Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll do anything to become a librarian! Part 4: Founder of the Royal Academy’s So-Called Library Committee, Vol. 2 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: 9781718356139
Rating: 4.25/5
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Description from the Book
Since the moment she set foot in the Royal Academy, Rozemyne has put her absolute all into her studies so that she can finally get into the library! Unfortunately, she behaves so abnormally in the process that her retainers and professors end up concerned…
Then, she clashes with the greater duchy Dunkelfelger over Schartz and Weiss, and a game of treasure-stealing ditter is arranged. In Rozemyne’s quest to do anything to protect the library, she continues to be a constant source of headaches for the leaders of Ehrenfest. She completely ignores diplomatic norms by accepting furtive consultations from other duchies’ archduke candidates, and even gives the prince himself romantic advice!
Personal & Info
The Barnes & Noble and ThriftBooks shop links have the correct titles, but incorrect images. The ebook version has the correct image, so something must just be wrong with the paperback images.
Characters
The cast of characters keeps getting larger and larger. To cut down on space, I’m only going to list the people who actually appear, and leave out the ones who only get mentions.
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 is a workaholic who handles the majority of the work that keeps the temple running, and must also occasionally assist the Knight’s Order, as well as assist the archduke whenever there is a request.
Sylvester is the 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. They are in the same grade at the Royal Academy.
Charlotte is Sylvester’s daughter and Rozemyne’s younger sister. She will be attending the Royal Academy next year.
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.
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. He is a strong man who loves cute things, but will never admit to it.
Rozemyne’s Retainers
Rihyarda, Rozemyne’s head attendant, is an archnoble, who previously took care of Ferdinand, Karstedt, and Sylvester when they were children.
Ottilie is one of Rozemyne’s attendants at the castle. She is an archnoble and friends with Elvira. Hartmut is her son.
Angelica, a sixth-year apprentice medknight serving as Rozemyne’s guard, hates studying and wants other people to think for her.
Cornelius, a fifth-year apprentice archknight, is Karstedt’s third son and Rozemyne’s noble brother serving as her guard.
Lieseleta, Angelica’s younger sister and a fourth-year apprentice medattendant, tends to like cute things. She is grateful to Rozemyne for not giving up on Angelica.
Brunhilde, a third-year apprentice archattendant, wants to help Rozemyne start new trends, and is in charge of assisting with social situations.
Hartmut, a fifth-year archscholar, is Otttilie’s son. He is dedicated to spreading Rozemyne’s reputation as the Saint of Ehrenfest.
Philine, a first-year apprentice layscholar, is determined to gather stories for Rozemyne.
Leonore, a fourth-year apprentice archknight, serves as Rozemyne’s guard, and helps teach Traugott and Judithe.
Traugott, a third-year apprentice archknight, is Rihyarda and Bonifatius’ grandson serving as Rozemyne’s guard.
Judithe, a second-year apprentice medknight, serves Rozemyne as a guard, and admires Angelica like an idol.
Damuel, a layknight, is Rozemyne’s longest serving guard. He does not accompany her to school, instead spending his time training to better protect her.
Rozemyne’s Personnel
Rosina is Rozemyne’s talented personal musician. She helps write and compose music that Rozemyne hums or sings.
Ella is one of Rozemyne’s personal chefs.
Royal Academy Professors
Hirschur is the Ehrenfest’s dorm supervisor. She previously taught Ferdinand, and they share several mannerisms and personality traits. She teaches and assists with mana control classes.
Rauffen is Dunkelfelger’s dorm supervisor. Rozemyne identifies him as a loud gym teacher stereotype.
Pauline is Frenbeltag’s dorm superviser and one of the music teachers.
Solange is a mednoble and the Royal Academy’s librarian.
Royal Academy Students
Anastasius is the Sovereignty’s second prince. He is a senior, so Rozemyne will only be at risk of dealing with him for one year.
