© リカチ・講談社/ 「星降る王国のニナ」製作委員会
It becomes increasingly impossible to trust anyone. Or at least, no one in the royal family. As briefly mentioned last week, they've been playing the substitution game with their children for a while now, with Azure replacing a prince who died long before Nina was chosen to become Alisha. That's an interesting implication about how this family operates—did they start with Az, or is Nina just the latest in a long line of pseudo-royals? The first thought was to find a child of similar age to take the name from, and Azure's original role seemed to imply that it wasn't the first time it had happened—and then learned that he was the one. fake, Az's immediate plan to find the fake Alisha is just him continuing a dark tradition. Since the swaps are kept secret except to a select few, it means this potentially dark history will be relatively unknown. After all, only a handful of people know about Azure and they don't seem to be talking.
Unfortunately for the queen, this only makes her look worse, because unless she's a lot more refined than she's been drawn so far, that means she just hates Azure because is the son of a previous spouse. She's like a less bloodthirsty Nakia (from Chie Shinohara's Red River), trying to completely clear the way for her son to take the throne, even though she arguably doesn't need to; Her husband seems to have voluntarily demoted Azure to make room for Muhulum shortly after the birth of his blood prince. Granted, the queen doesn't seem to be the main character and the title of next week's episode suggests that Nina is going to Galgada, but still. In court stories like this, getting rid of someone simply because they appear helpless is never a good idea.
That's what Az quickly realized about Nina. He chose her because of her looks, but he assumed that a child from the slums would just join the princess's masquerade without asking too many questions. Maybe he drew this expectation from his own experience without remembering that there is a big difference between uprooting a four-year-old and a teenager. But Az is also a planner. His great-grandfather taught him to always put king and country first, and that's what he did when he bought Nina: put the interests of the kingdom above those of an individual—and he might even consider it was a way to make things better for both of them, although the former king's words implied that no one expected the fake Alisha to last long.
The fact that she had the motivation to live surprised Azure. While Nina is busy making the most of her situation—cleaning her cell with your blanket is the level of playful Disney princess—Az is realizing that she's not a pawn, she's a bitch. People. And maybe, just maybe, that means he's human too. He spent most of his life thinking he had to live up to the expectations of the royal family, who adopted him as a replacement for their dead son. He has almost erased himself, even to the point of being willing to let the queen's assassins succeed if that is what is best for the country. But Nina's unabashed confidence in herself, which has only strengthened since he agreed to call her by her first name, is changing that. Is it a difficult situation because they are masquerading as siblings? Sure, plus she's engaged to Prince Galgada. But when Az kissed her, he acted as himself and not as Prince Azure.
How this will play out for him remains unclear, although we can make educated guesses based on the pictures in the book of the ending subject, which gradually revealed as each “night” passed. And perhaps most importantly, remember that even though Nina started out as a pawn, in the game of chess a pawn can become anything – including a queen.
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Nina the Starry Bride is now streaming on Crunchyroll.