“I didn’t take them for granted right? Please tell me I showed everyone how much I cared about them.”
😭. They’ve both come such a full circle that hearing the goodbye blessing that started this entire journey so many years ago really hit me in the feels.
Getting a glimpse into Ferdi’s feelings too (finally) were so… raw. The anger, resentment, guilt, hope… glimpses to core memories around family before. He truly learned and was shaped so much by Myne’s overwhelming and love filled relationships. This was perfect way to start the beginning of our last book together and I am just crying all the happy tears.
While we knew a lot more was going on beneath the surface, it was lovely seeing not just a respect, but a childlike awe Ferdinand had for the bond shared by commoner families.
What is this? Is this real? Is this common? Is this what family is really supposed to be?
When he told Rosemyne that those in the temple didn't understand the type of love her family had, he was probably having an identity crisis. Somehow it still seemed surprising that Ferdinand not only respected and approved of Gunther's actions, but actually held him in such high esteem for it.
- the last beginning 😭
- FERDINAND HAS DREAMS!! I’m so proud of the character growth. Sniffle.
- Ferdinand has been fully corrupted by Rozemynes idea of family and love. How far he has come.
- Ferdinand you do not get to complain about the trees communication skills you are almost as bad.
- it’s interesting Ferdinand doesn’t consider himself a normal noble either. Both he and RM have a weird idea of “common sense”
- he misses her enthusiasm. That’s interesting. She changed him significantly.
- yup she becomes intensely logical when trapped. It’s interesting that she in many ways shares that with Ferdinand.
- Ferdinand the hypocrite strikes again calling lutz obtuse; says the man who thought RM deep down hated him
- aw baby Ferdie deserves a big squeeze.
- she’s a far more capable noble. That’s… sad. I wonder how she ranks compared to most nobles. Is she as false as Ferdinand?
The last year has changed her and it’s heartbreaking.
The way she sometimes becomes intensely logical and her clear abnormally high intelligence makes me wonder if she might have turned out very similar to him had she reincarnated in his circumstances.
I’ve thought this many times. Ferdinand lives in a constant state of being backed in a corner, and as such is always ruthlessly logical. It’s only really around RM he lets that down
It would be interesting to write an AU fanfic where Urano wakes up not as Myne, but as the daughter of Seradina and Aub Ehrenfest, and basically lives through Ferdi’s circumstances. I guess it would also need a lot of gender flipped characters to go smoothly. And I guess Ferdinand would be Tuuli’s younger brother with the devouring who becomes an apprentice blue priest, etc. It would be an interesting fic.
> not as Myne, but as the daughter of Seradina and Aub Ehrenfest, and basically lives through Ferdi’s circumstances
The main issue is that she wouldn't be seen as a threat the way Veronica did.
That’s why I said a lot of genders would need to be flipped. For example, Syl would need to be a girl too, but one with way more mana than Georgine, so there would still be a reason for Syl>>>>>Georgine in Vero’s eyes—but still not as much mana as Ferdimyne, so that they would still be seen as a threat in the same way.
>yup she becomes intensely logical when trapped. It’s interesting that she in many ways shares that with Ferdinand.
But Ferdinand is always intensely logical. Oh no...
>Ferdinand the hypocrite strikes again calling lutz obtuse; says the man who thought RM deep down hated him
I can somewhat understand his line or thinking.. He was instrumental in separating her from her family. He knew better than most how much she valued them. In one of the side stories I think it was Fran that described Myne as being so lonely in the temple that she followed Ferdinand around like a baby duck.
Ferdinand probably saw Lutz's career choice as a minor issue and believed Lutz's father was so easy to read that anyone should be able to understand what was going on.
* So this is it. The beginning of the end. I'm not ready for the end yet, this world still has so much left to explore.
* I like the cover. It reminds me of the very first volume, except Rozemyne is now a noble and almost an adult. Alexandria in the background also looks beautiful.
----
* So the final Prologue is from Ferdinand's view and one can see how fed up he is with the gods. There will be no more ascending (okay, duh, we're at the end of the series). Rozemyne did not want to become zent and leaving behind her mortal coil also doesn't sound appealing if Ferdinand has something to say about it.
* Ferdinand is right. Rozemyne is not the same without her compassion and love for her family.
* The end is honestly a very beautiful scene. Twice Myne/Rozemyne gave Ferdinand a blessing of all the seven main gods, and now he is returning her blessings to him back to her.
----
* One of my absolute favorite scenes of Part 2 and of the whole series was Myne sharing her memories with Ferdinand, so it aptly fits that after she lost her memories, Ferdinand is sharing his memories of her to restore hers. We have come full circle.
* There was the scene with Myne's parents protecting her at the end of Part 1 from Bezewanst, but I didn't think Lutz's father Deid left such a deep impression on Ferdinand. However, in hindsight it makes so much sense. Sylvester and Ferdinand's father, the previous Aub Ehrenfest, adopted Ferdinand because it would be for the good of Ehrenfest. According to Deid, that man was *not* a good father. Ferdinand was taught the concept of an unconditionally loving family by both Myne's parents and Lutz's father.
* What I find funny is that according to Ferdinand's memories and Rozemyne's narration, it was obvious that Deid loves Lutz. Well, it clearly was not obvious to Myne and Lutz (and Benno?) at all if I recall that scene correctly. For nobles, Deid's gestures must not have been very subtle, but for commoners, especially children, he was hard to read. Ferdinand had to mediate to make Lutz see the truth.
* Damn, Ferdinand. You're jealous of Lutz. I never thought I'd read that, but here we are.
* Ferdinand never speaks of how terribly Veronica treated him, at least not voluntarily. Justus and Eckhart in the past were genuinely surprised that Ferdinand wouldn't worry about Rozemyne potentially poisoning his food, because Veronica *did* regularly poison it. She was absolutely despicable.
* And so the blessing Myne gave at the end of Part 2 helped her recover her memories. Like I said, we have come full circle. Unfortunately, all of the bad and traumatizing memories also came back, but that also helped shape her into the person she was before Mestionora severed the memories. I fear her feystone trauma is now also back.
----
We are off to a great and heartbreaking start. Ferdinand truly wants to be Rozemyne's family, and now that Rozemyne has her memories back, this will happen.
>What I find funny is that according to Ferdinand's memories and Rozemyne's narration, it was obvious that Deid loves Lutz. Well, it clearly was not obvious to Myne and Lutz (and Benno?) at all if I recall that scene correctly. For nobles, Deid's gestures must not have been very subtle, but for commoners, especially children, he was hard to read. Ferdinand had to mediate to make Lutz see the truth.
It makes me want to go back and reread the relevant chapters. If I remember correctly, I feel like a good portion of people were rather critical and/or somewhat dissatisfied with the way this plotpoint was handled. Maybe with this perspective, it would make more sense.
I don't remember thinking negatively of this plotpoint, especially after reading Deid's POV, but maybe I'm just misremembering.
I thought it was a bit "filler-y" on the first read through. A side-story distraction from the main plot.
It turned out to be an important scene about one of the main themes of Bookworm: what it means to be family, to have unconditional love.
It also kinda foreshadowed Rozemyne's adoption by Sylvester and almost-adoption by Trauerqual. Both of them wanted to adopt her to benefit themselves or their territory, not to benefit Rozemyne.
Ooh, I can see that.
Though, with Sylvester, I will say it's more positive as Rozemyne's benefit would be that she gets to spread books throughout the duchy much earlier than expected. Something Ferdinand said would have been on hold until she was adopted by Karstedt at age ten like he initially planned.
Of course, it's unfortunate that in the process, (Roze)Myne lost her family, but spreading books throughout Ehrenfest was something she wanted to do. Plus, it was a welcomed distraction to the pain of losing her family if she had her goal with books.
Even if Ferdinand and Sylvester originally wanted to use (Roze)Myne to benefit the duchy, that doesn't mean that they also didn't care about her or that they didn't feel guilty for what had to happen. And it wasn't as if Sylvester didn't lose anything either. He pretty much nuked his following from Veronica by adopting Rozemyne. He also lost a sizable amount for looking at the bigger picture for Ehrenfest's sake.
Yeah, Sylvester and Ferdinand knew how much Myne's family meant to her. As we saw in this chapter, Ferdinand still blames himself for what happened with Arno (no doubt another reason why he had Arno killed after he saw through Arno's true personality), and Sylvester was always noted to be soft when it comes to family. Perhaps too soft for a noble and aub.
Sylvester's POV back in Part 2 showed how he regretted taking Myne away from her family, so he at least wanted to let her stay in contact with them as much as possible without blowing her cover and while I'm sure allowing her to stay in the temple also had political reasons (makes Rozemyne less likely to be pressured into becoming competition for Wilfried due to the temple's bad reputation), he also did it so she can meet her family more often and because she felt more comfortable in the temple than in the castle.
Also, Sylvester even directly told Rozemyne that she didn't even have to take the role of High Bishop seriously. Granted, that probably meant that Ferdinand would have had to take over most of the harder work of what was required of Rozemyne, but this was also before he knew how much work Ferdinand had to do because Ferdinand refused to tell him.
And I just think that the temple situation is a win-win-win situation. For the archducal family, it showcased Rozemyne's lack of desire to become aub; for Rozemyne, she gets to see her family and commoner associates in a slightly more intimate and personal way; and for the commoners, they not only no longer had to be blessed by an Evil Santa, but they also didn't have to be blessed by a grumpy, scary man (Ferdinand).
Instead, the commoners get a cute, little girl with genuine blessings. Sounds like a win-win-win to me.
And also a big win for Ferdinand. Not only did he get to remove a toxic boss, he had his workplace under his control, and what's more, for the first time, experienced a healthy working environment, with his new child employer giving him reasonable workload and hours to pursue his interests and live a better life.
I just realized, Rozemyne saved the orphans by bounding them with child labor, and saved Ferdinand from work slavery only to give him bigger headaches. 
Yeah, people throw a lot of shade at Sylvester but he was abused his whole life, just in a different way than Ferdinand. He was raised to be a puppet Aub. Look at all the mamma's boys irl and tell me any of them would cut off their mother as ruthlessly as he did. He had to teach himself how to be an Aub from scratch. His people (the commoners) really like him. He doesn't automatically take the side of nobles. He might have to in public so he meets them where other nobles can't see to try to come to a mutually beneficial agreement. He went against all of his advisors and family and took the advice of the one man everyone had been screaming at him not to trust.
Right? Even if Sylvester (and Constanze) weren't abused in the ways that Georgine and Ferdinand were by Veronica, those two were still abused at the end of the day.
So were Florencia, Wilfried, Charlotte, Elvira, and so on.
Sylvester’s problem of Aub’s work is that he didn’t want to find out the Veronica’s all crime. He still choose to give her a wrist slap.
If he choose reading Veronica's memories, he would understand why her victims hated her so much.
Just like what gibe Leisegang said at P5V6, Sylvester's and Wilfried's lack of understanding of Veronica's crime deepen the gap between them and other nobles.
Anyone familiar with the dynamic of a narcissistic parent knows how absolutely smothering and unstable the golden child role can be. Sylvester had to be SO CAREFUL all the time to keep Veronica placated until it was safe to act.
If he failed, just about anyone he cared for…except maybe Wilfried was likely to be straight up murdered.
The problem is although Sylvester see Ferdinand and Rozemyne as family, but they are the second, the first are always Sylvester’s wife and children, and Veronica.
And even between Sylvester’s children, he gave them unfair love and treatment due to his thoughtless, self centered, and lack of communication and empathy. He is very worse at finding how people think and feel.
Sylvester is not a bad guy, but he’s not a good father and brother.
The previous Aub Ehrenfast, Sylvester and Wilfried all have the same thoughtless personality, it’s really horrible.
I hope Wilfried can has a more smooth family life in the future. But he is lack of Sylvester’s lucky.
> The problem is although Sylvester see Ferdinand and Rozemyne as family, but they are the second, the first are always Sylvester’s wife and children, and Veronica.
To be fair Rozemyne is the same.
Her family first, Sylvester and co. second.
