It is time for a Katarina Claes meeting. Please assemble inside Katarina’s head.
Meeting chairwoman: Katarina Claes.
Meeting representative: Katarina Claes.
Meeting secretary: Katarina Claes.
Let’s discuss how to avoid Bad Ends!
“Shall we start with a summary of the situation so far?”
“Very well. We should start from when the memories of our old life came back.”
“Please allow me. Katarina Claes, then eight years old, hit her head on a rock while walking through the garden, and hence regained the memories of her previous life as a teenager from a normal family living in the countryside of Japan. There she had grown up playing surrounded by nature, and, after reaching high school, had become a bona fide otaku.”
“That previous life was cut short by an unfortunate accident, after which she was reincarnated as the daughter of a duke. Her new appearance, with brown, silky hair and blue eyes was much better than the average, raccoon-faced one that she was used to. However, she quickly noticed that her slanted eyes and thin lips made her look somewhat menacing.”
“Which is when she realized something very important.”
“Exactly. She realized that the world that she was now living in was the one of Fortune Lover, the otome game that she had been playing until right before her untimely death. And she had now become Katarina Claes, the villainess and antagonist of that game.”
“She became engaged to a prince, who was also one of the romanceable characters in the game. According to the game, once she went to the Academy of Magic that magic users were required to attend starting at age fifteen, she would meet the game’s protagonist and bully her. If the protagonist achieved a “good end,” Katarina would be exiled out of the country. But if she instead achieved a “bad end,” Katarina would die. Katarina Claes is a sad character for whom all routes lead to doom.”
“Realizing what fate had in store for her, Katarina started working hard to prepare for the time when she would turn fifteen and thus be staring down the barrel of doom. After several birthdays, she eventually entered the academy.”
“There she met the protagonist, Maria… and they became friends. The next two years were marked by… lots of stuff happening, but the game unexpectedly reached its conclusion through the “friendship end,” and Katarina was thus spared from doom.”
“I think you skipped over a considerable number of events, but okay.”
“After avoiding doom, Katarina happened to obtain Dark Magic by pure coincidence. For that reason (and a few others), she started working at the Magical Ministry.”
“She was happy that she had found employment at the most popular organization in the whole kingdom, giving her hope of stability for the future… However, she then found out that the Magical Ministry was the setting for Fortune Lover II, the sequel to the game that had threatened her with doom.”
“In this game, the old romanceable options were joined by new, equally handsome ones for the protagonist to fall in love with, and that would have been all fine and dandy if only the game hadn’t, once again, starred Katarina Claes as villainess and doom-bound antagonist.”
“Exactly! Katarina’s incredible comeback means that all the Catastrophic Bad Ends come back as well!”
“Just when we thought we could retire peacefully! Gahhh!”
“Please, everybody, calm down. I understand why you feel that way, but let us continue with our meeting.”
“Yes… Where was I? So, despite realizing the horrors awaiting her, Katarina never considered giving up! She decided to fight against fate with new catastrophe countermeasures!”
“Even after starting work at the Ministry, specifically at the Magical Tool Laboratory, Katarina did her best to learn as much as she could about the new characters — the potential sources of doom.”
“For some reason, she got her hands on lots of Dark Magic-related things, which made her nervous. But thanks to the kind words of her friends, who promised to always stay by her side, she is now back on track in fighting against fate.”
“…Thus concludes Katarina’s story so far. But what do you think will be the best course of action in the future?”
“As far as new characters are concerned, we managed to befriend Cyrus and Dewey, and we were friends with Sora to begin with. We should ask them lots of questions to learn even more about them and what they might do.”
“I agree. And we should also start practicing lockpicking so we can escape if we end up imprisoned.”
“You’re right, that’s also important. And don’t forget about sword training. We must be prepared in case one of the Catastrophic Bad Ends involves us getting slashed to death.”
“Very well. This time we don’t have much information about the game, so we don’t know which kind of doom, specifically, awaits us! Let’s hedge our bets!”
“Oh, right, we also need to train Pochi to bark and scare off threats on command.”
“We have much to do. We also need to decipher the Dark Covenant for work.”
“…”
“…”
“Excuse me? Why did you two go silent all of a sudden?”
“…It’s just a topic I’m not fond of…”
“Ugh, it’s such a tough task. I want to be finished with the covenant as soon as possible and go back to cleaning and delivering packages!”
