Thank you! I guess Kaitoās going to have a lot of time to think, if nothing elseā¦
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Ok folks, Iām on board and following you! This week I will catch up to Kafka as well so itāll be a bit slower, but once that oneās under control I will set all sails and chase you 
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Chapter 6 thoughts
Expect some unpleasantness in this chapter @eefara
Weāre back at the Clink. Kaito is at a breaking point from lack of sleep, as heās starting to have trouble knowing reality from hallucinationās.
Kaito, donāt tell him where you keep your money! 
But, I guess, heās delirious enough here to not really know what heās saying? Poor Kaito! 
Not to mention, clearly the money Drake payed to let him stay fed and given good water etc. isnāt being used at all. The injustice of it all, makes my blood boil, ngl. >:
p 111-> (@eefara if you wanna skip the first pages of the chapter, you should still continue reading on p 111)
We get some more historical insights , this time on the irony of the Catholic insistence of no marriage for priests. 
This leading on to some more introspection for Kaito, on his own thoughts on women, men and his own sexuality. Also, his views of resentment toward his mother, that might have a role to play in this
BIG spoiler
As Kaito is about to loose consciousness to sleep, thereās a rather surprising development: Good Will is there to check in on things! The story takes rather big liberties here with history, and itās best to just go with the flow! XD William manages to talk the guard into letting him into the room, and after that, he moves on to offering the warden a drink. Heās clearly here to help Kaito! 
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Chapter 7 thoughts
Clearly, Will has a plan with that brandy bottle and the guard isnāt bright enough to sense something off before heās gulped most of it down. Soon enough, heās out cold.
But why is Will really there? That is the question. Kaito isnāt so out of it, that he doesnāt sense something is off by the initial explanation, that Jeoffrey somehow had ordered Will to help Kaito escape the Clink. No, thatās not something Jeoffrey would do, sacrificing Will as the culprit in a breakout, also ensuring Jeoffrey, Kaito and Nigel will be hunted down by Walshingham, no matter if they flee England, with Kaito with no way to defend against the murder charges either.
Another big spoiler
And here, history is stretched even more by Natsuki-sensei! It turns out Good Will is more like Bad Will in this parallel universe! 
Heās actually secretly working with the Spanish! 
follow up spoiler
In the end, Kaito is forced to drink the opium-brandy mixture. Before passing out, he manages to make a final plea to Will, to not choose the wrong path. dun dun dun
p 135
Language question: what is the reference done at the very end of this chapter? Is it a reference? 
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Oh no 
Iām really really hoping this volume is it, and we return to non-scary things afterwards. 
I want to start chapter 3 today; my scheduleās a little messed up due to work stuff, so @NicoleIsEnough, youāll have plenty of time to catch up.
Maybe we could make a list of chapters with unpleasantness for future reference. If thereās too many Iām going to have to suck it up, I guess. My main reading strategy for such stuff in English is just skimming over things, but thatās much harder to do in Japanese. The closest equivalent would be reading without a dictionary, which might workā¦
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Chapter 6 talk
I donāt think itās all that gruesome. I think the scare in ch 2 what partially not knowing what would happen to poor Kaito. But, knowing the situation somehow helps? You could give it a try?
Iām not a hardened person, and donāt like reading about anything being bad for Kaito. But, to be fair, the amputation scene with Jim in vol 2 was more difficult to read imo. For me personally, as I canāt take maiming and such. This situation is more of the psychologically unsettling kind, tense and dark. ^^;
Well, important stuff happens, so youāll wanna read most of this chapter regardless.
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I was actually fine with the amputation in volume 2, funnily enough. It helps that I wasnāt emotionally attached to Jim at that point; if Kaito were undergoing something similar hereā¦ Nope nope nope. Iām actually usually pretty decent with gore and stuff, itās the psychological baggage that goes with it that Iām really weak to.
And not to worry, I donāt intend to skip half of the book or anything. Iām going to do my best to power through. 
I, uh, may not be great for conversational insights, though. ^_^;
Iām thinking something along those lines, actually. Once I can confirm that Kaito gets through all this, Iām going to go back and try reading the bad parts. Like, of course heāll get through it, probably fine, but I need to see it with my own eyes, you know?
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Chapter 8 thoughts
Back to Jeoffreyās POV and him and Nigel are finally back in London. They immediately seek out Burghley as theyāre hoping he might be able to create an additional path to Kaitoās release, since the testimony of the priest is too weak to be relied on.
Well, when they arrive they soon learn of the killing spree at the Clink. Things have gone from bad to worse. Walshingham is using the attack as a further support for his accusation that Kaito is affiliated with Spain. Them having left him behind, drugged and bound, notwithstanding.
Itās clear, that Jeoffrey and Nigel will have to find a much different strategy to freeing Kaito. As things stand, Kaito might be locked away in an even worse prison, that is Newgate, to keep the Spanish away. 
