Vocab Sheet , the frequency data is very inaccurate due to being incomplete.
Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words.
Discussion Guidelines
Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!
Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Posting Advice
When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!
If necessary, include an explanation of any discrepancies in the Ebook page numbers from physical page numbers. If there is an easy shortcut for some ebook versions to relate back to physical page numbers, it would be worth it to include it as a third bullet here, or if you want to use chapter page numbers instead of volume page numbers, as is the case with some manga. For example:
Example
For the Kindle version of this manga, the page numbers and the location number are always 3 apart. If you subtract 3 from the location, this will give you the accurate page number!
OR
Please use the chapter page numbers, instead of the volume page numbers. These are located in between the panels!
Discussion Questions
What sentence/passage gave you the most difficulty? Feel free to request some help, or if you figured it out on your own break it down for the rest of us!
What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?
Was there any passage that you found particularly intriguing? Did it resonate with you (either positively or negatively)? Was it surprising? Offer any insight or new perspective? Was it just beautifully written?
Now that you’ve a had a small taste of battle, how is it?
Did you know you can read the newspaper? (And any other books you pick up)
Which of the NPC interactions stood out to you the most?
Participation
Will you be playing along with us this week?
I’m playing along
I have finished this part
I’m still playing the game but I haven’t reached this part yet
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0voters
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I just finished this yesterday after catching up with last week’s section. I’ll have to re-read some of Sheerazade’s dialogue however, I didn’t fully grasp why Estelle is surprised that her father was her sensei.
I quite like the battle system, the timeline thing is similar to FFX and the break system adds a layer of strategy on top.
The orbment system feels like a worse version of FFVII’s materia however.
Pretty good stuff! I’m hopeful for the battle system; right now everything is very simple for the tutorial dungeon but there are a good amount of systems here with the orb customization, moves affecting turn order (with extra bonuses to incentivize manipulating it further), the craft attacks and ability to interrupt for special ones, etc. If explored and balanced decently, seems like it could be quite fun. Was feeling a little overwhelmed looking at the list of what quartz points combine to unlock what abilities, kinda feels like there should be a better way to display that than a huge separate window like I’m looking at 100 crafting recipes… but I also expected this game to not have perfect quality of life / UI so it’s whatever.
I think I’m onboard with the Estelle teasing at this point, when she completely forgot the details of the test and whatnot that they just talked about, yeah,she really is scatterbrained. Then she gets in a fight with children, haha.
Oh, guess I gotta go grab that when I pick it back up, that’s what I forgot!
I didn’t totally go back through every bit of the town, but I talked to a lot of people again. The big thing I found was there’s a new arrival in the Inn who has voice acting and a picture, so probably a significant character
Ok I re-read the dialogue that puzzled me and finally managed to understand it. The main issue was this bit:
若手ブレイサーの中でも1、2を争う凄腕って聞いてるけど
I had to ask ChatGPT for help because I couldn’t make sense of that, although in hindsight it seems rather obvious: Shera was competing among the top 1 or 2 highest skilled young bracers .
Then Estelle goes on to say that she’s surprised that Shera seems to hold her father in such high esteem, hinting that she may be underestimating/unaware her father’s true achievements.
This might be the first time I’ve made the effort to understand everything a game tutorial was trying to teach, instead of skipping it and figuring things out later! I’m proud of myself, yep.
The battle system seems fun so far, I like that it incorporates strategy with spacing and turn order. The bonus rewards based on turn order is something new to me and I’m interested to see what that’ll be like later in the game, too, when (I assume) fights will get more complicated.
I haven’t gone around talking to the NPCs after finishing training yet, but have just met this kid:
There was a locked/rusted door in the sewers, I wonder if it couldn’t be related to his “secret place” and we ended up having to save him from there later. At least my JRPG experience leads me to connect these dots. Or maybe the door is for something else, like breaking into the city from the outside.
I, for one, respect Estelle! She’s got the hard job of being the airhead who has to ask basic questions and forget everything— because otherwise how else would the writers justify reminding us, the players, of important information?
Ok there are plenty of ways to do it, but it’s funny that they lean so hard into the trope that even other characters are like, ‘what are you doing with yourself girl’
I got the sense there might be some event at the secret base, too, just based on Joshua’s interest. Also, that we’ll see the other side of the locked door at some point. Why put it in such an otherwise plain mini-dungeon, if not? Looking forward to finding out!
I was expecting so. Also the Inn discussed on the last page.
Talking about this, I didn’t quite understand that last article, is it hinting at a mysterious “female client” causing a quiet boom there? Without saying who it is?
Ok, finished talking to the townspeople, read the books, spent all my money on cooking ingredients, I’m ready for the next part!
I also got stuck on the stairs of the bar when エリッサ happened to run into me. The only thing that unstuck me was taking a screenshot with F12, so watch out for moving NPCs on stairs, y’all
My impression was that 女性客 are a non-specific source of the boom that this lakeside inn is having. As in, young women from the capital are going there and it’s made the inn trendy. The lack of a name or pronoun is what makes me think so.