“I agree, but… we must give our best.”
“…You’re right.”
“Therefore, it is time to dismiss this meeting and go back to working on the covenant.”
“…Yes ma’am…”
“Lady Katarina, what is the matter?”
Maria, as beautiful as always with her blonde hair and blue eyes, was looking at me with a worried expression.
“Oh, I was just escaping reality to hold a meeting in my… I mean, I was just spacing out,” I said while scratching my head.
Maria and I were by ourselves inside one of the many meeting rooms within the Ministry, analyzing the covenants that we had found a few days prior.
We activated the ancient magic in the stone that we found in one of the gardens within the Ministry’s grounds, were transported to mysterious alternate dimensions, and Maria and I found the Light and Dark Covenants, respectively.
These were books which described ancient lost magic, and only the person who found them could read them, although not even they would be able to copy down its contents for others to read. Therefore, the two of us were now supposed to study our books so that we could report on them.
“I’m not making any progress!” I lamented with a sigh.
“Me neither,” said Maria. “The ancient script used in these books is even older than the one we studied, so it is very difficult to read.”
Her definition of “not making any progress” was obviously different from mine. She knew how to read ancient script from having studied it at the Academy of Magic, and her struggle was having to check the obscure words that occasionally popped up.
I, on the other hand, remembered absolutely nothing of what I had studied, and reading each single letter was a pain. Maria had already read dozens of pages and deciphered some Light Magic spells, while I hadn’t even gone through the foreword notes. The path to actually learning any ancient Dark Magic was still long.
And for me, an outdoor person who doesn’t like using her head, having to painstakingly check dictionaries and references while holed up inside a room was nothing short of torture. I could feel my energy steadily deplete, which made my reading even slower.
And so, yet another day ended without me having finished reading the foreword. I reported these results to Larna, my superior and the overseer of this lost magic mission, and then said goodbye to Maria as she made for the dormitory together with Dewey.
Sora, who worked in the same department as me, saw me off to the carriage that would bring me home.
“Hah, I’m so tired!” I said as I approached the Ministry’s gates together with him, sighing repeatedly.
“You really hate deskwork, huh?” he asked, exasperated.
“I do! Working in the fields under the blazing sun is ten times better than this!”
“A duke’s daughter in the fields, under the blazing sun?!” he said before erupting in laughter.
Was it that funny?
I kept walking along with the laughing Sora, and we ran into a group of female Ministry employees chatting amongst themselves. Since the workday was already over, they were probably going back to their own departments to gather their things.
“Have a good evening,” I greeted them. I didn’t know any of them, but I wanted to be polite to my colleagues.
“You too,” they replied, but one of them noticed Sora and immediately gasped.
“H-Hello, thank you for the other day,” she said to him while blushing.
Even I, who, admittedly, wasn’t the sharpest, could see that she liked him.
“Oh, don’t mention it,” he said casually, giving her a bow and walking away.
As I went after him, I could feel her gaze on my back.
“Sora, do you know that girl?” I asked him.
“Earlier today, I saw her having trouble trying to carry some heavy stuff and I helped her out.”
“Oh, so that’s why she thanked you,” I said, understanding the meaning of that exchange. “But she looked like she wanted to talk with you some more.” It was obvious from the girl’s face that she would have loved to speak with Sora.
“I didn’t really have anything to talk with her about,” he said with a shrug.
I was impressed at how nonchalant a man that was always so popular with girls could be. Sora, who had received the fake surname “Smith” from Larna, our department’s director, was more than my trustworthy colleague — he was one of the love interests in FL2. Like all the others, he was incredibly handsome.
“His blue hair and eyes are so wonderful, and his mannerisms are so sexy,” girls throughout the Ministry whispered. I’d heard of this from Laura, my colleague who had the look of a masculine bodybuilder and the heart of a lovely maiden.
I hadn’t thought about how attractive Sora was until she told me that. Being surrounded by attractive people since childhood, I had developed a resistance against handsomeness and sexiness.
I was staring at Sora’s face, thinking such thoughts, when he looked back at me with a troubled expression. “Is there something on my face?” he asked.
“No, I was just thinking of how popular you are, and how that pretty face of yours must help with that,” I replied honestly.
“Huh?” he said, confused.
