Manga / Dawn of the Arcana

"Today, I have become the enemy's possession."'

—Princess Nakaba

Dawn of the Arcana (Reimei no Arcana) is a Shōjo manga series by Rei Toma, which was serialized in Cheese! from 2009 to 2013.

To maintain peace between two neighboring countries of a small island—the northern country of Senan and the southern country of Belquat—who have suffered through 200 years of waging war and strife, a political marriage is arranged between Senan's Princess Nakaba and Belquat's second-in-line Prince Caesar. Nakaba attempts to hold a strong front and remain strong among the public eyes as she is discriminated by the people of Belquat for her poor Senan background and her inferior red hair. The only solace that she finds in her new and unfamiliar environment is her attendant and longtime friend Loki, an Ajin (or a sub-person) (called demi-humans in Viz's translation)—a half-beast and half-human with beast ears and a tail. However, when Nakaba begins receiving premonitions involving Caesar's impending death, will she use this information to save him, or will she let her husband die and exact her vengeance against Belquat and the people who despise her?

But as Nakaba gradually develops feelings for Caesar, a war between humans and sub-people is beginning to take its first steps and Nakaba soon learns that her visions are more than mere premonitions and stem from her mysterious and rare power—"The Arcana of Time"—a power that can bring miracles at a cost and is both sought after to be harnessed for ulterior motives or to be ultimately destroyed for its strange ability. Nakaba struggles to find a way to use her power of "The Arcana of Time" to save people's lives and prevent bloodshed as Caesar, Loki, and she try to create a new world free from corrupt royal families and discrimination against appearances, bloodlines, and races.

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This series contains the following tropes:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: The Letina swords that Belquat is creating underground that are made using ore.
• Afraid of Blood: The mere sight of it causes Nakaba to faint and recall memories. This is due to her eyes turning blood red when she uses Arcana. To try and find Lemilia in a snowstorm, Nakaba provokes her power by cutting herself and causing her eyes to turn red from the action.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Cain has unrequited feelings for his arranged fiancee Louise, who has unrequited feelings for Caesar. Double subverted as Nakaba foresees a future where Cain and Louise are married, have their first child, and are happy, but Cain ends up getting killed, thus that possible happy future is lost forever. Loki may or may not have feelings for Nakaba (Chapter 32 reveals that he does), who regards Loki as someone important and irreplaceable to her, but she is in love with Caesar.
• Always Someone Better:
  • Caesar's hatred towards Ajin stem from their keener five senses and strength, which Caesar had always tried to surpass as a child but could never fulfill, to the extent that even his mother told him that he had no need to do so because he was of royalty and could just get someone else to do whatever he needed. However, due to Nakaba's influence, even Caesar is willing to help Loki and other Ajin.
  • This is how Cain feels about Caesar. Naturally, their relationship develops into Cain and Abel levels.
• Arranged Marriage: The series starts with the arranged marriage between Princess Nakaba and Prince Caesar. Another political marriage between Senan and Belquat was done prior to this, but it only lasted five years. Louise is also arranged to marry Caesar's older brother Cain.
  • Perfectly Arranged Marriage: While it doesn't start off that way for Caesar and Nakaba, they grow to love each other. Nakaba's premonition foresees that Cain and Louise would have ended up this way as well, along with having their first child. However, Cain gets killed by Loki.
    • As of Chapter 39, Caesar has married Louise and Nakaba has married Adel. They are both arranged marriages, but both parties willingly accepted the unions in order to rule and overthrow their respective kingdoms). However, these marriages have strained the marriage between Caesar and Nakaba.
• Attempted Rape: Gouda tries this on Nakaba and Lemilia. Bella threatens to let the soldiers have their way with Nakaba if Loki doesn't become her servant. An interesting variant happens when Nakaba uses her Time's Arcana and sees the past of when she was living in Belquat after marrying Caesar. One night when Loki brings her food to find her asleep, he tries to touch her upon staring at her body but stops himself and mouths something. Though past!Nakaba doesn't hear it, Nakaba hears it as him mouthing that he won't violate her.
