Table of Contents
Cover
Color Illustrations
Chapter 1: An Unexpected Event
Chapter 2: Where the Road Takes Us
Chapter 3: Bravely Toward the Enemy
Chapter 4: Hence the Incident is Resolved
The Worries of Those Who Held the Fort
Bonus Manga
Afterword
About J-Novel Club
Copyright
Chapter 1: An Unexpected Event
Noticing that it was now somewhat later in the afternoon, I hastened my footsteps. Surely they would be worried about me if I took too long. I hurried through the street that had just been bustling with activity only a while ago. It was now sparse, quiet — it was, after all, time for dinner. Delicious smells wafted from the commoners’ homes that I walked by.
I adjusted my grip on the bag that held a variety of sweets, the kind that were only sold to commoners in the downtown districts. It had been a while since we’d had anything like this, so I knew she would be happy. As I thought about the person who would be most pleased by these candies upon my return, a smile naturally formed on my face.
My coming to purchase them was a secret. Under normal circumstances, I would have never set out suddenly to do anything like what I was doing now. But she had been through a lot lately, and I thought that this would make her happy. That was why I’d come here.
However, the shops were messier than I thought, and the whole endeavor took longer than expected. I started walking even faster, making my way through the streets under the now-orange sky. That was when it happened.
Someone was now standing before me. If I had to guess, they most likely stepped out from one of the countless alleyways and side roads that branched off this one. A deep hood and cloak covered their being, but the individual did not look very bulky. In fact, I could see a bit of a dress underneath that cape...
A woman, perhaps? Who could this be? It was strange that they would just appear right there and then, so coincidentally, as if to bump into me. No... this person was standing there intentionally. In fact, they were now staring at me in a most suspicious manner.
“It’s been a while,” the person before me said. A woman’s voice, unmistakably. However... it was not a voice I recognized.
“...And who might you be?” I asked, alarmed, in a low voice.
The woman responded in an almost theatrical way as she slowly closed the distance between us. “Well, you really shouldn’t say that, you know? Asking who I am... as if we were complete strangers,” the woman said, pulling her hood down. Her long hair cascaded down her back.
“!” Surprise and bewilderment; those were the emotions I felt as I stared at the woman.
The woman merely smiled, the corners of her carmine-red lips curling up. “Say... there is a certain wish I would like fulfilled. You’ll hear me out, won’t you?”
Upon hearing the woman’s needlessly dramatic voice, I felt my expression stiffen. The look on my face right now would most likely be described as grave.
★★★★★★
“That’s quite enough! Please wake up this instant, young miss. If you continue to dally, you will be late for your lessons!”
I could hear a voice that was getting increasingly strict. Reluctantly, I opened my heavy eyelids. The curtains had been drawn back, and the sun’s rays were streaming in.
With a mighty yawn, I stretched, rubbing my half-closed eyes absent-mindedly. As soon as I got up, Anne, my personal maid, immediately started doing my hair and getting me ready for the day. After thanking her for her efforts, I finally got up from the bed, still half-asleep. It was time to get ready and set off for campus.
It has almost been two years since I, Katarina Claes, started attending the Academy of Magic. It was such a short time ago, but before I knew it, I was now close to graduation. Ah... how time flies.
Now that I thought about it, when I first came here, I wasn’t even sure I’d make it to graduation safely. Things turned out very differently than I’d expected. I thought back on how things had been back then as I remembered last year’s opening ceremony.
I, Katarina Claes, am the daughter of Duke Claes. I am indeed a noble lady, and I suppose there aren’t too many daughters of dukes hanging around in this kingdom. But despite my relatively high social standing, I am still very much a normal girl on the inside.
If there’s one abnormal thing about me, it would be the fact that I tripped and hit my head on a rock when I was eight, and the impact caused me to remember all the memories of my previous life.
My previous life... I was born to a normal salaryman, and was the oldest daughter of the family. I eventually grew into an upstanding otaku high-school girl. Manga, anime, and games were how I spent my days, and it was wonderful. Those days wouldn’t last, though; due to an unfortunate accident, I died.
After that, I was reincarnated as Duke Claes’ daughter. Of all the people to be reborn as, I found myself in the shoes of Katarina Claes, villainess extraordinaire! She was the antagonist in the otome game I was playing before my untimely death, Fortune Lover.
Fortune Lover was highly recommended by a certain otaku friend of mine. Katarina was the main villain of this game, the fiancée of one of the romanceable characters, and also the protagonist’s rival. Yes, that’s right — I had been reincarnated as one of the most annoying characters in that game I had been playing...
To make things worse, there were no good endings for Katarina! She was a villainess who only had bad ends... exiled from the kingdom if the protagonist got a happy ending, being killed in the bad ones. There was no winning with this character.
That was the truth I realized at the age of eight. This was why I worked hard, coming up with various countermeasures to subvert the game’s Catastrophic Bad Ends. I simply had to prepare as much as I could before the game started — at the opening ceremony of the Academy of Magic.
