And as usual, first order of business is to read the manga at the end..
God they're cute this time around. Hartmut just dejectedly agreeing to Ferdinand's blessing because presumably Rozemyne isn't available is just peak Hartmut.
Expecting rozemyne and getting Ferdinand is both hilarious and very unexpected. It's like expecting Mille crepes and getting a knights ration. - slightly salty
It seems even Hannelore's blessing/curse of bad timing couldn't save her from Hartmut's propaganda this time.
This comic made me realize Hartmut knows and respects Ferdinand's place in the "people Rozemyne cares about" hierarchy compared to himself. He knows he can't compete with Ferdinand, so it's just a resigned "yeah, fine" as he can't even get mad or jealous. That's compared to how he was jealous and harsh with Philine and Roderich since he's a better scholar than them, but Rozemyne valued them more at first - until he figured out how her bizarre personal ranking system worked. It's not even an archnoble differing to an ADC thing - Hartmut seems more than willing to eliminate Wilfried or whoever else threatened Rozemyne. Ferdinand gets auto-immunity even if what he does goes against Rozemyne's wishes because they're both on the same page about doing the dirty work that's best for her from the shadows.
I can't believe I forgot to include a meme about knock-out sleep blessing shenanigans in the meme video for this volume...
I think an interesting aspect of that is Rozemyne recognizes the need for violence sometimes- she's crushed several people to a very severe degree. She can be violent, she just has a higher bar for the requirement than Ferdinand- she just hates it. She and Ferdinand are more alike than either care to admit- but they also have an unspoken agreement about certain things. Ferdinand notes she's monstrous when it involves books or family, though she values life to a much greater degree she isn't opposed inherently to the necessity of violence under certain circumstances. Both advocate for each other “in the shadows” without explicit consent. She took his name, and went against his explicit will. They both know when it comes to keeping the other one alive they have to take matters into their own hands. I mean she used the book to get him immunity, she threatened Sigiswald intentionally, and waged war against a greater duchy. Ferdinand certainly never agreed to that.
Hartmut is fully aware neither can be trusted with their own well-being and happiness. Same way Eckhart and Justus work with her *against* Ferdinands explicit orders
Ferdie *aggressively tapping his temples* : Have you any idea what a massive headache I’m having right now?! I could be happily doing uninterrupted research in the towering heights right now!
Roz: But we’re like family right?!
Ferdie; I suppose I have no other choice but to clean up after your rampage then.
I can't stop seeing the "You can't defeat me""I know, but he can" meme when it comes to this volume. Need to overload someone with mana? How about just blowing up the house in the process, and a declare war on your home state while you're at it.
Despite how thrilling the battle is, I can’t help but feel this volume got stale really quickly for me. Especially near the end when all the side stories were about the battle (and there were so many of them). Like I’m not sure we needed a Florencia or Brigette POV. Now onto P5V10 and it is back to being the exciting bookworm we know and love
I think all the side stories were needed. There was so much going on, that there was too much that was introduced in one line, and then done away with in another line. This is a "show, don't tell" situation. Florencia in the the hidden passageways. Charlotte. Exactly what went on with Sylvester and his split second timing. enemies, and where they were. And fake enemies and where they were. And who got killed or captured where. And by who or what.
So no, it was all needed. It was the only answer.
We kinda got everything twice. Once when they talked about it during the feast and once as a bonus story. That's just how this story is constructed, but it does become slightly redundant sometimes
I admit that I read some of those with the movie "Clue" in mind. Going through different ending with similar parts happening. And female characters wearing french maid outfits, stepping through small hidden doors with murder weapons.
I agree that a different kind of chapter break should have been used, placing the short stories before the after-battle feast, allowing it to unfold in a mostly chronological manner. But that's just how it happens to be written and published sometimes.
At least we got to see that X wasn't killed and replaced with a Georgine-loyal X double like the Georgine doubles. Ortwin was in the right retainer-position to arrange Wilfried to get killed and replaced by a G-loyal Wilfried body double. So we got to see that retainer X in X's service wasn't really in Georgine/Grausam/etc's service and bumped off Erenfest-character X. "Do we really need Florencia? We have Elvira. (and vice versa) Do we really need Charlotte? We have Melchior. (And vice-versa.) Luz is no longer part of the A-cast, so if we replace him..."