• Balancing Death's Books: For Nakaba to prevent a foretold death, someone else must die. Nakaba saving Lemilia leads to Cain's death and she is forced to choose to save either Ahkil or Azuhal. She chooses Ahkil.
• Battle Butler: Loki.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between Caesar and Nakaba.
• Betty and Veronica: Loki (Betty) and Caesar (Veronica) for Nakaba.
• Berserk Button:
  • Loki and Caesar both get their buttons pushed if Nakaba is ever insulted or threatened.
  • Caesar pulls on Nakaba's braid whenever she pisses him off.
  • Nakaba's buttons get pushed whenever anyone speaks badly of either Loki or Caesar.
• Big Brother Instinct: Bellinus towards his younger sister Lemilia.
• Big Brother Worship:
  • Lemilia is very attached to her older brother Bellinus, dislikes it whenever Bellinus always talks about either Caesar or Nakaba, and warns Nakaba that she won't give her brother to him.
  • Inverted between Loki and Nakaba once it's revealed they are siblings. Everything Loki did for Nakaba was out of the promise he made to their parents to protect her and she eventually became his Living Emotional Crutch.
• Big "NO!":
  • Nakaba wakes up screaming this when she has a dream foreseeing Caesar getting killed.
  • She has another one when her hair is forcibly dyed black.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Nakaba yells at two Senan nobles after she overhears them insulting her and Caesar.
• Bridal Carry: Loki carries Nakaba in this fashion in Chapter 6 and Chapter 32. The second time, she reacts flustered, having realized Loki's feelings for her.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Loki, who is in love with Nakaba, is revealed to be her brother.
• Butt-Monkey: Caesar.
• The Champion: Loki towards Nakaba.
• Chastity Dagger: Caesar tries to force the issue with Nakaba. She pulls a dagger from her sleeve and a sword fight ensues.
• The Chosen One: Nakaba has the power over "Time's Arcana," a rare ability that people seek for their own intentions or to destroy.
• Cain and Abel: Cain and Caesar. The final chapter subverts this between Loki and Nakaba, who are revealed to be siblings.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Nakaba, concerning her feelings for Caesar, her power of "Time's Arcana," and Loki's vengeance plot against Belquat. With Loki seemingly having dropped his scheme and Nakaba confessing her love for Caesar in Chapter 21, Time's Arcana is the one thing that Nakaba has yet to tell Caesar about.
• Character Development: Caesar starts off as a self-absorbed and jerkass prince, but overtime he develops into a more selfless character who genuinely loves Nakaba and wants to make her happy, to the point where he's willing to set aside his prejudice towards Loki and other sub-people for her sake.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • It's established in a chapter that Belquat has a trade marketing relationship with its ally country Lithuanel, but recently Belquat has been taking more ore from Lithuanel than they usually request. This is due to the ore is being used to make powerful swords, which will be able to surpass other country's forces, as well as the strength of sub-people, and which would help Belquat eventually dominate the world.
  • Lemilia's perceptiveness of others is hinted at earlier on before it turns out that this is due to her mind-reading Arcana.
• Childhood Friends: Nakaba and Loki, though the latter appears to be several years older than her. Subverted when it's revealed they are siblings.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Nakaba.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Louise, who throws Nakaba into a dungeon due to jealousy.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Nakaba is often dressed in green (likely to complement her green eyes), while Caesar and Loki wear red and and blue clothes, respectively.
• Commonality Connection: Nakaba and Cain bond over how they both like their respective hair color in spite of the fact that it is looked down upon and seen as common, which makes her believe that Cain will rescue Caesar, Loki, and Bellinus, who are "hostages" in Ajin Village. However, Lemilia, who's Arcane allows her to read minds, knows that Cain is clouded with negative emotions of envy and hatred towards Caesar and will not keep his word.
• Conflicting Loyalty:
  • Nakaba starts to develop this concerning Loki and Caesar. When Loki reveals his scheme of wanting the sub-people to take over the royal family and take vengeance on those who have wronged them, he tells Nakaba not to forgive Caesar, who is supposed to be her enemy. Nakaba tries not to forgive Caesar and distance herself from him, but a part of her has already forgiven him and she is initially conflicted by this.
