Not a Chapter: Real Talk here (Regarding Dragon Knight)

Hey guys, Reigokai here!

As you may already know, Dragon Knight is a web novel I am translating on this website. It is a massive story that has more than 1,900 chapters and each chapter has a decent length.

Now, onto the real talk. 

I am beginning to feel like translating Dragon Knight isn’t worth it anymore…

As I have said before, I translate because when I post and see people comment and react, it feels as if I am reading together with those people.

I don’t get that feeling from Dragon Knight anymore. 

Don’t get me wrong, I actually like that story a lot. The wars are resolved in pretty imaginative ways that you are actually convinced they won because they strategized; the battles are realistic, depicted in ways where I can feel they are actually ‘human’ and they can die, the number of people each member of the main cast kills is not ridiculous like in other stories where they just nuke them all; the story has a very defined main cast with fortes and quirks that they use on their advantage, each member also has weaknesses too, they complement each other well; the world is really well build, each place having their culture, factions, and races making them feel different.

If I like it that much, why am I stopping? 

As I said before, I translate to get that feeling of ‘reading with others’. Otherwise, I could just read it by myself, which is faster.

Let me put a comparison here. Reading it raw by myself would take around 10-20 minutes per chapter; translating a chapter will take me at least 4 hours. Couple that with the fact that I stick two chapters minimum when releasing and that’s 8 hours. Editing takes an extra 30 minutes.

It is easy to tell which one would take less time.

And so, to summarize, I like the story, yes, but translating it doesn’t feel gratifying anymore. It is slowly turning into a ‘It might be better for me to just read it by myself, what’s the difference?’.

These are my honest thoughts, and I hope you guys understand why I am dropping Dragon Knight. With this, I will at least have some more time, find another story maybe on top of Weakest Mage to bring to you guys?

Anyways, sorry for the long talk there. I just wanted you guys to know my feelings before throwing this announcement.

To the people who tagged along in the journey for as long as they did… 

Captura

Support my translations or commission me to translate a chapter of any series on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!

48 thoughts on “Not a Chapter: Real Talk here (Regarding Dragon Knight)”

  1. Sorry to hear that this novel has been dropped. I’ve just picked this up a few days ago myself and I thoroughly enjoyed it, so finding out about this was quite disappointing for me.

    It’s rare for me to find a novel like this where the mc has such a charismatic personality (instead of the standard bland mc), a great cast that interacts with each other, and reads like an epic (thanks sharon) with plenty of emotional but well written moments.

    I don’t know if you’ll see this post or not, but…
    If possible, could you delay dropping it until the end of the current arc? I know that this is a rather selfish request of mine, but I would like to ask that you give us readers one last chance to comment and see if we can make you feel that we are indeed reading along with you.

    I’d accept it if you decide not to, but I’d be extremely happy if you did at least this much.

    Thanks for reading this far, and I hope you the best.

  4. Personally I think the problem with Dragon Knight is that the pacing seems more like it’s dragging on. I mean, Solje keeps repeating the same thing over and over again. No offense, but I had to force myself to read it because of that. Not to mention it’s pure fantasy, no isekai which people tend to enjoy more these days. World Reformation on the other hand while not being isekai didn’t keep repeating everything over and over. Dragon Knight just doesn’t do it for a lot of people. I’m sure when a manga version comes out, people will be interested again. But as a novel… you know what I’ve already said.

    1. I mean, I think an argument could be made for World Reformation repeating things over and over again in terms of how the arcs were fairly cyclical.

      It’s more that each occasion had a little variation and old characters grew appropriately as the cast expanded.

  5. Well, there is the quality of the webnovel itself, to clarify not the quality of the translation which is superb. How many of the comments here are actually asking for the continuation of the novel itself? Many of the comments have simpathy towards you, confirmation of your hard work over the years.

    There is also the fact that is very difficult to guess what novel will be a success or not in advance. Or in case of Dragon Knigbt, although good, too different for you core fanbase.

    To finish, best luck in all your next projects.

    1. To finish, you can avoid risky novels by filtering weird titles or summaries that contradict itselfs or are plain dumb.

  7. Honestly, I tried reading Dragon Knight for a while, but I just couldn’t get into it….mostly because I don’t like the MC.

  8. I also cannot feel like im reading it with everyone else… because i was not reading it at all, but i guess i will check it eventually just to know what the fuzz is all about

  9. Oof. I feel bad now. I still have a large backlog of Dragon Knight to go through. I just end up taking my time on it more for some reason.

    It might be the size of the chapters, but considering TsukiMichi, it’s more likely the unorthodox main character and themes. Isekai is easy to digest, I guess.

    Well, you do you, either way. I’m gonna catch up and comment on every Dragon Knight chapter eventually.
    Eventually.

  10. thanks for the translation so far!
    even though DK wasn’t my cup of tea, you still work hard for it so its worth the read 🙂

    looking forward on your next translation!

