← Back | Forward →
Thanks for the thread!
I’m currently watching the anime adaptation of each chapter after reading it so that I can contrast and the prologue really got pruned to the bare minimum. Poor Lana got the short end of the stick. She was missing completely, even though it felt like a pretty big milestone for Monica’s character development that she’s now kind of able to enjoy casually hanging around with her and even sometimes manages to speak in whole sentences.
Edit: Has this forum been super buggy for anyone else, lately? First, I had to edit three times to get a spoiler tag working, and now it swallowed half my post 
「あらあら。貴女、休日なのにどうして制服を着ているのかしら？」
Oi! No bullying!
「奇遇ね！ わたしも新しいアクセサリーを買いに行くところだったの。ねぇ、一緒に行きましょうよ。わたしの行きつけのお店なら、銀や象牙の可愛い櫛も扱ってるわ！」
I’m reminded how much I like Lana treating Monica like a friend despite both of them being so different 
「竜だ！ はぐれ竜が、街の近くに出たぞー！」
Oho. Time for our mysterious new flight magic casting friend to turn out to be a dragon slayer?
ネロは尖った耳をピクピクと震わせて、正門の方角に目を向ける。
That’s the cutest dragon compass 
長身の男に化けたネロは、ボテボテと走るモニカの首根っこを摑むと、軽々と持ち上げて肩に担ぐ。
Sometimes Monica carries Nero, and sometimes Nero carries Monica, and I think that’s beautiful 
「見たか、猫生活で培った跳躍技術！ オレ様最強にカッコいいな！ これはもう、物語の主人公って感じだよな！ おい、モニカ。白目剝いてないで、なんか言えよ。具体的にはオレ様を褒めろ！ おいってば！」
Author’s cat writing abilities: SSS tier
「二つの魔術を同時に維持するのって、すごく難しいの」
ネロが「へぇ」と意味深に呟いた。
「お前が当たり前のように使ってるから、魔術師なら誰でもできるのかと思ってたぜ」
I present to you: Monica, who has a really low self-esteem and was definitely only let into the seven sages by mistake, accidentially admitting that she’s actually really good at magic.
地竜、青年、そして青年の放つ火球。その三つのタイミングが合う瞬間を、モニカは静かに待った。
Ah. I see where this is going.
見習いである彼が使える魔術は、飛行魔術と火球を飛ばす魔術の二つだけ。
Haha. Well. I think you’ll miraculously discover your inner strength any moment now 
青年が放った火球の陰で、一本の炎の矢が生みだされたことに。
And there it is!
「倒した！ 倒したぞ！」
「君！ よくやってくれたな！」
Yeah! Well done! 
「さてはお前、気づいてないな？」
「……？ 何に？」
「人間の姿のオレ様が近くにいても、平気になってることに」
When your character growth is that you are now okay with being carried by your cat when he turns into a human.
「少しは、たくましくなったんじゃねぇの？」
Nero is very good for Monica 
「食べ飽きちゃったから、もういらない。あげる」
“It’s not like I bought it for you, baka!!”
「い、一緒にっ…………行きたい……です」
!!
（……まぁ、あのポンコツ娘は、服よりも数学書か魔術書の方が喜ぶのでしょうけど）
So you realize that yourself, huh.
You know, something that the person themselves doesn’t even want and that only has practical use for the mission they are pressed into wouldn’t usually be considered a “reward”.
But it’ll make Monica’s life easier, I guess, so…
「もう一人？ ……あぁ、うちの弟子のことですか」
!!
Our cat-finding, dragon-killing mage?
故にフェリクスのモニカに対する疑いの目を逸らすための囮として、ルイスは自分の弟子をセレンディア学園に送りこんだのである。
Huh. I guess not then. But… wouldn’t that pupil have showed up in the last volume?
