🐺 Week 15 | 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 15 February 22
Pages 204-219
Chapter 12 + あとがき
Read until End of book
Previous week Week 14
Next week This is the last week
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
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Wait, no werewolf poll? But I’m pretty sure I know which of the kids is the bad guy now. D:<

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

0 voters
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No, I’m definitely not the werewolf. :eyes: It’s just you and me now Legato, you can trust me… :wolf:

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Of course, eefara is arafee backwards!

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chapter/book thoughts

Thank goodness it wasn’t all a dream! I was scared there for a few minutes starting the chapter.

I do think it was a bit of a cop out to make everyone else forget the game, but it’s clearly setting up for the Second Book™™

I’m curious about Imako though… was she always a werewolf? Why didn’t she just eat everyone at camp? Can werewolves only eat people if they’re a part of a game, like how vampires need to be invited inside? :thinking:

Speaking of the second book, I don’t think I’d read it, but I’m happy to be spoiled by anyone who does. :joy:

I didn’t read the あとがき but if anyone else does and thinks it’s worth reading let us know.

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Chapter thoughts

心底嫌そうな顔をした狼は大口を開け──今までに食べた皆を吐きだした。

Explanation: Werewolf digestion is very very slow.

ここに来て、泊まって、豪華な食事をとって、皆でゲームをして、伯爵のお茶やピアノの演奏を楽しんで、今日になった、と。そんな記憶に改変されている

I mean, apart from drinking tea with the Count, all of those did happen :laughing:

At the beginning of the chapter I thought it was something like “After the game, time was magically rolled back to the start, and then the game never happened.”, but I guess “magically meddling with everyone’s mind (and one smartphone)” works too. If demon werewolves can be real, this can be real too.

I think being the sole winner of this game while everyone else forgets isn’t something to envy though…

おれは少しだけ犬が苦手になった。

See! Trauma!!

それから、夢の中で伯爵の声を聞くこともあった。

Trauma!!!

はい！ それじゃ今日は、副担任の先生を紹介しますね。」

Haha. Who’s it going to be? The werewolf, or the Count? :laughing:

Probably Imako, since ハヤト is the only one who remembers her.

──伯爵だった。

Huh.

「では、ルールを説明しよう。」

Hahahaha :laughing:

『君はおもしろい。』
『もっと私と遊ぼう。』

Oh no, ハヤト is cursed now :laughing:

Well, that explains the follow-up books.

じわりと背中に汗がにじんだ。
ただ、おびえはしなかった。
むしろ興奮していた。
もうあのときのおれじゃない。
──今度はおれがおまえをやっつけてやる。

Looks like someone got some :sparkles: character growth :sparkles: out of winning the game. Well, that, or an inclination for enjoying mortal danger.

Replies

I think she’s not so much a “werewolf who wants to eat people” as much as “a demon werewolf who wants to win against the Count”, with eating the kids perhaps as a bit of a bonus? I don’t remember the details of the book ハヤト found, but that’s my impression.

I think the whole setup to the game, i.e. the landslide and Imako leading them there, was all already magically induced to get the game going. It might also be possible in the same vain that Imako never really was at the camp and it was all part of setup magic.

Proper thoughts on the book will come later in the form of a review, but a few words now...

What I expected: A traitor game with intrigue and smart moments.

What I thought I got: Kids bumbling around (in an entertaining way) to a haphazard set of rules.

What it turned out to be: A puzzle to be solved!

So, it wasn’t what I expected and while I enjoyed it throughout, after a while I was pretty doubtful that it would come to a satisfying conclusion with the kids dropping like sheep and no werewolf clue in sight. But when it turned out to coherent and solveable my impression of it improved a lot again. I think it’s pretty good for a children’s book.

I think there’s a pretty good chance I’ll read the second book at least, but not with a book club because I don’t want to have to pace myself.

I really enjoyed the discussions here though. Thank you, everyone, for making this book club such a fun experience!

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It’s okay-ish.

あとがき summary

“Werewolf games are really interesting - unlike other games, even if you have played a lot, you can still be deceived by lies of beginner players or fall prey to being doubted. I hope I could convey a bit how interesting they are. Maybe in a future book I can write about a game that’s more in line with the formal rules.”

I like it more when the author actually talks about the book, but since so many あとがき allude to people reading them before the actual book I guess that’s a no-go. So… as usual, not much of interest there for me.

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Very much agree…I was super on the fence with this one since I’m trying to read down some of my tbr but I’m so glad I read this one with the club.

Also thank you @Legato for hosting! Your posts were a lot of fun and really got the group into the mood for the club! :wolf:

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Also finished up. I think the slow pace probably did impede the ability of us as readers to solve the puzzle, but I’m glad it wasn’t Usagi. Thanks for the speculation sessions, definitely the top part of the club for me. I’ll probably join for textbook boys as well, so I guess I’ll see you all in the next club,

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Hooray, we’re finished!

This was a super fun club and loved the speculation week to week. As for the content of the books, I’d like to see a werewolf game that
has more intrigue among the players. Since the werewolf was an unrelated adult the whole time, there wasn’t the juicy lying of a real social deduction game. I do appreciate that the puzzle could actually be solved and there were clues hidden in the book, though.

Also, in the book ハヤト read didn’t it say that the boy who wins against the demon ends up playing eternally against it? Makes it seem like ハヤト is the boy and 伯爵 is the demon. Now ハヤト is going to eternally play against him in all the sequels.

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Same! Since the afterword mentions that the author feels like it would be interesting to write use rules closer to the original we might get that at some point. It would probably also be easier in a setting where the participants don’t know each other (well), so the werewolf can just be straight up one of the participants without being called out on trivial stuff like “What, you drink your tea without sugar? You’re definitely a doppelganger!!”…

Maybe that’s an intended double meaning, but I think the primary reading of that passage is that the boy from the fairy tale book is the Count. The fairy tale book’s demon was described as a demon-tailed werewolf, and the Count had his own game going on with the demon-tailed werewolf (betting that the kids would win), so it fits the current game too.

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HAHAHAHA. Count, what are you doing. :rofl: I really like this guy, I really do.

What s fun book! I’m so glad I joined in for this; it’s been an honor and a pleasure reading with you all! I was not expecting coming from this book and wanting to dive into the sequel, but it’s officially made The List :tm:.

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I have fallen a bit behind, so just finished the book today. It was not quite what I expected at the beginning, but it was a fun book for a book club. Many thanks also to @legato for hosting.

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