SAVOR EVERY PANEL in this chapter. This is their first doki doki lovemaking scene AND IT SHOWS
This manhwa is based on a VERY SHORT novel that's intended to be VERY explicit + super intense. It's not intended to have gradual slowburns, or the longterm development you're looking for. It also belongs to a certain category, specifically for readers who *DO NOT MIND black flag tops, toxic and imbalanced relationships, and a high tolerance for MC!suffering with a touch of tenderness mixed in through forms of abuse.*
So if this is not for you, you can continue reading the spoilers and move on. Posting this here before I forget everything.
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You will see the MC being broken down layer by layer, intentionally according to the ML, where MC's pride and ego is so crushed that all that’s left is a raw primitive instinct to ‘want to survive’. The MC has clung to the ML, hoping the ML would not discard or throw him away.
After the rocking horse scene (I AM NOT SUMMARIZING THIS, YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO SEE THIS FOR YOURSELF. *I* NEED TO SEE FOR MYSELF.), a year has passed by since then. The contract is supposed to end at this time, where the ML intended to part ways with MC, but at this point, the MC is deathly afraid of being abandoned by the ML, and the ML is also stirred by certain emotions he is feeling for the MC. He does not know this feeling yet, and linken it to ‘a hard-to-get toy that he found very engaging to play with’. I believe MC had even forgotten such contract exist because at this point, his entire life revolved around ML.
The MC continues to call ML ‘Master’. This isn’t a play they’re enacting out; he genuinely regards ML as his master. It is like a light-version BDSM relationship without a safeword, and the only thing that’s stopping this whole thing from spilling into torture porn is the ML’s restraint - he knows when it gets too much, and MC, being humbled and soft willed as he is, has never really crossed this so-called line. A majority of the second volume is filled with sex scenes that emphasize this part of their relationship.
Plot starts to move along when MC admitted to ML that he likes it when ML cared for him like this (MC’s throat was clogged and hurt, so ML bought him porridge and fussed over him) and this put ML in a good mood, and suggested they go out on a relaxing drive.
ML then left his car for a moment to grab tummy indigestion pills for MC. When he came back, he found MC had disappeared. ML was blindsided with fury, cussing MC out as a whore.
What actually happened was, that MC had met one of his juniors from back during his earlier wild party days. The junior had gently invited MC for a party, promising it would end in time for MC to return back to ML. MC joined the junior in the car, and at that moment, they locked him in and sped off.
This was an act of revenge. If you remember all the way back in the beginning, MC’s ex wife had threatened to expose all the photos and info the press (which was the start of the contract between MC and ML). However, the juniors had no such backing, and THEY were exposed, along with a group of people who were publicly ruined.
They trapped MC in a villa, where this group of people were waiting for him. Thankfully, the novel only briefly summarized the detestable things that they made MC go through in that short afternoon, and it is as what you imagined. While the group was preparing to gangrape MC, all he could think of were thoughts like, 'why was ML not coming? It’s been hours since I disappeared, why weren’t you looking for me? Is that why you let me go?’ These are MC’s own words, that ML had personally broken MC and fixed him in his own way, as a result, became ML’s entire complete possession.
So while MC had been harboring these despairing thoughts while the group was defiling his body (not outright penetration, but more like body invasion through objects… ngl it was hard to read and I skimmed through everything.) the door was crashed open and in came ML.
ML always had people tracking MC, so when the reports came in revealing his location, he deliberated for a moment whether to just let MC go, as MC had merely been a 'toy'. After a series of reflections, ML went ahead to pick up MC, believing he was having a great time.
So ML saw MC being pinned down, and contrary to what he believed, MC was in a crying state, sobbing in a way that ML had never seen before. The group recognized who he was, and quickly composed themselves. One of the juniors threatened that ML won’t get away with this, and ML basically said ’try it’ while helping MC to walk out of the house.
When they were in the car, MC cried and spilled everything out to ML, basically pouring his heart out in the rawest way imaginable. He was absolutely broken and sniveling, terrified that ML would hit him, though one can’t blame MC for thinking that way. To MC, after what he experienced, on top of everything, he was in a fearful state.
When they arrived at home, ML pulled out a new contract to MC. It’s basically a lifetime contract, stating that MC IS NO LONGER HIS TOY, and… they’d just have sex, eat and live together as a COUPLE. So this is the closest ML came to confessing his actual feelings, and asked him not to call him ‘Master’ anymore and not to use formal tone (ML is younger than MC by several years). After a long conversation where ML asks MC what he wants, it’s basically a happy ending for them, and they proceed to have normal sex, THE FIRST OF ITS KIND FOR THEM, and ML saying things like ‘I’m your only husband, got it? Your hole is only for me’ etc. You’ll have to bear in mind that ML normally speaks crudely to MC, like dirty filthy words, and it's no different here. MC’s thought was, the abyss he had fallen into isn’t so terrible after all’.
