Dear reader, every good thing has its end. Every good thing also has its start, hence the need for prologues like these. I thought long and hard how the journey of our hero would start.
Should I go for a long exposition dump? No, then I’ll just end spoiling what our hero from another world will have to learn anyways. Do I go for an introduction of the character? No, then the viewers will be bored by the absolute pile of generic that our hero is. You haven’t met Watanabe yet, so you’ll have to trust me that he isn’t worth a prologue.
In the end, I decided on the one option that’d hook in the audience and give me sweet reader engagement. An in medias res (in the middle of things) prologue was the only option left that’d provide such a thing.
You know, a prologue where an action scene is happening and the author tries really hard to make you about these strangers you’ve never met.
Unfortunately, the adventures of our hero lacked any true action, so I just now realized that an in medias res prologue is mostly impossible too. My plan for picking up something random from my writing notes and marketing it as a prologue has failed.
…
…you know what dear reader, I am a fellow who likes to innovate now and then. I’ll break tradition a little bit and write an in medias res scene without action!
Yes, now to open my writing notes and… Okay, here is a random scene from the future that won’t help you understand anything at all, enjoy the prologue!
“Night time. It was dark as if all the light in the world had been sucked up by a sudden blackhole from space. Fortunately, for our hero and his party, there were no blackholes sucking up anything. The lack of artificial light in a pre-industrial society meant that there was no light pollution, hence the pitch-dark environment outside.
Yet, all of this mattered not. Our hero and his party were in pitch darkness, yes, but not out of lacking electrical lighting but out of being in a cave few meters underground.
They were on a quest, on an epic errant the likes of which none had ever seen in real. If successful, the name of the hero and his retainers would be etched down in history, their names never would be washed away come even Armageddon.
Our hero was on a journey to save a beautiful princess from an evil dragon, who was rumored to be most fierce and malicious. He would surely succeed in this endeavor; he was being followed by two jade beauties who would never waver no matter what happene-”
Watanabe’s self-narration was suddenly interrupted by an angry Rabanowicz. “By the Divine, if you do not shut up you’ll get a taste of my shoe, monsieur! Do your narration quietly if you so desperately need to narrate!”
“What is a ‘jade’?” asked Vasilia who was ignorant of matters related to otherworldly precious gems.
“Am I wrong though? We’re on a quest, to save a princess, from a dragon-”
“As I have said countless times, dragons don’t exist monsieur. This cave is only rumored to have one, and one such as yourself should know how rumors can amount to nothing.” replied Rabanowicz.
“Fine, we are on a quest to save a princess from possibly a dragon, and there are currently two women with me.”
“Who are not following thee.” suddenly added Vasilia.
“Nor do I agree to being called a ‘jade-beauty’, whatever it is.” further added Rabanowicz.
“Well, you know, these sorts of accounts require a drop of exaggeration. What will readers think if they found out that someone such as I have still had no beautiful woman following me this far into the story?” said Watanabe dejectedly.
“I don’t know what they’d feel, for I dabble mostly in higher forms of literature and a story like yours would be out of my sight, monsieur.” replied Rabanowicz.
“I don’t really read so I wouldn’t know either.” added Vasilia.
“Insulting the reader and calling the work they are reading lowbrow wouldn’t help their assessment either.” said Watanabe in a further state of dejection.
Such conversations continued as they made their way deeper into the cave, which thankfully didn’t seem to fork off so they were able to see what was needed to be seen, which was a whole lot of nothing. The nothingness was over when the party finally ended up in a dead-end, signaling the end of the cave.
“See? Just baseless rumors, the lot of them.” commented Rabanowicz as she stared at the empty cave wall constituting the dead-end. “There is no dragon, nor is there a princess.”
Watanabe (and Vasilia) was disappointed due to the lack of dragons and the fact that they had spent who-knows how much time dabbling in a dank cave. They decided to turn back, and did so coincidentally in rhythm.
Now though, they found a dead-end at the other side, this time in the form of a large scaly creature, bearing wings and yellow eyes that pierced the abyss of the cave.
“Adohe shelmiy bocze!” shouted Rabanowicz in a language that no one else in the party understood. “Monsieur, how is such a creature real?! Monsieur?”
Having gone through a dark cave, which he had tried to distract himself of his fear of such a cramped place by randomly narrating, Watanabe was at wits’ end.
He had already fainted the moment he saw caught a glimpse of the creature.
Our hero having fainted and unconscious, the prologue concludes here as abruptly as it began. What happened to our gallant hero? Did he make a recovery and save a princess to finally gain a love interest? Why are they in a cave in the first place? Who are they? How many chapters will it take for the author to actually arrive at this scene? Do I even care about these characters that I know nothing about?
All the questions above are good and valid questions to ask after reading that passage. Unfortunately, as is the nature with in medias res prologues, the next chapter will have nothing to do with what you just read.
None of your questions will be answered even if you read all the currently published chapters, for it will take the author a few months to reach this point.
Why did I choose this scene as a prologue then? That too is a good question.
One that’ll not be answered in any way as the reader progresses on to the next chapter.
Wow this title
It's pretty short compared to other isekai titles, lol.
now i read and u have my interest
u won my attention with your synopsis
good job