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
I have fallen behind and I’m planning to catch up later
I’m reading this at my own pace
I’m reading this book after the club has finished
0voters
After reading this week’s part, I think the werewolf is most likely…
ハヤト
ウサギ
ヤムネ
ツバメ
ギュウカク
0voters
(To avoid spoilers, this poll will always contain all participants, no matter what happens to them in the book.)
ギュウカク continues to baffle me a bit. Wouldn’t the 口のうまい奴 have a much easier game if they talk e.g. one on one and there are less people to call them out and keep them in check?
《少年と狼》
I was waiting the whole time for the wolf to come out
And I can’t decide whether the Count is doing some kind of LARP, or whether this is supposed to be a supernatural mystery…
Apart from that, not much to say this week. The kids look around a bit, a weird story is found, and they make themselves more at home in the hotel werewolf murder mansion. Let’s see what the second part of the chapter brings next week.
Don’t forget the ever important doing laundry scene. This is just powdered soap, not like liquid soap on the other floor
I get that in order for there to be excitement there has to be downtime, but I don’t want to read about doing chores in my werewolf book
The only thing I really thought of as a thing of note is that ハヤト told ウサギ that he wanted to split up, and she pouted for a second and that was kinda it. I thought that was going to be a lot more drawn out.
I definitely think that I’m supposed to think that because the torn up clothes were in the laundry room with ウサギ that it was super suspicious, but honestly I felt that was a perfectly reasonable explanation…
おれは子どもだ。大人みたいに正しいことを知ってるわけじゃない。
Sorry, kid, you’re in for a disappointing surprise.
Not much happened in this week, apart from a bit of 昔話 and domesticity kicking in. At least they will have clean clothes next time the wolf comes around.
Kinda hoping for the latter… but I keep have to remind myself that this is a children’s book and should be a bit more straightforward, no?
My money is still on ウサギ, but who knows at this point.
The paper making chapters may have dragged on though…
Speculation
This is the disadvantage of reading over weeks and with the Christmas holidays in the middle, but have we eliminated the possibility that the count is the werewolf? Didn’t he say earlier he was sort of a participant too?
It would also fit with the game going on for one extra round than normal for werewolf, as they elaborated on last week
Anyway, bookwalker readers, this week’s content ends on page 82.
He said that he has a bet with the werewolf, and either said or implied that he will win that bet if the werewolf loses. And that he is “on the side of the kids”, but won’t actively help them because the game should stay fair.
If I remember correctly, him having that bet was the “sort of a participant too” thing.
I don’t remember the “one extra round”, but yeah, that fits if one of the kids is the werewolf.
Normal werewolf:
Night 1: Werewolf kills (5->4)
Day 2: Villagers execute (4->3; they win if they execute the werewolf)
Night 2: Werewolf kills (3->2)
Day 3: No execution because it’s 1 villager vs 1 very smug werewolf without a voting majority
Night 3: Werewolf kills (2->1) and wins
We have:
Day/Night 1: Participants vote and werewolf eats (5->4)
Day/Night 2: Participants vote and werewolf eats (4->3)
Day/Night 3: Participants vote and werewolf eats (3->2)
Day 4: I don’t understand the rules in the “last villager votes for werewolf, werewolf votes for last villager” case, but someone probably wins
Question for you all while I read this week’s section: are you all voting in the “Most Likely to be a Werewolf” poll after you read the week’s section?
Oooh, exciting lore for the 伯爵 this week? I love the setup, and hope that the book continues in the fantasy direction of things rather than finding some way to dismiss it all.
I also smiled at the bit where ハヤト reflected on how, since he wasn’t a grown-up, he wouldn’t know the correct decisions to make. Just made me reflect on all the mystery novels and true crime stuff I’ve seen where being an adult is no guarantee of anything…
I was wondering as well, what the heck kind of super effective lies is the wolf likely to spout? “Hey ツバメ, I totally saw キュウカク with a tail yesterday.” He’s getting pretty paranoid (or spiteful), I have to say.
I’ve found the werewolf this week! Can’t believe you’d give things away like that, Legato.
Huh, I’m surprised you keep saying this because I’ve been taking everything at face value. It makes more sense to me that in this kid’s book there would be a literal werewolf/demon that the count is playing games with forever in his giant lodge.
Now, I do think there’s a possibility that the werewolf is real, but the deaths are not real. The deaths could be handwaved away with like ‘ohh but you wouldnt make the proper werewolf game decisions if you thought your friends were still alive, its not exciting that way’
Whew! I was worried
Not sure who to vote for this week as it didn’t seem like the status quo changed too much.
I think I’m leaning towards this as well. No actual child deaths but the adults are up for grabs, but there is a real supernatural foe the Count is playing against.
One thing leaning against this is that there are apparently a bunch more of these novels, and that’s a trick you can only pull once. However, meta-gaming it that also makes me think there’s a possibility that ハヤト or ウサギ have to take the count’s place at the end.
Honestly my first thought is that it’ll be a “different iteration of the game, different rules”. There’s 0 chance the author keeps the same ruleset, so keeping a same supernatural enemy doesn’t necessarily count them out, especially if they’re agreeable to the rule changes.
Firstly - it’s just not what I expected and “supernatural + super unclear rules” would be my least favourite outcome, so I’m a bit unwilling to accept it without any proof. And genre-wise I’d either expect it to be non-supernatural or clearly supernatural (i.e. magic is demonstrated early in the game, participants might have powers etc) which brings me to…
Secondly - we’re almost halfway through the book and we have yet to see anything supernatural happening. While the kids are surprisingly open to the possibility, it doesn’t seem to be a common occurence in their world either.
Also if the Count has a demon friend, why is he playing games like Solitare.
This is just powdered soap, not like liquid soap on the other floor 
I love the setup, and hope that the book continues in the fantasy direction of things rather than finding some way to dismiss it all.
Now to read the section (I hope getting a little behind with the book club isn’t a sign that I’m the werewolf!)
