Considering the perilous situation that Nina found herself in in the last volume, wrecked in the remote forests of a foreign land and without a single ally within hundreds of miles, readers could be forgiven for thinking that she might take advantage of the chaos at the start of the fourth volume to escape but that’s not how Nina has resolved to do things. Even if she could escape, and the quick intervention of Prince Sett of Galgada erases that chance, Nina has steeled herself to become Galgada’s future queen in order to ensure peace with Fortna, her homeland.
But, even with Nina coming to Galgada (which was an outrageous request in and of itself, requesting that a royal princess who had sequestered herself as a priestess renounce her vows and rejoin the world in a political allegiance) that hasn’t stemmed Galgada’s long-held ambitions to conquer Fortna; Nina never expected peace to be easy but it seems as if her arrival hasn’t changed anything at all in that regard. In fact, the current king declares that no longer is Sett the crown prince by means of primogeniture or any other hierarchical line of succession, instead whichever son conquers Fortna will be the next king. Considering that one of the easiest pretexts to invade would involve any future child of Nina’s (a child who is therefore a part of Fortna’s royal lineage), suddenly it’s not her competing against other princesses for Sett’s hand but the princes fighting over her!
Fighting over her in the most unromantic way possible of course, this may be shōjo but these princes are no bevy of options to make the female readership swoon and ship, they’re just more enemies in a place where Nina has few allies to start with. Nina and Sett have begun to grow closer to each other, in the way that shōjo stories will turn enemies into lovers, but as all of this begins to happen an interesting twist occurs. When Nina, or rather “Alisha,” was set off entirely on her own to be married she had no way to communicate with the court of Fortna and so she has no idea that her “brother” Prince Azure (who himself is a replacement for a dead royal), has cooked up a scheme to be king of Fortna for one year and to both shore up their defenses against Galgada and bring “Alisha, the Astral Priestess” home. Azure may be the new king, which in and of itself is throwing off the plans of Galgada’s princes, but he’s also snuck into Galgada as a messenger announcing the news of his imminent coronation. (Why he would be crowned king and then immediately leave the country I don’t quite get but it seems to be the plan of Alisha and Azure’s “father” who has already been established to be careless man and indifferent ruler)
No one in Galgada has yet conned onto the fact that the current king of Fortna is hiding amongst the messengers, but some folks believe that Nina and Azure were in a star-crossed bodyguard-princess romance before she came to Galgada and that’s still plenty of reason for some folks to dislike Azure. On top of that, Sett believed that “Nina” was a childhood nickname of Alisha’s (due to a slip-up on Alisha’s part) but now that he knows that there’s no way this could be the case, this already paranoid prince who’s cut her down once before is looking at Nina with even more suspicion about her allegiances and goals.
With more and more intrigue in every volume, plus plenty of opportunities for Nina to hone her wits and adorable outfits to wear, I’m so pleased that not only is each volume living up to expectations but that Kodansha will be giving this previously digital-only series a print release. It’s a shōjo series that I think could definitely find a larger audience with some marketing or even an anime adaptation (everyone who’s loved Yona of the Dawn should give this series a shot) and hopefully having an ink and paper book in bookstores will help introduce more people to this story of determination, lies, and fighting for a peaceful future.
