Part 1 Volume 1 Chapter 5: Lifestyle Overhaul

Lifestyle Overhaul (生活改善, Seikatsu Kaizen) is the fifth chapter of the Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1 Volume 1 light novel series.

Summary
The first step towards books is paper. But Myne could not find any paper at home so far. While pondering about her next steps, Effa and Myne arrive at home. Tuuli arrives almost simultaneously with them from her foraging. Myne inspects Tuuli’s spoils and asks for the avocado-like fruit to extract oil for her shampoo making plans. Tuuli gives her two of the meryls after thinking a bit. Acting according to Myne’s memories, she gets a hammer and smashes the meryl into flying bits. That earned her an ice-cold, angry reaction from Tuuli who supposedly taught Myne how to extract meryl oil in the past. Due to the previous Myne’s jealousy, she barely paid any attention to Tuuli’s teachings. Before Myne was able to clean up her mess, Effa returns from the well, and the next sermon follows for Myne. When she finally cleaned up all her mess, she goes for another attempt to extract the oil and asks Tuuli for help, as she seems less scary. Tuuli blatantly asks Effa whether she could teach Myne how to extract oil. Effa gives her permission as she does not want Myne to create another mess again. So, the two sisters go into the storage room, as all needed tools are in there. Tuuli teaches her their family’s way of getting the oil, but Myne decides to extract oil from the whole fruit. Proud of her work, she sees her depressing result. In the end Tuuli is the one getting all the oil for Myne, with Myne being on putting-away-the-tools duty. After cleaning up Myne asks Tuuli for some herbs for her shampoo. She chooses the best smelling ones and adds them to the oil. When she seems to be done, Tuuli wants to take the bowl to her mother who is preparing dinner. Myne immediately grabs the bowl and covers it protectively with her whole body. After a little dispute Effa and Tuuli give up and leave Myne alone with the bowl. After the herbs’ smell manifested, she adds a pinch of salt. With the shampoo finished, she asks for hot water, which she has done the past days as well. Being used to it, Effa gives her some hot water. Putting everything on a waterproof cloth, Myne preparations are completed. With her limited amount of water, she thinks about the best way to wash her head. She dilutes her shampoo in the water-filled bucket, with Tuuli watching her shocked. Then she cleans her hair by dipping it into the solution. Following that, she dries her head and combs her hair to remove shampoo remains. Her hair now shows her original dark blue contrast and has a slight jasmine scent, which she happily enjoys. Tuuli shifts from shocked to positively surprised, comparing Myne to the night sky with moons. From that Myne learns about her eye colour. After seeing Tuuli’s curious gaze, Myne offers her to clean her hair as well with the simple all-in-one-shampoo, which she happily accepts. After repeating the same steps as Myne and a little help of the latter, her hair becomes silky and natural waves emerge. When Myne was about to clean everything up, Effa approaches and uses the shampoo as well.

Now satisfied with an itchy-less head, her next project is improving cleanliness in her home. Gunther took the next day off, so she begins cleaning the bedroom with him. Using her wits, she gets Gunther to clean the spider webs and the rest of the ceiling. Meanwhile, she cleans the floor with a broom, but she quickly reaches her limits. Effa noticed the pile of filth by the kitchen and comes to look after Myne, the latter looking sickly. Myne was brought to bed and told to get some rest. Now that her hair is clean, she shifts her focus to paper.

Appearances

 * Myne


 * Effa


 * Tuuli


 * Gunther

Highlights of the Chapter

 * Faux-shampoo/simple all-in-one-shampoo created with meryls.

Trivia

 * Tuuli gathered firewood, nuts, mushrooms, and herbs.


 * Dirt and soot are no issue, but fruit oil on wood, especially the walls of a house, make people angry, as the oil damages the wood.


 * Myne does not like the previous Myne because of her attitude towards Tuuli, as the current Myne appreciates Tuuli’s effort as her older sister.


 * To extract oil from a meryl, Myne’s family uses a metal stand and piece of cloth. The meryl is wrapped inside the cloth, to prevent the fruit pieces from flying around, and then beaten up by a hammer. After crushing everything, one rings the cloths over a small bowl until no oil comes out anymore.


 * Adults or growing boys, when strong enough, use juicing weights to crush fruits instead of a hammer.


 * Once strong enough to operate juicing weights, growing boys are entrusted to help with adult chores.


 * Most parts of meryls can be eaten. That is why Myne’s family commonly eats the fruit and extract oil from the core only.


 * Meryl oil is thick and white.


 * Myne’s shampoo, is based on her experience with her Urano mother, and is created by using the meryl oil, crushed herbs, and a little salt.


 * According to Tuuli, meryl oil tastes nasty when it takes over the herbs flavour.


 * Myne has dark blue hair and seemingly yellow or gold eyes.


 * Myne and Tuuli share one bed.


 * Myne has several reasons to offer cleaning her sister’s hair, one of them is motivating Tuuli to make more shampoo.


 * Myne makes Gunther dry her blanket at the window.


 * Myne’s family’s mindset concerning cleanliness goes along the line: Why cleaning when it gets dirty again?


 * Myne’s home has barely any furniture or similar things.


 * Myne’s non-auto-translated words: simple all-in-one-shampoo