ascendance of a bookworm

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Hannelore no Kizokuin Gonensei” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

I’ll be honest, I was a bit worried about this title. I have mentioned before that I get very uncomfortable about books where the key feature is “let’s embarrass the main character”, and Hannelore seems to run on that half the time. I was expecting to be cringing a lot. And, well, I wasn’t wrong, to a degree. Especially in the first half, it can be difficult to watch Hannelore attempt to be the waif-ish romantic heroine in a duchy filled with meatheads who only care about fighting. That said, given that we’re getting Hannelore’s POV for an extended period, we get to see a far deeper side of her here, and we discover that she’s not really as far away from the Dunkenfelger default as she pretends to be. We especially see this in the second half of the book, where things go completely bananas and Hannelore shows that it’s not just Rozemyne that can accidentally derail an entire country.

Hannelore shows up for her penultimate year at the academy with a few new complications in her life. After the disaster with the bride-stealing ditter, she has been assigned two fiances from within the Duchy – Rasantark, a typical hot-headed, not-so-bright knight guy, and Kenntrips, a milder, smarter sort. Both grew up with Hannelore and both are in love with her, something that she only finds out as this book goes on. This is to avoid her being snatched away by Sigiswald, who’s an Aub now but still appalling, and still thinks he deserves whatever he wants. Oh yes, and Ortwin, of Drewanchel, *also* proposes to her. The trouble is that none of this surfeit of fiances is who she wants – she’s still carrying a torch for Wilfried. So she decides now is the time to make her feelings clear… and things get weird.

I don’t want to spoil too much about the last half of the book, which comes as a genuine surprise. I will say that it seems to put a nail into the coffin of Hannelore and Wilfried. We see what his future is expected to be, and we also see him trying to convey to Hannelore without actually saying anything that his reputation is actually FAR worse than is publicly known. He indicates that if had been a year earlier he might have said yes… but the Wilfried of a year earlier was far more bratty, immature and impulsive, and that would just be a bigger disaster. The other great thing about this book is Hannelore’s character development, as she’s made to see, over and over again, how her tendency to play all her cards close to her chest and not give away what she’s feeling just makes everyone around her uncomfortable and distrusting, especially after the ditter last year. By the end of the book she’s grown and learned how to lead better… and she’ll need it, as the cliffhanger of the book is (I’m paraphrasing) “My lady, you are fucked.”

The second volume of this sequel (it’s a full sequel, Rozemyne is here but in support – and she’s also clearly the best person to marry Hannelore, except she has Ferdinand and, as far as I can tell, gay people don’t exist in this universe) has just been announced for this August, so it’ll be a year till we see it. I expect the third short story collection will be next. Bookworm fans should love this.

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

The main series may have ended, but there are still stories to be told. Especially given this is one of TO Books’ best-selling juggernauts. As with the first collection, this contains extra short stories that were online exclusives, bookstore exclusives, or otherwise not collected with the short stories that follow Rozemyne’s narration in the main series. The stories run the gamut, timeline-wise, from the start of Part 2 to midway through Part 5… yes, that’s medium-sized Rozemyne on the cover, we’ll have to wait till the third volume (just out in Japan last month) for the post-growth glow-up stories. Unlike last time, this does give us a brief story from Rozemyne’s POV, as she discusses Ferdinand with his old attendant. For the most part, though, this is from the POV of others, and it helps to establish one of the things we’ve learned most from the side stories: thanks to rumors, hearsay, and general eccentricity, Ehrenfest is seen by others as deeply untrustworthy.

Among the many stories in this volume, we get two from the POV of Brunhilde, which take place very early in her career at Rozemyne’s attendant, and show us how difficult she found it to understand her at first, and how ignorant of noble customs Rozemyne is. We get Raimund’s backstory, which reads exactly like it is, as a bullied nerd finally finding a place for himself among other nerds. Florencia watches and makes occasional observations as Elvira and company accidentally invent genderbend fanfics. Tuuli realizes, thanks to Karin and Lutz, that’s she’s fallen for Benno, and the realization crushes her as she knows it will never happen. Justus reminisces about a time in the past when Ferdinand going to Ahrensbach was what everyone dreamed of. Barthold is very, very angry that people are trying to stop his treason. And Lutz and Tuuli have one of the least romantic engagements ever.

That last one should not surprise anyone who’s read the main series, where its main romance is remarkable for its lack of sexual charge. Rozemyne and Ferdinand both tend towards the asexual, though not aromantic, and Eckhart and Angelica’s on-again off-again engagement is mostly of interest to them because it means they can keep beating people up when needed. Sylvester and Florencia are very much NOT the norm. And so we see here. Tuuli is harboring a crush on Benno, but there are 87 reasons why that’s not realistic. She’s also busy with work all the time, and thus unlikely to meet any better options. Lutz is exactly the same. The two of them agree to get engaged quickly, but that’s less “we realized our feelings for each other” and more “we want to prevent Tuuli, who still lives on the wrong side of the tracks, from getting abducted by creeps”. It’s not remotely romantic, but it makes sense. And that’s good enough in this world.