“I’m not saying that it’s only because of your face. You also have a good personality.”
“Do you seriously think I have a good personality?”
“Hm? You’re so kind and thoughtful. I’m glad we were assigned to the same department. Thank you for everything!” I said with a smile, grateful for everything he always did for me. He looked away pointedly and gave me a noogie.
“What are you doing?!”
He did that all the time. When I asked him why, he’d say something like “Because your head was there.”
You’d think that right now, while I was expressing my gratitude, he’d be touched. Or at least not rub a fist on my head. I even heard him whisper, “Thick! So thick!” under his breath while he did it.
This made me so mad that I puffed out my cheeks, stood on tiptoe, raised my hand over Sora’s face (which was red, probably because the sun was almost setting) and onto his head, and gave him a noogie myself. Unfortunately the height difference made it difficult, so my revenge wasn’t as effective as I would’ve liked.
Our noogie battle went on, and we eventually reached the gates.
“See you tomorrow,” Sora, whose face was still red — still, presumably, because of the sunset — said as I got into the carriage.
I spent the ride back home stretching my back and hips — my whole body was stiff from all the deskwork.
“Spending all day reading dictionaries and references is so boring. I wish I could do something different for a change,” I mumbled to myself right before falling asleep.
Little did I know that my wish would soon come true.
Back in my room, I was lying on the bed, refreshing after a hard day of work, when I was told that Father had called for me. Mother did that all the time to scold me, but Father almost never did.
I went to his study, wondering what he could want to tell me, and found him waiting for me with a saddened expression.
Father was deeply in love with his wife, and, consequently, adored the daughter whose face so closely resembled hers. He would always greet me with the most affectionate of smiles, even when he found me covered in mud or with a snake I had just caught in the fields in my hands.
Why does he look so preoccupied?
“Father, why did you want to speak with me?” I asked him after swallowing hard, worried by his expression, which didn’t change even as he replied.
“Once every two years, the royals and nobles from Sorcié and the neighboring countries hold an International Assembly. This year it will be held here, in our kingdom.”
“An assembly?” That did sound like an important event, but Father was a duke and must have been used to this kind of thing, so I couldn’t understand what the problem was.
“And today, we have received an invitation… for you to participate.”
“What? Me?”
I was surprised. I don’t mean to brag, but among high-ranking nobles, I was probably the one who knew the least about diplomatic events. I knew that Jeord and Alan, as members of the royal family, were often involved in dealings with other countries. But this was the first time I’d ever been invited.
“Yes. All the royals from the other countries are going to come here, so all high-ranking nobles will have to join in providing hospitality and participating in diplomatic exchanges. This already happened once a number of years ago when you were still a kid. But now you’re an adult, and you’re engaged to a prince to boot. You must participate,” he said, sighing deeply.
So I had to show up there as Jeord’s fiancée. “Hm, I understand. I will participate. But why are you looking so upset about it?” I asked, and he jolted in surprise.
“Katarina, you say that you will participate as if it were the easiest thing in the world, but this is an assembly of powerful people from several countries! It is an extremely formal event where no faux pas will be forgiven!” he said heatedly, standing up from his desk.
“I-I see…” I said, taken aback, making his face turn even darker.
“Katarina, I believe that you are a wonderful daughter. You are an active, positive, optimistic girl.”
“Th-Thank you.”
Father was acting really weirdly today — now he was praising me all of a sudden.
“But etiquette and studying are not your forté, right?”
And now he was criticizing me.
“Well… that’s right,” I had to agree, since what he had said was nothing but the truth.
“And every time you join a public event you always get yourself into trouble, do you not?”
“…Do I?”
“You ended up drunk at the coming of age party for the princes, and I’ve heard that you were running around the castle at their graduation party.”
“That’s… Well, that’s true, but…”
These things had happened because of very good reasons… but then again, I couldn’t deny that they were true.
“And that is why, Katarina,” he said, sighing again, “I believe that, though you may be a good girl, formal events are not your strong suit. I tried explaining that to the powers that be, but I couldn’t have your invitation canceled.”
I looked at Father, whose face showed the extent of his tiredness, and I felt deeply sorry. I knew I wasn’t cut out for this kind of thing. If I could have, I would have gladly avoided participating in such a bothersome event alongside nobles and royalty.
