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Chapters
Chapter
eBook %
Physical
Chapter 1
%
p. 7
Chapter 2
%
p. 26
Chapter 3
%
p. 42
Chapter 4
%
p. 70
Chapter 5
%
p. 87
Chapter 6
%
p. 110
Chapter 7
%
p. 131
Chapter 8
%
p. 154
Chapter 9
%
p. 176
Chapter 10
%
p. 202
ăăšăă
%
p. 214-215
Discussion Rules
Discussing anything is fine, be it about language questions, about the contents or about real historic events! Please state clearly which chapter (or roughly which percentage) youâre referring to, and please hide spoilers. Also, donât forget the forum etiquette, of course.
Buying the Book
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The book mentions a lot of real (as far as we know ) historical figures and events. Here are some information resources on them. (Please be aware that if you want to go in 100% blind, these lists will contain some spoilers for you)
Please add Chapter, Page, if possible, when something is mentioned in the story.
Sorry, @eefara I still ended up reading this volume.
spoilers below
In any case, this volume start off with some big plot develoments for Jan. Theyâre about to leave for Lissabon, to board a ship and then to sabotage the Spanish war efforts. But, before leaving, Jan finally receives word from his payed spy, a messenger awaiting him in an alley. There, Jan finally finds out Manuelâs location and his first steps to be freed of Raulâs clutches begins. I wonder if can get Manuel to safety before the war starts? Then he wonât have to put up with Raulâs manipulations or take part in the dangerous planâŠweâll see what happens for sureâŠdun dun dun
Chapter 2 thoughts
At the end of last chapter, it became clear weâre moving forward in time several months? And now the POV switches to Vincente and Alonso, whoâs already in Lissabon, waiting to board their respective ships.
And thus it begins. Chapter 1 begins with the now usual ă€ăł POV. Raulâs plan to sneak Jan onboard Medina Sidoniaâs ship to cause his chaos gets stopped cold when he realizes that Vicenteâs going to be the navigator onboard. The two are prepping to go to Lisbon, where heâll have Jan pick a different ship to board, when Yan sees his contact waiting for him outside, presumably with news about Manuel. Jan finds an excuse to slip away, and is able to get a letter from the guy he sent searching for Manuel.
Looks like weâre starting off with a Jan perspective again. Raul is finishing up preparations before they can start making their way to Lisbon to carry out his plan when Jan makes eye contact with someone outside who appears to be waiting for him. He makes an excuse to leave to find this person and they turn out to be a messenger, carrying a letter with the whereabouts of Manuel. With this Jan is finally free of Raulâs blackmail and with perfect timing, now he can start to plan his own revenge.
Iâm glad to see something happy happen to Jan for once, hopefully this is the start of Raulâs actual downfall
I was starting to get more worried about that when he was about to grab the letter, thank god heâs not though that would be a little too sad
Chapter 2: Weâre back with Vicente and Alonso in Lisbon. Itâs all politics as they discuss the sorry situation of the Armada at present: Medina Sidoniaâs claimed illness and hasnât arrived yet, so V&A and discussing plans on how to rally the troops and force Medina Sidonia into not chickening out of the upcoming fight.
Vicenteâs not entirely convinced on the invasion due to Kaito, but heâs a faithful Spanish knight at heart and is doing his best to figure out how to heighten Spainâs odds. We got a sweet moment where he thinks about the fact that he doesnât want to face Geoffrey in battle, because he wonât be able to kill him because itâll make Kaito sad, and he doesnât want Kaito to be unhappy in his remaining time on Earth. Why are you so perfect, Vicente?? I had actually forgotten he refers to Geoffrey as éé«ȘăźæȘé.
Anyway, we end the chapter with a surprise visitor: Miguel de Cervantes!! You know, there was no mention of the code Kaito left Vicente, so Iâm assuming he hasnât made any headway on it. Maybe a meeting with Cervantes will provide a breakthrough?
