"Flesh&Blood" Vol. 20 - Pirate Series Reading Club 🏴‍☠️ ⛵

[NicoleIsEnough]

“Flesh&Blood” series home thread

Welcome to the “Flesh&Blood” Vol. 20 Reading Club!

Back to Vol. 19
Forward to Vol. 21

Participants

• I am planning to read this book
• I am currently reading this book
• I have finished this book
• I am taking a break and will return
• I have dropped the book and will not return
• I don’t plan to read this book

Please update your status accordingly whenever it changes.

Chapters

Chapter	eBook %	Physical
Chapter 1	%	p.
Chapter 2	%	p.
Chapter 3	%	p.
Chapter 4	%	p.
Chapter 5	%	p.
Chapter 6	%	p.
Chapter 7	%	p.
Chapter 8	%	p.
Chapter 9	%	p.
あとがき	%	p.

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) you’re referring to, and please hide spoilers. Also, don’t forget the forum etiquette, of course.

Buying the Book

If you’re planning to buy the book on Bookwalker or Amazon and if you’re outside of Japan, you will need a VPN to buy them. Afterwards, you can download it to the app without the need for a VPN. I think you cannot read it in the browser without VPN, though.

Vol. 20 on Bookwalker
Vol. 20 on Amazon

Vocab sheet

FLESH & BLOOD ~ Volume 20 ~ Vocab list

Artwork from volume 20

TBD

Historical Figures, Events and Places

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.

Historical Figures and Groups

Juan Martínez de Recalde - Ch. 1

Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham (エフィンガム) - Ch. 4

Dante Alighieri - Ch. 5

The Royal Diagram

Places and Rivers

Hatfield House - Ch. 3
Tuscany - Ch. 5
Drake’s Island (St. Nicholas Island) - Ch. 9

Historical Events, Things etc

Other

Ora et labora - Ch. 4

Antares (コル•スコルピぃ/Cor Scorpii): Ch. 5

Historical, geographical and other inaccuracies

[eefara]

Chapter 1: Whew, it’s been a little while. I feel like volume 19 was a pretty decent place to stop for a break, and I’m hoping to be a little quicker with this volume plus the next few.

Anyway, we open the volume with the now-usual Vicente: I’m not even sure where the Armada is exactly at the moment, but things are still going poorly. Most of the chapter is Vicente reflecting on the heaps of useless and untrained men that’ve been dumped on him and the other crews, sailors and non-sailors alike, but he’s doing his best with what he has. Partway through a smoke signal indicating danger to the ship starts coming from Alonso’s ship, and Vicente starts preparations to meet with that ship to figure out what’s going on. Along the way he hits upon the idea of using flags to signal messages during wartime; he’s following a new philosophy of believing in human spirit to move past obstacles, which he admits would probably get him in trouble with the Church.

(Just gonna edit on my chapter 2 thoughts here and save a post…)
Chapter 2: Vicente goes to check on the ship throwing the emergency signal’s situation, only to find out that there’s been an outbreak of typhus. The expedition commanders come together to discuss the typhus and food situations brewing among the fleets; in attendance is Alonso, so he and Vicente get to meet up and chat together. They scheme a way for Alonso to be moved from his ship (with all the typhus on it) to a new one. I’m not entirely sure if he’s moved to Vicente’s ship or just one closer to it, but it’s a win all around.

Things are generally looking okay for the two at the moment, all things considered: they’ve identified a few more allies, and are able to keep their enemies within sight.

[eefara]

Chapter 3: Back to the English. Back to Geoffrey, specifically! He’s doing much better in mind and body after Kaito’s visit; he’s been doing as much physical therapy as he can with ケリー, who has some experience with it after losing his thumb. ケリー’s really growing on me, I gotta say; I hope he can make it as crew on the Gloria!

Geoffrey gets a visit, Robert Cecil, and is informed that a) Walsingham is healing after his latest medical scare, and b) the Queen has given her approval to let Geoffrey out of prison and to execute the fire ship plan! …Except that she’s neglected to tell Walsingham who exactly is going to be the man doing it (Geoffrey) because she knows he’ll object, so Geoffrey’s going to have to be sneaked out of jail. One of Robert’s men will switch with him, like they did with Kaito. I, uh, hope the guy doesn’t have to stay long (and is getting paid well for this…).

Robert’s really become a good friend to the group, and he and Geoffrey affirm their bonds of friendship here in a really nice scene; we even get an illustration! Anyway, Geoffrey will have one more meeting with the Queen before he reunites with the group, so let’s see how that goes.

Chapter 4: Geoffrey’s meeting with the Queen goes quite well; they go over the details of the fire ship plan with her approval, Geoffrey is given as much of an assurance as she can that, should the plan be successful, there shouldn’t be any more worries about the charges against him, and Geoffrey is officially recognized as one of Queen Elizabeth’s pirates. She also gives him a vial of lavender perfume, making Geoffrey wonder if she’s guessed that Kaito is in England, safe and sound.

We finally find out what Robert asked Kaito to foretell all those books ago as well, after the end of the meeting! He had apparently asked Kaito if he would marry, and if so who his wife would be. He and Geoffrey joke around a bit; he’s apparently quite aware of Geoffrey being gay and his love for Kaito (did he explicitly find out in a previous book? I don’t remember), so it’s a very cute scene all around.

