The warm afternoon sun, shining on the lexicons I had open in front of me, was making me terribly sleepy. I, Katarina Claes, was doing my very best to stay awake. I never liked studying theory, and even back at the Academy of Magic I often had to fight with sleepiness… The sleepiness would usually win. It was especially difficult to stay awake right after lunch, when I was full and cozy.
When I was tasked with cleaning or making deliveries for the Magical Tool Laboratory, at least I was always moving, but all I had to do right now was to read through this boring Dark Covenant. Using my head at this time of the day was the worst. I thought back with nostalgia to my recent mission at Ocean Harbor, where being undercover as a waitress meant that I didn’t have to worry about sleepiness at all. Of course, I knew that every minute I spent reminiscing was a minute that hadn’t gone toward completing the task at hand, but I couldn’t continue at all unless I did something about this drowsiness.
Maybe visualizing mother’s angry face would wake me up, I thought, but I was so used to her being mad at me that it didn’t work. The things one can get used to… Oh, I know, thinking of the ever-impending doom constantly casting its shadow over me, threatening my life, will wake me up!
True enough, I was indeed constantly threatened by catastrophic doom.
It all started when, as an eight-year-old girl, I tripped and hit my head on a rock. The impact made me recover the memories of my past life, when I lived as an otaku high school girl in a country called Japan. Those new memories made me less of a spoiled brat, but they brought with them a terrible realization.
What I realized was that I was now living in the world of “FL,” Fortune Lover, the otome game which I was playing right up until my untimely death in my previous life. This, by itself, wasn’t that terrible. The problem was that I’d been reincarnated as Katarina Claes, daughter of Duke Claes, the game’s evil antagonist who was destined for doom! The only reason Katarina Claes existed was to hinder the protagonist in her romantic endeavors with the romanceable characters… Learning all that was quite the shock.
At the time, I was eight years old, but the plot of FL was set to start when I, at fifteen, would join the Academy of Magic. I spent seven years preparing for that, and someway, somehow, I managed to escape all of the catastrophic endings that the game had in store for me. Relieved, I was already dreaming of the safe, calm life that was to come. I’d even started working at the Magical Ministry, one of the kingdom’s governmental institutions, together with Maria, the game’s protagonist, who was now also my friend.
So far so good… What I didn’t know back then was that there was actually a sequel to FL, Fortune Lover II: Love at the Magical Ministry! In this sequel, Maria would try to romance new and returning characters, while Katarina came back once again to make trouble for her! And of course, Katarina was still headed for catastrophe no matter what happened in the game! After all that effort I’d put into avoiding doom… What happened to the future I’d envisioned? What happened to my peaceful retirement, relaxing on a rocking chair with a cat on my lap?!
But even though I was disappointed, I swore to myself: I won’t lose to you, game developers! I’m going to get my peaceful retirement whether you want it or not!
I started looking for ways to avoid the aforementioned catastrophic endings, aided by dreams I sometimes had that showed me a friend from my past life playing FL2 and a mysterious note I’d found which had information about the game written on it in Japanese.
To be honest, though, it wasn’t going that well. I looked at my shadow, inside which Pochi, my Dark Familiar, always hid. He was a cute puppy, but he could turn huge when he needed to. Then I looked back at the Dark Covenant in front of me. Dark this, Dark that… I couldn’t get any more villainous if I tried. I even remembered, in one of those dreams, seeing Katarina, with Pochi by her side and the covenant in her hands, laughing evilly. Maybe this was the game’s doing, somehow forcing me to follow its plot, and that made me fear that I’d actually turn into the evil villainess I was supposed to be.
But wait… If the Katarina in the game was laughing while holding the covenant, does that mean that she could read the ancient script on it? How can she be smarter than me?! Where does she find the time to study between stalking Jeord and being evil?!
“Lady Katarina, is everything fine?” Maria, my beautiful blonde-haired, blue-eyed friend, asked. “You were making such a pained expression… Could it be that you are hungry?”
“Oh, don’t worry, I was just thinking about stuff,” I reassured her.
“Stuff… Would that be the covenant?”
After all, I had the covenant open in front of me. You’d never guess I was thinking about the information on my evil destiny that I got through a mystical connection with my past life. And I certainly couldn’t tell her about it either.
“Y-Yeah, the covenant. It’s so hard to read, you know. I’m not making any progress,” I replied. No lie there.
I was never the smartest girl around, and I’d promptly forgotten all that I’d learned at the Academy of Magic the second I was done with my exams. As a result, this ancient script that I was looking at right now was completely unreadable to me. Even Maria, who was smart, was having trouble reading her own covenant, since the script it was written in was even older than the ancient script we’d learned about at the academy, and it used very difficult grammar. What chance did I stand?
The worst part was that the Dark Covenant had some sort of magical copyright protection applied to it, meaning that I couldn’t write down the text as I saw it and let someone else read it for me. This was why I was having so much trouble reading through the thing.
Between the International Assembly and my undercover mission right after that, I hadn’t had a lot of time to actually work on it, and the only parts that I’d deciphered were the long foreword and the basic magic for mind control.
“What about you? How far have you gotten?” I asked Maria, who was doing the same thing as me, but with the Light Covenant.
“Hmm… I have been able to read further than last time, but this latest section only described how to amplify the spells I already knew, so I have not actually learned any new ones.”
Unlike me, she’d already learned spells from the book and even used some of them.