Or they might execute him as a spy. Urk, things are not looking good at all.
As Jeoffrey and Nigel prepare to leave, knowing they have literally nothing anymore that could help Kaito out of his predicament, the son Robert Cecil stops them. Heās overheard the conversation, and (for a price) he is willing to lend a handā¦ dun dun dun
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@ekg after giving it some thought last night, I think I will try to read chapter 2. If I need to persevere for an entire volume, might as well dip my toes in now, especially since you gave me a heads up of what happened. Sorry Iāve been waffling so much on reading it or not; appreciate your patience. orz
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No need to apologize to me! Itās entirely your decision! I only skimmed the bit in vol 2 as I have no wish to understand the details. ^^ in the end itās not the end of the world if you donāt fully read a book. 
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Iām going to adapt my reading strategy accordingly; normally I try to read a chapter in one shot, but Iām going to be taking breaks when needed here, haha. It also helps if my mental image of certain characters isā¦inventive. For example, Iāve just met the Raven. So in my mind Iāve decided to imagine a giant bird in the cell with Kaito. 
Itās the little things.
Iām learning lots of jail vocabulary, if nothing else. Finally I know how to say āearlobeā in Japanese.
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Lol. Ngl, I relate since a lot of body vocab I know has been learnt from reading, listening, or playing BL content. 
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Slightly off topic, but do you have an account on Natively? Iām always on the hunt for more BL to read , so Iād love to see the libraries of others with similar tastes.
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I donāt, but somewhere on my computer I have compiled a list of all BL I own. ^^; and drama CDs Iāve listened to. I could give you a top 20 or so! ^>^
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Thatād be great! Both books and CDs would be welcome; Iām still working on the listening, and I need plenty of goals to aim for. 
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Re Chapter 1:
My expectation would be that this payment usually goes by the name of bribery though 
(which of course was and is common pretty much everywhere because humans)
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Finished chapter 2 somehow. So story time: I got the covid booster shot yesterday and woke up this morning feeling like crap. āYes,ā I thought to myself, āmy personal misery should outweigh Kaitoās. Perfect plan.ā So I start reading the last eight pages of chapter 2 and Iām doing pretty good. Kaito is unhappy, but I am also unhappy, and my immersion is broken as I wonder whether I feel bad enough to call out sick even though like half of my team at work is also out sick because of covid.
Then I get to, like, the last two or three pages. The Ravenās description of his ancestor shoving a hot poker up Edward IIās butt as a means of torture literally wiped away all feelings of pain I was currently experiencing, leaving only a void of cold. Dang. Thank gooood the Raven decided Kaito wasnāt lying. And thank god the chapter ended there; I donāt know if I would have had it in me to continue after that mental image.
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Good work getting through the chapter! 
And I hope you get better soon!
(Iām also planning on having the booster, next week, and can only hope I donāt come down with anything). ^^;
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Chapter 9 thoughts
Kaito wakes up to his new worsened situation, immediately forced to face Walshingham. Urk! That canāt be a nice way to wake up. Walshingham is eager to get Kaito to spill the details of what happened in the isolation cell, but as the conversation progress, Kaito becomes increasingly reckless, imo, in what he choose to say. Still, itās not for the worse this time. But neither is it changing anything for the better. Walshingham is not one to change his mind, clearly. And since Jeoffrey is back, Kaito has until morning before heās face his judgement. *dun dun
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I finished chapter 3 last night!
Two trains of thought on this chapter: wow, all the political talk, and 
. Ahem. So, first, all of Jeoffreyās schemeing/research into the major groups at the court. I honestly probably shouldāve made a diagram or something while they were talking, but I think I more or less followed everything okay. I guess ultimately all you need to know is that he plans on getting one of them (the name escapes me atm) on Kaitoās side by getting him to join as a sponsor for Jeoffreyās voyages, since the man loves making money and privateering is really lucrative.
Iām definitely a proponent of this idea; Kaito needs a firm ally in court, even one whoās only motivated by greed. I donāt have a lot of hope of Jeoffrey and Nigel finding much useful evidence in proving Kaitoās innocence. 
And the second part of this chapterā¦ Phew. It aaaalmost makes up for chapter 2. Almost. So I thought it was nice to see confirmation that Nigel liked Kaito in the same way that Jeoffrey does; I had been under the impression that it was more like brotherly love, but this definitely throws a wrench into things. I can definitely foresee future drama with this situation; itās a really hard one to be in, given Jeoffrey and Nigelās previous friendship.
Now that Kaitoās harem has grown, I eagerly await Vicenteās entrance into it. Just gotta get out of jail firstā¦
Iām also happy to report that the covid booster ills appear to be a one and done thing; I woke up this morning feeling great.
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