As I said above, there’s a third short story book that just came out. But before we get that, we’ll get the first in the spinoff series, featuring Hannelore, who will be a very different narrator from Rozemyne, I expect. Till then, this is a good selection of stories.

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

And so, with the exception of more short story volumes and the Hannelore-driven sequel, we come to the end of Ascendance of a Bookworm, a long but mostly very satisfying series. This volume is a victory lap, with the actual danger to our heroine dealt with in the first 50 pages or so, leaving the rest of the book to have engagements, elevations to Aub, saying goodbye to everyone and moving into the new digs. And Rozemyne is now going to get married to Ferdinand, which both of them are very comfortable with keeping as a familiar rather than romantic marriage, even if literally everyone else in the book, as well as the author, disagrees with them. I mean, I’d love for my asexual Rozemyne headcanon to be confirmed, but the implication at the end of this book seems to be “once she grows up, she’ll change her mind”, which eh. She’s theoretically mentally 40, something the author I thing tends to forget at times. Anyway.

We pick up where we left off, with Rozemyne desperately draining all her god mana and trying not to die. After this, Ferdinand takes her on a tour of her memories, via the events he was present for, which succeeds in restoring them. Including the fear of feystones, but we can’t have everything, and she’s getting better. Now it’s time to find those in Ahrensbach who weren’t on Detlinde’s side and tell them who their new Aub is, punish those who WERE on Detlinde’s side, prepare for Alexandria to be Rozemyne’s new library city, move in there along with… well, some of her retinue (poor Judithe, though I don’t blame her father), and say goodbye to everyone else in Ehrenfest. And then, in a lovely epilogue, she gets to once again meet up with her original family as Myne, because now that she’s Aub of a new city any previously made contracts can suck it. (Even the narrative voice calls her Myne again, which I liked.)

There were a ton of little scenes that I really liked, which is typical with “victory lap” ending novels. Rozemyne’s heart to heart with Elvira, as well as explaining to Aurelia that no, she will not have to be executed just for being related to the other terrorists. (We see Aurelia’s face!) She has a nice conversation with Florencia, who I honestly wished had more to do throughout, and a great scene with her siblings, showing Wilfried once again being annoying but also getting right to the heart of the matter. Even Delia gets a sendoff, as Rozemyne basically says no, you won’t see Dirk again ever, so be Big Sister to the other orphans going forward. This is not a “forgive and forget” world, as much as Rozemyne does her best. Sometimes the dumb things you do when you’re 12 years old define your entire life. Oh, and Eckhart and Angelica have the most boring “let’s get engaged again” ever. Totally in character, it was great.

Oh yes, “I *am* the precedent!” goes in everyone’s top 5 Bookworm lines.

I will deeply miss Rozemyne, Ferdinand, and company. I was also sad that Hannelore did not appear in this at all, but she does have the spinoff, where I’m sure she’ll be happy and have everything go her way. Right?

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

So yes, I have to apologize for my glib remarks in the last review. I joked that Rozemyne’s memory wasn’t affected at all, as she didn’t love anything more than books. But of course, the only reason she remembers Ferdinand is that he was pouring his mana into her (and oh, we have more to say on that later). And, of course, she loves her family more. No, not her adopted family – sorry, Charlotte, she does recall who you are. No, she can’t remember her birth family at all, and it bothers her. More disturbingly, she has also lost all her PTSD related to feystones – very convenient for the plot to actually occur, but also likely putting off a complete breakdown in the future. Fortunately, she does remember enough to know what’s important right now – she and Ferdinand being the most terrifying power couple in the history of the world, and bringing the hammer of justice on anyone who might say otherwise.

We pick up at the end of all the fighting, but we still have to deal with the royal family. Mostly as someone has to be the Zent, and both Ferdinand and Rozemyne are adamant it’s not going to be them. It can’t be Trauerqual, he’s too depressed. It can’t be Sigiswald, he’s too much of a massive dipshit. (Adolphine divorcing his ass the moment she gets the opportunity is a punch the air moment.) So it’s got to be Eglantine, who still hates war but now realizes that being Zent is the best way to prevent it. Unfortunately, Rozemyne is still very, very full of divine mana after the crowning, and it’s killing her. So they spend the rest of the book trying to drain off her mana without her starving to death… and it all comes back when she sleeps. It’s a race against time, where time is a literal hourglass filled with too much mana.

I do appreciate the book allowing asexual interpretations more than most series would. The comedy highlight of this volume is of Rozemyne finally having euphemisms explained to her, and realizing what “dye me with your mana” actually means. Which she’s still too young for, as everyone notes with more euphemisms. But Rozemyne says – again – that she’s never understood what’s so important about sex – not as Urano, and not here in this world. And Ferdinand, I think, is OK with that. I don’t know if a sequel years in the future will show her with children, but certainly the current Rozemyne is content to have Ferdinand merely be the most important person in her life. Which, given who she is, means she will destroy an entire country for him. But not because she’s horny.

