“Young Master, Young Master Rosenthal, please wake up. It’s already 7 o’clock. You need to have breakfast.”
Haah, today too. Even though I prayed so desperately throughout my sleep, today once again my valet Raki woke me up, and I opened my eyes in a room so spacious and luxurious it was burdensome.
“Aaaaahhh!!!”
I screamed while clutching my head at this terrible reality. Then Raki smiled brightly. At first he was flustered, but since this happens every time, he now accepts my behavior as casually as morning exercises.
“Even if it’s difficult, you must develop the habit of waking up early. Once you become the Crown Princess, you’ll have to rise at 5 o’clock every day.”
As soon as I woke up, Raki reminded me of my desperate future. Right, in one month I’ll become the Crown Princess of the Keltan Empire. And after suffering the Crown Prince’s contempt, I’ll have my head chopped clean off.
This isn’t a baseless delusion. I know my future exactly. Because I’ve already read it.
This place is the world inside a BL novel called <Three Crowns>, and I’m actually not Rosenthal, the second son of Duke Chendewden, but Lee Minchan, a webtoon artist from the Republic of Korea.
An artist who often received reviews saying “The art is pretty but the content is boring.”
Originally I was an illustrator, but wanting to draw my own stories free from client demands, I switched careers to webtoons. Honestly, I challenged it with confidence, but reality wasn’t so easy.
It was the typical anticlimax—good reactions at first, but views dropping as the episodes went on.
The comments were all positive ones like “It’s peaceful.” “It’s interesting.” “I like this kind of thing.” But my work always hovered around the middle to lower ranks.
At first I was satisfied just unfolding the stories I wanted to tell, but with no one watching my stories, I inevitably lost steam.
Moreover, compared to when I drew illustrations, the workload was greater but my income was cut in half. My motivation was dropping in various ways when my editor made a new proposal.
‘There’s a popular BL novel these days called <Three Crowns>. We’re trying to adapt it into a webtoon—how about you take it on?’
‘Me?’
‘Yes. As long as you stay faithful to the original work, we won’t touch anything else. We won’t attach a separate story writer either.’
I’d refused a few times before when they offered to attach a story writer. But if there’s an original work, it’s no different from having a story writer attached. Besides…
‘BL means romance between men, doesn’t it?’
‘Yes, that’s right. I thought this side might be more comfortable for you.’
I bit the soft flesh inside my tender cheek. Alcohol is my enemy.
After finishing my last work, while drinking with my editor Suyeon and venting about work concerns, I ended up saying that since I’m gay, I seem to have limits in drawing ordinary romance. But to bring me BL right after I came out to her—that’s a bit insensitive.
Perhaps my displeased feelings showed on my face, because Suyeon glanced at me and laughed awkwardly.
‘You said you didn’t want stories too much like real-life romance. So I chose fantasy. Omegaverse.’
A strange word stuck in my head with a thunk.
‘Omegaverse?’
‘You really don’t know BL at all. I’ll send you a link explaining the omegaverse worldview and the novel file. I’m absolutely not forcing you, so just read it once. I really think the novel and your art would be a perfect match.’
She spoke in a requesting tone, but I knew. If this work didn’t amount to much either, the next contract would be difficult.
‘Understood….’
After answering heavily, I went home and checked the novel that came by email and the link explaining the omegaverse worldview.
Omegaverse.
So it’s a setting where men can get pregnant. It’s certainly far from real-life romance. But is this kind of thing really popular? Looking at how materials are compiled like this, there must be a consumer base for it, right?
Men getting pregnant…. I only like men, I don’t want to become a woman. But I had often thought about wanting to have a child. Even more so after my boyfriend broke up with me with an expression like a tragic protagonist, saying ‘I really love children, but you can’t have them….’
But this is just the hopeful thinking of an omniscient gay perspective who got dumped by a shitty boyfriend, and readers don’t need that, right? If they want to see that kind of story, they can just read romance, can’t they? Why specifically watch BL? I didn’t quite understand. It seemed like it would be harder than romance.
Though I had skeptical thoughts even before starting, I couldn’t refuse without even reading the novel.
‘Alpha, Omega, heat cycle, rut, dominant, recessive….’
After checking the settings once more, I tried to read the novel, but unknown terms poured out from the first page where the plot and keywords were written.
[Crown Prince Gong, Prince Gong, Sweet Gong, Obsessive Gong, Crazy Gong, Well-Endowed Gong, Beautiful Shou, Innocent Shou, Cheeky Shou, Cheerful Shou, Pregnant Shou, Omegaverse, 2 Gongs 1 Shou, Sub-Shou Present]
Looking at the keywords, I searched the unfamiliar terms, broadly looked over other BL terminology as well, then started reading the novel.
<Three Crowns> was a story dealing with a bloody love triangle between the empire’s Crown Prince Eldon, the ambitious third prince Arleigh who coveted the Crown Prince’s position, and Seha, a concubine who held a pure soul. By the way, the Crown Prince’s concubine Seha is a man. The Crown Princess Rosenthal is also a man. It was a worldview where if you’re an Omega, even men can become Empress.