“Oh, that sounds interesting,” I said, surprised that the Light Covenant wasn’t just a collection of spells.
“It surely is. For example, there are instructions on how to make healing magic more powerful. That sounds like it would be very useful,” she said with a smile as the sun shone behind her. Once again, she was the very definition of a likeable otome game protagonist. “Most likely, your covenant also says how to make your spells more powerful,” she continued.
“You think so?” I replied skeptically, unable to comment either way as of yet.
She talks about her magic being useful, but my covenant is the Dark Covenant. Even if I can make the mind control spells more powerful, I wonder if that could ever be useful… Wait a second, mind control?
“Hey!” I shouted, jumping out of my chair. “Now that I think of it, I can’t use any Dark Magic to begin with!”
Startled, Maria blinked, then answered, “But you have the Dark Familiar Pochi, do you not?”
“Well, yeah. But I don’t know any actual spells.”
What’s more, Pochi didn’t always come out of my shadow when I asked him to. Could you even call that a familiar? Maybe he just saw me as someone who provided him a place (my shadow) to live in. That would mean that I, all things considered, wasn’t really a Dark Magic user.
“I believed that you could use Dark Magic but chose not to,” Maria said, “but if that is not the case, then…there might be no point in reading the Dark Covenant.”
Indeed! No point in deciphering this stuff! What’s all this effort for?! And after all the time I spent hunched over this desk! I was in despair, holding my head in my hands, when I heard the door open and saw a familiar face step in.
“So, how is it going? What’s with the long face?”
That was Larna, my superior. Since she was here, I decided I’d tell her about the issue I’d just identified.
“And that is why deciphering it could all be for nothing,” I concluded, pointing at the covenant.
Larna nodded. “You sound like you just realized that, but I’d already predicted this,” my superior announced. “In fact, I knew you couldn’t use Dark Magic since back when we experimented with you and Pochi.”
“Really?!”
“We asked you about that during the experiments. Don’t you remember?”
“I… Y-Yes… You did ask me about that, I think…”
To be honest, that was such a stressful period that I barely remembered anything at all, but now that she mentioned it, we’d done that kind of experiment.
“As we see it,” she went on, “you have a Dark Familiar living inside your shadow, but you can’t use Dark Magic per se. Our plan is to have you decipher the covenant for research reasons. If there are any spells that look safe, we’ll have Sora, who can actually use Dark Magic, test them.”
“Oh, I see!” I said, glad to know that my effort at least wasn’t going to be in vain.
Maria, however, didn’t look relieved. She addressed Larna. “I just learned about Lady Katarina not being able to use Dark Magic spells, so I did not know about your plan until now… Unfortunately, I believe that it will not work.”
“Huh?!” I shouted.
“Why would that be?” Larna asked, looking worried.
“After deciphering a spell, I can explain its effects to other people, but if I try to explain how it is performed, I find myself unable to speak,” Maria explained, furrowing her brow.
“I didn’t know about that! How did you discover this phenomenon?” Larna asked.
“Up until now, I have only reported on what the spells I have found are able to do. However, yesterday I was told that the Ministry would assemble other Light Magic users so that I may pass on the knowledge to them.”
“That makes sense,” Larna commented, “since we wouldn’t be able to use Light Magic even if you explained it to us. That’s why they’re going to call people who can.”
I’d never heard anything about that…
“Yes. This was not an issue for me. The problem, however, was when I tried to organize the information I had learned so that it would be easier to explain it to others. I tried writing it down, but the pen would not move. Then I tried to practice saying it aloud, but no sound would come out of my mouth.”
“You just learned about that yesterday? And did you report on it?”
“Yes. Yesterday, as soon as I learned about it, I reported to Mister Cyrus.”
As expected of Maria.
“So that’s why I hadn’t heard of it yet… I skipped today’s meeting,” Larna said, mumbling the second part under her breath.
As expected of Larna.
“But if you can neither write nor tell other people about how to perform the spells, then it means that only the owner of a covenant can use the magic inside it. That must be why there was no document giving details about them. A really interesting couple of books, aren’t they? I wonder how I could get one myself,” she continued, obsessed as usual with all rare and mysterious kinds of magic.
“But, if this is true, then…doesn’t it mean that there’s no point in me deciphering this?” I asked, scared of the answer.
“That could be the case, yes,” Larna replied, looking disappointed.
“No way!” I shouted in despair, thinking of all the effort I’d wasted on this cursed book.
“Well, you can at least tell what kind of spells they are, so it won’t be completely useless,” Larna tried to comfort me to little effect. Basically, she was saying that it’d just be only mostly useless.
All this ancient script that I’ve painstakingly deciphered… All this time and effort… Okay, I barely went past the foreword, but still…
“Hmm… I’ll go confirm something with Cyrus. You rest for a bit and wait here, okay?” Larna said, patting my shoulder before leaving the room.
I felt so exhausted that I dropped onto the desk. The sleepiness from before came back even stronger, and since this time I’d been told to rest, I decided not to fight against it.
“Lady Katarina…” I heard Maria call me, probably worried about me.
“I’m a bit sleepy… I’ll rest my eyes for a second…” I told her as I slipped into a dream.
Pink walls, a black table, and a metal-frame bed with azure duvets and blue cushions: I was in a place that I’d become accustomed to seeing in my dreams, the bedroom of my friend Acchan.
Great! Finally I get to dream this again.
Since I started working at the Ministry, every once in a while I’d have this dream where Acchan played FL2, a game that I never managed to play myself.