Okay, I need to temporarily stop here for the day to get some stuff done; Iâm only a bit into chapter 3 so far, but Iâll write my thoughts so far while theyâre fresh.
Still with Vincente, surprisingly. Itâs some time later, and he and Cervantes are attending a party thrown by Medina Sidonia now that heâs back on his feet and in Lisbon. Cervantes wasnât granted permission to join the Armada, so heâs feeling pretty depressed and like he has no real purpose in life. In an effort to cheer him up, Vicente tells him about Kaitoâs prophetic abilities and how Cervantesâ name would one day be known the world over for his literary work, which cheers the man right up.
Alonso swings by and he and Vicente get into political manuvering mode, and thatâs where I gotta pause.
Chapter 3 done. Alonso decides to have Cervantes speak to Medina Sidonia, have him give a rousing speech thatâll fire up the soldiers and force MS into a corner to have him be more proactive with the invasion. Cervantes agrees, and gives quite a nice speech to boot, but manages to get MS to give him a reward: he allows Cervantes to accompany the Armada as an observing poet, on Alonsoâs ship specifically. Vicente, now would be a great time to tell me your progress on Kaitoâs hintâŠ
Edit: I forgot to mention! One of the short stories published just before this volume was briefly mentioned: çäŸŻèČŽæăźæăăż. My thoughts on it and quick recap here. Vicente recalls the sword match he had with Kaito in that story.
Chapter 4: Back finally to Kaito after an entire volume of tense waiting. He and Nigel go to Lilyâs hut, where they reunite with Kit and Lily at least. Kit gives Kaito a big hug and a kiss on each cheek, just in time for Nigel to wallop him for it. Kaito gets changed with Lily and gives her a gift: teabags! He also brought some extra TB medication with him just in case sometime else caught it from him (how did he get his hands on that? Did he stop taking his own meds?). Kaito and Lily do a little catching up; Kaito learns what happened immediately after he left the Hoe, and Lily encourages him to vent his frustration with Geoffrey. Next up: convince Kit and Nigel to let him go to London to help save Geoffrey.
Back at it~ Chapter 5: Kaito catches everyone up on what happened with him back in the 21st century. Nigelâs pretty shocked at his grandfather: a) being alive, and b) being from another world, and doesnât seem too eager to forgive him easily after leaving his grandmother to live in poverty while he rolled around in riches.
Kaito proposes a plan to get Geoffrey out: tell the Queen a plan to use fire ships to scatter the Armada and rely on the fact that England will need to source itâs Navy from anywhere they can. He figures sheâll realize that only stupid/reckless people would willingly go along with the fire ship plan (i.e. Geoffrey), and itâll be another chance to prove his loyalty to the English crown.
He does have a moment of concern thinking about Vicente, but he seems to be getting better at only worrying about things he has control of.
Nigel and co. agree to the plan, and the chapter ends with everyone scattering to get ready. Nigel also gets a nice moment with Kaito, so Iâm wondering if his new plan is âstill be somewhat intimate with Kaito, but donât make it weirdâ. Weâll see.
Chapter 6: A surprise POV change back to Vicente. We have a country to invade, after all! Iâm not doing the best job of keeping track of dates on either side of the channel, so this probably shouldnât come as a surprise, honestly. I believe Kaito and co. have been living in the future, as it were, and Vicenteâs been lagging behind a bit.
Preparations for the invasion are still going poorly, generally. The notable event of the chapter was Vicente accidentally realizing that Jan may have purposefully designed the new model ships with weakened hulls, something Nigel and Geoffrey realized and (I think?) may have brought up to the Queen. This kind of makes me wonder if Vicente will be able to meet with Jan while Janâs hiding out on one of the ships, and what will happen then.
The Armada finally sets off, but their timing weather-wise is awful, and two months after departure theyâre still sitting off the coast of Spain, in desperate need of supplies and repairs. Itâs July by the time this happens, so they sounds be mostly caught up to the present, I think.