  • Bellinus is put into this position when out of duty he must follow the king's orders but also to protect Lemilia, but at the cost of betraying Caesar and the others and try to stop them from preventing the king's plan.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Caesar can get quite clingy and easily jealous when it comes to Nakaba.
• Curtains Match the Window: Lemilia.
• Damsel out of Distress: Nakaba has a knack at getting into serious danger, but this does little to waver her determination.
• Dark Secret: Chapter 25 reveals that Loki has a secret that he can't tell Nakaba. Turns out they're siblings and half-Ajin.
• Daydream Surprise: This happens to Nakaba a few times. She wakes up shocked from a dream involving Caesar calling her "cute" and considers it a nightmare, and she has another one where she dreams that they are in high school with Caesar and herself as students and Loki as a math teacher.
• Death Equals Redemption: Cain.
• Defrosting Ice King: Caesar starts off as cold and cruel towards Nakaba, but her kindness and patience softens him.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Due to Nakaba's initially weak power, some of the premonitions from "Time's Arcana" come off as dreams.
• Disproportionate Retribution: When King Guran enters the dining hall and is startled that Nakaba is dressed in Senan attire, Loki takes responsibility for it. King Guran reacts by slashing Loki with his sword and ordering for him to be killed.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: With the reveal that Nakaba and Loki are siblings, their story is a fantasy demonstration of Pass Fail. Nakaba can pass as a human with the only sign of her mixed ancestry being her Arcana power and is accepted as a princess. Loki inherited his father's Ajin nature and is treated as a full Ajin and forced to be Nakaba's servant.
• Domestic Abuse: Though they're technically married, Caesar starts off as this towards Nakaba, yanking on her braid and pushing forced kisses on her in the first chapter. Needless to say, once Caesar begins to genuinely fall for Nakaba, he stops doing these childish and insensitive antics for the most part and treats her gently and with respect.
• Driven by Envy: Cain has always held a grudge and a strong hatred for Caesar for the latter's mother being promoted to queen while the former's mother gets dethroned from the position, Caesar being born with black hair, and his arranged fiancée and love interest Louise having feelings for Caesar over him. However, this also turns out to be Cain's Fatal Flaw.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Ahkil certainly looks rather feminine due to his hair style before it's made clear that he is male.
• Emotionless Girl: Prior to marrying Caesar and living in Belquat, Nakaba was this, showing little emotion to the insults that she received from Adel as well as others due to being the embarrassment of the Senan royal family. Adel lampshades this in Chapter 24, irritated by Nakaba's new found emotions.
• Equivalent Exchange: Nakaba learns the hard way that using Time's Arcana to save someone's life costs in the loss of another life.
• Eyes Always Shut: The king's trusted advisor, Bellinus
• Facial Markings: Loki has a marking by his left eye.
• Fainting: Happens to Nakaba quite a number of times.
• Failure Knight: Loki's determination to defend Nakaba seems to be in part due to his failure in protecting Nakaba's mother, who died protecting Nakaba and Loki from a soldier, and now does not want to lose anyone else important to him.
• Fantastic Racism: The major theme of the manga which explores in depth how much racism has ruined people's lives
  • Hair Colors are important in the world and in particular black hair is a sign of royalty while commoners have other types of hair. Nakaba and Cain both have commoner hair and are heavily discriminated against - Nakaba was locked in a tower for most of her childhood.
  • Ajin who have traits of animals are viewed as dumb beasts of burden and are relegated to soldiers and grunt work. Ajin in turn tend to hate and mistrust humans and view them as weak and duplicitous. The rare mixed ancestry have it the worst, hated by Ajin and humans alike.
  • Those that have Arcana are often viewed as cursed and evil. It also doesn't help that Arcana tend to manifest in Ajin and mixed-blood Ajin.
• Fantasy Anime & Manga
• Fiery Redhead: Nakaba is not necessarily an easily angered person, but she will set people in their places if need be.
• First-Name Basis: Nakaba and Caesar begin referring to each other by their first names with no honorifics beginning in earlier chapters, which indicates their genuinely growing affection and closeness to each other.
• Forceful Kiss: Caesar pulls this on Nakaba multiple times while they're fighting in Chapter 1.
