That's alot of posts since I went to bed O_o
As for the *** thingy, I know the novel didn't have them, I just used them for me to figure out easily where the spacings for separations were, in case I needed to go back and edit something. But yeah, I guess I could just do a CTRL+F to look for the keywords
For the butler, the text is ニコライ, and I thought that would make it Nicolai, but upon a japanese wikipedia search, I came across a guy who's name was
Nicholai Though it's also true
Nikolai seems more russian...hmmm I'm good with either one actually, but I think you're right, it should be changed to one of these.
As for the "thoughts," I've been struggling with how to write them, because sometimes I'd forget to go back an Italicize them in the text, etc, because the copy paste method doesn't copy the italics over as well. But I finally settled for using "( and )" for the thoughts, but are we going to be using "[ and ]" from here on? It's fine with me, and it does look better than the parenthesis actually. (though the author uses parenthesis, not brackets)
As for why the author wrote the novel in...what way? Using parenthesis for thoughts? Honestly, I haven't really seen Japanese "italics" in a novel yet, though I haven't read too many either. So maybe they use brackets, etc....also, I have a question:
When they talk on the phone, usually the one on the side opposite the main character, (example: the setting is in Jin's room, and Sierra calls for Pizza, the pizza place has this format:) The quotations change. Normally, it's brackets, like: [blah blah blah] to indicate spoken dialogue. But for the phone call, they double the brackets, to show the voice is scratchy, or that kind of rough feel as it is being transmitted, and they use [[blah blah]], but we just use "" no matter what, so is it fine to keep it like that, or....?
Going to be translating next part soon. 14 pages actually, so I'll do 7 this sitting, and then 7 later in the evening. That should be chapter 3. Then 4 is done, and Trabius is already signed up for 5, so I think I'll start Volume 2 chapter 2 next, as T's speed is faster than mine, if he plans on continuing that is.
555 Trabius!