Edit: Aaah! I forgot about the note/hint Kaito left Vicente! What about that?!
Chapter 7: Kaito, Nigel, and Kit arrive in London to meet and talk with Robert Cecil to see if they can get his help in freeing Geoffrey. I didnât realize he saw Kaito as such a dear friend; this was a good chapter for them.
They discuss a bit about the upcoming Armada invasion and about the Earl of Leicesterâs poor health, then move in to the topic of Geoffrey. Kaito outlines his suggestion about the fire ships, which Robert thinks is a generally good idea, but improves upon with a suggestion that he suggest the fire ship plan to Elizabeth instead, as Walsingham wonât dismiss him out of hand and he has some influence with Elizabeth herself. Kaito agrees, but since heâll now have to hide while negotiations take place, he decides to see if thereâs any way he can meet Geoffrey in the meantime.
Itâs tough to get into the prison, especially as the merchants supplying it are under Walsinghamâs purview, but Kaito remembers that Shakespeare is well-liked by the prison staff due to his charity work, so they decide to ask him for a hand. Pretty exciting weâll be and to see Shakespeare again!
Chapter 8: Weâre getting closer! The group has split up to carry out their preparations for Operation Geoffrey, and Kaito gets some time to chat with Rufus while they hang out on the boat they sailed up to London. We get a very sweet scene where Rufus says he supports Kaito and Geoffrey 's relationship; it must be okay with God if Kaitoâs overcome Walsinghamâs grip and deadly illness, haha. Rufus also mentioned that of he had never received the support he did, Geoffrey couldâve become an awful villain. Iâd like to see that, I think. Whereâs the fanfic when you need it?
Nigelâs the first to arrive back, and we learn that Kaitoâs suggested they build a coracle for Geoffrey to use during the fire ship plan, and Nigelâs been working on procuring materials for that.
Next up Kit and Shakespeare arrive, and they discuss the plan to get Kaito into the Clink the next day. They end up settling on swapping Kaito in with Geoffreyâs usual attendant after heâs been checked in, since securityâs been ratcheted up since Kaitoâs near-kidnapping.
Chapter 9: Finally! The moment weâve all been waiting for (for like two volumes now) has arrived! No real comments on me from this one; this chapter is pure emotion, with Kaitoâs infiltration of the Clink going off without a hitch and the tearful reunion with Geoffrey. The cover art for this book has always been one of my favorites (if not my actual favorite) in the series so far, and I was so, so happy that scene lived up to my expectations. Personally, Iâm hoping that next book we cut to Kaito being somewhere else, so we never actually see him leave the cell.
Chapter 10: One last one! ă€ăłâs just about ready to board Alonsoâs ship in A Coruña. Raulâs plotting like always, but Janâs feeling a bit more bold these days, and it looks like he may try to contact Alonso.
Whew, this was a great volume! Honestly, this section of the arc has felt like mostly setup for the next, so Iâm pretty excited to see whatâs coming. I hope thereâs not too much politics to wade through, haha. Next book I tackle with likely be çăšć€ćŒéł„ FLESH & BLOODć€äŒ3 | L33 though, as it was published before volume 20 (and Iâm dying to see the contents from that cover, another one of my favorites). Hope you can pick this back up at some point @pyororon!
) historical figures and events. Here are some information resources on them. (Please be aware that if you want to go in 100% blind, these lists will contain some spoilers for you)
Iâm getting nervous now that Janâs finally free to kill Raul; I hope that è doesnât turn the tables on him somehowâŠ
Itâs all politics as they discuss the sorry situation of the Armada at present: Medina Sidoniaâs claimed illness and hasnât arrived yet, so V&A and discussing plans on how to rally the troops and force Medina Sidonia into not chickening out of the upcoming fight.
Why are you so perfect, Vicente?? I had actually forgotten he refers to Geoffrey as éé«ȘăźæȘé. 
Vicente, now would be a great time to tell me your progress on Kaitoâs hint⊠
