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Chapters
Chapter
Kindle %
BookWalker %
Physical
Chapter 1
0%
1%
p. 6
Chapter 2
13%
12%
p. 30
Chapter 3
24%
24%
p. 52
Chapter 4
33%
33%
p. 70
Chapter 5
45%
44%
p. 92
Chapter 6
55%
54%
p. 110
Chapter 7
%
69%
p. 142
Chapter 8
%
79%
p. 162
Chapter 9
%
88%
p. 180
あとがき
%
98%
p. 200-201
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.
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.
Things seems to have settled down for Kaito and so him and Jeoffrey are out shopping for clothes. And Jeoffrey clearly loves spoiling Kaito with beautiful things to wear. XD
Next up is finding a wig-maker that can help with dying Kaito’s hair once more. As with the make-up episode last volume, I do worry about using anything beauty-related from this time and age. Sounds like you’re inviting health issues for sure. At the very least, Kaito thinks to ask about that the dying ingredients are. ^^; (though the shockingly bad smell of the concoction still caught him unawares! XD )
Also, TIL you can use honey as a hair treatment for slit ends! XD
Jeoffrey’s reflections from last volume, about the skill of the crew on Drake’s ship that he borrowed during his investigations, are brought up again - he intends to make Gloria’s crew train and improve their skills overall. But also, he wants Kaito to learn to become a real crew member. Which sounds like a good idea, but Kaito is still scared of heights, so the prospect of him having to climb the shrouds is already filling him with trepidation. ^^;
Once Kaito, Jeoffrey and Nigel have put themselves together, they’re finally ready to meet with the Queen and so they leave for Whitehall Palace.
I was also quite worried about that procedure ^^ But it sounds like the badly-smelling ointment was ammonia (as they likened it to Black’s piss) which is still used nowadays in hair-dyeing - it allows the pigments to go into the hair and stick there firmly, so that’s pretty standard. The pigments themselves don’t sound too bad (earth pigments and cochenille) but clearly the ammonia is very bad for the structure of the hair and so his hair feels like hemp ropes afterwards I’m sure he will be able to fix it by applying some natural things (olive oil or something might also be beneficial, was my first thought, but if honey is also good, then let’s try out that one).
Apart from that, Kaito’s shyness to undress in front of Jeoffrey was pretty funny and really relatable, I thought. And the tailor’s response made me smile big time
I didn’t catch my breath either Was just super-curious how the next volume started, and then - oops! - the first chapter was done.
BTW I noticed that in the past few weeks my reading speed improved significantly, which makes me very happy and makes me want to read even more! First I thought it might depend on certain books or authors, but it’s truly increasing overall. It took me two hours to read the ~24 pages of chapter 1, which feels like I’m flying through the book
Don’t feel pressured please! I’m not sure how I will continue anyways - did not make any progress with Kafka last week, and maybe I want to catch up on that club before it ends, which wouldn’t leave much room for F&B anyways… Then again, I said the same one or two weeks ago, so
I’m definitely a comparatively fast reader with F&B, I’ve noticed, but I think that’s mostly due to familiarity. Definitely helps me keep up-to-date with you and ekg.
I know I’ve got a whole bunch of book clubs about to start soon. I was thinking of joining the IBC and ABC here, and am going to be reading the mystery book club book on Natively … I’m supposed to be reading Vampire Hunter D in Japanese, but I’ve been on the second chapter for weeks now. -.-;
Just take your time. You’ve got a lot of studying on your plate. I only really read F & B still, so there is little to compare with. I just wanna know what happens next! XD
Haha, my own hang-up with waiting is that, despite threads staying open long afterwards, it’s tough to recapture that spirit of in-the-moment conversation. Plus people who are much farther ahead can’t speculate with people earlier in the book as much because they already know what’s going to happen.
Ah well; I do still have some time before those clubs start, and F&B does go by pretty fast for me comparatively… I’m sorry Vampire Hunter D
That’s also a question of make-believe though, no?
I mean, when you asked me whether that one scene maybe was a hallucination, I was already deep in the next chapter and knew the answer, but I couldn’t destroy that moment of hope for you, could I?
But admittedly the longer the time between reading and speculating, the more everything blurs and it’s much more difficult to make-believe. So yeah, it’s not ideal when you’re reading after the group, I totally see that.
Now that we’re pretty much done with the English court, we start turning to… the French court
Oh wow, gimme a break
Anyways, when Kaito and friends arrive at Queen Elizabeth’s place, they are asked to listen in on what a French messenger whose ship sunk on the way has to report to the Queen, and Kaito is then asked whether this was a correct story. Kaito, who realizes that his history teacher’s lessons were pretty much unilaterally geared towards British history, is luckily filled in by Nigel on the current state of affairs in France, which helps Kaito enough to make him remember the future happenings.
The messenger wants to acquire some cash for a civil war in France! As a return, he promises the queen supplies in the upcoming war with Spain. Now it’s up to Kaito to decide whether the English-Spain war will be long enough to warrant a good source of supplies…
And we’re back with our friend Vicente He seems to be in England, at the manor of an English lady who is strongly rooted in catholicism and therefore friends with Vicente. Even her husband was incarcerated due to his belief. Unfortunately I haven’t yet found out who this lady is, but other than that, Vicente learns all the news about Kaito and the Zephyr going to Plymouth and everything. And of course Vicente is still sulky because he discovered Kaito and therefore Kaito belongs to him Also, he tries to come up with ideas how Spain can conquer England in the upcoming war. And, he still doesn’t like fish
Edit: So there’s one thing I really don’t get. They talk about who went to the prison to free / kidnap Kaito, and they say that it was Arden and Newman (later being named George Newman). First of all: Who are they? Arden cannot be Edward Arden - Wikipedia as he was already executed in 1583. Was it his son Robert Arden? It’s unclear when he was born, but probably not before the 1560’s - that might fit… Then I found George Newman (MP) - Wikipedia who seems to have been the same age, and Canterbury is not thaaaat far from London either. But Newman seems to have been the one who got killed during the escape, so maybe another difference in the parallel universe?
