Ho Yay / 1001 Knights

Rubaiyat kissing Naito on his lips. (Official art by Yukiru Sugisaki)

"A soul doesn't have a gender, and love doesn't choose the soul."

— Rubaiyat (to himself about Naito)

The creator of 1001 Knights Yukiru Sugisaki is known for making their same-sex characters look like they have affection for another person of the same gender. In the 1001 Knights series it's not just homoerotic subtext, it is actually depicting love and affection as well as physical attraction between same-sex people.

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Naito and Rubaiyat

• Rubaiyat's love for Naito is shown so often that it feels like it's almost the main plot.
• Rubaiyat shared a history with Naito: Naito is the reincarnation of princess Alnilam. Alnilam and Rubaiyat were depicted as a couple with romantic interactions and declaration of protection, trust and love.
• After seeing that his beloved Alnilam got reincarnated as a guy (Naito) he doesn't make a big deal out of it and says to himself: "A soul doesn't have a gender, and love doesn't choose the soul."
• Seeing Naito for the first time he declares his love again and even kisses him on the lips much to Naito's chagrin.
• Rubaiyat stick a ring on Naito's ring finger (left hand) and Naito fails to get rid of it.
  • later on it is mentioned by Naito that he is not in that kind of relationship even though wearing a ring on his ring finger.
• At the beginning Naito doesn't like the fact that both of them are male
• Rubaiyat kisses (and tries to kiss) Naito several times. Naito always tries to avoid this. Eventually they [[share a mutual kiss in the end.]]
• Naito saw Rubaiyat the small/younger-looking form of Rubaiyat before passing out: after waking up together with Rubaiyat in his bed he asked him why he was big again. Rubaiyat answered his question with something along the lines of "I can't have sex with you if I'm small." implying that he wants to be more physical with Naito. Naito then just says to himself that he doesn't wanna hear all this.
• When Rubaiyat turns himself into a woman he notices that Naito is distracted and fascinated by how beautiful "she" is.
• In chapter 54 Naito tells Rubaiyat that he [[spoiler: loves him but doesn't know yet "what kind of love" this is. For Rubaiyat it's enough to be satisfied and he smiles - they also share a kiss (this time with the consent of both) in this scene.
• In the final chapter 55 there is a time skip of 6 years: we see Naito at work in the detective agency who says to himself "already 6 years...", the ring Rubaiyat gave to Naito is shown in the next panel. During his break his father casually chats with him a bit and asking if he's not going to marry, since he wants to have a female person in his house. Naito then says that he doesn't intend to get married and tries to avoid the topic by leaving the room 'cause "he has something to do". The internal monologue of the father after this: "Don't tell me he's still waiting for THAT. This can't be true, I don't want to have even more men in my house!" - implying that Naito is waiting for Rubaiyat (in terms of partner/relationship) instead of planning to marry a woman. At the end it shows that Rubaiyat kept his promise: he arrives on earth asking a foreigner how he can get to Japan (since Naito is there), willing to meet him again.
• In one of the official artworks we see Rubaiyat and Naito dancing together with Rubaiyat's hand on Naito's waist.

Naito and Yuta

• Even though Naito and Yuta are twins it is shown right at the beginning that Yuta's love for Naito is more than just "brotherly love". There was a scene were the lips were almost touching but Naito just asked "what?" oblivious to the fact that Yuta might feel attracted to him and tried to make a move.
• Yuta kissed Naito [[spoiler: when Yuta was on the verge of death, telling Naito that he loves him and that he should have told him sooner about how he feels. In response Naito blushed.
• There are several official artworks included in the manga volumes which kinda look like a depiction of lovers and show longing gestures/expressions.

Naito and Zuban

• Zuban's sister "Shakt" knew that Naito is not a girl but to protect Naito she was ordered to dress him as a girl. Zuban didn't know and stated that she must be some sort of "princess". He had a crush on Naito for some chapters. After the truth was revealed Zuban was heartbroken but somehow still felt attracted to Naito for a little while after finding out he's a guy.