I knew next to nothing about this sequel, and I needed more information in order to avoid its catastrophic endings. All I knew was that the new male characters were Sora, Cyrus, and Dewey, that Katarina was back to interfere with Maria’s love, and that the game’s happy end would see me thrown into jail, while the bad end would see me dead. I’d meet a sad fate either way. I needed to learn as much as I could in order to escape both of these scenarios.
Acchan put the disc into the console, and the opening sequence started playing on the TV.
Thank you, Acchan, please let me see something useful as you always do, I thought as I stared intently at the screen.
Music played as the twin princes and the count appeared. Apparently, in the sequel, you could also try to get closer with the characters from FL1.
The three familiar faces gave way to those of the new characters: Cyrus, Dewey, and Sora.
This was just a normal intro sequence to an otome game, but seeing the people I knew so well on the TV screen felt kind of weird. Acchan was the type to skip the opening after seeing it just once, but today she was busy opening a bag of chips.
Chips… I wonder when the last time I had chips was… They look so tasty… No! I have to concentrate on the game!
After showing the characters, the opening movie switched to some still images from the game.
Oh, this must be the scene where you find out about Cyrus’s field. This one shows Dewey, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it. Maybe I will in the future. Ah, this one with Sora near the sea looks familiar. Right, it’s Ocean Harbor. So that was an event in the game too. Wait, does this mean that I took Maria’s place in the event? There I go again, playing the villainess…
After those images, the screen showed two silhouettes with question marks in place of names. I remembered seeing something similar in the first game as a hint toward hidden characters. I hadn’t actually cleared FL1 one hundred percent, so I was very surprised when, post-reincarnation, I found out that Raphael was one of the hidden characters.
So there are hidden characters in the sequel too. There are two silhouettes, so it must be two of them. Good to know… No! That’s not good! Why am I so calm?! I need to know who they are! What if they’re somehow related to my doom?! Raphael’s bad end was the most catastrophic one… What about this time?! Tell me, Acchan, please!
Acchan, as if my thoughts had reached her, took the controller in her hands. “Just a bit more and I’ll have cleared the hidden characters’ routes!” she exclaimed.
Perfect timing! Now I’ll be able to see who the hidden characters are. Thank you, Acchan!
She chose the “Load” option on the screen and started playing the game.
“I’ll always protect you, Maria,” said the character on the screen.
I noticed that Acchan had left the protagonist’s name to the default of “Maria,” but, more importantly, I noticed that the character speaking so romantically to her was someone I knew very well!
Why is he here?! Is it just someone who looks like him?! I thought, but the name above the dialogue box on the screen left no room for doubt. That was Cezar Dahl. Cezar is a romanceable option?! But he doesn’t even live in the same country as Maria! Oh, right, maybe he was supposed to get to know her during the International Assembly! And he was at Ocean Harbor, too, so it could make sense that he knows her. Not that I’ve ever seen the two of them talking.
As I kept thinking about this, Acchan went on playing.
“Your Highness, I don’t want to have you protect me all the time. I want to protect those close to me as well!” Maria, in the game, declared. This was the same Maria that I knew in person. She was a compassionate girl, but she wasn’t just a damsel in distress.
“I guess you’re that kind of girl. In that case, should it become necessary, we’ll fight side by side,” Cezar replied with a smile, showing his pointy teeth. I nodded in agreement. Maria was definitely that kind of girl.
All of a sudden, the screen got darker and scary music started playing.
“Finally we meet. I have been looking for you,” spoke the figure of a woman hiding her face under a hood. The name just showed up as a series of question marks.
“Who are you?” Maria asked.
Cezar shouted, “Show yourself!” Both of them looked positively scared.
They didn’t know who the mystery woman was, but, thanks to my past dreams and the note about the game, I did. I knew her very well.
“Now, now. The same cannot be said for that young man, but surely Maria has met me enough times to remember me,” the woman told them.
“I do not understand… Who are you?” Maria, taken aback with fear, wondered.
“I must say, it is most impolite of you to forget me,” the woman grumbled as she removed the hood from her face, showing herself to Maria.
Maria was dumbstruck for a moment, then shouted, “Lady Katarina Claes!”
“It has been a while, Maria Campbell,” Katarina replied with a grin and evil stare befitting a villainess.
“I thought you had left the kingdom… Why are you here?”
“I was exiled, yes. And because of you, at that. But now, I am back!”
Don’t! Don’t come back! I screamed at my counterpart inside the screen. Just stay there in Xiarmah and live as a peasant farmer! You’d be able to eat rice every day without worrying about doom!
Of course, FL’s Katarina couldn’t hear me.
“I have come back,” she paused to cackle, “for revenge!” Her evil grin grew wider.
Cezar stepped in front of Maria, as if to shield her.
“This girl is mine. I won’t let you touch her,” he proclaimed.
“You fool. Do you really believe that you stand a chance against Katarina Claes and her Dark Magic? Heed my call, Cerberus!” Katarina shouted, and a huge wolf jumped out of her shadow.
Cerberus… Is that Pochi?!
“Okay, now I just have to defeat Katarina and bring her to the authorities, and the route will be complete!” I heard Acchan say.
What?! Katarina is going to be defeated?! And…
“What kind of stupid name is Cerberus anyway?!” I screamed as I woke up to the faces of three beautiful girls staring at me.
“Lady Katarina… Are you all right?” Maria, worried by my sudden outburst, inquired.
