Some people might ask whether there is a difference 
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Vol 4. 新商品考案
A cozy chapter with the next part of マイン’s literacy revolution - メモ帳 that doesn’t need paper. And there is a new talent on the horizon too~
OL moment: this just hit so hard for me rn I need a hug
もうちょっと妥協ってもんを知ってくれれば、生きやすいだろうよ。
Upd:
Vol 4. 書字板とカルタ
Recap of career progression was mentioned in this chapter: orphanage → baptism → gray priest apprentice (= cleaning staff) → (if the kid stands out in a good way) 側仕え見習い (still mostly cleaning + learning the whatever skills blue robed priests want from this specific kid)
I’m dying of curiosity about the ink (?) that was used for Karuta letters (and that will be used for drawing). Are we just casually taking the ink from the temple or is she using the small amount she got before to write books with?
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Alrighty, I’m back in business. I’m getting tired of watching anime, so I’m gonna start working on volume 5 again. 
Vol. 5, 油性絵具 黒 & 木版画による絵本作り
Thankfully, Myne has also been out-of-action in the book as well, so we’re both catching up, haha. Most notable event here for me was the 神官長 finally deciding that enough was enough and Myne really shouldn’t know all these things she should, specifically her capability to parse, analyze, and restate complicated religious teachings in a way that’s suitable for children, given that Myne is still actively learning the language herself and is 6.
Myne gave him the 'ol “I saw it in a dream”, which I’m a bit worried is going to unexpectedly backfire on her. Either that, or I’m curious if a time comes when she’s going to have to tell him the truth and he’s going to have to process that. I’m hoping his continued confusion prompts him to visit her restaurant, at least.
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Vol 5, 白黒絵本 & 子供用聖典の準備
I wish we could see ヴィルマ’s drawing and Myne’s simplified one they discussed in these chapters; I wonder if the manga shows them? And at this point I’m curious what percentage of tools Myne’s factory uses that weren’t created by her at this point.
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re: Vol. 5, 外に出るということ＆インク作りの下準備
Meanwhile I’m like, nooo it’s paper making all over again 
I enjoyed the ink maker being like aghast that she knew his secret ink recipe, and that was only one of many other inks she knew about. Other inks?!?
Otherwise kinda honzuki business as usual. Gonna try and get back on a chapter a day pace starting today. We’ll… see how I do.
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The anime at least shows what you asked for!
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My hero! Thank you so much, that helps a lot!
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Oooooh, that’s nice! It’s actually quite different from what I had pictured.
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Vol. 5, 子供用聖典の製本 & 収穫祭のお留守番
Welp, we’ve finally done it! 4 1/2 books and two in-universe years after the start, Myne’s finished making her first real book! 
I’m looking forward to seeing all the reactions the 献本 elicit; hopefully that’s going to spur people into action.
It feels so random, having someone mess up the 神殿 library. My first thought was that they were looking for something, either a specific book, document, or something else, but we know so little about the library contents it’s hard to say. Perhaps Myne will discover something interesting as she goes about her cataloguing? And I feel like this is the first time I’ve heard Myne talk about having 図書 as a general goal? It does feel vaguely familiar, but I can’t remember if libraries just being book-related are tricking my brain into misremembering. 
And next spring it sounds like we’ll finally have a little one-on-one time with the 神官長. Long overdue for me as a reader, we still know barely anything about him!
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re Vol. 5, 子供用聖典の製本 & 収穫祭のお留守番
At the very beginning (volume 1), she said that her dream is to be a librarian (which she did achieve in her past life, just before dying). The whole thing about making books is so that she can make enough of them for people to start making libraries, prompting the need for librarians (so that she can become one)
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Vol 4. 星祭りの準備 & 星祭り
A marriage day sounds kinda neat. Very easy to remember the anniversary without any calendars.
(Is what I wrote when I first read it so when Myne thought the same I felt very validated)
Yeah, water balloon those happy newlyweds, go, Myne!
“We are doing a religious wedding to get the blessing from the God that is most effective at night! But the population is too big so commoners can have it during the day, whatever”
She’s starting to get a read on 神官長’s emotions! Or… Maybe she’s just so distressing that he’s becoming more emotional. Amazing
Anyway, I sort of feel like it’s redundant to have this festival with these kids. Extra responsibility + teaching them stuff they wouldn’t be allowed to do without her + knowledge that is useless in the temple. But well, I guess we’re being nice here?
And also, doesn’t it mean she’ll have to play with kids instead of harassing newlyweds? Sounds tiring
Vol 4.
