Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.8 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

Hello again, it’s Miya Kazuki. Thank you very much for reading Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 5 Volume 8.

This volume’s prologue was from Justus’s perspective and took place around the same time as the last volume’s epilogue. The story depicted their journey from Ahrensbach to Ehrenfest and their conversation with Sylvester after being informed that their lord was in danger. They both have some pretty violent thoughts, don’t they? Writing this chapter made that all too clear to me.

The main story began with Rozemyne’s battle preparations. She reunited with Eckhart and Justus, then took a nap and got ready to sortie. She used the Book of Mestionora to its fullest, exploited the country gates for speedy travel, and even managed to get Dunkelfelger’s knights on her side. Please continue to cheer for her as she makes good on her promise: “I’ll do anything to save Ferdinand!”

Georgine then launched an attack on Ehrenfest, believing that Ferdinand was dead. Matthias learned that his home province was under attack by his own father, who had ruled it as a giebe for years and years. Can he beat Grausam to save Gerlach...?

This volume’s epilogue was written from Georgine’s perspective. I took care to include as much information about her plot and past as I could. I’ve said in previous stories how Sylvester feels about Georgine, but this was my first time covering how she sees him and Veronica, so it seemed pretty fresh. What kind of an influence did her mother and younger brother have on her while she was growing up?

There was only one traditional short story for this volume, but I think I’ve more than compensated for that with a slew of original short stories grouped together as “The Defense of Ehrenfest (First Half).” They were written to better convey what happened in Ehrenfest while Rozemyne was rushing to save Ferdinand. A lot of pretty nostalgic characters from Illgner and the lower city make appearances once again. I did my best with them, so please enjoy!

The last original short story focused on Ferdinand. I decided to write it to celebrate his pulling way ahead in the reader poll we did, but, well... I ended up having to trash a lot of potential outlines. Going into too much detail about his thoughts upon reuniting with Rozemyne or his emotions would have spoiled some upcoming revelations, so after racking my brain for what felt like forever, I settled on a sequence of flashbacks instead.

The bonus short story for the seventh drama CD was written from his perspective too. It detailed him visiting Erwaermen in an attempt to finish his Book of Mestionora.

This volume’s cover art reflects the battle against Lanzenave. You can see Rozemyne using the aub’s protection, Ferdinand with his two loyal retainers, and the heroic duo that is Heisshitze and Hannelore. The country gate and one of Lanzenave’s ships are in the background. How cool is that?!

The color illustration depicts this volume’s grand reunion. At first, I requested a collage of everyone fighting the Lanzenavians, including the retainers not featured on the cover, but Shiina-san asked me to reconsider, since it was essentially more of the same. She then had the brilliant idea of making the illustration mirror their separation in Part 4 Volume 9. Shiina-sama—thank you.

And finally, my utmost thanks to everyone who read this book. May we meet again in Part 5 Volume 9.

February 2022, Miya Kazuki