Before explaining the situation, let me clarify that I am a man with extremely typical tastes.
How I came to watch the romance fantasy “Ceres of Heaven” was purely by chance.
I happened to see a banner ad, and when I checked the site, I saw it had over a million views with high recommendations and favorites.
My curiosity couldn’t help but be piqued—how could it be this popular?
The plot was roughly as follows:
Ceres, a sickly but kind and beautiful young lady from a count’s family, discovers by chance that she has the power of a saintess.
This leads her to meet several male leads.
…If you just read that, you’d probably think it’s a typical reverse harem story.
If it weren’t for the obsession and tragic tags attached, maybe it would seem like just another ordinary story.
But back then, I didn’t fully understand what “obsession” and “tragic” meant.
I just thought the guys were a bit too obsessed with the girl.
I continued reading the novel without much thought.
However, as I kept reading, my expression stiffened, and before I knew it, I was swearing out loud.
“These guys are all crazy?!”
One guy would strangle Ceres when he saw her with another man, and another would lock her up saying she should only look at him.
There was even someone threatening to kill her parents if she didn’t marry him.
It was a plot that would make anyone swear!
Looking at the comments, I saw many others were swearing too.
Yet the story still did well because it was one of those types of novels, like a trashy drama, that keeps you watching despite hating it.
I too fell for it, and after that, I kept watching every episode without fail.
I kept wondering when the situation would improve, but it didn’t—it just kept getting worse.
Ceres was accused of being a fake saintess and sent to a dungeon.
She was continuously tormented by one of the male leads, lost her saintess powers, had her Achilles tendon cut to prevent her from escaping, and became lame.
She was diagnosed with a terminal illness, and just when she seemed to recover, she lost the will to live and committed suicide.
The protagonist suffered nonstop and ended by committing suicide!
[Is the author crazy?]
[I wanted a tragic story, but not to this extent!]
[This is too much!]
[Why is it that the female protagonist who suffered dies, but all the male leads are fine?]
Even the readers who enjoyed tragic stories couldn’t take it, and the comment section exploded.
I was the same.
Over the course of hundreds of chapters, I became attached to Ceres.
I often left comments asking the author to let her be happy.
But to end it like this?
[So, “Ceres of Heaven” was about her going to heaven, huh? This is the first time I’ve seen a novel like this. I asked so many times for her to live happily, and this is what I get? The protagonist suffers through hundreds of chapters and then dies—you’re the first to do this!]
Angry, I sent a long message full of curses to the author, and still not feeling better, I drank a bottle of alcohol.
…This was the situation before I fell asleep drunk.
“Where am I?”
But when I woke up, I was in a completely different place.
I half-lifted myself from the bed and looked around.
It was a huge, soft, expensive-looking room filled with luxury items.
This wasn’t the room I was in before I fell asleep!
My body also felt strange.
Although I had drunk some alcohol before going to bed, I hadn’t had much.
But I felt exhausted, as if I had woken up after drinking a lot.
Could it be that someone drugged me and kidnapped me while I was sleeping?
“Why would someone like me be kidnapped…?”
I muttered, and then I suddenly realized something was off.
The voice that came out when I spoke wasn’t mine—it was a soft and pleasant-sounding voice.
“Mirror!”
I felt an ominous premonition and searched for a mirror.
I saw one on the other side, and as I tried to approach it, I felt pain.
What? Why is it so hard to walk? Just walking makes me out of breath and my legs hurt!
“Ugh…”
I persevered and kept walking.
Finally, when I reached the mirror, the reflection was, as expected, a completely different person.
Long silver hair.
Snow-white skin.
Long eyelashes and shimmering blue eyes.
A beautifully crafted, doll-like face.
It was incredibly beautiful, yet it looked familiar.
“Ceres?”
There was no way I was mistaken.
The reason I got interested in the novel in the first place was because of this appearance.
The image of Ceres on the novel cover was exactly how this looked in three dimensions.
“What is this…?”
I was so stunned that I took a step back and, unfortunately, lost my balance and fell to the ground.
I couldn’t move my body!
I tried to stand up, but this body, which couldn’t even walk properly, wouldn’t listen.
“What is that sound?”
“Could it be!?”
As I groaned and rolled on the floor, people came in after hearing my voice.
