🐱 Week 1 | 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険 ✨

Japanese Reading Book Clubs
1
Week 1 May 24
Chapter 第一話 巣立ちの儀 (part 1/3)
End Percentage 3.88%
End Page 16
Read until 「あっ、待ってよ、ニャンゴ」(after the restaurant scene; slight spoiler)
Next week Week 2
Home Thread 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険

We’re reading this book as part of the Beginner’s Light Novel Book Club.

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Discussion Guidelines

  • Please blur/hide any major events in the current week’s pages (however early they occur), like so: text here (that’s [spoiler]text here[/spoiler]).
  • If you have a question about grammar, vocab, the story, cultural things or literally anything else related to the book — ask! There is really no need to be hesitant. If it’s something you are wondering about, chances are someone else will be thankful you asked first, lots of people enjoy answering questions, you learn something new, and the thread gets more lively. It’s a win-win on all fronts!
  • Don’t forget to put on your club-supplied cat ears for a more immersive experience while reading. You will find them under your seat.

Participation Poll

  • I’m reading along :cat2:
  • I have fallen behind and I’m planning to catch up later :dog2:
  • I’m reading this at my own pace :paw_prints:
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished :spiral_calendar:
0 voters
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Week 1 live-tweeting

前世の知識と魔法を組み合わせれば、夢見ていた心躍る冒険ができると思ったのだ。
『巣立ちの儀』は、そのための第一歩だったのだが、予想外の属性を引き当ててしまった。
俺が集まった人達から笑われたのは、空属性が使い道の無い空っぽの属性だと言われているからだが、前世から憧れていた魔法を手に入れられてワクワクする気持ちが抑えられない。

Welp, that was a rollercoaster:

  • Protagonist gets bullied :frowning:
  • …but gets reborn into another world, something he dreamed of! :smiley_cat:
  • …but as a weak race, without any special abilities :crying_cat_face:
  • …but is determined to live his fantasies of adventure! :smiley_cat:
  • …only to find out (after long years of anticipation) that his magical attribute is the one that everyone makes fun of :crying_cat_face:

イネスは玉の輿に乗るべく、二人を天秤に架けているのだろう。
「一緒にギルドに行くなら、途中の屋台で菓子を買ってやる」
「ホントに？ じゃあ一緒に行く」

Order of priorities:
#2: 玉の輿に乗る
#1: 菓子

それまでに必要な聞き込みをして、魔法の練習でもしていよう。
「すみません、ちょっと教えてほしいのですが……」
儀式に参加していた子ね、何かしら？」
教会のシスターに尋ねると、俺の求めていた情報を丁寧に教えてくれた。
聞き込みも上手くいったし、安心して魔法の練習に取り掛かろう。

I… guess we’re gonna find out later what that inquiry was…?

「でも僕、お金持って……あっ、ある。でも、これは使っちゃいけないお金だから……」
どうやら騎士団に勧誘された子供には、支度金のようなものが配られるようだ。
そうでないと、王都までの路銀も用意できないような貧しい家の子供もいるのだ。

Nice to see that “merit-based” wasn’t an overstatement. (And nice to see that Horatio has his priorities straight at least!)

大人と子供ほども体格の違うオラシオを引っ張って、シスターに教わった店を目指す。

We indeed found out later.

(I know, I know, it was kind of obvious that we would, but it felt a bit weird to just have the conversation and its results skipped earlier.)

Anyway, that whole thing with the mushrooms was a pretty smart move, especially considering that Nyango probably (?) hasn’t often left his village and is new to this city. I guess some information gathering happened before he left.

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Wow, I remember way less than I thought I would.

Thanks for that keyword. Without it, I would have been unable to remember what the conversation with the sister was about.

I also don’t remember who イネス is :thinking: But I suck with names anyway.

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I somehow pressed submit and not view post, so take two.

week 1

ちょっとエッチな表紙のライトノベルを持っていたのをクラスメイトに見られ、キモオタ認定されて虐めの対象になってしまった。

Buddy, just get a book cover :sweat_smile::sweat_smile::sweat_smile:

悪ふざけした同級生に突き飛ばされて階段から落ち、打ち所が悪くあっさりと死んでしまった。

Yikes…
But like… What did the classmate think was gonna happen shoving him down the stairs?!

I like how I was excited to read a fantasy book that was mostly not an isekai and that’s what I focused on this week :sweat_smile:

By the way, I’m reading 猫人, 牛人, 狼人, etc as -びと. My phone’s IME agrees that those are words but just wondering if that’s the likely reading since we didn’t get furigana for any of them.

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Sheep girl, if I remember correctly. She was one of the four (village head son wolf boy, bull boy who’s going to become a knight, the sheep girl we’re currently talking about, and our boy Nyango) going through the “leaving the nest” ritual.

I guess he didn’t think too much about it, and… then it was too late.

Here’s some more weak evidence that you might be right:

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I’m reading those right now as ぎゅうじん and ろうじん respectively, but that’s because they are actual words. That being said, their meaning is different than the context of the story… (edit: that last one can be おおかみひと or ろうにん as well)

Aaaah, that rings a bell.

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That’s kinda specifically why I was reading it as オオカミびと. I also couldn’t come up with the onyomi for 猫 off the top of my head :sweat_smile:.

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ひとびと

My book has furigana for うしひと on page 6, and ひつじひと and ねこひと, not びと on page 7. I can’t find the wolf people, but there seems to be a rigid pattern.

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Comments

That was fun! :slightly_smiling_face: So far it felt like the isekai part of the story was kind of just shoved in to capitalize on publishing trends, since it doesn’t seem like it’ll actually be too relevant. Which is fine, but I feel a bit bad for the author if they didn’t really intend to write isekai haha.

This is a common enough device, I’ve seen it in books and movies before. I think it’s usually done to make the protagonist seem smart by keeping them one step ahead of the audience and then revealing their plan later.

I did something like ねこびと、ぎゅうにん、ろうじん except I can’t stop myself from seeing 狼人 and being like WEREWOLF! wait…

Oh, maybe I just ignored this then :joy: It would make sense if every animal person is supposed to be ~ひと・びと

The reading I was confused about was the ceremony thing. 単立ち? たんたち？たんりつち？

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I don’t think I remember ever seeing that in a book before… :thinking:

But considering my bad memory, it’s probably likely that I have seen it before and for some reason just didn’t trip over it as much as I did here.

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It’s probably this. Narrative tricks like this don’t really register in English, but in Japanese I’m like wait, did I read that right :thinking: Did I miss something :thinking: Where was the conversation :thinking:

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You tricked yourself :wink:. 巣立ち is すだち, leaving the nest.

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In that case, it’s ひと, not びと

:rofl: Wouldn’t that be 人狼 though.

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:man_facepalming: I was trying too hard I guess.

It would, but it’s close enough that it keeps tricking my brain haha.

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I do not like the は行s when they’re in compounds so my brain almost always wants to make them ばs unless I’ve heard it enough otherwise to know :joy:

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And we’re off into week 2!

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