Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll do anything to become a librarian! Part 3: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke, Vol. 5 by Miya Kazuki, You Shiina
Series Name: Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll do anything to become a librarian! (Light Novel)
Genres: Fantasy, Isekai, Magic
Intended Age Group: Teen
Publisher: J-Novel Club
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 9781718356115
Rating: 4.5/5
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Description from the Book
Rozemyne needs only one more ingredient for her jureve: the ruelle fruit she failed to gather the year before. With it, she and Ferdinand can finally brew the potent potion that will make her a normal, healthy girl. Well, probably…She funnels her excitement into advancing the paper-making industry and gathering more support, all to create a world with more books for her to read. As winter approaches, however, the political struggles between nobles intensify. Various plots unfold and sow discord within the temple, and what happens next will forever change not just Rozemyne’s future, but her new little sister’s fate as well. Shocking developments bring Part 3 to its climactic conclusion! This volume also includes short stories leading into Part 4, and a four-panel manga drawn by You Shiina!
Personal & Info
This is the final volume of Part 3. The story itself is only about 220 pages, followed by about 150 pages of bonus chapters.
Characters
The Archduke’s Family
Rozemyne, is the main character. Now that her Devouring is under control, she mostly just suffers from poor health and low stamina. Her memories of her past life, and her upbringing as a commoner with merchant experience, give her unique ideas and perspectives unlike anyone else in Ehrenfest.
High Priest Ferdinand is Rozemyne’s guardian, and the illegitimate younger brother of the archduke. He handles the majority of the work that keeps the temple running, and must also occasionally assist the Knight’s Order.
Sylvester is the eccentric archduke of Ehrenfest and Rozemyne’s adoptive father.
Florencia is Sylvester’s wife, Rozemyne’s adoptive mother, and mother to Sylvester’s three children.
Wilfried is Sylvester’s oldest son and Rozemyne’s older brother.
Charlotte is Sylvester’s daughter and Rozemyne’s sister.
Melchior is Sylvester’s youngest child and Rozemyne’s younger brother.
Bonifatius is Sylvester’s uncle, Karstedt’s father, and Rozemyne’s grandfather. He covers for Sylvester while he is away at archduke meetings. Bonifatius absolutely adores Rozemyne and usually stays away from her for her safety.
The Knight Commander’s Family
Karstedt is the captain of Ehrenfest’s Knight’s Order. He’s also Ferdinand and Sylvester’s cousin, as well as Rozemyne’s noble father.
Elvira is Karstedt’s first wife and Rozemyne’s noble mother.
Eckart is Karstedt’s oldest son. He works for the Knight’s Order and serves as Ferdinand’s personal guard.
Lamprecht is Karstedt’s second son. He works as a knight serving as Wilfried’s guard.
Cornelius is Karstedt’s third son. He works as an apprentice knight serving as Rozemyne’s guard while she is in the Noble’s Quarter.
Rozemyne’s Retainers
Damuel is a knight and laynoble from Part 2, Volume 2, currently assigned as Rozemyne’s guard. He is Henrik’s younger brother. Henrik is the laynoble to whom Freida has a contract.
Rihyarda is Rozemyne’s head attendant in the castle. She is an archnoble who previously took care of Ferdinand, Karstedt, and Sylvester when they were children.
Brigitte is a knight and mednoble serving as Rozemyne’s guard alongside Damuel. She is the younger sister of Giebe Illgner.
Angelica is an apprentice knight and mednoble serving as Rozemyne’s guard alongside Cornelius. She hates studying and wants other people to think for her.
Ottilie is an attendant at the castle. She is an archnoble and friends with Elvira.
Lower City Family
Gunther is Myne’s father. He works as a soldier who currently guards the city’s East gate.
Effa is Myne’s mother. She dyes clothes for a career.
Tuuli is Myne’s sister. Her current occupation is apprentice seamstress and she strives to move up in the industry. She currently works for the Gilberta Company as a leherl.