“I, uh, yes! I’m fine!” I was still confused, having just woken up from the dream, but seeing my friends’ faces had calmed me down a bit.
“What happened just now?” Sophia wondered, confused.
“And what did you mean by ‘Cerberus’?” Mary added, perplexed.
“Oh, I just had a weird dream. I didn’t really mean anything in particular! Hahaha…” I tried to laugh it off since I certainly couldn’t tell them about what I’d just seen, nor could I come up with any believable excuse.
Both of them kept staring at me questioningly. I realized that my best bet was to change the subject.
“Anyway, what are you two doing here?” I asked. Neither Sophia nor Mary worked at the Ministry (to be honest, it was rare for any noble lady to work at the Ministry), so it was weird to see them here.
“Lady Mary and I are both here to help today. We just wanted to pass by and say hello to you,” Sophia replied, unfazed by the sudden change in topic, “but then we heard that you were sleeping, so we decided to wait for you to wake up.”
“Oh, I see, so that’s why you were here,” I replied, relieved that I’d managed to steer the conversation away from my scream.
Both Sophia and Mary sometimes came to the Ministry to help however they could when they had free time. They said that they did that to broaden their horizons and improve as ladies. For someone like me, who preferred to spend her free time sleeping, that was unbelievable. I had so much respect for them.
“I’m sorry I was asleep! I didn’t know you’d come,” I blurted out.
“Not at all,” replied Mary with a smile. “I’m actually happy that I could see your sleeping face for the first time in so long.”
Sophia nodded in agreement while she smiled as well. They were probably saying that just so that I wouldn’t feel bad. They always were so kind, my friends.
“And are you done helping out for today?” I asked.
“Yes, although all we did was help sort some documents. We are ready to go back home now,” Sophia answered.
“Aw, going home already? You know, back at the academy, when we lived in the dormitory, we were always together, but lately it’s been so hard to meet each other,” I remarked. I knew that it was an unavoidable part of growing up, but, “It’s a bit sad, isn’t it?”
“I’ll wait until you’re done with work! I’ll even spend the night with you! I’d love to!” Mary proclaimed, suddenly enthusiastic.
“I-I couldn’t ask you to, you know,” I replied to my friend’s uncomfortably passionate offer.
“Please calm down, Lady Mary. Lady Katarina seems taken aback by your fervor. And did you not say that you had important matters to attend to later in the evening?” Sophia commented, pulling Mary further back from me.
“Ugh, I almost forgot about that. It’s just that no matter in the world is as important as Lady Katarina…” Mary grumbled, puffing up her cheeks in discontent.
For all her reputation as the perfect model of an elegant lady, Mary, when she was with us, could act a bit childish sometimes. But knowing that she did that because we were all so close made me happy.
“To tell the truth, we were discussing the same issue moments earlier. We, too, are saddened that the time we can spend with you has become so scarce. Spending the rest of the night with you today is not a realistic proposition, but we would love to get together with you on your next day of rest from work,” Sophia explained as the sadness showed through her lowered brow.
Hearing that Sophia felt the same way simply added to my joy.
“Of course! Let’s all meet!” I declared, excited at the idea of being able to play with my friends on my next day off.
The three of us and Maria agreed to have a tea party the next time that we all had a day off, and if we had consecutive days off, to have a sleepover. It was then time for Mary to attend to her business, which turned out to be helping Alan with preparing for a concert.
Go to your fiancé, Mary! That’s way more important than me! I thought as I saw my two friends off. Just after they left, Larna came back, bringing Cyrus with her.
Cyrus was as coolly handsome as always, as one would expect of the director of the Magic Powers Department, the most respected department of the whole Ministry. Incidentally, he also was one of FL2’s romanceable options. Despite his good looks and aloof attitude, however, he was actually a pure-hearted country bumpkin who was scared of talking with girls. He even happened to be my secret farming mentor.
He stood before us and spoke gravely. “Katarina Claes, I would like to thank you for your excellent work deciphering the Dark Covenant. I am here to request your cooperation in an additional task. I would like you to study Dark Magic.”
“Study Dark Magic?! Really?!”
“Yes. Thanks to the findings of your colleague Maria, we now know that it is impossible to relay the content of the covenants to other people. In order to further progress our research, we would like you to become able to use Dark Magic yourself in some capacity. This would, of course, only be to an extent where no one would be at risk of harm. Would you help us?” he asked, confirming the suspicion I’d had since Maria explained about how only the owner of the covenant can learn its spells.
I already have enough trouble deciphering the stuff, and now learning actual Dark Magic? That’d be even worse. But, as a Ministry employee, I can’t refuse a request from a superior. I stared silently for a moment.
“I will,” I begrudgingly assented.
Maybe other people couldn’t tell, but I’d spent enough time in the field with Cyrus to tell that his expression had changed ever so slightly, showing that he was sorry for imposing this new ordeal on me.
Larna, on the other hand, sounded almost giddy as she requested, “Try it out on me as soon as you’re able to use it!”
I personally thought that using it on her would be a terrible idea, but I had to admit that her love for magic knew no bounds.
“But who’ll teach me?” I asked, pouting.
“That’s obvious!” Larna replied, surprised that I would even ask. “There’s only one other person who can use Dark Magic in the Ministry right now. You’re going to learn from him.”
“Oh! That’s right!”
