By the way I noticed that both of you unearthed a couple of links to people - Iâd be happy if you could add them to the OP of the respective volume so that we have everything in one place
I know that I somewhat missed out on a bunch of references in at least one of the volumes, but currently Vol. 11 is keeping me busy as well with a deep-dive Massive Royal Tapestry update incoming!
Also, Iâm going to edit the post about Raulâs father as he was named in the volume. I forgot which chapter now, but itâs exactly that man - it all fits with the description and historical facts - so Raul is a fictive son of his. ^^
Ugh, okay, so I read chapters 6-10 over the weekend, and I never feel like posting here on the weekend, so Iâve got a lot of thoughts to unload. Iâll try not to be as long-winded as I usually am; sorry for all the rambling, guys.
Chapter 6
So, here we are at the poisoning, this time from Kaitoâs POV. First up: looks like Kaito hasnât been hiding that model boat in his pants constantly @NicoleIsEnough; he at some point took it apart (carefully, I hope), and hid the pieces under his bed. Hopefully he wonât have to suddenly flee from the palace/his room isnât given to anyone else anytime soon. We get a small cute scene with Leo and Kaito doing a bit of bonding, then itâs time.
I thought it was interesting that Kaito could actually smell something different in the soup, especially given that it was garlic soup. Maybe the poisoner just really dumped it in there? I want to theorize on Raul somehow being the poisoner, and dumping in way too much to try to tip Kaito off to not just gulp the soup down, but I donât think the timing works; he wouldâve been with Vicente and the king at the time. Anyway, Kaito waves it off as probably just differences in whoever was preparing the meal, which honestly isnât the worst reason to think of when considering odd-smelling soup, and takes a sip.
Man, itâs a good thing he only took one; just that was enough to lay him out. He gets some mouth-to-mouth from Vicente (itâs not gay if itâs in the Bible, according to Raul), and here the chapter ends. Pretty good chapter overall; all I wanted was to see Vicente worry over and take care of Kaito, so Iâm satisfied. :3
Chapter 7
Vicente POV. Heâs immediately treated to Kaito mumbling Geoffreyâs name in his sleep, poor guy. He tells Kaito that Walsingham was the instigator behind the poison, and Kaito, in a moment I was pretty happy with, is shocked, and then tells himself he probably shouldnât be that shocked.
Vicente has a moment where he thinks about the unintentional kiss he gave Kaito during resuscitative activities, reminding himself that he only did it to save Kaito. (Now that youâve kissed him once, Iâll allow you to do it again Vicente >.>)
Vicente points out that, in its own way, the poisoning actually benefitted his case: itâs a mark against Kaitoâs beloved England that they tried to poison him, and Kaitoâs one step closer to living the ideal, worry-free life in beautiful Spain. I have to say, it cracks me up every time Vicente goes into dreamland and imagines Kaito living in paradise.
This is also when we get our first (or one of the first, canât remember now) real discussion between Kaito and Vicente and how trapped and powerless Kaito feels in his current situation. I gotta say, I think Vicente did a really good job talking Kaito through all this: he points out how no one, even Walsingham and Vicente, doesnât experience fear, and how they all make their own cages that they have to break free of. He also points out that, as able as he appears to be, there are many things in life that Vicente needs help with: piloting a ship, for instance, or even mending his own clothes.
Kaito goes on to talk about his feelings of how heâs having trouble reconciling the image of Vicente as the evil Spanish man kidnapping him and the kind Vicente who would do anything for Kaito, and Vicente doesnât try to defend himself or justify his actions, which I really liked; he acknowledges that Kaitoâs views of him are valid. The last few lines of this section were just :
Whyyy æŸćČĄć ç, why do you do this to my heart? Can you really make everyone happy by the end of this series??? Iâm gonna have to prepare my heartâŠ
Anyhow, Kaitoâs asleep and recuperating, so Vicente takes the opportunity to walk and talk to Raul and to Leo about what he saw in the kitchens and about who the poisoner could be. Vicente grills Raul again about his involvement in it all, and Raul maintains his image of being an untrustworthy fellow (even his character art looks slippery in the character bookâŠ).
Vicenteâs informed that he has to Philip IIâs, uh, sister? Cousin? Maria, whoâs relationship status I canât remember atm.
(Ch 7 spoilers)
Iâm in total agreement! I was thinking to myself earlier how much fun Raul can be; he sounds like a terrible person to know in real life, but he definitely keeps you on your toes in the book! Plus he hasnât done anything obviously evil to Kaito at this point, which helps.