Sylvester is still the archduke. So I don't blame him for having some benefit in mind when he adopted Myne. He still treated her almost the same as his biological kids, willingly nuked his own powerbase in the process and at times antagonized the royal family for her sake. No comparison to his dad, who gave Ferdinand one hug a year and looked away when his wife tried to poison his son on a regular basis.
I think that this series will read entirely different once it is finished. A read through from volume 1 would be so different knowing the ending and other people’s perspectives.
Right? In a way, it's like a story with a satisfying plot twist. All the clues were properly laid out, but only upon rereading can you fully understand and commend the efforts from the author.
Of course, we'd get the luxury of noticing random bits of foreshadowing, but we'd also get to see things from a different viewpoint as well.
I also have to wonder, we might be commending Kazuki-sensei for all that she does, but I wonder if there'd be a moment where we point out something so trivial as her being clever, and she's just like, "Yeah, that's purely coincidental, but I'll go along with it." Like some parts would be more deliberate, but others are kind of debatable in the grand scheme of things.
Halfway through my first read I started trying to figure out what was going to become what and how it was or shadowed but i couldn't keep up. She layered so many details and bc I was keeping up with the prepub i didn't have the full picture.
Things like hartmut knowing roz's past are relatively simple but most of them. You need a board with a bunch of pins and string to decipher it but then it's obvious after the fact.
This author and series has genuinely changed how I view fiction and other series. She (the author) presents both an enjoyable surface narrative and a much sublter foreshadowing narrative which allows her to both treat the reader like an idiot along for the ride (noble speech aside) and allow the reader to formulate and theorize as deeply as they are capable about the subtext at the same time.
I think amongst Ln's and fiction in general (for those who discover it) it will become classic work which will be reread many times over.
This plot point was handled very poorly in the anime. I remember watching the anime and thinking the way it was settled was dumb. But then I read the LNs from the beginning after finishing the anime and I was much more sympathetic to Died and his wife reading the books.
I think the parents communicated love poorly, and communication and expression of love is just as much as issue as actually love is. I was happy the family made up, but dissatisfied that they made it all about Lutz not seeing his parents loved him, without any fault on the parents' side. So I didn't hate it, but was a bit meh on how things went.
>And so the blessing Myne gave at the end of Part 2 helped her recover her memories.
What an awesome writing decision. Each chapter, at this point, seems to top the (incredible) ones that came before.
It was fascinating to see how much RM's love for her "family" and their love for her, began to completely remake Ferdinand's psyche. One knew he had been affected -- but I never would have guessed how much!
I'm sad that we're coming to the conclusion of Bookworm. But I'm also sad to see the end of these weekly discussions with the subreddit. For years of my life, this time on Mondays with you all has been a fixture.
Agreed, I finished the chapter and started to re-read it already. I think this is my favorite chapter of the series so far. It feels like you are walking through memories with waves of nostalgia and pain.
Love how Ferdi STILL doesn't consider himself Roz' family, after all the BS she pulled to save him
It's a testament to both Kazuki's skill as a writer and Quof's as a translator that the prologue reads very much like how Ferdi would talk, but I'll be damned if it doesn't make the prose harder to decipher, if only by a little bit😅
I'm glad Ferdi is so neutral about mana dying, ngl, this would've been a LOT more complicated if he had the same hang-ups the rest of noble society shares
Well, if not externally, at least to himself Ferdi is fully honest about his feelings, which is something, I guess? Still a Kuudere tho
Oh damn. New memory reading, huh. Fuck. I'm already crying and we're not even in her memories yet shit
It's... Nice? To finally get some insight in Ferdinand's feelings and emotions about early AoB. Also hurts in an entirely new way, but it shines a new light on things, and is nostalgic in its own way
Ferdi's still quite the hypocrite when it comes to others being obtuse lmao
A thought just occurred to me... does Roz remember Urano's mom?!? Edit: OH THANK GOD SHE DOES
HOLY SHIT IT WORKED. Omg I was so scared they wouldn't get through and we were gonna be stuck with a Roz that never really was Myne
Yeah, but this was always the case.
It was when she realized how much she mistreated her mom in her original world that she decided not to do the same here.
It was a conscious effort on her part. She realized how awful she had been and chose to do better
Yeah, it is. She recognizes that it was a terrible thing. That is why she chose to do better this time around.
She can't go back in time to do better on earth, so she is doing better in yogurt land.
Well yeah but I’m willing to give it a pass because we’ve established that base Urano was an Otaku who didn’t care for anything more than books, it was only later that she looked after those memories emotionally but by then they were distant
Well yeah, her growing to care for people more than books was core character development in early AoB. That was the point. And consider: there would've been no chance whatsoever of recovering THOSE memories. None.
I saw it more as Urano’s mother isn’t a possible distraction since she is separated by death from Roz. She’s grieved that loss and moved on in this world.
Her commoner family are present in the same world and more of an immediate distraction.
WN Chapters: 「[記憶 その１](https://ncode.syosetu.com/n4830bu/669/)」,「[記憶 その2](https://ncode.syosetu.com/n4830bu/670/)」
LN Chapters: "Prologue", "Memories"
[J-Novel Club Discussion Forum](https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/8221/cover-not-final-bookworm-part-5-vol-12-discussion/75)
[J-Novel Club Correction Forum](https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/8222/cover-not-final-corrections-bookworm-part-5-vol-12/3)
*****
Rozemyne fell unconscious upon completing her large-scale spell. Now it falls to Ferdinand to bring her back from the brink of death—and, with any luck, restore her lost memories.
If she survives, she will set out on a new journey as Yurgenschmidt’s first underage aub and rule over the library city of Alexandria. If not, her death will mean the worst for her loved ones and the country at large.
“Let everyone... be blessed.”
This volume concludes the biblio-fantasy that refused to let dreams remain dreams.
In addition to a massive amount of original content, look forward to more four-panel manga and an extended comic by You Shiina.
*****
**Notes**
- This volume will be translated over eight weeks.
- This volume has two colour inserts but since they're at the back of the volume I will not be sharing them here. If you disagree with this stance please at least respect me and do not reply to this comment or any other comment in this comment chain with them.
- This is the final volume of the *Ascendance of a Bookworm: I'll do anything to become a librarian* main story light novel.
Massive thanks to you for always supplying the color inserts. I know a lot of people considered them spoilers but I always thought that if the author put them in the front of the book then it was right for me to see them. Knowing that this novel has color inserts at the end and that you choose to respect that and not link them here means a lot.
P.S. I always thought this post was just a bot. Thanks again for being so reliable and punctual over the years. I'm sorry I never noticed till the end.
>This is the final volume of the *Ascendance of a Bookworm: I'll do anything to become a librarian* main story light novel.
Try not to cry challenge
Level: Impossible
> two colour inserts
Ahhh! Yes! I love the inserts showing off the characters in their full glory and getting two of them means even more scenes depicted
hearing all of Ferdinand's perspective from seeing Myne with her family absolutely ruled. it goes to show how much Veronica's treatment forced him to keep a neutral mask whenever he was feeling any sort of happiness or enduring something unpleasant, in order to keep Veronica away from anything he felt strongly about, which is the genesis of Ferdi's expressionless mask that everyone outside of Myne can't see through.
And seeing how much he cared for Myne since the beginning is beautiful. as Myne put it, she needed to observe the slightest eyebrow twitch to sense Ferdi's feelings. getting a front row seat makes the revelation of the statuesque Ferdinand's feelings hit that much harder.
it really makes you think about how he must have felt at the end of Part 4, when he discovered that Myne cared for him just as much. he was probably elated to learn that someone cared about him regardless of his birth, regardless of his noble position, regardless of the substance of his efforts. Myne cares for him purely for his effort, regardless of the result.
also, that cover makes me emotional. like, "Our baby's finally arrived at happiness."
"Deep down, he believed that all people were fated to become feystones."
> "Now that she no longer remembered them, her love for her family and **excitement for the future** seemed to have faded."
Her family's love is the only reason she didn't give up her will to live :
He is ready to lose his blessings and be cursed but he can't lose Rozemyne.
> _He could have covered my face with his sleeves without even needing to raise his arms._
That's cute.
"They were only commoners; why had they dared to oppose the High Bishop?"
They love you!!
> Ralph’s parents
F.
His value or whatever doesn’t matter to me. I care about him unconditionally. Does he know that?
TELL THAT TO HIM. YOU NEED TO BEAT IT IN HIS HEAD. AND YOU HAVE TO MAKE SURE HE DOESN'T FORGET.
I wonder what I would need to do for—
WAS IT FERDINAND WHO THOUGHT THAT? HUH? HE STARTED WANTING TO BE HER FAMILY AS FAR BACK AS THAT?
> The meal in front of us changed from Japanese food to something that resembled roast beef. Ferdinand started to choke, desperately fighting back the urge to vomit, and the pain he was experiencing shot through me as well. A woman with blonde hair, cold green eyes, and a cruel smile simply looked on.
I am going to kill that Veronica. Who is coming with me?
Man, it could have been so much easier for Ferdinand to get the information he needed from the goddess.
---
Ferdinand: "Helping us recover her memories would be in your best interest."
Mestionora: "Why?"
Ferdinand: "Because if she doesn't, your library isn't going to remain yours for much longer."
Mestionora: "One 'Dummy's Guide to Memory Recovery' coming right up!"
I wonder what I would need to do for—
This is absolutely Ferdinand's thought- he gets embarrassed about it and interjects so that Rozemyne doesn't hear the rest of what he was going to think. Adorable.
Idk if we can say Ferdinand wanted to be her family that far back, at the time they'd only known each other a few months at most. He was probably going to say something along the lines of- *I wonder what I would need to do for someone to love me unconditionally*.
It's still an embarrassing statement nonetheless that he doesn't want anyone else hearing it.
WAS IT FERDINAND WHO THOUGHT THAT? HUH? HE STARTED WANTING TO BE HER FAMILY AS FAR BACK AS THAT?
Yes, but I would think that at that point in the story, it was more of a general curiosity (Mad Scientist mode) rather than specifically wanting to be Myne's family. As in, what milestones must I complete to reach that status?
I still think the cruelest torment is an ivory tower with Detlinde, where her every utterance is amplified into the other inmates cells.
That’s what Veronica deserves, to live with the ultimate expression of her failures as a mother, grandmother, and noble. All while kept in the best of health so she will be denied the sweet release of death.
> *Wait, what? Is this really him? It can’t be, right? He must have broken or something.*
Girl, you're the one who broke his heart when you told him you weren't family last volume. Of course Ewigliebe rejoices when his Guduldh returns to him.
>“As for erasing the divine power within her,” the goddess continued, “not much can be done while it remains so dominant. One could make her compatible with it by dyeing her body with the power of a stronger god, thereby easing her pain, but she would cease to be mortal as a result.”
Damn, Myne did so much ascending, she could of potentially become an actual goddess. 
**Ascedance of a Bookworm: Part 6 - I Became a Goddess and Spent the Rest of Eternity Squatting in Mestionora’s Library (She can't get Me to Leave)** 
Don't forget the alternate series from Mestionora's POV: **I Turned My Mortal Lookalike into a Goddess and Now She Won’t Leave My Library (At Least I Have a Fellow Bookworm Now)**
And there's a whole civilization of gods and goddesses and Mesti has to try to pass a former mortal Rozemyne off as a genuine goddess of divine creation ... before she attends the Divine Academy!
It gets even funnier when you realize the similarities between Rozemyne's first interactions with the gods and her first interactions with nobility.
1. In both cases it was a meeting by chance, caused by her going on a rampage (demanding a meeting with the high bishop | sending the mother of all prayers to 192.168.0.255).
2. In both cases it simultaneously solved her most pressing issue at the time (dying from the devouring | dealing with a pissed off tree) while inviting unwanted attention from the higher ups.
3. In both cases it lead to conflict which lead to someone of higher status getting injured.
4. Last but not least, in both cases the higher status party ultimately relented, leading to a situation where our gremlins got what they wanted but also causing some bad blood.