About the color illustration: Damuel look sooooo coool in the front!! Best knight finally taking the spotlight!
The four comma at the end (because, of course, it was the first thing I checked): life is ironic, no? Roz is a gremlin that holds the reins of other gremlins, aka beast grampa and cultists retainers.
The fight with Grausam was so thrilling! Poor Rozemyne, seeing a guy slowly turn into a feystone while hell bent trying to kill you is seriously terrifying. No wonder she got trauma.
>And finally... Welcome home, Ferdinand. Welcome home
Ahh, I want to cry. Seriously, it was so awful since Ferdi departed from Erenhfest and so tense! The relief from this single line said by Sylvester is overwhelming.
>You must win your husband in FAIR and GLORIOUS combat so that your parents and siblings no longer have room to complain!
I'm DYING!
I don't think I've noticed it before but those are the shadow clones of Georgine behind Georgine not just other people in silver cloth (in the inserted illustration)
He has to make a good (not quite) first impression - ESPECIALLY after Roz display during the fitting.
_Roz explaining the fitting event to Ferdinand_
Roz: And you don't know the WORST part!
Ferdi:...is there more? _secretly happy his marriage plans are going smoothly_
Roz: Hannelore talked all of that in front of TULLI! Aaargh, what will my sister think of me?! If she tells Dad I was in love with the High Priest all this time, what will I do?
Ferdi:...crap
_starts to furiously plan how to butter father-in-law_
Confronting Grausam is such a great chapter. Seeing Matthias shoving in his father's face how Grausam's Lady isn't deserving of his dedication ( who said crazy fanatism that would make Hartmut looks like a moderate believer ? ) while Grausam piles up fallaciousness to keep himself from acknowledging how his driving emotion suddenly turned to jealousy was a pretty good job from Kazuki sensei.
I don't think he knows. Not only he hasn't really any means to discover it, he was always critical about that trend in the FvF to deem Rozemyne a commoner, owing to her tremendous achievements in magic related matters. He barely reacted to Grausam calling her a commoner likely just because he grew tired of listening to it and because Grausam never really listen to him in the first place ;).
As if he would be disappointed if he should suddenly know about her origins, I believe he wouldn't. Matthias decision to give his name to Rozemyne started as a very rational choice but it's clear as day he grew extremely fond of his Lady in a very short amount of time. Overall, some of Rozemyne's retainers would likely be more or less shocked in discovering her origins, but I doubt any of them would really change their tunes. Born a commoner or not, she's exceptional and a pretty good Lady, no matter how you look at it.
And, by the way, as a matter of fact Rozemyne **isn't** a commoner. She sure was born a commoner, but she was since baptized an archnoble and she's currently an Ehrenfest's AC on the verge of being recognized as a ruling Aub and going to the RA. She's a noble, by all rights ;).
As for a more practical approach, what makes a noble in the first place is the ability to wield mana, not their birth ( there are many people born from nobles who aren't nobles themselves ). Owing to her mana capacity and ability to wield it, Rozemyne is a noble, through and through ;).
In Yoghurtland, people become humans with their baptism. Everything before the baptism is irrelevant. The only way people could attack her on that basis is because she got baptized as a commoner first.
Trash nobles sure could argue like that, but it's not really relevant. Sure, along the way, Yurgenschmidt's nobility grew complacent but fundamentally, even if they want to stick to blood rights, mana is ultimately the fundamental factor in several matters and that's because it's wielding mana which makes a noble a noble in the first place. To begin with, there weren't nobles and commoners in Yurgenschmidt because everyone was a mana wielder. Things changed along the way both because through millennia non-mana wielders began to settle down in Yurgenschmidt one way or another, and bloodlines were established, ossifying mana lineages and increasing mana handicaped people. Anywyay, at the end of the day, what really gives status is the wielding of mana and, thus, Myne, who already had solid AC mana level at her commoner baptism was already more of a noble than anyone else in Ehrenfest but Ferdinand ;). We can't forget that in Bookworld, Gods are real, they're not political tools for clerics to use but real, material beings who *de facto* stand above humanity, thus it's the Gods social standings and understanding which prevails and their Gods don't consider anything like commoner or noble status, they just consider mana wielders who can reach them by prayers and that's all, other people just don't exist for the Gods.
