351 | P a g e “I shall assist the Sovereign knights in writing our report to the king,” Gundolf continued, “so the rest of you may leave. Oh, but not you, Professor Rauffen. You have a responsibility as the one who summoned the Sovereign Knight’s Order, unfortunately.” “Thank you, Professor Gundolf,” Hirschur said with a smile, practically leaping at the opportunity to leave. And with that, she made her exit. Gundolf next turned to Fraularm. “You must be tired yourself, Professor Fraularm. You even had to investigate the second and third floors without using waschen. But thanks to your efforts, it is safe to say that Ahrensbach has been spared of any suspicion.” “Indeed!” Fraularm replied, her mood improving dramatically. “I am quite relieved. I must go and report this to the aub and first wife.” Gundolf saw Fraularm off with a smile, but no sooner had the door shut behind her than his expression turned gravely serious. “I decided it would be best for neither Hirschur, as the Ehrenfest dormitory supervisor, nor Fraularm, who cast waschen as soon as we entered, to hear what I am about to say.” He looked to the two Sovereign knights and said in a low voice, “The king must be warned.” I swallowed hard as an immense pressure bore down on all those still present. What in the world had happened...? “There were traces of the teleportation circle having been used,” Gundolf said. “What?!” I shouted and then clapped a hand over my mouth, surprised by the loudness of my own voice. I turned to the knight who had accompanied Gundolf, still unable to contain my shock... but it seemed that he was just as taken aback. “I was with you, but I noticed nothing of the sort,” he said questioningly.
352 | P a g e “I was an archduke candidate once,” Gundolf said. “I took archduke courses at the Academy. There are things I know to look for that others would not—things that you and Professor Fraularm would not have noticed.” The knight blinked several times; it seemed that he really hadn’t noticed anything. “I cannot speak the details, for it pertains to the syllabus of the archduke course,” Gundolf continued. “If you wish to confirm it for yourselves, you will most likely need to bring a member of royalty who has graduated from the Academy as an archduke candidate with you.” Both the Sovereign knights and I nodded. Prince Hildebrand was the first person who came to mind, considering that he was a royal, but he wasn’t yet old enough to have taken any lessons, let alone graduated. He wouldn’t be able to help us in these circumstances. Gundolf sighed and started stroking his beard in thought. “Lady Rozemyne’s inquiry holds more meaning now than ever. She knows black spells that no person from the temple should even be aware of, and she performed healing on the gathering spot. These peculiarities, along with several others, mean there is much to be suspicious of.” “Wasn’t Ehrenfest the victim here?” I asked, blinking in surprise. I was convinced from listening to Hirschur that the culprit was someone with a grudge against Ehrenfest. “I do not think that Professor Fraularm was right about everything, what with how emotional she became, but her point that Ehrenfest has not suffered from this incident certainly was food for thought.” A ternisbefallen had gone on a rampage, the apprentice knights had slain it with black weapons granted to them by Lady Rozemyne, and the damaged gathering spot was healed to be even more bountiful
353 | P a g e than those of other duchies. If one looked at the results, it was true that Ehrenfest hadn’t really been victims. “We cannot discard the possibility that Ehrenfest was using the ternisbefallen to perform some experiment or another,” Gundolf continued. “That dormitory has no supervisor present, which means the archduke candidates have complete power there.” Everyone knew that Hirschur was never at the dormitory, and although the students were tasked with reporting any goings-on, there was no way to know whether what they said was the truth. A chill ran down my spine; I hadn’t thought about that at all. “It may be wise to have one of the king’s retainers attend Lady Rozemyne’s inquiry... Perhaps his head scholar or the Sovereign knight commander,” Gundolf suggested. Not a single man disagreed.
