Week 17: サイレント・ウィッチ 🤫 🧙‍♀️

Japanese Language Book Clubs
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Silent Witch :shushing_face: :woman_mage: Home Thread

Week 17

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Start Date: Apr 26
Previous Part: Week 16
Next Part: Week 18

Reading:

Week Chapter End page End % End on Page Count
17 十章 260 88% End of 十章 21

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
  • Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
  • To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun! :durtle_the_explorer:

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Proper nouns

Name Note
ケルベック伯爵領
ウォーガン山脈
リディル王国
アガサ 侍女
イザベル・ノートン ケルベック伯爵令嬢
アラン 馬丁、アガサの弟
シェフィールド 風の精霊王
モニカ・エヴァレット 沈黙の魔女
ネロ
アニー
ミネルヴァ school
ルイス・ミラー 結界の魔術師
リィンズベルフィード (リン) 風の上位精霊
ライオネル 第一王子, 27 yo
フェリクス 第二王子, 18 yo
アルバート 第三王子, 14 yo
セレンディア学園
クロックフォード公爵 第二王子の祖父
ダスティン・ギュンター 作家
ロザリー・ミラー ルイスの妻
アーロン・オブライエン 生徒会会計
エリオット・ハワード 生徒会書記
ブリジェット・グレイアム 生徒会書記
ニール・クレイ・メイウッド 生徒会庶務
シリル・アシュリー 生徒会副会長
(フェリクス・アーク・リディル) 第二王子、生徒会長
ヴィクター・ソーンリー 先生
ラナ・コレット 2年生
セルマ・カーシュ 保健委員
カロライン
ウィルディアヌ トカゲ
ハイオーン侯爵 シリルの養父
エマニュエル・ダーウィン 〈宝玉の魔術師〉
バーソロミュー・アレクサンダー MC of Dustin Gunther’s adventure books

Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to stay abreast of discussion!

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Initial thoughts

Wait. What? That was the last chapter (before the epilog)? What about all the stuff the book was setting up, characters introduced that basically did nothing beyond their introduction, open questions? This is the ending?
I guess the epilog has a lot of work to do, but honestly at some point it just feels like it can only possibly be too little too late.

For example what about Isabel, the princess playing evil step sister? It felt like there was basically a whole chapter setting her up, so I thoroughly expected her to be running into Monica throughout the book, but she basically did nothing.

There’s a bunch of other similar, seemingly about to be important, but alas didn’t really end updoing anything characters.

Am I the only one who felt this?

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It’s a light novel based on a web novel, so the series is probably one continuous story.

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Reply

Nah, since since there are already 8 other volumes out and the series is not even finished, I figured that most of the character interactions we had in this volume were just setup.

I was rather surprised for the opposite reason - the mini mystery about the embezzled student council funds was wrapped up way more neatly with Thornley’s confession than I expected. Monica needs a reason to stay at the academy for volume 2, so I’d expected hints that maybe there was someone else involved, or that there was more behind Thornley’s decision to make Selma try to assassinate Felix by dropping heavy objects on him. But it looks like this was really all just Thornley trying to distract from his embezzlement, and his only motive was just that he needed money for his magic research?

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oh

I guess I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t realize this wasn’t going to be a standalone book. I have enjoyed it, but I probably won’t vote for another book in a series again. Kinda disappointed reading an incomplete story.

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Thoughts

Last two chapters are great for showing Monica’s true power!

The questions I still want answers to:

  • To what extend Felix knows what happened/ Monica’s identity at this point?
  • Will Cyril recognise the hooded figure as Monica because of her small build?

Hope we’ll get some answers in the epilogue.

I think I’ll continue reading it anyway, as I understand, this series is not too long (本好き, I’m looking at you!) and should end soon…

The same! It a nice surprise

.

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According to the atogaki, the first volume covers roughly the first three out of 16 sections from the web novel. Though it seems to mostly skip the first section to avoid pacing issues. There are now nine volumes (plus a completely original side story), so I have to imagine it’ll be done publishing soon.

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Thoughts while reading / responses

「このヒンヤリ兄ちゃんがなんか言っても、魔力中毒で幻覚を見たんだって言っとけよ。いいか。こいつが見たのは全部幻覚だ」

When you roll a critical failure on persuasion.

Nero is definitely not the “talking to other people” part of Team Monica.

ネロとしては「な、なんだって!?」とか「お前は何者なんだ!?」という反応を期待していたのだ。

…and if that happened, what are you gonna do, Nero? I’m curious how he compares power-wise against a magician of the prince’s age. It seemed like he definitely needed Monica’s help against ice boy.

「何故、寮に戻らないのですか？」
「……ちょっと、確認したいことが、あって」

Huh. Did she pick up one someone meddling with Cyril, and wants to check the documents room now? Now that I think about it, didn’t Cyril mention to her that Thornley is going to check out the documents later?

「寮の門限はとっくに過ぎているはずだがね？ この時間の無許可の外出は謹慎処分に……」
「それ」
ソーンリーの言葉を遮り、モニカはソーンリーが腕に抱えている紙の束を指さした。
「持ち出して、どうするんですか」

Oh my. Not weak to intimidation? No stutter? I’m looking forward to see where that goes.