“But why do I have to participate?” I asked, considering faking a fever so I wouldn’t have to attend.
“Because it’s a direct invitation from the royal family…” he replied in a pained voice as he held his head in his hands.
“What about sending a fake Katarina Claes?”
“…I don’t think we could get away with that. I’ll try to come up with a solution, but for the time being, you must mentally prepare yourself to join the Assembly,” he said, exhausted, before telling me to go back to my room.
Mother, who was usually the first one to voice her complaints in this kind of situation, had been knocked completely unconscious by the shock of seeing that invitation, and was resting in her bed.
Mother… I think you’re overdoing it…
I thought about my conversation with Father as I walked back to my room. A gathering of royals and nobles sounded like a total drag.
This must be because I wished that I could do something different from studying that covenant! But what’s the point in doing something different if it’s even more troublesome? I wanted to do something relaxing!
I found myself sighing loudly.
“Big Sister, did Father tell you about the invitation?”
Keith, my adopted younger brother, was waiting for me near my room. Lately he’d been so busy helping Father as his secretary that I hadn’t been able to spend much time with him, but his flaxen hair, blue eyes, and seductive face were as handsome as always.
“He was telling me about it just now. Did you hear about it too?”
“Yes. I was also invited, as heir to Duke Claes.”
“Oh, so you’re coming too?”
Keith being there with me would be a huge relief. For almost a decade now, he’d been cleaning up after whatever trouble I made — he was the best at it. With him by my side, any minor mess wouldn’t be a problem. I was glad he’d be there.
However, he looked anything but glad.
“Too? So you couldn’t refuse the invitation… What did Father say?” he asked, looking slightly disappointed. He was probably as worried as Father was about me having to participate.
If even Keith, who has years of experience looking after me, is anxious about this, this Assembly must be quite the event.
“He said that he’ll try to come up with a solution… But, is this Assembly such a big deal?”
“Yes. There will be influential people from all the nearby countries, after all. All kinds of trouble is bound to happen, and you have a tendency to get mixed up in trouble… Or rather, you have a tendency to jump into it.”
Do I really get mixed up in trouble that much? I thought to myself, but I had known Keith for long enough to tell by his dark expression that, if I asked him that right now, he would come up with a never-ending list of examples.
“I’m sure that Father will think of something… At worst, you could always just show up and leave immediately after and try not to do anything that could cause problems in the meantime. In any case, you’d better mentally prepare yourself to attend the Assembly.”
Keith ended up saying the same thing as Father. He repeated the part about not causing problems, just to make sure, and then he left.
They really don’t trust me at all. Now that I’m working, I feel like I’ve become more responsible, haven’t I…?
Feeling a little sad, I entered my room.
By the way, the only thing that Mother managed to suggest despite her shock was the same idea I’d had: finding a lookalike and having her attend in my place. But Father quickly dismissed the idea, saying it was impossible.
Anguish loomed over Claes Manor because of that dreadful invitation, but the very next day, a solution presented itself from the most unexpected of places.
The next day, Father (who probably hadn’t come up with a solution) still looked exhausted, and Mother was still resting in her room. Since I couldn’t do anything to help, I just went to work.
I took my place at the desk by Maria’s in the meeting room, where, armed with dictionaries and references, I had to keep analyzing the Dark Covenant.
“When is the main content going to start?” I complained as I laid my face down next to the book I was supposed to study.
“The foreword is really long, is it not? However, I think that the notes contained in it are crucial,” Maria replied with a troubled expression on her face. Then she added, “Lady Katarina, it will soon be lunch time. I have brought you sweets to eat as dessert, so please look forward to them.”
“Really?! Great! I’ll hold out for a bit longer!”
I hated studying and deskwork, so the task I’d been busy with for the past few days had been close to torture. Maria, however, tried to make it easier on me by bringing sweets and other treats. She really was an angel — nay, a goddess.
I kept working, letting out the occasional moan of despair despite having Maria’s treats to look forward to, until it was finally lunchtime.
I triumphantly jumped out of my chair, chanting “Lunch! Lunch!” as I made for the dining hall.
“Oh! Hi, Sora. Hi, Dewey.”
“Hey.”
“Hello, Miss Maria. Lady Katarina.”
On the way, we’d encountered two boys walking towards us.
