After parting ways with Maria and Cezar, I returned to Claes Manor alone in my carriage. Upon my arrival, I immediately went to my room and collapsed on my bed. Even though I’d slept like a log in my carriage, it apparently wasn’t enough to relieve my exhaustion.
Well, the past two days have been pretty jam-packed. Perhaps I’ve accumulated some tiredness.
As I lay there, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
I wonder how Maria and Cezar got along, spending their own carriage journey alone together.
Though Maria was very popular with guys, she didn’t seem very interested in romance. Whenever I asked her if there was anyone she liked or was at least interested in, she always said, “I love you, Lady Katarina.” She was a girl who was very forceful with her feelings of friendship. That was why the first game’s story had concluded in a Friendship End, and at present it still didn’t look like Maria was making much progress with Dewey or Cyrus, despite the affection they had for her.
So I had the faint hope that, when all was said and done, this game’s story might also lead to a Friendship End. In the case of a Friendship End, the game’s villainess—Katarina—would not face doom, so I could rest assured of my safety.
But if Maria and Cezar’s relationship started to develop, then Katarina the villainess would have to make an appearance. In my time at the Academy of Magic, I had already learned that events from the story could occur even if I did nothing, maybe as a result of the game’s coercive power. If, by some chance, I unintentionally got in the way of their romance, then what might they do to me? I imagined the worst for a moment, but then decided there was no way—no way two people like them would do me any harm if all I did was get in the way of their romance.
The game’s setting had found many ways to mess with me, so I’d developed a tendency to overthink things. In this case, though, I really knew Maria and Cezar, and could say with confidence that there was no chance of them doing something so extreme. The same was true of Dewey, Cyrus, and Sora. I knew they weren’t the kind of people to do something like that.
But, with the existence of Dark Magic, and people who sought to expand its influence, I had to accept there were unknown enemies who might not follow the same rules. These people were heartless, and regarded even the lives of others as mere trifles. These evil-doers might use Dark Magic against the romanceable characters, or threaten to harm those closest to them and Maria.
In those circumstances, I couldn’t say for certain what my strong and kindhearted friends might do. So I had to keep a close eye on everyone.
When I recalled my past life at eight years old and realized I was in an otome game—and that I was its villainess, for whom all routes led to doom—I thought of nothing but how to avoid a Bad End. But now that I had so many dear friends, I no longer thought only of protecting myself, but them as well.
I had started to consider that Fortune Lover II might have a Bad End centered on a hidden character—like the one that existed in the first game, which saw the lives of every character, romanceable or otherwise, cut short—back when I’d first recognized that there was a new hidden character. Just the thought of starting down a route that led to that sort of ending made a chill run down my spine.
For that reason, there was a lot I needed to learn and consider. I took out a certain note I had found written in Japanese—which I had guarded very closely—and unfolded it. This note, whose author was still unknown, concerned a romanceable character and the villainess, Katarina, who gets in the way of that romance.
I wonder how the Katarina of this game obtained her powers of Dark Magic in the first place.
Meeting chairwoman: Katarina Claes.
Meeting representative: Katarina Claes.
Meeting secretary: Katarina Claes.
“Greetings, everyone. The topic of today’s meeting will be, ‘How did the Katarina in the game obtain Dark Magic?’ How do you suppose she did it?”
“How? Didn’t she find or buy that mirror-looking thing, just like we did?”
“Hmm, but would possessing that mirror-looking thing be enough to activate her Dark Magic by itself? Our Katarina couldn’t do anything until after getting Pochi.”
“That’s true. Our Dark Magic was first activated when we had Pochi with us. Although, we did see Katarina with a black creature that could have been Pochi on one of the game screens in our dreams, and she was holding something a bit like the Dark Covenant. Couldn’t that mean Katarina in the game also obtained Dark Magic after meeting Pochi?”
“But wouldn’t that imply the game’s Katarina also went to rescue Keith, and met Pochi there? I thought they didn’t get along in the games.”
“Yeah, she wouldn’t have gone there at that time. In the first place, Katarina ends up getting exiled from the kingdom in the first game, and wouldn’t have known about what happened to Keith, so she probably found Pochi while wandering around that area at some other time.”
“How do you meet a Dark Familiar by just wandering around? I can’t imagine a situation like that taking place.”
“Then maybe someone in the area approached her, and simply said, ‘You there, how would you like to become a Dark Magic user?’”
“No way would anyone... Well, some people might.”
“Huh?”
“Umm, I only said that as a joke... Do you think that could really happen?”
“Yes. If I remember right, I heard that Keith’s kidnapper—his older brother—was approached in that very way.”
“Ah, now that you mention it, that’s right. Didn’t he say he was approached when he’d been run out of home and was at his wit’s end?”
“Correct. His circumstances were precisely those that Katarina would have found herself in after being exiled from the country. It wouldn’t have been difficult to get close to the exiled Katarina by tempting her with the possibility of obtaining Dark Magic, given how pitiful her regular magic is.”
“And then you end up with Katarina, Wielder of Darkness.”
“Precisely.”
“If we look at it that way, then the Katarina of the game is really a creation of the organization Sarah’s part of. I wonder if they were also the ones who ordered Katarina to harass Maria and the romanceable characters.”
“I don’t know about that. It’s possible that Katarina did that out of her own feelings of misplaced resentment—her grudge over being exiled from the country, for instance.”
“That is plausible. But if that’s the case, then rather than being directly ordered to harass the other characters, it seems more like she was manipulated. If we consider this possibility, then we must conclude that the organization also wanted to harm Maria and the romanceable characters.”
“Harm Maria and the romanceable characters...? But none of them have anything to do with Dark Magic, right?”
“Not so. Maria is a Wielder of Light. Light Magic has the power to resist Dark Magic. I believe that anyone who possesses such strong Light Magic would pose a threat to their plans to spread Dark Magic.”
“They certainly would...”
“Then we’re not the only ones at risk. We’ll have to look out for Maria too.”
“True. We had better do that from now on.”