Spoilers for the current week should always be hidden using spoiler blur.
Please mention where you are in the book, ideally by chapter so people reading different versions have a clear point of reference.
Feel free to read ahead if it’s exciting, but please refrain from spoiling ahead of the appropriate week.
If you have a question about grammar, vocab, cultural things, etc - ask! That’s a welcome part of the discussion, and other readers will be happy to help.
Even if you don’t read the chapter(s) in time, you are still encouraged to post your thoughts.
ハウステンボス (Dutch: Huis Ten Bosch) is a theme park in Nagasaki prefecture that, according to Wikipedia:
recreates the Netherlands by displaying life-sized copies of old Dutch buildings.
E.g., the main character is faced with a full-sized medieval castle town.
9回裏 is a baseball term. I don’t think it really counts as a reference, but just in case, it’s the last round? play? in a game of baseball (as one can tell, I do not know my baseball terminology in English).
世界遺産 song: The Song of Life by Yuji Toriyama. You’ve heard it (I assume, as well).
血盟(団)/「一人一殺」 is a reference to the 血盟団 (apparently called the “League of blood” in English).
ラベル (usually ラヴェル) is Joseph Maurice Ravel. I know at least Boléro by him. エルガー is Sir Edward William Elgar. They are both music composers. I guess YouTube is your friend to get a feel for the kind of music ユーリ is hearing
I assume I don’t have to introduce スピルバーグ…
「ゴッド・ファーザー」 愛のテーマ (Never watched that movie, so I didn’t know what it sounds like :p)
ウィーン少年合唱団 is pretty self explanatory. Thank god for saying he looks like a former member, because the members all look 12, if that.
I may have missed some, since I was going back through that part quite fast.
My interest in the book is suddenly piqued with the entrance of Wolfram. I love his attitude and he’s the first character to have some kind of interesting dynamic with our protagonist. I think this is gonna be a classic bickering-couple type of dynamic, plus he’s in the same age range (well, apparently not) as Yuuri so they can be more familiar. Probably this is the BL element..
I’m not sure I totally understood the throne wars politics. Can someone explain this to me? So the previous king was a woman, but what happened to her? And when she declined the throne, her power-abusing brother is left in charge of the transition… and I guess Conrad was supposed to be next in line. Am I understand that correctly? It’s worded like we’re supposed to figure it out but I get really confused with family lineage stuff, lol. Or wait, I wonder if it’s going to be revealed that the previous royal family now has to marry in to the royal family and Yuuri has to get married to Conrad or something…
What’s with that plot twist at the end though?? Lol.
Nothing? She is abdicating the thrown since ユーリ is here, but that’s it. (Good job noticing she was a woman, though, I didn’t catch that up until a later part)
Huh, no. He is not next in line (he is her second son, but he doesn’t even have フォン at the beginning of his name, so he probably isn’t even technically a noble).
I would assume that the king’s son would be next in line to be king…
because of how monarchies work in our world. I also got confused with the names, I meant to say Gwendal (?), the eldest son, not Conrad, the second eldest.
My further confusion is because Gunta refers to Wolfram as a crown prince (I looked up that word)
たとえ王太子しのあなたといえども許せません!
So… a prince is someone who is going to be king right? I think that was my misunderstanding.
I am also used to kings being for life so I was confused what happened to the previous one…but it looks like she just left. I think I’m taking “king” too literally here, and it’s more so a reference to some generic supreme ruler.
As for the plot twist, it’s that Wolfram is 82 years old .
Ah! That changes everything. Then yes, he was 王太子.
Same. My understanding is that he has a stronger claim to the throne because something that has to do with his soul. happen even in real life), although I don’t know if that gives her any power.
Ah, I guess I am too used to 魔族 and other elves in fantasy aging way slower
Done with week 4; I’m doing quite well this week. Given that, though, I think I’m going to switch from physical to digital. There are just enough lookups that it’s really breaking my flow, so I feel like I’m having to read a lot slower that usual. (It would help if you would stop referencing random pop culture/modern things, 有利. )
Wolfram is as much of a punk as I remember, haha. I’m wondering if I’ll like him more this time around; I’m not one much for tsundere characters.
I enjoyed getting a small overview of the various 魔族 races that lived in the kingdom, and how their coloring tied in with their tribe. I’m curious about how succession generally works for the 魔王, given the little bit I remember from the manga. Would Gwendal have succeeded his mother? Maybe reading more will clear it up… And did 有利 mention that アオ is a common Japanese horse name?
A question for my fellow readers: do 眞王 and 上王 mean specific things? Or are they just in-universe titles? My current understanding is that 眞王 refers to 有利/有利’s soul specifically.
眞王 is the first ever 魔王, who founded the country. He is dead, technically, but still has an impact on the decision making in the country (not clear if it’s a ghost, or more like a religion thing)
上王 is an actual title in real life. It refers to a king (or queen in this case) that transferred the throne to their heir before their death.
