By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

And so, with the exception of more short story volumes and the Hannelore-driven sequel, we come to the end of Ascendance of a Bookworm, a long but mostly very satisfying series. This volume is a victory lap, with the actual danger to our heroine dealt with in the first 50 pages or so, leaving the rest of the book to have engagements, elevations to Aub, saying goodbye to everyone and moving into the new digs. And Rozemyne is now going to get married to Ferdinand, which both of them are very comfortable with keeping as a familiar rather than romantic marriage, even if literally everyone else in the book, as well as the author, disagrees with them. I mean, I’d love for my asexual Rozemyne headcanon to be confirmed, but the implication at the end of this book seems to be “once she grows up, she’ll change her mind”, which eh. She’s theoretically mentally 40, something the author I thing tends to forget at times. Anyway.

We pick up where we left off, with Rozemyne desperately draining all her god mana and trying not to die. After this, Ferdinand takes her on a tour of her memories, via the events he was present for, which succeeds in restoring them. Including the fear of feystones, but we can’t have everything, and she’s getting better. Now it’s time to find those in Ahrensbach who weren’t on Detlinde’s side and tell them who their new Aub is, punish those who WERE on Detlinde’s side, prepare for Alexandria to be Rozemyne’s new library city, move in there along with… well, some of her retinue (poor Judithe, though I don’t blame her father), and say goodbye to everyone else in Ehrenfest. And then, in a lovely epilogue, she gets to once again meet up with her original family as Myne, because now that she’s Aub of a new city any previously made contracts can suck it. (Even the narrative voice calls her Myne again, which I liked.)

There were a ton of little scenes that I really liked, which is typical with “victory lap” ending novels. Rozemyne’s heart to heart with Elvira, as well as explaining to Aurelia that no, she will not have to be executed just for being related to the other terrorists. (We see Aurelia’s face!) She has a nice conversation with Florencia, who I honestly wished had more to do throughout, and a great scene with her siblings, showing Wilfried once again being annoying but also getting right to the heart of the matter. Even Delia gets a sendoff, as Rozemyne basically says no, you won’t see Dirk again ever, so be Big Sister to the other orphans going forward. This is not a “forgive and forget” world, as much as Rozemyne does her best. Sometimes the dumb things you do when you’re 12 years old define your entire life. Oh, and Eckhart and Angelica have the most boring “let’s get engaged again” ever. Totally in character, it was great.

Oh yes, “I *am* the precedent!” goes in everyone’s top 5 Bookworm lines.

I will deeply miss Rozemyne, Ferdinand, and company. I was also sad that Hannelore did not appear in this at all, but she does have the spinoff, where I’m sure she’ll be happy and have everything go her way. Right?

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

So yes, I have to apologize for my glib remarks in the last review. I joked that Rozemyne’s memory wasn’t affected at all, as she didn’t love anything more than books. But of course, the only reason she remembers Ferdinand is that he was pouring his mana into her (and oh, we have more to say on that later). And, of course, she loves her family more. No, not her adopted family – sorry, Charlotte, she does recall who you are. No, she can’t remember her birth family at all, and it bothers her. More disturbingly, she has also lost all her PTSD related to feystones – very convenient for the plot to actually occur, but also likely putting off a complete breakdown in the future. Fortunately, she does remember enough to know what’s important right now – she and Ferdinand being the most terrifying power couple in the history of the world, and bringing the hammer of justice on anyone who might say otherwise.

We pick up at the end of all the fighting, but we still have to deal with the royal family. Mostly as someone has to be the Zent, and both Ferdinand and Rozemyne are adamant it’s not going to be them. It can’t be Trauerqual, he’s too depressed. It can’t be Sigiswald, he’s too much of a massive dipshit. (Adolphine divorcing his ass the moment she gets the opportunity is a punch the air moment.) So it’s got to be Eglantine, who still hates war but now realizes that being Zent is the best way to prevent it. Unfortunately, Rozemyne is still very, very full of divine mana after the crowning, and it’s killing her. So they spend the rest of the book trying to drain off her mana without her starving to death… and it all comes back when she sleeps. It’s a race against time, where time is a literal hourglass filled with too much mana.

I do appreciate the book allowing asexual interpretations more than most series would. The comedy highlight of this volume is of Rozemyne finally having euphemisms explained to her, and realizing what “dye me with your mana” actually means. Which she’s still too young for, as everyone notes with more euphemisms. But Rozemyne says – again – that she’s never understood what’s so important about sex – not as Urano, and not here in this world. And Ferdinand, I think, is OK with that. I don’t know if a sequel years in the future will show her with children, but certainly the current Rozemyne is content to have Ferdinand merely be the most important person in her life. Which, given who she is, means she will destroy an entire country for him. But not because she’s horny.

There are several side stories as usual, including one with Hannelore that might be setting up the sequel due out next month that she stars in. But for the moment we’ll wait till the next volume, which is, at last, the end of Myne and Rozemyne’s story. I absolutely can’t wait.

By Miya Kazuki and You Shiina. Released in Japan as “Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by quof.

It’s honestly been a long, long time since we’ve seen the main raison d’etre of this entire series, which is one girl’s complete and utter obsession with books. Back when Rozemyne was just Myne, she could afford to be a one-note samba, but since she’s been adopted into nobility, the sheer weight of the politics of this world has conspired to keep her from obsessing about reading QUITE as much. As such, I was highly amused by what is supposed to be a dramatic highlight of this book, where we have three contenders for the throne facing off, and maybe killing each other, get utterly defused by a Goddess offering her a chance to read some cool books provided she can borrow Rosemyne’s body. and of course she says “OMG, yes!”. It’s even funnier as the goddess says she’ll forget everything more important to her than books… and as far as I can tell her memory is 100% fine. LOL. Pure comedy.

After the lull of the last book, we’re back to all battle all the time, as Raublat and Gervasio’s plot to overthrow the country has reached its zenith, and it’s going to take the cooperation – willing or otherwise – of a lot of the cast in order to stop that from happening. Detlinde is useless, of course, so most of the traitorous bits from Ahrensbach have actually come from her sister, who does what Mother tells her to and is honestly terrified of Rozemyne and Ferdinand when they’re both really, really mad. I also feel bad for Anastasius, who is at least making an effort (unlike his brother) but I think is going to find that he really should have tried to befriend Rozemyne after all. As noted above, it all ends up coming down to a talk with the gods, who decide to put the matter to a test. A test which Ferdinand, of course, rigs.

As with the last two books, the last third of the volume is devoted to “what everyone else was doing”. We meet Immanuel, who gives us a very good idea of what Hartmut would be like if he were evil (yes, yes, let’s ignore the obvious joke). We also see how this universe is really unforgiving towards honest and innocent people who are tricked into doing bad things – I suspect life is not going to be fun for Hildebrand after all this. We then get Anastasius’ POV, which shows him trying to be proactive but mostly caught up in events and offended with not being treated like a royal. Magdalena, the king’s third wife, shows us what’s going on with the king himself, who was always pretty spineless but is being helped along by some drugs this time around, and also enjoys showing Magdalena kicking ass. We get Gervasio’s POV, which tries to be sympathetic, and then we get Ferdinand’s POV, which reminds us that sympathetic or no, one of the first things Gervasio would do on getting the throne would be to kill Ferdinand. As always, there’s too much going on to talk about.

So yes, two books to go. This was another strong entry, with some excellent illustrations as well. If I had time (which I don’t), I’d want to do a massive reread of the whole series once it ends.