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356 | P a g e Hello again, it’s Miya Kazuki. Thank you very much for reading Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 4 Volume 6. Rozemyne’s second year at the Royal Academy has begun, and she’s somehow causing even more problems than before! She produced divine instruments in class, tore apart her bed canopy with a water gun, and more or less went really wild. At the same time, she has to deal with various incidents that she’s hardly to blame for. Rauffen keeps pushing her to take the knight course, Schwartz and Weiss ask her to supply mana to the statue of a goddess, Prince Hildebrand appears in the library again and again, Hirschur’s disciple turns out to be an Ahrensbach student, and a ternisbefallen appears at the Ehrenfest gathering spot. In any case, Rozemyne has her hands full dealing with a whole range of problems. She understands that her guardians are going to have a lot on their plates too, but that doesn’t make her any less upset about surrendering her reading time to return to Ehrenfest. This volume’s prologue is told from Charlotte’s perspective. Wilfried getting engaged to Rozemyne means he is guaranteed to become the next archduke. Charlotte can never become the aub as a result, no matter how hard she works, but she still considers Rozemyne to be her savior and strives to support her. The epilogue is told from Sylvester’s perspective. Rozemyne’s guardians can do nothing but read the mountains of reports concerning her antics, and they soon find themselves nursing very intense headaches. As usual, my inspiration for the short stories came from reader requests. In this volume, we focus on Roderick and Rauffen.
357 | P a g e Roderick’s story shows what went on behind the scenes after he resolved to give Rozemyne his name. It covers him speaking with Rozemyne’s retainers and preparing to gather his ingredients with the apprentice knights of the former Veronica faction. I think it also offers a glimpse of what Hartmut does in the shadows. Rauffen’s story is about the professors exploring the old Werkestock dormitory. It shows what they thought of the ternisbefallen incident and their relationships with each other—things that Rozemyne can’t see on her own. The professors teaching Rozemyne’s grade tend to be casual with each other, but they need to be more polite with the professors teaching other grades. Each professor also has their own feelings and perspective on the matter, rather than them all sharing the same opinion. What will happen when Rozemyne gets unusual suspicions cast on her and even the king’s retainers are involved...? Look forward to finding out in the next volume. Shiina-sama provided character designs for Hirschur’s disciple Raimund and Hildebrand’s head attendant Arthur in this volume. I must admit, I’m especially a fan of how disheveled Raimund looks! It’s very much like him to tie his scarf around his waist so that it doesn’t get in the way of his brewing. I also have an announcement to make: Ascendance of a Bookworm is now getting an anime adaptation! More details will soon be announced on a dedicated website. Although some of you might be disappointed that the voice actors aren’t the same as those used in the drama CDs, the new cast is very extravagant, with a wide range of veterans. I was surprised when I saw their names, and even more surprised when they were auditioning!
358 | P a g e Please do take a look at the introductory PV. I can’t wait for you to see the characters and the lower city brought to life! The anime staff decided to base it on illustrations from the light novels and manga, while expanding the Bookworm world and atmosphere even further than before. I asked for the style and color of the buildings to change as they went from the poor south of the city to the rich north where the Gilberta Company is situated, for the generic characters in the background to have set hairstyles and skirt lengths, and so on. Looking back, I gave them quite a lot of specific—and probably annoying—instructions. Also, it’s been decided that there’s going to be a third drama CD, which will go on sale at the same time as Part 4 Volume 7. It focuses on Roderick’s name-swearing, and I hope you’ll enjoy hearing all the conversations between the Royal Academy students. The cover for this volume shows the gathering of the Library Committee. There’s Rozemyne, Schwartz, and Weiss, and now Hannelore and Hildebrand too! The two shumils are wearing their new outfits. Lieseleta’s embroidery is super cute. This volume’s colored illustration shows the apprentice knights readying their weapons for battle during the ternisbefallen hunt. It also shows Rozemyne using a black weapon against a black feybeast, which hopefully makes her look a bit more hard-boiled. Thank you very much, Shiina-sama. And finally, I offer up my highest thanks to everyone who read this book. May we meet again in Part 4 Volume 7. January 2019, Miya Kazuki
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363 | P a g e Sign up for our mailing list at J-Novel Club to hear about new releases! Newsletter And you can read the latest chapters (like Part 4 Vol. 7 of this series!) by becoming a J-Novel Club Member: J-Novel Club Membership
364 | P a g e Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 4 Founder of the Royal Academy’s So-Called Library Committee Volume 6 by Miya Kazuki Translated by quof Edited by Kieran Redgewell This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Copyright © 2019 Miya Kazuki Illustrations by You Shiina Cover illustration by You Shiina All rights reserved. Original Japanese edition published in 2019 by TO Books, Tokyo. This English edition is published by arrangement with TO Books, Tokyo English translation © 2022 J-Novel Club LLC All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. J-Novel Club LLC j-novel.club The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
365 | P a g e Ebook edition 1.0: April 2022
366 | P a g e Just Light Novels