Kazuki Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 1 Volume 3

1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-7183-4604-8
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 400 Seiten

Reihe: Ascendance of a Bookworm

Just as Myne gets her foot in the door of making paper, she collapses due to the sickness known as the devouring. She's getting better thanks to the help of those around her, but the devouring remains clouded in mystery. As the world expands, so too does her passion for making books! This volume is the conclusion to Part 1 and shows a glimpse into the future of the series!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kazuki, Miya

Weitere Mitwirkende

Shiina, You

Quof

Leseproben

Discussing the Devouring with Freida

The feeling of being swallowed by heat and slowly devoured was familiar to me. I focused my mind as much as I could just like last time to try and resist it.

But despite mimicking what I had done in the past to survive, there was simply too much heat this time. No matter how hard I pushed, it just pushed back harder.

I kept on fighting away, swiping away at the heat with as much courage as I could muster, when suddenly it started getting sucked away in a certain direction. The Devouring heat around me started swooshing away, like a vacuum cleaner was sucking it all up.

I was so amused by the shrinking heat that I shooed it away with my hands like a dog, pushing more into the vacuum cleaner, when suddenly I heard a large snap. Immediately the heat stopped leaving me. No matter how hard I pushed, it just bounced back.

For a moment I reeled in horror within the greatly reduced fog of heat. Naturally, there was nobody to tell me what had happened. I was all alone. But I was also alive and could think about it later.

It felt as if there was about half as much Devouring heat as before. It wasn’t too hard to push the diminished heat into me and put a lid on it. I packed it all tight inside of me, like stuffing something into a cardboard box, and pushed it into a closet.

When I was finished, I felt immense relief and noticed my mind slowly rising out of the depths.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a world I didn’t recognize. First of all, it was dark. I thought for a moment that it was just that the sun had set, but it was only dark around my head. I could see light filtering in by my feet, which helped my vision adjust, and eventually I could see that I was lying in a bed with dark-green curtains hung all around it.

The curtains by my feet were pulled to be half open. Basically, I was in a canopy bed with thick drapes about half a foot or so away from the sides of the bed that were meant to block light and prying eyes. Only a rich person could afford so much cloth for something like this.

The bed itself was of a much higher quality than my old one, too. It wasn’t stuffed with straw, it was made of something soft and had a warm sewn sheet on top of it with a warm blanket too. Both felt nice to the touch. Honestly, this bed was just incredibly comfy. In my Urano days I had slept in a spring bed with a down-filled quilt or comfy blanket depending on the season, but a year of poverty had changed my standards completely. In fact, it honestly felt weird that straw wasn’t poking me from beneath the sheets and flying out everywhere as I rolled around in bed.

The bed I slept in with Tuuli was narrow enough that I had to be careful not to roll into her, but this one was wide enough that I could roll around as much as I wanted. I rolled to one side and saw a chair and a small table with an unlit candle beside the bed. There was nothing in this room I recognized.

Or there wasn’t at first, until I noticed something. My hands and hair were my own. I grabbed some hair and held in front of my eyes, which allowed me to confirm that I was still Myne.

I searched my memories to try and remember what had happened before I fell unconscious. Which reminded me that Benno had sent a messenger to the guildmaster before I passed out.

“...Aaah, I guess this is the guildmaster’s house, then?” I remembered that he had magic tools that could do something about the Devouring heat, and that Benno had made a deal with him, so this was definitely the guildmaster’s house. That explained why everything was so fancy.

“Excuse me, is anybody there?” My body was too heavy for me to sit up, but I wanted to get a grasp on my surroundings. Still at the edge of the bed, I reached out and pulled the curtains a bit. They wavered, and a woman who must have heard me passed through them.

“Please wait just a moment.” She left it at that and left. Unable to move and still confused, I remained wrapped in the blankets. My body steadily warmed up and my eyes began to droop.

As I started drifting off once more, I heard the door open and shut, then heard footsteps coming my way. I snapped back awake, like a seasoned slacker reacting to their teacher’s footsteps.

The curtains rustled and Freida entered with a lit candle shining on her light rosy hair. “Have you awoken, Myne? How much do you remember about what happened?” Freida set the candle on the stand and sat on the chair by the bed. I tried to sit up so we could talk, but Freida gently pushed me back down. “The heat must have put an enormous burden on your body. Please, rest.”

“Thank you. But I feel like I’ll fall asleep mid-sentence if I keep lying down, so...” I got up and sat cross legged as Freida smiled and shook her head, telling me not to push myself. “Ummm, okay, how much do I remember? I remember up until the heat burst out in Benno’s store and swallowed me up. There was so much of it I was being overwhelmed, and then it all got sucked away somewhere. Did you do that, Freida?”

The heat had never been sucked away like that before. She had likely used one of those magic tools Benno was talking about to save me, which meant an expensive magic tool had probably been destroyed in the process. I felt the blood drain from my face, and in contrast Freida nodded several times with a warm smile.

“That is mostly correct. I packed as much heat of yours as I could into the old magic tool. It broke due to that, but I imagine it took much of your Devouring heat with it. How do you feel?”

“Great! I feel a lot better. But aren’t magic tools really expensive...?” I asked, my face pale.

Freida informed me of the price with an extremely amused smile. “Indeed. The one that just broke was worth two small golds and eight large silvers. Benno said that you would be able to afford that, but I wonder if that’s truly the case.”

That pretty much confirmed that Benno knew the price of the magic tool when he paid me for extra information on the rinsham. The price he paid would be too much of a coincidence otherwise.

Feeling some degree of unease towards Benno’s actions, I looked at Freida and nodded. “...I’ll pay.”

“So you do have enough, then...? Then you’ve escaped me once again.” Freida opened her eyes wide, then pouted a little with frustration. “If you had been unable to afford it, we would have had you register with the Othmar Company rather than the Gilberta Company. Grandfather told Benno that the magic tool would cost a small gold and two large silvers, so I thought for sure you wouldn’t have enough. It seems that Benno thought one step ahead of us.”

I patted my chest in relief and Freida got a serious look in her eyes.

“If I may use an example, that magic merely sucked some water out of an overly full cup. There is still water in the cup, waiting to be refilled, and as you grow older the overall amount of water will increase.”

I nodded. Half a year ago it was worse than a year ago. A month ago it was worse than half a year ago. Now it was worse than it was a month ago. The Devouring heat was getting increasingly difficult to manage, and I was only fine now thanks to the magic tool. There was less heat within me now than before, but I knew better than anyone that it would refill and get worse over time.

“The problem is that the bigger the cup gets, the faster the water increases. I can imagine that it will only take a year at best before it is filled up entirely again.”

My senses told me that she was telling the truth, likely due to her own past with the Devouring. I nodded and Freida continued on in a flat tone, her expression looking as if she was intentionally cutting out her emotions.

“Therefore, Myne. Think well and choose. Would you rather live and die as a noble’s slave, or would you rather live with your family and rot away in a year’s time?” I blinked in surprise, not understanding her, and Freida gave a troubled smile. “Magic tools are generally held only by nobles. My grandfather purchased these old, nearly broken ones by fishing through his connections and paying exorbitant sums, but I believe that outside of the ones we own, you won’t find any other magic tools for sale.”

“Whaaaat?! A worthless, nearly broken magic tool still costs two small golds and eight big silvers?!” I opened my eyes...