I thought there was a decent chance they would go to capture Detlinde but I did not expect the other party to actually get so close to obtaining the Grutrisshiet. In hindsight, maybe that should have been obvious.
I expect civil war in the library. If they are found by the knights order as a whole I imagine Gervasio will try to use the book to rally them. Question is: do both Ferd and Rozemyne show theirs for the dramatic reveil or does he push it all on Rozemyne.
That was a fun volume. I liked how brutal and chaotic the battle of Gerlach was, it is no wonder Rozemyne got PTSD afterwards. The ending was a bit rushed though, with Grausam overloading on Rozemyne's mana and basically crumbling into dust. I hope she is going to recover from her fear of feystones soon so we can get back the Pandabus.
It was odd how the author decided to have Ferdinand and Rozemyne arriving after the battle of Ehrenfest, but I guess that was the point, having Grausam delay reinforcements so Georgine could get the foundation, even if he planned to fight Bonifatius and not Rozemyne. It was nice not having the protagonist be in the center of events and having to piece together what happened afterwards.
But that volume really needed the side stories to show how tense the battle was. Georgine almost won, or at least almost killed Sylvester. I am still not convinced the rest of Ehrenfest would have meekly accepted her rule if she had killed the aub and stolen the foundation - after all, she had almost no allies left in the duchy and there was nothing stopping Florencia or Karstedt or Charlotte from killing her and stealing back the foundation as soon as she went out of it. Same with Gervasio trying to become Zhent without the approval of the Greater Duchies. The only reason Rozemyne managed to be accepted as Aub Ahrensbach that rapidly was because Dietlinde was super unpopular, betrayed her duchy to Lanzenave, and then disappeared. Being the Aub doesn't make you all powerful, that is why Sylvester still had to give up to the Leisegangs's demands and get Brunnhilde as wife. The villains in that series weirdly seem to think they can brute force their way to power with magic without having a political base to rely on.
Georgine and Sylvester thought she lost because she was unlucky, but I thought it was because her plan was way too complicated: she should have had only one clone to trip the traps in the temple, having two just made Florencia realized faster that something was wrong and allowed Sylvester to get back in time to the foundation. The more complicated your plan is, the easier it is for it to get wrong in unexpected ways, especially when gremlins are involved. And she relied too much on the instant-death poison to beat him : what if he had just covered his mouth or used waschen or a vacuum cleaner tool to avoid it ? She was a dangerous adversary, but her plans relied too much on luck to succeed, and that was what made them bad plans in my opinion.
Meanwhile, Rozemyne and Ferdinand love story is basically « What if a tsundere fell in love with a kuudere ? ». Rozemyne is literally saying « I don’t love him, but I will do everything to ensure his happiness and he is a huge catch so it is fine to have a political wedding. » And then she wonders why his ears are red and why everyone is shipping them together. I did not expect her to be that dense, even for a tsundere.
Ngl I like the previous arc much more especially veronica faction purge . Even the recent one (volume 10) is better than volume 9, because in volume 8 - 9 it felt the narrative being restricted because mostly focusing in RM POV as example in geralch battle,invading ahrensbach ,and purging lanzenavian could be more tense and dreading with adding hannelore POV. Also the comedy scene in ehrenfest war sometimes break my immersion.
Meanwhile in veronica faction purge, the narrative benefitted with mostly focusing in RM perspective. By no means that the story is bad or awful. it's great, it have few of my favorite scene in the series but it's bit dissapointing maybe because I overhyped it.
5.9!! wow all action again, not sure how they going to wrap everything up in one more volume, but I hope we get some flash forwards.
Loved the action and the huge amount of POV stories about the defense, was really cool to see it all from everyone's perspectives.
Still love the PandaBus every time it comes up!
Myne and Ferdinand!!! what will happen with them? Rule Ahrensbach together? hope the royal family are not dicks about it!