  11. Sorry, for commenting after ages. Usually just lurk around silently..
    Enjoyed all the translation.. keep up the good work..

  13. Thanks for the hard work till then. And it’s true that if there is less people commenting it will be less fun translating.
    A pity but also a good lesson for the comunity in a way ? ^^
    So people heed your translator’s call and tell them all your loves, hates, likes, dislikes and ideas to show them your interest in their work ! ^^
    It’s part of the fun to read and comment on the onlines novels’s comment sections after all ! 😉
    A round of hearts for our translator ! <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

    Friendly yours,
    Nekoyashiki-san

  16. Hi and sorry to hear that!
    I’m not a big fan of DK, I could never get hooked by the streem of consciousness writing style, I guess… but I like the plot and I liked the few chapters I read now and then. So I’m sorry for the fans but I also get what you mean and if it’s not a pleasure anymore it will begins to weight to much on you and you don’t deserve that!
    Also, it’s been a week I wanted to thank you for picking up WM because I like it really a lot!
    But it was never the right time to write a comment🙄
    I’ll start lurking less and commenting more!
    Thanks for your amazing work!!😊😊😊

  17. thanks for your hard work, i know how you feel,
    i didn’t read this one “it was too spicy for me”. and i didn’t start reading the new one yet. “been really busy with work’ .
    but i hope you will get the support you want and deserve.

    thanks.

  19. I know exactly where you are coming from Reigokai. I’m the same with comments. I love it when people are commenting with their ideas and having discussions. When I do a chapter of Maou Gakuin it takes me about 4 to 6 hours (depending on the chapter length) and about 30 min like yourself for editing. Like you say I could just read it myself which would be much quicker but the fun is sharing it with others and if that fun is not there then it becomes a chore. Thanks for all your work on DK and I will endeavour to comment on WM in the future.

  20. Damn, a week ago i posted a 5 star recension on novelupdates about dk and i mean it, it is a great story so much different from an isekai; char with a real personality, not just the usual standard boring categories, a well defined world…
    and damn, the parts where the narration changes to a song are so well made that I think you should do it for work and ask the author about it 😛
    i really enjoyed the ride, thanks for the happiness you gave to me reading this piece of art, i will miss it

  22. What I’ve learned from this is i need to start actually commenting instead of lurking, I quite enjoyed that one but fairs fair you shouldn’t translate something because you feel like you have to when you can translate something because you want to

  28. Well its a shame, I was really enjoying that one, but oh well, you got to do whats best fro you and I will support you. Hope another group picks it up and continues with the same level of quality.

  29. Sorry i never leave comment at all, and doesnt read because of works (that killing me) DK has good view of the world the writer want to built, yet if you say so ita okay. Dont force your self i know how hard it is to do something that you feel doesnt has the “thing” anymore. Thank you for everything you have done since tsuki

  30. I mean, even I noticed that Weakest Mage was getting way more attention than DK. And that’s fine, in itself; WM takes the standard Isekai plot and does some interesting things with it.

    But to me, WM just feels so *safe*. DK, on the other hand, is doing so much more with just about everything. The characters have more depth, the setting is complex with layers of history, and the stakes are about a thousand times higher from the word go. Even the narrative itself takes risks, alternating between Solje’s nearly stream-of-consciousness narration and Sharon’s pseudo-omniscient “songs”.

    So yeah, I’m personally disappointed. Can’t argue the numbers, obviously, and I don’t dislike WM. But I’m gonna miss Solje and his crazy worldview.

    But hey. Thanks for all your hard work on the series thus far. It’s been quite a ride. 😁

  32. Sometimes being a lurker really comes back to bite you. I’ve found myself incredibly entertained by Dragon Knight, it’s just a (terrible) habit of mine to read and not leave a comment saying how fantastic it was. That being said, that’s as good a reason as any to stop translating the work – if you’re finding it to be a chore and not a fun hobby then there’s no point in continuing. I just want to let you know that I very much enjoyed the chapters you gave us, and I’ll be keeping an eye on the other stories you’re translating, since they’re also pretty interesting.

    All the best.

    1. Simply one of my favorite web novel series, this is the title that introduced me to your WordPress blog, you’re not at fault here Regiokai, I’ve been reading your translations for quite some time now and it was my own fault for not expressing my gratitude properly to you through the comments and I’m extremely sorry for that, but I want you to know that me and every single reader who read your works are grateful for every single chapters that you gave us, we’re always behind your back and you’ll always have our support, since the moment when I first read your work I’ve become a member of this great society, thank you, truly.

  33. I am one at fault here too. I always read them without commenting. Shame it was actually quite a fun read

    1. Sad, but OFC I won’t blame you.
      If you will stop right now, can you just spoil if camilla is actually dead?

Leave a Reply