"Flesh&Blood" Vol. 8 - Pirate Series Reading Club 🏴‍☠️ ⛵

[NicoleIsEnough]

“Flesh&Blood” series home thread

Welcome to the “Flesh&Blood” Vol. 8 Reading Club!

Back to Vol. 7
Forward to Vol. 9

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	3 %	p. 5
Chapter 2	13 %	p. 27
Chapter 3	19 %	p. 43
Chapter 4	29 %	p. 66
Chapter 5	38 %	p. 85
Chapter 6	46 %	p. 106
Chapter 7	53 %	p. 122
Chapter 8	60 %	p. 140
Chapter 9	70 %	p. 163
Chapter 10	76 %	p. 178
Chapter 11	81 %	p. 189
Chapter 12	87 %	p. 202
Chapter 13	94 %	p. 217
あとがき	98 %	p. 228-229

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. 8 on Bookwalker
Vol. 8 on Amazon

Vocab sheet

FLESH & BLOOD ~ Volume 8 ~ Vocab list

Artwork from volume 8

Beware of spoilers

Full color Extras

Vol 8, ch 2, p 35

Vol 8, ch 5, p 105

Vol 8, ch 7, p 125

Vol 8, ch 12, p 213

松岡なつきのあとがき, p 228-229

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

Anne Dacre / Anne Howard, Countess of Arundel (Ch. 3) Anne Howard, Countess of Arundel - Wikipedia
Apollo (Ch. 11) Apollo - Wikipedia
Calvinism (Ch. ) Calvinism - Wikipedia
Elizabeth Throckmorton (Ch. 3) Elizabeth Raleigh - Wikipedia
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (Ch. 3) Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester - Wikipedia
Francis of Assisi (Ch. 7) Francis of Assisi - Wikipedia
Jews (Ch. 9) (ユダヤ人) Jews - Wikipedia
Pope Leo X (Ch. 7) Pope Leo X - Wikipedia
St Matthew (Ch. 9) Matthew the Apostle - Wikipedia
Philip II of Spain (Ch. 5) Philip II of Spain - Wikipedia
Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel (Ch. 3) Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel - Wikipedia
Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel (Ch. 3) Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel - Wikipedia
Walter Raleigh (Ch. 3) Walter Raleigh - Wikipedia
Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick (Ch. 3) (ウォリック伯夫人) Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick - Wikipedia

The Royal Diagram

Places and Rivers

River Arun (Ch. 4) (アラン河・アラン川) River Arun - Wikipedia
Arundel Castle (Ch. 4) Arundel Castle - Wikipedia
Basque (Ch. 9) Basque Country (greater region) - Wikipedia
Belgium (Ch. 5) Belgium - Wikipedia
Bilbao (Ch. 9) Bilbao - Wikipedia
Bay of Biscay (Ch. 5) (ビスケー湾) Bay of Biscay - Wikipedia
Blackstones Reef (Ch. 6) (ブラックストウンズ岩礁) Could not find anything about that place but there is some pretty rough terrain around Ushant: Sailing Ushant: Tom Cunliffe explores France’s most daunting island and some old wrecks: Top Snorkeling and Scuba Diving in Ushant | Zentacle - Reviews, Maps, and Photos
Bognor Regis (Ch. 4) (ボグナーリージス) Bognor Regis - Wikipedia
Bournemouth (Ch. 4) Bournemouth - Wikipedia
Brest (Ch. 6) Brest, France - Wikipedia
Brighton (Ch. 4) Brighton - Wikipedia
Brittany (Ch. 6) Brittany - Wikipedia
Buckland Abbey (Ch. 3) Buckland Abbey - Wikipedia
Cádiz (Ch. 5) Cádiz - Wikipedia
Calais (Ch. 5) Calais - Wikipedia
Douai (Ch. 3) (ドゥエイ) Douai - Wikipedia
Dunkerque (Ch. 5) Dunkirk - Wikipedia
Exmouth (Ch. 2) Exmouth - Wikipedia
Flanders (Ch. 5) Flanders - Wikipedia
Hampshire (Ch. 2) Hampshire - Wikipedia
Hastings (Ch. 4) Hastings - Wikipedia
Indies (Ch. 7) (インディアス) I guess this means the West Indies? Spanish West Indies - Wikipedia Or maybe the East Indies: Spanish East Indies - Wikipedia
Indigenous peoples of the Americas (Ch. 7) (インディオ) Indigenous peoples of the Americas - Wikipedia
La Rochelle (Ch. 7) La Rochelle - Wikipedia
Le Havre (Ch. 5) (ル・アーブル) Le Havre - Wikipedia
Lille (Ch. 5) (リール) Lille - Wikipedia
Normandy (Ch. 5) Normandy - Wikipedia
Portsmouth (Ch. 2) Portsmouth - Wikipedia
Portugal (Ch. 9) Portugal - Wikipedia
San Sebastián (Ch. 7) San Sebastián - Wikipedia
Segovia (Ch. 7) Segovia - Wikipedia
Shoreham (Ch. 4) Shoreham-by-Sea - Wikipedia
Southampton (Ch. 4) Southampton - Wikipedia
Sussex (Ch. 4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex
Ushant (Ch. 6) (ウェサン島) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushant
Weymouth (Ch. 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weymouth,_Dorset
Worthing (Ch. 4) (ワージング) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worthing