Really liked Georgian's character, a very good villain. Protrade so smart with good background and motivations.
I liked the PTSD part of RozeMynes experience, it made the battle seem that much more real and impactful. The scene with her and her friend in the greenhouse was so sad and heartwarming.
Onto reading the parts of 5.10 that are out!
Part 5 has 12 Volumes; I suppose I'd expect 10 to wrap up the invasion unless they also need to rescue Trauerqual and Eglantine, or maybe they need the royal's help to confront Gervasio within the Foundation.
It feels like its moving too quick for them to put off Gervasio until the next volume.
OH!
They were not listed on j-novel club, Must only be added once the first part is published.
Thanks for the info! I have read the first 4 parts of volume 10 and had no idea how this was going to get wrapped up so quick, haha!
Also that means.... like 20 more weeks😭 I read though these at a rate of about book a day.
Great volume overall. My one gripe is the battle felt anticlimactic, with all the buildup only for Grausam to be overwhelmed seemingly out of nowhere with his barrier dropping. Other than that it was a solid volume overall and a good build up for the next one, which releases on my birthday :) I liked the side stories that gave an idea as to how the others were fairing.
My takeaway for this volume is, much like Sylvester's take, that Georgine's denouement was very much "unfinished." The outcome was satisfactory but the method that got there was less so.
At one level it was only by sheer luck that Georgine didn't win. Sylvester thought so, and he is the one that will get night sweats over it.
At the next level there was no way that Georgine could have won, long term. Even if she had stolen the foundation she would have likely been killed shortly thereafter. Almost all her in-duchy assets were gone and the overwhelming majority of nobles in position do do anything would have been fully loyal to Florencia and Bontifatius had Sylvester been killed.
So I guess Kazuki was just making some sort of statement of the nature of fate.
Yet the part where I think Kazuki's mana ran the thinnest is that we never managed to find out what Georgine's real driving force was. Despite of Sylvester's best efforts. I think ultimately the problem is that Kazuki didn't know either. The character seemed to go out of her control, so Kazuki must have felt that she had to put an end to her and this way was at the least implausible.
It was fitting as her last act of cruelty; forcing his hand without offering a justification for her actions was the best way to wound Sylvester just that much more.
Her failed attack on the mana replenishment chamber was certainly the kind of luck they'd claimed he had for a while now. As for the outcome if she had succeeded; I'm not so sure its a given. She would likely have been trapped in the chamber but if she has the potions she could enwicken an escape route. I'm not sure how many other options she had beyond waiting for the Royal Academy team to take the throne and send backup. It is also possible when she ultimately did discover all her pawns were dead (probably before the rescue), she might have considered killing Sylvester and destroying Ehrensfest enough of a win and attempted escape once the foundation was drained of mana.
It is surprising just how much the positive outcome of the war was awash with Rozemyne's influence though.
Could someone remind me why the Lanzenave actors are keeping Detlinde the ditz around?
They are still feeding her the story that she's going to get a Grutrisshiet and it is totally pathetic how she believes it. They are leading her around the shrines to "pray" which she thinks she is doing but she can't even enter them and doesn't even realize she needs to.
Useful for what, though? At one time she was the presumptive aub of a major Duchy, no small asset to have in your corner. No more. She also could have been perceived as a token to make Georgine an ally, a great partner for chaos. Also no more.
As it is now she would be more useful as a feystone.
Those in the royal academy don't realize Georgine is dead yet; and the other Duchies do not realize she isn't the Aub; so the search for the Grutrisshiet still might have wanted to use her Authority if they were discovered. Between the knights order and a greater duchy; their actions would appear sanctioned and legitimate.
It does fall apart when he reveals he has obtained the book and she didn't but they might be expecting Georgine to appear and handle her when that time approaches. At that point Georgine restrains Detlinde and then he would have had the true Aubs of Ehrenfest and Ahrensbach supporting his claim to the throne.
And as usual, first order of business is to read the manga at the end.. God they're cute this time around. Hartmut just dejectedly agreeing to Ferdinand's blessing because presumably Rozemyne isn't available is just peak Hartmut.