Unlike other types of magic, Dark Magic was not something that one was born with. It could only be obtained through a gruesome, forbidden ritual, and, as a result, Wielders of Darkness were few and far between. Raphael, who graduated the Academy one year earlier than me, used to wield it, but now he’d lost that power.
The only two people in the Ministry who could still use Dark Magic were me, who’d obtained that power completely by accident, and Sora, who was hired by Sorcié nobles and forced to undergo the human sacrifice ritual. Of course he was the only one who could teach me. Guided by Larna and Cyrus, I went to see Sora, my colleague, fellow Dark Magic wielder, and romanceable character from FL2.
He was waiting for me in a room specially prepared for me to learn Dark Magic.
“Thank you for teaching me,” I told him as I stepped inside.
“My pleasure,” he answered, slightly lowering his brow. I could tell that he was acting as polite as he could because Cyrus was there.
“The laws of this kingdom forbid the use of Dark Magic,” Cyrus explained, “so remember that what you are doing here is exclusively for research purposes as a member of the Magical Tool Laboratory. Most importantly, you shall never use it outside of here unless you have a very, very, very good reason. Now, sorry, but I have a lot of work waiting for me. I will come check in on the two of you later.”
He left the room, hurrying to whatever other tasks he had to attend to. Not only was he a department director, but he also had some administrative duties in the Ministry, which is why he was always busy. The fact that he found enough time to keep a field was more impressive than any magic power. I should learn from him.
“Okay then, Sora. Ready to teach some magic?”
This question wasn’t asked by me, but by Larna. She looked very excited at the idea, but she was as much of a department director as Cyrus and, in theory, should have been just as busy.
“Excuse me, Miss Larna, but…is it okay for you to be here?” I wondered.
“Don’t worry! My talented subordinates are taking care of all of my work,” she replied with a smile.
For a second, I pictured her talented subordinates working to exhaustion, dark circles under their dead blank eyes. That wasn’t the least bit pleasant, but I knew that convincing Larna to leave would be impossible if she was so enthusiastic about it. In my heart, I apologized to all my colleagues.
“Might as well start then,” Sora declared. Now that Cyrus was gone and it was all Magical Tool Laboratory department members in the room, he’d gone back to his usual informal tone. Larna was our superior, of course, but she didn’t really care about that kind of thing.
“Please do!” she eagerly responded (again, her instead of me).
“You see, when you’re using Dark Magic, you have to concentrate it in your hand, like buzzzz, and then let it go like whoosh, all at once,” he explained, putting out his right hand.
I assumed that I was supposed to follow his instructions, but… “Sorry, Sora, I have no idea what you mean,” I grumbled. I’ll admit that I wasn’t particularly smart, but being told to make magic go buzzzz and whoosh made absolutely no sense to me.
“Hmm, this is the first time I’ve ever thought about how to teach anyone to use magic…” Sora mused, scratching his head as he thought of a solution.
Most magic wielders in the world belonged to Sorcié’s noble families. Exceptions were very rare, but existed. Sora happened to be one of them. When a child from our kingdom first used magic, their ability to do so was reported to the Academy of Magic, which the child would then have to attend for two years as soon as he or she turned fifteen.
Sora, however, not being from Sorcié, never went to the academy. Moreover, he hadn’t known any other magic users as he grew up. He learned how to use Fire Magic completely on his own.
“How did you learn how to use Dark Magic?” Larna asked him.
“When they forced that magic into me, they just told me to use it. I didn’t know how to do it, but they insisted so much that I just tried doing it the same way as I did for Fire Magic, just to shut them up. And that worked,” came his wishy-washy response.
“Well then, why don’t you try doing it as if you were using Earth Magic?” Larna told me.
I cocked my head to the side, concerned.
“When I use Earth Magic I focus on the earth, like ziiip, then I release it like kaplow,” I explained.
“That should work. Instead of the earth, just concentrate on, say, those papers over there and then just go ziiip and kaplow. Maybe that’ll work,” Larna suggested casually.
I tried it out, just in case, but unfortunately, nothing happened. I even tried taking a better look at the papers to see if they had changed in any way, but no. Nothing.
“It isn’t working…”
“I knew it’d end up being hard. How do you even switch between Dark Magic and other kinds of magic?” Larna addressed Sora.
“Oh, when I want to use Fire Magic I go whoosh, and when I want to use Dark Magic I go whoosh,” he replied.
Those sound like the exact same thing to me…
“Knowing how they sound doesn’t really help,” Larna, who had probably thought the same, pointed out. “Can’t you explain it in more detail?”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve never actually explained it to anyone… How do you use Wind Magic, Larna?” Sora asked back.
She thought for a while before eventually replying. “I kind of make it go swish.”
“That’s just as useless!” I shouted, unable to contain myself.
“But your explanation was also just a list of sounds,” Larna countered, albeit with a slightly awkward expression on her face.
She’s right! I thought, and the expression on my face turned awkward as well.
“Let’s just agree we three aren’t the best teachers in the world…” Larna correctly commented.
I’d never even used magic that much in my life to begin with. I could barely do anything with it. Larna was slightly better, but she was self-taught. Indeed, none of us was in a position to explain magic to anyone else. We need someone who has a more logical, systematic understanding of magic, I thought, and just as I did so, we heard someone knock on the door.
“Come in,” Larna called, and the door squeaked open.
“I’ve looked all over the Ministry for you, Miss Larna. I need your signature on this document,” said Raphael, looking dreadfully tired as he stepped into the room. As vice-director of the Magical Tool Laboratory, he was in charge of covering for Larna when she wasn’t in the office, and since that was the case most of the time, he was constantly exhausted.
