Maoujou de Oyasumi – 03

「姫と禁断の叡智[あれこれ]」 (Hime to Arekore)
“The Princess and Forbidden Knowledge”

This week’s Maoujou de Oyasumi continues to bring the laughs with every attempt at getting sleep inching Princess Syalis closer and closer to the prospect of escaping. But with her lack of interest in such a pursuit, it gives the Demon King Twilight the opportunity to have more direct involvement in the story beyond relying on hearsay from his demon vassals.

The funniest aspect of this week’s stunts from Syalis of how easily she could have escaped had she not been one-track-minded about wanting to sleep. Alazif’s misfortune was the hardest thing to watch because of how the path to freedom was right there. Syalis had unintentionally opened up the door to access the Forbidden Grimoire where Alazif was trapped, and his freedom allowed her to be taught a sleeping spell that made everyone in the entire castle fall asleep for three day. But instead of bolting right out of there or waltzing out of the castle, she decides to go to sleep in the chamber out of spite because she was mad that she couldn’t be hit with her own spell.

Another close shave with freedom is when she ends up finding a spot outside of the castle that has the right shine to it to mimic the sunlight and go through a natural sleep cycle in the Demon King’s castle. The only thing is that the whole castle is on high alert because they know she could book it right away if the idea ever crossed her mind. But it’s not only baffling to the demons to have the princess constantly escape only to return to her cell by her own volition, but that she re-appropriated the Ultimate Weapon as her nightlight.

The Ultimate Weapon ordeal, however, does have its benefits by being one of the few moments in this episode where we learn more about Twilight. He acts completely broken when Syalis ends up discovering the sword he laid in the middle of the woods and despairs over the possibility that she’s the one that ends up wielding it. But with the final reveal, he accidentally leaves a torn note from his journal behind that indicates that he left it specifically to aid the hero Dawner in his adventure. It gives us a better understanding of what kind of story it is that the Demon King has a cordial relationship with the Hero, and possibly implies that he relies on the Hero thwarting his efforts so that he can begin the cycle anew for a new journey. It has more of a Mario/Bowser vibe where there is still animosity, but Bowser wants Mario to have the means to defeat him so that Princess Peach can be rescued and then kidnapped for another quest.

Additionally, this episode gave us some hilarious scenes where Twilight gets involved with Syalis’ madness. Of all the demons in the castle that had the restraint to adamantly refuse the princess’ vague request to be touched in her cell, Twilight is the one who tries to brave through her demand since he’s somewhat familiar with studying the pressure points Syalis is talking about. At the same time, he doesn’t do this without resistance as he goes from trying to retain his respectable Demon King persona to freaking out about the prospect of touching the princess’ back. Probably the two best moments of the episode for me was Alazif’s befuddled face when she decides to hit the hay on a pile of books and the image of Twilight being shamed by his underlings who thought he’d be better than this. It makes it all the more interesting to know that in future episodes, we’ll be learning about his involvement in Dawner’s quest and has a personal stake in Syalis’ safety.