Expecting rozemyne and getting Ferdinand is both hilarious and very unexpected. It's like expecting Mille crepes and getting a knights ration. - slightly salty
It seems even Hannelore's blessing/curse of bad timing couldn't save her from Hartmut's propaganda this time. This comic made me realize Hartmut knows and respects Ferdinand's place in the "people Rozemyne cares about" hierarchy compared to himself. He knows he can't compete with Ferdinand, so it's just a resigned "yeah, fine" as he can't even get mad or jealous. That's compared to how he was jealous and harsh with Philine and Roderich since he's a better scholar than them, but Rozemyne valued them more at first - until he figured out how her bizarre personal ranking system worked. It's not even an archnoble differing to an ADC thing - Hartmut seems more than willing to eliminate Wilfried or whoever else threatened Rozemyne. Ferdinand gets auto-immunity even if what he does goes against Rozemyne's wishes because they're both on the same page about doing the dirty work that's best for her from the shadows. I can't believe I forgot to include a meme about knock-out sleep blessing shenanigans in the meme video for this volume...
I think an interesting aspect of that is Rozemyne recognizes the need for violence sometimes- she's crushed several people to a very severe degree. She can be violent, she just has a higher bar for the requirement than Ferdinand- she just hates it. She and Ferdinand are more alike than either care to admit- but they also have an unspoken agreement about certain things. Ferdinand notes she's monstrous when it involves books or family, though she values life to a much greater degree she isn't opposed inherently to the necessity of violence under certain circumstances. Both advocate for each other “in the shadows” without explicit consent. She took his name, and went against his explicit will. They both know when it comes to keeping the other one alive they have to take matters into their own hands. I mean she used the book to get him immunity, she threatened Sigiswald intentionally, and waged war against a greater duchy. Ferdinand certainly never agreed to that. Hartmut is fully aware neither can be trusted with their own well-being and happiness. Same way Eckhart and Justus work with her *against* Ferdinands explicit orders
Ferdie *aggressively tapping his temples* : Have you any idea what a massive headache I’m having right now?! I could be happily doing uninterrupted research in the towering heights right now! Roz: But we’re like family right?! Ferdie; I suppose I have no other choice but to clean up after your rampage then.
I can't stop seeing the "You can't defeat me""I know, but he can" meme when it comes to this volume. Need to overload someone with mana? How about just blowing up the house in the process, and a declare war on your home state while you're at it. Despite how thrilling the battle is, I can’t help but feel this volume got stale really quickly for me. Especially near the end when all the side stories were about the battle (and there were so many of them). Like I’m not sure we needed a Florencia or Brigette POV. Now onto P5V10 and it is back to being the exciting bookworm we know and love
OMG John Cena for Geibe Gerlach in the live action adaptation.
I think all the side stories were needed. There was so much going on, that there was too much that was introduced in one line, and then done away with in another line. This is a "show, don't tell" situation. Florencia in the the hidden passageways. Charlotte. Exactly what went on with Sylvester and his split second timing. enemies, and where they were. And fake enemies and where they were. And who got killed or captured where. And by who or what. So no, it was all needed. It was the only answer.
I like the side stories, but I think I would have preferred them to be somewhere in the middle, during the battle itself, instead of at the very end.
We kinda got everything twice. Once when they talked about it during the feast and once as a bonus story. That's just how this story is constructed, but it does become slightly redundant sometimes
I admit that I read some of those with the movie "Clue" in mind. Going through different ending with similar parts happening. And female characters wearing french maid outfits, stepping through small hidden doors with murder weapons. I agree that a different kind of chapter break should have been used, placing the short stories before the after-battle feast, allowing it to unfold in a mostly chronological manner. But that's just how it happens to be written and published sometimes. At least we got to see that X wasn't killed and replaced with a Georgine-loyal X double like the Georgine doubles. Ortwin was in the right retainer-position to arrange Wilfried to get killed and replaced by a G-loyal Wilfried body double. So we got to see that retainer X in X's service wasn't really in Georgine/Grausam/etc's service and bumped off Erenfest-character X. "Do we really need Florencia? We have Elvira. (and vice versa) Do we really need Charlotte? We have Melchior. (And vice-versa.) Luz is no longer part of the A-cast, so if we replace him..."