Ah, I see her now. Itâs a bit tough to tell their relationship from the diagram, though with everything going on in there itâs completely understandable why.
Gonna skim over this chapter real quick: Vicente meets Maria, Philip IIâs sister, and finally learns the identity of the woman he saved from the pervert all those years back: Philip IIâs daughter Isabel.
Maria tells Vicente of two upcoming witnesses in Kaitoâs trial: ă«ă”ăŒăžăŁèčé· and Father Escobar, neither of which are a surprise.
One final bit of info, correct me if Iâm wrong: the man who molested Isabel (canât be bothered to look up his katakana at the moment) is related to Leivaâs family, giving us an opening for some potential Leiva v. Vicente action if Leiva starts feeling overly threatened in regards to who Philip II likes more.
Yes, but then also, European aristocrats! Everybody is marrying their first cousin⊠Wikipedia explicitly spells out that Philip IIâs son is also his grand-nephew The English side was amazingly clean and straightforward in that respect.
No surprise that in this aristocracy everybody is either crazy or infertile or dies in infancy already. It really speaks for the robustness of the human biology that this could go on for such a long time.
Okay, letâs finish off my thoughts! Starting with quite a chapterâŠ
Chapter 9
So here we are. The content warning chapter. I had a feeling everything was going way too well in the trial beforehand. The whole instigator in this mess is Escobar, who has had his own dirty laundry of fiddling around with boys/young men during his priestly duties aired to the court. Ah yes, we all knew you were a piece of trash, Escobar; thanks for confirming it, Raul. He and ă«ă”ăŒăžăŁ pile on at the end of the trial to talk about all the times theyâve seen Kaito living in the captainâs cabin on various ships, and Raul helpfully mentions that thereâs an easy way to tell if someoneâs been taking a vacation from the opposite sex: just bend them over and see if you see any unusual marks/traces.
An incredibly uncomfortable situation is made even worse by the palace doctor mentioning that, actually, he too knows of a foolproof way to check for gayness should the bend-over test not work: just shove a wooden stake up their ass and see if they like it. Good god. (I was also feeling pretty bad for the women this stake is normally used on. At least they shouldâve all been dead at that point, according to the doctorâŠ)
Man. æŸćČĄć ç gets way more hardcore with these scenes than you would ever expect. Please donât tell me you took inspiration from that scene with the Raven where he mentions shoving a red-hot poker up a kingâs butt, ć ç.
Unsurprisingly, Kaito is determined as not being a fan of all of this, and heâs officially declared innocent of all charges. âŠIâm so sorry, Kaito. Iâm glad he got to vent some steam here at the end. Iâm glad Vicente got to be there with him; at least Kaito had someone he could trust with him.
(Ch 9 spoilers)
So I will say here this is a waaaay different situation from a doctorâs visit. Basically everyone in that room besides Vicente is anti-Kaito to some degree, and are looking to find guilt. Iâm with Kaito on his resistance.
(Ch 9 spoilers)
I was thinking the same thing, haha. A map would be useful to know how worried I need to beâŠ
(Ch 9 spoilers)
âŠIâm trying not to imagine having to listen to this.
Chapter 10
Taking a slight breather here, Geoffrey, Nigel, and Kit have arrived in Madrid, Spain! Theyâre waiting around to hear from è, Drakeâs spy in the country, and in the meantime we get a bit more info on Geoffreyâs past/mindset. Man, I really need to go back and re-read his backstory waaay back in volume 1, because Iâm pretty sure I didnât really absorb it all then, and it definitely didnât have the emotional impact recent events would lend to it.
Basically, since his childhood was terrible, he associates having to sleep in cold, dark rooms as also terrible, hence a need to want to sleep with another person (in the same bed), or at worst have some light in the room. Interestingly, he mentions having used Nigel as a sleeping companion (man, is there a good word for sleeping with someone in the same bed with no sexual connotation?) in the past:
Ugh, I know there are several extra stories focused around Geoffrey and Nigelâs earlier years together; I really want to read them. Anyway, there are unsurprisingly few people who would be interested in sleeping with Geoffrey without sleeping with Geoffrey, Nigel and Kaito being the only two exceptions heâs mentioned.
