This chapter was hard for me. I needed to read some parts 7-8 times to understand. I will post my small summary. Feel to tell me if I missed part or to had to it.
Part 1
First we start with シュナン which, according to the character list, is the eldest son of 大公(When I read it I was sure it was a princess… oops) that believe that the monarchy is only gonna bring destruction but no one is thinking like him. For a lot of people, the 真王 is akin to a god. There is a war coming with the East nation. They were small communities that have been assimilated into one huge army that raided frequently the border. The only way 大公 believes is to kill them to defend themself.
Part 2
We switch to イアルwho is the solder that has been shot to protect the queen for years ago. He doubts that「血と穢れ」were the one trying to murder the queen four years ago. Now he is trying to capture merchant who tries to sell 闘蛇’s egg. Since the war with the East kingdom is coming they need more troops. The weakness of their 闘蛇’s army is that their number is low. The East kingdom have large army and is currently raiding the border.
part 3
We then switch to セィミヤ who is the future queen and her servant ナミ. セィミヤ Receive a candy from シュナン four years ago about something not mention. (I believe it is about what he spoke about in the first part. The abolish monarchy kinda stuff) セィミヤ order ナミ to not speak about it because if the other find out it will be disastrous for シュナン. Every time she sees candy now she thinks about him.ダミヤ sculpted セィミヤ a replica of the castle.
part 4
We come back to Erin. It is her 4 autumn in school. We learned that there is not a lot of rain or snow because the cloud drops it all in order to pass the mountain. There is only strong winds. 闘蛇 does not like snow or wind but are strong against cold. We learned that リラン’s fur is different from the other 王獣。 エサレ spoke about when he met a guy from Arion when she went looking for 王獣. The men told him to stop looking for wild 王獣 unless he wants to create a crisis. エサレ followed his advice but can’t stop thinking about who is watching him and what cause of crisis it could be. He wonders if Erin has hidden some secret from him but retract when he remembers her devotion for リラン。Erin also does not follow the rules. She does not use the whistle and the special medicinal water which is probably why リラン his different from the other 王獣 He can’t stop thinking about how he wants to know about it but does not want to put Erin at risk. Even if he tells Erin about the risk, she will probably continue doing what she does.
I hope it was useful. I divided it in part for it to be easier to follow and for people who have not finished reading it yet. If I am wrong or you think I am missing important information please tell me. This chapter was always going back and forth between character and time period making it hard to follow from time to time.
I’d already forgotten who was who so I was confused several times when I got the names wrong. Luckily I could check the character ‘introductions’ from the beginning.
This sentence trips me up with the two negatives so I’m not sure if it says one thing or the opposite:
シュナンは、心惹かれずにはいられぬ若者だ。I’m leaning towards ‘can’t help being fascinated by’ but…
The last part was really interesting (and not at all ominous).
Also, regarding your note in part 3 (about part 1), I don’t think シュナン wants to abolish the monarchy, so much as reunite the アルハン and ヨジェ parts of the country via marriage.
Is there a specific reason the bolded part would be written in the negative? I get what’s being said, but I’m not sure why it would be phrased this way. Is there some nuance difference compared to writing it in the positive, like implying what they expect the outcome to be or something?
触れられたくらいで動揺していることを悟られまいと、セィミヤは努めて平静な声を出した。
I’m not quite getting the meaning here. Is it like “Probably without realizing that she was shaking as if being touched, Seimiya said as calmly as possible”? I feel like something is off about my understanding of this. And is the まい nuance here just “probably”?
Regarding the 細工物 gift, we’re not supposed to fully understand its meaning in this section, right? Even though セイミヤ says she understands. I’m guessing it’s some kind of marriage proposal thing, but I guess we’ll find out eventually, unless I missed/forgot the explanation and someone wants to fill me in.
And I think that’s all my questions/comments. A lot more than usual, but overall the chapter was still understandable (if a little more tiring and difficult).
I feel like the positive sounds like „I want you to find out if they do this“, while this negative embedded question is more like „whether or not“ they are doing it, or „are they possibly doing this?“
I think it’s about the likelihood of the outcome if I had to say. 企んでいないか sounds more like a suspicion than straight up asking „Find out if they are planning this“
I don’t think the positive sounds right here. Maybe you could do 企んでいるかどうか? That sounds like a middle ground to my ears. But I‘m not a native speaker so
I think she is aware of the fact that she is shaken; she doesn’t want the other people to know, that’s why she tries her best to keep a calm voice. 悟られる is in passive → to be realized by others. I would say the まい is like „I can‘t let others be aware of this だろう?“
When Japanese is not hard enough as it is. I hate it when one word have more than one meaning that and that both meaning can fit in context. The more I study Japanese the more I find similar word or grammar. Why should I doubt the kanji I already know T.T
Agree, but it’s a bit hard to realize for the first time when it’s following a て-form.
Also, might be worth noting that 生まれて初めて is the only one of this form with a very specific meaning (well, not a very different meaning, but it is different. This was pointed out in some jp article, so it’s not just the translation that made it different):
Aして初めてB = only after A, B (the focus is the direct time-frame after accomplishing A)
生まれて初めて = for the first time in my life
I’m the one that pointed this out. It felt different enough to me that I couldn’t make sense of the usage until I saw the different English translation.
Why たりえる? I assume this is たる + える, but it’s not really common to see たる. What nuance does this have over say である? I found this, but it’s not really helping beyond what I already knew. Would it be fair to translate たりえる as “can be considered”?
And as simple as it sounds, I’m having trouble connecting この血筋ゆえに to ヨジェは国の魂たりえる. It starts “This lineage, therefore, …” and then I get stuck. Not being able to translate this into comprehensible English makes me feel like I’m missing something small, beyond the exact meaning of たりえる.
