本好きの下剋上: Volume 4+ discussion thread

Gotcha. I read on Kindle and generally rely on a quick English meaning approximation to not slow down my pace too much. I only go to the Japanese dictionary if the English meaning is unhelpful or later once I’m reviewing the highlighted words to create Kitsun cards if I need more nuance. But at that point I’m on my computer anyway, so a free website works just fine.

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In that case I recommend kotobank, since it aggregates a bunch of online dictionaries.
For instance, on the page for 困窮, you can find the definition from the 精選版 日本国語大辞典, the デジタル大辞泉 (the one you used, I guess), and the 普及版 字通 (which I do not know).
It’s a separate section, but they also have J-E dictionaries (ex 困窮)

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That’s the plan. Except between 薬屋のひとりごと and 魔法少女育成計画 book 4 I’m now reading two books that aren’t very story-driven, which is my preferred style. And I desperately want to start 本好き volume 15 (hence me posting here) but I’m currently reading (and watching) too many things and it’s hard to see when I’ll be able to start it… Having three Japanese books in flight at once seems like a bad idea, and will mostly likely result in me dropping one or both of the others. Plus I’ve been reading a lot of manga lately, which has also reduced my book reading and anime listening practice time. I really need more time in the day…

Hopefully I can start volume 15 in 2-3 weeks, but I’m not sure…

On an unrelated note, my Kindle home page keeps recommending me some very far-from-where-I’m-at volume of 本好き and it’s really annoying! Just glancing at the cover feels like a major spoiler!

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Yes, that sounds like a bad time.

While 薬屋のひとりごと 1 isn’t very plot-driven, there’s still continuity in what is happening. I can’t seem to find a way to explain without spoilers, so, I won’t :upside_down_face:.

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New plan: take a week off from work and binge read some stuff!

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Only a few hours until volume 29 comes out!
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Well, that was both an extremely satisfying and frustrating volume. Satisfying, because some of my favorite parts of this arc are all bundled in this volume. Frustrating, because another of those scenes is cliffhanger’d into the next volume, and we get instead ~40% of the volume occupied by extra stuff showing us what’s going on elsewhere. In the web version, the main character just gets the cliff notes on those things, so there’s a lot more details, it’s still a fun read, and it makes more sense chronologically. But I wanted to read about something else.
And now I have to wait 4 months for that to happen.

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神に祈りを \(゚∀゚)/
The season 3 of the anime just started !

I watched the first episode, which correspond to the beginning of book 6. Still very pleasant, with a much faster pace than the LN. And so much easier to understand with visuals when Myne is explaining technical stuff. Also nice foreshadowing with (spoiler book 7) Arno giving a dirty look to Fran

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I’ll be starting volume 15… soonTM. I still need to do another ~60 Kitsun lessons for words from volume 14 (already added them to my deck, just need to stop being lazy and do the lessons). I also still need to finish 魔法少女育成計画 book 4, which has been a slow-and-not-so-steady read for the past two months. But once I’m done that (hopefully in the next week or so) I should be ready for another 本好き binge.

Not sure how many volumes I’ll do this time. @Naphthalene are there any more good breaks in this arc? I would definitely like 1-2 breaks during the remaining 7 books in this arc if possible. Preferably breaks that feel like the end of volume 14, not the end of volume 13. (As always, no spoilers please.)

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Well, I feel like it’s fine to stop at the end of 16. Also 19. Other volumes may or may not be good places to stop, but I don’t remember any particular cliffhanger. I’m having a hard time remembering those, though, since I binged everything.

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I have read until volume 18, and so far I don’t feel that there was really any clean break during this arc… Almost the opposite, many books ends without anything special, just part of a longer story.

But I agree with @Naphthalene that Volume 16 is a fairly good stop, it’s a very satisfying ending. Volume 16 is also one of my favorite in this arc so far.

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Perfect, thanks! Stopping after 16 and 19 would work great! I have a few other books I want to sprinkle in here and there, which is why I want the planned breaks. (Maybe I’ll post more in the 多読 thread at some point.)

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For sure! Volume 14 was a reasonable stopping point (especially compared to volume 13), but it still wasn’t great compared to previous arcs. I just don’t want to rush through and catch up before the series is done… (and as I just posted, I do want to read other books too.)

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I finished volume 15 (not the extra chapters yet). Really good volume overall! I actually feel like this would make for a good break point as well.

Volume 15 comments / predictions

Not a whole lot happened in this volume, but it was really enjoyable the whole time. It looks like the アナスタージウス plotline is going in the direction I expected (though still not fully confirmed), which is that he will relinquish his right to the throne to be with エグランティーヌ. (Also, is it me or are these names getting harder to spell? I had to copy and paste them.) Hopefully this will solidify the 第一王子 as the crown prince and avoid another round of internal conflict.

Here are some of the possible directions I could see happening.

