It’s hard to hold Shuro responsible. I think he used to be a lot more down to earth.
Reading his character sheet, it says he didn’t really find anyone to look up to as a role model, and instead got attached to his tutor Maizuru, a person that is technically “below” him. Hiens chapter also describes that her past relationship with Shuro was much more like that of actual friends rather than master and servant.
He doesn’t really own the retainers, yet. He is the son of the man who does. He’s no longer a child, but still very much under the thumb of his father. While he might be able to have them die for him in some dungeon, setting them free “because that’s the right thing to do” would likely have dad disowning him the moment he finds out.
I think Maizurus relationship with the family head hurt Shuro, being a reminder that someone he loves and respects as a person, can be, and is treated, like property. As a coping mechanism he’s stopped thinking of her as a person, aligning himself with a status quo he can’t change. I don’t think that can last. He’s clearly miserable either way, and though Izu is left for dead, he actually gives the other retainers an apology for putting them in danger.
I’m very curious about what Maizurus inner thoughts might be on all of it. Because she seems to have a much, much clearer idea of what Shuros future will look like.
Her play seems to be backing a future head of the family in hopes he’ll be a better master.
The way Maizuru talks about Shuro, shows she has no qualms being parental to the point of manipulative in molding him into a “proper” person. By doing so she is in a way exercising power and influence through Shuro, the future head of the Nakamotos. She speaks of the current head in an almost traitorous manner in the world guide. That makes me think that though she is genuinely fond of Shuro, she has plans of her own to realize when it comes to how the Nakamoto family should be run.
Then again, Maizuru doesn’t seem to have a problem with the whole retainer practice, seeing as she was responsible for maintaining the spell on Izu. Like Shuro, she is terminally upper-class, and is just so used to the status quo that it simply seems “proper” for things to work the way they do. But I think that by becoming so important in Shuro’s life, she’s unwittingly set Shuro up to one day realize that owning people isn’t cool.
What’s he gonna do when he “inherits” ownership of Maizuru? I don’t think really “owning” his first-love-kind-of-mother-figure is gonna sit right with him.
If he “keeps” her, he’d just be like his father. I do not think Shuro likes his father, or the idea of being like him.