“Oh, sure…” But then she started silently staring at him.
Raphael’s expression grew more and more worried.
“Someone who knows Dark Magic and is good at teaching people! Here he is!” Larna burst out excitedly, looking at Raphael’s even more worried face.
“And so I need you to teach Dark Magic to Lady Katarina, Raphael,” Larna concluded her explanation of what had brought us to this point.
Raphael pondered for a while before replying. “Well,” he finally spoke, “I, too, am self-taught, and therefore I do not know how well I will be able to teach her. If, knowing that, you still wish me to do so, I will accept. However…”
“However…?” Larna echoed, curious about what he was going to say.
“I will be able to spend less time in the office, meaning that I will not be able to cover for you. You will actually need to work like you are supposed to. Is this fine by you?”
“Tsk,” Larna replied, saddened. “I was looking forward to seeing Dark Magic and asking about it…but I have no choice. The higher-ups ordered that she must learn Dark Magic, so that’s our top priority… Still, after you’re all done, I want to see it.”
Larna and Raphael had reached an agreement, but since the work day was almost over and Raphael still had some work left to do in the office, we decided that he would give me my first lesson on the following day. He departed the room, dragging Larna with him, and I was left with Sora, who saw me off to the carriage that had come to get me at the gates.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t really teach you anything,” he apologized as we walked together.
“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t be able to teach magic to anyone either. I think it’s a talent that only some people have,” I told him.
“Yeah, me too. And I definitely don’t like teaching in the first place. I mean, I never liked being taught either.”
“What?! You don’t?!” I asked, surprised that someone as talented and resourceful as Sora didn’t like having things be taught to him.
“I mean, I’m all for learning stuff that I care about. But if it’s something that I couldn’t care less about, I just won’t bother.”
“I’m exactly the same! My teachers would always say that to me!” I exclaimed, happy to unexpectedly find that I had something in common with a person who I had assumed could do just about anything.
“Ha ha ha, I can imagine. The person who used to teach me scolded me all the time too.”
“What person?”
“Back when I lived in the slums, there was this adult who taught me how to read and do math,” he replied, and I remembered that Sora grew up as an orphan in Ethenell’s slums. The fact that he was so talented despite never going to school just made it that much more impressive.
“I see. What kind of person were they?” I asked him, seeing the sparkle of nostalgia that had illuminated his eyes.
“The weirdest adult ever! You could never tell what that nutcase was going to do next. When I was a kid, I thought that maybe that was because he was from a different country than mine, but even after growing up and traveling the world, I never found anyone like him,” he replied, sounding like he was having a lot of fun reminiscing about that. I could even see a hint of a smile on his face.
“You must really love him,” I told him, and he looked at me in surprise. That was so unexpected that I gave him the same look back. Sora was less self-aware than I’d thought. “C’mon! It’s written all over your face!” I added with a laugh.
After thinking it over, he agreed, “I guess you’re right,” in a flat tone. Then he mumbled something else under his breath. “How can you be so dense when it comes to romance and then read people so well at times like this…?”
“Hmm? What did you say? I couldn’t quite hear you.”
“Nothing,” he answered, and started ruffling my hair while I squealed for him to stop. “Now that I think of it…you remind me of that person from back then,” he continued, laughing to himself.
“Is it the villainous face?” I asked, confused.
“What does that even mean? But no, it’s not the face. Just your behavior in general.”
“How so?”
“You’re both so weird.”
“Hmm? I think I’m pretty normal…” I dissented. I was a high-ranking noble, sure, but other than that I was just an ordinary girl.
He looked at me as if he had problems with what I’d just said, but I remained convinced. If it wasn’t for this evil-looking face, I’d be the definition of an average girl.
“You know,” I told him, “I was surprised to hear that you don’t like studying or being taught, but I guess that I can imagine you not paying any attention to things you aren’t interested in.” In the back of my mind, I envisioned a younger Sora sleeping through a boring lesson. “By the way, how old were you when you learned how to read and write?” I asked, trying to better define the scene I was picturing in my head.
“Who knows? I was an orphan for as long as I can remember, so I have no idea about my actual age,” he replied.
“Really?! So you don’t even know your birthday?!”
I knew that he was born in the slums, but I had assumed that he somehow knew when he was born.
“Exactly. No idea,” he casually responded.
“But then, when do you celebrate?” I asked him, more curious than ever.
“Celebrate what?”
“Your birthday, of course!”
“Oh, right, I guess some people do celebrate that,” he said, uninterested, but to me that was a crucial issue.
“Aw… But I wanted to celebrate your birthday, since you’ve done so much for me up to now.” I would have liked to set up a huge surprise party for him, but I couldn’t have imagined that he didn’t even know his birthday.
“No need to do anything like that.”
“I’ve got it! If you don’t know your birthday, you can just make one up!”
He gaped at me in confusion. “Huh?”
“So, when should it be? What’s a date you like?” My enthusiasm seemed to just confuse him all the more.
“No, really, I…” he sputtered, but seeing that I wouldn’t step down, he eventually conceded, “I don’t know. Pick one for me, won’t you?”
“What? Me?” I gaped. “Okay then… Let’s make it the day that the two of us first met! It was during the school festival last year, around the end of September. The day was…er…”
“The twenty-fifth.” Sora still sounded disinterested, but I was really happy that he remembered that day.
