Things are already getting a bit fuzzy in my head, but I remember thinking that the actual identity of the thief was a bit more boring than I hoped for. I guess there was some sort of foreshadowing about it but… still unclimactic.
That being said, the way the chapter ends is what pushed me to just keep reading on until the end. My guess was that, by being “ejected” from the story by the machine, they just broke the way the curse is supposed to work and everyone is still back in steampunk land.
That’s an interesting theory! Can’t wait to find out next week.
About 真白 I wonder how she is connected to our heroine. It seems like she is not a stranger that popped out of nowhere. And she seems to be quite sad that 深冬 doesn’t remember her. I wonder if her original form was a dog or a human. And if it was a human, if she maybe was the unborn twin or something like that. Since it is peculiar that she always wears the exact same clothes. They even mentioned in the previous world that they look like twins. But maybe I’m completely wrong here. Can’t wait until the mystery is lifted.
真白 saying that 深冬 has seen the face of the author makes me think it’s likely either her aunt or her grandma. If her grandma, perhaps she wrote the books specifically for the purpose of thief catching?
I’m also wondering how 深冬 is going to get back into book land - will 真白 show up if she goes back to the house? Does she just read another random book? The same steam-punk book if @_Oerli 's guess is correct?
The whole ‘we hate shoplifting so we decided to steal from you to see how your defenses work’ bit struck me as pretty lame, though. I hope it ends up being a bit more interesting than that.
i also think that the author is someone from the family. I actually thought, that by some weird time travel mechanisms, it might be 深冬herself. And that might be the reason why 真白keeps asking if she still hates reading. But that would probably be too weird, even for this book
I’m quite happy that the overarching plot thickens and we learn more about everything. While the book worlds are interesting, I’m more interested in the real world, so it seems like we will finally unravel some of the many questions.