• Foreshadowing: Nakaba's narration of Rito's appearance.
  Nakaba: I didn't notice it at all... that this child, would be one of the factors, that would change fate...
• The General's Daughter: Louise, which is the reason why she is engaged to Cain and gets married to Caesar after Cain dies.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • Caesar doesn't take too kindly that his "wife" Nakaba is depending too much on Loki (or rather, "another man") than her own husband, but he knows that Loki is someone important to Nakaba and gradually accepts this with little envy.
  • Cain hates Caesar and greatly envies him for taking away "everything" from him—as Caesar's mother was placed as queen while Cain's late mother was dethroned, Caesar is a black haired prince, and Caesar has Cain's fiancee Louise's affection.
  • In Chapter 21, Loki is shown watching a moment shared between Nakaba and Caesar confessing their love for each other and is jealous of Caesar, who was able to say those words so easily and "save" Nakaba with power that he does not have.
  • Chapter 53 reveals that while Loki loves Nakaba, he also hated and envied her because while they are both siblings and half-Ajin, Nakaba physically looked more human and was treated as such while Loki had to shoulder the burden of being treated like an Ajin alone.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Sub-people, half-beast and half-human with visible beast ears and tails, are scorned and are either forced to work as servants or (those who surpass mankind with their five senses) are soldiers put on the front line.
• Happily Married:
  • Caesar and Nakaba eventually fall under this.
  • According to Nakaba's Arcana, Cain and Louise could have become this.
• Happy Marriage Charade: How Caesar's and Nakaba's marriage starts off. As time grows on, they end up quite Happily Married
• He-Man Woman Hater: Lithuanel's fifth prince, Ahkil. He seems to be able to tolerate Nakaba due to her boyish haircut.
• Heroic Bastard: Nakaba, who is a product of her mother (a princess) who ran away with her lover.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Caesar and Bellinus, who have a brotherly relationship. Nakaba and Lemilia.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Though Caesar is introduced as a jerkass to Nakaba, it turns out that he has no desire for the throne and really has no idea what he wants, and thus realizing how empty he is. He begins changing for the better due to Nakaba's influence. He's also shown to be smarter than he comes off, able to analyze the reason for having a fair and how it benefits the people hinting that his ignorance is at least partially a mask.
  • Lemilia starts off as having a big brother complex for Bellinus, but she seems to understand animals and is very perceptive, being able to tell Loki's feelings, knowing that Bellinus has been conflicted lately, and figuring out that Nakaba has an Arcana. It turns out that this is because Lemilia has an Arcane of her own—the Arcane of mind-reading.
• High School AU: In Volume 5, there are a couple of bonus stories entitled "Arcana High," recasting Caesar as Nakaba's senpai and Loki as a teacher.
• Hime Cut: Lemilia.
• Holding Hands: Nakaba's relationship with Loki is so intimate that they often hold each other's hands or cup each other's faces without the other thinking anything of it. This changes after she discovers that Loki is in love with her, and any close gesture between them after now feels strange and uncomfortable to her because she now knows these gestures aren't of friendship but of love.
• Jerkass: Initially, Caesar. Loki can be a bit of this as well at times. Adel, a grandson of the present king and queen of Senan and the heir to the throne, is introduced by insulting Nakaba and in the past he often went out of his way to insult her just because he could.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Caesar eventually matures into this.
• I Gave My Word: Caesar keeps his promise to his wager with Nakaba and withdraws Loki's treason in Chapter 2. This is one of the first few signs that he's not such a bad guy as he seems to be.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Caesar to Nakaba in Chapter 1. Gouda to Nakaba and Lemilia in Chapter 22, though this turns out to be subverted as the guys arrive to rescue them only to find that Nakaka got Gouda drunk and already saved Lemilia and herself.
• I Kiss Your Hand: Caesar to Nakaba in Chapter 13.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Fashionable: After Caesar starts warming up to Nakaba, he tries to convey his affection by bringing her a ton of clothing and jewelry to make her happy. Nakaba takes it the wrong way and thinks this is another way for Caesar to insult her. It is only later that she realizes that all of the gifts are red to match her red hair, and she's genuinely touched by the act.