There will always be a clear imbalance between them, with MC being so fearful and hyper aware of ML’s actions, and ML is a black flag but as far as happy endings go, this is the best it gets for people like them. So THEY ARE IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER, in this twisted, toxic, ???? way that only makes sense to them.
The side story is about ML’s mom I think, and circumstances regarding their family and how ML became ML the way he does, I haven’t read it yet but will soon eventually.
This really was a short story, and I think I covered almost all the major points so yeah.
This is a ‘blink and it’s over’ Chapter.
I don’t mind. WE HAVE WAITED THREE YEARS FOR THIS HONEYMOON PERIOD.
THE HEADREST GOT CENSORED.
Oh well, seeing SHJ in all his glory and being awed is good enough for manhwa.
Wow, I got so intrigued that I’m considering buying the novels just to see how it ends. Reviews were mostly positive, but the only thing that’s stopping me is that almost every comment is begging for a side story… wondering if I should wait as I don’t do well with cliffhangers.
And the novel cover art being the fucking horse (minus the penis) is killing me.
Edit: Ok, couldn't resist and read the whole thing. I now understand which particular crowd this book catered to. Let me know if anyone wants spoilers.
So the author’s notes mentioned the manga will be diverging from the novel, which makes sense because starting from chapter 8, the main plot kinda changed. Minya being unconscious is not in the novel and Towa's entire power is changed, which actually affects future plotlines, and I am not sure how much.
Before I start, there is something I need to warn you all - this will set in tone your enjoyment of the manga/novel and whether you want to continue :
TRIGGER WARNING
Griz is already attracted to Towa even from back then. The gist is, the novel has commented a few times that he knows it is wrong, and the novel implies he struggles with this attraction because Towa is YOUNG 13 years old, we know from other comments that it is indeed morally wrong in isekai world, so there’s no ‘this is another world where child marriage is legal etc’ and Griz does not plan to do anything beyond guarding Towa. According to the novel, Griz only started working to seduce Towa when he came back to isekai world as a 28 year old. So why was Griz attracted to Towa? Because he reminded Griz of how he desperately struggled himself as a child at the time for recognition etc, and it kinda grew from there.
So if this is a deal breaker for you, then you can move on because it seems to be a common thing in Japanese BL where their MLs will love their MCs NO MATTER WHAT THE AGES ARE, they are MC-sexual, not homosexual, etc. Some people don't mind it, some people do, and that's that. I normally try to post spoilers without my two cents and let you be the judge of what you read so here goes, dumping everything here before I forget.
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Towa was an absolute huge brat at the time, he labels himself a chuunibyou (like genuinely believing you’re Naruto, etc) I had second hand embarrassment everytime he opens his mouth, and it wasn't that people couldn't stand him lying; it's that he doubles down EVERY SINGLE TIME whenever they caught him lying. Towa, now a 28 year old salaryman, looks back at his history cringing and basically dying of embarrassment.
About Towa’s death, no one knew Towa was actually killed, because his body, bloodstains etc all disappeared after being stabbed. This is the time when he returned to Japan. How time works is that, 15 years had passed since his death in the real world, but in isekai world, only 4 years had passed. When he returned back to the world again, he is now 28. It turned out he was merely labeled as ‘missing’.
During this time, Griz actually regretted how he spoke and parted with Towa, and endlessly searched for him. All this was described briefly in the novel, but it was mentioned that Griz would join in a war because he heard rumors of another Otherworlder appearing in another nation, but it was just rumors started by the person who killed Towa.
So when Towa appeared again, and Griz saw him, HE RECOGNIZED HIM AS TWILIGHT. I’ll now do the math for you - (I love using em dashes btw, this isn’t AI) Towa is 28 and Griz is 32. Every single conversation from that point on was Griz flirting with Towa BECAUSE HE KNEW. Not only that, but Minya? She KNEW TOO, and that’s the reason why she sent Towa to the Knights department because she knew Griz would’ve finally found the person he was searching for. Why is Minya relevant here?
Because she’s Griz’s mom (well done to that poster who figured it out.) She looks young af but I think that’s due to her bloodline as a witch. This is where the novel starts to diverge from the manga, because after the library scene, Griz revealed he knew he was Twilight the whole time, they confess their feelings for each other etc and nothing happens to Minya. Towa gets railed by Griz for 2 whole days, whereas in the manga, Griz kept it quiet about Twilight, stuff happens to Minya so I can’t tell you much about what happens here.
