Myne (Anime)/Story

Urano Motosu, a college student who loves books, dies when she is crushed by her book collection during an earthquake. On the verge of death, she prays: "May my next life once again be filled with all kinds of books." Her memories awaken in the body of Myne, a 5-year-old girl who is battling a life-threatening fever. Their memories combine, and she begins her new life as Myne.

She soon discovers that she is the sickly daughter of a commoner soldier in Ehrenfest, a city with a strict class structure and medieval-era technology. Her family — comprising her father, her mother, and her older sister — lives in a dirty townhouse without plumbing. Most distressingly, there seem to be no books at all.

When she struggles to tie her hair back with a ribbon, Myne asks Tuuli to make a hairpin for her. She later goes out to the lower city with her mother, where she discovers that the only writing in the entire lower city is the numerals used to list prices at the market.

Myne becomes faint at the sight of a butcher killing a chicken, and her mother leaves her with a local merchant as she finishes the shopping. The merchant has a book locked away in a case. Eagerly, Myne asks to see it. But he refuses, saying that books are extremely valuable and owned mainly by nobles. Undeterred, Myne resolves that if there are no books, "I'll just have to make them myself!"

Myne struggles to adjust to life as a poor commoner and continues her plans to make books. When her sister Tuuli returns from foraging in the woods with an avocado-like meril fruit, Myne learns how to extract oil from it and uses it to make homemade shampoo. It leaves her hair glossy and sweet-smelling, and her sister and mother are eager to use it as well.

Later, she and Tuuli go to the city gate to deliver their father's lunch. Myne is too frail to walk the entire way, but the neighborhood boys Ralph, Fey, and Lutz volunteer to help carry her. Lutz and Ralph both comment on how nice the girls' hair smells, flustering Myne.

When they arrive at the gate, their affectionate father Gunther praises them for their help. He also introduces them to Otto, a fellow soldier who can read and write. Seeing the parchment and ink he uses, Myne eagerly asks her father to buy her some, but he says it would cost him an entire months' salary. To cheer her up, Otto offers to give Myne a secondhand stone slate and promises to teach her to read and write.

As winter approaches, Myne attends the local Pork Stocking Festival, where commoners slaughter pigs to make bacon and sausage for the cold weather ahead. Once again, she goes faint at the sight of blood, and her family takes her back to the city gate to recover under Otto's supervision. While she's there, he gives her the slate he promised and teaches her how to write her name in the new world's alphabet.

Two months have passed since Urano's memories awoke in Myne, and a harsh winter is underway in Ehrenfest. She and her family spend the season working on winter handiwork, including sewing and basket-making. Myne tries to use reed fibers to make papyrus, but even with Tuuli's help, the work progresses far too slowly. After three days, she gives up and decides to make clay tablets in the spring instead.

Tuuli brings home parues, a winter fruit, and the girls work together to harvest the sweet-tasting juice. Myne notices the fruit's flesh looks a lot like soy pulp, and is surprised to learn it is usually discarded as animal feed. When Lutz and Ralph come to buy some of the extra feed, Myne uses it to make delicious paruecakes. The boys are delighted, since their family usually goes hungry over the winter. Lutz tells her that he'll lend her a hand whenever she needs help in the future.

Myne runs out of pencils for her stone slate and asks to go back to visit Otto at the gate to get more. Jealous of her admiration for Otto, Gunther tells her that she can't go visit him until spring. However, he has no choice but to take her with him to the gate when both Tuuli and Effa leave to harvest parues the next day.

She learns more of the alphabet from Otto. While she practices, he works on accounting ledgers and she notices an error in his math and corrects him. He asks her to help him with his paperwork, and she agrees in exchange for an unlimited supply of slate pencils and more reading lessons.

At home, Effa finishes Tuuli's baptism dress. Myne talks her father into making her a crochet hook and creates a decorative flower hair ornament to complete her sister's outfit. Tuuli is delighted with the gift.

Myne begins cooking for her family, using novel methods (like preserving vegetable broth) to make the food tastier. Her family praises her and suggests that she should apprentice with a chef. However, Myne says she plans to focus on making books and announces her plans to make clay tablets in the forest now that spring has arrived.

Her father reminds her that she's too weak to make it to the forest and tells her to focus on building up her stamina. He forbids her to go to the forest until he is satisfied with her progress. Instead, he suggests she begin working as Otto's unofficial assistant in hopes of eventually becoming a clerk. She agrees, and also continues learning to read and write with the apprentice soldiers.

However, Myne suffers a setback: Just as she becomes able to walk to the forest without tiring out, she falls ill with a fever. By the time she recovers enough to resume her plans, spring is nearly over. Her father allows her to go with the other children, but makes her promise to spend the day resting in the forest instead of foraging.