• If I Can't Have You…: Bella threatens to have Nakaba either killed or raped by soldiers if Loki doesn't become her exclusive servant. Loki responds by fatally stabbing her in the back and leaving her in the woods to be eaten by beasts until they are no more remains.
• It's All My Fault: Nakaba blames herself for Cain's death in Chapter 20 because when she shielded Lemilia from Cain's sword, Cain saw her and stopped his attack. Regardless of this act, Loki still killed him.
• Important Haircut: Caesar cuts his long hair after Nakaba's hair is forcibly dyed, and Nakaba cuts the part of her hair that has been dyed black to keep the red hair that she had initially disliked but has since grown to love.
• Interrupted Suicide: While looking for a missing Nakaba in Chapter 21, Caesar finds her by a lake, which Nakaba accidentally falls into. Caesar mistakes this for Nakaba trying to kill herself following her depression over Cain's death and rescues her.
• Kissing Cousins: Despite Adel's haughty and overall terrible treatment of Nakaba, there are hints that he might have feelings for her through his annoyance and jealousy of Loki and Caesar. As of Chapter 39, they are married, though Adel has purely married her due to her Arcana. Nakaba eventually remarries Caesar.
• Little Bit Beastly: The Ajin have animal ears and tails, but are otherwise human. Loki, for example, has a dog's ears and tail, or rather, a wolf's.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy:
  • Caesar. He cuts his hair in Chapter 8 after Nakaba is forced to get her red hair dyed.
  • Adel, Nakaba's relative (half-cousin) and the heir to the Senan throne.
• Love Confession: Nakaba and Caesar both openly confess their love for each other in Chapter 21.
• Love Dodecahedron:
  • Cain has unrequited feelings for his arranged fiancee Louise, who in turn has unrequited feelings for Cain's brother Caesar, who is in love with Nakaba, who returns his feelings while Loki may or may not have unrequited feelings for Nakaba; Chapter 32 reveals that he does have feelings for her, but she chooses Caesar over him.
  • In Chapter 39, Caesar has married Louise (who no longer loves Caesar as she has grown to love Cain and Nakaba has married Adel (who purely married her for her power over Time's Arcana). Caesar and Nakaba eventually remarry and Louise chooses to continue mourning over Cain.
• Love Redeems: Caesar gradually becomes a better person after he starts falling for Nakaba.
• Love Triangle: In spite of the aforementioned Love Dodecahedron above, the main love triangle seemingly revolves around Nakaba, her husband Caesar, and her childhood friend Loki, who may or may not have feelings for her. It turns out that he does, and when Loki makes her choose between them, Nakaba naturally chooses the man who she's Happily Married with. It's a refreshing twist rather than having her beat around the bush like other Shōjo heroines.
• Manchild: According to Loki, Caesar's antics around Nakaba are due to his immaturity. See also Nakaba's father
• Meaningful Name:
  • Caesar means "head of hair," which is notable in a world where hair colors are Serious Business. It's also the same name as another well-known ruler.
  • Loki. He is not necessarily a trickster like the Norse god, but he does have a few tricks up his sleeve, including his initially underhanded plan to gain Caesar's trust and stir up trouble in Belquat by banding sub-people together to attack Belquat, though this plan never comes to fruition as he had planned.
  • Caesar's older brother Cain.
  • Adel means "noble." Naturally, Adel turns out to be the successor to the Senan throne.
• The Mole: In Chapter 25, it is revealed that Rito was blackmailed to spy on Nakaba and the country of Belquat's dealings in return for his mother Lita's safety. Loki also contributed in this as well, sending internal affairs to Senan by orders of the Senan's king.
• Moment Killer: Loki can be this at times. Lemilia is a bit of this during Caesar's "honeymoon" with Nakaba.
• Morality Pet:
  • Nakaba is one for both Loki and Caesar.
  • Bellinus' younger sister Lemilia is one for Bellinus.
• Name of Cain: Caesar's older half-brother and the first-in-line Prince Cain.
• The Not-Love Interest: This seems to be how Nakaba interprets Loki's friendship with her. Chapter 32 reveals that he's in love with her.
• Older Than They Look: Nakaba thought Lemilia was fourteen-years-old. She turns out to be seventeen, one year older than Nakaba.