Kamil is Myne and Tuuli’s baby brother.
Temple Attendants
Fran is Rozemyne’s head attendant in the temple. He is in charge of managing the High Bishop’s chambers and making sure Rozemyne learns everything she needs to know for her job by the time she needs to know it.
Gil is one of Rozemyne’s attendants in the temple. He is in charge of running the workshop inside the orphanage, and traveling when new workshops need to be set up.
Wilma is one of Rozemyne’s attendants in the temple. She is in charge of running the orphanage and therefore does not reside in Rozemyne’s own chambers. Wilma also provides the art for anything the workshop makes.
Monika is a cook who also helps in the High Bishop’s chambers. She admires Wilma and does her best to emulate her to learn from her example.
Nicola is a cook who also helps in the High Bishop’s chambers.
Fritz is one of Rozemyne’s new attendants. He helps Gil run the workshop to lessen his workload and cover for him when he needs to travel for business.
Zahm is one of Rozemyne’s new attendants. Like Fran, he was trained by Ferdinand. He helps manage the High Bishop’s chambers.
Personnel
Ella is Rozemyne’s personal chef.
Hugo is Rozemyne’s personal chef.
Rosina is Rozemyne’s personal musician.
The Gilberta Company
Corinna is Benno’s younger sister. She is the head seamstress of the Gilberta Company.
Otto is the head of the Gilberta Company, and Corinna’s husband.
The Plantin Company
Benno is in charge of the Plantin Company. He assists and advises Rozemyne in her merchant endeavors.
Mark is Benno’s right hand man. He helps manage the store and train the apprentices, as well as cover anything Benno might miss.
Lutz is a leherl apprentice. He helps make sure the Rozemyne workshop is in order and acts as a go-between for scheduling merchant relevant visitors. Lutz also helps the workers at the orphanage understand how to use and make the things Rozemyne thinks up.
Damian is Freida’s older brother and Gustav’s grandson.
The Othmar Company
Gustav is the Guildmaster of the Merchant’s Guild.
Freida is Gustav’s granddaughter with a nose for money. She has a contract with a laynoble to manage her Devouring.
Leise is Freida’s personal chef. She also assists with any projects the company has involving cooking.
Other Nobles
Oswald is an archnoble serving as Wilfried’s head attendant.
Moritz is Wilfried and Rozemyne’s instructor.
Justus is Rihyarda’s son, and one of Ferdinand’s estate attendants. He serves the role as scholar and tax official when necessary. Justus gathers both magical materials and information as a hobby.
Giebe Illgner is Brigitte’s older brother.
Georgine is Sylvester’s eldest sister and the first wife to the Duke of Ahrensbach.
Veronica is Sylvester’s mother, currently in prison.
Viscount Joisontak is part of Rozemary’s family. He insists Rozemyne is his niece.
Viscount Gerlach is a noble loyal to Georgine.
Gutenbergs
Ingo is the foreman of a carpentry workshop. He has Rozemyne’s exclusive business for her carpentry needs.
Johann is a smith talented with fine detail work. He can make otherwise impossible ideas a reality.
Zack is a smith good at coming up with ideas in the form of schematics. He can come up with several usable schematics of varying difficulty using abstract descriptions.
Heidi is an ink craftswoman who loves experimenting with new types of ink
Josef is Heidi’s husband, and an ink craftsman.
Other
Kampfer and Frietack are blue priests receiving training from Ferdinand to help lighten his workload.
Richt is Hasse’s new mayor.
Achim and Egon are the gray priests who are going to stay the winter in Hasse to help educate the citizens.
Volk is one of the gray priests involved in setting up the workshop in Illgner. He wants to stay there.
Carya is a good friend of Brigitte’s back in Illgner. She wants to marry Volk.
Dirk is a Devouring baby abandoned to the temple. In part 2, he was forced to sign a submission contract with Count Bindewald of Ahrensbach.