There are several side stories as usual, including one with Hannelore that might be setting up the sequel due out next month that she stars in. But for the moment we’ll wait till the next volume, which is, at last, the end of Myne and Rozemyne’s story. I absolutely can’t wait.

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

It’s honestly been a long, long time since we’ve seen the main raison d’etre of this entire series, which is one girl’s complete and utter obsession with books. Back when Rozemyne was just Myne, she could afford to be a one-note samba, but since she’s been adopted into nobility, the sheer weight of the politics of this world has conspired to keep her from obsessing about reading QUITE as much. As such, I was highly amused by what is supposed to be a dramatic highlight of this book, where we have three contenders for the throne facing off, and maybe killing each other, get utterly defused by a Goddess offering her a chance to read some cool books provided she can borrow Rosemyne’s body. and of course she says “OMG, yes!”. It’s even funnier as the goddess says she’ll forget everything more important to her than books… and as far as I can tell her memory is 100% fine. LOL. Pure comedy.

After the lull of the last book, we’re back to all battle all the time, as Raublat and Gervasio’s plot to overthrow the country has reached its zenith, and it’s going to take the cooperation – willing or otherwise – of a lot of the cast in order to stop that from happening. Detlinde is useless, of course, so most of the traitorous bits from Ahrensbach have actually come from her sister, who does what Mother tells her to and is honestly terrified of Rozemyne and Ferdinand when they’re both really, really mad. I also feel bad for Anastasius, who is at least making an effort (unlike his brother) but I think is going to find that he really should have tried to befriend Rozemyne after all. As noted above, it all ends up coming down to a talk with the gods, who decide to put the matter to a test. A test which Ferdinand, of course, rigs.

As with the last two books, the last third of the volume is devoted to “what everyone else was doing”. We meet Immanuel, who gives us a very good idea of what Hartmut would be like if he were evil (yes, yes, let’s ignore the obvious joke). We also see how this universe is really unforgiving towards honest and innocent people who are tricked into doing bad things – I suspect life is not going to be fun for Hildebrand after all this. We then get Anastasius’ POV, which shows him trying to be proactive but mostly caught up in events and offended with not being treated like a royal. Magdalena, the king’s third wife, shows us what’s going on with the king himself, who was always pretty spineless but is being helped along by some drugs this time around, and also enjoys showing Magdalena kicking ass. We get Gervasio’s POV, which tries to be sympathetic, and then we get Ferdinand’s POV, which reminds us that sympathetic or no, one of the first things Gervasio would do on getting the throne would be to kill Ferdinand. As always, there’s too much going on to talk about.

So yes, two books to go. This was another strong entry, with some excellent illustrations as well. If I had time (which I don’t), I’d want to do a massive reread of the whole series once it ends.

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

Thankfully, after the start of this volume, things are allowed to calm down a bit, as we have the aftermath of what’s benn happening for the last two book. Unfortunately, that means that the start of this volume absolutely does not calm down at all. I hate that it happens to her, but one of the best plotlines I’ve seen so far in this series is Rozemyne being in the thick of the battlefield, and what it does to her psyche afterward. PTSD does not really seem to be a thing here, and indeed we are on Rozemyne’s side. Why the hell is everyone so used to war and slaughter? People turning into feystones when they die has been around for some time, but it’s still “this is a fantasy world with magic, not real”. It’s not till Sylvester does the equivalent of pulling Georgine’s corpse out of his robes and slamming it on the table in front of her that she really snaps.

As I noted above, the start of this book is the fight against Grausam, who actually turns out to be in several places at once… which leads to the conclusion that Georgine is as well. Moreover, the battle ends up having to involve ONLY Rozemyne and Matthias for plot reasons, and she not only sees many soldiers have limbs cut off, get poisoned and turn into multiple feystones hitting against her pandabus, but she has to turn the pandabus into a kaiju in order to finally take (the real) Grausam down. At the same time, they are told that Sylvester has managed to defend the foundation and kill Georgine, and they can all return to Ehrenfest (after paying off Dunkenfelger with some booze). Unfortunately, thanks to the battle, Rozemyne can’t even look at a feystone. What’s worse, she has to figure out what to do now – and how Ferdinand is going to be involved in whatever she does.

If there is a lighter side to this rather heavy book, it’s seeing Rozemyne continue to explain how what she feels for Ferdinand is not, in fact, love. Again, this is Rozemyne and her life in Japan, where she’d never had a boyfriend or lover, trying to apply romance-novel rules to love. Love is desire, love is sex, etc. She doesn’t have those feelings for Ferdinand. But every OTHER part of love is literally exactly what she describes her ideal life with Ferdinand to be, and it’s no wonder that Hannelore and the others stare at her as if she’s out of her mind. To their society, where almost everyone marries for political reasons and having a marriage based on love and sex is seen as really weird (see: Sylvester and Florencia), what this is is just Rozemyne saying “Sure, I love him, but it’s not love because I say so.” It’s amusing, but in a sort of dark way.

