[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 collection of F&B short stories
Flesh&Blood外伝 女王陛下の海賊たち contains four short stories set in the Flesh&Blood universe, previously printed in the publisher's 小説Chara magazine (brief summaries spoilered for those who want to go in blind):
All four of these stories take place before the main Flesh&Blood narrative, featuring Nigel as the viewpoint character for three and Kit for one. They're great for those interested in learning more of Geoffrey and Nigel's pasts and how they eventually got to their current positions by the start of Flesh&Blood 1; that said, while they could work as standalone reading, you're definitely getting more out of them if you're familiar with the source material.
If you wanted to read these as early as possible in your Flesh&Blood journey, I would recommend starting after having finished F&B vol. 4 so that you're familiar with the important characters. If you want to read them in between books as they were originally published, I would recommend:
My one minor regret is that these are almost in chronological order; 女王陛下の海賊たち takes place after all the others, but is printed second due to its publication order.
If you've been reading the main F&B series before these, then you should be well-prepared for the grammar and vocabulary used here. I did think these stories felt tougher on an individual level than reading through F&B chapters (especially when reading the second story), but not unusually so.
As with the other F&B books, illustrations are not included in the digital versions of this book; they are present in the physical.