Japanese Pleased to meet you from the ceiling

Name: Pleased to meet you from the ceiling
天井裏からどうぞよろしく
Raw Link: http://www.alphapolis.co.jp/book/detail/1043183/1193/
NU Link: Doesn't exist
Why It Should Get Picked Up: Out of boredom I looked for more mangas and found this one on the alphapolis website and looked through it, mainly because the pretty art and the oriental (slightly european) ambient attracted me. Since I couldn't understand much (almost nothing... Sob... Must properly learn japanese.xD) I asked a friend to summarize the first two chapters of the manga for me. I personally think the story sounds promising (and now I really want to read the novels too), the female MC is actually quite refreshing. She isn't weak like some other heroines and has a really interesting and strong attitude.
Description: (Synopsis of the manga)
Above the ceiling of the office of a certain empire's emperor lies hidden a crowd of spies from various countries-- though harmonious with each other, they were to monitor the peaceful emperor. In the midst of that, a female spy was given a new mission and returned to her homeland again. However, what awaited her in her country was the monitored emperor himself!

Thanks to @Ilinox for the translation of the synopsis and the summaries of the manga.<3

For better understanding I will share the summary of the first two chapters of the manga I got from my friend:

Spoiler: Chapter 1 - 2

Basically, there was a country that dominated the others and ruled everything. But when the king passed away the new emperor was a man who was more interested in governmental policies and things than war; so he focused on that and soon an age of peace descended upon everyone.

All the other countries are nervous about this peace though and so they all sent their spies to watch the emperor on the rooftop. The heroine is an orphan who was picked up by one of the spies and taught their skills and she joins them in observing the emperor. All the spies love her even though they call her a kid cause she's 17 going onto 18 in half a year. It's a joke that she can't drink wine and she needs to drink milk.

They all wear masks but she met this one person like a year ago who gave her a necklace and then gives her a hair ornament. He wishes he could see it on her hair under the sunlight because her hair is a bright color. She gets along well with this guy.

Anyway, the heroine reveals that the king of their tiny country, her boss, wants her to come back soon and have her learn how to seduce people. Her next job is to join an aristocratic family as one of their concubines and get information that way. All the spies are like "T__T OH NO WE'LL MISS YOU" but nothing can be done about their job.

She goes back and her boss reveals that there's been a change of plans because someone has come to request her as their wife. She's shocked and nervous because she hasn't had time to learn bedroom skills but BAM it's the emperor himself. He takes her back and reveals that he knew there were spies on his ceiling, and the guy who gave her necklace and hairpin was actually him who went to join them to see what they were up to.

When he first introduced himself as a spy, the other spies actually knew he was the emperor LOL but they all played along too and they ended up liking him and getting along with him. They have mixed feelings with the heroine being with the emperor because on one hand she's back where they can watch over her, but she's also married to this guy... at least it's better than the perverted aristocrat she was going to.

Anyway, the emperor's adviser (his uncle) is against the heroine becoming empress because she has no backing and the emperor should marry another princess or someone with influence. The emperor is set on his choice though, not to mention he already expelled all the other women people keep trying to introduce him to (because he's 23 now and needs to have an heir).

The adviser finally comes up with this proposal: since the heroine isn't 18 yet, they will give her a trial period that is half a year. If she can survive the court, and if the emperor can protect her and his country in this half a year, then the emperor can make her his empress. (The emperor had a cool line here where he was like "I'm not afraid of the other countries' ill will, if I can't even protect my own wife how can I protect my country?").

Anyway, so things move really fast and they immediately go to have a banquet to introduce her to all the smaller country lords/kings and they're like "Whose country is she from?" but then the emperor reveals that she is a nobody and she's given everything away to be with him. This infuriates all the other princesses who immediately start plotting to get rid of her.

For example, someone steps on the heroine's dress. But the heroine has had training and in general her attitude is very nonchalant and casual (oh she also thinks her new mission is to "act" as the empress candidate and get information; so she's not in love nor does she care about the emperor lol she just thinks she's doing her job).

And then while they're walking up to the throne, a maid gets pushed to spill her with wine or make her trip onto glass shards. Heroine dodges it automatically but freaks out because the maid is going to fall onto the shards, however the emperor grabs them both. He reassures the maid that she did nothing wrong cause he knows it wasn't her fault.

And then picks up the heroine, teasing her for attracting so much danger, and then announces that she is to be his empress to the whole room.

Link to the manga: http://www.alphapolis.co.jp/manga/viewOpening/392000086/?

Cover of the first volume:

Spoiler

 

Why this gem not translated.? I only know little japanese JLPT5 I can't translate yet. Sigh*

 

hello people from the ceiling. greetings from the people on the floor

 

Pffffhhhh!!!xD

 

I'm absolutely confused... I feel like I have read this somewhere and even checked the raws and they feel familiar but I don't know enough japanese to understand the story but still I have the feeling that I have read this somewhere... Is the manga translated by someone or have I just skimmed trough the raws sometime and/or forced myself to selftranslate it with dictionary? (I have some knowledge of japanese but know hardly any kanji)

 

though i can imagine some gintama scene from this..
the summary itself enough to make chuckled

 

The title of this novel reminds me of this meme...
Lol sorry for being off topic

Spoiler

 

sounds amazing...

 

It's interesting

 

Summary of chapter 1 - 2 was that long?

 

It does sound interesting, but the summary for chapters 1 - 2 XD We get to know so much in just two chapters?

 

Sounds interesting. Would probably make a good anime.

 

Yes, I recently ordered the two manga volumes and they are really thick. I'm not really sure, but I think they contain both LN volumes, but with some skips.

 

Sorry, I can't help you with that. Maybe you did read the raws at some time.^^

 

Oh how exciting then~ Having long chapters is rather good. The art looks pretty nice too.

 

lurking cause this sounds amazing!! XD i really hope someone can pick this up

 

I'm starting to think that manga adaptations of LNs move at lightning-speed, so that's probably why you feel like so many things just happened, haha. They don't need to waste time going through descriptions of everything.

 

Haha yes that sounds like something they would do. Mangas do tend to go faster when you can just stare at the art and dialogue. Having a faster pace is pretty good for reading.

 

Faster, yes. Chronically, no.
Sometimes manga tends to rearrange certain scenes so it'll work better.
For instance, not every manga out there is able to pull off a Death Note style of monologue-ing. You don't want to read a whole chapter of someone just narrating the events in her own head. lol.

 

Sounds interesting. Quite an oriental like setting I must say and this seems rare, at least I didn't see many of such novels, most were eros. Hopefully someone will pick this up.