Howdy, y'all! I've said it on Patreon and Twitter, but I've got a pretty major announcement that I want to share with all of you.

For a while, I've gotten the question of "Will we see another route?" or "Will [X character] be getting a route?" Both of these, I've generally been unwilling to do. After all, the criteria for what makes a route a *route* in Sihai isn't simple. Some characters would be awesome to have a romantic route with, but not with the MC, Alex, at the head of it. There's too much wrapped in with their story and everyone else's that makes it very difficult to add another route.

However, I HAVE found one character, one idea, that I believe will both work as an MC-led route and provide something of value that wasn't there before. Something that, really, only this character can truly provide.

So... say hello to the official, sixth dateable character in Sihai's Legacy- Rodey!

He's an old fox who, like New!Alan, works in the depths of Sihai's archives. He has a great fondness for stories, even though they may be a little fantastical and hard to believe at times. Of course, as far as his attributes go, he'll fit right in with the rest of the boys.

That all said, he's not going to be a "traditional" route by any means. Compared to the rather blunt way in which you access the rest of the boys routes or even how those boys come up, Rodey will instead be more of a natural path- something you have to find, rather than something you're led to. He's not going to be lumped in with the main boys as far as promotional material goes, and he's (spoilers) not going to be required for the True Path. I'm sure this all makes him seem like a fun, unimportant add-in, but I assure you that it couldn't be any further from the truth.

As for what this means for the current workload and getting back on track- basically nothing. I don't plan to really start Rodey's route in earnest until New!Alan is a little further along, and he's not really going to be showing up initially anyway. So, basically, don't worry about him taking up time or anything like that. For now, I'll just keep chugging along. Just know that he's coming!