Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 Volume 3 (Manga Review)
Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll do anything to become a librarian! Part 2 (I’ll even join the temple to read books!)
Honzuki no Gekokujou: Part 2
本好きの下剋上~司書になるためには手段を選んでいられません~ 第二部 「本のためなら巫女になる! 」

After the darkness comes the light. And the light shines in this latest entry of the Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 manga series. Plus, Lutz and Myne continue to be a cute, young couple, even if they are too young to know romantic love.

–> Buy Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 Volume 3 from Amazon.com.

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Delia agrees to keep quite about Myne’s plans to clean up the orphanage. Through Fran, Myne recruits a lot of gray priests to clean the neglected orphans and orphanage. She has Gil and Fran note who worked and who didn’t. Thus when the work is done, Myne provides a reward of hot soup for the workers, while those who didn’t work get nothing. And there’s an extra reward for those who worked the hardest.

Myne works with Benno and Lutz to make special gifts for her attendants and Lutz. She has Tuuli teach the orphans how to cook. The orphans are allowed to go out of the city walls to learn the process for making paper. Myne explains to Benno what a diptych is. She also shows him and Lutz that kuruta blocks are used to teach the alphabet with a drawing. Since Myne’s artwork is bad, the task is assigned to the gray miko, Wilma.

Myne continues to learn temple protocol, and to hold herself as a noble would. When the Star Festival arrives, Myne gets to attend for the first time in her life. However, she and Lutz get targeted to be pelted with taue fruit as part of the festival ritual. When they return to the temple, Myne discovers that a taue fruit absorbs her magic, germinating into the trombe trees. As such, Lutz and the male orphans cut down the trombe, gaining a ton of high quality paper wood in the process.

Up from the Darkness!

After the dark turn of the previous volume, it was nice to see Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 Volume 3 come up from that darkness. Myne has saved the orphans and put them to work with pay. The young, gray priests have learned the difference between “divine gifts” (scraps from the tables of the elite) and rewards for working hard. And of course, there are the gifts for her attendants.

I continue to like Myne and Lutz’s relationship. It is sweet, innocent, and wholesome. Their “date” to the festival was a fun one. I liked how Myne allowed the orphans to celebrate in one of the temple yards.

I do question how no one seems to know that taue fruit turn into trombe plants. The plant makes little sense to me. Under normal conditions, it produces a taue fruit, which apparently has seeds that then become another taue fruit tree/plant. But when exposed to mana, it changes into a dangerous (to the ground) trombe tree? This kind of knowledge would seemingly be a common thing. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Finally, I like how Myne works to help educate people. Knowledge is power, and considering how things are in this world, a great deal of power would be needed to make positive changes. Myne certainly has created waves in this world. We’ll see what kind of price she pays for it.

Omake

The omake manga chapter in Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 Volume 3 sees Tuuli and Myne visit Corina to make Myne’s ceremonial robes. The short story is about gathering taue fruit, told by an apparent orphan named Rico. (I find NOTHING online about the character, except for this short story appearance.) There are the usual notes from Kazuki-sensei and Suzuka-sensei. The extra manga page shows Myne deciding to allow Delia to draw a bath for her. The extra art page depicts said bath.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 Volume 3 was a lot of fun to read. I’m glad Myne’s efforts have caused some positive changes, especially for the neglected orphans.