“We were just coming to see how you were doing,” Dewey said happily, decidedly looking in Maria’s direction.
The thirteen-year-old boy, handsome with his orange hair and blue eyes, was one of FL2’s romanceable characters.
Unlike Sora, whose feelings for Maria I wasn’t so sure about, Dewey was head over heels for her. He did greet me as well, but his loving gaze was aimed at the beautiful protagonist, completely ignoring the villainess besides her.
“That is so sweet of you! Thank you, we are making very good progress,” Maria said with a smile, and Dewey’s face turned red and his expression melted into a pleased grin.
“What a sweet kid.”
“I know, right?”
Sora and I, looking at their exchange from the sidelines, exchanged remarks about Dewey’s reaction.
“And, by the way,” Sora said, with a look of pity in his eyes, “did you make any progress?”
“I made barely any progress yesterday. What makes you think today would be any different?”
“You have a point. Oh well, don’t give up,” he said with sympathy.
The sad conversation between Sora and I was over, as was the loving one between Maria and Dewey, so we all went to the dining hall.
I thought I’d try to eat less to leave room for Maria’s dessert, but that day’s special was a fried food set, which I couldn’t resist ordering.
Whatever. I always have room for dessert.
“Hng, my stomach is going to explode…” I said, holding my tummy with my hands.
“No wonder,” Sora said, looking at me with sympathy once again. “You ate that whole fried lunch, then you had desserts, and even went for seconds.”
“What could I do? Maria’s sweets were so delicious…”
“Hehe, I am glad that you liked them. I will bake them again.”
“Really?! Thank you! I’m already looking forward to that.”
“You really never learn…” Sora commented dryly.
“Don’t worry, I won’t have the fried lunch next time.”
“But Lady Katarina,” Dewey, this time, said, “you always tend to go for the heavier lunch options.”
I could tell from his eyes that he wasn’t trying to scold me (unlike Sora), which made it even worse. It was true that the lunch sets had very generous portions, but they were so tasty that I always ended up finishing them.
Now that I think of it… Have I been eating too much since I started working at the Ministry? My dresses are getting a bit tighter around the waist… I should be more careful, I thought while looking at my belly until the topic of the conversation changed.
“It will not be long until the International Assembly, is that right?” Dewey asked
“Yeah, and the Ministry has been asked to assist with the preparations,” Sora replied.
“What? You two knew about the Assembly?” I asked, looking up.
I had first learned about it on the previous day, but those two spoke as if it was common knowledge.
“You mean you didn’t?” Sora asked me, appalled, and Dewey and Maria also looked at me with surprise.
“I believe I learned about it in school…” Dewey said.
“We were taught about the subject in the academy as well…” Maria continued uncomfortably.
Just as with ancient script, I had promptly dumped from my brain all information about the Assembly as soon as it stopped being useful for tests.
“I must have forgotten,” I said honestly, and asked for an explanation.
“Simply put, every two years, five countries located near each other, including Sorcié, meet to strengthen their relationships. This Assembly has been held for more than a century, and serves as an occasion to discuss international agreements. Some say that it is thanks to the Assembly that we can enjoy peace,” said Dewey, showing off the knowledge that had allowed him to pass the Ministry’s incredibly difficult entrance exam at the young age of thirteen. That exam was in place to allow people like Dewey, who was extremely talented but did not have magic abilities, to join the Ministry.
“The five countries take turns hosting the Assembly once every two years, meaning that each has to do so once every ten years.”
“And now it’s Sorcié’s turn, right?”
Dewey, maybe because of his great intelligence, was really good at explaining things.
“Exactly. Are you going to participate due to your rank?”
“Yes. I received an invitation, so I have to…” Unfortunately.
“Nobles have so many responsibilities,” said Dewey, who was a commoner and, before coming here to work, had hardly ever even seen a noble.
“They really do. Mister Lanchester and Miss Larna are also going to attend, so I imagine that things will become even busier at the Ministry,” Maria said.
Maria was a commoner just like Dewey, but she had spent two years amongst nobles at the Academy of Magic.
Cyrus Lanchester, by the way, was Maria’s superior and another one of FL2’s handsome love interests. He had a cool, smart facade that hid his true self — a country bumpkin who was scared of speaking with women.
“Those two are attending too?” I repeated, surprised.