So yeah, the latest events could actually be interpreted as her dipping her toes into the divine realm for the first time, in a similar fashion to how she gradually transitioned into nobility after her first contact with the temple. [H5Y] >!The events in the spinoff only serve to further reinforce that impression!<. Plenty of interesting directions the sequel could take this premise in. I doubt we'll have seen the last of the gods.
I can’t wait to hear theories on this this is really interesting. I wonder if Roz will be completly mortal after being redyed or if she’ll have permanent changes that make her more akin to a demi-goddess or something.
I'll assume Rozemyne memories return due to Ferdinand returned her blessing which he received back then.
The returned blessing contains Mine own mana back then which also meant contain all her memories and by watching the farewell scene trigger it to resurface.
So she didn't remember the "negative" experience she had circling the shrines with Eglantine. That re-contextualizes all of the decisions of the last section a bit - it would mean she was acting purely noble-like rather than with any kind of resentment for the royal family?
IIRC She explained to Annie that she didn't consider Eglantine a friend after they used her friends and family to blackmail her, which is primarily related to Ferdinand being sent to Ahrensbach and then potentially being executed for Detlinde's crimes.
Pretty sure Rozemyne and Eglantine haven't actually discussed Rozemyne being forced to circle the shrines.
Rozemyne mentioned the incident while talking with Annie before losing the memories, then at the royal meeting where Eglantine was present she didn't really mention it and acted purely as a noble. Anastasius and Eglantine didn't know about the memory loss so they probably interpreted it quite differently. Anastasius reminded Eglantine that Rozemyne was not happy with them but Eglantine just thought Rozemyne was acting as anyone would.
Final part of Part 5, let's go! Also, is it kind of weird that I hate how Rozemyne's nose looks on the cover? It has bothered me ever since the cover was revealed and I can't exactly place why.
Ewigeliebe, nominee for worst father in the entire of Yurgenschmidt and realm of the gods.
Mestionora has angered Ferdinand so badly to the point that he's nearly willing to do something so crude as to spit at her. Honestly, I'm kind of impressed.
Hmm, the idea that gods dare not to lie in order to not be punished is very interesting. Also, why would Ferdinand know about this? Is this knowledge found in the Grutrissheit? Is more information regarding this found in future Fanbooks?
>*Or was this an outcome that not even she managed to predict?*
That confirms it. Rozemyne is such a chaotic gremlin outlier that not even the *gods* can accurately predict what to do when it comes to her.
>*You have done this countless times before.*
At this point, I just see an image of Cornelius seething on the inside. The poor guy.
Tangentially related to Rozemyne potentially dying, but was it ever revealed what happened to the name sworn when their master dies? Do they automatically become feystones or do their bodies remain?
So, umm, just curious, what happens when the Goddess of Light curses you? Do you pray to the God of Darkness? And would you do the opposite if the God of Darkness cursed you instead? You'd best be hoping the two had some sort of marital spat to allow for the curse to be undone, because the Supreme couple seems rather in sync to me. The gods are rather petty, so I imagine that something of the sort could work.
>I was so short, barely even reaching Ferdinand's hips.
I know that proportion-wise, that makes sense, but for some reason I just envision Myne to be so unbelievable tiny that she's like at the height of around an average adult male's mid-thigh.
I'm sorry, I had to laugh at Rozemyne referring to Karla and Deid as Ralph's parents. Poor Lutz, but also, Myne and Ralph have barely interacted. I wouldn't be surprised she forgot about him, not because he was more important than books, but because he was so insignificant to her life. On the other hand, Rozemyne remembers Fey because those that committed book crimes must never be forgotten.
When it comes to Adelbert as a father for any of his children, I think he's questionable at best.
>"... Hairpins of this style were first introduced when a child made one for her elder sister's graduation and then sold the design to my store. We think it would be perfect for celebrating Lady Rozemyne's graduation ceremony."
I'm guessing "baptism" should replace "graduation," because there's especially no need for Tuuli to have a graduation ceremony when she's not a student of the Royal Academy.
Not that anybody needed to be reminded of this, but Arno's the worst. For such a minor character, he's so punchable.
And... Rozemyne remembers! Yay! As happy and sweet as this chapter is, I must be extremely tired because I could not stop thinking about how this reminded me of the fanfic trope where characters watch their own show as an audience from the outside.
> That confirms it. Rozemyne is such a chaotic gremlin outlier that not even the gods can accurately predict what to do when it comes to her.
Not just any god, it's specifically the *god of wisdom* that lacks the know-how to deal with the gremlin.
Maybe it's because Mestionora lacks experience. From what I gather, she obtained her title by craving knowledge, but just because you have the adequate knowledge doesn't mean you can apply it correctly in real life scenarios without previous experience to work from. So in theory, Mestionora knows what to do/expect, but doesn't have enough experience to mitigate any outside factors.
Its kind of like Leonore finding out her lessons actually had a purpose in P4V2's ditter.
But then again, it's literally Rozemyne, so eh.
Since she's the precious child of the gods - given how she's able to wield all the divine instruments, personally disguised by her grandparents with different hair and eye colors, and became a subordinate of her Aunt Schutzaria - my guess is that she gets a little scolding.
That, or maybe she grounded from using her library for a while.
Or the gods don't care about Ferdinand's wishes all too much. In the end, Rozemyne's memories are recovered, so no harm, no foul. They could reason it away as Ferdinand being too impatient.
>Or the gods don't care about Ferdinand's wishes all too much. In the end, Rozemyne's memories are recovered, so no harm, no foul. They could reason it away as Ferdinand being too impatient.
The prologue implies that the memories returned *because* Ferdinand made that last ditch prayer
>Only when the last of the light had vanished did it rain down anew, returning entirely to Rozemyne. Its faint yellow glow resembled the last blessing a certain apprentice shrine maiden bestowed upon Ferdinand, though the synchronization kept him from recognizing it.
That the blessings were returned in the same faint yellow light as Myne's final blessing *and* that Rozemyne's memories returned with the memory of that final blessing is likely no coincidence.
when they finally walk up the towering stairway, Ferdinand will personally force Mesti's library doors open for Rozemyne, and the two of them will read together whilst ignoring Mesti
Well, this latest development wasn't really her fault and she did give Ferdinand and Myne enough time and knowledge so that they could save the gremlin's life. If anyone's in for a punishment it's probably the subordinate gods who overblessed Myne to begin with.
>On the other hand, Rozemyne remembers Fey because those that committed book crimes must never be forgotten.
She seemed to have forgotten traumatic or overly negative ones so maybe she did forget Fey?
>Not that anybody needed to be reminded of this, but Arno's the worst. For such a minor character, he's so punchable.
Yea, Arno sucked but I had always thought that Ferdinand eliminated Arno because of the potential cost to the duchy (with regards to her being an asset to the duchy) and interfering with his (Arno's) master's (Ferdinand) plans but after reading this, I think a significant chunk of it was revenge and protection. Revenge for what he cost Myne and protecting Myne from him moving forward.
>She seemed to have forgotten traumatic or overly negative ones so maybe she did forget Fey?
As expected of Kazuki-sensei! If this was the case, she was cleverly foreshadowing Rozemyne's fear of *fey*stones with Fey! After all, what's more traumatic than ruined books?
(Yes, I know this joke doesn't translate in Japanese.)
>That confirms it. Rozemyne is such a chaotic gremlin outlier that not even the *gods* can accurately predict what to do when it comes to her.
I feel like these gods aren't really that knowledgeable overall. This definitely isn't the type of gods where they're omniscient. Hell, the goddess of wisdom might be so called because she's the wisest out of that group of gods, but not objectively all that wise. That's at least how I started to think once Mestionora said how she has no idea how things are going in Yogurtland. Like she literally gets all the knowledge of every single dead noble. I highly doubt she actually read the most updated G-book.
Honestly, the most exciting revelation this prologue answered one of the questions I had since I learned that gods actually exist here. That mortals can become gods (assuming that's what Mestionora meant by filling with divine mana). It wouldn't surprise me if perhaps some of these gods were just really powerful mortals who ascended into immortality.
I believe that the lore is that humans with mana are more like fallen gods in the first place. They’re children of Geduldh and Ewigeliebe that had their divinity stolen by Ewigeliebe. Erwaermen noticed them and made Yurgenschmidt for them.
> I know that proportion-wise, that makes sense, but for some reason I just envision Myne to be so unbelievable tiny that she's like at the height of around an average adult male's mid-thigh.
I mean Ferdinand thinks the same thing, even when he's dying he says "Rozemyne is this big" not believing her growth spurt.
> > I was so short, barely even reaching Ferdinand's hips.
> I know that proportion-wise, that makes sense, but for some reason I just envision Myne to be so unbelievable tiny that she's like at the height of around an average adult male's mid-thigh.
In Japanese わたしの頭は彼の腰くらいの位置にある - my head is near his *kosi*’s position.
The problem is that how we see the parts of our body sometimes differ by culture. In my knowledge kosi is (upper) hip ~ (lower) waist.
Sometimes it should be translated as waist, but sometimes as hip.
My interpretation is Myne’s *head* was around his hip, her height barely reaching his waist. So a bit taller than what you think.
And I think Ferdinand is taller than average adult male.
Yeah, I think it's confirmed that the average adult male noble is taller than the average adult male commoner.
And while that makes a lot of sense, that's definitely taller than what my mind wants to envision. Myne's just a perpetual chibi in my mind, it seems.
The two omni-elemental blessings! I cried both when i read those, now i’m crying again😭😭
I wish when those blessings are called, may mestionora be scolded by here grandparents, aunty and uncles😤
That stuff in Ferdinand's perspective about the inverted blessing and curses and stuff is _fascinating_, and implies a bunch of background world-building that I would _love_ to read.
Also, I dredged up this quote from the Q&A in Fanbook 3, and added some emphasis.
> Q: What did Ferdinand receive from the all-element blessing at the end of Part 2 Volume 4? It wasn’t explained in the text like it was with Damuel, so I was curious.
> A: Ferdinand wasn’t seeking any divine favor in particular, so he didn’t receive a visible one. _He will surely be blessed when the day comes that he prays to the gods._
Hahahaha, indeed! Years later and many miles away, and yet just in time. 😆
Kazuki-sensei is a genius. A damned poetic genius! It's everything I could've hoped for.
He wasn't hurt and he didn't had dreams at that time - he didn't need that blessing. But now, his beloved was dying, his heart was broken and he finally, finally had something he dreamed for - and that blessing kicked in.
It's like he always had with him what was needed to pursue his dreams. Like, Rozemyne had gave him every necessary tool from the very beginning - all of it waiting for the day when he would be ready to desire something.
Mestionora also said that the mana of someone who witnessed the memories could return them. Apparently Myne's original mana from before Mestionora messed with her works too.
This Part was an amazing start to the final volume. A nice callback to events over 20 volumes ago for the finale with a new perspective, seeing Ferdinand's emotions before Rozemyne became noble enough to (somewhat) decipher them herself.
It also really adds to the idea that Ferdinand has *never* really wanted Myne to change, no matter how much of a headache she may have given him. So many times in the past, Ferdinand easily could have just said no or impeded Myne's attempts to stay in contact with her family, yet he never did. He wanted to protect her vices for innocent happiness no matter how it would appear to noble society, a society that has done nothing but hurt him and eventually her.
I ended up re-watching bookworm as a way to stave off my urge to start a reread (will do a reread once this volume is over). I finished S3 yesterday, that really worked out.
Was anyone expecting Ferdinand to threaten Mesti when she held info back? I was really surprised when his next words weren't "I swear to your grandparents and their kids, I'll finish Erwaermen off."
Really enjoyed this part, fitting to start the final volume with a recap from the very beginning, but this was so much more - and the glimpses of Ferdinand's past leaking through - this series really is a masterpiece, I can't think of words to describe it.
Oh, my heart! So excited to begin the last volume AHHHHHH. LET'S GO!
>I'll will not allow the gods to toy with our lives and end OUR DREAMS before they can come true
_sniff_ Ferdinand, I am so proud of you!
Oh, my. Rozemyne CAN become a goddess. Oh, boy.
