Honzuki no Gekokujou: Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan o Erandeiraremasen—Dai 4-bu: Kizokuin no Toshokan o Sukuitai! - Vol. 4 Ch. 14 - Schtappe Acqui…

[KinGrove]

No, there was a real staircase. The place she reached, with the big plaza and the ivory tree, is real, not a metaphor.

But the "towering stairway" is something else, it is literally ascending to the gods after your death, that one is a metaphor (or maybe it exists for real? But since the story is written from the POV of the MC, and she hasn't died yet, the "towering starway to the distant heights" was so far never shown, only mentioned in religious lore).

Oh I see now, so the Spiral staircase at the end was real but the metaphor they made for her fainting and passing out at the way back was that she nearly climbed the Towering staircase. Got super mixed up since only one staircase was shown in this chapter and thought they were referring to the same thing.

 

[daedalron]

i genuinely didn't think the saircase would look like that but a bit more barebones (like a stone staircase like in ancient european towers XD also man is there so much to do with this chapter that's hidden behind spoilers XD) also 1 question that always bothered me with this is since we know that the teachers can enter what exactly would happen if a person couldn't find their devine will in the chamber? personally i have a few theories but those contain massive spoilers

If you failed to get your divine will, I assume you would fail the class. And be absolutely grilled by your dormitory supervisor for messing up. Your divine will is in that passageway. If you failed to find it, it means you were not attentive enough while walking there.

Spoiler

And considering they have to bother the royals to even just open the passageway (teachers can't enter on their own, they need to use a feystone containing a royal's mana), you messing up means the royals would have to be bothered again just for you. After that, your entire duchy will get some bad rep with the royals. I expect this would be enough to get demoted from potential noble to blue priest... And your entire noble house would get punished for failing to raise you properly.

 

[WhimsiCat]

Spoiler

though it had the unfortunate side effect of actually making the students way weaker since their Schtappe s werent attuned to their first year mana levels rather than their later ones.

Spoiler

It limits their potential down the line, but that only matter if they can grow further enough to be an issue like Rozemyne.
Wilfried, despite getting a lot more divine protections than their peers, didn't seem to have issue.

And IIRC even the 3rd year one was already a weaker one, since in the OG days you'd get your schtappe at graduation (where you've mostly peaked in physical growth, went through divine protection ceremony, etc)

 

[LiAuN]

If you failed to get your divine will, I assume you would fail the class. And be absolutely grilled by your dormitory supervisor for messing up. Your divine will is in that passageway. If you failed to find it, it means you were not attentive enough while walking there.

Spoiler

And considering they have to bother the royals to even just open the passageway (teachers can't enter on their own, they need to use a feystone containing a royal's mana), you messing up means the royals would have to be bothered again just for you. After that, your entire duchy will get some bad rep with the royals. I expect this would be enough to get demoted from potential noble to blue priest... And your entire noble house would get punished for failing to raise you properly.

Spoiler: clarification

i'm not saying that you don't see it that's really entirely on you and in reality yeah you should be demoted for that in that case. i'm talking specifically if you don't have one. which could be possible for devouring commoners in the current system as we don't have enough info on that specific potentiallity of what exactly defines a devine will. that's why i said it would go into heavy spoilers since it goes into info in p5 of the series.

 

[Kathartes]

Spoiler: clarification

i'm not saying that you don't see it that's really entirely on you and in reality yeah you should be demoted for that in that case. i'm talking specifically if you don't have one. which could be possible for devouring commoners in the current system as we don't have enough info on that specific potentiallity of what exactly defines a devine will. that's why i said it would go into heavy spoilers since it goes into info in p5 of the series.

In which circumstance would someone fail to find their divine will? It's not like a game of hide-and-seek where one need to upend every haystack to find a rock. Gods made that hall to hand out divine wills so they're all laid out in plain sight. I suppose the more mana one have, the closer they are to gods so the further they need to walk.

 

[Vulpix0r]

Can someone spoil me on what this legend that was created by her?

 

[Justking14]

Spoiler

It limits their potential down the line, but that only matter if they can grow further enough to be an issue like Rozemyne.
Wilfried, despite getting a lot more divine protections than their peers, didn't seem to have issue.

And IIRC even the 3rd year one was already a weaker one, since in the OG days you'd get your schtappe at graduation (where you've mostly peaked in physical growth, went through divine protection ceremony, etc)

Spoiler

it’s still an issue even if you don’t end up becoming as op as Myne. Hildebrand got his WAY too early and since his mana wasn’t done growing, he ended up essentislly crippling his own abilities. Not sure how much growth happens between his age, year 1, year 3, and the final year. But at the very least, mana compression should be learned and practiced religiously before getting it.

 

[kingdudman]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[LiAuN]

In which circumstance would someone fail to find their divine will? It's not like a game of hide-and-seek where one need to upend every haystack to find a rock. Gods made that hall to hand out divine wills so they're all laid out in plain sight. I suppose the more mana one have, the closer they are to gods so the further they need to walk.