As with the previous book, the last quarter of it is devoted to filling in the war from the POV of people who are not Rozemyne. We see Charlotte’s attempts to administrate everything, and are reminded that, with Rozemyne leaving and Wilfried… being Wilfried, she’s the next Aub, at least for now. Judithe has to deal with the fact that she’s defending the temple, and not in a more important role. (Judithe is also the utter innocent of the book, assuming everyone is going out to look at flowers and not, y’know, “pick” them.) Gunther gets to PUNCH THE EVIL AWAY thanks to the power of the love his family has for him and his shonen dad power. Florencia gets to have a nice chat with Veronica and finally move on and forget about her. And Sylvester gets to narrowly escape being poisoned to death but, to the very end, still not understand the boiling rage and hatred that is making Georgine do this. It’s very well done.

So much going on here that I haven’t even touched on. I’m sure the 10th book in this arc will be fine and filled with tea and snacks.

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

Most of the time, summarizing each plot of a typical volume of Bookworm can be difficult, and I inevitably leave things out, because these are chunky books and a ton keeps happening. That’s true here as well, but it’s a lot easier to summarize: War. We saw the start of it at the end of the previous book, but this one sees the full consequences: Rozemyne, with the help of Dunkenfelger’s battle-happy soldiers, invades Ahrensbach in order to save Ferdinand, while Ehrenfest prepares for Ahrensbach, or rather the more easily manipulated bits of Ahrensbach, to invade them, while Georgine herself goes incognito in order to assassinate Sylvester. Hell, even Hannelore, normally the scared fluffy bunny of this series, is in armor, ready for battle, and controlling a group of nasty looking fantasy Dobermans. As for Rozemyne herself, she’s going to basically do anything to get her “family” back together, even if that means becoming the Aub of her greatest enemy’s territory.

I hate to be a broken record, but Bookworm really does alternate viewpoints well. It’s a common feature in Japanese light novels, but usually the way that it’s done as like My Next Life As a Villainess does it: we get a scene from our heroine’s perspective, and then we see the same scene from the perspective of someone else who was in the scene, showing what they felt about everything. With Bookworm, the POV switches really are necessary, because Rozemyne’s lack of common sense (both because she’s used to the ethics, morals and customs of 21st century Japan and also, let’s face it, because she’s bonkers in general) really does need to be underlined… and Rozemyne’s POV is just as important, because sometimes she’s really in over her head. Everyone in this world is a lot more used to death and bloodshed than she is, and the dismay and nausea she feels when seeing stabbing victims is only going to increase as the series goes on.

And then there’s Ferdinand. There is a thing that happens a lot in series, where we have a heroine who is very obviously coded as asexual and everyone loves the fact that we finally have an asexual heroine… until the author ends up hitting the romance switch, at which point the asexuality slowly recedes. Bloom Into You is an obvious example, as is (sorry, anime onlies) The Apothecary Diaries. Bookworm may actually be one of the few to pull that trigger, though, as even though Ferdinand is clearly in love with Rozemyne, and everyone else in the land is horrified and appalled at the shameless way they’re all over each other, Rozemyne keeps emphasizing the fact that Ferdinand is family and of course that’s why she’s overthrowing a country for him. It’s mind-boggling, at least until you see Ferdinand going “welp, OK, in that case let me take all my limiters off” and you remember that he’s just as eccentric, perhaps even more, than she is. Towards the end, Rozemyne whines that Ferdinand never taught her about courtship or love or anything, and her attendants point out that’s because he’s a man, and this is a thing women tell to other women. Alas, Rozemyne was a book gremlin who looked 8 years old and spent years inside a magical cocoon. And now there’s war, and I get the sense it’s probably too late.

There are a number of scenes after the main action, which ends about 2/3 of the way through the book. We get an extended flashback dealing with our main villain, Georgine, who is treated far more sympathetically than Detlinde ever was. You can see why she’s doing this, though it does not extend into sympathy. We also get scenes from other territories showing us how the war is going in their area, meaning we get to see Brigitte again. We get to see Philine and everyone else at the temple and orphanage hunker down in what has essentially become a bomb shelter. We see Effa and the rest of Myne’s family taken to her library to shelter, and get Effa’s conflicted feelings on her birth daughter and how far she’s gone compared to their normal commoner life. And we see Gunther defending the borders, and just generally being a good soldier and dad. Both to his family and his troops. These stories were all very welcome and helped flesh out what is otherwise a “run at full speed” storyline.

The war’s not over yet, and I suspect the next book will show us Sylvester vs. Georgine. You won’t regret reading this. (Well, unless Rozemyne/Ferdinand bothers you, but if that’s the case I assume you dropped this already.)

