[DeepL Translation - needs review] Introduction to Volume 1: Captain Watts takes in Jeffrey, who has no relatives, and raises him - he dies of illness during the voyage, and is replaced by a young captain on the "Catherine"! But this arouses jealousy and betrayal among the old sailors...? This is the first masterpiece short story collection in the series, which also includes "Sailing" describing Captain Jeffrey's tumultuous maiden voyage, Kit's encounter with the young pirates, and the title...
A bunko re-release
This particular Natively entry is a bunko and first-time digital re-release of 王と夜啼鳥, published more than 10 years after the original. This edition includes an extra story, 希望のロマンス, which I thought fit the rest of the stories quite well.
This volume is essentially one long F&B 外伝. Each of the "chapters" are broken up into different short stories, but they're all definitely meant to be read together as one. I would recommend reading this after volume 10 of the main series, as this probably takes place in between it and volume 11.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I wish one scene in particular had shown up (and that scene not being there is what dropped a star for me), but I'm always happy to see more content for that particular arc it's a part of.
And if you've read up through F&B 10, then you don't need me to talk about book and language difficulty here; you should know what to expect.