“Yes. Mister Lanchester told us in advance and is working more than usual right now, so as to avoid causing any problems for the department.”
As usual, Cyrus was really diligent. I imagined that Larna would just ask her subordinates to take care of things as she left.
“Our director will never do that, so we’ll probably have problems to spare,” whispered Sora, who was thinking the exact same thing as me, and I nodded in agreement.
I decided to leave nutritious snacks for everyone in the department, especially Raphael, the vice-director, before leaving for the Assembly.
We kept chatting about work until lunch break was over, then Maria and I went back to our covenants and Sora and Dewey went back to their respective departments.
My progress in the afternoon wasn’t much better than in the morning, and I still didn’t manage to finish reading the foreword. Maria, on the other hand, had found a new Light Magic spell.
I’m being left further behind every day… I thought, starting to get worried, as I rode the carriage back home.
Once I arrived, I saw a familiar carriage parked in front of the mansion.
What a weird time to visit — so late in the evening.
“Young miss, there is a guest waiting for you in the parlor,” the butler informed me.
“Yes. I will go,” I replied immediately, knowing who it would be from the carriage outside.
“Katarina, it is good to see you,” said Prince Jeord, my fiancé, who was waiting for me with a smile.
Jeord Stuart, a handsome youth with blue eyes and blonde hair, was the third son of the King, and one of his potential heirs. In the parlor with him were Father, looking anxious, Mother, who had managed to get out of bed but still looked terrible, and Keith, whose expression wasn’t much better either.
What’s the whole squad doing here? I thought, getting the feeling that something bad was going to happen.
“Prince Jeord, how do you do,” I elegantly greeted him with a curtsy in spite of my nervousness.
With his usual smoothness, he escorted me to my seat, right next to his. His movements were so perfect and beautiful that it was no wonder why all the girls said that he looked like a prince from a fairy tale. He actually was a cunning, ill-tempered prince who was afraid of snakes, but of course they didn’t know that.
Everyone else sat down and Jeord, with a dazzling smile, spoke first. “Katarina, I have wonderful news.”
Oh! Could it be…?
“I don’t have to go to the Assembly?!” I asked excitedly.
“You do,” he immediately said.
I looked at him in disappointment, and he chuckled.
What’s the good news then?
“As my fiancée, you must attend the Assembly. But you are not fond of this kind of formal event, are you?”
As expected of someone who’d known me for all these years, he really understood me. Correct! I wanted to shout, but before I could do so, my mother took the words right out of my mouth.
“Correct, which is why I beg you to consider attending with someone else, anyone but my daughter,” she said breathlessly, looking extremely sincere as she expressed her opinion, which was actually the same as mine.
Jeord’s expression didn’t change the slightest bit after hearing her speak. “Lady Claes, I understand your concern. However, I cannot attend without my fiancée.”
“I see…” she said with despair on her face.
“Which is why I will provide her with an opportunity to learn about etiquette and international history and politics.”
“Really?!” Mother shouted, standing up from her chair. Father gave her a look of disapproval. “Excuse me,” she said, catching herself and sitting down, though she was still unable to contain her excitement. “So, what kind of opportunity would this be, Prince Jeord?”
“Many people within the castle, in order to prepare for the visit of our foreign guests, have asked for help in improving their manners and their grasp on history, amongst other things. We have therefore hired the best professors and instructors in the kingdom to do exactly that. I imagine that if Katarina were to attend their lessons, she would be able to participate in the Assembly without any cause for concern,” explained Jeord, as calmly as always.
“And will these lessons take place in the castle?”
“Yes. Katarina would stay at the castle for the duration of this seminar, so that she may more easily study. What do you think?”
Staying over to study?! Anything but that!
I was listening in silence like a good girl, without interrupting Mother, but this was too much. I protested. “I would absolutely never wa—”
“Excellent! Please, Prince Jeord, do as you just said!” Mother loudly interrupted me, making it clear with her deadly gaze that she would not be taking any objections.
“Very well. I will contact you as soon as we are ready. Katarina, please prepare yourself for the stay. It should be quite enjoyable,” Jeord said, fixing me with his smile.
It was thus decided that I — against my will — would have to stay at the castle to attend a seminar.
★★★★★★
As my sister’s fiancé Jeord left my home with a victorious smile, I saw him off by returning (in appearance, at least) the smile before going back to my room. Once there, my fake smile gave way to sadness and sighing.