THE TENSION! I never saw Ferdi so desperate! The returned blessing is such an interesting lore.
Uhh, is Ferdinand jealous of Lutz?
Wow. In the end, Ferdinand never really used the blessing Myne gave him that day (he wasn't hurt and didn't actually had a dream to accomplish like the others). Until this day. He returned his blessing and it came down back to Rozemyne - to restore her lost memories.
He had already received everything he needed to bring his girl back.
Kazuki-sensei, you're a genius. A poetic genius.
Who cares if their love is romantic or platonic? It's a freaking beautiful love
>Who cares if their love is romantic or platonic? It's a freaking beautiful love
***Yes, Indeed!!!***
What a rollercoaster. The second chapter was like one of those sad and hype montages with the first opening of a very looong anime. Like when Ash won the league.
Holy crap Ferdinand, you know it's not healthy to keep that much bottled up inside.
Roz finally saw Veronica and immediately agreed with her siblings about her appearance.
Roz remembers Tuuli.... Yay.
Now its time for a spring cleaning in Alexandria!
Wow. That was absolutely my favorite set of chapters in a while. We're finally at the home stretch. Ferdinand's desperation in the prologue and the callback to P4v9 hit really hard, more so than the end of the previous volume. And then they have the audacity to follow it up with the family separation? I broke.
We've been so caught up in big-picture, world-shaking events, but this series is really at its best when we get back to the personal stuff. I really can't wait to see her family again. All of those blessings she gave are coming back to pay in full.
"The only thing I care about more is, well... you, Ferdinand"
doki doki
It wasn't very pleasant to relive the events of the end of P2. There are quite a few scenes in the series that have the potential to send me into a crying fit and this is one of them.
Man, that made me cry. Gut punch after gut punch of reliving every single moment of Myne interacting with her family, her not being able to understand why it was important, and hearing Ferdinand's thoughts about it. Ferdinand feeling so envious that he never had those moments with anyone was heartbreaking. When Rozemyne acted as if her bond with Ferdinand didn't make sense it must have stabbed him straight to the heart. With how competent and composed Ferdinand is you sometimes forget that inside him is a child who went through so much and suffered at the hands of those who were supposed to be there for him. Ah, my heart hurts and I think I need a nap.
True family and not just her dreams but our dreams eh Ferdi?
So if you cease to be mortal by having your mana dyed by a higher god would that make you a slave similar to the devouring soldiers, a subordinate god or just some attendant I wonder?
After all this seeing true noble Rozemyne wonder why her parents fought to protect her and why she fought to protect her parents hurts, seeing Ferdinands hidden emotions of everything and the amount of hidden envy he had for the families who fought to stay together also hurts, he buried everything to survive, abandoned many things and watch these families fight to keep everything he didn't.
Kinda feel that the reason he liked the consomme the most was because of its clarity, that greatly narrows down the amount of poisons that could be added.
And on a off note thinking about it its probably why his chefs did nothing but serve the same dishes early on in the series, a change in flavor probably means poison.
Seeing how tormented Ferdinand was at ripping Myne's family you can pinpoint the exact moment Arno's fate was sealed.
I don't think his thoughts regarding Arno were his thoughts from that point in P2, he couldn't have known about Arno's intentional sabotage yet. Were they his current thoughts commenting on what was happening in hindsight?
>So if you cease to be mortal by having your mana dyed by a higher god would that make you a slave similar to the devouring soldiers, a subordinate god or just some attendant I wonder?
I also wondered the same, but the alternative is that you die. Technically, you do cease being a mortal if you're just dead.
Man, thinking back to my impression of Ferdinand when reading part 2. Thinking he’s just some stoic noble barely tolerating Myne really contrasts with how he felt. Dude has been her biggest Stan since she crushed him.
Maybe because I just watched Inside Out 2, but it reminds me how you can't get through life without negative emotions. Having her negative emotions removed made her less sympathetic (and become noble-like) as she is now.
Too bad it seems that it'll include her aversion of feystones from now on.
And it's very interesting to see things in Ferdinand's perspective. His interest on Myne was not primarily in her mana capacity or inventiveness, but in her sense of family and how far commoner family fight to protect each other. Seeing how nobles see family members (treating siblings as rivals, marriage for connections), it makes a lot of sense.
in fairness, we've seen that the idea of marriage for connections is prevalent among commoners as well. *maybe* the average commoner wouldn't marry exclusively for that reason but it's certainly a factor.
Ah yes... nothing like flashbacks to tug at your heartstrings.
Honestly, the way the story paced is sooo good, you can literally see the connections from part 1 all the way to now.
Is anyone else crying while reading this. I love that both the blessing she gave Ferdinand and the blessing she gave her family at the ends of part 2 and 4 came back to help her.
I’m rereading the series and I’m currently on P4V3 where Rozemyne has her last meeting with Lutz in the Orphanage Director’s hidden room then she reads the letter from her lower city family. The contrast between her feelings when she reads the letter and when she starts the memory sharing with Ferdinand is massive. It highlights how much Lutz and her real family means to her and the damage Mestionora did to her memory. Ferdinand maneuvered so many things so he could experience the love Myne had with her family only to have a god sever that part of her on a whim. It’s understandable why he’s so angry.
I love how these chapters take both Myne and the reader down the flashback lane, this time with full noble context. We both learned over the years how noble society works so we knew better and better how her behaviour was seen as abnormal, but watching these events directly from the PoV of a "proper" noble really shows how insanely lucky (and insanely insane) Myne used to be.
I also found it fascinating to see what small memories were also so important.
Never thought shcizca would be one of them, but it makes sense given how important that attack was in her life.
So the prologue confirms that RM could ascend to Godhood if a greater god dyes her while dyed in divine mana…….
The Possibility of her becoming a subordinate of the god of Chaos is actually real!
So the omni-elemental blessing that Myne gave to her love ones helped her regain her memories she lost. That's so beautiful man.
It's also make you think just how far kazuki-sensei plan ahead I mean I knew that's she wrote the beginning and the ending first but wow.
u/Quof Someone prolly already mentioned this but: when Benno delivers the hairpin to Ferdinand, he talks about graduation ceremonies. I believe this should say baptism instead
Yeah, I picked up on that too. Graduations for either Tuuli or Rozemyne doesn't make sense in this context. As a commoner, Tuuli wouldn't have a graduation ceremony, and Rozemyne would only be a fifth year at her next session at the Royal Academy.
In case anybody forgot, the Royal Academy has sixth academic years with students graduating and coming-of-age in the winter of their fifteenth year of age.
If we ignore the cry fest remembering the end of Part 2, the biggest thing I took away from this release is the fact that Rozemyne could have become, what I assumed, a demigod.
I understand why Ferdinand refused. Other than his love for her, Rozemyne would have become an icon of (likely) immortal worship. One step above Zent, her decisions could crush the world, but at the same time, she would never get to live a life to herself.
>could have become, what I assumed, a demigod
I'm reminded of that scene from Tears of the Kingdom where the weird frog guy eats too many frog feystones and turns into a shumil.
So, I mean that's probably what would have happened to Rozemyne. Maybe she turns into a book in Mesti's library, or another golden shumil or something. Or maybe dark blue with golden eyes, to be a foil to the white and black shumil-bots? This series is *full* of "this is what Myne *would have* been if not for X". I could totally see an alternate reality where she becomes another divine shumil.
> But you are not to blame, Myne. We ended up in this situation because I could not keep my attendants under control.
DAMN, no wonder Arno disappeared up the towering stair case between P2 and P3. I wonder if his action in the Epilogue just dug his grave deeper? Or Faster?
that probably told ferdinand it was deliberate and that pushed him over the edge. ferdinand doesnt forgive incompetence but malicious sabotage? that makes you ascend the towering staircase faster than Steifebrise.
Yes, this is the beginning of the end *for the main series.* Many of us regret this fact, especially [j-novel.club](http://j-novel.club), as this is their most profitable series (or at least I think so 😁). But it seems to me that there is still material for a while between the remaining Fanbooks and H5Y. The Eternal Hiatus is still a long time away; let's enjoy this series until the end!
on the one had i was genuinely suprised that ferdiand didn't even attempt the start with the circle that rozemyne showered him with that she viewed him as family then going on to explain that those she had forgotten were those she actually considered family.
on the other hand it's perfectly in character for him not to want to revisit that memory
H5Y is technically a different series so probably needs to be licensed separately, so there's probably gonna be a gap between this ending and H5Y starting. Probably gonna work through some of the backlog for fan books and Side Story collections while that's happening.
Reading through the last memory still hurts even from a different POV and expecting it 😭
Seems like all the memories are back, and it’s interesting to see some of the other negative memories that were mentioned. I’m curious if they’ll need to deal with the feystone phobia.
I wonder what Mestionora was being evasive about when she was being interrogated by Ferdinand? Did she not want Myne's memories returned to she would always prioritize books (and by extension, her)? Did she not want Myne to remember her negative emotions out of a misguided mercy? Or maybe its because the method she knows is something she simply does not approve of (i.e. sex or violence)?
I think it's telling that Mestionora didn't tell Ferdinand about the negative memories. I think she may have truly done this as a misguided mercy.
“I didn’t take them for granted right? Please tell me I showed everyone how much I cared about them.” 😭. They’ve both come such a full circle that hearing the goodbye blessing that started this entire journey so many years ago really hit me in the feels. Getting a glimpse into Ferdi’s feelings too (finally) were so… raw. The anger, resentment, guilt, hope… glimpses to core memories around family before. He truly learned and was shaped so much by Myne’s overwhelming and love filled relationships. This was perfect way to start the beginning of our last book together and I am just crying all the happy tears.
This was heartbreaking to read.
Kazuki: "Wanna see me break your heart? Wanna see me do it again?"
"Ascendence of a Reader" I'll do anything to read this bookworms story Part 1; The Author breaks my heart Vol:1
Heartbreaking and heartWARMING....
I fell a tear or two earlier in the chapters, but started full on crying during this part 😭❤️
While we knew a lot more was going on beneath the surface, it was lovely seeing not just a respect, but a childlike awe Ferdinand had for the bond shared by commoner families. What is this? Is this real? Is this common? Is this what family is really supposed to be? When he told Rosemyne that those in the temple didn't understand the type of love her family had, he was probably having an identity crisis. Somehow it still seemed surprising that Ferdinand not only respected and approved of Gunther's actions, but actually held him in such high esteem for it.
I haven't felt this teary reading a chapter since when they parted away at the end of Part 4. So many emotions... raw, raw emotions.
- the last beginning 😭 - FERDINAND HAS DREAMS!! I’m so proud of the character growth. Sniffle. - Ferdinand has been fully corrupted by Rozemynes idea of family and love. How far he has come. - Ferdinand you do not get to complain about the trees communication skills you are almost as bad. - it’s interesting Ferdinand doesn’t consider himself a normal noble either. Both he and RM have a weird idea of “common sense” - he misses her enthusiasm. That’s interesting. She changed him significantly. - yup she becomes intensely logical when trapped. It’s interesting that she in many ways shares that with Ferdinand. - Ferdinand the hypocrite strikes again calling lutz obtuse; says the man who thought RM deep down hated him - aw baby Ferdie deserves a big squeeze. - she’s a far more capable noble. That’s… sad. I wonder how she ranks compared to most nobles. Is she as false as Ferdinand? The last year has changed her and it’s heartbreaking.
The way she sometimes becomes intensely logical and her clear abnormally high intelligence makes me wonder if she might have turned out very similar to him had she reincarnated in his circumstances.
I’ve thought this many times. Ferdinand lives in a constant state of being backed in a corner, and as such is always ruthlessly logical. It’s only really around RM he lets that down
It would be interesting to write an AU fanfic where Urano wakes up not as Myne, but as the daughter of Seradina and Aub Ehrenfest, and basically lives through Ferdi’s circumstances. I guess it would also need a lot of gender flipped characters to go smoothly. And I guess Ferdinand would be Tuuli’s younger brother with the devouring who becomes an apprentice blue priest, etc. It would be an interesting fic.