The spy finally shows up, âMiguelâ, and Iâm willing to bet money itâs Raul, the slimy guy. (Heâs got a really busy schedule if it is him, haha.) (Speaking of which, if Raul is è, who is è ? Raul as well? Someone else?) He chats about Kaitoâs current situation, and mentions heâs going to be moved from El Escorial. I was double-checking this section @NicoleIsEnough, and it does read like Kaitoâs already been moved:
I took a glance at chapter two of volume 11, just to see who weâd be following, it looked like Vicente and the king mightâve been talking about the move then. Maybe they donât and Iâm off base, but just wanted to mention!
And the bros. are off. Man, theyâre getting so close! Iâm looking forward to hearing the Spanish discussion about moving Kaito; do they figure the dratted English have given up on him? Maybe, since Walsinghamâs already begun to move? And whatâs going to happen with Nigel once they get Kaito back?
And finally my reminisces are complete! This was a really good volume overall; this whole Spain arc has been all around. Maybe Kaito needs to go traveling more often.
(Ch. 10 spoilers)
Considering how Nigel was doing the majority of the translating and talking this chapter, he mustâve been studying up in the meantime. I like a man with language skills. I think it was also mentioned that Kitâs been working on his Spanish; I think he interjects a few Spanish comments during their discussion with âMiguelâ.
(Ch. 10 spoilers)
I think theyâre not supposed to be undercover when talking with him, since âMiguelâ is on âtheir sideâ and therefore âtrustworthyâ. And man, Iâm gonna squeal if Jan gets sent as the messenger; does Raul know about his past with Geoffrey? I want to say no.
(Ch. 10 spoilers)
This is all incredibly fun speculation, I have to say. My thoughts are this: Raulâs endgame is get Kaitoâs power for himself somehow, or use it in such a way that he/his family benefits in the long run. Iâm thinking he might legitimately help Geoffrey and co. here to try to keep Kaito in as neutral a space as possible (i.e. somewhere where heâs easier to access than El Escorial, where Raul usually has no business being). Granted, if Kaito ends back up in England thatâs not exactly easy to reach eitherâŠ
(Ch. 10 spoilers)
We havenât been given any real details as to snake and scorpion so besides that each âlikes moneyâ or somesuch; it was really vague stuff. I really wouldnât be all that surprised if Raul was both.
Thank you so much for the links!
Now I think thereâs only two things on my F&B to-do list besides reading volume 11: I want to go back through my notes for this Spain arc and check to make sure the wiki for each volume is up-to-date with what I saw/make sure weâve got everyone accounted for in the royal diagram, and I want to make more headway on getting scans of some kind available for the extra stories. Most of what weâd be reading around this point are the doujinshi, which are all really long. @.@
I thought it was more of a conical thing to measure the diameter to which the relevant body part could extend? It was a device usually used to check whether a woman was still a virgin, so I donât know if a wooden stick would have cut it. Kaito just happened to dislike it so much (no surprises here though ) that the doctor jumped to conclusions by simply judging from his behaviour. That in addition with the apparently unsuspicious anus (on the previous visual inspection) seemed to have been enough for him.
But doesnât his resistance to the visual inspection make him even more suspicious?
(Not that Iâm not talking about the check with the device, just the first inspection.)
I think he just went to Madrid where Maria lives? On modern roads thatâs about 50 km.
The Internetâą has this to say about horses:
Unlike horses trained to complete everyday journeys in the past, modern ones are less capable of doing the same, with rare exceptions. While horses traveled about 35 miles (56.5 km) daily in those times, most of them can travel only 25 miles (40 km) a day nowadays.
Also, he may have changed horses on the way which means he might have been able to go faster.
Re Chapter 10:
Haha the struggle is real, in German as well! Usually I add something like âyou know, side-by-side with eyes closedâ and so far I think I got the message across
The way he was described did not lead to a lot of other conclusions, did it?
Oh no, I meant for the other guests, as they are still discussing in the pub/restaurant of that place, i.e. in full public view. I thought they had established their camouflage to mislead everybody there?
Yep, I also think Raul doesnât know, and I was getting all excited when this thought popped into my head!
Likewise for yours! Curious to see how this all unfolds.
(Ch 9 spoilers)
âŠIâm going to have to go back and check. Now Iâm not sure. I was thinking that a test for female virgins would be checking the state of their hymen and whether itâs broken or not, since I know thatâs been a traditional (if not accurate) way to test, and I wouldnât think diameter of the testing object would matter as much in that case, would it?