  1. ジルヴェスター dies / is killed somehow and ヴィルフリート becomes 領主, making the 5th part 領主の第一夫人 or something like that. Kind of hard to imagine this one unless there’s a big time skip.
  2. Similar to the above, but ヴィルフリート can’t take the throne and/or he is deemed unworthy of the throne, so フェルディナンド becomes 領主 and ローゼマイン basically becomes his wife instead to help prop him up since he has no allies.
  3. Similar to the above, but ローゼマイン herself becomes 領主, though I think this one is unlikely.
  4. Similar to the above, except ジルヴェスター’s assassination leads to some other faction taking over the 領地.
  5. ローゼマイン (for some reason) ends up being アナスタージウス’s wife, maybe 第二.
  6. ローゼマイン is forced to marry the 第一王子, possibly leading to conflict.

Honestly, if ローゼマイン manages to stay in エーレンフェスト I feel like ジルヴェスター’s fate is sealed. I just don’t see a way for the story to progress with her in her home 領地 without a major shift like that.

I also have a prediction related to ハルトムート’s research into why ローゼマイン’s 祝福 work differently. I’ve thought this for a while (or parts of this), but I wonder if all the 身食い children are like chosen by the gods. I had also considered that the 身食い children are just distant descendants of 貴族 and just by a generic fluke develop magic, but I like this other theory better. Basically, the 貴族 inherit the magical abilities genetically, but are not specifically chosen by the gods so are inherently less capable. But since the 身食い tend to die and the ruling class continues, this has never been noticed before. Of course, her being different could be as mundane as her first exposure to magic being through the 神殿 and therefore she’s just more attuned to the gods and making prayers. But that would be boring.

Finally, the stuff with ユストクス was hilarious. He’s just like, “what’s a little 女装 to gather some intel?”. :laughing: I like how リヒャルダ was freaking out (I didn’t realize she was his mother before around then) and how ハルトムート was like :thinking:.

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vol 15

That’s a lot of predictions :eyes: I can’t comment on their accuracy, but you are thinking way more than I was.
Ah, but I had stuff already spoiled to me at the time…

Hehe yes. Sadly ローゼマイン is wildly against it too, so it’s kinda doomed, but it makes perfect sense.

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Finally found time to read the bonus chapters from volume 15...

… and boy am I’m annoyed! :angry: Why would the author confirm my theory and reveal a whole bunch of stuff in the second bonus chapter? I feel like I just read a giant spoiler simply because the author couldn’t think of anything better to write about! I wanted to see the slow trickle of my theory being confirmed via ジルヴェスター going to the 領主会議. And all the other stuff that エグランティーヌ was “speculating” about just feels like it’s revealing stuff that was bound to show up properly within the next couple volumes. :disappointed:

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Bonus chapters from volume 15 (but kinda spoiler free?)

I actually didn’t mind that. I was just happy that things went well for them :sweat_smile:

On the other hand, there’s one reveal from the literal epilogue of the series that was nonchalantly given away by one of those stories (in a different volume). Granted, it doesn’t matter from the plot point of view, but I was quite moved by it when I read the online version… 虚しい…
(Well, half the bonus stories are already on なろう, so someone who read everything might have seen it in there much earlier than the epilogue too, I don’t know; still)

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About bonus chapter from volume 15

How the bonus chapter confirmed your theory? (For reference, I’m a bit ahead of you, but still far from the end of the arc, so I don’t know how it will play out yet.)

The only thing I got from it is that Rozemyne, as usual, charged right in the middle of big trouble by getting involved with royalty, and that a storm is coming, probably about the throne. I’m betting Eglantine is right, because she is perfect, beautiful, with a tragic past, so she is the kind of character in story that are typically right about everything :grinning:

volume 15

I didn’t fully read what you wrote. I tend to skim comments from people who are ahead just in case they reveal something by mistake, and I stop reading entirely if I catch a word that seems far from what I expected (which is what I did this time). At least a couple times I saw something I didn’t want to see because someone mixed up the volumes! Anyway, this is the line I’m referring to:

ジギスヴァルト王子に王座を譲るとアナスタージウス様が宣言したことで王座の争いには決着がつき、わたくしは王座争いから遠退いたつもりでしたが、このままでは事態が良くない方向に進むのではないでしょうか。

That simultaneously confirms my theory that アナスタージウス was going to give up the throne to be with エグランティーヌ while also hinting that it’s unlikely to go that smoothly (unfortunately for them).

What volume are you up to by the way?

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Volume 19 !

volume 15

Oh, I see ! Because earlier in the book when Eglantine told Rozemyne how Anastasius won her heart she said"「ローゼマイン様は…… もし、わたくし達が王座から遠のいたとしても、そのように祝福してくださるのかしら?」so I assumed that would happen but it’s true that it’s only confirmed in the bonus chapter.

Eglantine even explain that she can’t reveal details until 領主会議, so it looks like a set-up by the author, so why did she immediately defused it… :thinking: There is so many characters and subplot in recent volume that maybe she thought it was too difficult to keep track for the readers?

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