「アレは噓が下手ですからねぇ。なぁに、私があれこれ指示せずとも、良い囮になってくれることでしょう。なにせうちの弟子は、図体も声も馬鹿でかい上に、かつてミネルヴァの校舎を破壊した、とびきりの問題児ですからねぇ。はっはっは」
Okay, I guess it’s someone else, but now I’m even more wondering why he didn’t appear last volume when it would’ve mattered to distract Felix.
その人物は早足で自室に戻ると、鍵付きの引き出しの奥にしまっていた、ある物を取り出した。
赤く輝く宝石に金細工をあしらったそれは、傍目にはブローチに見えたかもしれない。だがよく見ると、装飾枠の裏側には頑丈そうな鋲が三つ取り付けてある。これは壁や床に刺して、固定して使う道具なのだ。
Oh! I thought it was Isabelle for sure, considering her history with dragons, and その人物 was just used to add a bit of style, but… I guess it might be someone we don’t know yet?
And thus, the prologue ends, and we already have a mystery / adversary. Nice.
Aw, man. I agree, their interactions felt pretty important. They really should’ve dedicated 6 episodes to each volume instead of 4.
I guess the whole prologue was half a bit of “meet the characters again” and half “here’s that new character”, so maybe they pruned a bit of the earlier bit since anime viewers weren’t jumping between volumes?
Nope, works well for me.
Idk, I think they just have budget constraints and are throwing out scenes that would make the story better left and right. Ep 5 would have flowed much more smoothly if they had just adapted all town scenes in order. If I were an anime only, I probably would have been confused by the way they jumped straight into action without showing how Monica ended up on top of a random clocktower in a town that never got named or introduced.
Not? I still think Glenn is the prime suspect for Louis’ student. And maybe we haven’t seen him because he’s just not very good at his undercover job.
This is how Louis describes his student:
「アレは噓が下手ですからねぇ。なぁに、私があれこれ指示せずとも、良い囮になってくれることでしょう。なにせうちの弟子は、図体も声も馬鹿でかい上に、かつてミネルヴァの校舎を破壊した、とびきりの問題児ですからねぇ。はっはっは」
This is how Glenn (I don’t think the name was mentioned in the prologue, but I assume we’re talking about the same person?) was described when we first met him:
顔を上げれば、しゃがみ込んで心配そうにモニカを見つめている金茶色の髪の青年と目が合った。年齢はモニカと同じぐらいだろうか。動きやすそうな服装で、肩に斜めがけの鞄をかけている
I feel like a “ridiculously huge body” would’ve been mentioned if that was him?
I was also surprised that he can only use two spells (or kinds of spells?):
見習いである彼が使える魔術は、飛行魔術と火球を飛ばす魔術の二つだけ
Maybe that’s normal, but it sounds a bit lacking for somebody who went to Minerva? Or maybe it means that those are the only spells that can be used against a dragon, but I feel like that could’ve been phrased more clearly.
So yeah, those things are why I thought that it’s not him.
But on the other hand, he’s quite good at the spells he “can use” and didn’t even hesitate before starting a fight with a dragon, so clearly he has experience. And “new young mage gets introduced” and “Louis’ pupil gets mentioned” did happen very close to each other, which does point to it being him. I’m definitely ready to be wrong here.
What I’m most confused by is the timing though. Louis said that he was meant as a decoy, so deploying him two weeks after the critical phase would be pretty useless. So he wouldn’t he have entered the school when Monica did (i.e. last volume)? Louis seems convinced that he’ll naturally draw attention to himself without even knowing that that’s his job, but we don’t even hear him mentioned at all last volume.
There has been updates lately. Could it be this button causing trouble?
Btw, if you take away the “open” in your post, the summary won’t automatically open upon refresh.
At a glance, yes. I didn’t even notice it, but after I used it to switch back to the old editor, spoiler tags now seem to be working properly again. Thank you.
Hmmm, I feel like I’ve already seen a couple more clues that might answer some of your questions in future chapters. So I can’t comment anymore. Sorry for spoilering the name, btw.