“Oh no, they are enjoying the forest while I’m doing work, unfair”
@
“Yay, I get to see the festival”
@
“Wait no I wanted to see it, not to get drenched and sick and…”
@
“Ok, that was not for me, now I know”
Poor Myne
Vol 4. 祭りの後
Hmhmhm
So if タウの実 can turn into トロンべ does it mean that the commoners playing around during this festival is actually very important for the forest & safety all around?
Myne is avoiding getting scolded by 神官長 but I feel like we have lost a route to gaining more information by not explaining what トロンべ is (as far as Myne knows it) to フラン.
Using it to manage 見食い is such a nice idea, makes me wonder if it’d be sustainable for Myne herself. Read: maybe let’s run away from the temple and “find a decent aristocrat to contract with” route? (Upd: ok, 20+ fruits per year and we’re golden. Time to pack bags, sister)
ベンノ is, as usual, providing マイン (and naive readers like me) with a reality check on sharing this info with people.
TLDR: nobles will take kids if they are checked for Devouring at birth as they have monopoly on magic, commoners will be unhappy if some kids are cured and some no, having a lot of magic and growing up without how to use it might be a problem and the whole system of sending problematic nobles to the temple will collapse with this change.
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Answering shitsurei's rhetorical question from half a year ago…
These how it was described in 星祭り:
TLDR either it was already almost full with magic so she didn’t feel it or, indeed, she didn’t know enough about magic to recognize the sensation.
以前はほとんど発芽寸前だったせいだろうか、それとも、わたしに魔力や身食いに関する知識が全くなかったせいで意識されなかったのか、魔力の流れはほとんど感じなかった。今回はハッキリとタウの実に向かって魔力が流れて行くのを感じた。
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Vol 4. 祭りの後
My read is that fact is not well known enough for that to be a factor. The commoners don’t have magic to find out, and the nobles don’t go playing in the forest. Also Myne having the amount of mana that caused the priests to make all the exceptions is probably part of why they grow so quickly for her.
Possibly futher future spoilers - not sure if this was mentioned explicitly anywhere
I think it’s pretty strongly implied that Myne’s encounter with the tau/tromble and it draining some of her mana bought her time, similar to the magic item she got loaned from Frieda.
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Vol 4. 祭りの後 reply
Yeah, you’re right. Even Freeda didn’t go to the forest at all despite not being a noble.
I do like to enjoy the thought of silly commoner traditions ending up being very important part of the ecosystem anyway, but this might be a stretch.
Re spoiler - yeah, the books didn’t mention that yet but it 100% makes sense from what we know about how Devouring works by now. Everything IS connected~
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Vol 4. ルッツの行く道
I’m pleasantly surprised to see the differences to the anime (or my unreliable memory).
The whole memo with tasks from Benno wasn’t there, I think? I don’t remember neither this convo with ベンノ that shows ベンノ’s cards to マイン, nor what aside from sleeping she was doing in the 反省室 in the show. Efficient usage of time with as usual depressing consequences.
Still loving how expressive 神官長 is and it’s very funny to me how she’s trying to predict the way their interactions will go based on ベンノ and she keeps beeing so close and yet wrong.
I am now even more convinced that we have lost some valuable info by not explaining トロンベ to him. Well, the less info temple has the better, buuuuut as a huge fan of 神官長 (because he’s very pretty) I do want to get more info out of him.
Also in this chapter マイン said:
わたしが新しい商品を考えて、ルッツが売るんだから
You all remember how this was ルッツが作る in Part One?
They are growing 
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Vol 4. ルッツの家出
Oh damn.
I’m supposed to have empathy but I’m in a bad mood from my second cold this month so… Reading how sad カルラ is or how worried (?) ルッツ’s brother was I can’t help but be mean to them. It’s the same mother that didn’t notice how bad things were for ルッツ, how his brothers took his food, how he kept losing at everything to them while they were mean. Same brother that participated in all of that and keeps belittling him.
Like, you could’ve seen it coming?
If the brother doesn’t know where ギルベルタ商会 is, I bet their mom didn’t know either.
Yes I knowww, I knowww life is not so black and white but ugh, our baby is doing his best and you all are not helping.
Oh, to be a fly on a wall when マルク raised his voice on カルラ.
I teared up a bit at Myne & Lutz interaction here. Myne has grown so much and Lutz is such a sweetheart. Precious babies.
Vol 4. 神官長の招待状
神官長! So kind!