I kept this one goal in mind, my determination that I would not lose to any of these Catastrophic Bad Ends, as I started attending the Academy of Magic in the spring of last year. To think that it would all end uneventfully in the form of the Friendship Ending, of all things...
The game’s protagonist, Maria, was beautiful, gentle, and was very good at baking. She would be the first person on anyone’s mind if they were looking for a bride. She was a very charming girl. But when the game’s timeline finally ended during last year’s graduation ceremony, I was greeted with an unexpected reality — everyone stayed friends, and with that Friendship Ending, I made it through the end of the graduation ceremony without any problems.
It was a surprising and sudden end to things. As a result, I didn’t end up using a single one of the countermeasures I’d prepared. The Catastrophic Bad Ends passed me by, just like that, and they were all gone. I safely advanced into my second year at the academy.
While I did get into some trouble after that, things eventually worked out, and now it will be time to graduate soon. These recent days have been peaceful, almost unbelievably so, considering how I felt when I first came to the academy.
Now that we are approaching the end of the year, we have fewer lessons, though I did have some classes today. Even my grades, which were pretty shaky in the beginning, are now somewhat more stable, thanks to my skilled friends.
All that time I had spent worrying about exile or losing my life to the game’s machinations seemed far away in the past now, almost as if those problems never existed to begin with. As I come so close to my eventual graduation, I am suddenly faced with a new problem...
“Young miss, flowers and a letter for you have arrived, again,” Anne said, handing the items over.
The bouquet of flowers was cute, sporting pinkish flowers at its base. But when I saw it, I let out a sigh. These bouquets were the one problem I found myself faced with these days, now that I had overcome all the Catastrophic Bad Ends.
“We’re going to see each other again soon, right? It’s not necessary to keep sending these flowers and stuff...”
Anne laughed wryly as she neatly transferred the flowers into a vase. While I didn’t get items like this in the mail every day, the flowers were showing up on a regular basis, which was clear from the fact that my room was filled with them.
Picking up the letter that arrived with the bouquet, I sighed, audibly louder than I had before. I supposed the letter contained more prose and poetry to make me blush — after all, I had zero experience when it came to things like love.
...Why did Jeord get like this all of a sudden? The one who had sent me this letter, and all these bouquets, was none other than Jeord Stuart.
Jeord Stuart was originally one of the potential love interests in the world of Fortune Lover. He was the third crown prince, and a genius at just about everything. As a result, he grew tired of this world, and lived each and every day in boredom. Upon enrolling into the Academy of Magic, however, Jeord would cross paths with the bright, lovable, and innocently simple protagonist, and then fall for her. At least, that’s how the story goes.
Of course, the antagonist would show up to get in the way of the protagonist’s love. Said antagonist was me, Katarina Claes. In the story of Fortune Lover, Katarina sustained an injury to her forehead while playing with Jeord when she was younger. Using this as an excuse, she pressured Jeord into an engagement. Upon noticing that Jeord had feelings for the protagonist, Katarina would then do everything she could to get in her way — including bullying and sabotage.
As a result, she would eventually be tried for her sins and exiled from the kingdom... or she would rush at the protagonist with a blade, only to be cut down by Jeord and die. Yes, Katarina only ever had Catastrophic Bad Ends.
Honestly, though, I didn’t do anything like that to Maria. In fact, I ended up utterly terrifying and scaring away those who had been attempting to bully my cute and wonderful friend. And I hadn’t latched onto Jeord at all! I even requested multiple times for the engagement to be called off!
Even so, should an unexpected Catastrophic Bad End come for me one day, I had made my preparations. To be exact, I had set aside a complete set of agricultural tools for me to escape with if I were exiled from the kingdom. And then there were the projectile snake toys that I had made...
Although no one got in their way, Maria and Jeord never did get an ending of any kind. And in the end, I was unable to get Jeord to cancel our engagement — and so I still remained his fiancée even as I advanced into my second year at the academy.
From what I knew of Fortune Lover’s plot, Jeord had only kept Katarina in the engagement as a means of deflecting other potentially interested suitors. That was why I had my suspicions that Jeord would fall for some other woman instead of Maria... and if that happened, my role would be over. I never doubted that. In fact, I was simply hoping for Jeord to find a partner soon! Those were my usual thoughts on the matter.
But... something completely unexpected happened recently. It was during the school festival. I had been on cloud nine from the fact that I had safely overcome the Catastrophic Bad Ends. I was even thinking of enjoying myself to the fullest during the famed school festival at the academy. But then I found myself in trouble again when I was suddenly kidnapped.
While I did get kidnapped, nothing terrible was done to me. Perhaps I had been riding a little bit too confidently on the coattails of my recent success, but I had absolutely no sense of any impending danger. From what I was told, I was put to sleep with some kind of drug. When I woke up, I found myself in a room with a gentle and capable maid. I was provided with three full meals, and allowed to sleep in for however long I wanted. It was an awesome experience.
...This isn’t something I’d say to my friends and everyone else, of course, since they’d been so worried about me. But it felt a lot easier to live in that room than in my quarters back at the dorm or at Claes Manor.