• Omake: An extra chapter portrays the characters in high school... up until it turns out to be a dream.
• Only One Name
• Parental Substitute: Loki is a bit of one to Nakaba, as they've known each other since Nakaba was a child, and following Nakaba's mother's death, Loki has been looking after Nakaba ever since, protecting her. Turns into Promotion to Parent when it is revealed that Loki is Nakaba's brother.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Caesar has these moments with Nakaba constantly in earlier chapters, showing he was more than what he appeared.
  • In Chapter 22, after Louise finds out that Cain was killed, she cries over the loss of her fiance.
• Playing with Fire: Leo, who has the Arcana of Fire, but his power tends to appear when he is provoked.
• Protectorate: Nakaba is this to Loki and Caesar. Lemilia is this to Vernas.
• Red Herring: Double subverted. When Nakaba has a premonition involving Loki trying to kill Caesar, she tries to stop it, only to find that Loki was killing a poisonous snake that someone sent to kill Caesar. As it turns out, Loki was really going to kill Caesar, though his true aim is to gain Caesar's trust and stir up Belquat using sub-people. Thankfully, he seemed to have dropped this plan a few chapters later.
• Rebellious Princess: Nakaba, who defies Belquat's king by cutting her hai.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Caesar and Loki, respectively.
• Revenge Before Reason: Cain goes out of his way to try and kill Lemilia because ever since she was a child, Lemilia has always looked at him with fear and pity—unaware that her reasons behind this is due to her Arcana's ability to read minds.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Nakaba and Caesar.
• The Runaway: Nakaba's mother ran away from the kingdom and eloped with her lover, Nakaba's father.
• Sadistic Choice: In Chapter 36, Nakaba is left foreseeing a future where either Ahkil or Ahkil's older brother Azuhal are killed. By saving one of them, the other gets murdered as a result, leaving Nakaba unable to decide who should get to live and who should have to die. She ultimately chooses to save Ahkil.
• Screw Destiny: Nakaba uses her visions to prevent Caesar's death and later Lemilia's death. She manages to save Lemilia, but at the cost of Cain's life.
• She Cleans Up Nicely:
  • Nakaba when she gets dressed up for the jousting tournament in Chapter 2.
  • And again in Chapter 13 when Nakaba gives her gift to Caesar, and at Lemilia's suggestion, looking dressed up.
• Ship Tease: Chapter 21 nearly confirms that Loki is in love with Nakaba too. Confirmed in Chapter 32.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Though Loki doesn't take too kindly to Caesar or Nakaba's relationship to Caesar, he's willing to help out on a few occasions when Caesar has difficulty conveying his feelings to Nakaba and Loki must spell it out for Nakaba, or she won't understand.
  • In spite of being a Caesar/Nakaba Moment Killer during their "honeymoon," Lemilia wants to help Nakaba when she wants to buy a gift for Caesar and dresses her up for it, and even gets them on their date that Caesar took great time to plan for.
  • Lemilia for Caesar and Nakaba.
• Shōjo Demographic
• Sibling Triangle:
  • Louise is engaged to Cain, but she's in love with Caesar. By Chapter 39, she has married Caesar at Caesar's mother's behest but no longer bears feelings for Caesar as she had fallen for the deceased Cain.
  • Technically between Nakaba, Loki, and Caesar as the final chapters revealed Loki and Nakaba are half-human and half-Ajin siblings, though it is never brought up as Loki had to keep their relation a secret and Nakaba only discovered it after his death.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Caesar and Cain.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Nakaba doesn't start developing feelings for Caesar until he starts to become a kinder person.
• Sleep Cute: Caesar and Nakaba in Chapter 23.
• Spit Take: Nakaba and Caesar have a literal one when Ahkil asks them if they've had sex yet.
• Stepford Smiler: Loki, Lemilia, and Cain.
• The Stoic: Nakaba, Loki, and Ahkil.
  • Not So Stoic: Nakaba and Loki can be quite stoic at times, but even they have a few moments when they lose their cool.
• Stripperific: The gang—notably the girls—wear revealing clothing while masquerading as a traveling gypsy group in Chapter 22.
