香君 上 西から来た少女 | Week 12

[pm215]

香君 上 西から来た少女 | Week 12

Week 12	16 August 2025
Chapters	4.4, 4.5, 4.6
End page	210 (end of volume)
Pages	32
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Home Thread	香君 上 西から来た少女 Advanced Book Club

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[Belerith]

Wow, a lot happened these last two weeks! Not a bad way to end a book.

And what a cliffhanger! I’m curious to find out what it is they’re seeing. I’m expecting オアレ稲! The imperial one, in case I’m getting the name wrong again here. That would explain Aisha’s fear.

Well done, 上橋さん.

[xxllua]

@Belerith

I’m expecting オアレ稲!

Probably. ミリア stated that they wanted to capture a 香使, which should mean they need someone’s expertise to perfect their methods. This could actually be a favorable turn of events for アイシャ and the 仲間. They may even manage to convince オラム to join their cause.

I’m looking forward to the next half. Thanks @pm65 for running the club!

[lifev]

Wow, the events of the last couple of chapters were so unpredictable. Last week’s part was a bit tedious for me, but the latter 3 chapters were a breeze because of all the action.

I agree that there might be the rice, but I don’t really understand why Aisya is so terrified of it.

It was a fun ride, and I plan to continue it to the end. I’m really curious what will happen next.

[Belerith]

@lifev

but I don’t really understand why Aisya is so terrified of it

My first instinct was mostly because she has been shown to be wary of and shown dislike and discomfort when she smelled the rice fields before;

Trying to think of more concrete reasons, I could think of the following. The rice isn’t supposed to grow close to the sea. If it does, that means they might have found ways to make it more resilient or otherwise changed it. Aisha and Mashu are trying to find ways for other crops to grow alongside the rice. If the rice is changed, their methods may not work anymore. Additionally, the Yomu eating it may yet be changed in new, unpredictable ways, possibly resulting in a new disaster.

Of course, this is all based on the assumption that it is that rice… And also there is probably more to it than what I’m expecting anyway, haha.

[Shannon-8]

I’m still near the beginning of Book 1, but I’m very grateful for the club and the comments… because I miss a lot of the complicated plot and relationships… And certainly missing hints/foreshadowing or anything subtle!

Thank you so much for hosting this series, pm215!

[Magyarapointe]

Thank you to @pm215 for running the club ! I’ll probably keep reading the last two books on the side, because now I’m curious about

whatever modification has been done to make the rice grow by the sea

….

[NicoleIsEnough]

These are my speculations before I read all of your comments:

4.4

Aisha found a hot trace to one of the perpetrators. The smell of a rare and expensive sweet led her to an old woman who receives a lot of money from her son, a grass trader - too much to be based solely on the trader’s regular earnings… If she can prove that he is involved with the group who kidnapped the Koushi, he is up for severe punishment. But then again, if she hands the trader over to the authorities, what will become of this old lady?
Aisha struggles for a moment and then decides to head to the place where the trader is said to live.

4.5

At the trader’s place, Aisha senses the smell of a combination of plants that grow together in the garden of the 藩王国 office. Is she onto something bigger here? She decides to investigate the place from the rear side. While trying to smell any trace of the Koushi who she suspects to be kept imprisoned in one of the storage houses, she notices that Oroki, one of her friends, is in the garden. Then she notices the smell of a bunch of armed men! And she notices that her friend is very relaxed, so she realizes that he doesn’t know about the danger he is in. Without thinking twice, she warns him, and he can escape, but she is not strong enough to fight the armed men and gets caught in his stead.

I was half expecting that Oroki had also changed sides and worked as a spy for 藩王国, but from his reaction and the men‘s behavior this doesn’t seem to be the case.

4.6

Aisha and Oramu are brought to an island where Miria, the mother of the king of Ogoda, lives. They are brought before her. Aisha notices a horrible smell all over the place but cannot pinpoint it. After some back and forth between Oramu and Miria, Aisha asks whether Miria wants to save the people of Ogoda and how. Miria confirms this and opens the window, showing them how this is supposed to take place. Which we will learn more about in the third book

First I thought Aisha noticed the smell of the sea breeze, but she was onto something else, it seems. I wonder what they are doing there. Are they breeding some fighting animals or something? But I guess Aisha would know the smell of all sorts of animals? So it will remain a miracle for now…

Now onto your comments

If Aisha was to smell rice, I guess she would know what it is? Even if modified. And I figured she doesn’t know yet?

Also, maybe I lost my footing in the process somewhere, but my understanding is that Aisha works as Koushi for the empire at day and secretly fighting the empire and helping people build secret fields and growing secret crops at night. One village she helped was (secretly?) related to the Ogoda kingdom, and so basically Aisha having been caught was kind of an accident because nobody knows that it is her who comes as secret messenger to help with the secret crops. Now if she is in touch with the people in the shape of the secret messenger, helping them along with everything she found out regarding the cultivation of Oare rice, why would she not know about their experiments with Oare rice, if that’s what she’s seeing?
I guess I’m somewhere missing smaller or larger bits of the picture though…

Anyway, this is all pretty exciting, and I’m looking forward to book 3!

[Belerith]

@NicoleIsEnough

why would she not know about their experiments with Oare rice

Reply

They’re different, more or less secret/not sanctioned-by-the-emperors parties. They know of each other’s existence and open dealings, but they’re not working together.

There’s the people of the kingdom, the official regime of ogoda abiding by the rules of the emperor, the emperor’s regime of which the koushi are a part. Then there’s Aisha and mashus secret party. And then here’s yet another party in ogoda, which is not sanctioned and led by the mother of the king of ogoda and has lots of warriors apparently.

This last party has anti-empire leanings and may or may not be involved with the official ruling king of ogoda. I think they are, but being a secret unit they wouldn’t be in any way involved with the koushi, and they’re also not involved with Aisha’s party, as we know from her musings.

I don’t think their objectives are the same anyway. I think the warrior party wants out from under the empire’s control and back to status quo before becoming part of it before anything else. They’re looking for ways to do that, but as we know from before, what they were looking for was a way to cultivate the oare rice without help from the empire.

Aisha and co are trying to cultivate other crops. Ideally like it was before in olden times, for the rice and other grains to coexist, maybe? Their first priority is to save as many people from starvation as they can.

I’ve also forgotten a lot of details though… Probably someone else will have a better and more concise explanations. Or opinion.

[NicoleIsEnough]

@Belerith

They’re different, more or less secret/not sanctioned-by-the-emperors parties. They know of each other’s existence and open dealings, but they’re not working together.

Ah I guess that’s where my misunderstanding came from. Thanks for the detailed explanation!

[Boodil]

I finally managed to finish this volume last week. Like others, I also found these last three chapters among the most fast-paced and fun in the entire volume. I’ll definitely keep reading on at my own sloth-like pace and just hope that it’ll continue like that for awhile instead of bogging back down.

@pm215, thanks for hosting!