This is terrible. His plan played out perfectly.
I suspected that he would try something as soon as Katarina received her invitation, but I never imagined he would go as far as having her stay the night at the castle.
He had even managed to get Mother, who fervently disapproved of Katarina’s engagement with him (because she wasn’t good enough for a prince), to agree with him. He had outdone me.
He had said that they had hired the instructors for that seminar owing to the requests of many people within the castle, but I believed that, ultimately, those requests were his doing as well. Of course I had no proof, but I had little doubt about it.
I had thought that his advances towards Katarina had become tamer, but that was just because he had been so busy preparing this plan to use the International Assembly as an excuse to have her stay at the castle. He was truly a cunning, calculating man.
And the reason why he wanted her to stay the night at his home was clear as well. Rumors had it that the second-born prince was now close to marriage, and Jeord, no doubt, wanted to marry Katarina before she had time to set her roots at the Magical Ministry.
He had a shortcut to do this in taking her physically and using that as reason to make her his wife. Katarina was completely oblivious to matters of romance, and, for Jeord, having his way with her would be as easy as tricking a child.
Damn you, Jeord! I’ve been restraining myself, despite living under the same roof as her, for all these years! I won’t let you have her this easily!
If I wanted to stop him, I would first need reinforcements — as many people as possible.
And thus I began making plans to protect my beloved, heedless sister.
★★★★★★
The less you’re looking forward to something, the shorter the wait seems to be. The day I had dreaded so much had come — it was time to go to the castle for the seminar.
When he visited us, Jeord said that he would let us know as soon as preparations were done, and that, too, felt like it happened in an instant. The servants at home had already done most of the work for me, so all I had to do was to request a few days off at the Ministry.
It was true that I was fed up with having to work on the covenant, and I had wished that I could do something else for a change. But studying at the castle was so bad of an alternative that I hoped my superiors would deny my request.
They approved it without a second thought. The reason, it seemed, was that the Ministry had been ordered to cooperate fully with the International Assembly. Plus, as a newcomer, it wasn’t like I had any important responsibilities to worry about.
As for the covenant which I was deciphering with so much effort, Larna said that since we knew so little about it, we couldn’t tell what would happen if it was separated from its owner. She told me to keep it with me at all times. So, since I couldn’t bring my usual work bag with me, I put it in the baggage for my stay at the castle. I had to be careful not to lose it — admittedly, I wasn’t the best at taking care of my stuff.
With these things I had to remember on one hand, and the permission granted by the Ministry and by Mother on the other, I was completely ready to ride the carriage that would take me and my baggage to the castle.
“Quick, Big Sister, get in. We’re going to be late,” Keith said, stretching out his hand. I took it and stepped into the carriage.
It turned out that my kind, thoughtful brother would be coming with me. He wouldn’t need to attend all the classes that I did, but he would take some in the free time he had left after helping Father with his duties at the castle.
Just having him with me was a huge relief. He could wake me up if I fell asleep during a lesson, explain to me the things I hadn’t understood, and help me with all kinds of stuff.
“Mother asked me to make sure that you don’t slack off, so try to take this seriously, okay?”
“Keith, you were working for Mother all along?! I thought you were on my side!”
Just when I was thinking that I felt safe with him as an ally! Turns out he’s an enemy spy!
“Work for…? Anyway, she also asked me to help you with whatever may come up,” said Keith, looking dejected.
“Oh, I’m so glad. So you’re my ally after all,” I said, but, for whatever reason, Keith sighed.
The sunlight was streaming into the carriage from a sky which, as if to mock the darkness of my current mood, was stupendously clear. This would be the perfect day to work on the fields and play with Pochi…
“Oh, right, Pochi,” I said to my shadow.
“Woof!” the black puppy cried happily, coming out of it.
After Keith’s kidnapping incident, Pochi had somehow become my pet Dark Familiar. He almost never left my side, and he lived inside my shadow. Since he was a familiar, he didn’t need to eat or to be walked, so he was really easy to care for.
Most dogs, in both of my lives, hated me. So the fact that Pochi was so attached to me made him seem even more lovable in my eyes. But since he was a product of Dark Magic, I had to keep him hidden, and couldn’t call him out of my shadow when other people were around. Larna told me not to let him out at the castle, because we didn’t know who might be around to see him.