Unwilling to delay her plans further, Myne brings a trowel with her and begins digging for clay when she makes it to the forest. Lutz catches her doing it and becomes angry that she broke her promise with her father. Nevertheless, he honors his own promise by helping her dig up clay and shape it into tablets. As they wait for the tablets to dry, Myne explains the concept of reading and books to Lutz.

To her horror, Fey and another neighborhood boy stomp on the clay tablets, unaware of their importance. She loses her temper and her eyes change color, frightening Fey and alarming Lutz and Tuuli. Lutz calms her down and promises her that they'll all work together to make new tablets. However, it rains for the next several days and the tablets are once again ruined.

As Myne cries in disappointment, Lutz reminds her that "If you have the time to cry, then you have the time to try again." He helps her make a third set of tablets. While they work, he asks her about her plans for the future. She tells him she wants to live a life surrounded by books, and he admits that his own dream is to become a traveling trader and see other cities.

Finally the third set of tablets are finished, and Myne reflects on how far she's come. She resolves to write down all the stories her mother told her and keep them with her forever. However, when she puts the clay tablets in her family's clay oven to bake them, they crumble and explode.

Lutz suspected Myne being someone else after they spend more time with each other and confronts her. Myne agrees to Lutz's claim and telling him that the old Myne most likely passed away. In the end he accepts her for who she is and they make up.

Myne displays many extraordinary skills and ideas like plant paper making which leads to her successful business relationship with the merchant Benno. While Myne expands her connections in the merchant world through Benno, she befriends the granddaughter of Gustav the guildmaster. Freida also suffers from the Devouring like Myne so they are both happy to having found a kindred spirit in the other. One day Myne couldn't contain the heat anymore and was about to be devoured. Freida sold a magic tool to Myne which enables her to extend her life to up to one year. As magic tools are expensive and normally owned by nobles, Myne is confronted with two choices: She either signs a contract with a noble or withers away besides her family. Myne decides to stay with her family until the day she dies.

During her baptism ceremony she faints and is brought into a room to rest. After getting lost in the temple she finds a room which resembles a library. Being excited by the pure sight, she then meets with the High Bishop Bezewanst, the highest entity in the temple, and requests an apprenticeship which would allow her entering the book room. After hearing the amount of money Myne intends to donate, he asks Myne to talk to her parents and offers her to visit the temple to read the bible. Myne's parents got angry with her and explain the reason behind their anger. She understands and intends to decline her apprenticeship. Therefore, Myne visits the temple again where she encounters the High Priest Ferdinand. He was instructed to read the bible to her until the High Bishop arrives. When the Bezewanst arrived, Myne began her argumentation stating her bad health and the Devouring as reasons as to why she isn't fit for working in the temple, and hopes to cancel her apprenticeship. When hearing that Myne suffers from the Devouring, they made her touch a magical tool which shows that she possesses a certain amount of mana. What follows is a summon invitation for Myne's parents and the stronger intention in making Myne join the temple. The High Bishop thought Myne was a rich merchant child due to her appearance, but after seeing her parents he knows better. His friendly behavior changed to an unfriendly and condescending one towards Myne and her family, even resorting to violence after Myne's parents tried to cancel the requested apprenticeship. Myne witnessing her father's fight loses herself in rage and crushed the High Bishop using her mana until he faints. Ferdinand intervenes before she kills Bezewanst which leads to him being the new target. He convinces her to calm down and hold a proper discussion about her apprenticeship. They agreed on favorable terms, so Myne becomes a blue apprentice shrine maiden.

After a month, Myne officially assumed her blue shrine maiden apprenticeship. Therefore, she is walked by Lutz to the temple where she meets Fran. She parts with Lutz at the temple's gate and is guided by Fran to the High Priest's chambers. Ferdinand is in charge of her inauguration ceremony where Myne receives her blue robe. Following the ceremony, he introduces her to her three attendants, Delia, Gil and Fran. Everyone has their reasons but they all share one thing. They don't recognize Myne as their proper master while Myne doesn't see them as her proper attendants. While Myne bonds with each one of the three over the time, she learns more about the temple and her role as a blue shrine maiden. When the donation was due, Benno helped her to realize her short comings and was involved to immediately bring the donation over to the temple. Fran had trouble to accept Myne due to her mannerism and his frustration. As Myne changed he also changed his attitude. Gil lost his place to stay and the food he received before, directing his anger at Myne. Myne didn't know she had to take proper care of her attendants as a blue shrine maiden and feeding them the alms of the gods. When she learned about Gil, she works out a plan to offer him a place to stay and food, leading to her acquiring the orphanage director's chambers. Bezewanst was furious after hearing, that Myne got her chambers, which lead to him throwing out Delia. Delia was angry at Myne (due to her own fault though) and barged into her chambers. There she learned through Benno, that she can't get by acting like a hostess. She pleads to Myne to not abandon her, which would mean she had to return to the orphanage.

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