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

Covers always spoil of course, but this one perhaps spoils a bit more than most. That said, we were due. Given that Rozemyne keeps being engaged to various people, as well as the clear “we are each other’s destined forever” relationship she has with Ferdinand, keeping her looking nine years old forever is a non-starter. That said, this is only one of the huge things to happen in this book. The time for set up volumes is done, we’re now ready to fire off all the guns on the wall. Fourth year? What fourth year? Instead we get war, or “true ditter” as the book calls it, with Rozemyne being forced to choose between the life of one man and the fate of the entire kingdom and chooses the one man, because really what has the kingdom ever done for her? And honestly, she has a point. In other news, Letizia manages to pass Hannelore for “most unlucky person in the series”, though that naivete costs her a lot more.

The book starts off relatively normally. Rozemyne is headed back to school for her fourth year, and there’s a lot to do. She has to prepare for the move to the sovereignty, investigate the giant magic circle only she can see above the school, and of course get everyone to pass all their exams and get first in her year again. Sadly, that last one won’t happen, as while praying to the odd statue on the 2nd floor of the library, she is whisked away to meet the Gods. There she gets a book!… forced into her head, with so much knowledge that it’s painful. Worse, it’s not even the entire book – about 30% is with someone else. (Ferdinand. Come on, it’s Ferdinand, we all know.) In addition, after seeing that her “vessel” is far too tiny for all the mana she has, they get the God of Growth to give Rozemyne the body to match her age at last… which, unfortunately, means a lot of PAIN.

She gets back (yes, this is still a summary, it’s that kind of book) to find that the school year has come and gone without her (no first in class for her… heck, she may have to redo the year) and that Georgine’s plans are far more advanced than anyone realized. Everyone prepares to combat Georgine, but Rozemyne is mostly going to leave that to others. Then, um, Ferdinand is poisoned. And is slowly dying. And crying out to Rozemyne via a psychic link (we actually saw this before like 25 books ago, with Myne calling out to Lutz to save her, so kudos there) so that she knows exactly what’s going on. Now they have to go to war IMMEDIATELY, which means they need more manpower. Gosh, if only Rozemyne was best friends with a girl whose father was head of the most war-happy duchy around…

So yeah. It’s a lot. Oddly, despite the poisoning and general dire things going on, the Rozemyne sections are still the light-hearted part, if only as whenever we cut to someone else’s POV it’s much worse. Letizia is totally schnookered into being an attempted murderer, and might be executed, and she also essentially had the corpse of her closest ally thrown at her feet. Meanwhile, Detlinde is 100% OK with a foreign invasion as long as people continue to praise her and kowtow to her, though she perhaps is unaware that it’s all massively phony. (Her attendant isn’t, but sorry attendant, pretty sure you are also going to die by the end of this.) And then there’s Ferdinand, who still expects Rozemyne to have the common sense of this world, and also have an ounce of romance in her body, and she has neither of these things. Consciously, at least. Even if you don’t ship them, you have to feel bad for him.

Next time, TO WAR! Bookmaking will be taking a back seat for a while. Also, this series may end with Rozemyne as the supreme ruler of everyone. Be afraid.

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

This is another Bookworm volume that’s more relaxed and peaceful than others. The last book promised a huge upheaval in Rozemyne’s life, and this volume is all about how that upheaval is going to affect everyone around her. Its pretty much got everything you’d want in a Bookworm volume… well, OK, there’s a long, long, extended story told from Detlinde’s point of view. That was nightmarish to read. But other than that. The most amusing thing about the volume is the fact that everyone knows that something is going to happen soon to knock everything off the rails, because Rozemyne’s life is a series of such events. They have a year till she moves to the Sovereignty, those she employs have three years… but they’re all preparing to move at a moment’s notice because bad things always happen to this girl. Admittedly, she always makes them into good things, but that is beside the point.

Returning from the Archduke’s Conference, there’s a lot to discuss, namely how Rozemyne is moving to the Sovereignty in one year’s time. She’ll need servants, but not all of them can go with her, and Ehrenfest can’t lose ALL the people attached to her. So some folks have to choose whether to stay or go, which is made more difficult by the fact that Rozemyne, who is trying to be considerate, is not making her own feelings very clear. Meanwhile, she’s managed to save Ferdinand for now, at least, and proceeds to send him enormously valuable paper, and he sends her piles and piles of gifts in return, along with a letter that even asks, in obscure noble language, “do you like me in a romantic way?”. Rozemyne being the glorious asexual hamster that she is, does not understand this at all. (Yes, I know, Rozemyne’s asexuality will last exactly until the author decides to have her be attracted to Ferdinand, but let me have this for now.)

There’s a lot of great stuff happening here. Wilfried, given everything that’s been going on around him, and his low point in the last two books, took things a lot better than I expected. The scene with the four siblings having a tea party was marvelous, and it was amusing seeing Charlotte and Rozemyne trying to one-up one another in praise. Elvira and Rozemyne also had a long heart-to-heart, and we get a better understanding of just how AWFUL everything was in Ehrenfest before Hurricane Rozemyne arrived a good 20 or so books ago. Of course, there’s still some ominous rumblings going on – the aforementioned Detlinde story is a walking collapsing disaster, and Sylvester’s story basically has to have him talk his way out of a cleverly engineered trap (probably by Georgina, let’s face it). So yeah, even we don’t think everything will go smoothly in a year’s time.

