In the latest edition of Princess Syalis concocts scenarios to get great rest at the expense of the demons who captured her, volume 13 has it all. It ends up having monster birds with amazing names (fried chicken!!!) escaping and coming back to the demon castle in the weirdest way possible, the hostage doing Demon King Twilight’s paperwork — which you can already assume there’s an ulterior motive as to why — as Twilight recovers from a tough event, and we finally…maybe…conclude the Demon Cleric’s story, which has been teased over a couple volumes regarding his edgelord past and continued levels of obsession of Syalis needing to be solved forever.
But the start of this volume gives us one of the most shocking moments in this manga’s long run: Syalis actually fake sleeping!
After 12 volumes of Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, volume 13 has an arc where Syalis acts like she’s sleeping, but is not. This happens during demon boot camp. Specifically, Twilight has the demons arrive under said pretense of a boot camp, where they must:
- Run up long flights of stairs (meanwhile Syalis goes up on a cart)
- Have to show they’re morally responsible by helping a young girl in need — which they do, but it’s Syalis they actually help since she got lost, and not the girl who’s actually part of the test
- Must meditate without flinching before their trainer ends up killing them with a big club.
…Oh, did I forget to mention Syalis is their “trainer”? Yeah, she happens to be their “trainer”.
But as mentioned, the boot camp is technically cover for Twilight as he aims to meet the one at the top of the temple. In some volumes we’ve seen him wanting to change the current state of relations between humans and demons, and in order to do that, he has to lay the groundwork. So in an area that’s considered neutral territory, he eventually gets to the top of the temple. And there, he meets Princess Syalis’ aunt.
Yep, Syalis’ aunt, Aurora Como Lis Goodereste, who apparently is so scary that even Syalis can’t get along with her — that knowledge and what happens when her aunt wakes up proves it. This eventually leads to the shocking moment where Syalis fakes sleeping, leaving Twilight to talk to her aunt alone. You can bet it’s about as hilarious and also more revealing than you’d expect! In general though, the arc was a good combination of fun moments and meager story development. Meager since the overarching story is not what this manga is all about.
Otherwise, after that we follow it up with Syalis doing Twilight’s work because his whole body’s sore; chickens leaving their cages and Syalis “somehow” finding a way to get amazing sleep; another chapter where Syalis doesn’t want to say the reasons why she needs to take a bath to any demons (leaving to them again thinking the wrong thing); and Demon Cleric’s tales of shame in every respect. As in, him leaving a letter and running away to his hometown since he realized his obsession with the princess is way too much, and him also reliving his days as a massively edgy demon.
All in all, combined with the generally terrific expressions of terror and disgust in the demons and Syalis that makes me laugh every time, this is another successful volume of the Princess Syalis’ helpful sleeping tips that only messes up the demons in some form or fashion manga.