本好きの下剋上: Volume 2, Week 8 discussion

Japanese Language Reading
#1

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Week 18

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Start Date: December 12th
Previous week: Week 17
Next week: Week 19

Reading:

Chapters 17-19 (ルッツの教育計画, 失敗の原因と改善, 策トロンベが出た) (47 pages/ 13%)

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
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本好きの下剋上: Volume 2, Week 9 discussion
本好きの下剋上 home thread
#2
This week spoiler

This week was super interesting. I would have never guess the problem with the shampoo was the cloth. Mayne then successfully got gold coins. Mayne is officially richer than probably half the population of that part of the city. Funny thing is that if I was in her situation I would never be able to do that. I have no idea how to make basic things I use every day. It’s funny to realize it now. I have no idea how to make half of what I use on a daily basis. I need to look into it in case I get isekaied.
(My dictionary tries to make me change isekaied for deceased. It seem he knows the important words :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:)

I’m not sure what was the problem with the trombe? Why did they need to go see Beno about it? They have gone to get wood to be able to steam it? Since they had to make an order for the woodshop I guessed it was that.

By the way am I the only one that was would have question Mayne as to why she wanted the trombe? Everyone seemed to just not care about it. I know they wanted to get rid of it but even Lutz and Beno were surprised when she first told them she was using trombe. What do they imagine she is gonna do with the part of a dangerous magical tree. Maybe they all thought Mayne has always been weird.

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#3
This week's spoiler

Yes, they needed firewood to get the bark off the trombe branches and it’s not like a little child can just pop in a lumber yard and buy stuff, not to mention transport it.

There are very good reasons why various people don’t think it’s a big deal Myne is acting strange. Most people just don’t interact with her very much and to them she’s just a strange little child playing around. Like the merchant with the book who she creeped out with the dogeza and general obsession. And the other kids also try to avoid her after the forest incident. For people around her who do see her more often, though, there are specific reasons why they don’t press the issue:

– Otto wants her help with the paperwork at the gate, he knows how frail she is, and he is indebted to her father (his boss), so he’s unlikely to seek out any conflict for that reason.
– Benno wants to use her for profits (to which her weirdness is directly related) and there’s a second reason I don’t think has been revealed yet.
– Her family is just glad she’s (sort of) walking around and there’s also another reason I don’t think has been revealed yet.
– Lutz is the only one who has both noticed and escalated the issue, because he is always watching her and was also in a position (as her friend) to act on his suspicions. But now he knows why she’s acting weird.

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#4
Summary

Aren’t they just scared of her because of the incident with the clay tablet?
Her father did ask what she was going to do with it, though.

Well, it’s not dangerous once it’s dead…

I don’t think they really realize she is strange, though. Except for the very beginning, she is acting “normally” (although very smart for her age) 90% of the time. The rest of the time is when books/paper/whatever are involved, but it’s still very easy to wave away as her being a bit weird.
At most my impression of Benno is that he is taking the “don’t know; don’t care” approach. No other reason comes to mind at the moment :thinking:
I really feel her family should have noticed. Whatever justification given by the author later did not feel very satisfying to me, but plot demands it. :woman_shrugging:

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#5
Summary

Pretty big future spoilers!!! As for Benno, I don’t think they have talked about his fiancée yet at this point? It’s implied she’s a huge part of why he takes a liking to her to the point people around him start noticing him changing and Mark even remarks how much Myne resembles his fiancée and how much more alive he seems when interacting with her. As for the the family, they actually do notice and talk about it. But besides her being on the verge of death constantly making it a far lesser worry, there’s also the fact that her father in his backstory is revealed to have been an equally huge weirdo and just as unreasonable growing up (wanting to become a knight even though he doesn’t have magic, etc), so presumably a lot of her weirdness gets ignored since they just assume she’s taking after him (and in the colour illustrations she even resembles him visually, having the same blue hair and yellow eyes).

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本好きの下剋上 home thread
#6
Also spoilers (volume 3)

It’s true that she interact with Benno in a similar way, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t strange, especially when it comes to name things. She also uses words from a different language. Even liking her (like ルッツ) you would eventually notice if you care. I’m pretty sure it’s mentioned at some point he just gave up trying to understand.
As for her family, it’s harder to say that they notice she is strange. There’s a short story showing her mother and sister talking, with エファ saying that マイン is simply having a growth period where she simply wants to do more things by herself and that all kids go through that phase. That doesn’t sound very “noticy” to me :stuck_out_tongue: Even when she is asked about マイン’s display of magic by フェルディナンド somewhere toward the end of volume 3 (I think), she just says “oh yeah, that’s a thing she does”. Again, that’s a bit tame as a reaction.