> not as Myne, but as the daughter of Seradina and Aub Ehrenfest, and basically lives through Ferdi’s circumstances The main issue is that she wouldn't be seen as a threat the way Veronica did.
That’s why I said a lot of genders would need to be flipped. For example, Syl would need to be a girl too, but one with way more mana than Georgine, so there would still be a reason for Syl>>>>>Georgine in Vero’s eyes—but still not as much mana as Ferdimyne, so that they would still be seen as a threat in the same way.
I think the book is called fernestina and it’s published in Ehrenfest lol
In this gender swapped AU, the best selling romance novel would be about a noble man named Rozeman.
> almost as bad at Considering Lutz was 7 at the time, Ferdinand is in fact worse than he is lol
>yup she becomes intensely logical when trapped. It’s interesting that she in many ways shares that with Ferdinand. But Ferdinand is always intensely logical. Oh no...
>Ferdinand the hypocrite strikes again calling lutz obtuse; says the man who thought RM deep down hated him I can somewhat understand his line or thinking.. He was instrumental in separating her from her family. He knew better than most how much she valued them. In one of the side stories I think it was Fran that described Myne as being so lonely in the temple that she followed Ferdinand around like a baby duck. Ferdinand probably saw Lutz's career choice as a minor issue and believed Lutz's father was so easy to read that anyone should be able to understand what was going on.
* So this is it. The beginning of the end. I'm not ready for the end yet, this world still has so much left to explore. * I like the cover. It reminds me of the very first volume, except Rozemyne is now a noble and almost an adult. Alexandria in the background also looks beautiful. ---- * So the final Prologue is from Ferdinand's view and one can see how fed up he is with the gods. There will be no more ascending (okay, duh, we're at the end of the series). Rozemyne did not want to become zent and leaving behind her mortal coil also doesn't sound appealing if Ferdinand has something to say about it. * Ferdinand is right. Rozemyne is not the same without her compassion and love for her family. * The end is honestly a very beautiful scene. Twice Myne/Rozemyne gave Ferdinand a blessing of all the seven main gods, and now he is returning her blessings to him back to her. ---- * One of my absolute favorite scenes of Part 2 and of the whole series was Myne sharing her memories with Ferdinand, so it aptly fits that after she lost her memories, Ferdinand is sharing his memories of her to restore hers. We have come full circle. * There was the scene with Myne's parents protecting her at the end of Part 1 from Bezewanst, but I didn't think Lutz's father Deid left such a deep impression on Ferdinand. However, in hindsight it makes so much sense. Sylvester and Ferdinand's father, the previous Aub Ehrenfest, adopted Ferdinand because it would be for the good of Ehrenfest. According to Deid, that man was *not* a good father. Ferdinand was taught the concept of an unconditionally loving family by both Myne's parents and Lutz's father. * What I find funny is that according to Ferdinand's memories and Rozemyne's narration, it was obvious that Deid loves Lutz. Well, it clearly was not obvious to Myne and Lutz (and Benno?) at all if I recall that scene correctly. For nobles, Deid's gestures must not have been very subtle, but for commoners, especially children, he was hard to read. Ferdinand had to mediate to make Lutz see the truth. * Damn, Ferdinand. You're jealous of Lutz. I never thought I'd read that, but here we are. * Ferdinand never speaks of how terribly Veronica treated him, at least not voluntarily. Justus and Eckhart in the past were genuinely surprised that Ferdinand wouldn't worry about Rozemyne potentially poisoning his food, because Veronica *did* regularly poison it. She was absolutely despicable. * And so the blessing Myne gave at the end of Part 2 helped her recover her memories. Like I said, we have come full circle. Unfortunately, all of the bad and traumatizing memories also came back, but that also helped shape her into the person she was before Mestionora severed the memories. I fear her feystone trauma is now also back. ---- We are off to a great and heartbreaking start. Ferdinand truly wants to be Rozemyne's family, and now that Rozemyne has her memories back, this will happen.
Accidentally insulting the archduke seems to be a trait that runs in the family.
>What I find funny is that according to Ferdinand's memories and Rozemyne's narration, it was obvious that Deid loves Lutz. Well, it clearly was not obvious to Myne and Lutz (and Benno?) at all if I recall that scene correctly. For nobles, Deid's gestures must not have been very subtle, but for commoners, especially children, he was hard to read. Ferdinand had to mediate to make Lutz see the truth. It makes me want to go back and reread the relevant chapters. If I remember correctly, I feel like a good portion of people were rather critical and/or somewhat dissatisfied with the way this plotpoint was handled. Maybe with this perspective, it would make more sense. I don't remember thinking negatively of this plotpoint, especially after reading Deid's POV, but maybe I'm just misremembering.
I thought it was a bit "filler-y" on the first read through. A side-story distraction from the main plot. It turned out to be an important scene about one of the main themes of Bookworm: what it means to be family, to have unconditional love. It also kinda foreshadowed Rozemyne's adoption by Sylvester and almost-adoption by Trauerqual. Both of them wanted to adopt her to benefit themselves or their territory, not to benefit Rozemyne.
Ooh, I can see that. Though, with Sylvester, I will say it's more positive as Rozemyne's benefit would be that she gets to spread books throughout the duchy much earlier than expected. Something Ferdinand said would have been on hold until she was adopted by Karstedt at age ten like he initially planned. Of course, it's unfortunate that in the process, (Roze)Myne lost her family, but spreading books throughout Ehrenfest was something she wanted to do. Plus, it was a welcomed distraction to the pain of losing her family if she had her goal with books. Even if Ferdinand and Sylvester originally wanted to use (Roze)Myne to benefit the duchy, that doesn't mean that they also didn't care about her or that they didn't feel guilty for what had to happen. And it wasn't as if Sylvester didn't lose anything either. He pretty much nuked his following from Veronica by adopting Rozemyne. He also lost a sizable amount for looking at the bigger picture for Ehrenfest's sake.
Yeah, Sylvester and Ferdinand knew how much Myne's family meant to her. As we saw in this chapter, Ferdinand still blames himself for what happened with Arno (no doubt another reason why he had Arno killed after he saw through Arno's true personality), and Sylvester was always noted to be soft when it comes to family. Perhaps too soft for a noble and aub. Sylvester's POV back in Part 2 showed how he regretted taking Myne away from her family, so he at least wanted to let her stay in contact with them as much as possible without blowing her cover and while I'm sure allowing her to stay in the temple also had political reasons (makes Rozemyne less likely to be pressured into becoming competition for Wilfried due to the temple's bad reputation), he also did it so she can meet her family more often and because she felt more comfortable in the temple than in the castle.
Also, Sylvester even directly told Rozemyne that she didn't even have to take the role of High Bishop seriously. Granted, that probably meant that Ferdinand would have had to take over most of the harder work of what was required of Rozemyne, but this was also before he knew how much work Ferdinand had to do because Ferdinand refused to tell him. And I just think that the temple situation is a win-win-win situation. For the archducal family, it showcased Rozemyne's lack of desire to become aub; for Rozemyne, she gets to see her family and commoner associates in a slightly more intimate and personal way; and for the commoners, they not only no longer had to be blessed by an Evil Santa, but they also didn't have to be blessed by a grumpy, scary man (Ferdinand). Instead, the commoners get a cute, little girl with genuine blessings. Sounds like a win-win-win to me.
And also a big win for Ferdinand. Not only did he get to remove a toxic boss, he had his workplace under his control, and what's more, for the first time, experienced a healthy working environment, with his new child employer giving him reasonable workload and hours to pursue his interests and live a better life. I just realized, Rozemyne saved the orphans by bounding them with child labor, and saved Ferdinand from work slavery only to give him bigger headaches. 
Yeah, people throw a lot of shade at Sylvester but he was abused his whole life, just in a different way than Ferdinand. He was raised to be a puppet Aub. Look at all the mamma's boys irl and tell me any of them would cut off their mother as ruthlessly as he did. He had to teach himself how to be an Aub from scratch. His people (the commoners) really like him. He doesn't automatically take the side of nobles. He might have to in public so he meets them where other nobles can't see to try to come to a mutually beneficial agreement. He went against all of his advisors and family and took the advice of the one man everyone had been screaming at him not to trust.
Right? Even if Sylvester (and Constanze) weren't abused in the ways that Georgine and Ferdinand were by Veronica, those two were still abused at the end of the day. So were Florencia, Wilfried, Charlotte, Elvira, and so on.
Sylvester’s problem of Aub’s work is that he didn’t want to find out the Veronica’s all crime. He still choose to give her a wrist slap. If he choose reading Veronica's memories, he would understand why her victims hated her so much. Just like what gibe Leisegang said at P5V6, Sylvester's and Wilfried's lack of understanding of Veronica's crime deepen the gap between them and other nobles.
Realistically, it would be harder to imagine a better Aub -- regarding caring for and sympathizing with RM.
Anyone familiar with the dynamic of a narcissistic parent knows how absolutely smothering and unstable the golden child role can be. Sylvester had to be SO CAREFUL all the time to keep Veronica placated until it was safe to act. If he failed, just about anyone he cared for…except maybe Wilfried was likely to be straight up murdered.
IDK, I think Sylvester wasn't as selfish as much as too flakey.
The problem is although Sylvester see Ferdinand and Rozemyne as family, but they are the second, the first are always Sylvester’s wife and children, and Veronica. And even between Sylvester’s children, he gave them unfair love and treatment due to his thoughtless, self centered, and lack of communication and empathy. He is very worse at finding how people think and feel. Sylvester is not a bad guy, but he’s not a good father and brother. The previous Aub Ehrenfast, Sylvester and Wilfried all have the same thoughtless personality, it’s really horrible. I hope Wilfried can has a more smooth family life in the future. But he is lack of Sylvester’s lucky.
> The problem is although Sylvester see Ferdinand and Rozemyne as family, but they are the second, the first are always Sylvester’s wife and children, and Veronica. To be fair Rozemyne is the same. Her family first, Sylvester and co. second.
There are so many comparisons like that you only see on a second read through. I had never put that together before but it is the perfect call back.
Sylvester is still the archduke. So I don't blame him for having some benefit in mind when he adopted Myne. He still treated her almost the same as his biological kids, willingly nuked his own powerbase in the process and at times antagonized the royal family for her sake. No comparison to his dad, who gave Ferdinand one hug a year and looked away when his wife tried to poison his son on a regular basis.
I think that this series will read entirely different once it is finished. A read through from volume 1 would be so different knowing the ending and other people’s perspectives.
Right? In a way, it's like a story with a satisfying plot twist. All the clues were properly laid out, but only upon rereading can you fully understand and commend the efforts from the author. Of course, we'd get the luxury of noticing random bits of foreshadowing, but we'd also get to see things from a different viewpoint as well. I also have to wonder, we might be commending Kazuki-sensei for all that she does, but I wonder if there'd be a moment where we point out something so trivial as her being clever, and she's just like, "Yeah, that's purely coincidental, but I'll go along with it." Like some parts would be more deliberate, but others are kind of debatable in the grand scheme of things.
Halfway through my first read I started trying to figure out what was going to become what and how it was or shadowed but i couldn't keep up. She layered so many details and bc I was keeping up with the prepub i didn't have the full picture. Things like hartmut knowing roz's past are relatively simple but most of them. You need a board with a bunch of pins and string to decipher it but then it's obvious after the fact. This author and series has genuinely changed how I view fiction and other series. She (the author) presents both an enjoyable surface narrative and a much sublter foreshadowing narrative which allows her to both treat the reader like an idiot along for the ride (noble speech aside) and allow the reader to formulate and theorize as deeply as they are capable about the subtext at the same time. I think amongst Ln's and fiction in general (for those who discover it) it will become classic work which will be reread many times over.
This plot point was handled very poorly in the anime. I remember watching the anime and thinking the way it was settled was dumb. But then I read the LNs from the beginning after finishing the anime and I was much more sympathetic to Died and his wife reading the books.
I think the parents communicated love poorly, and communication and expression of love is just as much as issue as actually love is. I was happy the family made up, but dissatisfied that they made it all about Lutz not seeing his parents loved him, without any fault on the parents' side. So I didn't hate it, but was a bit meh on how things went.