Next tie we’re back to the academy, but no one cares, because if you look at the cover for the next book in the series… it’s finally happening! Join us for literal character growth.

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

If you go to Pixiv and look at fanart of the Bookworm series (please god set your setting to all ages), you will find that a good 90% of it is Rozemyne/Ferdinand shipping. If you go to AO3 to look for Bookworm fanfics, you will likewise see that 90% of it is shipping Rozemyne with Ferdinand. And, I assume, if the idea of the ship really bothers you, you’ve probably already dropped the series. And in this book we see that it’s not just fans of this fictional universe: all the nobles see it. Rozemyne and Ferdinand are far too close. The books have basically has as a major selling point that we see Rozemyne’s view of a thing, and then frequently get the noble view, showing how incredibly wrong or off base she is. She’s not a great narrator in the “truth” sense. And we see that here as well – only Rozemyne is in denial about this, saying that Ferdinand is like family, and that she’d do the same for other members of her family. Uh-huh.

The bulk of this book is taken up with the Archduke’s Conference, which normally would not involve Rozemyne, but she’s there to do blessings. She’s also sent to the underground archive, along with Hannelore and Hildebrand, to translate the writing there. Unfortunately, this means that she’s there when Detlinde stops by to essentially Detlinde all over the library, so she and the others have to hide. They do so by essentially sneaking out the back of the library and into a forested area, where they find a small, unlooked-after shrine. Rozemyne being who she is, she immediately cleans it, then goes to see what’s inside… and gets sucked into the shrine. What she finds is that she’s a potential Zent candidate and she gets a clue for finding the magic doodad that will automatically grand power to whoever finds it.

There’s no getting around it, this is a much darker book than the last few have been. Leaving aside the final story in the volume, which seems to imply we’re about to have a supporting cast member be horribly murdered, there’s everything about Rozemyne being a Zent candidate. The problem being that she’s not a royal. And this leads to bad things happening to her and Ehrenfest. Anastasius and Eglantine, two royals she thought were her friends, show how little that friendship really means when the fate of the nation is at stake. Her marriage to Wilfried is annulled, which does not bother her at all, but now she’s engaged to Sigiswald, which is bad because, as Adolphine already knows, he’s a terrible human being. And she has to leave Ehrenfest, who initially are supposed to just accept it and suffer, though thankfully Rozemyne’s inner Benno rises to the fore and she gets some concessions. This whole book is a game-changer, and the game is getting more dangerous.

And, as noted above, there is Ferdinand, who at least is no longer in danger of being executed for failing to contain the disaster that is Detlinde. Will he show up in the next book? Probably. And will Rozemyne stop looking nine years old? Probably not just yet.

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

With each successive volume in this arc, that subtitle is becoming more and more like foreshadowing. We see here that Hartmut is already brainwashing everyone in the temple to add Rozemyne to the list of Gods, and though she tries to shut him down you get the sense that she won’t be able to for very long. We also see, even if they may not think of her as a Goddess just yet, they definitely think of her as a Saint. The bulk of the first half of this book is that the Liesegangs, now the dominant power after Sylvester p;urged his own base to get rid of the Veronica Faction, think that Wilfried is useless and awful, and that Rozemyne should absolutely be the next Aub. While they’re not wrong about Wilfried (I’ve sort of given up on him, the narrative makes it clear why he’s gotten so awful but it doesn’t make me like him), they forget that Rozemyne simply has no interest in this.

Rozemyne arrives home to find that things are… not great. She’s surprised and rather upset to find Sylvester telling her to try to lay off getting the duchy elevated for the moment, because they’ve done it so fast that no one is ready for what it entails. Of course, what that really means is that the older generation like things as they are and fear change. Sylvester is essentially unable to do anything because the Liesegangs are dominant, but fortunately Rozemyne’s retainer Brunhilde has a wonderful solution that will solve most of these problems. Meanwhile, Rozemyne returns to the temple, now filled with a lot more children whose parents were executed or imprisoned, and gets ready to train Melchior to take over for her. And there’s still time to visit other areas of Ehrenfest and learn some very important past history of the duchy.

The story of Eisenreich is another reminder that women in this world have to struggle to get any headway at all, and that frequently even after achieving their goals they’re still unhappy. The aub’s daughter who essentially saved the country centuries earlier was given a poisoned chalice of a position, and it’s not a surprise that trying to keep the duchy together eventually broke her. We get this history after all the politics with the current generation, with Brunhilde stepping forward to offer herself up as Sylvester’s second wife… but this only comes after her father sires a son, meaning all the power that she would have been coming to will now be taken from her. She ends up consoling Charlotte, who (as we saw in the short story book last time) is bemoaning the exact same thing. We know that Charlotte is the most obvious choice to be the next Aub. But that knowledge does not help us… or Charlotte.

All this plus Angelica gets extra blessings!… with the help of her sword literally telling her what to say. Angelica, I love you. And hey, only three more books till THAT spoiler!