What is this endless flow of comedy in this chapter? Calling Myne a calculator was so adorable lol.
「……ホントにわたし、全然役に立たない……」
「その通りだ。君の意見は実に正しい」
Mood
「子供がうじうじうだうだとしていたら、気になって執務が捗らないであろう」
And also very true. And very honest.
I was surprised by how negatively Benno saw the invitation but he didn’t know it was for adoption conversation. So basically you get the “come at X bell (or else)” from nobles you’re not close to in some vague relation to the personal problems you don’t actually want nobles to know about (as you’re trying to pretend you’re cool enough to work with them). That poor man.
I need more but it’s too late for today…
As Myne would say: のおおぉっ
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Vol. 5, マイン十進分類法 & ベンノへの献本と仮縫い
…Interesting. So if a noble’s kid doesn’t graduate from the equivalent of magic school, they can’t be recognized as a noble in society? Can they even inherit at that point? I wonder if this magic school actually gives a good education or not; a highly-skilled noble class is quite interesting to think about.
I’m looking forward to Myne giving the 神官長 his complimentary copy of the children’s bible! Hopefully he has a more exciting reaction than Benno did; man’s just too used to Myne’s miracles now, haha. I enjoyed her pointing how how every single part of the book and it’s printing process was a new technique, haha.
Edit: okay, one more from me tonight!
Vol. 5, 神官長とシンデレラ
Excellent, now this is a proper flabbergasted reaction! It’s good to get a normal person’s /not-a-child-Myne-has-brainwashed-into-gathering-plants-and-soot’s perspective. I appreciated his rather realistic take on Cinderella as well; Myne will have to work on him, get his fiction reading up to speed.
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re Vol. 5, 神官長とシンデレラ
Yes! I loved that part. I am so used to the standard modern viewpoint that his take really caught me off guard. AND it’s some interesting world building too, even though we don’t know much about nobles at this point.
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Vol 4. 神殿での家族会議
The father’s name is ディード… Deed?
So… He sort of screams over people with short bursts of emotional order-shaped phrases and expects everyone to read his mind. Very manly. Getting anything out of that man would’ve been impossible without 神官長 constantly using commanding speech to ask for clarifications.
I have to say, being so cool and collected while saying “I am asking because I don’t understand, explain しなさい” is a career goal
It’s bold of ディード to say that this happened because ルッツ misunderstood the situation. I still didn’t hear a word of approving the trip the denial of which was the last straw.
And here マイン finds out the name! フェルディナンド on embroidery, you say? I wonder whose embroidery it is. Or I guess it’s the nobles thing? Same as ベンノ asking to carve his name on the most recent wood&wax notepad.
Vol 4. Epilogue
I see you’re making us understand this old man by doing his POV. WELL. Well, it’s working because (a) I love 3rd person POVs and (b) he gets to see ルッツ the way we see him and realize how much he missed. Damn, man, you’re locked with a wife and 4 kids for the winter and you only “heard from カルラ” that he’s learning to read? マイン couldn’t do anything without someone asking her what she’s up to.
ダプラ見習い contract!
Moving to ギルベルタ商会 when ルッツ is 10 years old. Which is what, in about 2.5 years from now?
He gets a room and lunch! Less expenses already! Suppers will be provided too if needed (I see you, overtime work condition). And there it is, work outside of the city is in the contract now!
Thanks to ベンノ there should be no rumors about マイン coming from the parents (but I can’t imagine カルラ not asking エーファ any questions later… Please not next to the well please)
I could swear that in the anime マイン was sitting behind everyone and not next to 神官長 so seeing it here referred as “on the side of the nobles” was strong.
Vol 4 short stories 今はまだ遠い場所 and 側仕えの自覚
Cozy world-building with トゥーリ and her co-workers. I was wondering where we’re going with increasing competition, but I guess not living with マイン doesn’t teach you to make what you want to have even if it’s from literal dirt.
“We don’t have fabric to work on such designs” vs “I can try making fancy tiny clothes for dolls!” is a big gap.
This chapter also had a smooth reminder that after 3 years as ダルア kids can renegotiate and change the factory they work on. Let’s aim to work for Corinna, Tuuli!
ギル’s anxiety about his position next to マイン an his ability to help her really shows how valued she is becoming by the people in the temple. It’s nice, but worrying to see.
It’s also fun to see how many versions of “common sense” people in this series have. We’re getting to see quite a lot of characters get shocked by how different the world can be from what they know. It really says a lot about their society and how… different マイン is.
And done with volume 4~
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