(Ch 9 spoilers)
Probably, especially how he did even try to make a break for it before they had to hold him down for the visual. Dunno how that affected their evaluation in the end, though; could be the Inquisition reps were sympathizing internally; it didnât sound like theyâd done something like this before.
(Ch 10 spoilers here downwards)
Other people discussing it online suggest that you could emphasize the âtheâ with âsleep in the bed withâ, but⊠thatâs kind of awkward. âGeoffrey likes to sleep in the bed with other people.â I guess that kind of gets your point across, but⊠Both of yours are better suggestions.
Agh, youâre probably right. Iâve been typing replies in between work, so I probably havenât been paying as much attention as I shouldâve been.
Ah, gotcha. Maybe as long as they whisper theyâre fine? Even Miguel/Raul doesnât seem all that concerned, and youâd think heâd want to move the party if there a chance theyâd get guards called on them or something.
I have a little tracker sheet Iâve been using; I can post it if youâre interested. Just wasnât sure how interested others would be to see it.
I was wondering about the identity of âMiguelâ as well. Not sure what to make of it.
Agreed! I think his motivations are self-serving. Whether heâs helping Spain or England in the end, it is going to serve himself primarily.
Yeah, as I remember, itâs mentioned that Marlowe, who knows Latin, has gotten Spanish under his belt. heâs the one talking to the French people (i forget who they were), hearing rumors about the trial. Which makes sense, since Latin is helpful for learning Spanish. Nigel having gotten that good in such a short time, is a little doubtful, but Iâm just gonna say, sure why not!
Hahaha now I see Kaito with Geoffrey and Vicente in bed, the latter two each fondling Kaito with one hand and having the other hand in a firm grip around the opponentâs throat
Currently read up to chapter 7, got a lot to cover so just some brief thoughts so this doesnât get too long. Chapter 1
Got super excited seeing weâre starting out with Kazuya again. Heâs apparently spending all of his weekends in Plymouth researching more about what he saw happen that day. Kaitoâs in a situation where he canât continue looking into it so Iâm really curious to see if weâll get any new information about the different worlds from Kazuyaâs side.
Chapter 2
Getting Raul as a lawyer seems like a good idea, the guy gives off super snakey vibes but that seems like a quality that could really help in a lawyer. Finding out heâs also an English spy (well a double one for the Spanish) makes me wonder if heâs Drakeâs or Walshinghamâs (or both?) mentioned last time.
Chapter 3
Really keeping the tension going by changing perspectives now just after the trial started. Geoffrey and co. are already on board working on their plan for how theyâre going to reach Kaito, which entails a new haircut for Geoffrey and Kit. I wish we got a picture of Kitâs haircut too if it was bad enough for him to hole up in the captainâs room
Chapter 4
Seems like getting Raul to help was a good idea, the trial went way smoother than I expected. With that Kaitoâs cleared of his first charge, but the second one seems like it wonât be quite as easy to get out of. At least after that heâs allowed to go back to his room, although this time he canât get away from being locked up.
Chapter 5
Them getting through the first part of the trial so smoothly and then reading that Vicente backstory really made me put my guard down, I was not expecting this chapter to end with Kaito getting poisoned so soon.
Chapter 6
Going back a little bit from the end of the last chapter, we see what happened from Kaitoâs perspective. Poor Kaito, he just got out of prison and canât even enjoy a nice bowl of soup without being poisoned. Luckily with Raulâs treatment knowledge and Vicenteâs CPR they manage to bring Kaito back from the brink of death.
Chapter 7
Once Kaito wakes up he and Vicente have a good talk and it seems like a big breakthrough for Vicente with Kaito, heâs still conflicted but finally opening up about that to him and talking about how heâs really feeling. Iâm glad Vicente is introspective enough to also own up to that fact that heâs partly to blame for putting Kaito in this situation.
Later Vicente discusses whatâs been found out about the poisoner so far with Raul. They were likely someone posing as an outside monk staying in the monastery who was able to get access to the kitchen, but they canât get more information as the suspect has already managed to get away. This happening at the monastery means that Geoffrey is going to have a much more difficult time infiltrating with the increased security. They also talk a bit about Raulâs reasons for becoming a spy, itâll be interesting to see how things with him go from now on because it seems like the guy would have a lot of fun watching the world burn.
Totally agree on this one. He was made for the job, really.
Anyway, happy to see all your impressions, pyororon! Man, re-reading your summaries brings back how crazy this book was; everyoneâs in a constant crisis, basically. Looking forward to your thoughts on the end.