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光の帝国 
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Welcome to 光の帝国 week 7
| Week |
Start Date |
Chapter |
Percentage |
文庫 pages |
| Week 7 |
Sept 19 |
finish 黒い塔 and 国道を降りて |
96% |
233-272 |
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黒い塔
Man, that break from last week was diabolical. I managed not to read further and was immediately shocked when starting to read today 
Sooo… was it just a foreshadowing dream, or did it actually happen and 亜希子 simply managed to turn back time?
Since she is super exhausted and basically sleeps until they arrive in 秋田, I think she actually turned back time. But I have to say that I’m not 100% sure in my understanding of the story.
I am happy that she managed to get over her parents not telling her about being adopted. Though that it even took the しまっている information from 記実子 to change her outlook of her parents 
And then the father dies right after 
We also hear that 篤 actually wins the election and 亜希子 joins in the campaign. Given everything that was said in this part, 亜希子 seems to be SUUUPER important. I don’t expect we will get any information about what the 常野 are starting to gather for (maybe in one of the other books of the series?). I mean I wasn’t expecting to get 亜希子 and 記実子s 10 year after meeting either and here we are. Never say never.
On to the final story of the book.
黒い塔
I don’t think she actually thought worse of her parents. She spends some time reflecting on her conflicting feelings, and how she wishes she could just let it go before that. It’s just that it’s such a tangle of emotions for her due to her aunt revealing it in the meanest, most unfeeling way possible that she couldn’t separate them. The rush of memories then helped her focus on the good instead, I think.
I think so too! Definitely sounded like it. Which is a pretty amazing power! I wonder how this is going to play into the next books. I hope they have a bit more of a connected story.
国道を降りて
Aww, what a nice, heartwarming way to end this book. I’m so happy for ツル先生! He’s been waiting for such a long time… I hope the other kids are doing well too, whatever form they took.
The あとがき by 恩田陸 was interesting. Apparently she regretted her choice to have all these different characters with their short appearances. Maybe that is a sign the next books will feel more cohesive?!
The other, longer one felt, as often, a bit unnecessary. Some philosophizing by some woman I don’t know about people and death and seeing the good and the bad in life. Just in a lot more words. 
国道を降りて
You are right, that was a wholesome way to round out the book.
At first when they were standing at the 三叉路 I really didn’t realize what was happening. Had a really long line. But that made it way funnier when I realized what was going on, jumped a few sentences back, and read “the crows gave a ‘cra, cra’” right after he asked the question. Nearly burst out laughing 
The story was harder to read for me compared to others. Somehow the vocabulary used seems just a smidge more rare than normal, and the music focus showed me some gaps in my vocabulary knowledge. I also took the time to put on some of the songs mentioned to set the mood 
.
But maybe it just was an effect of already engaing with Japanese for roughly 5 hours today and my brain was a little bit more fried than usual
I really would have loved to know why they gathered all near the school grounds. I doubt it was just to party.
The 岬 - 美咲 connection strongly hints at some form of reincarnation again.
I’m pretty sure I’ll continue with the next book at some point in the future. It probably won’t be soon, though. With the ongoing book clubs and my preparation for N1, I currently don’t have much wiggle room to fit in extra reading.
Finished!
黒い塔
Re: the question of did she actually turn back time - I think she did. Kimiko said something like, "oh this has never happened before’ or something like that, so I think Kimiko was brought back in time with her, memories in tact. I think also she needed some time, and distance from her not so happy Tokyo life, to come to terms with being adopted. Knowing the circumstances probably helped with that. It’s not like she knew her mom struggled to have children and couldn’t, and that her body was barely well enough to care for the young Akiko as she was.
国道を降りて
I admit I was kind of meh on this story until Misaki met Tsuru Sensei and then I was holding back tears 
I think I’m the most attached to him out of all the characters, he’s had so much heart break in his long, long life.
Given Tsuru was there, I assume it was the same school house, or a rebuilt one in the same place? After all, we know he was/is a teacher. This may be ‘his’ area.
Thanks to everyone for joining in reading this! 恩田陸 is one of my favorite authors and this book did not disappoint.
国道を降りて
What a nice way to end the book! It was really heartwarming to see ツル先生 reunite with the reborn/reincarnated people. I assume he had to wait several decades for this moment, which (even for his already long life) is still a lot of waiting.
I definitely thought so too, it felt like I had to look up a few more words than I usually do.
I quickly checked the other two books on Amazon, and it seems that they contain longer stories/one coherent storyline instead of several, somewhat loosely connected short stories. Although I really like these short stories especially for this specific world setting, I’m probably still gonna pick up the other books in the future.
