Ascendance of a Bookworm Episode 24

Ascendance of a Bookworm Episode 24

Knight Orders and Requests

Although Ascendance of a Bookworm is a slice of life fantasy series, episode 24 shows us that the world still has action and adventure in it. We just, unfortunately, don’t get to see that action and adventure most of the time. I know I’d like this series more if it was more of an adventure series.

In this episode, we’re introduced to the Knight Order, which is the military of the nation (the name of which we still don’t know). The inclusion of the Knight Order is actually something I find really cool because there’s a distinction between them and the standard military/town guard.

Myne’s father is the captain of the guard — which is to say that he’s higher up in the military than your standard grunt soldier, but he’s still a commoner. If he were a grunt soldier, he would probably live within the barracks. But he’s also not a knight, because that would mean he’s a noble.

A magic bird messenger from the anime series Ascendance of a Bookworm season 2
A magic bird messenger

Just as the church has a distinction between commoners and nobles (gray and blue robes), the military is the same way. And this distinction between classes in the military isn’t some fantasy construct — this is how real militaries used to function.

War is expensive. Not only are arms and armor expensive, but so are horses and everything else you need to travel from one battlefield to another. For this reason, knights (samurai in Japan) were men who belonged to the noble class because only they could afford all of this.

Of course, random commoners fought in wars as well. But when you think of a stereotypical knight, you’re thinking of a noble.

But, Ascendance of a Bookworm does have one more distinction between knights and standard soldiers. Since nobles in this world are the only ones who can use mana, that’s the primary distinction between a knight and a soldier. Myne’s father simply can’t do the things the knights can.

The Noble District

To further drive home the point that the Knight Order is made up of nobles, Myne and the head priest must travel into the noble section of town to meet them. This is a walled-off section of the town that requires mana to be entered — so commoners can’t get in even if they try.

It’s unclear whether the head priest still resides within the noble district or at the church. I would imagine he lives at the church, but at the same time, he appears to be a fairly high ranking noble. We know he’s wealthy enough to donate a bunch of magic books to the church library, and we see that even the captain of the Knight Order follows his lead.

Fran also states that the reason the head priest isn’t the one who’s going to be giving the Knight Order the blessing of the church is that his duties as a noble come before his duties as a church leader. I imagine this would only be the case if he was from an important noble family.

The head priest and Karstedt of the Knight Order from the anime series Ascendance of a Bookworm season 2
The head priest and Karstedt of the Knight Order

In the picture above, you’ll see that the captain of the Knight Order, Karstedt has a tan cape while the head priest’s is blue. I wouldn’t read too much into the color of the head priest’s cape. His cape is probably just blue because that’s the color of the church — and it has nothing to do with his actual standing as a noble.

The head priest’s status aside, let’s take a look at the noble district itself.

From what we’re shown, the noble district seems to be primarily residential. The entire district is laid out on a grid, with each block being a single, gated residence. There’s no town square (there’s an open area in front of the gate), no markets, and notably, no castle — though the buildings do get larger the farther from the main gate they are.

I’m still interested in who exactly rules over this unnamed country. Is it a joint effort between the church and the nobles? Or is there actually a ruling family with a king somewhere?

Battle of the Trombe

We’ve been told in the past that trombe plants are dangerous. They suck the mana out of their surroundings and grow uncontrollably. And at the beginning of the series, it even took the town guard to defeat one of these magical plants. But as the series progressed, trombe seemed to be less and less of a threat.

It got to the point where Lutz, Gil, and other boys wielding cleavers were able to dispatch trombe plants before they got out of control. This, in turn, likely led Myne to believe that trombe plants were a good source of fiber for her paper — and apparently a good way to release her mana without the need for magical items.

But all of that is about to change. The battle the Knight Order is heading to isn’t against an opposing army or a dragon — it’s against a massive trombe in the forest outside of town.

A trombe tree destroying the surrounding forest from the anime series Ascendance of a Bookworm season 2
A trombe tree destroying the surrounding forest

Two things are likely to come out of this battle against the trombe. First, it seems pretty obvious that something’s going to happen to Myne. One of the knights who was left to guard her is pretty suspicious, and in the previous episode (or two episodes ago) Myne was told to be careful because she’s a target for kidnapping.

If she does get kidnapped, it’s a 50/50 chance that the perpetrator is successful. On one hand, I think Myne has enough mana to protect herself. But on the other, she is wearing a magic ring that’s using her mana up.

The second thing that’s likely to happen is that Myne will understand the true dangers of using trombe fibers to create her books. Until now, I don’t think she (or the viewers) really understood how dangerous these plants can be.

Conclusion

What did you think of Ascendance of a Bookworm season 2 episode 10? I liked it more than most of the series so far. And I hope we actually get to see the battle between the knights and the trombe in the next episode. Let me know what you think is going to happen to Myne in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Leave a Comment