Eglantine is an archduke candidate from Klassenberg. She is very kind despite her territory’s high rank.
Lestilaut is an arrogant archduke candidate from Dunkelfelger.
Roderick is an apprentice medscholar from Ehrenfest. His family is part of the former Veronica faction, and he was involved in getting Wilfried into trouble in Part 3.
Royal Academy Miscellany
Schwartz and Weiss are magic tools for the library in the shape of bipedal shumils, which look like rabbits.
Other Nobles
Eckhart is Ferdinands guard knight and Karstedt’s son.
Temple Attendants
Fran is Rozemyne’s head attendant. He is in charge of managing the High Bishop’s chambers.
Zahm helps manage the High Bishop’s chambers. Like Fran, he was trained by Ferdinand.
Monika is a cook who helps in the High Bishop’s chambers.
Gil is in charge of the orphanage workshop along with Fritz.
Nicola is a cook who helps in the High Bishop’s chambers. Her real passion is cooking.
Wilma is in charge of running the orphanage. She also draws any art necessary for the workshop projects.
Lower City Merchants
Benno is in charge of the Plantin Company. He assists and advises Rozemyne in her merchant endeavors.
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.
Mark is Benno’s right hand man. He helps manage the store and train the apprentices, as well as cover anything Benno might miss.
Otto is the new head of the Gilberta Company and Corinna’s husband.
Gustav is the Guildmaster of the Merchant’s Guild.
Story & Thoughts
Part 4 volume 1 focuses on catching Rozemyne up on events and describing what the Royal Academy is like. With that out of the way, and Rozemyne’s classes complete, this one can focus on more important things. It definitely feels like a larger number of events occur. It’s hard to choose what I like best in the volume, but the first things that come to mind are the ditter game and Rihyarda’s talk.
It’s unlikely any apprentice knights would think to use the types of strategies Rozemyne does without having any actual field experience. Her strategy is completely formulated from things she’s seen the Knight’s Order do in the field and feybeast knowledge gained during her hunt for jureve ingredients. Some might think her actions were malicious, but in a way, they were genius.
As for Rihyarda’s talk, it’s so sweet. The way she calmly speaks to Rozemyne explaining the difference between first, second, and third rate attendants and the importance of communication while they are learning how to best serve her is so heartwarming. Anybody can be a third rate attendant, but it’ll take a lot of work for anyone to become a first rate attendant working for someone as eccentric and unpredictable as Rozemyne.
I’m actually surprised by how many social missteps Rozemyne has apparently done since arriving at the academy. It seems like all she’s done is try to be helpful and stay out of trouble, but pretty much everything she has done has been wrong. Noble politics are so nuanced, she can’t seem to do anything without causing problems for Ehrenfest. I can’t wait to see how all this plays out. Will it all really be a headache for Ehrenfest, or will her actions inadvertently help? It can’t all be bad.
Honest Courting
This is Prince Anastasius’ perspective of the tea party he has with Eglantine after Rozemyne faints. He tries to take Rozemyne’s advice to be more direct to clear up misunderstandings. This requires him to swallow his pride and confess his true feelings and intentions.
I get the feeling that despite his frequent all mighty attitude, Prince Anastasius isn’t a bad guy. He’s haughty and arrogant, but seems to have a good heart. We see from the main story that he tries to be fair and upholds his decisions. This story is a good peek into his head to further verify he isn’t horrible.
Life Without One’s Lady
I think this one can technically be considered part of the epilogue. It’s in Leonore’s perspective and covers a few days of what she is doing to help the Ehrenfest apprentice knights train. Her first objective is to run them all ragged and take note of the results.
That’s not all it covers, though. Apparently, there are some issues with Wilfried. He seems to have some lingering behavioral problems from his time around Veronica. I hope they bring this up to Rozemyne when they see her again. He is being unfair to retainers that are not even his, just because they have been ordered to assist him. Wilfried doesn’t seem to understand what assist means. The lack of growth in this particular area saddens me.