The main difference is Towa’s power - in the novel, his mark emerges only after he returned to Japan. Now he has prophetic dreams of the future and he is aLao able to view the past through 3d viewpoint, which was how he saw who killed him. He was also able to be present during the time when Griz took part in the war meetings and saw how desperate Griz was to find him. In the manga though, he has this magical power to create some miracle potion so I can’t share much beyond that because I have no idea.
So the villain was Elus, Griz’s second in command and the one who’s been warning Towa. I wasn’t able to read clearly on his motivations (Elus is his half brother, and there’s something about inheritance) In the novel, he was nastier with his warnings and near the end, conducted a plan to poison and kill off Griz - this was where Towa’s prophetic dreams kicked into action and he was able to save Griz right before the plan succeeded. Elus was then exiled and both of them have their happy ending.
This is the gist of the overall plot, the side stories were mostly 18+ and the perspectives of Minya (or that man who's in love with her) talking about the past, and glimpses into how Griz was during Towa's absence, etc. The final side stories was the knights department gifting Towa a lingerie because they knew that if they could make their commander happy through Towa, their training would be lighten up lol.
I don’t think I missed anything out, it's really not a very deep book. So if this is your thing, look forward to the manga I guess.
The way I saw the emperor’s dingdong and ran straight to the comments and saw half the section in chaos, never change mangago.
I hated his guts but when it plays out like this, I can’t help but remember that he was driven to this corner because he couldn’t break out of the charm’s hold like Roger could. It’s easy to forget that he is still under the influence of her charm, and his love was arguably fake to begin with. No self respecting crown prince would cradle his mistress outright in meetings held by his government in determining the policies of the nation.
So I hope she remembers not to hold it against Roger or let this haunt her IF Etienne dies, but in fact, everything was caused by the curse and she would do well to remember her mission of stealing the artifact (or whatever it is a few chapters ago) so she could remove the curse that started all this tragedy in the first place.
I believe in the next two chapters, I am hoping they don’t censor the light tender hearted scene (as brief as it is when I read it, my eyes popped. In other words, ORV could never lol)
But in the spirit of keeping things shounen/action, I’m not really putting my hopes up.
The birthday scene is coming, everyone SIT UP and watch as Sung Hyunjae will now show you exactly how he changes genre whenever he shows up.
Ok just done reading the entire novel raws and I can completely understand why manga readers are confused as I am also ??? There’s not only a lot of changes in the manga from novel (there’s no such thing as Witch Elixir in novel and Mina didn’t fall sick, in fact, Towa got railed after the library scene lol) so there’s a lot LEFT OUT unless they’re swapping things around for the grand reveal or completely changing things up. I’ll post spoilers later when I have the time. It’s nice to finally have a face for the characters.
There is one particular trigger that I have to warn about in this title, I thought they’d change it in the manga but looks like it’ll stay. I’ll explain it carefully when I lay out the spoilers later if no one posts about it yet.
Ok the couple is so wholesome and cute I bought the novels, skipped vol 1, went for vol 2 and the side story. Will post spoilers later if no one has yet. But tbh the wait is so sweet I’m not even sure if spoilers are needed.
I have never felt such seething hate for a crown prince than I do right now for this pos. I need Roger to break loose from wherever he is and stab him in the balls thirty times because WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE GONNA RAPE MC. Duke can join him and unalive himself for being so pathetic and useless, I don’t know how much more these 2 pos can piss me off before I die of high blood pressure.
Regarding a little poll I made here earlier, for anyone curious, results are :
TJ - 63
Jo - 44
Thanks for voting in!
And I’ve never even read this before. Makes me now curious what’s the majority.
Thumbs up - if you stan TJ
Thumbs down - if you stan Jo
Edit : I’ll post the results tomorrow if this topic is still noticeable by then.
Make no mistake, the MC is not a rebound. In fact, ML’s yandere tendencies, something he didn’t even know he had himself, tend to skyrocket whenever MC is concerned.
Beginning to half of the novel starts off with the usual drill with what you see in the manhwa, you can take your time to enjoy the scenes without much worries for the MC. Ui-geon DOES have feelings for Jun-young since high school, but Jun-young and Kwon Kanghee, the other friend, has a thing going on between them as well, and there was no room for Ui-geon. Despite this, Ui-geon had never once forced himself on Jun-young, and he even took initiative to bring them two together. I did like that they took the time to explore Ui-geon dealing with the aftermath of his unrequited love, and MC may be gentle and nice, but not weak. The MC depicted in the manhwa is exactly what you get.
