Page | 400 “Don’t apologize. I’m very thankful you came to tell us this, and it’s our fault for not thinking about Kamil properly. You can tell Gunther the news.” Lutz nodded, then turned around and hurried down the stairs. “Is Dad not back yet?” Kamil asked. “I hope he gets back soon.” “Why don’t we just go ahead and eat now?” Tuuli asked. “I’m starving here, and Dad’s like, super late.” “Agreed,” I said. “He’s probably at the bar, and I can’t wait any longer. Let’s start without him. Tuuli, how has work been lately?” We finished preparing for dinner while blatantly avoiding talking about Myne, then started eating. Kamil sadly looked over at the door before joining us. He was hungry too, and it wasn’t rare for Gunther to come home late after drinking. Once we had finished dinner, Kamil leapt into bed, excited to sleep next to Tuuli for the first time in a while. They chatted for a short while beneath the covers, but it wasn’t long before Kamil was fast asleep. In all honesty, I was relieved that he had fallen asleep before Gunther got back. It probably helped that he was tired from walking to the market, carrying things about, and preparing for pig-killing day. At seventh bell, the front door quietly opened. Gunther was back. “Welcome home, dear.” “I heard it all from Lutz... About Myne and Kamil.” Gunther removed his coat and put it aside while Tuuli poured tea for everyone. We picked up our cups, then collectively sighed. “As his father, I want to tell him the truth... but how would we even do that?” Gunther asked with a sigh after drinking some tea.
Page | 401 “I can’t believe Kamil still doesn’t know Myne,” I said. “I want to tell him who she is, since they’re family, but the story is that nobles took her away and she died. Wouldn’t he just get confused if we told him the truth and called it a family secret?” “I’m less worried about him being confused and more worried about him telling everyone what he heard without really getting why it’s important,” Tuuli replied, turning her blue eyes to Gunther. “I’m absolutely against telling Kamil the truth; we don’t know what he’ll do. Our best option here is to tell him what everyone else knows.” My eyes fell to my cup. Tuuli had a point, but the hardness in her voice made it seem like she really didn’t care about Kamil in this situation. “You and Lutz kept secrets when you were just old enough to be baptized, didn’t you?” Gunther asked. “We don’t have to tell him right away. We can wait until after he’s been baptized. He’ll surely understand then. He wouldn’t just tell people our family secrets.” Tuuli pursed her lips, then shook her head, rejecting Gunther’s compromise. “No, Dad. Words won’t be enough to explain how dangerous Myne’s situation is, and why we can’t tell people about her no matter what. He won’t ever get it.” “Tuuli...?” I asked. She was being strangely obstinate for some reason. Before I knew it, she lowered her head; tears were welling up in her eyes and dripping down onto the table. “She told me not to come to the temple because it was dangerous, but I didn’t get it... I didn’t understand...” she sobbed. “I thought I needed to protect her, since she’s my little sister... I thought I was supposed to protect her from danger, and... It’s my fault she’s stuck where she is now...” “No, Tuuli...” Gunther said, trying to comfort her. “That wasn’t your fault. How many times have I told you this?”
Page | 402 He had said it more times than I could remember, but Tuuli never seemed to agree with him. There had been times when it seemed like he had gotten through to her, but in the end, the regret still weighed on her heart. Gunther and I glanced at each other, at which point Tuuli wiped away her tears and looked up at us. “I just wanted to protect Myne,” she said, “but all I ended up doing was making things worse for her. It was because we were there— because our own actions caused this much damage—that Lutz and I know how important secrets are. Kamil won’t understand. He hasn’t gone through that. And even if we do explain this all to him, how can we be sure he’ll grasp how serious it is? He’s family, but that doesn’t fix the problem.” Tuuli’s words had weight to them, but above all else, she was right. She and Lutz hadn’t known to keep secrets just because they were old enough to have been baptized; they knew from experience, keeping secrets whether they liked it or not because they knew they had to. “You’re right, Tuuli. Kamil doesn’t have the context or the life experience he needs to understand the situation, so he could put us all in danger,” I said. “And Myne would desperately try to save us, wouldn’t she?” Gunther nodded. “Yeah. Myne put her all into protecting Hasse and the gray priests. If anything happened, she’d do everything in her power to try and save us.” Myne would try to save us no matter what, even if doing so put her in a bad situation or meant breaking the contract that stopped us from calling each other family. Considering that she wanted to stay connected with us in any way she could, even after becoming a noble to save our lives, it wasn’t hard to see what lengths she would go to.
Page | 403 “We can’t put Myne in danger when she’d do anything to protect us. We have to wait until Kamil comes of age... No, until Kamil figures things out on his own,” Gunther decided, earning him an agreeing nod from Tuuli. “That’s fine with me, but how do we explain Tuuli and Lutz being so overjoyed earlier today?” I asked. “It’ll depend on how much Kamil remembers, but we can just frame it as part of the story about Myne getting killed by nobles. Let’s say... Lutz and Tuuli were happy because they found something of Myne’s she left at the Gilberta Company,” Gunther suggested, pulling an old but familiar-looking hairpin out from his pocket. The yellow flowers were rather dirty from being handled so much, and the red flowers were faded. “I remember that one... It’s the hairpin I made right after Myne became a noble. I based it on the design Myne described in a letter she wrote and slipped into a book she printed...” Tuuli said, her eyes watering as she poked at the hairpin. It was completely different from the more complex ones she made now, serving as a reminder that she really had gotten a lot better. “Lutz got it from Otto. They were keeping it in their workshop to use as an example, but they’ve got so many experts now that they don’t need it anymore. Should be perfect for the whole Kamil situation.” “It’s old and dried up now that it’s been used as an example for years. It’s perfect to say Myne used to own it,” Tuuli said, glancing over at the bedroom where Kamil was asleep with a tearful smile. Gunther looked over as well, his eyes just as watery, then I did the same. We were making a big secret in our family, and I couldn’t help but feel terrible. “I suppose we can’t talk about Myne anymore, even at home...” I whispered.