Servants in uniform opened the door and came in, and when they saw me, they gasped.
“Master Ceres!”
“Are you okay?”
They immediately helped me up and laid me back on the bed, looking puzzled.
Who are these people, and why are they calling me “Master Ceres”?
Did I become Ceres?
But then, what does “young master” mean!?
When I touched my chest, I realized I wasn’t a woman but still a man.
It was absurd enough that I had become the protagonist of a novel, but now my gender was different from what I knew.
“Ceres, young master, why are you moving on your own?”
I didn’t know what was going on and just rolled my eyes, but one of the servants scolded me with concern.
“You said to call us when you move.”
“Your condition has been getting worse lately, and now you’re doing things you wouldn’t normally do.”
The servants asked in an odd tone
Originally, Ceres was very weak.
Later in the story, she gets better, but in the early chapters of the novel, she couldn’t even walk properly.
She always had servants with her, so it was natural they would find it strange that she was walking alone and fell.
“I… I just needed to check my face quickly.”
I still didn’t understand the situation, but I figured it was better to avoid suspicion, so I muttered something vague.
“I thought there was something on my face.”
“There’s nothing like that. You look as beautiful as always.”
“Really? I guess it was just my imagination.”
I left it at that.
I couldn’t think of a proper excuse, but surprisingly, the servants seemed to accept it.
“Well, he’s coming today.”
“Before meeting the hero, Sir Alios, you wanted to check if there was anything unusual.”
Alios Gravius.
The heir to the Gravius Duke family.
Also a Sword Master, the best knight in the empire.
He is called a hero for slaying demon-kind monsters that devour humans.
And, ‘A gentlemanly bastard!’
At the beginning, he was really gentlemanly.
He treated Ceres well, but later, he did some terrible things and stabbed her in the back.
In Ceres of Heaven, the first chapter ends when Alios is introduced after a brief focus on Ceres.
So, if he’s coming now, does that mean it’s the beginning of the novel?
“Young master, is there anything you need?”
“I’m fine, just go.”
While I was thinking, I dismissed the interfering servants.
“Damn it.”
I pondered the situation and cursed the sky.
I may be a man, but I became Ceres.
That means I could go through all the horrific things Ceres went through!
How am I supposed to get through this?!
In novels, when someone is possessed, they often get cheat abilities, but I have nothing like that.
I don’t even have cheat abilities—I’m worse off than my original body.
I was a real man, and I had trained in martial arts as a hobby, going to the dojo.
I was confident in my skills, but with this body, I couldn’t resist at all!
…Wait.
Could it be that I have Ceres’ powers too?
I focused my mind to check, but nothing happened.
“…I can’t use divine power yet.”
Divine power.
It’s a higher form of the holy power used by priests. It’s literally the power of a god.
Ceres was called a Saintess because she was born with this power.
It’s also the reason her life became ruined.
It’s a cheat-like ability that can completely heal any injury or disease in others, but it doesn’t help Ceres heal herself—it’s a useless ability!
It is later revealed that this divine power is the reason Ceres was sick.
The divine power is too strong for a human body to handle, so it’s impossible for Ceres to heal herself with it.
It can heal wounds, but when Ceres became lame, the power disappeared, and she couldn’t use it anymore.
What’s the point of this ability?
The setting explains it’s difficult to handle.
It wasn’t something she could use from the start—it awakened due to certain circumstances.
Is the reason I can’t use it now because of that?
Or maybe because I’m a man, I can’t use it at all?
I don’t know the reason, but honestly, it didn’t matter.
“…It might be better not to be able to use this at all.”
It wasn’t something useful anyway.
In the original, Ceres wasn’t praised for healing people with her power.
The main focus was on how she suffered.
So, what’s really important right now is Alios.
He’s the first male lead Ceres meets, and the first one readers encounter as well.
He, who came to meet Ceres, who is famous as the empire’s most beautiful woman, felt attracted to her and kept visiting.
Eventually, he falls in love with her and treats her well at first, but later, as other men appear, he goes crazy.
Then, he says:
“I’ll force you to have my child. Let’s see if you can still flirt with other men on the boat I brought you.”
But now that I’m Ceres, I’m a man, not a woman, like in the original story!
“…Aaargh!”
I fell off the bed in a panic.
I shakily moved my legs and rushed out the door.
I have to run away!!