「何を言うっ、私の魔術式は完璧だ……っ！」

Is that the right reaction to a student showing that they cannot just understand but also defend against forbidden spells… and telling you that the one you just attempted could use some improvement? :laughing:

「私の素晴らしさを理解できない愚図は、物言わぬ人形になってしまえ！」

Too late, she already is the silent witch :smiley:

「『バレなきゃ良いんですよ。バレなきゃ』」

Sounds like the solution is some mind erasure magic, then? :laughing:

That all wrapped up fairly nicely. I do wonder what’ll happen in the next book though. More academy? But… was Thornley not the threat she got here to deal with? It didn’t seem like he was part of a bigger thing, so unless there’s something completely unrelated to him going on it seems like this stint should be over?

Which I assume it’s not, because yeah, Isabelle’s setup:

Fully agreed on Isabelle. It’s why I think there has to happen more at the academy.

When it comes to the other characters: I see more potential with some, but I feel like unlike Isabelle they have done enough to warrant their setup.

Let’s see what the epilogue brings!

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Response

Seems like when Monica gets in the zone (i.e. working with math or magic) a switch gets flipped!

Personally, I never interpreted the setup of the series as there being one specific threat.

By the way, reading your scene by scene reactions has been one of the most fun parts of the book club!

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Response

Yeah. After all, he was trying to commit a math crime. (And then he followed it up with that distasteful display of half-baked forbidden magic.)

Thinking about it… I guess the “the prince should be guarded” assignment that the king gave Louis remains as mysterious and unspecific as ever. I just thought of her time being at school always as “find the threat that shattered Louis’ amulet”, and I assume that was some (half-baked) mind erasure magic from Thornley?

Thanks! Its a lot of fun writing them too :slight_smile:

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That’s pretty good news. I was on the fence if I wanted to keep reading, because I hate it when a series gets too long and repetitive. But if it’s this close to being finished, I’ll probably just continue reading right away.

Word :joy:

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Thoughts

I agree with others here that I didn’t expect so much to happen and that it would be wrapped up so neatly - I already knew this was the first in a series of volumes, so I expected the mystery would just go on to the next one. To be honest, it felt like more happened in this chapter than in half of the book :sweat_smile:

I’m on the fence about continuing - I do like the story, but 9 volumes is a bit much for me. I enjoy reading LNs, but only a volume takes about 4 months to get through (we’re already at week 17 after all) and I doubt I’d be able to read by myself at a higher speed, anyway. Plus, there’s always so many other books I want to try…

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So it’s a web novel adapted into a light novel and then a manga and then an anime!

I feel like I see this a lot with Japanese fiction but maybe it also happens in the west and I’m just oblivious because I don’t usually read this genre?

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See for example the Netflix marvel shows. TV shows based on movies based on comics.

Or the expanse, TV show based on novels based on the authors’ RPG table.

Both Star Wars expanded universes are another example of this.

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Well that was another interesting week’s read! I will add one more 感謝 for the weekly play-by-play by TobiasW :clap: So fun!

Some random rambling thoughts about this week's reading

I am glad the main culprit was revealed and I am pleased it was Thornley. But I guess until Monica’s confrontation with Thornley, we did not see a lot of character development for him. Others spoke about him, but we didn’t find out what kind of research he was doing or why he was so hungry for recognition.

I wondered also why such a proud magician like Thornley wouldn’t recognize the Silent Witch, who seemed to be known throughout the kingdom, but then I read that the Silent Witch is supposed to be set in a kingdom that resembles 1800s Europe, so maybe people/magicians may be famous but not necessarily recognizable…

I love the genuine earnestness of Nero! Offering to take Cyril back to the boy’s dorm, thinking quickly on his feet on how to answer Felix’s questions, baring his fangs at the lizard familiar Wirdian. What’s not to like?!

One thing I keep wondering about is “Second Prince Student Council President Felix Arc Ridll” There is something strangely hollow about him. He is frequently described as unnaturally calm with a smile that doesn’t match his eyes. When Thornley in his fever dream talks about potentially brain washing Felix, I wondered if that’s what explained Felix’s demeanor. Then I wondered about him having a familiar and his frequent night-time outings, and wondered if he might be a magician as well. He seems to either be hiding something or has had something done to him. Or…is this the real Felix or someone who transformed to look like him?? Will I find out before the end of this first book? :thinking:

Finally, thinking about the character’s back stories, I went down a google rabbit hole to learn more about the author 依空 まつり. I was thinking the same as simias. Similar to 変な家, this is another self-published blog turned into series of novels with great success.

Matsuri Isora’s success timeline is mind-boggling. In an interview I found, she said she had a bunch of notes for the Ridll world from her time in university. Then, during the pandemic from February to October 2020, she wrote all the episodes for Silent Witch. It got picked up for release in book form by Kadokawa in June 2021, and just over half a year later for the English version. And now a TV series will soon be released. A whirlwind!

The interview with the author is here:

And her blog with Silent Witch (which has 425 episodes) and other stories is here:

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