@zwabbit said in Where is Ferdinand's Medal?:

@Sekki The execution magic is built atop of the overall archducal governmental magic (hence it only taking effect within a duchy's borders), it should have zero dependency on the mana quantity of the caster versus the target as it would be backed up by the foundation itself.

Is this a "spell" or is it a "prayer"? I think a spell could suffer against another's mana quantity, whereas I believe (can be wrong in this belief) that a prayer would over power any person's mana. There are some spells/prayers/contracts that can (apparently) cross dutchy borders. Like the last will, or name sworn deaths. We also know that everyone in Yurgenschidt knows nothing about magic and prayers true powers. They are essentially all "intellectually dumb" and locked into intellectual ignorance without deviation. Example: rebulding an exploded feystone like play-dough, and or silver cloth.

@Awwkaw said in Bookworm Part 5 Vol. 7 Discussion!:

But they say empty. They don't say low quality. The feystone quality could very well be decided based on the vessel rather than the current mana quantitiy. If the stone was going to be low quality, I would expect him to say "small", "low quality", or "with a low capacity", not empty. Empty associates with its content, not its form.

From what we know it does seem more likely that quality is linked to quantity of mana. With a Feystone being formed from someones mana flowing to the mana organ and crystalising it makes sense someone who had their mana drained first would produce a lower quality than otherwise.

With how the Giebe was being slowly killed, Myne's mana clump issue, the fact that jureve's are meant to be taken to prevent an eventual death and what we saw of Rozemyne's gathering of higher quality than usual ingredients it's also possible that a quickly forming Feystone is lower quality than a slower forming one.

If so the Giebe bleeding out and dying slowly would form a higher quality Feystone than if he'd been hit with the instadeath powder.

If this is the case, then it is again fair to say that Leonzio and Lanzanave are actually in dire straits. They have no mana trained nobles, who can actually run the country. I guess it is not mana quantity, but the lack of schtappe wielders will be a hughe problem for the capital of Lanzanave. Then it was inevitable that they would attack at some point (if for slightly different reasons than what I had initially thought)

The country of Lanzanave probably doesn't have much of a problem compared to Yurgenschmidt. They have a single city of white buildings that they need a King with Aub training to manage.
The rest of their nobles are likely just fuelling convenience magic tools as a by-product of staying alive.

Their noble population is severely limited in the ability to grow due to magic tool limits, They probably don't even have a system like servanthood/temple for the less capable children born because of limited resources to support such a thing.

If they lost all their nobles they'd suffer the eventual inconvenience of losing some buildings and convenience items but know it's coming ahead of time. The commoner population would be able to survive with either a wealthy merchant, guild leader or a military leader taking control. They should have a mundane military force to handle other non magical countries and they clearly have a non magical weapons development industry.

Their own mana capable people could very well be in a situation similar to devouring commoners in Yurgenschmidt, bound to servitude to survive. They have mana with no training or control over it, limited to no military applications of their mana, limited access to the magical fortifications and armour Yurgenschmidt nobles have, access to items that completely nullify or resist mana and an overwhelming number of mundane humans who don't rely on mana to grow food and have no powerful monster like creatures they need protection from.
It's the potential commoner civil war discussion in an old thread but with an actual possibility as all the advantages of the nobles don't exist.

Despite how unladylike it was, Euphoria dashed through the corridors at a rapid pace until she arrived with heavy breaths at her destination.

"Brother," she huffed. "The schematics...that you requested...from home."

"Ah, excellent," Zechariah said, relieving his little sister of the bundle, before saddling her with another packet. "Please take these completed products to the Linkberg dorms, Lord Hartmut seems the paranoid sort and wants everything tested before it gets passed onto Lady Rozemyne."

Euphoria raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't you do the same for anything that Lady Adolphine would touch?"

"Were Lord Hartmut checking the tools aren't adulterated or poisoned, I would understand perfectly. He is however testing them for functionality."

"Ah," Euphoria said. It seemed her brother took offense at the notion that the tools the brewing of which he oversaw might fall short of the required specifications. "Well, I'm off then."

"Oh, and on your way back, drop by the Klassenberg dorms, I received a message from Lady Alice that the latest shipment of feystones has arrived."

Euphoria pursed her lips. "Why do I feel more like a pack mule than an apprentice scholar?"

"If you would prefer to be on gold dust duty, I would not say no to having another high archnoble's mana available in the workshop."

"Aaaand I'm off!" Euphoria quickly dashed away, making full use of the body enhancement her sister-in-law had taught her to quickly put some distance between them.

Perhaps on account of her somewhat proficiency at that enhancement, Euphoria was able to quickly reach the Linkberg dorms, or at least the public reception area. Just as she arrived, the doors opened and out marched a dozen or so shumil dolls, along with a few knights and an apprentice scholar Euphoria was familiar with.

