Cha Siyeon was brought home by her father to a household filled with cold, indifferent half-brothers. Despite her late mother having nothing to do with the death of their mother (at least according to the MTL), they still held her responsible. Even the household staff treated her like trash, viewing both Siyeon and her mom as homewreckers. College was her ticket out—finally free, she moved out and juggled three part-time jobs while studying. Somewhere in between, she still found time to play an otome game.
The game had two modes:
Normal mode followed the heroine, Yvonne.
Hard mode followed the villainess, Penelope.
In normal mode, Yvonne began with a 30% favorability rating from each of the five male leads:
Crown Prince Callisto
Marquis Vinter
Young Duke Derrick
Duke’s second son Reynold
Knight Eclise
In hard mode, as Penelope, the favorability was either zero or negative. And the plot? Straight out of the "villainess gets doomed" playbook:
Yvonne goes missing as a child
The Duke adopts Penelope because she resembles Yvonne
Derrick and Reynold resent Penelope for taking Yvonne’s place
On Penelope’s 18th birthday, Vinter returns with the real Yvonne
Eclise, a former slave purchased by the Duke, is appointed Yvonne’s escort
Yvonne meets Callisto → they fall in love
Penelope, as the villainess, is ultimately killed by Callisto
After dying countless times in hard mode, Cha Siyeon rage-quits the game… only to wake up inside it—as Penelope. Now, she must reach 100% favorability with one male lead and receive a love confession before the coming-of-age ceremony to return home.
The novel spans five volumes with:
231 main chapters
40 side stories
8 special chapters
The translation? Pretty much raw MTL—definitely a "hard mode" read in more ways than one. But it was popular enough to get a manhwa adaptation.
My thoughts: I gave this 4 stars, but only because of the side stories. Why? Because it felt like the author suddenly realized, “Oops, I forgot to wrap things up properly.” So we get 40 more chapters to finally give Penelope her closure.
Then—surprise!—the author again realizes Cha Siyeon didn’t get hers. Cue another 8 special chapters to fix that.
It honestly felt like James Cameron waking up one morning and deciding, “You know what? Jack Dawson survived the Titanic. Let’s give him a new arc where he moves on because Rose already got her happy ending.” And then writing yet another side story where we watch Rose living her best life with her family, just so she can finally let go of the past.
So, was it a tragedy? Not really. The “tragedy” tag is basically false advertising at this point.
AHHHHH, de los 5 protagonistas... APENAS SOLO HE PODIDO DESCARTAR 1 DE QUIÉN QUIERO QUE SE QUEDE CON PENELOPE!!! (En realidad tengo mi top 3 pero el 4to está por ahí jeje)
Ставлю 4/5, так как интересно действительно. Иногда для современной литературы это не так просто! Но ее абсолютное недоверие людям, хотя и понимаемо сюжетно, но все равно непонимаемо. Понимаете?
Героине, серьезно, пора заканчивать называть всех мерзавцами. Еще кажется, что она сделала ставку не на того, на кого следовало. Мне, в принципе, нравятся все герои, кроме рыцаря печального образа. Что-то в нем есть такое отталкивающее. Даже Каллисто более симпатичен. Интересно, что героиня проходила игру за Ивонну и сближалась со всеми героями, но вот в роли Пенелопы все стали ей отвратительны. Ну, кроме, разве что Винтера, но этого она просто списала со счетов. Интересно, но бесят все эти бесконечные обзывательства. Ну и как можно добиться симпатии человека, если про себя все время называешь его мерзавцем?
The second volume has many developments with many love interests, focusing on Calisto and Eckles, although all love interests get their moment.
We get to see Penny and Calisto grow closer through the tournament arc, which I absolutely adore. The novel really shows us how differently she subconsciously approached Calisto. He’s the only love interest with which she notices the love meter second to everything else about him, and he’s the only one to really treat Penny as a person - despite his callousness and biting remarks. I am definitely team Callisto.
