Aquia Monus/Avari’s Book 1 is out on the Makai Ouji to Miwaku no Nightmare (MakaNai) app, and I’ve read up until Chapter 10, which I thought was a good stopping place as it’s [still] all rainbows and sunshine, albeit there are hints here and there that Aquia isn’t the biddable, meek person that he portrays to be.
For now, I’ve written up until Chapter 4’s summary as best as I can.
Warning: Spoilers here and there after the cut.
Chapters 1 ~ 4 dealt with MC trying to get her bearings about in a new world.
She first sees Aquia while in class as he struggles to burn a piece of paper with magic, earning him an after-school supplementary class with their teacher. MC, too, ends up the same, and they formally meet and introduce themselves to the other. Along with wanting to go home, MC ends up getting overwhelmed with the events that has been happening that Aquia notices how her coloring’s off. Aquia suggests that MC should go to the infirmary and offers to tell the professor where she’s off, and stays back.
Meanwhile, MC takes a detour and attempts to visit Lou to seek answers on how to go back to her world, but is stopped by Guy, who intimidates her into telling him where she’s off to and why, with the aid of Ancient Magic. Aquia [inadvertently] helps out when he sees his brother, calls him out, and begins to speak to him about an invitation that was sent to Guy, then moves on to start another topic about his grandfather.
(Curiously, when the choices to respond appear, if you say that “they’re only connected by blood”, you get the best intimacy points for both Honey/Magic and Spicy/Mischief.
If you pick, “They don’t resemble one another at all!”, only Spicy/Mischief goes up.
On the other hand, if you select, “They kind of resemble one another…”, then only Honey/Magic goes up.
At this point, I’m thinking that despite Aquia’s admiration for Guy, aside from their blood ties, he really does not want to be, in any way, connected to his brother.)
Guy, irritated that he and MC got interrupted during his interrogation, tells Aquia to speak to him later, and leaves in a huff. Sherry then sees the both of them, introduces herself to MC, and gets asked by Aquia if she could escort MC back to the dorms. Sherry agrees, as she has been wanting to speak to MC, who then thanks her, referring to her as ‘Sherry-san’. Sherry then asks her to drop the ‘-san’ (yobisute; 呼び捨て), as she would also want to speak and refer to MC with no formalities between them. Aquia bids them goodbye, telling MC to get well soon. MC then gets her confirmation from Sherry that despite the difference in their personalities, Aquia and Guy are brothers.
In Chapter 4, MC is at the Book Tower, is shown struggling with the books she is reading, as the text is all in English (Latin in Court of Darkness), a language that she cannot read properly and has to use a dictionary for it. She tells herself that she has to get better at magic so that she can go home, with failure not being an option. Lynt shows up, asks her if she’s studying (technically), and when MC says that she is, he tells her ‘Good luck’, and walks off to his secret place.
After some time, she tries to get back to her dorm room, but gets lost (seriously, Lou, would it kill you to give the new student a damn map of your Academy?!), and ends up midway between the Book Tower and the dorms. She then spots Aquia tending to the flowers there and comments upon how the place and the flowers look beautiful. At this point, Aquia tells MC to drop the ‘-san’, and MC decides to go with ‘Aquia-kun’.
Aquia explains that at first, he only started watering the flowers in the flower bed, until he started to take care of it more seriously; the fact that MC suddenly appeared in a place that no one goes to surprised him a lot. MC then remarks that she’s somehow glad that she got lost.
Aquia changes the topic and asks if MC and Guy were having that kind of relationship, prompting MC to deny it. She then uses this opportunity to say that she was surprised to find out that Guy and Aquia are brothers. In true Aquia self-depreciating fashion, he agrees that he’s really different from his brother in every way.
MC then tells him that he shouldn’t compare himself to his brother, because Aquia is his own person.
In the course of their hanging out, Aquia tells MC that they need to do a report about the Coldish Ruins’ ‘Eternal Fire’ (消えない火), and asks if she would like to go together with him to the ruins. After all, if they went together, they can compare notes and be done with it faster. MC agrees to this and they make plans to go on a certain day.
Thoughts:
Whoever came up with this scenario has been doing well so far. The way MC’s anguish and struggle to adapt to a new environment is really believable, and Aquia simply being nice to MC is earning him points from me. So far, among all the love interests available in this game, he seems to be the most compatible with MC in terms of their struggle to be academically competent, as almost all of them happen to be stronger and more competent than her in using magic. It remains to be seen if the Aquia in his own route is the real Aquia, or if he’s hiding something behind the meek and biddable mask that he portrays.
The transition between them as classmates and being good friends was evident in the dialogue, as Aquia went from ‘very polite’ to ‘MC is a good friend so I’ll speak a bit more informal but will still refer to her as ‘-san” 😂 it’s always good whenever a character gets a bit more laxed both in speech and in demeanor after becoming closer to the MC.
Chapter 5 and beyond should be out soon, hopefully. I’m a bit busy this weekend because of a collab cafe happening until next week so I am pacing myself with the reading.
Wanderlust 
Thanks for this translation! Can’t wait for more!
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