Page | 404 Tuuli spun back around to look at me, her face scrunched up in pain... but after a moment, she nodded too.
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Page | 407 Afterword Hello again, it’s Miya Kazuki. Thank you very much for reading Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 4 Volume 1. A new chapter of the story has begun. Rozemyne awoke from her coma to find herself two years in the future. She’s had much to worry about, but she’s still charging at full speed toward the Royal Academy’s library. The Royal Academy is a school for teaching the children of nobles to become proper nobles themselves. They learn about things like magecraft and brewing magic tools from a variety of rather colorful professors and grow alongside the children of other duchies on their way to becoming Yurgenschmidt nobles, while archduke candidates also learn the magic necessary to rule their duchies. It’s probably hard to tell from Rozemyne’s perspective, since royalty and the other archduke candidates are blown to the wayside in her quest for the library, but the Academy is supposed to be a place where you make friends, establish connections to other duchies, and look for a future significant other, much like Damuel did in the past. Rozemyne is a former commoner turned archduke candidate, which means she is more annoyed than anything by the flock of retainers who follow her by necessity, and she yearns for nothing more than to be surrounded by books. To be honest, she’s something of a problem child who would vanish into the library forever if she could. Some people are troubled by this abnormal archduke candidate, but her guardians acknowledge that she hasn’t yet recovered from her long sleep and still lacks the common sense of a noble, so they don’t mind too much as long as she doesn’t actively cause any problems. Unfortunately for them, all sorts of problems are going to spring up in the next volume. (Hahaha.)
Page | 408 Of course, a new part also means a lot of new characters. Rozemyne has a bunch of retainers going with her to the Royal Academy. It may be hard to remember them all, since so many were introduced at once, but just do your best and start with those who interact with Rozemyne the most. Don’t worry, she’s just as confused as all of you are! For this volume, we prioritized giving illustrations to the attendants who are going to be looking after Rozemyne. Among them we have Lieseleta, Angelica’s little sister and a lover of cute things, and Brunhilde, the trendy daughter of Count Groschel with a keen sense for fashion. There’s also Professor Hirschur, Ferdinand’s former teacher and the ever-absent supervisor of the Ehrenfest Dormitory. Maybe the next volume will show the guard knights? This volume’s short stories are from Lieseleta’s and Effa’s perspectives. In Lieseleta’s story, I hoped to portray what Royal Academy life is like from the perspective of another noble. It contains all sorts of things you don’t see in the main story, like how other nobles have to ask their parents for attendants to support them, how they share rooms to save on money and minimize labor, how retainers talk when the person they serve isn’t around, how they have fun with their friends, and so on... Effa’s story shows us how the lower city reacted to Myne waking up. Tuuli and Lutz rushed home as soon as they got the news, Effa listened with tearful eyes... but Kamil alone had no idea what was going on. Nobody wants to keep a secret in the family, but how much can he really be told...? They’re ultimately forced to make a tough decision... Since Part 4 takes place in the Royal Academy, I’ve included in this volume a map of Yurgenschmidt, as was often requested in the web novel. It’s a map I drew myself, so please be gentle. My hope is that
Page | 409 it at least gives you a gist of where all the duchies are. Try to think of it as a mood setter more than anything else. We’re also announcing the results of the second popularity poll that was held online. The results surprised me once again, and I hope you enjoy seeing them. Incidentally, TO Books has announced the sale of the second fanbook. This one will contain the store-exclusive short stories I’ve written in the year since the first one, in addition to a report on the recording for the drama CDs, newly written short stories, another Q&A, original manga from Suzuka-sama, and four-panel comics from Shiina-sama. There really is so much packed into it! Also, Ascendance of a Bookworm won first place in the tankobon category of This Light Novel is Amazing! 2018. It’s all thanks to your passionate support as readers. Truly, thank you. There’s also new merchandise being released. This includes metal bookmarks; five different acrylic keyholders with art from Suzukasama, the manga artist; a letter set made of parchment; and five kinds of postcards. This volume’s cover art has Rozemyne in her new Royal Academy clothes, as well as Schwartz and Weiss, the library’s magic tools. Don’t you think it’s the perfect illustration to show her beginning as the founder of the Royal Academy’s so-called Library Committee? The color illustration is filled with new characters, and there are still a bunch who haven’t shown up yet. I can imagine that giving them all proper designs will be quite the task... Shiina You-sama, thank you very much. And finally, I offer up my highest thanks to everyone who read this book. May we meet again in Part 4 Volume 2. October 2017, Miya Kazuki
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Page | 417 Copyright Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 4 Founder of the Royal Academy’s So-Called Library Committee Volume 1 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 © 2017 Miya Kazuki Illustrations by You Shiina Cover illustration by You Shiina All rights reserved. Original Japanese edition published in 2017 by TO Books, Tokyo. This English edition is published by arrangement with TO Books, Tokyo English translation © 2021 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.
Page | 418 Ebook edition 1.0.3: September 2021 Premium E-Book
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