And what about Shakespeare who actually went to The Clink? Was he a spontaneous stand-in for Arden, and nobody knew about that?
Alrighty, just finished up chapter 1 myself. I actually did start on Monday, but I haven’t been able to prioritize F&B like I usually can. Will keep chugging along.
I thought this was a really nice touch; shows that he was serious about it, and even through all the court and prison drama still had it in the back of his mind. I do agree with Jeoffrey that it’s high time Kaito started learning the ropes, as it were; I’m real curious how Kaito’s fight against acrophobia goes.
There was a little bit of a mini spat in this chapter between Jeoffrey and Nigel, of course regarding Kaito. I do find it interesting that, despite their promise to try to act normal in front of him, there’s already some tension. Granted, I’m pretty sure most of it’s coming from Jeoffrey right now at least; dude’s gotta keep that jealousy in check. I did laugh when he said he wouldn’t lose to Vicente in sticking close to Kaito; he’s gonna need to put his money where his mouth is, given Vicente’s managed to, at least by proxy, break into a London jail to free/reobtain Kaito. That’s a high bar to overcome.
We’re back with Jeoffrey and co. who prepare their ship to leave the harbour. They have to deliver the French messenger to his home country, and so Elizabeth forced them to take a larger ship which provides more comfort. But this means that they need to transfer their load from the Zephyr, which is a major struggle because they were unable to recruit good seamen. (We learn that England at the time did not have a professional army and only recruited and trained civilians when a war was approaching!) So all good seamen are currently soldiers…
In the middle of the preparations, Will shows up and has a chat with Kaito, thanking him for setting him straight on not cooperating with the enemy. Will doesn’t go as far as to leak the name of his superior in the group, but he gives away that there seems to be a secret passage into the country in the south-eastern sea. Does that mean the Netherlands are involved as well? dundundun …
Finished chapter 2. Looks like we’ll be sailing again~
Also, if this French stuff keeps up, I’m gonna need to make a handy chart like @NicoleIsEnough made for the English court. Thank you, history, for making all three participants in France’s succession struggle named Henry.
That’s amazing, isn’t it? Today I added some more links for the persons in Chapter 2 (and 3) - I simply gave up earlier because I could not figure them all out I thought the English court was intertwined, but that’s nothing compared to the French court
There is even the “War of the Three Henrys” which is the thing mentioned in the chapter (I added the link to the Historical Events section)
And chapter 3 done; I’m going to be attending a con the next two days or so, and work has been slower than anticipated, so I pushed ahead.
And I’m glad I did; this entire chapter was Vicente crushing on Kaito. The man even admitted he was dreaming about Kaito, geez. He has it bad for sure. I’m still intensely curious how his next meeting with Kaito will go, and whether he’ll have to resort to force or not to get Kaito to go with him.
I thought it was interesting that Vicente’s co-conspirators were only referred to by pseudonym (?) here. I guess it’s another security measure in case they’re taken by Walsingham. I wonder who Will was? アーデン? Since the other, ニューマン, was the one who died, correct?
Hmm. I didn’t realize they may be actual, distinct people. That kind of throws a wrench into my pseudonym theory.
We are setting sail to get the poor messenger back to France, and the moment the ship starts moving, he is already starting to feed the fish Poor beggar, I would be scared shitless as well if I had just experienced a shipwreck.
Anyways, the messenger rants a bit about Elizabeth and her misdemeanor, which was interesting but I don’t remember any important points . Also, Jeoffrey has some major character development when he once again becomes aware of his jealousy and then puts himself in Nigel’s shoes and realizes what Nigel actually gave up in order to keep their friendship. It also dawns on him that Kaito and Nigel were maybe much closer than what he had realized back then, and that Kaito was resisting his advances because he was rather drawn to Nigel. Which I would say is not exactly how it was, but close enough. I was quite impressed by how Jeoffrey was able to reflect on this all. In the end he admits that he loves Nigel and does not want to lose him. I hope they will eventually get their act together and live happily as a triple
) 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)
I’m sure he will be able to fix it by applying some natural things (olive oil or something might also be beneficial, was my first thought, but if honey is also good, then let’s try out that one).
He seems to be in England, at the manor of an English lady who is strongly rooted in catholicism and therefore friends with Vicente. Even her husband was incarcerated due to his belief. Unfortunately I haven’t yet found out who this lady is, but other than that, Vicente learns all the news about Kaito and the Zephyr going to Plymouth and everything. And of course Vicente is still sulky because he discovered Kaito and therefore Kaito belongs to him 
Also, he tries to come up with ideas how Spain can conquer England in the upcoming war. And, he still doesn’t like fish 
(I added the link to the Historical Events section)
The man even admitted he was dreaming about Kaito, geez. He has it bad for sure. I’m still intensely curious how his next meeting with Kaito will go, and whether he’ll have to resort to force or not to get Kaito to go with him.
Poor beggar, I would be scared shitless as well if I had just experienced a shipwreck.