🐺 Week 14 | 人狼サバイバル 1 絶体絶命! 伯爵の人狼ゲーム 🧐

Japanese Reading Book Clubs
1
Week 14 February 15
Pages 179-203
Chapter 11
Read until End of chapter
Previous week Week 13
Next week Week 15
Home Thread 人狼サバイバル 1

We’re reading this book as part of the Children’s Book Club.

Book Cover

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!

Participation Poll

  • I’m reading along :wolf:
  • I have fallen behind and I’m planning to catch up later :paw_prints:
  • I’m reading this at my own pace :face_with_monocle:
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished :spiral_calendar:
0 voters

After reading this week’s part, I think the werewolf is most likely…

  • ハヤト :eagle:
  • ウサギ :rabbit2:
  • ヤムネ :mouse2:
  • ツバメ :dove:
  • ギュウカク :ox:
0 voters

(To avoid spoilers, this poll will always contain all participants, no matter what happens to them in the book.)

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Thoughts while reading

おれは安心して、言われた通りのことやっていれば良かった。

I know ば良かった as a structure expressing regret over a past action that you didn’t take. So: “I wish I had just done as I was told and kept my piece of mind.”? What is he talking about here? Isn’t his regret and what he is talking in all the sentences around it exactly the opposite? That he wishes he would have thought more for himself instead of just doing what he was told?

「不思議でならないよ。知恵をしぼったり、自分の考えを話すのはとても楽しいことだろう？」

Agreed! :wink:

「間違ったことをするのも、失敗して恥をかくのも、かっこ悪くなどないさ。」
「でも……！」
「本当にかっこ悪いのは人の間違いや失敗を笑うほうだよ。」

Good life lessons from everyone’s favourite Count here.

「やる気になったようだね。では投票してくれ。あと十分で二十時だ。」

That’s, uh. Quite short.

「あと五分。」

Uhm.

伯爵が顔をしかめた。すん、すん、と小さく何かが聞こえる。
「赤村ハヤトくん。君、お風呂に入っていないね？」

“Werewolf doesn’t want to eat stinky boy. Count tell stinky boy to go wash himself.”

「もっともだ。だが、服まで洗濯しないのはどうだろうね？ 今は夏だよ？ シャワーを浴びないのならせめて洗濯はしてくれないと。」

A game master trying to steer a struggling participant on the right track, hmmm? What happened to impartiality? :slight_smile:

「狼は君たちの中の誰かに化けているんだから、自分も食事をとれなくなるだろう？」

I mean, the werewolf does have another source of nutrition :laughing:

洗濯所を荒らしたら──おれたちは洗濯ができなくなる。
いや、『洗濯所に近づかなくなる』だ。

Yeah, but couldn’t the werewolf just remove the troubling pieces from the laundry room instead of going to such lengths? But, meh… I guess I’ll accept it.

「『君たち』の中に隠れている狼……ってことは、『参加者』の中だとは限らない……!?」

Yes!

「『参加者じゃないやつ』に投票してもいいんだ!!」

Gasp! But how!

それまでにバッジで投票を──、
「!!」

:slight_smile:

「『若草アウトドアクラブ』のピンバッジ！」

Yes!

だがおれたちが見つけたとき、オリさんのバッジは文字が三つしか残っていなかった。このゲームは五人でスタートしたから、バッジが三つでは足りない。

Wait, were all the other badges exactly 5? Did they always get them back from the count or something? If so, yeah, I guess that’s good enough reasoning - “All of our badges come in fives, so the werewolf’s badges should come in fives too”. (Although 3 badges would’ve been enough for a decisive vote too tbh.)

時計。あと三分。

That seems a bit short, but I guess he is a good runner :laughing:

それに、ただの名前じゃない。
アルファベットの『IMAKO』は、逆から読むと『OKAMI』だ。

You don’t say! :slight_smile:

Although… don’t tell me that that was the hint? If so: I like my idea with the picture much more.

「ははは。ではまた次のゲームで遊ぶとしよう。おっと、その前に──。」

…release the kids?

Okay, I guess “Release the kids” in the next chapter.

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Good job @Legato, I think you hit all of the pieces in your deductions!

Although I don’t think we had “inspirational speech from the count for 3 pages” :rofl:

Ohhhhhhh! Is that why some of Orisan’s letters were missing!?!

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What a great chapter! You were right on the money, @Legato! Poor Hayato; he definitely would have lost if the 伯爵 hadn’t specifically started giving out hints and encouragement. :stuck_out_tongue: I’m real tempted to read the last chapter, but I’ll try to hold tight. :eyes:

I laughed out loud at that part. I could totally see the count becoming a performance coach or something.

Hmmm. I wonder if we’re supposed to read it more literally here? “If I just did what they said, I would be fine.”?

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Replies

Maybe we’re going to make a mystery reader out of me after all :male_detective:

I also didn’t have “ハヤト mopes around for the full day and then solves the whole thing in 15 minutes” on my bingo sheet :laughing:

I was expecting more of “Walks around, lost in thought, slowly remembering things”. And e.g. happen again on the sheep painting and thereby being pushed towards “The werewolf does exist and is external to us”, prompting him to check the rules how see how that is possible. But I guess that wouldn’t have been ハヤト style, haha.

Probably! I’m feeling too lazy to check whether it was mentioned anywhere that the votes badges come in batches of 5. And if so, maybe the “every second letter is removed thing” is to make clear that this was done deliberately and they didn’t just fall out or something.

Although tbh the explanations around the badges feel like a row of tiny plot holes. Are the letters by themselves even “badges”? Couldn’t the werewolf hid the badge instead of telegraphing that something important is at keeping them away from the laundry room? I’m not super happy with that part, but I guess all other parts are good and I’ll ignore it.

Same!

Maybe? I’m not sure if it works grammar-wise (Doesn’t ば deal in hypothetical conditions, and the sentence you mean would actually be “Just by doing what they said, I was fine.”, describing actual past conditions without any hypotheticals?), but at least it makes more sense than the textbook interpretation.

I think another possibility in the context is could be that he expresses regret that he could not continue to do this? Like “I wish I could’ve just continued to keep my peace of mind and do what I was told.”?

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Thoughts on Chapter 11

This chapter was quite the page turner. Ended up finishing in one day.

That was a pretty sneaky reveal, but I guess the count never did say that the wolf was just amongst the 5 kids. And considering what happened on the first night where there was blood on a ripped-up shirt, it had to be one of the chaperones in the first place.

And the fact that Imako is basically wolf in Japanese but backwards. Can’t believe I overlooked it. Looking forward to seeing how this concludes next week.

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Thoughts/liveblog

「君らを怖がらせたり痛めつけて楽しむのが目的なら、こんな回りくどいことはしない。」

Good point.

I like how ハヤト is so upset he just gets back in bed. Same :handshake:

Wow, he really just lies in bed until evening?? At least try to think of something, bro. Use your critical thinking skills like Legato did last week!!

「あと十分で二十時だ。」

See, if you hadn’t just laid in bed all day, you would have more than 10 minutes to think…

「『参加者じゃないやつ』に投票してもいいんだ！」

Yesss, he figured it out!

一階にはウサギが昼寝に使った大きなソファ

Chekhov’s napping sofa :joy:

And chapter finished! That was a lot of fun. I’m so tempted to read the last chapter and finish the book now.

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めでたしめでたし。。。なのか？

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