Author’s Note on Publication

The author: (・∀・)

Well, this is not an extra update, and I’m truly sorry about that. Tomorrow, when the book goes on sale, I’ll start with two extra chapters.

After that, updates will return to the usual schedule, and I’ll do my best to evolve from a two-chapter creature into a three-chapter creature.

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Now that I’ve said the thing you care about most, I’ll talk a little about my thoughts as the author and the process of writing this book. Whether you read this part or not won’t affect the story that follows.

At first, this book was not called Orochimaru’s Aladdin Lamp, but Konoha Aladdin Lamp.

From the title, you can probably tell that the original protagonist was Aladdin. There’s nothing especially significant about the name; it’s just the name of a god from a certain religion.

The general idea was to possess people at random, and then, much like those sketch comedies where everything goes hilariously wrong, have the possessed ninja fulfill the lamp’s wishes.

For example, making Orochimaru, who longed for immortality, become Hokage; making Hizashi of the branch family turn the tables on Hiashi; making Nagato of the Akatsuki no longer stand behind Yahiko, but instead change the shinobi world with his own strength; or making Black Zetsu, who wanted to crawl back into his mother’s arms, grow up...

And so on.

At first, I thought it sounded rather interesting, so I started writing.

Mm, the first stop didn’t change much, though: Orochimaru.

But as I kept writing, I realized something felt off.

I had given the lamp many abilities and designed many plotlines, forcing Orochimaru to abandon immortality and, by a twist of fate, win human respect, to become Hokage like Naruto...

Yet the more I wrote, the more uncomfortable I felt.

It wasn’t that I wanted Orochimaru to become this way and he simply would. The Orochimaru on the page was always profoundly unwilling.

Doing this not only tormented me, it also tormented the characters in the book.

After about ten thousand characters, I stopped.

Why bother?

So I changed my approach. I stopped messing around and decided to seriously fulfill Orochimaru’s wish instead.

But as I wrote it that way, something else happened.

Orochimaru, that character, turned out to be even more captivating than I had imagined, and the possible storylines were far richer than I expected. In fact, he began to crowd out the lamp, which had originally been the protagonist.

...And later, as you know, the protagonist changed. The lamp was no longer the lead, and, like Hu Ge in Xuan-Yuan Sword, the second male lead rose up and stole all the spotlight.

Only then did the story truly settle into place.

It was a winding road, more or less. While writing, I honestly had no idea whether readers would like it.

Especially when the trial promotion at the beginning flopped, my head was buzzing.

Fortunately, with the support of many readers, I was able to keep going and not abandon the book.

I won’t name names here. Aside from those on the rankings, there are many readers who kept following the story, and I can’t even see them.

But every time I finish a chapter and then switch to my author account to check the follow count, seeing myself buried beyond the top hundred, I truly know that you are all out there.

By now, step by step, we’ve made it to the third round of recommendations, and I hope everyone can continue to support it.

At the very least, please give it a first-day subscription. That thing seems to matter quite a lot.

Finally, (づ￣ 3￣)づ