Spoiler

it's not just mana that determines ones quality of shtappe but also their devine protections if the quality of the shtappe is too low for your devine protections then it will overload your shtappe. that's the problem and what my theories are based around. imo the baptism part of the ceremony is intentionally split in 2 both of which are there to indicate what you have to work on to get a good shtappe. the medal tells you the colors while the stick to stamp the medal shows you the mana capacity. problem is manyfold here. 1st as was previously the case shtappes are meant to be done after the protections ritual (so that it can't overload your shtappe) which is why this wasn't previously the case. then this is the case for devoureres they have NO devine protections meaning their mana is colorless a colorless mana means that there is nothing for your devine will to imprint itself on and the crystal wouldn't appear anywhere. the reason why this wouldn't be a problem previously is 2 fold most devourers have barely laynoble mana if even that so their shtappe would be low quality either way and they also would have gotten their protections before they got their shtappe so there's not much change. Problem is now they would enter the cave completly colorless which is why it may not have appeared anywhere. RM had the previous protections that Ferdinand had as her color was permenantly dyed by his to the point that the gods couldn't differentiate them but because she didn't have the same protections as him it was different Ferdinand got his shtappe AFTER he got his protections Myne got hers before her protections which is why the gods considerate them 2 enteties with the same mana but could be given seperate wills. which is also why they share the same names for the godess of light and god of darkness. TLDR. it's entirelly possible that any devourer evne RM despite her ADC mana capabilities wouldn't find the stone (if she wasn't permanantly dyed by ferdi) because she would have 0 colors herself and therefore couldn't find it.

 

[daedalron]

Can someone spoil me on what this legend that was created by her?

The legend of someone almost dying while going to find their divine will (a task that normally only requires someone to just walk for less than an hour). Definitely not a "legend" she is proud of.

 

[daedalron]

Spoiler

this is the case for devoureres they have NO devine protections meaning their mana is colorless a colorless mana means that there is nothing for your devine will to imprint itself on and the crystal wouldn't appear anywhere.

I cut your spoiler to a specific sentence. That sentence is wrong. It was confirmed in a fanbook by sensei (fb8 IIRC). Devouring children do get access to a divine will. Assuming they don't get protections first by praying to the shrines, it's a crappy schtappe, even worse than laynobles, and it is found near the entrance of the Farthest Hall.

 

[daedalron]

Spoiler

it’s still an issue even if you don’t end up becoming as op as Myne. Hildebrand got his WAY too early and since his mana wasn’t done growing, he ended up essentislly crippling his own abilities. Not sure how much growth happens between his age, year 1, year 3, and the final year. But at the very least, mana compression should be learned and practiced religiously before getting it.

Spoiler: P5V10 spoiler

Hildebrand ended up crippled, but maybe not the way you think of. He had already learned compression and trained for a few months, since he was sad to not be allowed in the archive the previous year. And his starting mana was very likely higher than his siblings, since his mother was from Dunk and not a middle duchy. So his schtappe is likely just as good as Sigiswald's, who got his in his first year, right after learning compression. Sigiswald has not seen any issue with his schtappe so far, so as long as Hildebrand doesn't get 20-30+ protections, he should be fine.
The real crippling is that his schtappe is not omni-elemental, and therefore he won't ever be a Zent candidate.

 

[Kathartes]

Spoiler

it's not just mana that determines ones quality of shtappe but also their devine protections if the quality of the shtappe is too low for your devine protections then it will overload your shtappe. that's the problem and what my theories are based around. imo the baptism part of the ceremony is intentionally split in 2 both of which are there to indicate what you have to work on to get a good shtappe. the medal tells you the colors while the stick to stamp the medal shows you the mana capacity. problem is manyfold here. 1st as was previously the case shtappes are meant to be done after the protections ritual (so that it can't overload your shtappe) which is why this wasn't previously the case. then this is the case for devoureres they have NO devine protections meaning their mana is colorless a colorless mana means that there is nothing for your devine will to imprint itself on and the crystal wouldn't appear anywhere. the reason why this wouldn't be a problem previously is 2 fold most devourers have barely laynoble mana if even that so their shtappe would be low quality either way and they also would have gotten their protections before they got their shtappe so there's not much change. Problem is now they would enter the cave completly colorless which is why it may not have appeared anywhere. RM had the previous protections that Ferdinand had as her color was permenantly dyed by his to the point that the gods couldn't differentiate them but because she didn't have the same protections as him it was different Ferdinand got his shtappe AFTER he got his protections Myne got hers before her protections which is why the gods considerate them 2 enteties with the same mana but could be given seperate wills. which is also why they share the same names for the godess of light and god of darkness. TLDR. it's entirelly possible that any devourer evne RM despite her ADC mana capabilities wouldn't find the stone (if she wasn't permanantly dyed by ferdi) because she would have 0 colors herself and therefore couldn't find it.

