The degree of narrative detach with Marronnier Oukoku no Shichinin no Kishi is truly impressive. I’m not talking about the relaxed pacing here, though that’s certainly a thing too. There’s an odd neutrality to the storytelling, kind of observational to an extreme degree. You don’t get any help deciding what to think about things, it’s left entirely up to the viewer. I don’t know if that’s the way it is in the manga as well, though I rather suspect so.

Because this is a fantasy with a highly grounded aesthetic, I do find myself kind of engaged with the characters and events. It shares with ACCA that extremely low-key approach to dangerous developments, though it’s not yet certain just how dangerous these developments are. The Queen certainly wants to steal Insomniac away from the Marronnier Kingdom, and it seems her main allies in this are flower spirits. There are flame spirits here too, and presumably others like earth of wind or trees. At least some people can interact with them as easily as talking to another human, though whether that’s a select few or not isn’t entirely clear.

The three earmuff girls are physically manifest, since Insomniac can see them (unless he’s special too?). At the very least they believe they’re acting at the behest of the Queen in scheming to keep Insomniac here. We also meet a pair of princesses (I assume), Kastehelmi and Anni. Kastehelmi disapproves of this plotting and appears to be trying to foil it (with the help of fire spirits). She’s also fallen head over heels for Johannes, who unwittingly charms her socks off in a moonlight meeting in the garden.

Eleonora is more or less the star of the show this week. She feuds with her maid about dressing and acting more girly. She squabbles with Insomniac generally, though with an obvious air of flirtation to it. I wouldn’t say there’s massive chemistry here or anything, but it does seem as if she likes the idea of being married to Insomniac (at least as opposed to marrying anyone else). As such she’s the main subject of the earmuff plot, as they scheme to “get rid” of her. I don’t think that goes as far as killing her outright, but they are trying to bewitch her into leaving the country on her own which, given the climate, might amount to the same thing.

Another mysterious element is Rollo, the Queen’s prince consort and still (mostly) unseen and (entirely) unheard. Getting out of bed and eating with her are apparently rare events (it’s been two weeks since the last occasion) and his role in actually running the show is currently unknown. All this is building up to Walpurgis Eve, with the earmuff girls have set as a deadline for getting rid of Eleonora. How deep this conspiracy goes is the big question – it could lead to war, but as far as the conspirators go is that a feature or a bug?