“Perfect! Then your birthday will be September 25! It’s not that far away! And when it comes around, expect a nice celebration!” I announced with a smile, but he evaded my gaze and started ruffling my hair once more.
Not again! I thought, but the happiness of being able to celebrate Sora’s birthday won over the mild annoyance of having him mess up my hair. After walking and chatting like that, we eventually reached the Ministry’s gates, where the carriage was waiting for me. As I started riding home, I saw Sora’s face tinged completely red by the sunset.
On the trip back, I was finally able to get some rest after a long day of work. I was tired, but I was also glad that Sora now had a birthday that we could celebrate. I spent some time excitedly daydreaming about the various ways that I could surprise him come September 25th, but I eventually remembered that I had a much more pressing issue at hand: Dark Magic.
The next day, Raphael would start teaching me how to use Dark Magic spells, and I had to concentrate on that. This wouldn’t be the first time that Raphael had taught me something, since he had also helped me prepare for tests back at the academy. His explanations back then were always detailed and easy to understand, so I imagined that my lessons on the next day would not involve any whooshing or kaplowing.
But I was also afraid that learning Dark Magic would take me one step closer to being a villainess. Not having played FL2, I had no idea how things were supposed to work out in the game. I needed more information about it…
Of course! That dream I had earlier!
Right after waking up I spoke to Mary and Sophia for the first time in a while, and then Larna and Cyrus told me that I had to take Dark Magic lessons. I was so preoccupied by those things that I’d almost forgotten about my dream. Why am I like this? I thought, saddened by my constant lack of concentration, and then started recalling all I could about what I’d seen during my short nap.
Meeting chairwoman: Katarina Claes.
Meeting representative: Katarina Claes.
Meeting secretary: Katarina Claes.
“Let the meeting begin. Today, we shall discuss the information obtained from our latest dream.”
“Yes, ma’am. I was very surprised to learn that Pochi’s real name was supposed to be Cerberus!”
“A name like that doesn’t fit that cute little puppy, does it? He doesn’t look like a Cerberus to me.”
“I agree, but this is not relevant at the present time. Please try to discuss things that could actually be helpful to us.”
“Well, since Acchan was so busy eating her chips, we were able to see the whole opening sequence for Fortune Lover II.”
“Those chips looked delicious…”
“They did, but please, let’s try to concentrate here. By watching the opening sequence, we were able to ascertain that this time there are supposed to be two hidden characters in the game!”
“And one of them is Cezar, the Prince of Ethenell who became friends with Katarina!”
“Who would have thought that?”
“The first time we met him, I thought that he was just as handsome as the romanceable characters in the game… Turns out that there was a good reason for that.”
“There was no ruggedly handsome character for Maria to choose so far, so maybe that’s why they added him in.”
“That could be. If so, we could theorize that the other hidden character also fits an archetype that wasn’t present in the previous game. Who could that be?”
“We have already met Cezar. Do you think that we have already met the other hidden character too?”
“That is indeed likely.”
“Could he be someone from the Ministry?”
“Hmm… If he was, then maybe he’d be someone from the Magic Powers Department, since that’s full of cool, talented people.”
“But Cyrus and Dewey are already there. Wouldn’t that be too many just in one place?”
“Then could it be the Magical Tool Laboratory? But the people there are just…weird.”
“But that narcissistic guy is kind of handsome in his own right.”
“‘Kind of’ won’t cut it. All the other romanceable characters are totally handsome!”
“Sure, but think about our department colleagues for a second. There are people with tons of makeup, people who hide their face behind their hair, and people who’re covering their faces under a hood. Even the department director is a master of disguise. We know nothing about how any of these people actually look! Maybe some of them are actually much more handsome than we imagine. Even the one who’s always wearing the tank top, who knows?”
“That would give us a lot of options, but currently we cannot even assume that this character is someone working at the Ministry to begin with.”
“Where would Maria meet them? Since we already know Cezar, we probably already know about the other one too.”
“Maybe he has already met Maria, but not Katarina.”
“I see… That could be true as well. That’d leave us completely in the dark.”
“In that case, our best possible course of action is to ask Maria for more information. In any case, are you two not forgetting about the other important thing which we have learned today?”
“Huh?”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember what Acchan said!‘I just have to defeat Katarina and bring her to the authorities, and the route will be complete.’”
“B-But that means that Katarina is also the antagonist in Cezar’s route…”
“Exactly! And the same could be true for the other hidden character too!”
“So we risk being killed or imprisoned if we interfere with the romance between Maria and any of the other new characters?! Any of those five?!”
“But in FL1 Katarina always meddled with Maria when she was going for Jeord or Keith! Did she get promoted as a villainess or something?!”
“That would be one terrible promotion… Anyway, all we know is that we are in danger.”
“And we haven’t even played FL2, so we don’t know what situations to steer clear of and what catastrophic endings to avoid! At least last time we had years to prepare…”
“Wh-What if we became really good at Dark Magic and were able to fight back?”
“Fight back…? You don’t mean…”
“I do. I’m sorry for Maria and the others, but we could learn, like, a spell that turns everything dark and then just run away while nobody can see us!”
“Y-You coward! Not even a villainess should ever stoop so low!”
“Say what you want, but I’m going to run away! I’ll run and run until I can settle as a farmer in a far away place somewhere!”
“While I cannot say that it is a good plan… At the moment we have no other option. We should at least learn the bare minimum of Dark Magic to allow us to make a quick escape and then go on living as a farmer. We need to practice. Any objections?”