Delia is Rozemyne’s former attendant from her days as a Shrine Maiden. She takes care of Dirk like he is her own brother.
Lily is one of Egmont’s attendants. She returns to the orphanage in exchange for another after becoming pregnant.
Story & Thoughts
After reading this, I love Bonifatius. He usually keeps his distance from Rozemyne, because he’s an aggressive and excitable person, who usually can’t control his strength, which makes him dangerous for her to be around. He only had grandsons until Rozemyne, so he absolutely adores her. It’s unfortunate she isn’t aware of how he feels.
I like how the climactic events are handled. They are intense and emotional, but have humor mixed in, so they soften the blow for the heart-wrenching parts. I already know there are more Parts to the story, so nothing too terrible can happen, but the emotions still hit hard.
It’s clear that Ferdinand loves Rozemyne. I was touched by his aggressive protectiveness of her. He was speaking the truth when justifying his actions, but I don’t think he’s ever been as emotional or passionate about anything in the entirety of the story.
There are so many loose ends by the time everything is done. Thankfully the seven bonus stories help fill in some of the gaps and answer some questions. As always, I am in love with this series, and can’t wait to read more. I can’t get enough of it.
Grandfather on the Day of the Baptism
I was already loving Bonifatius during the regular story, but this bonus story just makes me love him more. It’s the events of the day of the Baptism in his perspective. He dotes internally on Rozemyne all day, and worries like crazy during the chaotic events of the climax.
This bonus also covers the investigation following the end of the volume’s events. Bonifatius’s thoughts and contributions prove he is not just some meathead. He is smart with a good intuition. The investigation would be at a dead end without him. The chapter also touches on what will happen with Georgine’s scheduled visit next year.
In Place of My Older Sister
Charlotte and Wilfried gain a new respect for Rozemyne when they try to cover all of her jobs, from managing the winter socializing room to her duties as the High Bishop. Wilfried thought he understood, because of their switch day, but he still had no real idea. Charlotte, whose perspective this bonus is, thinks Rozemyne has to be some sort of goddess to do everything she does.
It’s saddening to read this chapter. They’re trying so hard, but Charlotte feels so useless and inferior. Rozemyne has become so important to the regular functioning of Ehrenfest that there is a void to fill whenever she isn’t around.
Two Marriages
This bonus story is in Giebe Illgner’s perspective. It covers the events regarding Volk’s purchase, and the public spectacle of Damuel and Brigitte’s proposal. If I’m being honest, I’m disappointed, but I get it. It seems Giebe Illgner put more thought into things than Brigitte did. However, I think her request for Damuel to choose was unfair.
No Rest for Us
This one is in Lutz’s perspective. Lutz and Tuuli do their best to learn etiquette, while the Gutenbergs all stay busy with projects to fill their time. Unfortunately for Benno, he doesn’t get the break he thought he was getting. More work gets dumped on him with yet another tight deadline. Elvira previously discussed this project with Rozemyne, so it was bound to pop up eventually.
Meanwhile at the Temple
Rozemyne is currently unavailable to provide stories for the workshop to print. This is Fran’s perspective of things during that time. The temple’s overall workload is extra busy, and nobody knows how to compose simple stories into something publishable. I think Rozemyne should add creative writing to her education program.
The Laynoble Guard Knight
This whole bonus chapter is Damuel’s perspective during a conversation with his brother regarding his proposal to Brigitte. As with Brigitte, Damuel’s family put more thought into the proposal than he did. Between Two Marriages and The Laynoble Guard Knight, we get the full explanation behind things and why they turned out the way they did.
One Handful of a Chef
Okay, this one makes me happy. This is in Ella’s perspective. When she was originally introduced, it was clear she had a crush on Hugo. Hugo started seeing someone shortly after, and I got bummed, because two passionate chefs together would be super cute. Well, it’s finally come full circle. Hugo has finally started to look at Ella as someone who would be a good partner, who also understands the demands of his job. I’m happy for them. I’ve been rooting for them since the beginning.