I won’t go too deep into details, but there was a point when Ui-geon realized Chi-Young was THAT student in high school who said he knew he was gay, and he’s the same as him. The confession attached to that line also meant Ui-geon knew about Chi-Young’s feelings for him, and Chi-Young DID confess to him, but also made sure both of them understood he has never been the type of person to covet someone or something beyond his means. Chi-Young is rejected here.
So the two, despite Ui-geon’s rejection, continued to spend time together, and unbenownst to Ui-geon, he was actually falling for Chi-Young, and falling HARD. I’m talking about wet dreams, confusion, horny for Chi-Young, the works. If anyone is curious, no, it’s on a completely different level compared to his feelings for Jun-young. If Jun-young was like a still calm lake, then Chi-Young was a raging tidal wave that causes lose his marbles.
So MC has been working odd jobs all this while to pay off his loans, and he was bitten in the neck by a prostitute while giving her a car ride back, and girl even bit his nipple. So Ui-geon? Naturally loses his shit when he sees the teeth marks, and it drives him crazy FOR DAYS to the point that he DOES THE SAME THING to Chi-Young and he tells Chi-Young they will now have sex. Yeah give him a bit of credit in that he managed to at least hold onto SOME semblance of sanity long enough for Chi-Young’s consent. NGL some people may consider this dub-con... in the manhwa, I'm pretty sure it'll be super hot, can't wait to see Chi-young being pounded to oblivion.
Next morning, Chi-Young wakes up and Ui-Geon isn’t there. He leaves because he had commitments to go back to his hometown to spend bday with his mum. Ui-geon naturally loses his shit AGAIN, and did I mention that before this, he punched Jun-young and Kwon Kanghee for having a part in Chi-Young’s odd jobs that led to the bitemarks? Yeah. So he goes back to Jun-young’s place and started losing it, before Jun-young tells him the truth (he told Chi-Young later he regrets telling him so quickly cos he wanted Ui-geon to suffer more.)
Ended up Chi-Young didn’t see Ui-geon that morning after sex, because Ui-geon was busy and he PAID OFF THE ENTIRE LOAN. So later this part is all about Ui-geon and Chi-Young navigating their relationship, they eventually talked it out after a series of small misunderstandings and revealed everything to each other. They became a couple after Chi-Young realized the implication of what Ui-geon said, that he wants Chi-Young to spend 80 years to pay back the principal (he said it in a joking way, this means he wants to settle down and be married to Chi-Young)
Ui-geon even admits to himself that this is part of him that he never knew existed, that he didn’t know he would lose control so much around Chi-Young. So that’s the gist of the entire story, I just read it so dumping everything here in one go before I forget details.
I’m still going through the side stories, have finished maybe 3/4 of it but tbh I’m not very motivated to complete it because all the tension was in the main story, and almost disappeared once they’ve settled as a couple. I think it’s one of those works where the manhwa would probably enchance the story so yeah, enjoy the ride.
EDIT : WAIT, the author wrote Passion? OKAY I GET IT NOW. Dude was channeling light-version Ilay the whole time lolololol. No really, even in the side stories, he was hovering possessive and eagle eyed if BOTH Jun-young or Kanghee even talks to or about him on something, you'd forget dude ever crushed on Jun-young in the first place.
So I thought at first, that the entire encounter was a figment of Jean’s drunken imagination, a wish fulfillment of sorts, and he was speaking to a version of the crown prince made up in his head. Then you realize that he wasn’t actually drunk over a mere cup, and the prayers heard on the streets were for a ritual over the belief that the DEAD could visit once more.
It may very well be the crown prince himself who visited him; his expressions were simply much too independent to stem from Jean’s imagination, and the ending had been the complete opposite of what a wish fulfillment is. I think they were actually able to share words and feelings what they couldn’t have before. Excuse me while I sob and break down again.
Every once in a while, you’ll come across a work so breathtaking and gripping along with a premonition that it will haunt you for days if not weeks to come. I wasn’t wrong, and in reading the entire chapters in one sitting, I was reduced to a sobbing, sniveling mess. I had to take a break from reading other works because it was that immersive. Someone commented that this was also the crown prince’s story glimpsed through the eyes of Jean, and I’m inclined to agree to an extent. The revolution was touched on only briefly, but the focus had been solely on the prince at the final pages.
The ending just couldn’t be any other way the way it ended, yet I would sell my soul if the author could do an AU or reincarnation trope of them in modern times so they can properly experience a lifetime of joy together that they could only taste just briefly in this lifetime.
Ok I LOVE yearner stories and the chapters convinced me to buy the raws, so I’ll post spoilers once I’m done if no one has yet.
20 chapters are already out, go forth and hunt it down because girl boss is bossing