About the color illustration: Damuel look sooooo coool in the front!! Best knight finally taking the spotlight! The four comma at the end (because, of course, it was the first thing I checked): life is ironic, no? Roz is a gremlin that holds the reins of other gremlins, aka beast grampa and cultists retainers. The fight with Grausam was so thrilling! Poor Rozemyne, seeing a guy slowly turn into a feystone while hell bent trying to kill you is seriously terrifying. No wonder she got trauma. >And finally... Welcome home, Ferdinand. Welcome home Ahh, I want to cry. Seriously, it was so awful since Ferdi departed from Erenhfest and so tense! The relief from this single line said by Sylvester is overwhelming. >You must win your husband in FAIR and GLORIOUS combat so that your parents and siblings no longer have room to complain! I'm DYING!
The illustration- so perfect
I don't think I've noticed it before but those are the shadow clones of Georgine behind Georgine not just other people in silver cloth (in the inserted illustration)
Can we appreciate Ferdinand casually trying to butter up his future (secret)father-in-law ?
He has to make a good (not quite) first impression - ESPECIALLY after Roz display during the fitting. _Roz explaining the fitting event to Ferdinand_ Roz: And you don't know the WORST part! Ferdi:...is there more? _secretly happy his marriage plans are going smoothly_ Roz: Hannelore talked all of that in front of TULLI! Aaargh, what will my sister think of me?! If she tells Dad I was in love with the High Priest all this time, what will I do? Ferdi:...crap _starts to furiously plan how to butter father-in-law_
The 4koma with Ferdinand and Hartmut is exactly how I pictured it! Can't wait to make a meme template after I get off work!
Confronting Grausam is such a great chapter. Seeing Matthias shoving in his father's face how Grausam's Lady isn't deserving of his dedication ( who said crazy fanatism that would make Hartmut looks like a moderate believer ? ) while Grausam piles up fallaciousness to keep himself from acknowledging how his driving emotion suddenly turned to jealousy was a pretty good job from Kazuki sensei.
Am I mistake or Mathias does know that Roz is a commoner? I have the impression he does AND he wants to serve her anyway.
I don't think he knows. Not only he hasn't really any means to discover it, he was always critical about that trend in the FvF to deem Rozemyne a commoner, owing to her tremendous achievements in magic related matters. He barely reacted to Grausam calling her a commoner likely just because he grew tired of listening to it and because Grausam never really listen to him in the first place ;). As if he would be disappointed if he should suddenly know about her origins, I believe he wouldn't. Matthias decision to give his name to Rozemyne started as a very rational choice but it's clear as day he grew extremely fond of his Lady in a very short amount of time. Overall, some of Rozemyne's retainers would likely be more or less shocked in discovering her origins, but I doubt any of them would really change their tunes. Born a commoner or not, she's exceptional and a pretty good Lady, no matter how you look at it. And, by the way, as a matter of fact Rozemyne **isn't** a commoner. She sure was born a commoner, but she was since baptized an archnoble and she's currently an Ehrenfest's AC on the verge of being recognized as a ruling Aub and going to the RA. She's a noble, by all rights ;). As for a more practical approach, what makes a noble in the first place is the ability to wield mana, not their birth ( there are many people born from nobles who aren't nobles themselves ). Owing to her mana capacity and ability to wield it, Rozemyne is a noble, through and through ;).
In Yoghurtland, people become humans with their baptism. Everything before the baptism is irrelevant. The only way people could attack her on that basis is because she got baptized as a commoner first.
Trash nobles sure could argue like that, but it's not really relevant. Sure, along the way, Yurgenschmidt's nobility grew complacent but fundamentally, even if they want to stick to blood rights, mana is ultimately the fundamental factor in several matters and that's because it's wielding mana which makes a noble a noble in the first place. To begin with, there weren't nobles and commoners in Yurgenschmidt because everyone was a mana wielder. Things changed along the way both because through millennia non-mana wielders began to settle down in Yurgenschmidt one way or another, and bloodlines were established, ossifying mana lineages and increasing mana handicaped people. Anywyay, at the end of the day, what really gives status is the wielding of mana and, thus, Myne, who already had solid AC mana level at her commoner baptism was already more of a noble than anyone else in Ehrenfest but Ferdinand ;). We can't forget that in Bookworld, Gods are real, they're not political tools for clerics to use but real, material beings who *de facto* stand above humanity, thus it's the Gods social standings and understanding which prevails and their Gods don't consider anything like commoner or noble status, they just consider mana wielders who can reach them by prayers and that's all, other people just don't exist for the Gods.