And finally we get to the mansion, and he reunites with Kaito! With yet another lovely piece of Aya art. Can’t wait for the whole gang to reunite~

[eefara]

Chapter 5: Wow, still Geoffrey POV! He and Kaito chat a bit as they head into Robert’s mansion; Geoffrey ponders how he (and other participating Englishmen) will survive the potentially freezing English Channel should they have to dive into it following the fire ship attach. He asks Kaito if any people from his world swim the Channel, to which Kaito replies that they do, but they’re normally wearing wet suits, which aren’t an option in the 16th century. They eventually settle on deciding to coat the attackers with lard in order to try to prevent as much water as they can from touching the person’s body (lard as a substitute for Vaseline).

Robert suggests they come to with a code word to use whenever they’re in public talking about the fire ship plan, and after discussing a few options, they settle on referring to the plan as Cor Scorpii, which is super cool; it’s another name for Antares, a bright red star in the constellation Scorpius. Gregory was inspired by Kaito’s eyes, haha.

Then it’s time to finally reunite with Nigel! He even sheds a few tears; the poor guy deserves it. Kit’s also there, and the whole gang (+ Robert) get together for a group huddle, which was quite nice. They eat after a nice speech from Kit taking about Geoffrey and freedom, and we get to see Kaito and Nigel fusa over Geoffrey a bit during the meal.

The last part of the chapter is all strategy: what they know of the Armada’s makeup, and who would be best to attack with the fire ship. One interesting thing brought up is that Kaito doesn’t know that Vicente’s on Medina Sidonia’s ship; he thinks he’s still captaining the Santiago. And the ship they plan on targeting is, of course, Medina Sidonia’s flagship. Man, I’m getting nervous; Vicente should probably be okay, but… We’ll see how things go. Already, the group should be returning to Plymouth in a few days.

Chapter 6: Oooh, we’ve moved to Jan’s POV! He’s on Alonso’s ship, and will be moving to a new one soon, now that Alonso’s will be sent back to Spain. His goal is to get in communication with Alonso, alert him of Raul’s plan to kill him, then gain his cooperation to take Raul down. While it’s difficult to approach Alonso without drawing attention (as Jan is playing the role of a regular sailor), what makes it even harder is the fact that Raul sent someone to keep an eye on Jan so he doesn’t try anything funny, and Jan doesn’t know who they are.

…Or wouldn’t, if the guy Raul picked were more discreet. Jan’s able to ID him fairly easily once the call goes out that the ship will be sent back to Spain, as it would be extremely unusual for a sailor to insist on staying if they didn’t have to. With this newfound knowledge, Jan’s finally able to get Alonso alone by suggesting they climb one of the masts together to get that good wind. Alonso, naturally, is able to tell that something’s up, and decides to accept Jan’s offer to see what’s up.

Alonso susses out pretty quickly who Jan is once he sees the brand on his neck, and Jan fills him in on Alonso’s plans and how the Duke of Parma (currently overseeing the Netherlands for Spain) is in league with him. There’s a bit of back-and-forth, but Alonso eventually decides to cooperate with him, and decides to also his his valet Martin so that Jan can meet with Alonso without too much suspicion from Alonso’s side.

…Man, I had forgotten Raul was hiding on Vicente’s ship. This whole situation is so tense.

[eefara]

Chapter 7: Kaito POV, first in the book, surprisingly. I’ve been enjoying getting others’ POV even though he’s back with the group, I must say; I hope it continues. Anyway, he, Geoffrey, Nigel, Kit, and Robert are heading down the Thames to meet up with the Gloria/Precious, only for Robert’s man to spot a tail on them. They decide to instead go to Robert’s mansion and have the Gloria group sneak out the back door while Robert has disguised riders ride away.

They apparently manage to shake the tail, and our boys have a very heartfelt reunion scene with the Gloria’s crew. Kaito affirms his intentions to Geoffrey to become a real sailor, one capable of climbing the mast or using a sword, and the two get some alone time to make out in Geoffrey’s cabin.

Chapter 8: Geoffrey, Nigel, and Kaito are back at Geoffrey’s house now; Nigel’s let Joe know they’re all back, and Joe’ll bring Blackie and クー around when he comes to prepare dinner. Geoffrey and Kaito decide to take a short stroll around the mansion, and eventually end up in the bath area. Kaito’s noticed how nervous Geoffrey’s become taking off his clothes in front of him, so decides to get ahead of the problem by getting him to face his fears now. Handjob ensues.

Chapter 9: Our final chapter of the book! Geoffrey (POV) and Kaito are discussing strategy with Drake at his mansion, mostly where they’ll station their ships as they wait for the Armada to approach. They decide to go out to the Hoe before the sun sets to check out the tactical possibilities of St. Nicholas Island, when Ewan spots the smoke signaling the Armada’s entrance into the Channel.

Drake’s a bit upset Plymouth’s watchmen haven’t spotted the signal yet and wants to rush off to reprimand them, but Kit convinces him it’d be better to protect an air of being so confident he’s not particularly worried about the Armada. It’s now that Kaito suggests pretending Drake was playing a game of nine pins, and Kit supplements with how Drake and couldn’t be be bothered to report the signal until after he’d finished the game, to Drake’s satisfaction. I’m really glad the author managed to sneak this bit in; it was pretty cool seeing her get to tie in that famous bit of apocrypha!

I overall enjoyed the book, though I was a bit disappointed our England team didn’t really see much plot development compared to Team Spain. Next should be pretty action-packed though, I’m hoping. Shame Lily didn’t get to appear either!