I won’t be able to pet him for a while, I thought, and I spent the rest of the carriage trip giving him an advance share of rubs and pets, complete with interest.
After thoroughly petting Pochi, I reached my destination in time and got out of the carriage. The castle felt different from usual — it was full of people and the security was much stricter.
“It’s because of the incoming International Assembly,” Keith explained when I mentioned what I’d noticed. “Royals from the neighboring countries are going to come here as guests, and soon only authorized people will be able to enter the castle.”
That really made it sink in how important an event it was going to be.
When we got inside, I went to the room that Jeord had reserved for me.
“Mary?! Sophia?! Alan?! Nicol?!”
I was so shocked at seeing my friends there that I ended up blurting out their names, one after the other. I’d expected to find only Jeord waiting for me, so this was a pleasant surprise. As for my fiancé, he was looking extremely annoyed.
“Lady Katarina! We’ve been waiting for you!” said Mary, running towards me with a huge smile on her face before I could greet the annoyed prince. Sophia, with a matching smile, followed behind her.
Mary had hair and eyes the color of burnt sienna, and Sophia had white hair and red eyes (which was rare for this country). The two, like me, were rival characters in the game. But while I sported a villainesque face, they were both straight-out beauties.
I was very happy to see them, since I’d had few chances to do so since I’d started working at the Ministry, but I didn’t understand why they were in the place where I’d be staying for the duration of the seminar.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“We, too, will be staying at the castle to attend the seminar!” Mary replied with sparkling eyes.
“All of you?!”
I’d thought that this was meant as an opportunity for me, a subpar noble lady, to improve myself. So why would people like Mary, the very definition of properness, be attending as well?
“Not that I see what use Lady Mary, revered as a paragon of excellence amongst ladies, would have from such lessons,” Jeord, who had been thinking the same thing, commented with a smile.
“Not at all,” she replied, smiling as well. “I still have much to learn. Do you not agree, Prince Alan?” she said, turning to Jeord’s silver-haired, blue-eyed younger twin, who happened to be her fiancé.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Alan replied shortly while avoiding looking at his brother, whose smile now seemed to have something dark about it.
“So she got the information from you, once again…” Jeord murmured between his teeth.
I still didn’t understand the details, but knowing that my friends would be there with me was reason enough to rejoice.
“Lady Katarina, I have brought several novels for your stay,” the lovely Sophia said as she dragged a huge trunk with her.
“So that is why you had all that baggage with you. We are here to study, and this is no time to be reading novels,” said her brother Nicol, a handsome youth with black hair and dark eyes, as he relieved her of the trunk without ever changing his facial expression.
I had also hidden a couple of romance novels in my baggage, so I looked on with fear and sympathy as Sophia’s were taken.
After giving the trunk to a servant, Nicol gazed at his disappointed sister. “As you can all see, Sophia is not quite serious about this whole matter, but please look after her. I will be staying at the castle too, for work, so let me know if anything happens,” he said with a bow.
So he won’t be joining us at the seminar, but he’ll still stay here.
“Of course, if anything I should be the one asking you to look after me!” I said, bowing as well.
Nicol replied with a short hum, and as he smiled ever so slightly, I risked swooning at his attractiveness for the first time in a while.
“Enough pleasantries. I will escort you to your room, Katarina,” Jeord said, pulling me away from the dangerously handsome Nicol.
“No need to bother yourself. We have already prepared a room for her,” said Keith, taking hold of my other arm and pulling me, this time away from Jeord.
“And we will be staying in the annex next to that room,” said Mary, gesturing to herself and Sophia.
“Tyranny of the majority, I see…” Jeord said, his smile turning even darker, but I was perfectly happy to be close to Mary and Sophia.
We all went to the guest room that Keith had prepared for me, right in front of his room and very close to the annex where Mary and Sophia were staying.
Now that I was surrounded by friends, what I had been thinking of as a boring seminar camp had started feeling more like a fun field trip.
I entered my room, where I was to leave my baggage, and I stretched myself out on the bed.
“I’m going to do my best!” I shouted.
“Young miss, remember that you are not home. Please keep your voice down,” scolded my maid Anne, who had followed me all the way to the castle.
And thus began my stay at the castle to attend the seminar.