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

I’m sure some of you are thinking “didn’t we just have the Royal Academy SS book in July?” and yes, we did. This particular volume thus focuses on everything but the royal academy. That said, what it actually appears to be is that readers were curious and vocal enough about all the extra stories the author had written for store giveaways and the like that it was decided to bundle them up into this collection. There’s even some double-dipping, be warned, as several of the stories features here were also in the 2nd fanbook. That said, I enjoyed this book a great deal, mostly as it makes you realize the basic core premise of this series: Rozemyne has made everyone’s lives better, and without her their lives are very difficult. This is especially true after the first quarter of the book, when we get into the books in Part 3 and 4 of the series. Nobility is a drag.

Did you know Rozemyne has grown nearly eight inches since the first book in the series? I did not, fun fact. She’s still far too short, though. The early stories in this collection are from the POV of Gunther, Tuuli and Lutz as they have to deal with a Myne who is suddenly very different from what she used to be. There’s also a story with Wilma and Rosina, showing us Rosina’s frustration and selfishness. After that, though, it’s all nobles all the time, including nobles we’ve never even met, as two sort-of-Veronica faction sisters meet up and discuss the performances that Rozemyne and Ferdinand did, the sweets that they ate, and the fact that the Veronica folks could not go. (You do have to wonder if these two were later purged, though apparently a later fanbook says they were spared.)

The best stories in this book come near the end, with extended time devoted to Cornelius, Philine and Charlotte. Wilfried also gets a story, but it only serves to remind us of his painful naivete, and the fact that his attendants all seem to be evil. Charlotte in particular is well aware of this, but is also aware that the way things played out she’s lost the competition to be Aub without ever showing off her smarts, and it’s truly annoying. It’s annoying to the reader too, because we like Charlotte a lot more than we do Wilfried. The Cornelius chapters take place right after Rozemyne’s kidnapping and coma, and as you can imagine feature a lot of “it’s all my fault”, but give a good look at an underwritten character. As for Philine… god, her life sucked. I’m so glad she’s out of there now. The book is also very good at showing the class strata and how you can and cannot deal with things… and how Rozemyne tramples all over that. She saved Charlotte because Charlotte is her cute little sister and was in danger. This BAFFLES everyone. Family is something very different in this world.

So good stuff, but be prepared to dislike Wilfried even more. Something’s going to have to give there soon.

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

Ah well, it was nice while it lasted. After my attempts to defend him a tiny, tiny bit and his struggling manfully with Rozemyne being, well, Rozemyne, it’s time to throw Wilfried back into the ball pit, as he once again becomes one of the more hated characters in the series thanks solely to one side-story right at the end. Sadly, this boy just can’t help but listen to people he shouldn’t, and poisoned words just flow into his ear so easily. I expect that this will mostly pay off in the next volume, but it leaves a sour taste for this one. With all that said, he still ends up more popular than Detlinde, who is cringe in all the worst ways, a spoiled rotten princess being manipulated and disparaged by everyone in the series, and I’m fairly certain she is going to die at some point in this series. Wilfried won’t die. But he’s not marrying Rozemyne either.

It’s the end of Rozemyne’s third year at the academy, and for once she can actually attend it, even if this means that she’s going to end up attracting even more attention. Not as much as Detlinde, though, whose Whirl ends up being a disaster (she uses too much mana, collapses, and also looks like a fool) but also a political bomb (she triggers a magic circle that it the rumors say declare she is the new ruler, something that appeals to absolutely no one). As for Rozemyne, most of this volume is spent in conversations with others. There’s the fallout of their bridal battle with Dunkenfelger, there’s the research results that they’re pushing (and trying to get credit where it’s due), and there’s a discussion with the royal family that also involves Ferdinand, who is there accompanying his fiance, so actually gets to meet Rozemyne for a day or two.

Rozemyne is getting better at being a noble, but she’s also getting better at knowing when she has to ignore all the social niceties because things actually have to get done. Her bluntness here in front of both Hannelore’s mother and Eglantine is excellent, and shows off her rising star for everyone to see. (Hannelore also briefly shows a spine, though it’s much harder for her, and I compared her on Twitter to Yunyun from KonoSuba.) She also gets Ferdinand better than anyone else in the world… and he’s just as adept at getting what she’s concealing or hiding. Let’s face it – the two of them make a great couple, and even have nobility writing fanfiction about them in their head, even though the kind sweetness of their head bears no resemblance to the pinched cheeks of reality. Rozemyne had better stop looking 8 years old soon, we’re reaching a crisis point.

All this plus Georgine’s ongoing Evil Plans of Evil. You don’t need me to tell you how much of a must-read this remains.

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

It has to be said here: Ehrenfest is absolutely terrifying. I mention this mostly as, to a reader, that may not be the case. We’ve been with Rozemyne since the start of the series, in her home duchy, and we know its people. We also know that she is the equivalent of a human nuclear weapon, and that they’ve been desperately trying to hold her back for the most part. But to lesser duchies (like, say, Jossbrenner, who get the bulk of the short stories here), their meteoric rise has to be explained by evil. It’s the only way the rumors make sense, because otherwise, you’d have to accept that their entire change in fortune is down to the machinations of one book gremlin… who honestly doesn’t care all that much about where her duchy ranks as long as she gets books. And then we get this volume, where she talks to the King like she talks to everyone else. And produces multiple magical sacred items. What *is* Rozemyne? They just don’t know.

