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光の帝国 
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Welcome to 光の帝国 week 4
| Week |
Start Date |
Chapter |
Percentage |
文庫 pages |
| Week 4 |
Aug 29 |
all of 光の帝国 |
53% |
119-152 |
| Week 5 |
Sept 5 |
all of 歴史の時間 and 草取り |
67% |
153-192 |
| Week 6 |
Sept 12 |
read until sentence ending in ５分間を」ちょうだい。 |
82% |
193-233 |
| Week 7 |
Sept 19 |
finish 黒い塔 and 国道を降りて |
96% |
233-272 |
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Phhuu. 光の帝国 was quite disturbing to read.
We loosely follow the
ツル先生 we read so much in the previous story about and his 分教場. One can strongly feel the influence of the war. Everything is going okay in the beginning. Except for maybe that it seems the school is in essence picking up abandoned children and teachers with some kind of power.
Then one can already guess the story taking a darker turn when 信太郎 killed the dog, and they let あや sit there for a while staring at the corpse of the dog 
. Man that boy frightens me. Violent because of his upbringing and on top of it possessing such a power…
But from that point onwards shit really hits the fan and the way most of them die is kinda gruesome to be honest.
I’m a bit fuzzy why the help with ツル先生 took so long to get to the school. I get that he is the only one that has つむじ足 and the others wouldn’t be able to keep up with him, but I think he could have easily gone ahead, since they kinda knew how dire the schools’ situation seemed to be. Having his guidance might have made a difference?
One question I also still have is what happened at the end with the earth quiver and flame blazing pillar that basically destroyed everything on the mountain top. What caused this destruction?
This story was a bit harder to follow because we had to keep track of so many people and their powers. I hope the next stories will get more upbeat again. I preferred the lighter nature over such heavier material. Although I suspect this story will stick with me for a little…
It really is very heavy emotionally.
And it all started so wholesome, only to deteriorate fast, and keep going that way.
I feel sorry for ツル先生.
I’m honestly not sure what else to say here. I wasn’t ready for this story.
I’ve had some time to let this chapter sit with me now.
It definitely left an impression. I have to say, it’s impressive that I got that emotionally invested although I’d read the spoiler free parts of downtimes’s message and was pre-warned that it was going to get dark. 恩田陸 definitely knows how to create an atmosphere…
I was also not sure why ツル先生 didn’t just piggy back them up one by one while they tredged their way closer bit by bit. And I wonder if the 遠耳 didn’t tell the others any details, because they obviously knew that the kids and teachers on the mountains had been dying off one by one…
Either way, for ツル先生 to cling to the hope that they’d come back one day breaks my heart… I wonder how long it’s been by now. Which war was it that this occured?
That’s a good question. 
Only thing I can come up with is that the soldiers in their firing craze mistakenly hit and activated their own traps, causing a chain reaction of sorts..? If 信治郎 hadn’t been dead already, I’d have thought it was a dying reaction of his, but well.
