You mean 魔力, right? There’s a bunch of 魔術 that commoners can use, including the contact they sign in this book. You do need magic (and knowledge) to create the tools in the first place, though.
She isn’t a special case (just a rare case). The epilogue from volume 1 (spoiler in case you want to re-read it yourself) tells us that she is a 身喰い, a person who’s 魔力 is high enough to have impact on their health. The person will eventually die if they cannot get rid of excess magic (which just accumulates over time). The only way to do that is (a) to use the magic (if you know how), one can assume (I don’t think that’s presented as a viable option) or (b) to use a special 魔術具 that just siphons excess magic (also made and kept by nobles). The only way to survive for a 身喰い is to then find a nice noble who’s willing to sign a contract to provide the tool (the “nice” part being related to what they will ask in exchange)
I was honestly surprised ルッツ confronted マイン and accused her of “taking away” the OG マイン; like, it was pretty obvious he thought マイン was weird, but I’m surprised he jumped to body possession. Maybe the leap was easier because he’s younger? Either that or there are confirmed cases of people being ‘possessed’ in this world, which would be neat.
I’m not entirely sure on how I feel about マイン’s response to the accusation: “Okay, I’ll just kill myself, but let’s do it at home, okay?” Like…why is your first thought “kill myself”, and why don’t you seem to have a problem about that? I understand this situation she’s living in is not ideal, but immediately jumping to suicide just seems so…callous? マイン has a family and friends who care about her and would be devastated if she stabbed herself one day, and マイン′s apparent disregard for that, honestly, does not endear her to me. Her “concern” for ルッツ taking the blame for her death just feels so shallow in that light; it reeks of a declaration she made on the spot for shock value, and not out of consideration of her actual situation.
I’m glad they were both candid in that conversation and were able to come to an understanding of some kind, but…I don’t know. It was a heavy topic to bring up in the middle of a typical isekai slow life, which I appreciated, and I think it bodes well for the author’s ability to weave in more complicated situations around seemingly simpler ones, at least. I’m just not convinced that I actually like マイン yet.
I don’t really remember the details, but I think it was more around the line of “the original マイン is already dead, so me leaving is equal to death.”
Actually, I went ahead and checked that part, and it’s how I remembered it. There’s no stabbing involved, she is just talking about (trying to) leaving the body. If she did so right there right then, there would be obvious doubts that he is responsible for her death. That being said, she is callous (at this stage of the story). Up to this point, she cares about basically nothing but books and she is only starting to develop somewhat normal human emotions.
I was being a bit hyperbolic there, granted, but I feel like the idea is the same. I can’t imagine that, should マイン go through with the idea of vacating her body, sitting there and willing herself to disembody would actually do anything; she would either need to actively make herself magic-sick enough that it kills her, or use more physical means. So even if she didn’t literally say “let me go kill myself” (perhaps she really just didn’t think the scenario through that far), that’s still the end result I drew as a reader.
I’m betting the payoff will be worth it, but she’s a hard MC for me, haha.
Done with 本好き 2! It was basically book one but slightly better, I thought, so I’ll definitely be making my way to volume thee.
One question from the book: ベンノ (and several other characters) mention this quote:
「お金は取れる時に、取れるところから、取れるだけ、取っておくものだ」
And while I get the gist of it (“make as much money as you can”), I’m having a hard time breaking it down.
お金は取れる時に、= when it’s time to make money,
取れるところから、= the place you can take/make it from,
取れるだけ、= just take/make it,
取っておくものだ = and keep hold of it.
A less awkward translation being something like, “Money should be made and kept hold of wherever and whenever the opportunity arises.” Is that a reasonable translation? Or is my grammar off?
お金は取れる時に
When money can be taken.
取れるところから
From wherever it can be taken.
取れるだけ
As much as can be taken
取っておくものだ
It is something one should take for later use (you will need it eventually).
In English the sentence order of Naphtalene is definitely more natural - but that’s common with Japanese.
I just finished this part today and I feel like I’m somewhere in the middle of your two reactions.
I took her proposal of dying that way as a really shitty and callous way of saying that there’s no old マイン left. I don’t know why she couldn’t have just said it that way, but I’m treating her as her current age and not her iseikaied age (which is creepy for a lot of reasons), and in my head canon she has the memories but not the emotional maturity because she’s in a brain/body that’s the age that it is. If I think of it too deeply it stresses me out
Although, マイン is always super sickly and I feel like if ルッツ came home carrying her body and was like “She collapsed in the woods” everyone would just nod their head, so that honestly felt like a weird thing for her to say. I mean, if she were to die the way she said she was going to die, she quite literally would have been taken by the fever/magic that took OG マイン and it wouldn’t even be that much of a lie for ルッツ.
One of the more interesting things for me in this chapter was that she was saying that マイン didn’t really have many experiences outside of her home, and that 麗乃 (is that her old name? I always forget the pronunciation but I think that’s the kanji for it) didn’t really have any experiences outside of reading, so what she is now is somewhat of a hybrid of the two of them and living a life that’s maybe better than what either of them would have had alone.
I’d really like way more of this type of chapter and way less of how to make paper with makebelieve materials. I feel like this series has to have something for everyone to have read the 30 something books of it, but I’m with @eefara that as of right now I’m not really a fan of マイン, I’m not really a fan of the author’s handling of things, and there’s way too much tool/materials making. I can tell there’s some deep worldbuilding and I imagine that the payoff is in that. But I still maintain that I would not be reading these books if everyone didn’t rave about them, lol.
I do like that perspective. Makes me wonder what OG マイン’s life would’ve looked like had she not died so young. Boring everyday commoner life, probably.
I feel like that’s a not-insignificant chunk of readers, based on me seeing other posts online wondering why the series was so popular, and commenters telling OP that they just needed to push through the first arc or two.
My guess is that later on, even if マイン is still fiddling around with paper and books, there’ll be less emphasis on it because she’s more wrapped up in affairs with a variety of other people, and those people don’t care about paper/books nearly as much as she does.
And here I am, really not minding all the paper and food chapters. I really really like the writing style. I recently started the second arc after a long pause and it’s still so easy to get lost in and just read. But I also like Main’s character and her progress in even the few volumes I’ve read so far, so it’s fun to just follow along with her shenanigans. The world building is another thing.
I can’t say anything about whether it’s worth it to push through if you’re not a fan at the beginning. But I also think it’s fine to not like it for whatever reason. There’s more than enough books out there after all. ^^
I don’t dislike what I’ve read so far. I just feel like there’s a more interesting story in there somewhere and we’re spending our time talking about paper. I think I mostly complain because I see the potential.
Also at my Japanese level I don’t actually have a ton of options that I enjoy and get audiobooks, so this series is getting an extended trial period.
Things do go on and off of KU (but if you borrow books they stay in your library until you return them, even if they leave). It’s been on KU for about a year I’d say, so you probably don’t need to use your 20 slots to sit on most of the series, but there is a chance it goes away at some point.
They probably started talking about 魔力 and 魔術 at about the same time and I got mixed up.