Historical Events etc

Dante’s Inferno (Ch. 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)

Historical Things

Bosun pipe (Ch. 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boatswain’s_call
Saint George’s flag (Ch. 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George’s_Cross
Holinshed’s Chronicles (Ch. 9) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holinshed’s_Chronicles

Modern Things

Michelin (Ch. 8) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin

Historical and geographical inaccuracies

Ch. 4: エイヴォン川の流れ込むボーンマス - but the river that flows into the canal at Bournemouth is called Bourne, not Avon. (According to Wikipedia there are a few rivers called Avon, but none of them is in Dorset: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Avon)

Ch. 5: 服を着たままだとしても、長く泳ぐのは無理だった。I think the author never swam with clothes… It should rather be だから in my opinion.

[NicoleIsEnough]

I… ahem… had to jump into this volume straight away

Chapter 1:

Rufus and Geoffrey talk about the restoration work of Gloria which has come to an end. Then they go to the festival with the crew (except Rufus). Because of that move, the messenger boy that Nigel sent finds Geoffrey later than expected. Instead of another reward from Geoffrey, that boy suggests to be hired by him Because he is only 11, Geoffrey cannot do that straight away, but I’m convinced this is not the last time we have seen that boy. Anyways, the crew joins Geoffrey as he sets out to search for Kaito, but they only find Nigel, half-dead and still pinned down with the two swords. Geoffrey tries to give Nigel something to drink, but he is not able to keep it in his mouth, so Geoffrey takes the wine into his own mouth and passes it to Nigel straight away (but when Kaito wanted to resuscitate the french messenger, Geoffrey made an enormous fuss this is getting more and more interesting ).
When Nigel tells them what happened, they immediately return to Gloria and get ready to set out to search for Kaito. They even fetch the doctor and make him board the ship to tend for Nigel because Nigel wants to be part of the search party as he caused the trouble in the first place!

Chapter 2:

Oh my god Nigel He’s lying there half-dead and with a fever, and the first thing he wants to tell Geoffrey is that he kissed his boy Omg he is so brutally honest and courageous, that’s unbelievable.

Other than that, they get to Portsmouth and start searching the harbour.

Chapter 3:

We switch to Kaito’s POV surprisingly early! I was expecting to be kept in the dark about his whereabouts for a few more chapters. Turns out he is kept prisoner in a house’s basement somewhere. And of course the owner of the house is the mysterious lady who hosted Vicente previously. It turns out she is Anne Dacre, and her husband who got imprisoned for being Catholic is Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel. He is a distant relative of the queen, and so I had to extend the royal wallpaper quite a bit
It seems as if Vicente is planning to go to France for a bit, together with Kaito, which gives Kaito the hope of being able to escape from the ship in the French harbour and maybe to flee to Paris where our dear friend Bernard Hartwich (sp?) might be able to protect and support him…

[eefara]

@NicoleIsEnough

I… ahem… had to jump into this volume straight away

How could you not, with that cover?

[NicoleIsEnough]

@eefara

How could you not, with that cover?

Right?

[NicoleIsEnough]

Chapter 4:

Geoffrey did not find anything in the harbour and is now wondering whether he’s looking at the correct place at all. He looks at the map in the harbour office and discovers lots of small fishing ports and also lots of rivers where a small boat can easily go upstream without needing a harbour at all. Somebody indicates that there are catholics living in a certain area, and by putting this all together, Geoffrey discovers Arundel Castle which is conveniently located near a river. They rush to the place and search it, but (of course) they are too late, and Vicente already set off with Kaito in tow. Geoffrey and friends “borrow” a boat from the hostile castle owner, and the chase begins…

[NicoleIsEnough]

Chapter 5:

We switch to Kaito and Vicente who are just boarding a boat to leave the castle. Leo is on board as well, and he immediately starts to tackle Kaito, until they end up in a fight! Vicente goes between them and makes Leo apologize. Doesn’t sound as if the two young ones will become friends any time soon

Kaito immediately starts to plan his escape. He tries to get as much information out of Vicente as possible, e.g. whether he can swim (he says he can, so Kaito’s plan of just jumping off the boat immediately gets invalidated) and where they are going to in France (turns out they will drop off the children without entering a harbor, so his plan of escaping to France also gets invalidated). I had a good chuckle when Kaito used the word “industrial” Although Wikipedia claims that Lille was already a manufacturing town in the 16th century, so Vicente’s information does not seem to be correct, or maybe this is another difference between the worlds? At least one important difference is that Spain all of a sudden seemed to have started to build small and agile ships, just like the English ones, which might level out their disadvantage in the upcoming war, compared to Kaito’s original world. And what if England actually doesn’t win the war?

