...And is it just me, or are they saying nothing but praise? Talk about her flaws, too! Like how she’s always clinging to Lutz, ignoring what people say, and giving people trouble with her weird ideas! There are loads! That was what I yelled on the inside, but when Lord Sylvester asked for my opinion, I had no choice but to evade the question by giving the generic say-nothing answer of “I have not spent much time with Sister Myne and so do not know her very well.” I wasn’t sure what Master Benno would want me to say, and I knew for sure that listing off my problems with her would just make it awkward as heck for me in the workshop.
“...I see. According to you guys, she’s practically a saint,” Lord Sylvester murmured, taking a necklace with a black stone out of the pouch on his hip. He looked at it carefully, falling into deep thought for a moment.
“Brother Sylvester, animals are going for your meat!” Lutz shouted.
“What?!” Lord Sylvester stuffed the necklace back into his pouch, drawing his bow and firing three arrows at the beasts. Each one hit its mark, and he immediately started running to the birds. The back of his right hand shone as he dashed across the forest floor, and all of a sudden, he was holding a sword. “That’s my prey!”
The sword flashed, and that alone was enough to scare away the beasts. I personally felt sheer terror at the sight of a noble’s weapon—one a commoner could never wield—but the kids all cheered in excitement.
“You’re amazing, Brother Syl! You’re so strong!”
“I know, right?”
Sylvester, perhaps enthused by the children’s praise, kept on hunting in the afternoon. He shot birds high out of the sky while all the kids were watching, earning him more cheers and applause.
“We should be heading back soon. If we don’t get back before the chefs leave, we won’t be able to prepare the meat. I didn’t expect you to catch this much,” Lutz said worriedly while looking at all of the game. It was common sense in the lower city to only hunt as much as you needed; bringing home more than you could eat would just lead to it rotting on your shelves.
“Brother Sylvester’s a blue priest, remember? He provides the orphanage with its divine gifts anyway; he can just give the meat to the orphans.” By indirectly suggesting that they would get to eat the meat themselves, I was easily able to convince the gray priests to help carry it all back. Brother Sylvester gladly left them to it.
“Alright! Back to the temple we go!” he declared, in a visibly good mood.
“Right!”
We started preparing the meat as soon as we got back. Among the busily moving crowd, I noticed Lord Sylvester give Myne the necklace with the black stone.
Afterword
Hello again. It’s me, Miya Kazuki. Thank you very much for reading Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 2 Volume 4. This concludes Part 2.
In this volume, Heidi and Josef from the ink workshop were added to the Gutenbergs, a group of people involved in printing. Heidi had dedicated her whole life to researching ink, and Josef was instructed to look after her way back when she was an apprentice. She took a liking to him, and before he knew it, they were married and he was going to be looking after her for the rest of their lives. I wrote them imagining what Lutz and Myne could have been like if Myne didn’t have the Devouring and could have kept making paper with Lutz instead of going to the temple.
In any case, in an attempt to accelerate the creation of toys and picture books for her little brother Kamil, Myne delved into the realm of colored ink. There were many failures along the way, but in the end she was able to make colored ink for printing, successfully adding color to her picture books. She was making yet more progress in her quest for books.
In the midst of all that, the abandoned Devouring child Dirk, the Ahrensbach noble Count Bindewald, and the black feystone charm Sylvester gave to Myne all led to a dramatic change in her life and surroundings.
The journey of Rozemyne, who became a noble to protect her family, continues in Part 3: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke. Please look forward to it.
Myne’s serious, dignified expression in the cover art makes her look very much like an adult. I think it’s the perfect illustration for the conclusion of Part 2. You Shiina-sama, thank you.
And finally, I offer up my highest thanks to everyone who read this book. The first volume of Part 3 is planned to release soon. May we meet again there!
May 2016, Miya Kazuki
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Copyright
Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 2 Apprentice Shrine Maiden Volume 4
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 © 2016 Miya Kazuki
Illustrations by You Shiina
Cover illustration by You Shiina
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2016 by TO Books, Tokyo.
This English edition is published by arrangement with TO Books, Tokyo
English translation © 2020 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.
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0: June
