It’s not often that we see a long-running light novel series come to an end and even less often one as popular as Ascendance of a Bookworm.
So let’s talk about the series as a whole. How did you like the story? What were your favorite and least favorite parts? Was the ending satisfying? Who is your favorite character? Who is your least favorite? General thoughts?
I suspect it was cut for the squick factor of her being, effectively, a child consort. The deeper Frieda’s involvement in the story, the more it would need to bring her benefactor to the front and center. Even after the timeskip, let’s be honest, none of the readers are going to like this guy because of how their relationship began.
Kazuki-san’s writing style tends to acknowledge the darker aspects of her world without fetishizing them the way her industry peers do, and I suspect she wrote herself into a bit of a corner with Frieda. She was intended to educate us about Devouring and how the commoner and middle classes are trapped between powerlessness and exploitation in matters adjacent to magic. Could something have been done to “save” her? Certainly, though she was not written as someone who was particularly looking to be saved. Was it narratively worth the chapter focus considering where the story was going and who Myne would be associating with? Probably not.
This makes a good segue into…
This was one that many people were going to be uncomfortable with no matter what, and bringing Frieda’s circumstances back to the forefront would have risked entrenching the perception of unaddressed child exploitation even further. The only thing I can really offer in Ferdinand’s “defense” is that he was exposed to her older identity and appearance when he explored her memories, which could have anchored him into not seeing her as a child at all. (between that and her never acting like a “normal” person at all, let alone a normal child)
Myself, I’m kind of indifferent to it. He’s a compelling character and deserved a good ending, but the relationship needed a little more time on the cooker to smooth out the edges. A PoV flashback regarding how he saw and felt about her from the moment he explored her memories onward would have been beneficial, and I strongly feel that his reunion with her in the mana replenishment chamber was written with the intention of being revisited in a sidestory PoV that never manifested.
Good point about Frieda and her benefactor. I don’t remember, was he ever named?
Regarding Ferdinand, I agree that he is a compelling character and he certainly didn’t deserve to end up with Detilinde, but I’m still not convinced that Myne is the best solution here either. I am internally fighting with me because on the one hand there is a guardian marrying his ward, but on the other side there are so many unconventional circumstances around this that it turns into a “yeah … but …” argument in my mind. Did he ever saw her a a child after learning of her previous life? Did Myne for that matter? I feel like her Urano memories are more like knowledge without the accompanying emotions behind it. Did she ever miss her Motosu family the same way she missed her Ehrenfest one? Would Ferdinand reading young Myne’s memory come away with the impression that she is an “adult in a child’s body” or that she is a “child with knowledge of an adult”.
I had the same thought after I wrote that and looked him up on the wiki: Lord Henrik. What’s even easier to forget? He is Damuel’s older brother. I remembered that Freida had a cameo when characters received blessings at the end of Part 2, but completely forgot Damuel was in the same building for it! asdfasdfgdfsg
It just goes to show you just how far Freida’s circumstances get swept under the rug. She’s the consort of Damuel’s brother, and we’re rarely ever given opportunities for it to register.
(Edit: Going by the wiki Henrik was born 12-13 years before Myne, and Freida was born 1 year before Myne. Freida was 6 when she met Myne and already promised to be the concubine of a low ranking laynoble who was 17-18. Yurgenschmidt eugenics continue to provide for the creepiest things that happen in the series.)
You’ve pretty much encapsulated the dilemma. Most of us want the characters to be individually happy, but it feels off. We can visualize perspectives for Ferdinand and Myne that would help rationalize it, but we don’t have them. It needed more time.