"SQEEE-ahem. I am Euphoria of Drewanchel, with a delivery of completed magical tools for Lord Hartmut's inspection."

"Oh, good," Helga said, stepping forward to handle the matter. "Lord Hartmut was getting antsy about when they would be done, I'll take them from here."

As Euphoria handed over the bundle, she glanced over at the dolls as they continued marching on.

"Umm, what are all these shumils doing, Lady Helga?"

"Oh, those? They're being field tested, to see how well their new enhancements work. Hmm, you have a Linkberg brooch, right? Did you want to come watch?"

To make coordination easier, a select number of scholars and attendants had been granted brooches to allow them direct access to the dorms of duchies not their own, albeit not without very stringent magic contracts being imposed to prevent them from abusing this privilege. It said something about Zechariah's reputation that even under such conditions, his request to be included amongst those numbers was flatly rejected. Not that Euphoria's brother was particularly perturbed, since his reaction was to propose his little sister as a compromise candidate, another reason for Euphoria acting as something of a glorified gopher.

Euphoria rapidly nodded. "I would greatly appreciate the opportunity, Lady Helga."

Despite a few sideways looks as Euphoria trailed after the Linkberg knights, they did not stop her from following them to the Linkberg gathering grounds. Said grounds had been recently renewed by the new archduchess and so was positively overflowing with growth. Truth to tell, Euphoria suspected the place was even more verdant than Drewanchel's right now, a stark contrast to when this was Ahrensbach's grounds.

"All observers are to stay aloft in their highbeasts, out of reach of the feybeasts below," a female knight ordered.

Taking out her highbeast, Euphoria duly obeyed, and watched as another knight set up a magical tool in the middle of the grounds. Despite the shrinking view, Euphoria recognized as a high-mana lure, used to attract more powerful feybeasts.

"Umm, will the shumils be okay?" Euphoria asked after siding up next to Helga.

"That's what we're here to find out," was the nonchalant response.

As much as this was supposed to be a test, Euphoria personally would still have preferred if no harm came to the adorable looking dolls. Then again, if rumors of what unfolded during Dunkelfelger's challenge in the first year and Ahrensbach's attempted invasion so recently were true, she probably did not have to worry about the dolls. Probably.

Not long after, a variety of feybeasts started showing up, mostly of mid-tier creatures that most any competent knight could dispatch. As Euphoria watched the sight below, her eyes widened as a black aura surrounded the dolls.

"Wait-are those dark weapons!?"

"Yep," Helga said with her usual casualness. "The dolls were specially enhanced with darkness feystones and some new magic circle Lord Ferdinand developed. They're intended to be able to drain the mana of any opponents and use that mana to further power themselves."

"That's...ingenious. And really, really scary. And would probably violate quite a few laws if it was anyone other than Lady Rozemyne deploying them."

Helga's head bobbed up and down in agreement. Down below, the first wave of feybeasts had been dispatched with brutal efficiency, their bodies made limp from their drained mana before they were dispatched in a shower of blood and gore. Throughout this, the dolls remained their serene selves, not missing a beat in their movements or attacks. That began to change as the trees and foliage began to quiver.

"Uh, what's going on?" Euphoria wondered worriedly.

"Well, we weren't sure if there would be anything powerful enough to really test the limits of the shumils," Helga said, "so some other knights went and fed a bunch of mana to something out in the wilds. That's what's probably coming."

The Drewanchel apprentice scholar's eyes widened even before that "something" came into view. When it did emerge from the treeline, the creature rose up onto its hind legs, towering above those same trees, and roared.

"That's a goltze!" Euphoria exclaimed.

"Oh, is that what that is?" Helga said. "I guess it'd make for a good test."

As if agreeing, the shumils lined up into formation, then launched themselves at the giant feybeast. As Euphoria watched the battle unfold, she suspected she would be writing a very long report back to the archducal government of Drewanchel.

To be continued...

@Geezer-Weasalopes Honestly I am beginning to regret kicking off the whole medal and schtappe debate, considering the paucity of evidence.

@kuali said in Japanese Page Counts (up to P5V9):

@NekrozTrish That doesn't really seem to match up with the contents of the graph. P1 was around 300k words (650k characters) between the three books, and if it had been split evenly, it would have been 3 average size books (100k words / 220k characters) instead of both the largest and smallest books in the series. In short, there isn't really enough there to make 4 normal sized books, regardless of the opinions of the publisher.

I’d have to look but it would be harder to find good start/end points too. P1V3 pre-side stories has a thematic arc of Myne being forced to confront her mortality, her desire for books, and her new desire for family which is then followed by a massive status quo change that forces her to really think about how to live her life.