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, the developments with Eckles only prove how much Penny doesn’t see him as a person outside of his role as a love interest. Throughout this volume, you get the sense that she is almost surprised he “exists” outside of the “cutscenes” with her. She pretty much only sees his love meter. I have never liked Eckles and never understood why Penny not only chose him but actively chooses to ignore every gut feeling she has about him, but I am also constantly confounded by her approach to him. Why are you treating a dangerous, hard-to-read slave with a definite grudge against your country like this… Though, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised Penny is as hopeless when it comes to love as her love interests - the poor girl never received any.
I also absolutely loved the developments with the duke. Yes he was still an awful father up to now but I get the feeling his neglect was almost accidental because once he realizes the severity of things he actively reflects and sets to correct his mistakes… unlike Derrick, the asshole. Among Penny's brothers, he's definitely the stand-out one in the worst way possible. Reynold is a mixed bag still, but he almost feels like a dumb little brother. emphasis on the dumb...
Novel: 58-117 Manwha: 39-107. Vol 3 and the start of Vol 6.
This was a rollercoaster of a ride, with numerous emotions and events to deal with. The characters are not what you originally thought; they make selfish and empty choices, where at a point you start to doubt them. But they're not the typical grey characters you might encounter in nowadays book tropes, they are actually morally grey characters.
Their choices and intentions are based solidly on surviving, no matter the cost, even if those aren't the right choices to make.
One of my favorite volumes of the manwha, due to the character's interactions, and girl, for gods' sake, get out of that damn room. I get it, you wanna avoid everyone, but you're at a duchy, there's plenty of space over there, I WANNA SEE SOMETHING ELSE, NOT JUST YOUR ROOM. Stop complaining.
I like the story and the characters, and I'm definitely going to continue binge-reading the story the same way I've done it so far.
58-117 (Confío en ti chica que puso los capitulos)
Callisto es muy lindo, y es bien gracioso el maldito, mi tipo. Es bonito como va mejorando su relación con su familia, aunque Derrick siga siendo medio(mucho) imbecil, la esta ayudando si, a su manera, pero no quita que sea tarado la mayor parte. YA SE ACERCA LA FIESTA DE MAYORIDAD DE EDAD AHHHHH Tengo sentimientos encontrados por lo que pasará, duele ver como ese día ella lo ve practicamente como su sentencia de muerte(y razones tiene) pero desde ya siempre apoyaré a Penny, ella manipula, miente o hace algo más la entiendo, todo lo que hace es tratar de no morir.
(3.5 stars) Our protagonist Cha Siyeon continues to try to survive this violent and confusing game world in volume two. The premise and broad strokes of the novel remain interesting. It uses typical cliches to set and break audience expectations. For example, Callisto's a tsundere tyrant archetype and Winter is a compassionate soft boy but that doesn't mean they don't have good reasons for that or that one will be good and the other evil. Personality, moral choices, and conditioned behaviors intertwine with a lot of environmental factors outside of each person's control.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
¿Amamos a Eclipse y a Callisto? Si, definitivamente los amamos. La segunda entrega de la novela está llena de "tea", los chismes y engaños del mundo aristocrático, la reputación de la familia de Penélope, la relación con su padre, hermanos y los demás intereses de conquista pero sobre todo la interacción final con Eclipse fue uffff! Jajaja hace tiempo no fangirleaba tanto con una historia.
Ну, кстати, второй том мне зашёл куда больше. Возможно, дело, конечно, в том, что Каллисто тут достаточно часто мелькает, но не суть. Героиня местами глуповата, хотя по манхве мне в эти моменты она казалась немного другой. Но было весело и даже захотелось сразу взяться за третий том.
callisto regulus is such a charismatic bastard, I fell in love. is the blonde a psychopath? my type. I'm taking it. and the main character feels like a breath of fresh air, I got so involved in the plot..
Veoma je teško osuditi ovaj lagani roman nakon pročitanog stripa jer strip je stvarno odličan. Samo zbog toga jedna zvezdica manje, jer mislim da nemam pola ovih scena u glavi zbog stripa, ne znam da li bih ovoliko uživala. Priča je tako zarazna!
I wish I could read Korean, the machine translation could have used some looking over. Nothing like the training fields being called "State of the Union" (facepalm).
Estoy de verdad sin palabras, me ha encantado y aunque llore en algunos momentos, también reí y me gustó el cambio de varios de los "objetivos", bueno excepto uno 😒 Derrick puedes irte al diablo.