#7
Still spoilers

Yes, she is definitely strange and Benno notices it repeatedly. The reason he doesn’t do anything about it is at first profit and then they become close for the aforementioned reasons, so it’s even harder for him to cut ties or to pry into her.

And I don’t remember that part with Ferdinand very well, but I don’t think she displayed any magic to her family? They just said her eyes changed colour a few times, which in this world where moons regularly change colour and magic beasts and plants abound might not seem like that big of a deal? And presumably there are other commoner children with devouring to whom it happens, so they might know it’s a thing children do sometimes, even if they don’t know the cause.

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#8
Spoilers continue

That’s still strange to me (or let’s say weak) as a reason. But, pretty much like Benno, I just gave up trying to understand :stuck_out_tongue:

Right, that’s what I meant. Considering the reaction of the kids when that happened after the clay plate incident, I don’t think I would say it’s standard. If I remember well even Ferdinand is surprised by her lack of reaction.

#9
Spoilers ahoy

I don’t think Benno gave up trying to understand as much as he just didn’t want to ruin their (starting to be very profitable) relationship. Especially since she came clean about how sensitive the issue is for her (can’t even buy with gold coins, to put it in merchant speak) when she asked whether he would cast her aside since she’s a creepy child who doesn’t act her age.

I think the children were more scared about the crushing than the eye colour. They certainly didn’t freak out about the shumils changing eye colour. And they even compared her to a shumil, if memory serves (even way before Sylvester).

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#10
Now back to this week's spoiler

In this context, those two things are equivalent, though :sweat_smile: I had something else in mind too, but that’s from a much further volume and it doesn’t really add much to what I’m trying to say.

Well, yes, but also found it strange that it did so (from the same short story).

#11
A bit more about Myne's weirdness

Sure, now that I read that part again, Fey even said Myne was scary and weird and started shunning her for that reason. On the other hand, it’s still a naturally occurring phenomenon, like if she had webbed feet or something. And this is of course an assumption of my part, but I would think strange things like these are much more a part of the lived experience in that world. Not to mention Myne’s parents have been around far longer than the kids and might have had more chances to experience it and less reason to think it’s too strange. Plus they think she has been blessed by the gods, so that’s always a convenient explanation for everything, including her abnormal knowledge and ability (though in the house she actually failed far more than she accomplished things). And of course they have had plenty of time to get used to her weirdness (who knows when the eye thing even started).

Furthermore, one thing that kind of ties into this that the books have not really touched on very thoroughly (I think I only saw a more explicit discussion of this in volume 10… abouts) is how Myne compartmentalises different aspects of her life and acts like a chameleon depending on the role she’s playing (all the while trying to keep her actual true self hidden in all these different roles). There’s a part in the early books (not sure where it actually was, so I’ll blur it for spoilers just in case) where Tuuli is seriously shocked seeing Myne in “merchant mode”, since she’s so different from the Myne she knows. And there’s one part where she teaches Lutz to do the same, shifting between different speech registers when he’s at home or at work.

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#12

I feel we are pretty much derailing the thread at this point; sorry for people who are just reading along :sweat_smile: At the same time, I’m really happy to have this discussion. Maybe we should move soonish to, say, the マイン main thread :thinking:

Anyway, spoilers

So, it is mentioned at some point that you need a ridiculous amount of magic to be able to do that (or, I guess, enough control over it to just concentrate what you have in your eyes). Apparently, [volume 8-ish spoiler?]low ranking nobles would really be hard pressed to do that. At the same time, [volume 7 spoiler]any 身食い with more magic than that would just die very young, i.e. before they can interact with the world. ディルク is around 中級 and without help he would not survive for long. マイン only managed to survive because she learned by herself a crazy efficient may to compress magic.
So, yes, I also assume it’s something that can naturally occur, but 平民 have a vanishingly low probability of coming across it, I think.

About compartmentalization, that’s true as well, but I think the most weird thing about her is when she does something that involves books rather than how she behaves in different contexts. Randomly spouting nonsensical words is a sign of dementia in our world too… :sweat_smile:

本好きの下剋上 home thread
#13

Have… have I been misreading his name all this time…? His name is ベンノ, not ベノン?!

AAAAAaaaaa (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

@Redglare cannot read = confirmed :pensive:

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#14

Sometimes I think katakana is harder than kanji. No joke.

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