If you were to shrink P1V3 so the first three books have equal page sizes, do you just have P1V2 end on Myne deciding to prioritize her family, with P1V3 effectively starting with Myne’s Choice being completely revoked at the Temple? Or do you cut some of the SS whose existence is mainly there to convince those who already read the WN FOR FREE that it makes sense to buy what is arguably* the “worst” part of the series in that it led to a bunch of people ditching it before Myne enters the Temple? You’re already risking people waiting for Part 2 or something- you need to sweeten the pot somehow.

*Personally I got INTO the series because of Part 1’s “fantasy Dr. Stone” mechanic, so while I also like the mix of high politics, religion, etc., I tend to get annoyed when we spend too much time away from the civilization building for too long. In some ways my least favorite is actually Part 3, but then I’m also the weirdo who likes the Hanse arc since it also touches on society, inventions, etc. :D.

@Helplesstank
That's my feel too...
The counter-invasion of Ahrensbach was pretty much straightforward, mostly caused by Neonlamp's Stupidity and Georgine underestimating Aub Gremlin (not her fault really considering her sources of info on said Gremlin is Graussam who do not think highly of Commoner born Myne and Fraularm who is filled with hatred towards the one who is responsible for the arrest of her sister's husband)...

Of course, Georgine had no way to predict that Aub Gremlin would essentially rope in Ditterlanders into a counter invasion and active defense of Ehrenfest (much less that said supposed "puppet" would figure out how Georgine intent to steal the foundation and would use a similar approach herself -_-).

@dutenhnj said in Anime Adaptation of "Part 3: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke" Announced:

I hope the anime eventually adapts some of the side stories during Rozemyne's adventures at the Royal Academy showing the gathering of guardians back at the castle basically forming a not-so-secret society of headaches and facepalming. A montage of meetings showing everyone getting increasingly haggard as the rampage reports flow in.

That would require us to have an anime for Part 4... That's a while off unfortunately...

Part 3 will be at least 2 to 3 cour / seasons worth of content...

(God save us if they try to cram everything in 12 or worse 10 episodes :D )

@Sara-McCumber-07tgcci
Sylvester: So who got Grausam?
Myne: We're not entirely sure.
Sylvester: ...How are you not sure?
Myne: You remember what happened during that first spring prayer when I blessed Karstedt and he ended up vaporizing a bunch of the commoners attacking the carriages?
Sylvester: Ah, you did another blessing bomb?
Myne: By the way, here's the gold dust to rebuild the giebe mansion, please and thank you.
Sylvester: Wait, rebuild WHAT!?

Earlier today on X/Twitter Papo Digital showed their latest render for a garage kit Nendoroid Rozemyne with a shumil and books as seen in P4 of the series. As this is a garage kit it will require painting and assembly (see this from May 2023) and it looks great.

According to their posts, they have permission from TO Books and Goodsmile for this project.

No price listed at this time but will available in-person at Tonamo’s となりのモケイフェスティバル４ on November 23, 2023 in Japan and BOOTH on November 24, 2023. I hope that I can acquire this during the limited time it will be purchasable on BOOTH.

@NekoInu said in Does anyone else have an Ascendance of a Bookworm Playlist?:

Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries”? or perhaps Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture”?

Both seem suitable for the Dunkelfelger knights, their attitude, and that of their archducal family.

Great suggestion on Flight of the Valkaries! That is totally Clarissa's theme. Adding to playlist.

So, he didn't figure out that she took the foundation to reach him.
But he was surprised at her growth - so much so that he didn't recognise her and tried to strangle her.

4 PM Central.

@Alexander-Evans said in Wishes I had for the Ascendance of a Bookworm anime.:

It’ll be a shame if none of the stuff from parts 4 and 5 ever gets animated, even by fans. The magic Rozemyne uses or gets involved with often has such a beautiful image in my mind, going off the few illustrations and descriptions from third parties, and there’s some great conversations that would be amazing if acted out well. I can only hope a good audiobook comes eventually, at least.

iirc I've mentioned Strike the Blood in previous discussions as an example of an anime series that started as TV and shifted to OVA.
TV: 24 episodes.
OVA: 2+8+10+1+12+4=37 episodes.
Strike the Blood is now complete.
It was the same studio all the way through; Connect, a component of Silver Link.

I've no knowledge of how they funded the OVA production, and that's the crucial aspect; getting production underwritten.
The Honzuki anime has been with one studio, Ajia-do.

So that's a potential route, given solid enough funding to justify it from a financial perspective.
...it might not do us any good in regard to access to a legal subbed or dubbed version, as the Strike the Blood OVA series was never licensed nor does the Japanese media contain English subs; fansubs only, although you could at least purchase the OVAs via Japanese sources (which I've done for Strike the Blood II.)

@crowdcontrol I understand that you want to argue about this not being a spoiler, but the admins have already said otherwise, so stop digging a hole before they decide to shut you up.

@Quof Pst, that sounds like something that should go into a translator's notes for the JNC-exclusive ebooks sold through its own site.