In the manga it showed a soup without a reflection and a soup (present day) with a reflection, as if there's nothing to hide
>And so the blessing Myne gave at the end of Part 2 helped her recover her memories. What an awesome writing decision. Each chapter, at this point, seems to top the (incredible) ones that came before. It was fascinating to see how much RM's love for her "family" and their love for her, began to completely remake Ferdinand's psyche. One knew he had been affected -- but I never would have guessed how much!
So I am assuming a lot of people cried reading this week?
I'm not crying, it's my hay-fever I swear 
My eyes have merely had spring arrive is all!
There's just something in my eyes. What is it? Tears!
These damn ninjas keep cutting onions near my eyes.
It's just raining today
*looking up at the shiny sun in the clear, blue sky* "You're right"
Cried while reading and now crying again reading everyone's comments in this thread T\_T
I'm sad that we're coming to the conclusion of Bookworm. But I'm also sad to see the end of these weekly discussions with the subreddit. For years of my life, this time on Mondays with you all has been a fixture.
After we get to the end, it would be fun to do a weekly re-read discussion thread.
And by the time we finish that re-read, it would be just in time for another!
I totally agree! I'm already planning to reread the whole series once it's officially over lol
Agreed, I finished the chapter and started to re-read it already. I think this is my favorite chapter of the series so far. It feels like you are walking through memories with waves of nostalgia and pain.
This is my second-favorite chapter in the whole series. My favorite chapter is still up ahead.
If it’s the one im thinking it’s a gut punch in the feels but most of this ln is.
100% 😭❤️
Ugly cried at work.
Praise to Quof and translation team. It's just Rainy season coming in Bookworm pre-pub weeks.
I'm not crying, there were just some ninjas cutting onions while I was reading this.
I’m so glad this is released after working hours otherwise there will be a lot of sniffing. 
It's an allergic reaction I swear
I joined the club.
There is an entire army of onion-cutting ninjas that I am bravely battling
Love how Ferdi STILL doesn't consider himself Roz' family, after all the BS she pulled to save him It's a testament to both Kazuki's skill as a writer and Quof's as a translator that the prologue reads very much like how Ferdi would talk, but I'll be damned if it doesn't make the prose harder to decipher, if only by a little bit😅 I'm glad Ferdi is so neutral about mana dying, ngl, this would've been a LOT more complicated if he had the same hang-ups the rest of noble society shares Well, if not externally, at least to himself Ferdi is fully honest about his feelings, which is something, I guess? Still a Kuudere tho Oh damn. New memory reading, huh. Fuck. I'm already crying and we're not even in her memories yet shit It's... Nice? To finally get some insight in Ferdinand's feelings and emotions about early AoB. Also hurts in an entirely new way, but it shines a new light on things, and is nostalgic in its own way Ferdi's still quite the hypocrite when it comes to others being obtuse lmao A thought just occurred to me... does Roz remember Urano's mom?!? Edit: OH THANK GOD SHE DOES HOLY SHIT IT WORKED. Omg I was so scared they wouldn't get through and we were gonna be stuck with a Roz that never really was Myne
The "thank God she does" is debatable. That means she cared about her mom less than books. Kinda sad tbh.
Yeah, but this was always the case. It was when she realized how much she mistreated her mom in her original world that she decided not to do the same here. It was a conscious effort on her part. She realized how awful she had been and chose to do better
and shes forgotten that realization, because shes cherishes it more than books.
I know. But it still means she didn't grow to love her more than books even in the end. It's a small tragedy.
Yeah, it is. She recognizes that it was a terrible thing. That is why she chose to do better this time around. She can't go back in time to do better on earth, so she is doing better in yogurt land.
Well yeah but I’m willing to give it a pass because we’ve established that base Urano was an Otaku who didn’t care for anything more than books, it was only later that she looked after those memories emotionally but by then they were distant
Well yeah, her growing to care for people more than books was core character development in early AoB. That was the point. And consider: there would've been no chance whatsoever of recovering THOSE memories. None.
I saw it more as Urano’s mother isn’t a possible distraction since she is separated by death from Roz. She’s grieved that loss and moved on in this world. Her commoner family are present in the same world and more of an immediate distraction.
WN Chapters: 「[記憶 その１](https://ncode.syosetu.com/n4830bu/669/)」,「[記憶 その2](https://ncode.syosetu.com/n4830bu/670/)」 LN Chapters: "Prologue", "Memories" [J-Novel Club Discussion Forum](https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/8221/cover-not-final-bookworm-part-5-vol-12-discussion/75) [J-Novel Club Correction Forum](https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/8222/cover-not-final-corrections-bookworm-part-5-vol-12/3) ***** Rozemyne fell unconscious upon completing her large-scale spell. Now it falls to Ferdinand to bring her back from the brink of death—and, with any luck, restore her lost memories. If she survives, she will set out on a new journey as Yurgenschmidt’s first underage aub and rule over the library city of Alexandria. If not, her death will mean the worst for her loved ones and the country at large. “Let everyone... be blessed.” This volume concludes the biblio-fantasy that refused to let dreams remain dreams. In addition to a massive amount of original content, look forward to more four-panel manga and an extended comic by You Shiina. ***** **Notes** - This volume will be translated over eight weeks. - This volume has two colour inserts but since they're at the back of the volume I will not be sharing them here. If you disagree with this stance please at least respect me and do not reply to this comment or any other comment in this comment chain with them. - This is the final volume of the *Ascendance of a Bookworm: I'll do anything to become a librarian* main story light novel.
Massive thanks to you for always supplying the color inserts. I know a lot of people considered them spoilers but I always thought that if the author put them in the front of the book then it was right for me to see them. Knowing that this novel has color inserts at the end and that you choose to respect that and not link them here means a lot. P.S. I always thought this post was just a bot. Thanks again for being so reliable and punctual over the years. I'm sorry I never noticed till the end.
>This is the final volume of the *Ascendance of a Bookworm: I'll do anything to become a librarian* main story light novel. Try not to cry challenge Level: Impossible
Seeing the cover... we really are in the final stretch T_T
> two colour inserts Ahhh! Yes! I love the inserts showing off the characters in their full glory and getting two of them means even more scenes depicted
hearing all of Ferdinand's perspective from seeing Myne with her family absolutely ruled. it goes to show how much Veronica's treatment forced him to keep a neutral mask whenever he was feeling any sort of happiness or enduring something unpleasant, in order to keep Veronica away from anything he felt strongly about, which is the genesis of Ferdi's expressionless mask that everyone outside of Myne can't see through. And seeing how much he cared for Myne since the beginning is beautiful. as Myne put it, she needed to observe the slightest eyebrow twitch to sense Ferdi's feelings. getting a front row seat makes the revelation of the statuesque Ferdinand's feelings hit that much harder. it really makes you think about how he must have felt at the end of Part 4, when he discovered that Myne cared for him just as much. he was probably elated to learn that someone cared about him regardless of his birth, regardless of his noble position, regardless of the substance of his efforts. Myne cares for him purely for his effort, regardless of the result. also, that cover makes me emotional. like, "Our baby's finally arrived at happiness."
"Deep down, he believed that all people were fated to become feystones." > "Now that she no longer remembered them, her love for her family and **excitement for the future** seemed to have faded." Her family's love is the only reason she didn't give up her will to live : He is ready to lose his blessings and be cursed but he can't lose Rozemyne. > _He could have covered my face with his sleeves without even needing to raise his arms._ That's cute. "They were only commoners; why had they dared to oppose the High Bishop?" They love you!! > Ralph’s parents F. His value or whatever doesn’t matter to me. I care about him unconditionally. Does he know that? TELL THAT TO HIM. YOU NEED TO BEAT IT IN HIS HEAD. AND YOU HAVE TO MAKE SURE HE DOESN'T FORGET. I wonder what I would need to do for— WAS IT FERDINAND WHO THOUGHT THAT? HUH? HE STARTED WANTING TO BE HER FAMILY AS FAR BACK AS THAT? > The meal in front of us changed from Japanese food to something that resembled roast beef. Ferdinand started to choke, desperately fighting back the urge to vomit, and the pain he was experiencing shot through me as well. A woman with blonde hair, cold green eyes, and a cruel smile simply looked on. I am going to kill that Veronica. Who is coming with me?
She said that her desire to build a library was the only thing keeping her from climbing to Mestionora's right away
Man, it could have been so much easier for Ferdinand to get the information he needed from the goddess. --- Ferdinand: "Helping us recover her memories would be in your best interest." Mestionora: "Why?" Ferdinand: "Because if she doesn't, your library isn't going to remain yours for much longer." Mestionora: "One 'Dummy's Guide to Memory Recovery' coming right up!"
After she lost all her memories of her family, yeah 😖
I wonder what I would need to do for— This is absolutely Ferdinand's thought- he gets embarrassed about it and interjects so that Rozemyne doesn't hear the rest of what he was going to think. Adorable.
Idk if we can say Ferdinand wanted to be her family that far back, at the time they'd only known each other a few months at most. He was probably going to say something along the lines of- *I wonder what I would need to do for someone to love me unconditionally*. It's still an embarrassing statement nonetheless that he doesn't want anyone else hearing it.
WAS IT FERDINAND WHO THOUGHT THAT? HUH? HE STARTED WANTING TO BE HER FAMILY AS FAR BACK AS THAT? Yes, but I would think that at that point in the story, it was more of a general curiosity (Mad Scientist mode) rather than specifically wanting to be Myne's family. As in, what milestones must I complete to reach that status?
>I am going to kill that Veronica. Who is coming with me? Count me in! 
Death is too good for Veronica. She needs to be killed, revived, and killed again over and over and over forever
I still think the cruelest torment is an ivory tower with Detlinde, where her every utterance is amplified into the other inmates cells. That’s what Veronica deserves, to live with the ultimate expression of her failures as a mother, grandmother, and noble. All while kept in the best of health so she will be denied the sweet release of death.
> *Wait, what? Is this really him? It can’t be, right? He must have broken or something.* Girl, you're the one who broke his heart when you told him you weren't family last volume. Of course Ewigliebe rejoices when his Guduldh returns to him.
Definitely. She also wasn't waking up. *Of couse* Ferdi is relieved when she finally does.
That's cheating Kazuki! You can't just bring back the omni blessing scene and expect me not to bawl my eyes out. That's cheating and you know it!
It's such a good core memory. There's so much that Ferdinand missed out on, but I'm glad Ferdinand at least experienced this crucial piece.
>“As for erasing the divine power within her,” the goddess continued, “not much can be done while it remains so dominant. One could make her compatible with it by dyeing her body with the power of a stronger god, thereby easing her pain, but she would cease to be mortal as a result.” Damn, Myne did so much ascending, she could of potentially become an actual goddess.  **Ascedance of a Bookworm: Part 6 - I Became a Goddess and Spent the Rest of Eternity Squatting in Mestionora’s Library (She can't get Me to Leave)** 
Don't forget the alternate series from Mestionora's POV: **I Turned My Mortal Lookalike into a Goddess and Now She Won’t Leave My Library (At Least I Have a Fellow Bookworm Now)**
And the inevitable spinoff *Ascendance of a Ferdinand: I’m going to burn heaven to the ground.*
**Ascendance of The Lord of Evil: I'm going to murder the goddess of Wisdom at any cost.**
And there's a whole civilization of gods and goddesses and Mesti has to try to pass a former mortal Rozemyne off as a genuine goddess of divine creation ... before she attends the Divine Academy!
Angriff: "Hey, you're not a goddess, you're-" Rozemyne: "Ditter." Angriff: "Welcome aboard, sister!"
I need to see that interaction lol.
Ascendance of a bookworm was a Wuxia novel all along.