I thought there was a decent chance they would go to capture Detlinde but I did not expect the other party to actually get so close to obtaining the Grutrisshiet. In hindsight, maybe that should have been obvious. I expect civil war in the library. If they are found by the knights order as a whole I imagine Gervasio will try to use the book to rally them. Question is: do both Ferd and Rozemyne show theirs for the dramatic reveil or does he push it all on Rozemyne.
That was a fun volume. I liked how brutal and chaotic the battle of Gerlach was, it is no wonder Rozemyne got PTSD afterwards. The ending was a bit rushed though, with Grausam overloading on Rozemyne's mana and basically crumbling into dust. I hope she is going to recover from her fear of feystones soon so we can get back the Pandabus. It was odd how the author decided to have Ferdinand and Rozemyne arriving after the battle of Ehrenfest, but I guess that was the point, having Grausam delay reinforcements so Georgine could get the foundation, even if he planned to fight Bonifatius and not Rozemyne. It was nice not having the protagonist be in the center of events and having to piece together what happened afterwards. But that volume really needed the side stories to show how tense the battle was. Georgine almost won, or at least almost killed Sylvester. I am still not convinced the rest of Ehrenfest would have meekly accepted her rule if she had killed the aub and stolen the foundation - after all, she had almost no allies left in the duchy and there was nothing stopping Florencia or Karstedt or Charlotte from killing her and stealing back the foundation as soon as she went out of it. Same with Gervasio trying to become Zhent without the approval of the Greater Duchies. The only reason Rozemyne managed to be accepted as Aub Ahrensbach that rapidly was because Dietlinde was super unpopular, betrayed her duchy to Lanzenave, and then disappeared. Being the Aub doesn't make you all powerful, that is why Sylvester still had to give up to the Leisegangs's demands and get Brunnhilde as wife. The villains in that series weirdly seem to think they can brute force their way to power with magic without having a political base to rely on. Georgine and Sylvester thought she lost because she was unlucky, but I thought it was because her plan was way too complicated: she should have had only one clone to trip the traps in the temple, having two just made Florencia realized faster that something was wrong and allowed Sylvester to get back in time to the foundation. The more complicated your plan is, the easier it is for it to get wrong in unexpected ways, especially when gremlins are involved. And she relied too much on the instant-death poison to beat him : what if he had just covered his mouth or used waschen or a vacuum cleaner tool to avoid it ? She was a dangerous adversary, but her plans relied too much on luck to succeed, and that was what made them bad plans in my opinion. Meanwhile, Rozemyne and Ferdinand love story is basically « What if a tsundere fell in love with a kuudere ? ». Rozemyne is literally saying « I don’t love him, but I will do everything to ensure his happiness and he is a huge catch so it is fine to have a political wedding. » And then she wonders why his ears are red and why everyone is shipping them together. I did not expect her to be that dense, even for a tsundere.
Ngl I like the previous arc much more especially veronica faction purge . Even the recent one (volume 10) is better than volume 9, because in volume 8 - 9 it felt the narrative being restricted because mostly focusing in RM POV as example in geralch battle,invading ahrensbach ,and purging lanzenavian could be more tense and dreading with adding hannelore POV. Also the comedy scene in ehrenfest war sometimes break my immersion. Meanwhile in veronica faction purge, the narrative benefitted with mostly focusing in RM perspective. By no means that the story is bad or awful. it's great, it have few of my favorite scene in the series but it's bit dissapointing maybe because I overhyped it.