As always with these huge books packed with STUFF, there’s too much to recap, and I apologize for leaving out Detlinde’s excruciating tea party. But the two important things in this book are: 1) Ehrenfest and Dunkelfelger release their joint research, showing the efficacy of prayer and belief in gaining blessings, and proceed to have a demonstration which will involve (Rozemyne thinks) two of the three princes, but actually involves ALL the princes, and the King. The other duchies are somewhat stunned, but hey, it’s for the good of the country, right? Then we get 2), where Lestilaut finally snaps and challenges Wilfried to a game of “bride-stealing ditter” for Rozemyne’s hand. Rozemyne, unable to figure out a way to get out of this, then says that if Dunkenfelger lose somehow, Hannelore has to marry into Ehrenfest’s duchy. Hannelore, who is Dunkenfelger’s archduke candidate. Clearly this will be Safe And Fun.

Much as Leslilaut is an absolute ass in this volume, and I cannot wait for his inevitable downfall next time, he has a point: Wilfried is still pretty terrible as a leader of men, and as a minder of Rozemyne he borders on pathetic. That said, he does get a moment at the end when you cheer for him, when he goes to rescue (and not to capture) Hannelore. I tend not to think about romance too much for this series, mostly as it involves admitting who Rozemyne will end up with, which I’m still trying to ignore, but Wilfried and Hannelore would make quite a cute couple. Unfortunately, given Hannelore’s exceptionally bad luck, I can’t see it happening. Oh yes, and the library now has enough mana to open up some new sections, which will no doubt end up being important down the line.

So much happened in this book that it’s difficult to accept that it’s all just setup for future books, but there we go. That said, Bookworm is great whether it’s setting up pins or knocking them over, and I always love Rozemyne’s “common sense” causing everyone around her to faint or have a migraine. Keep up with this series.

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

So much of Bookworm runs on the difference between Rozemyne and everyone else in the cast. Indeed, the books can sometimes be summed up as “Don’t do the thing!” (Rozemyne does the thing) “I had no choice, tell me how could I have avoided doing the thing?” (groans, heads slammed against table) This book is much the same, as every single thing Sylvester tells Rozemyne to avoid happens anyway. And to be fair, a good 80% of it is not her fault this time. It either stems from their burgeoning printing industry, or it’s a function of mistakes she made earlier now being compounded without her consent, or it’s simply her very nature as the most powerful person in the entire country (something a couple of people are finally starting to notice, but not too many). Heck, the main thing everyone was waiting for in this volume, The Purge, happens entirely offscreen and we don’t even see it in the side stories. It doesn’t involve Rozemyne.

It’s the start of Rozemyne’s third year at the Academy, and to celebrate the character notes now say she looks EIGHT years old rather than seven! There’s a lot to do. She needs to find a way to communicate with Ferdinand on an irregular basis, she has to set up joint research projects with several other duchies into various things, and there are, of course, her classes. One of which is now being taught by Eglantine, who has returned after graduation to teach and to observe Rozemyne, not in that order. There’s also a new archnoble librarian, Hortensia, who is also there to observe Rozemyne, and has had a life that makes you sad that she’s married to Mr. Evil Guy. That said, the most dangerous thing that happens to Rozemyne is not resolved in this book: after her huge blessing to Eglantine and Anastasius at their wedding, the other prince wants one for HIS wedding. And it had better be bigger than Anastasius’… or, for that matter, Ferdinand’s. If not, civil war could erupt.

The subtitle for this 5th arc is Avatar of a Goddess, and we’re starting to see some foreshadowing for why that is. (It’s apparently the final arc, but don’t worry, it’s the longest arc yet.) In her classes to get blessings from the gods, most people get one or two. Wilfried amazes people by getting twelve, something very rare. Rozemyne gets forty. Something she decides to keep a secret from everyone else. Once she learns the names of the Gods of Light and Darkness, she powers up so much that mana is now leaking out of her whenever she prays, dances, or anything, really. See the color pages, which show everyone staring in awe as her whirling ends up, as she says, “turning me into a human glowstick”. There are already people who are realizing that it’s actually Rozemyne, not Ferdinand, responsible for Ehrenfest’s fortunes raising. I suspect soon she’s going to be the prize everyone wants. And probably because they will say she is… well, look at the title.

As always, there’s so much I haven’t talked about, such as the various boys who have fallen for Rozemyne (she has no idea), or the way the Veronica faction kids are handled, or the Evil Teacher’s schemes being thwarted by Ferdinand and Rozemyne simply being SUPER EXTRA. These books are each the size of two normal light novels, meaning this is technically Vol. 44 or so. That said, I’m not complaining.