All of these three chapters were great, but the first two have to live in the shadow of the third one.
Mother and Daughter is one of the best chapters in the whole series. I still cry every time I read it and I think I've read it at least 10 times.
this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
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PrePub - Ascendance of a Bookworm
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- Ascendance of a Bookworm
- Honzuki no Gekokujou
- 『本好きの下剋上』
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That chapter made me cry even with MTL. Says a lot about how good it is ok story alone.
Absolute banger of a prepub.
Hartmut's orgasmic reaction to being namesworn is absolutely hilarious.
Not telling Ferdinand about the adoption and the Zent candidacy....why, Roz, why? This can't be a good idea.
Telling her namesworn about her commoner origins...also feels like a bad idea.
Mother and Daughter:
Elvira knew the whole time?!! But also: holy shit, sasuga Kazuki-sensei! This was so touching. I think it may rival P2V4.
Elvira best mom? Effa best mom? Doesn't matter, they both love Roz.
I wonder if the pain felt during name-swearing is a set intensity, or if there are individual differences, like with the mana synchronization potion. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the closer the mana quality and quantity of two nobles is, the less pain the process causes the supplicant. That way it would make absolute sense for Roderick to be in intense pain, after all he barely has the mana quality to still be counted as a mednoble and has only two natural elements.
Hartmut on the other hand was one of the more powerful archnobles to begin with and already learned Rozemyne's mana compression, has considerably more natural elements and even got Life affinity from divine protection before giving his name.
Of course I wouldn't put it past him to just be so fanatical, that his bliss drowned out the pain, or he even enjoyed the pain, since it's part of connecting him with his goddess... or whatever Rozemyne is to him in his own mind.
Not telling Ferdinand about the adoption and the Zent candidacy…why, Roz, why? This can’t be a good idea.
Silly side question does Syl know about/check Roz's hidden ink messages or does he only really check the dummy messages only (the non invisible ink)?
Syl doesn't know about the ink at all so he's completely unaware of the hidden messages. He also wouldn't be able to check it since it requires Ferdinand's mana to make the text visible. But he does know they exchange communications secretly.
He knows that Rozemyne has some way to secretly communicate with Ferdinand, but has no idea how and thus can't check it. And I strongly suspect that he's more inspecting her letter to avoid Rozemyne accidentally giving anything away to the Ahrensbach nobles, who are sure to read the letter before passing it on to Ferdinand, rather than worry over what she might tell Ferdinand.
That makes sense (guess he's just doing a surface level check). I wonder how he is secretly conversing with Ferdi (since he doesn't appear to have a invisible ink equivalent).
Perhaps just codephrases that nobody else knows. Ferdinand keeps asking Syl to send over some of his luggage, perhaps the order in which he asks for certain items have pre-agreed meanings?
In neither of Sylvester's and Justus' side stories have they mentioned communications or secret communication methods so it's anyone's guess. But I really don't think Syl has any special communique going on because he's completely unaware of the happenings in Ahrensbach.
Hartmut’s orgasmic reaction to being namesworn is absolutely hilarious.
Ottilie apparently rejected joining in on the name-swearing, so you have to wonder who was subjected to that experience.
I think she was the witness but avoided her eyes, and Roz was commenting that she should do her "job" of supervising it properly.
That's how I read it too. She was there, but upon seeing the weird look in her son's eyes, she turned away in disgust, while making a face, partway through, without leaving the room.
Great set of chapters, love how this series doubles back and recontextualizes things all the time. This chapter really poked at all of the impacts the story has had so far.
A meeting with Benno (without Lutz) seems to be on the horizon too, not sure how much Rozemyne will want to expose to her namesworn, but they'll all get to learn something about her past it sounds.
Hope Clarissa can give her name soon, if Hartmut’s reaction is anything to go by.
I wonder how Clarissas parents will react (as well as Dunks) to her name swearing. On one hand it would be hilarious if her parents react the same as Ottilie.
The end of the pre-pub was so heartwarming, Elvira sharing her emotions with her adopted daughter so freely when no one else could, and assuring Rozemyne that she wasn't alone. Also yes, Hartmut and Clarissa continue to be completely batshit in their devotion to Rozemyne.
Fantastic chapter, I kinda want that conversation to continue.
I'm surprised Rozemyne and Elvira overlooked the obvious solution for Philine: Ask Charlotte to take her on as a retainer until she comes of age. That way she could stay with Charlotte, the same way she does with Rozemyne right now. I'm sure Chalotte would be glad to get such a skilled subordinate, even if it's only temporary. Charlotte has expressed how much her and Wilfried's scholars cold learn from Rozemyne's scholars and this would be a great opportunity to have one of Rozemyne's scholars teach her own. Additionally Charlotte is supposed to take bigger part in the printing industry, so having someone intimately familiar with it serve her, would be doubly benefitial. Not to mention that Charlotte would be delighted to be able to do her big sister a favour. That way she could remain in Ehrenfest without having to return to her family home and Jonsara's abuse.
Then again, as unpleasant as returning home would be for the three more years until Philine comes of age, it would also come with the perk of eventually becoming the head of the house and owner of the mansion, and then being able to either banish her step-mother to a side-building or kick her out altogether.
Of course there is a risk that Jonsara and her aunt/head-attendant/harpy might try to assassinate Philine, once she's back in easy reach and no longer under Rozemyne's direct protection, so Elvira will need to make it very clear to the step-dragon that Philine's mysterious demise would carry some quite unpleasant consequences for Jonsara.
For a moment I entertained the thought of Jonsara returning to her own, nice self, as she was prior to the birth of her son, when she treated Philine and Konrad well and taught them, but even if she did, I can't see Philine ever reconciling with the person who straight-up tortured Konrad, no matter how benefitial it would be for their house.
Not finished with the chapter yet but I absolutely love Hartmut and Clarissa. Batshit crazy fanatics and I wouldn't want it any other way.
We have classic tomfoolery of retainers on full display. With Hartmut and Angelica sperheding into the bit. Philine x Damuel ship has set sail. The conversation in the hidden room was great. Kazuki sensei is a great author.
I am happy the shipping has been finally given some legs. Ever since Philine's epilogue some time before I was hoping for this sort of development. I wonder how fast things may move for them from this point on.
Hartmut and Rozemyne
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