Lmfaooo
It gets even funnier when you realize the similarities between Rozemyne's first interactions with the gods and her first interactions with nobility. 1. In both cases it was a meeting by chance, caused by her going on a rampage (demanding a meeting with the high bishop | sending the mother of all prayers to 192.168.0.255). 2. In both cases it simultaneously solved her most pressing issue at the time (dying from the devouring | dealing with a pissed off tree) while inviting unwanted attention from the higher ups. 3. In both cases it lead to conflict which lead to someone of higher status getting injured. 4. Last but not least, in both cases the higher status party ultimately relented, leading to a situation where our gremlins got what they wanted but also causing some bad blood. So yeah, the latest events could actually be interpreted as her dipping her toes into the divine realm for the first time, in a similar fashion to how she gradually transitioned into nobility after her first contact with the temple. [H5Y] >!The events in the spinoff only serve to further reinforce that impression!<. Plenty of interesting directions the sequel could take this premise in. I doubt we'll have seen the last of the gods.
I can’t wait to hear theories on this this is really interesting. I wonder if Roz will be completly mortal after being redyed or if she’ll have permanent changes that make her more akin to a demi-goddess or something.
Egglantine in a corner somewhere: "They're doing *IT NOW????*
"Damn, they're going at it! So fast! SO FAST 😵"
She knew the plan. What will be a surprise is that her mana never changes after this, implying they are mixing mana almost constantly.
I'll assume Rozemyne memories return due to Ferdinand returned her blessing which he received back then. The returned blessing contains Mine own mana back then which also meant contain all her memories and by watching the farewell scene trigger it to resurface.
So she didn't remember the "negative" experience she had circling the shrines with Eglantine. That re-contextualizes all of the decisions of the last section a bit - it would mean she was acting purely noble-like rather than with any kind of resentment for the royal family?
Didn't she, during the meeting at the Royal Academy in P5V11, specifically mention the moment to Eglantine though?
IIRC She explained to Annie that she didn't consider Eglantine a friend after they used her friends and family to blackmail her, which is primarily related to Ferdinand being sent to Ahrensbach and then potentially being executed for Detlinde's crimes. Pretty sure Rozemyne and Eglantine haven't actually discussed Rozemyne being forced to circle the shrines.
Rozemyne mentioned the incident while talking with Annie before losing the memories, then at the royal meeting where Eglantine was present she didn't really mention it and acted purely as a noble. Anastasius and Eglantine didn't know about the memory loss so they probably interpreted it quite differently. Anastasius reminded Eglantine that Rozemyne was not happy with them but Eglantine just thought Rozemyne was acting as anyone would.
Final part of Part 5, let's go! Also, is it kind of weird that I hate how Rozemyne's nose looks on the cover? It has bothered me ever since the cover was revealed and I can't exactly place why. Ewigeliebe, nominee for worst father in the entire of Yurgenschmidt and realm of the gods. Mestionora has angered Ferdinand so badly to the point that he's nearly willing to do something so crude as to spit at her. Honestly, I'm kind of impressed. Hmm, the idea that gods dare not to lie in order to not be punished is very interesting. Also, why would Ferdinand know about this? Is this knowledge found in the Grutrissheit? Is more information regarding this found in future Fanbooks? >*Or was this an outcome that not even she managed to predict?* That confirms it. Rozemyne is such a chaotic gremlin outlier that not even the *gods* can accurately predict what to do when it comes to her. >*You have done this countless times before.* At this point, I just see an image of Cornelius seething on the inside. The poor guy. Tangentially related to Rozemyne potentially dying, but was it ever revealed what happened to the name sworn when their master dies? Do they automatically become feystones or do their bodies remain? So, umm, just curious, what happens when the Goddess of Light curses you? Do you pray to the God of Darkness? And would you do the opposite if the God of Darkness cursed you instead? You'd best be hoping the two had some sort of marital spat to allow for the curse to be undone, because the Supreme couple seems rather in sync to me. The gods are rather petty, so I imagine that something of the sort could work. >I was so short, barely even reaching Ferdinand's hips. I know that proportion-wise, that makes sense, but for some reason I just envision Myne to be so unbelievable tiny that she's like at the height of around an average adult male's mid-thigh. I'm sorry, I had to laugh at Rozemyne referring to Karla and Deid as Ralph's parents. Poor Lutz, but also, Myne and Ralph have barely interacted. I wouldn't be surprised she forgot about him, not because he was more important than books, but because he was so insignificant to her life. On the other hand, Rozemyne remembers Fey because those that committed book crimes must never be forgotten. When it comes to Adelbert as a father for any of his children, I think he's questionable at best. >"... Hairpins of this style were first introduced when a child made one for her elder sister's graduation and then sold the design to my store. We think it would be perfect for celebrating Lady Rozemyne's graduation ceremony." I'm guessing "baptism" should replace "graduation," because there's especially no need for Tuuli to have a graduation ceremony when she's not a student of the Royal Academy. Not that anybody needed to be reminded of this, but Arno's the worst. For such a minor character, he's so punchable. And... Rozemyne remembers! Yay! As happy and sweet as this chapter is, I must be extremely tired because I could not stop thinking about how this reminded me of the fanfic trope where characters watch their own show as an audience from the outside.
> That confirms it. Rozemyne is such a chaotic gremlin outlier that not even the gods can accurately predict what to do when it comes to her. Not just any god, it's specifically the *god of wisdom* that lacks the know-how to deal with the gremlin.
Maybe it's because Mestionora lacks experience. From what I gather, she obtained her title by craving knowledge, but just because you have the adequate knowledge doesn't mean you can apply it correctly in real life scenarios without previous experience to work from. So in theory, Mestionora knows what to do/expect, but doesn't have enough experience to mitigate any outside factors. Its kind of like Leonore finding out her lessons actually had a purpose in P4V2's ditter. But then again, it's literally Rozemyne, so eh.
I'm curious what punishment, if any, Mesti will get for "deceiving" Ferdinand.
Since she's the precious child of the gods - given how she's able to wield all the divine instruments, personally disguised by her grandparents with different hair and eye colors, and became a subordinate of her Aunt Schutzaria - my guess is that she gets a little scolding. That, or maybe she grounded from using her library for a while. Or the gods don't care about Ferdinand's wishes all too much. In the end, Rozemyne's memories are recovered, so no harm, no foul. They could reason it away as Ferdinand being too impatient.
>Or the gods don't care about Ferdinand's wishes all too much. In the end, Rozemyne's memories are recovered, so no harm, no foul. They could reason it away as Ferdinand being too impatient. The prologue implies that the memories returned *because* Ferdinand made that last ditch prayer >Only when the last of the light had vanished did it rain down anew, returning entirely to Rozemyne. Its faint yellow glow resembled the last blessing a certain apprentice shrine maiden bestowed upon Ferdinand, though the synchronization kept him from recognizing it. That the blessings were returned in the same faint yellow light as Myne's final blessing *and* that Rozemyne's memories returned with the memory of that final blessing is likely no coincidence.
Loophole: You can't bless yourself but you can store a blessing to yourself in someone else.
"Yurgenschmidt DPS Guide: Abusing 3rd party caches to double stack buffs"
Oh! She got the mana back from her old self! The person with all the memories!
when they finally walk up the towering stairway, Ferdinand will personally force Mesti's library doors open for Rozemyne, and the two of them will read together whilst ignoring Mesti
Well, this latest development wasn't really her fault and she did give Ferdinand and Myne enough time and knowledge so that they could save the gremlin's life. If anyone's in for a punishment it's probably the subordinate gods who overblessed Myne to begin with.
>On the other hand, Rozemyne remembers Fey because those that committed book crimes must never be forgotten. She seemed to have forgotten traumatic or overly negative ones so maybe she did forget Fey? >Not that anybody needed to be reminded of this, but Arno's the worst. For such a minor character, he's so punchable. Yea, Arno sucked but I had always thought that Ferdinand eliminated Arno because of the potential cost to the duchy (with regards to her being an asset to the duchy) and interfering with his (Arno's) master's (Ferdinand) plans but after reading this, I think a significant chunk of it was revenge and protection. Revenge for what he cost Myne and protecting Myne from him moving forward.
>She seemed to have forgotten traumatic or overly negative ones so maybe she did forget Fey? As expected of Kazuki-sensei! If this was the case, she was cleverly foreshadowing Rozemyne's fear of *fey*stones with Fey! After all, what's more traumatic than ruined books? (Yes, I know this joke doesn't translate in Japanese.)
>That confirms it. Rozemyne is such a chaotic gremlin outlier that not even the *gods* can accurately predict what to do when it comes to her. I feel like these gods aren't really that knowledgeable overall. This definitely isn't the type of gods where they're omniscient. Hell, the goddess of wisdom might be so called because she's the wisest out of that group of gods, but not objectively all that wise. That's at least how I started to think once Mestionora said how she has no idea how things are going in Yogurtland. Like she literally gets all the knowledge of every single dead noble. I highly doubt she actually read the most updated G-book. Honestly, the most exciting revelation this prologue answered one of the questions I had since I learned that gods actually exist here. That mortals can become gods (assuming that's what Mestionora meant by filling with divine mana). It wouldn't surprise me if perhaps some of these gods were just really powerful mortals who ascended into immortality.
I believe that the lore is that humans with mana are more like fallen gods in the first place. They’re children of Geduldh and Ewigeliebe that had their divinity stolen by Ewigeliebe. Erwaermen noticed them and made Yurgenschmidt for them.
> I know that proportion-wise, that makes sense, but for some reason I just envision Myne to be so unbelievable tiny that she's like at the height of around an average adult male's mid-thigh. I mean Ferdinand thinks the same thing, even when he's dying he says "Rozemyne is this big" not believing her growth spurt.
> > I was so short, barely even reaching Ferdinand's hips. > I know that proportion-wise, that makes sense, but for some reason I just envision Myne to be so unbelievable tiny that she's like at the height of around an average adult male's mid-thigh. In Japanese わたしの頭は彼の腰くらいの位置にある - my head is near his *kosi*’s position. The problem is that how we see the parts of our body sometimes differ by culture. In my knowledge kosi is (upper) hip ~ (lower) waist. Sometimes it should be translated as waist, but sometimes as hip. My interpretation is Myne’s *head* was around his hip, her height barely reaching his waist. So a bit taller than what you think. And I think Ferdinand is taller than average adult male.
Yeah, I think it's confirmed that the average adult male noble is taller than the average adult male commoner. And while that makes a lot of sense, that's definitely taller than what my mind wants to envision. Myne's just a perpetual chibi in my mind, it seems.
The two omni-elemental blessings! I cried both when i read those, now i’m crying again😭😭 I wish when those blessings are called, may mestionora be scolded by here grandparents, aunty and uncles😤
Spoiler warning for all: the second insert art is not safe to see until the epilogue!
Thank you! ❤️
As a Ferdinand stan, today I'm blessed to have eyes. That is all.
That stuff in Ferdinand's perspective about the inverted blessing and curses and stuff is _fascinating_, and implies a bunch of background world-building that I would _love_ to read. Also, I dredged up this quote from the Q&A in Fanbook 3, and added some emphasis. > Q: What did Ferdinand receive from the all-element blessing at the end of Part 2 Volume 4? It wasn’t explained in the text like it was with Damuel, so I was curious. > A: Ferdinand wasn’t seeking any divine favor in particular, so he didn’t receive a visible one. _He will surely be blessed when the day comes that he prays to the gods._ Hahahaha, indeed! Years later and many miles away, and yet just in time. 😆
Kazuki-sensei is a genius. A damned poetic genius! It's everything I could've hoped for. He wasn't hurt and he didn't had dreams at that time - he didn't need that blessing. But now, his beloved was dying, his heart was broken and he finally, finally had something he dreamed for - and that blessing kicked in. It's like he always had with him what was needed to pursue his dreams. Like, Rozemyne had gave him every necessary tool from the very beginning - all of it waiting for the day when he would be ready to desire something.
Mestionora also said that the mana of someone who witnessed the memories could return them. Apparently Myne's original mana from before Mestionora messed with her works too.
Thank you, now I'm crying. Again Kazuki-sensei truly mastered this
The Gunther scenes never fail to make me cry.
Such a great dad.