Kaito thinks that escaping as soon as possible is his best option, so when he arrives at Vicente’s ship and is left with Leo, he knocks him out immediately and jumps into the sea without planning further ahead. But of course, the rescue attempt doesn’t last long as Vicente and his crew still have the boat available that they boarded at the castle, and so they catch him quickly.

Meanwhile, the readership is impatiently waiting for Geoffrey et al. to emerge from the river and to notice the ship. Will they make it in time? …

[NicoleIsEnough]

Chapter 6:

This chapter finds us on Gloria, halfway across the canal to France in search of Vicente’s ship, and of course there is a storm. Nigel wakes from his feverish dream and confesses everything to Geoffrey. The latter is of course furious and is not able nor willing to forgive Nigel. Although he has some slight feelings of remorse because he took Kaito away from Nigel in the beginning and because he forced Nigel to suppress his feelings all the time, he then even breaks their friendship and agrees with Nigel that he will leave Gloria as soon as Kaito is back. Then Geoffrey walks out into the pouring rain.

The End.

I bet everybody is crying by now… including Geoffrey and Nigel

[NicoleIsEnough]

Chapter 7:

Kaito is brought back to Vicente’s ship. There we encounter a Spanish priest who deems Kaito to be damned because (a) he has red hair just like Judas, and (b) he floats in the water and does not sink. Luckily Vicente is clear enough in his head to talk the priest out of this nonsense because clearly he understands how swimming works, and also that ocean water allows bodies to float more easily.

Anyways, when Vicente comes into his cabin, Kaito lies on the floor motionless. Vicente searches some dry clothes for him and, as Kaito still doesn’t move, starts to undress him. First he notices the buttons on his coat which are made of real pearls, and secondly he notices that Kaito’s body is covered in love bites! Kaito - as soon as he wakes up again - is not shy about this, but Vicente reminds him that sex with a male will lead to the death penalty. Kaito says he doesn’t mind, as it’s the same as death for him when he cannot be with Geoffrey. On the other hand, Kaito insists that Geoffrey will come pick him up. Vicente sharply detects the logical flaw and points it out to Kaito: Why does he want to endanger his life as Geoffrey will only be able to pick up a corpse in that case? Kaito cannot hold anything against this and shuts up. 1:0 for Vicente, well played!

[eefara]

I just realized; how are you replying to yourself so many times in a row @NicoleIsEnough? I thought we were capped at 3 consecutive replies?

[NicoleIsEnough]

The thread creator is exempt from this rule, luckily

[NicoleIsEnough]

Chapter 8:

While they are sailing through the Bay of Biskay, the storm gets worse and worse. At some point, Kaito decides to go up on deck because he is afraid of being locked in in the cabin if the ship sinks… On deck, he notices that one mast went over board, and the sail is floating in the ocean. Then he sees the face of the dead French boy again! He knows that he should throw some money into the ocean to calm this ghost, just like Nigel did, but he doesn’t have anything on him. So he asks Vicente for some money, who urges him to shut up about this because it’s a bad omen. But Kaito feels the need to donate to the ghost, so he chats up Perez (and in Spanish! Though unfortunately we don’t learn about the author’s Spanish skills as there are no furigana this time around, sadly). Perez is not helpful either, but he wears a necklace with a coin attached to it, so Kaito decides to snatch it from his neck and to use it! The plan succeeds, but all sailors get really scared because this was a medal of Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of the sailors - this is supposed to be bad luck! Kaito, what have you done! is everybody’s reaction, when they notice that the rain gets weaker…

[NicoleIsEnough]

Chapter 9:

The priest has been told by a sailor that Kaito threw the St Nicholas medal into the sea and that he surely did this because of the sea monster and that the ship is cursed, and now the priest is telling Vicente in a loud voice how dangerous Kaito is and what the Bible thinks about this. Luckily Vicente is sober enough to forbid him to talk about this again, and also Perez is not really impressed by the sea monster talk. Although Vicente was pretty impressed that the storm eased the moment Kaito threw the coin… but he tells himself that it was coincidence and not causality.