Spoiler

There's no colorless mana. The color of a person's mana is decided by two factors:

1. Mana quantity decides the tone: less mana = lighter tone, more mana = deeper tone.
2. Elemental affinity decides the hue: most living beings carry more than one type of mana, and the strongest type dictates its general hue (usually it's the color of their birth season, then secondly inherited from their parents' types). People with all affinities has pale white / rainbow mana, as when all colors are mixed together you'll get white light.

Devouring children are usually omni-elemental simply by the merit of having too little mana, there's no type significantly stronger than others (iirc it's mentioned somewhere by Ferdinand). But also because they have too little, their mana's tone is extremely light to the point of appearing colorless.

On the matter of mana signature: everyone, even feybeast or feyplant, have unique signature by their composition of mana. Rozemyne has her own too, but as a child with Devouring it's very malleable and easily dyed by other. It only took forever to revert back due to the Mark of Ewigeliebe (hardened mana clumps resulted from her escaping death's door multiple times), which acted like feystone and kept retaining Ferdinand's signature -- not to mention that she wore his protective charms all year round, literally being dyed 24/7.

Now, do gods consider it as problem? Probably not. They see thing in macro scale, as long as the country exist and flourish, it's not their concern whoever acquiring whatever schtappe -- good or bad. If a person has too little mana, they'll find their divine will at the entrance of the cave. But normally no such person get access to the Farthest Hall in the first place because noble society weeds out their rank before sending them to Royal Academy. Remember the knight who injured Rozemyne in Act 2 and got excuted? He was formerly a blue priest, but due to the country-wide mana shortage he was called back and still graduated normally. Which means the gods are very lax in handing out divine will, while noble society is more stringent with their rule.

 

[LiAuN]

I cut your spoiler to a specific sentence. That sentence is wrong. It was confirmed in a fanbook by sensei (fb8 IIRC). Devouring children do get access to a divine will. Assuming they don't get protections first by praying to the shrines, it's a crappy schtappe, even worse than laynobles, and it is found near the entrance of the Farthest Hall.

then i consede my point and i understand why i don't yet know... cuz that fanbook wasn't translated yet. but everything in the series pointed to that not being the case.

 

[CruiserEgg97]

i genuinely didn't think the saircase would look like that but a bit more barebones (like a stone staircase like in ancient european towers XD also man is there so much to do with this chapter that's hidden behind spoilers XD) also 1 question that always bothered me with this is since we know that the teachers can enter what exactly would happen if a person couldn't find their devine will in the chamber? personally i have a few theories but those contain massive spoilers

Let's face it most will have found their wills way early...

It's said that the recent gens are weaker... That and a spoilery fact you find out later in Part 5 of the series. Royalty

 

[Justking14]

Spoiler: P5V10 spoiler

Hildebrand ended up crippled, but maybe not the way you think of. He had already learned compression and trained for a few months, since he was sad to not be allowed in the archive the previous year. And his starting mana was very likely higher than his siblings, since his mother was from Dunk and not a middle duchy. So his schtappe is likely just as good as Sigiswald's, who got his in his first year, right after learning compression. Sigiswald has not seen any issue with his schtappe so far, so as long as Hildebrand doesn't get 20-30+ protections, he should be fine.
The real crippling is that his schtappe is not omni-elemental, and therefore he won't ever be a Zent candidate.

Fair.

Spoiler

ferdinand said he was basically doomed to be severely inferior for the rest of his life but he might not have known that he was already compressing mana

 

[Therealoddone]

... okay, so, my left when facing the entrance coming back, or my left on the way in?? This is why I still can't tell left from right.

---

Epic prank idea, sneak in a shining replica stone, so when the next year comes around, someone gets excited bringing back a regular stone instead of divine will.

---

Asocial technique: mime holding onto divine will everywhere, others will be reluctant to approach you, because what if you're really holding onto one? They can't see it to confirm.

Literally British driving. Whatever way you face stay to the left.

 

[daedalron]

Fair.

Spoiler

ferdinand said he was basically doomed to be severely inferior for the rest of his life but he might not have known that he was already compressing mana

What Ferdinand meant in P5V10 was

Spoiler

comparing Hildebrand to his classmates. Hildebrand's schtappe will still be a working one, just like Sigiswald's. But if you compare to some other ADCs who will have compressed for a full 6 years, and who have prayed to get more elements and protections, then yeah, his schtappe will be inferior to what it would have been if he had waited. But as a royal, he still had at least 5 or more probably 6 elements, and a quite high base mana. So he likely has a better schtappe than let's say Lestilaut, and yet Lestilaut is still considered as Dunkelfelger's successor. So it's fine for Hildebrand, he will be ok as Archduke Blumenfeld. He just needs to forget about any ambition to ever become Zent.

 

[Thorelf]

Can someone spoil me and tell me what's the deal with the place where her divine will was? Like, is that some holy place or something like that?