PrePub - Ascendance of a Bookworm

Based just on what Mesti said, I would say everyone is over thinking it. She seems to be fond of Rozemyne, and needed to keep her distracted. It seems like what she meant to say was "I messed with her memories of things that are more important than reading in this moment". As in, things that would activly be distracting her. If she could phrase it in a way that would bother Ferdinand, why wouldn't she

Indeed, when she came back, she did not immediately remember that she was in the middle of a major fight.

Narrativly speaking, I doubt Kazuki would be making such a big deal about this if she wasn't setting up for something. Having said that, I doubt she would drop all of the threads about re-establish a connection to her real family (moving out of range of the contract; the ability to setup a secret teleporter. ). Also, Myne's character development throughout the entire series has been about valuing things over books. I doubt we will see all of that thrown away.

On the other end, the big conflict that has been underlying the entire series is pretty much resolved at this point, so we need something to resolve over the next book.

I bet one look at Tuuli of Kamil will make the memories flood back. Though it'd be quite fitting to the series, if Tuuli handed her children's bible to Rozemyne and that opened the memory floodgates. ^^

Come to think of it, Rozemyne's relationship with her commoner family is steeped with connections to books. She trained to go to the gate with Tuuli and Gunther, so she could learn the alphabet of this world, in order to read. She worked with Effa and Tuuli on the hair ornaments, to earn more money for the book busniess. They were there when she finished her first book... Also Mestionora didn't seem cruel to me, when interacting with Rozemyne, so I wouldn't be surprised if she overstated the effects a bit to give Ferdinand some payback for his bad attitude toward the divines.

He did spend his time in Lanzenave as one of only two people capable of keeping the capital city in existence, so Gervasio probably never had to worry about someone killing him, or even interfering with his job. That probably isolated him to a certain degree from the worst parts of Lanzenave's internal politics, even if Lanzenave has as cutthroat politicing as the Yurgenschmidt nobility to begin with.

Gervasio views the gods as all powerful divine beings. There is no way a mere mortal could outsmart them.

Ferdinand seems to view them as fallible beings with their own idiosyncraticies. Probably because he has had time to read his g-book and understand how the gods actually behave.

Trauerqual didn't really give up, but was drugged up and sort of filled with pre-recorded messages, that he'd parrot word by word. And with Raublut having always been loyal to Gervasio from the beginning, there's a good chance the Zent was already being drugged when he said he'd give the crown to Detlinde, if she got a Grutrissheit. The question is, how long does it take to get the drugs out of his system and come back to his real self, or if there's some convenient magic tool or spell, that can fix him instantly. Maybe having Rozemyne visit him and heal him with Flutrane and Heilschmerz's blessings might do the trick.

As for the Lanzenavians, I doubt they'll ever leave the Sovereignty. They aren't so many that they can't be incarcerated there. The more interesting question to me is, what they'll do about the Lanzenavians who didn't commit crimes, but wish to immigrate to Yurgenschmidt. Letting them into the country would be a good boost for it's mana, they might bring some interesting new technologies with them, but they have a very different culture.

I think one option for them would be to make a new lesser duchy and fill it with the immigrants, once Ferdinand finished his magic tool Grutrissheit and Rozemyne bestowed it to someone and they can finally delete the disbanded duchies. And then give them accelerated academy courses like the ex-blue priests got, except with a stronger focus on the cultural things and etiquette of Yurgenschmidt nobility. That would still leave the question of whom to make their Aub. Choosing one of them, would avoid having a stranger leading strangers, but would mean to have someone in charge with no experience and little idea of what the politics are like. Picking someone from a royal branch family would mean the new Aub knew how to do things, but would have a cultural gulf between them and their subjects. It'd also carry a certain risk of the Lanzanvians organizing to rebel or grab power, if they feel they aren't treated well.

Another option would be to split the immigrant up and spread them over different duchies, which would make any potential rebellion far less likely and would avoid the issues of who to put in charge of them, but depending on how many there are, this might lead to conflicts between the Zent and duchies, with some duchies probably eager to get as much fresh, mana-rich blood, while others might be a bit xenophobic about people from the country that just invaded them. This might be quite the balancing act, with lots of long negotiations.

There's also the matter of noble status. Do you give the new arrivals a status befitting their mana capacity, or do you start them all out as laynobles, who then have to either marry into Yurgenschmidt noble families or go through the three generation rule to rise in status? The latter is only an option if you disperse them, since a duchy with only laynobles would probably not work well.