Vicente returns to his room to catch some sleep, where he finds Kaito reading a book. Kaito gets startled as somebody enters the room, but relaxes when he becomes aware that it’s Vicente. The latter is happy about this development, lies down in his bed and tells Kaito, who asked for his place to sleep, that he can sleep in the bed as well. Of course Kaito refuses, but Vicente reassures him that he doesn’t plan to touch him even if he was tempted by Kaito. (Haven’t we heard this somewhere already? ) Anyways, Kaito doesn’t want to share the bed with him but feels safe enough to sit on the end of the bed and to continue reading.

[NicoleIsEnough]

Chapter 10:

Of course Kaito fell asleep on the bed at some point. He wakes from a knock on the door and notices that Vicente is fast asleep on the bed. At the door is Leo who wants to fetch Vicente, but Kaito talks him out of it as Vicente seems to need the sleep. A moment later there is another noise at the door, and this time it’s the Priest and Furio! The knock Kaito out and throw him overboard together with some debris from the storm.

Luckily Kaito manages to clamber onto the broken mast who floats along with him, but Vicente’s ship sails away at high speed and nobody notices that he’s missing.
On top of it all, Kaito notices that Geoffreys sea chest keys (that Geoffrey had entrusted to him and that he still had with him all the time) are missing. Also, his picture of Kazuya is still on Vicente’s ship. Kaito feels like slowly falling apart, but he is determined to survive and to meet Geoffrey again. He is convinced that Vicente will return to search for him…

Uhhh, discourse is starting to tell me off for posting so often

[NicoleIsEnough]

Chapter 11:

Vicente wakes up an hour later and does not see Kaito around. He goes to search for him but cannot find him. He deduces from the priest’s weird utterings that he threw Kaito into the ocean! Immediately the ship is turned around, and on top of that a search party is launched…

[eefara]

@NicoleIsEnough

Uhhh, discourse is starting to tell me off for posting so often

Hahaha, I’ve had that happen. “You’ve posted X% of the replies in this thread. Why don’t you see others have to say?”

[NicoleIsEnough]

Chapter 12:

Kaito is still sitting on the mast, but he is starting to fall into a delirium due to sunstroke, thirst and pain. Of course he has hallucinations of Gloria and Geoffrey, but he also thinks that he is about to die and that his ancestors will come to take him with them. When he hears a voice calling him from afar, he wonders which of his ancestors this may be. The voice comes closer, and at some point he realizes that it’s Vicente who has come to rescue him. Kaito falls unconscious and awakes in Vicente’s cabin. But he develops a fever and shivers terribly, and in his fever dream he clings to Vicente and complains about the cold. So Vicente warms him until his fever gets lower again and until he wakes up, of course in shock because he is lying in the arms of a naked Vicente!

But Vicente reassures him that he did not touch Kaito and just wanted to warm him as well as possible, and Kaito believes him. They talk a bit, and Vicente tells him about his younger sister who died already. After a while, Kaito goes back to sleep.

Chapter 13:

We’re back with Geoffrey and Nigel. Gloria has suffered some damage as well, but she did not lose a mast or anything, luckily. Suddenly they notice something drifting in the water, and it turns out this is the sail and mast of the Santiago! A crew member goes to investigate and returns with - Geoffreys sea chest keys Geoffrey freaks out and investigates the debris but of course there is no sign of Kaito. At least they know that he has been there but they don’t know what became of him. Still, both Geoffrey and Nigel firmly believe that he is still alive. But if he is on his way to Spain, there is nothing they can do. So Geoffrey decides to return to Plymouth to get in touch with Drake and Queen Elizabeth, and to ask them and their spies to help with the rescue.

Experiencing the possibility of Kaito being dead, Geoffrey suddenly sobers up and makes up with Nigel again - still a bit grudgingly, but he realizes that he wants Nigel at his side as they are such a good team. I’m really happy for them!

And with that, it’s over! Now I’m seriously considering catching up with my two other book clubs before diving into the next volume - and hopefully this will give you also some time to catch up.

EDIT: Need to add some personal thoughts on that last chapter.

You know, when Kaito was floating on the mast, I was like “Maybe Geoffrey will bump into him now? That would be so implausible, it would ruin the whole story for me because it has such a Hollywood touch…” but when they found the mast and sail, I was immediately like “Oh and I bet they find the keys in there!” and although this is equally implausible (or maybe even more implausible?), it somehow is weirdly credible in a way to me

[eefara]

@NicoleIsEnough

Now I’m seriously considering catching up with my two other book clubs before diving into the next volume

Sure, sure. You say that now.

[NicoleIsEnough]

@eefara

Sure, sure. You say that now.

I can live a dream, ok? Say, for 3 days or so

[ekg]

I might be able to update the OP pages of this thread and for vol 9 in the coming week, if you make the posts into wikis.

[NicoleIsEnough]

Good call Done!