We've now entered the Battle Bots phase of the volume
this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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PrePub - Ascendance of a Bookworm
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- Ascendance of a Bookworm
- Honzuki no Gekokujou
- 『本好きの下剋上』
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I'm probably obsessing over nothing, but the illustration showing Tuuli's reaction when her sister said "Tuuli... No matter what happens, I will protect you." was so good! This will probably sound pretty stupid, only now that we had this illustration did I realise how much Rozemyne grew, I was quite shocked.
I also loved that illustration; I quite lingered over it.
You don't really see Rozemyne's actual growth in that picture... well, not in terms of height anyway. She's still shorter than Tuuli. But at least she's overtaken Charlotte and Hildebrand. ^^
Marbles on the ground, throwing waste, insect swarms, flash bangs, hidden teleporters, battle shumils! Almost seems like we're having a "Home Alone" style battle on our hands. The part of the silver hooded man with a missing hand will be played by Joe Pesci.
Those traps might sound simplistic, but we must keep in mind how nobles usually consider only mana-based attacks worth even thinking about. So even simple physical traps are very likely to catch a born and raised noble by surprise and have an effect on them.
With the feystone bodysuits nobles usually wear underneath their clothes when expecting trouble, there's only so much non-magical traps can do, but even that bodysuit won't stop a noble from losing their balance and banging their head on the wall or ground, or twisting an ankle, so something like marbles or a really slick floor might actually be surprisingly effective.
With the body suit in mind, any trap intended to be lethal would have to hit at head-height though. A spike shooting out of the floor would probably not work... well it would be, if it's made of silver material, but Sylvester doesn't have access to that, especially not on such short notice. If they had more time, maybe Ferdinand cound potentially discreetly make inquiries with some Lanzenave traders willing to circumvent their own royal family for a big profit. With Ferdinand's access to high quality feystones and ingredients, he sure has some stuff that would be worth an absolute fortune in Lanzenave, but that's neither here nor there for the current issues Ehrenfest is facing.
I wonder if some high quality feybeast parts, like that which the bag containing Quinta's name-swearing stone was made of, would be able to pierce light feystone armour, if used as tips of a spike-trap.
I think it would be fitting to have some poison traps.
The issue is the delivery mechanism. Any poison that needs to be injected or come in contact with skin, would need to hit the unprotected hands or face to have any effect. Some kind of liquid spray, airborn powder or gas would probably have much better chances to work than spikes or somesuch.
Unless of course they set up traps in a place were Georgine or her subordinates are likely to still be wearing the silver cloth... so right outside, or inside the book room's barrier would make a perfect spot for such a trap... but the problem here is how to make the trigger, without endangering the regular denizens of the temple.
A magical trigger is out of the question, since the silver cloth would make the intruder effectively invisible to that. But designing a physical trigger that only works on intruders and can't be set off by the blue and grey priests is out of the question with their level of technology. Informing the people with access to the book room of how to not trigger the trap is an option, but still risks accidents and opens everything up to being leaked to Georgine's faction, whether by accident, spy or being forced by intriders. Not to mention that Sylvester has a vested interest in keeping the very existence of the door a secret, so the fewer people to know about there being anything worth trapping in the book room the better.
Or maybe not... if they could make a magical trigger that works like a real-life light barrier, that might work. The silver cloth blocks magic, so if you made a two-part sensor, with one part emitting a constant, low-level emission of some kind and a recipient that triggers the moment the emission from the other part stops, that should still work on silver cloth protected people. Now you'd only need to also give it the ability to sense the passing through of people authorized to enter the book room, and it'd be perfectly safe, if set up just inside the barrier.
From the cover we saw Ferdinand in pain. I wonder if it will be from giving his name to myne; given that we now know she has his name stone.
Hmm, wouldn't that be like Ferdinand being bound by his own mana? I'm not sure if that would cause him pain or not.
Theoretically Rozemyne's mana should have started diverging from Ferdinand's, once her mana clumps had been dissolved, since according to what Rozemyne read in the Grutrissheit, it was those clumps that acted like foreign feystones, that kept the dying in place, well beyond the natural duration. There's also a possibility that whatever Anwachs and Erwaermen did to Rozemyne, further changed her mana, to diverge from Ferdinand's.
So between the divine changes and the march of time, I wouldn't rule out the possibility that Rozemyne's mana is diverting more and more away from Ferdinand's as time passes.
Another explanation could be that Ferdinand is in emotional, rather than physical pain in that picture. Giving his name again with the very same stone, is bound to dredge up memories of his father and getting connected to Rozemyne in particular, who we know to be quite emotional when family members are involved, isn't going to improve his ability to control his own emotions either.
Rather than making the teleportation circle trigger for Ehrenfest citizens, I'd give it the same permission mechanic as the barrier of the bookroom itself. Georgine might still have a sort of sleeper agent or several within Ehrenfest, who escaped the purge, who can enter the foundation on her behalf, if destruction is really her goal, rather than subjugation. Those subordinates would still be Ehrenfest citizens and thus be able to not trigger the circle, if it's exception is keyed to Ehrenfest citizens in general. But I'm 99% sure she has none in the temple itself. If she had loyal people inside the temple, there would never have been a need to involve Gloria and instead of a diversionary assasination attempt and kidnapping, she could have swapped out the keys without anyone ever becoming aware that anything had happened at all in the first place.
Sylvester made it sound like anyone who entered the duchy wearing silver cloth would trigger the alarm the moment they took off that protection, or am I misinterpreting his words here? Prior to today I assumed that you'd only need to wear the cloth while passing through the barrier, but could take it off once you were inside and then continue on by highbeast or wearing garments that don't stand out.
Hmmm... I wonder if there is some way for Rozemyne to get the other parts of the Grutrissheit by temporarily taking Ferdinand's name and then returning it, after the transfer is done. Erwaermen said she needed to take Quinta's feystone to obtain the missing parts, but does that only apply to the feystone left behind by a dead mana wielder, or can a name-swearing feystone tap into that too? If she ended up doing this, it would explain the colour illustration, in which Ferdinand seemed in pain. With her supposedly still being dyed in his colours, I suspect Ferdinand wouldn't be in much physical pain from having his stone dyed and we know he has a considerable ability to hide his own physical discomfort... but such an event would doubtlessly dredge up some memories of his father and he might have his self control temporarily reduced by getting connected to Rozemyne, who we know to be very emotional when it comes to family.
Sylvester made it sound like anyone who entered the duchy wearing silver cloth would trigger the alarm the moment they took off that protection, or am I misinterpreting his words here? Prior to today I assumed that you’d only need to wear the cloth while passing through the barrier, but could take it off once you were inside and then continue on by highbeast or wearing garments that don’t stand out.
Yeah I think it might only be for crossing. Imagen if the boarder worked like Roz's Schutzaria barrier. Intruder is in middle of Erinfest takes of the cloth and basically yeeted out of the duchy (like team rocket blasting off ) 🤣