Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 Volume 6 (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! 」

Well, the cover pretty much depicts the major event of this volume of the manga. So without further ado, let’s dive into it.

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SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

High Priest Ferdinand demands to know who Myne is, since her form of writing is that of a foreigner. Myne confirms she was born and raised in the city. However, she attributes her knowledge to a dream of a place (Japan) she can never return to. Ferdinand dismisses her to ponder this. Meanwhile, Myne and Lutz work on paper stencils for printing while Wilma produces drawings for the book. Wilma’s request to visit the workshop pleases Myne.

Encouraged by the finished result in print, Wilma works on more pages. Eventually, they have everything to complete a set of books. With Tuuli’s help, the binding on the first book is finished. To Myne’s delight, Tuuli wants to learn to read. Later, Fran explains the Harvest Festival to Myne. A middle age blue priest challenges her, but to Fran’s displeasure, Myne defers to him for now.

That changes when Myne discovers the man trashed the small library in the temple. Myne threatens bloody murder, but Ferdinand forbids her from acting against the man. As such, Myne uses this to reorganize the library with Gil’s and Delia’s help. She introduces the Myne Decimal System to the library. However, she discovers all books on magecraft are missing. Ferdinand says that only nobles are allowed those books, thus they are hidden in his chambers.

Myne’s book shocks Benno due to its quality. He’s not happy that she’s not selling them. Myne gives a copy to the delighted Delia as a reward. Myne then has to perform a song for the high priest, and he is satisfied. However, he informs Myne that she must spend the winter at the temple as part of her obligation.

Completed Book

And so after all this time, Myne gets her first book completed in Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 Volume 6. It has been a fun journey watching Myne make her dream come true. As I’ve said in the past, her memory of book making may be a bit of a stretch. However, the fact that she has to do trial and error on things helps mitigate that quite a bit. And thus, she learned why paper stencils aren’t great when used in printing.

That aside, I did get a kick out of how Ferdinand and Benno had different reactions to Myne’s first book. Benno saw the financial goldmine mass producing the book would have. And yet Myne frustrates him by revealing she’s giving them away as educational tools, even though she knows selling them would help with the costs.

On the other hand, Ferdinand wasn’t as impressed. To him, Myne’s book is simplistic. It needed an elaborate cover, and it needed color illustrations. However, he too got a reality check when Myne revealed they’d produced 30 of the books to date.

I liked that Tuuli will now learn to read. And I loved the reaction from Delia when she received Myne’s gifted book. Further, Myne’s book caused Wilma to become more courageous and actually visit the workshop. As a book lover myself, I appreciate what Kazuki-sensei is doing here.

Omake

As is normal for this tiny manga volume, Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 Volume 6 has a number of omake materials. The extra manga chapter deals with Myne’s difficulty getting the people of this world to accept the story of Cinderella. Delia is the focus of the short story in the volume. We have the usual notes from Kazuki-sensei and Suzuka-sensei. There are two 4-koma manga pages. The first is Myne’s desire to display her first book. The second is the evil priest’s orders to trash the library.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 Volume 6 with some final thoughts.

• Lutz and Myne continue to make a great team. I really like them together.
• I’m kinda surprised the high priest didn’t object more to Myne’s explanation of her origins. That’ll come up in the future, I guess.
• Enraged Myne is so awesome. I’ll admit, I’m a bit disappointed she didn’t get to punish the “evil” priest. However, I suspect this guy will return at some point.
• It amused me that Myne introduced her take on the Nippon Decimal System. Since the “world” of this manga has been limited to the city and the woods just outside, I wonder if the plan is to spread the Myne Decimal System.
• It is sad that Myne won’t get to stay with her parents for the winter. At least they can come and visit her in the temple. However, this is a separation wedge. Considering Ferdinand is making an exception for these visits, I wonder if the day will come when they will have to stop completely.

In the end, Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 Volume 6 allows Myne to complete her first book. Now to see what’s next for her.