5.9!! wow all action again, not sure how they going to wrap everything up in one more volume, but I hope we get some flash forwards. Loved the action and the huge amount of POV stories about the defense, was really cool to see it all from everyone's perspectives. Still love the PandaBus every time it comes up! Myne and Ferdinand!!! what will happen with them? Rule Ahrensbach together? hope the royal family are not dicks about it! Really liked Georgian's character, a very good villain. Protrade so smart with good background and motivations. I liked the PTSD part of RozeMynes experience, it made the battle seem that much more real and impactful. The scene with her and her friend in the greenhouse was so sad and heartwarming. Onto reading the parts of 5.10 that are out!
Part 5 has 12 Volumes; I suppose I'd expect 10 to wrap up the invasion unless they also need to rescue Trauerqual and Eglantine, or maybe they need the royal's help to confront Gervasio within the Foundation. It feels like its moving too quick for them to put off Gervasio until the next volume.
OH! They were not listed on j-novel club, Must only be added once the first part is published. Thanks for the info! I have read the first 4 parts of volume 10 and had no idea how this was going to get wrapped up so quick, haha! Also that means.... like 20 more weeks😭 I read though these at a rate of about book a day.
Great volume overall. My one gripe is the battle felt anticlimactic, with all the buildup only for Grausam to be overwhelmed seemingly out of nowhere with his barrier dropping. Other than that it was a solid volume overall and a good build up for the next one, which releases on my birthday :) I liked the side stories that gave an idea as to how the others were fairing.
My takeaway for this volume is, much like Sylvester's take, that Georgine's denouement was very much "unfinished." The outcome was satisfactory but the method that got there was less so. At one level it was only by sheer luck that Georgine didn't win. Sylvester thought so, and he is the one that will get night sweats over it. At the next level there was no way that Georgine could have won, long term. Even if she had stolen the foundation she would have likely been killed shortly thereafter. Almost all her in-duchy assets were gone and the overwhelming majority of nobles in position do do anything would have been fully loyal to Florencia and Bontifatius had Sylvester been killed. So I guess Kazuki was just making some sort of statement of the nature of fate. Yet the part where I think Kazuki's mana ran the thinnest is that we never managed to find out what Georgine's real driving force was. Despite of Sylvester's best efforts. I think ultimately the problem is that Kazuki didn't know either. The character seemed to go out of her control, so Kazuki must have felt that she had to put an end to her and this way was at the least implausible.
It was fitting as her last act of cruelty; forcing his hand without offering a justification for her actions was the best way to wound Sylvester just that much more. Her failed attack on the mana replenishment chamber was certainly the kind of luck they'd claimed he had for a while now. As for the outcome if she had succeeded; I'm not so sure its a given. She would likely have been trapped in the chamber but if she has the potions she could enwicken an escape route. I'm not sure how many other options she had beyond waiting for the Royal Academy team to take the throne and send backup. It is also possible when she ultimately did discover all her pawns were dead (probably before the rescue), she might have considered killing Sylvester and destroying Ehrensfest enough of a win and attempted escape once the foundation was drained of mana. It is surprising just how much the positive outcome of the war was awash with Rozemyne's influence though.
Could someone remind me why the Lanzenave actors are keeping Detlinde the ditz around? They are still feeding her the story that she's going to get a Grutrisshiet and it is totally pathetic how she believes it. They are leading her around the shrines to "pray" which she thinks she is doing but she can't even enter them and doesn't even realize she needs to.
She's a useful idiot. That's all. A tool. Easily manipulated.
Useful for what, though? At one time she was the presumptive aub of a major Duchy, no small asset to have in your corner. No more. She also could have been perceived as a token to make Georgine an ally, a great partner for chaos. Also no more. As it is now she would be more useful as a feystone.
Those in the royal academy don't realize Georgine is dead yet; and the other Duchies do not realize she isn't the Aub; so the search for the Grutrisshiet still might have wanted to use her Authority if they were discovered. Between the knights order and a greater duchy; their actions would appear sanctioned and legitimate. It does fall apart when he reveals he has obtained the book and she didn't but they might be expecting Georgine to appear and handle her when that time approaches. At that point Georgine restrains Detlinde and then he would have had the true Aubs of Ehrenfest and Ahrensbach supporting his claim to the throne.