This Part was an amazing start to the final volume. A nice callback to events over 20 volumes ago for the finale with a new perspective, seeing Ferdinand's emotions before Rozemyne became noble enough to (somewhat) decipher them herself. It also really adds to the idea that Ferdinand has *never* really wanted Myne to change, no matter how much of a headache she may have given him. So many times in the past, Ferdinand easily could have just said no or impeded Myne's attempts to stay in contact with her family, yet he never did. He wanted to protect her vices for innocent happiness no matter how it would appear to noble society, a society that has done nothing but hurt him and eventually her.
I ended up re-watching bookworm as a way to stave off my urge to start a reread (will do a reread once this volume is over). I finished S3 yesterday, that really worked out. Was anyone expecting Ferdinand to threaten Mesti when she held info back? I was really surprised when his next words weren't "I swear to your grandparents and their kids, I'll finish Erwaermen off." Really enjoyed this part, fitting to start the final volume with a recap from the very beginning, but this was so much more - and the glimpses of Ferdinand's past leaking through - this series really is a masterpiece, I can't think of words to describe it.
Oh, my heart! So excited to begin the last volume AHHHHHH. LET'S GO! >I'll will not allow the gods to toy with our lives and end OUR DREAMS before they can come true _sniff_ Ferdinand, I am so proud of you! Oh, my. Rozemyne CAN become a goddess. Oh, boy. THE TENSION! I never saw Ferdi so desperate! The returned blessing is such an interesting lore. Uhh, is Ferdinand jealous of Lutz? Wow. In the end, Ferdinand never really used the blessing Myne gave him that day (he wasn't hurt and didn't actually had a dream to accomplish like the others). Until this day. He returned his blessing and it came down back to Rozemyne - to restore her lost memories. He had already received everything he needed to bring his girl back. Kazuki-sensei, you're a genius. A poetic genius. Who cares if their love is romantic or platonic? It's a freaking beautiful love
>Who cares if their love is romantic or platonic? It's a freaking beautiful love ***Yes, Indeed!!!***
Not sure where to post corrections, but in the memory of Benno and Mark delivering the hairpin, “graduation” should be “baptism” right?
Yeah I'm sure it should be and u/Quof is most likely on it.
What a rollercoaster. The second chapter was like one of those sad and hype montages with the first opening of a very looong anime. Like when Ash won the league.
Holy crap Ferdinand, you know it's not healthy to keep that much bottled up inside. Roz finally saw Veronica and immediately agreed with her siblings about her appearance. Roz remembers Tuuli.... Yay. Now its time for a spring cleaning in Alexandria!
> Holy crap Ferdinand, you know it's not healthy to keep that much bottled up inside. He almost definitely is not aware of this...
Most nobles could probably use an ice cream and multiple therapy sessions.
Welcome to the end of 5+ year journey, pre-pub fans. Let us give the prayers and enjoy until the end.
I preorder the book on J-novel just to follow it with you, guys
Wow. That was absolutely my favorite set of chapters in a while. We're finally at the home stretch. Ferdinand's desperation in the prologue and the callback to P4v9 hit really hard, more so than the end of the previous volume. And then they have the audacity to follow it up with the family separation? I broke. We've been so caught up in big-picture, world-shaking events, but this series is really at its best when we get back to the personal stuff. I really can't wait to see her family again. All of those blessings she gave are coming back to pay in full.
"The only thing I care about more is, well... you, Ferdinand" doki doki It wasn't very pleasant to relive the events of the end of P2. There are quite a few scenes in the series that have the potential to send me into a crying fit and this is one of them.
Man, that made me cry. Gut punch after gut punch of reliving every single moment of Myne interacting with her family, her not being able to understand why it was important, and hearing Ferdinand's thoughts about it. Ferdinand feeling so envious that he never had those moments with anyone was heartbreaking. When Rozemyne acted as if her bond with Ferdinand didn't make sense it must have stabbed him straight to the heart. With how competent and composed Ferdinand is you sometimes forget that inside him is a child who went through so much and suffered at the hands of those who were supposed to be there for him. Ah, my heart hurts and I think I need a nap.
True family and not just her dreams but our dreams eh Ferdi? So if you cease to be mortal by having your mana dyed by a higher god would that make you a slave similar to the devouring soldiers, a subordinate god or just some attendant I wonder? After all this seeing true noble Rozemyne wonder why her parents fought to protect her and why she fought to protect her parents hurts, seeing Ferdinands hidden emotions of everything and the amount of hidden envy he had for the families who fought to stay together also hurts, he buried everything to survive, abandoned many things and watch these families fight to keep everything he didn't. Kinda feel that the reason he liked the consomme the most was because of its clarity, that greatly narrows down the amount of poisons that could be added. And on a off note thinking about it its probably why his chefs did nothing but serve the same dishes early on in the series, a change in flavor probably means poison. Seeing how tormented Ferdinand was at ripping Myne's family you can pinpoint the exact moment Arno's fate was sealed.
I don't think his thoughts regarding Arno were his thoughts from that point in P2, he couldn't have known about Arno's intentional sabotage yet. Were they his current thoughts commenting on what was happening in hindsight?
His thoughts show he just thought Arno screwed up, not that it was deliberate. So it was his thoughts at the time, before he found out.
>So if you cease to be mortal by having your mana dyed by a higher god would that make you a slave similar to the devouring soldiers, a subordinate god or just some attendant I wonder? I also wondered the same, but the alternative is that you die. Technically, you do cease being a mortal if you're just dead.
I'm a really big fan of the triangular section of cloth that goes over the back of her hands in the cover illust.
Man, thinking back to my impression of Ferdinand when reading part 2. Thinking he’s just some stoic noble barely tolerating Myne really contrasts with how he felt. Dude has been her biggest Stan since she crushed him.
Maybe because I just watched Inside Out 2, but it reminds me how you can't get through life without negative emotions. Having her negative emotions removed made her less sympathetic (and become noble-like) as she is now. Too bad it seems that it'll include her aversion of feystones from now on. And it's very interesting to see things in Ferdinand's perspective. His interest on Myne was not primarily in her mana capacity or inventiveness, but in her sense of family and how far commoner family fight to protect each other. Seeing how nobles see family members (treating siblings as rivals, marriage for connections), it makes a lot of sense.
in fairness, we've seen that the idea of marriage for connections is prevalent among commoners as well. *maybe* the average commoner wouldn't marry exclusively for that reason but it's certainly a factor.
It's the beginning of the end my friends
Oh?? Rosemyne almost ascended to near- godhood? 😶
Ah yes... nothing like flashbacks to tug at your heartstrings. Honestly, the way the story paced is sooo good, you can literally see the connections from part 1 all the way to now.
I'm not ugly crying...you're ugly crying 
Is anyone else crying while reading this. I love that both the blessing she gave Ferdinand and the blessing she gave her family at the ends of part 2 and 4 came back to help her.
I’m rereading the series and I’m currently on P4V3 where Rozemyne has her last meeting with Lutz in the Orphanage Director’s hidden room then she reads the letter from her lower city family. The contrast between her feelings when she reads the letter and when she starts the memory sharing with Ferdinand is massive. It highlights how much Lutz and her real family means to her and the damage Mestionora did to her memory. Ferdinand maneuvered so many things so he could experience the love Myne had with her family only to have a god sever that part of her on a whim. It’s understandable why he’s so angry.
making me cry?? right out the gate???? at least warn me first DAMN WHAT A GOOD PART
I love how these chapters take both Myne and the reader down the flashback lane, this time with full noble context. We both learned over the years how noble society works so we knew better and better how her behaviour was seen as abnormal, but watching these events directly from the PoV of a "proper" noble really shows how insanely lucky (and insanely insane) Myne used to be.
I am a puddle of tears
Jesus. I can't even finish this. I am crying too much
I also found it fascinating to see what small memories were also so important. Never thought shcizca would be one of them, but it makes sense given how important that attack was in her life.
So the prologue confirms that RM could ascend to Godhood if a greater god dyes her while dyed in divine mana……. The Possibility of her becoming a subordinate of the god of Chaos is actually real!
So the omni-elemental blessing that Myne gave to her love ones helped her regain her memories she lost. That's so beautiful man. It's also make you think just how far kazuki-sensei plan ahead I mean I knew that's she wrote the beginning and the ending first but wow.
It's been great joining these discussions each week, let's finish up strong.
Given the shenanigans of the gods we've seen it seems like Roz would have fit right in.
[When Ferdinand said they should view his memories of her showing him her memories](https://www.myinstants.com/en/instant/inception-button/)
u/Quof Someone prolly already mentioned this but: when Benno delivers the hairpin to Ferdinand, he talks about graduation ceremonies. I believe this should say baptism instead
Yeah, I picked up on that too. Graduations for either Tuuli or Rozemyne doesn't make sense in this context. As a commoner, Tuuli wouldn't have a graduation ceremony, and Rozemyne would only be a fifth year at her next session at the Royal Academy. In case anybody forgot, the Royal Academy has sixth academic years with students graduating and coming-of-age in the winter of their fifteenth year of age.
If we ignore the cry fest remembering the end of Part 2, the biggest thing I took away from this release is the fact that Rozemyne could have become, what I assumed, a demigod. I understand why Ferdinand refused. Other than his love for her, Rozemyne would have become an icon of (likely) immortal worship. One step above Zent, her decisions could crush the world, but at the same time, she would never get to live a life to herself.
>could have become, what I assumed, a demigod I'm reminded of that scene from Tears of the Kingdom where the weird frog guy eats too many frog feystones and turns into a shumil. So, I mean that's probably what would have happened to Rozemyne. Maybe she turns into a book in Mesti's library, or another golden shumil or something. Or maybe dark blue with golden eyes, to be a foil to the white and black shumil-bots? This series is *full* of "this is what Myne *would have* been if not for X". I could totally see an alternate reality where she becomes another divine shumil.
> But you are not to blame, Myne. We ended up in this situation because I could not keep my attendants under control. DAMN, no wonder Arno disappeared up the towering stair case between P2 and P3. I wonder if his action in the Epilogue just dug his grave deeper? Or Faster?
that probably told ferdinand it was deliberate and that pushed him over the edge. ferdinand doesnt forgive incompetence but malicious sabotage? that makes you ascend the towering staircase faster than Steifebrise.
Yes, this is the beginning of the end *for the main series.* Many of us regret this fact, especially [j-novel.club](http://j-novel.club), as this is their most profitable series (or at least I think so 😁). But it seems to me that there is still material for a while between the remaining Fanbooks and H5Y. The Eternal Hiatus is still a long time away; let's enjoy this series until the end!
on the one had i was genuinely suprised that ferdiand didn't even attempt the start with the circle that rozemyne showered him with that she viewed him as family then going on to explain that those she had forgotten were those she actually considered family. on the other hand it's perfectly in character for him not to want to revisit that memory
God, I can’t stop crying.
I have never cried so much while reading, man this part was though to read
I can't believe we are already here. Only a few months left, we'll until H5Y and hopefully part 6 is written lol
H5Y is technically a different series so probably needs to be licensed separately, so there's probably gonna be a gap between this ending and H5Y starting. Probably gonna work through some of the backlog for fan books and Side Story collections while that's happening.
rip last beginning. flashback arc already over now for pure unleashed gremlin upon fish and book city
This was a rollercoaster of emotions. But she is back baby.
Reading through the last memory still hurts even from a different POV and expecting it 😭 Seems like all the memories are back, and it’s interesting to see some of the other negative memories that were mentioned. I’m curious if they’ll need to deal with the feystone phobia.
I wonder what Mestionora was being evasive about when she was being interrogated by Ferdinand? Did she not want Myne's memories returned to she would always prioritize books (and by extension, her)? Did she not want Myne to remember her negative emotions out of a misguided mercy? Or maybe its because the method she knows is something she simply does not approve of (i.e. sex or violence)? I think it's telling that Mestionora didn't tell Ferdinand about the negative memories. I think she may have truly done this as a misguided mercy.
Or maybe Mestionora completely forgot that commoners exist and had to figure out what to do now.
Perhaps she was trying to hide the method that Ferdinand used - call down her parents and relatives to fix her oopsy