• Succession Crisis: Played with. Caesar's older brother Cain is first-in-line to the throne in spite of the fact that his mother was a commoner. Caesar's mother and Cain's fiancee Louise would much rather want Caesar to fight and claim the throne for himself, but Caesar doesn't want the throne nor does he want to fight with Cain. Caesar later decides to become king in order to make Nakaba happy and create a new and better world for her. After Cain's death, Caesar becomes first-in-line to the throne... and is forced to marry Louise in his dead brother's place.
• Tagalong Kid: Rito.
• Taking the Bullet:
  • Nakaba shields Caesar from Loki's attack in Chapter 2, but Nakaba only gets a tiny bit of her hair nicked.
  • Nakaba's mother shielded Loki with a young Nakaba when their village got attacked.
  • Loki shields Nakaba from an attack by a hired soldier in Chapter 11. He only gets wounded on his shoulder.
  • Nakaba shields Lemilia when Cain tries to kill her. It is notable that Cain stopped his attack once he saw Nakaba, but he was still killed by Loki.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Loki and Caesar.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Caesar.
• Tampering with Food and Drink:
  • When Caesar tries to feed Nakaba during dinner, Loki smacks it away, to the offense and shock of everyone. It turns out that the food was poisoned.
  • Vernas puts sleeping pills in Nakaba's, Loki's, Caesar's, and Rito's food to prevent them from stopping King Guran's plan in Ajin.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Loki and Caesar start off as this, but they are slowly developing into Fire-Forged Friends.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Nakaba and Lemilia.
• Tragic Mistake: If Cain never tried to kill Lemilia, he would probably still be alive and would have ended up happily married, along with having his first child.
• Traumatic Haircut: King Guran orders for Nakaba's red hair to be dyed black. This turns into an Important Haircut when Nakaba cuts off the hair that was dyed.
• Troubled Fetal Position: Nakaba does this a lot.
• Tsundere: Caesar towards Nakaba, who shows signs of it herself. Leo shows mild signs of this as well.
• Undying Loyalty: Loki and Caesar towards Nakaba.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Loki.
• Unwanted Spouse:
  • This is initially how Nakaba and Caesar feel about each other. In public, they appear as husband and wife, but underneath the surface they see each other as mere enemies. However, as they genuinely develop feelings for each other, this trope is subverted.
  • This is how Louise apparently feels towards her arranged fiance Cain, preferring his brother Caesar over him. Possibly subverted in Chapter 22, as Louise crying over Cain's death seems to signify that at the very least she did care for Cain on some level and it is later acknowledged that she has grown to love him.
  • Despite their new marriages (Caesar to Louise and Nakaba to Adel), Nakaba is still in love with Caser and Caesar knows that Louise has grown to love Cain; therefore, he does not feel his feelings for or marriage to Nakaba are in jeopardy.
• Warrior Prince: Caesar and Cain, who both have impressive swordfighting skills.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Nakaba is initially oblivious to Caesar's growing feelings for her and gestures of affection and mistakes the latter for ways to insult her. It's only until she starts to fall for him that she realizes the sincerity of his actions. In contrast, Nakaba quickly realizes that Loki is in love with her in Chapter 32 once she notices that his gestures towards her are of love and are the same way she would act towards Caesar.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 52 reveals that Nakaba is half-Ajin and that Loki is her brother (and by extension, is also half-Ajin).
• The Wise Prince: Caesar eventually develops into this.
• Yandere:
  • Loki shows a few signs of this from threatening Caesar for insulting Nakaba and regretting that he didn't kill Caesar due to Nakaba's and Caesar's growing closeness in earlier chapters to killing Bella to protect Nakaba after she threatens to either have Nakaba raped or killed by soldiers.
  • Bella towards Loki to the point of threatening to kill Nakaba.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Subverted. Caesar spent the day trying to make the perfect date for Nakaba, but Lemilia impulsively takes Nakaba out shopping, knowing full well of Caesar's plan for a date. When Lemilia learns Nakaba wants to buy a gift for Caesar, Lemilia shops for a dress for Nakaba to wear and even gives Caesar and Nakaba time for their date in the evening.

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