It was a cruel and desolate fantasy novel, but surprisingly it read smoothly. I felt like I understood what the appeal of “omegaverse” works is, and though it was unexpectedly extremely explicit, I thought I could draw it better than male-female romance. Right, it would be good to challenge 19+ content with this opportunity.
I was reading through the novel while planning the storyboard in my head like that. The third prince was starting a rebellion and the novel was rushing toward its climax when suddenly the door burst open.
I lived alone. There was no reason for the door to open, so I let out a short scream while looking toward the door, and there stood my ex-boyfriend.
‘Minchan-ah, long time no see.’
Kim Jigwang called my name with quite a wistful face despite having trespassed into someone else’s home.
‘What the hell are you doing! Get out of my house right now!’
‘Minchan-ah, it’s been 3 months. But is that all you have to say to me?’
Right, 3 months since we broke up, 2 months since that bastard got married.
Kim Jigwang, just before our 1-year anniversary, suddenly thrust a wedding invitation at me and broke up with me saying ‘I really love children, but you can’t have them….’
I didn’t even know that bastard was seeing a woman and preparing for a wedding, worrying instead that he must be too busy with work.
‘Leave the key and get lost!’
He returned the key I gave him when we broke up. But that wasn’t all. He’d secretly made copies.
‘Minchan-ah, didn’t you miss me?’
‘No. Get out of my house right now!’
I shouted filled with rage, but Kim Jigwang kept going on about how he loves me, there’s no one but me, he missed me, he had no choice because of his parents.
He chattered on and on with a wistful expression, but the point was simple. He wanted to continue his relationship with me even while married.
‘I told you to get lost!’
‘You have problems too.’
When playing pitiful didn’t work, he started blaming me. I burst out with rage-filled curses and shoved him. But Kim Jigwang instead used his superior strength to try to pin me down. I struggled to escape from that bastard’s grip. But during the intense physical struggle, Kim Jigwang suddenly strangled my neck.
I couldn’t breathe. Strength gradually drained from my hands, and tears flowed from my eyes. Was I going to be murdered so unfairly like this? I closed my eyes while looking at Kim Jigwang’s face glinting with madness.
And I opened my eyes not in a simple 17-pyeong villa, but in a medieval European-style room so splendid it hurt my eyes. But it wasn’t Europe, nor had I time-traveled.
This place was the world inside <Three Crowns>. Moreover, not content with just entering the novel world, I ended up possessing the body of Crown Princess ‘Rosenthal.’
Haah, I don’t even wish to be the protagonist Seha. Of all the many characters, why did it have to be this bastard!
In <Three Crowns>, Omegas are extremely rare and noble beings. And Rosenthal is the second son of Duke Chendewden, one of the empire’s most prominent families, a dominant Omega, and possesses outstanding looks.
He dated the third prince Arleigh but chose Crown Prince Eldon because of his ambition to become Empress. However, the Crown Prince, who knows the whole story, despises Rosenthal.
On the wedding night, Eldon ignores his first night with Rosenthal and heads to an illegal slave auction, where he meets Seha and falls in love. Also, the third prince, betrayed by Rosenthal, is likewise drawn to Seha like fate. Before long, the two completely forget about Rosenthal’s existence and form a love triangle over Seha.
Rosenthal, his eyes rolled back with jealousy and envy, commits all kinds of evil acts against the innocent and pitiful Seha, but gets caught every single time, instead fanning the flames of the three people’s love, and in the end is killed while pregnant.
With the pure-hearted line ‘No one but Seha can bear my child!’, Eldon, who has become Emperor, cuts off Rosenthal’s head.
In short, I’m destined to go crazy with jealousy and die brutally. In BL terminology, a “sub-shou.” And an “villain sub-shou” at that.
“Please get up. If you pretend to be sick again today, I’ll tell His Grace the Duke. You need to prepare the ceremonial robes to wear at the wedding, don’t you know how much there is to do?”
It’s been exactly ten days since I’ve just lain in bed thinking: if I sleep one night I’ll return to my original world, if I take a nap I’ll return, I collapsed while reading the novel so I must be dreaming this.
Now my back hurts so much I can’t sleep anymore. I got up resignedly.
I give up. I had decided to give up if there was no change by today. I couldn’t keep denying reality like this. I had to consider the possibility that I might not return to my original world. Besides, maybe I’m already dead in that world….
No, I must be dead. While lying down for ten days, I gradually accepted reality.
I’m dead. I was murdered by my ex-boyfriend and fell into the novel world.
Moreover, just as I died in the Republic of Korea to a boyfriend who was two-timing, this time I’m destined to be murdered by a husband whose eyes have turned to his concubine.
Damn, how ill-fated.
“There’s exactly one month left until the wedding. There’s no time to pretend to be sick like this. Hurry and eat first.”
Right, as Raki says. There’s no time to deny reality and lament like this. I touched my neck. I couldn’t have it cut off on top of being strangled to death. This time I have to survive. If I just space out like this, only a brutal death ending awaits.
I got down from the bed.
“I’m going to see His Highness the Third Prince.”
