice more. Maybe once my skills improve, I can make up for these problems.

……

Finally, I would like to thank everyone for your understanding and support, for accompanying this book, which has many flaws and shortcomings, and is also mixed with many of my own whims, to the end.

See you in the new book.