PrePub - Ascendance of a Bookworm

I missed the obvious suspect for severing Rozemyne's and Ferdinand's threads: Erwärmen. He was Liebeskhilfe's predecessor and has plenty of reason to begrudge Ferdinand and some to begrudge Rozemyne, not to mention that unlike the other gods, he can't tell the two apart anyway, while Rozemyne is dyed in his colour, i.e. once the divine mana was out of her system. So we have someone with the motive, the means and the demeanour. Mestionora was very against violence, while Erwärmen already tried to kill Ferdinand at least once, but failed thanks to Rozemyne's interference and didn't re-attempt it directly, almost asuredly because of Mestionora's decree banning all further killings.

Anyway, I'm off to read the freshly released pre-pub part now.

So Lestilaut's jureve is blue... With Rozemyne's the colour was never mentioned and with it being made from four elemental ingredients, plus some other stuff, I assumed it'd either be multi-coloured, clear or the mana colour of the person who made it. Healing always comes from either Flutrane or her subordinate Heilschmerz, both of which are associated with the colour green, so if this healing potion had any general colour, I'd bet my money on green, not Leidenschaft's blue (passion, growth, learning). I don't remember Lestilaut's mana colour or affinities ever being mentioned, other than Anastasius thinking he lacks darkness. I'd say his blue jureve is a pretty good indication of his mana colour being blue. And Hannelore not immediately connecting the dots that the blue Jureve was her brother's could mean that either mother or father also have blue as their colour.

I wonder what was up with the severing of Rozemyne's and Ferdinand's threads. How could threads be severed in multiple places? I feel like this is a sign of intentional sabotage... which brings me back to Liebeskhilfe. Who else but a deity could go back in time to tamper with mortal threads, but why would she? Was it some "masterplan" to give Hannelore the chance to travel back in time? That seems quite far fetched, but then again the gods are supposed to think differently than Humans and she is described as mischivious in the extreme...

"...hey should have challenged up to bride-stealing ditter <...> he was not doing so through the proper channels..." Oh Dunkelfelger... as if stealing a bride against her will and her duchy's will via sport was "the proper channel."

Ortwin becoming Rozemyne's second husband has crossed my mind before too. If he wasn't in love with Hannelore, that'd probably be his best option to become happy and a win for everyone involved. A good political move for both duchies, a mana-rich husband who's not an arrogant ass for Rozemyne, a wife who won't treat him as just a jumping board for political capital and mana generator, as well as plenty of laboratories and research materials for Ortwin. Seems a perfect match by Yurgenschmidt noble standards. He could probably live very contently in Alexandria.

Marrying Hannelore though, especially after her divine posession, would guarantee him an inescapable ticket to Aubdom. And he made it quite clear to Adolphine that he absolutely did not want to become Aub (not that it mattered to her in the slightest what her brother wanted, resulting in her practically forcing him to compete for the succession anyway, which thankfully should be over and done with now that she's a giebe). And marrying the Zent, even if only as a second husband, would probably be on a quite simialr "don't want to" level for him, as becoming Aub Drewanchel.

I wonder if his love is truly strong enough for him to not resent Hannelore for being forced to become Aub, because of her status, should they end up marrying after all... or alternatively if he might get a taste for being Aub, once he tried it for a bit, which would be ideal. Either way, I doubt it'll happen, what with Drewanchel underperforming in ditter quite a bit compared to their duchy rank and being up against the very champions of ditter, even if they are split into two.

The moment of her praying against more suiters severing her thread with Wilfried is both tragic and hilarious at the same time and just so Hannelore. Too bad there isn't a god or goddess of irony, or Hannelore would be their undisputed champion.

Wilfred the wet cat of a man that won't propose to Hannelore, won't even flinch when she gets possessed by Goddess of Time. Rozemyne trained him well.

Edit: The death when body lacks soul to circulate the mana is a nice breadcrumb of world building. It matches that to contain mana you need willpower and it could develop into a reason on how isekai was even possible.

All things end with ditter 🙃

As chaotic as Liebeskhilfe is atleast Hannelore's indecision problem will be solved.

Low key I wonder if other gods are like Liebeskhilfe and enjoy entertainment but are better at putting a mask.