Although I was enjoying myself, kidnapping was a crime, and soon enough I was freed from the manor I was being held captive at by my friends. It was then that it happened — Jeord kissed me upon my rescue.
It was the first kiss I’d ever experienced in my life. Well, if I were to count the previous, it would be the first one in two lifetimes! It was too sudden, and I soon passed out from the confusion and unexpected development.
When I woke up the next day, the only conclusion I could draw was that it was all a dream. After all, I was nothing more than a deterrent to Jeord, meant to fend off other suitors. At least, that was what I thought, so... why?
When I crossed paths with Jeord back at the academy again, he had the sweetest expression I had ever seen on his face, and he leaned in for yet another kiss.
“So you had thought it was a dream? But I assure you... what happened just now, and what happened then — neither of those were dreams,” he said, smiling faintly.
“B-But why?”
I was still shaken by the events when Jeord hit me with the stunning truth.
“I presume you are asking about the kiss, yes? But of course, Katarina, it is because I love you so.”
It was unbelievable. Stunning. Shocking, really. To think the day would come that I, someone who was never destined to have love in my life, would be confessed to... on top of all that, by a potential love interest in an otome game, too! A fairy-tale prince!
When Jeord was just a two-dimensional image on a screen, he always looked lovingly at the player. But for an actual three-dimensional Jeord to be looking at me in such a way, right in front of my face! Wah! I could feel my face heating up as I re-lived the memory.
Ugh... what should I do? If I were the popular protagonist of an otome game, then maybe I would be better equipped to deal with a proposal or two, no matter how many suitors approached me. But... I was nothing more than an innocent girl in my previous life — one who never even had the slightest brush with love. Yes, I had zero experience points in the love category.
I was just proposed to for the first time in this, and my previous, lifetimes! All I could do was remain shaken, panicking and bumbling this way and that. To make things worse, the person proposing to me was a popular and handsome prince! I could feel the mental tremors increasing in intensity.
“Ahh...” Once again, I let a long, drawn-out sigh escape from my lips.
“But... why me, of all people?”
“Huh? What are you going on about suddenly, Big Sister?”
I was muttering continuously as I finished my preparations and started heading toward the academy. Before leaving, Keith, my kind and gentle adopted brother, would always meet me so that we could walk to class together.
“It’s about Prince Jeord... I don’t understand why it would be me...”
“Ah, that. I see,” Keith said, sounding lonely. The expression on his face was stiff, which was enough for me to know that Keith was different from his usual self.
“I mean, Prince Jeord... he’s so popular, right? So many girls would love to marry him.”
It was true, Prince Jeord was very popular amongst the ladies of the kingdom. Not only was he the handsome crown prince, he was also intelligent, and capable at sports. To top it all off, his magical capabilities were also impressive. It was simply impossible for a lady to not be entranced with this seemingly perfect man. As a result, Jeord had been approached by many noble ladies, even with Katarina Claes as his fiancée.
“Surely he has many wonderful candidates to choose from?” I continued. After all, it was that way in the game too. Jeord lived his days in boredom and relative disinterest until he crossed paths with the bright and i
nnocent protagonist, and fell for her in the process. “In that case, why would he choose someone like me? Someone so... unremarkable?”
While I was the daughter of a duke, I was born with the face of a villainess — I was hardly stunning or beautiful in the traditional sense. I wasn’t smart, either, and my magical power was dismally weak. I was terrible at dancing too, and the only things I was good at were climbing trees and catching fish. Really... I was just a normal girl.
“What does Prince Jeord see in my normal, uninteresting, and plain self...?” I really couldn’t wrap my head around it.
“Big Sister... perhaps it would do you well to look up the definition of ‘normal’ in a dictionary,” my adopted brother responded with a faraway look in his eyes.
“?” What’s that supposed to mean? I could almost feel a question mark floating above my head.
“Good morning, Katarina,” a breezy voice called out from behind me.
Ah, speak of the devil... I turned around, and as expected, the person in question was approaching me with a brilliant smile on his face. Katarina Claes’ fiancé, and the third crown prince of the kingdom... Jeord Stuart.
“...Good morning. Prince Jeord,” I responded, still somewhat shaken.
Jeord wasted no time in closing the distance between us. “I have sent flowers and a letter today. Did you receive them safely, pray tell?” he said, now at incredibly close range.
T-Too close! Far too close! The presence of this three-dimensional beautiful human being will be the end of my poor heart! Although I had simply dismissed this kind of thing before, thinking that perhaps Prince Jeord was simply bad at gauging normal distance between people, I had grown used to it and accepted it as a way of life. But lately I couldn’t dismiss it like that anymore.
“U-Um... Prince Jeord, you’re a little...” Too close. Could you please step away a little? was what I would have liked to say... but Jeord had retreated before I had finished my sentence.
Now that I took a good look though, I saw that it wasn’t Jeord stepping back on his own volition — he had been pulled back by the hand of someone else. “Prince Jeord. You are a little too close, no?”
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Volume 4 Page 1
