If you’ve been reading Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, there will be no major surprises as to what’s going to happen within a given chapter. We all know that Syalis is going to do something wrong to drive the demons into chaos, the demons simply accept it, and then Syalis finds a way to sleep. Even for chapters that doesn’t even feel like she should go to sleep — Demon Cleric, Hades, and Demon King Twilight having to stand in for the Poison Apple Men to entertain demon kids and Syalis is the host of the program — she still finds a way to sleep.
It probably shouldn’t be a surprise that Syalis’ family line is terrifying, and that is represented by the witch who gets introduced after 20 volumes, Silmoth!
Why are we meeting a witch after 20 volumes? Well as natural as it is to breathe, Princess Syalis continues looking for natural and/or unorthodox ways to sleep, and decides to use the cursed spindle, since apparently if you get pricked by its needle you’re put to sleep for 100 years. She actually doesn’t want to sleep that long, but before she could use various methods to resolve that issue, Poseidon, in his attempt to stop Eggplant Seal from hitting the spindle, gets pricked by the needle and immediately goes to sleep. Distraught over allowing this to happen, Syalis goes to the demon guardians in shame, but learns a witch named Silmoth, formerly one of the Ten Demon Guardians, created the spindle, which means there might be a way to wake him up.
…And also for Syalis to learn a way to sleep at a controlled time.
There’s so many actual storylines in this arc that involves one cursed spindle, but the short of it stems from Syalis’ grandmother, who told her the story about the spindle and the witch Silmoth, who just wants to farm in peace. The problem, of which there are multiple of them but if needed to distill as the main problem, is Silmoth’s actions got misinterpreted into something incredible and very demon like, which has only caused her shame and embarrassment. And thanks to one demon wanting to save his brother (by opening a portal so he could get to Silmoth), a bunch of demons are at her home and now she can’t reveal the actual true ability of the spindle!
As always though, while the series does maintain its humor, there’s also a touch of kindness at points, and that’s despite the characters being tsundere about it. Which brings me back to Syalis’ grandmother, who had met Silmoth many times, and indirectly caused this current mess. Clearly the women in the Goodereste line have their many quirks, enough to sway demons to like them no matter what, and despite what Silmoth says publicly, she totally missed seeing her. So the last page of this volume was a very nice touch, though I do feel sorry for the guards getting caught up in this drama!
Anyways, that was a terrific arc, but Sleepy Princess continues putting together amazing chapters one after the other. We finally get to learn about Twilight’s first love, which was a human back when he was a kid! (The details of it cause Syalis to ponder about everything but come to no conclusion while Demon Cleric is now terrified since he figured out who “Hee” actually is). Agave’s training the Demon Teddy Bears leads her into an encounter with Twilight that’s she’s not ready for — emotionally and in sound mind since Agave attempts to let Syalis explain why she’s hidden under a guise. Did I forget to mention Syalis’ mother has a burner account on social media and is a video creator, as evidenced by her leaking a video of the demons’ most embarrassing moments in the castle?
At least this chapter also has Syalis facing consequences for wanting to sleep so bad in freezing weather, though whether it was a good idea to awaken Harpy to a new level of devotion we’ll all find out. But at this point, Kagiji Kumanomata’s just creating excellent chapters one after the other, and it’s just hilarious stuff. Looking forward to finding out what type of destruction everyone will be up in the next volume, and how Syalis will find a way to get good rest anyways!