“No ma’am!”
“No ma’am!”
I was so tired from the meeting that I held inside my head that I planned to sleep until I was home, as I usually did… However, unexpectedly, I couldn’t sleep.
I remembered my dream, and thought of the things that Maria and Cezar said inside the game, and the way they looked at Katarina. They weren’t even strangers, let alone friends… They were enemies. The fear in Maria’s eyes and the anger on Cezar’s face filled me with loneliness. I knew that what I saw was just the game as it was normally supposed to play out, but I couldn’t help feeling sad.
Furthermore, I was going to start studying Dark Magic. Since the only thing I could do so far was to summon Pochi, and that didn’t work all of the time either, I was optimistic that I wouldn’t become like the Katarina from FL2… But now I had been ordered to learn how to actually use dark spells, bringing me closer to being an actual villainess.
Some time ago, when I talked to my friends about how I feared being taken over by darkness, they told me that they’d stay by my side no matter what, and they’d stop me if I was going to do something bad. I couldn’t have been happier.
But what if I hurt those who stood by my side, or Maria, who wasn’t there that time? My kind, hard-working, genuine friends… I didn’t want to hurt them. If I became Maria’s antagonist, I would end up doing exactly that. I was scared of becoming evil and ending up dead or in prison, of course, but much more than that I was scared of becoming evil and hurting any of them.
Sitting in the carriage by myself, I rolled up in a ball and tightly hugged my own legs.
“Lady Katarina, we have arrived,” the coachman announced, and I, still overwhelmed by fear and anxiety, got off of the carriage and entered the mansion.
My mood was so gloomy that my body felt heavy. I wanted to go to bed. If only this house was smaller… This mansion is so big that getting to my bedroom takes forever… I thought as I dragged my feet through the hallway.
“Welcome back, Big Sister,” Keith greeted me, coming out of the room opposite mine.
I would normally be happy to see him, but today I simply couldn’t muster any enthusiasm to properly greet him back.
“Oh. Keith. Hi…” is all I managed to say in a deep, tired voice.
Keith, who knew me so well, obviously immediately noticed my mood. “What is wrong? Are you tired?” he asked worriedly, staring at me. He’d been working with father, going here and there all day long, and I was sure that he must have been pretty tired himself. Still, he found the energy to worry about me. What a sweet brother I have…
“Yes, a bit. Work was really hectic today. But I’m sure that a good night’s sleep will fix that,” I claimed with my best attempt at a smile.
“No, something’s happened to you. Come, tell me all about it,” he insisted, pulling me into a nearby room before I could even reply.
He sat me down on a chair, with him facing me.
“So, what happened?” he asked. His blue eyes, staring directly into mine, told me that there was no point in lying. Keith always knew what I was thinking.
“Well… I had a dream. A dream where I used Dark Magic to do bad things to my friends,” I explained, ignoring all the details about the game.
“To be honest, I can’t even imagine you hurting a fly, but now that I think of it, you already mentioned something similar once before.”
“Yeah… Everyone told me that it’d be fine, and I was happy about that… But actually, starting tomorrow, I’ll have to learn how to use Dark Magic spells…” I continued, and then I went on to explain how it came to that, and how I was scared that knowing those spells could result in me hurting my friends. He carefully listened to my long explanation with a serious expression on his face.
“I understand. As we told you that time, I plan to—no, we all plan to stay by your side, no matter what happens, and we will also make sure that you won’t do anything bad. What you are saying is that you are scared that, by staying at your side, that would give you the opportunity to harm us?” he asked me, perfectly summarizing my feelings.
“Yes. I don’t want that to happen to any of you,” I replied.
“Hmm… You know, I wouldn’t mind facing harm because of you, but that would make you sad in turn, wouldn’t it…? In that case, I’ll make sure that I can fight Dark Magic. Both I and all of the others. If we do that, you won’t be able to harm us even if you wanted to. Then, there’ll be no problem,” he declared, smiling at me.
Keith was almost too kind. When my friends told me that all would be fine, instead of trusting them and forgetting about the problem, I kept thinking of how things could go wrong, placing the burden on them. Despite that, my brother kept listening to me, doing his best to find a solution. Knowing that he was there for me made me happy…incredibly happy.
“Keith!” I shouted, jumping out of my chair to hug him. Since he was still sitting down, I ended up hugging his head against my chest. “Keith! Thank you so much! I love you, Keith!” I kept shouting, but I know that nothing I said could ever fully express the gratitude I felt for him.
He let me do that for a while, but eventually… “Big Sister… Could you let go of me…?”
I immediately stepped back, noticing that his face had turned bright red. Oh no! I must have hugged him too hard!
“I’m so sorry, Keith! I hugged you so hard that you couldn’t breathe, didn’t I? Don’t worry, I’ll bring you some water!” I offered, hurrying to the door, but he quickly grabbed my hand and stopped me.
“It’s fine. I don’t need water,” he told me, still completely red in the face.
“B-But…!”
“I could breathe just fine.”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t worry about it. Now just go get some rest,” he ordered, leading me to my bedroom.
I felt sorry for expressing my happiness by hugging him so hard, but on the other hand I still felt immense relief thanks to the things that he’d told me. Every time the memory of that dream popped up in my head, I’d just need to think back to Keith telling me that there would be no problem. Back in the carriage, despite being so tired, I hadn’t managed to sleep. But this time, as soon as I hit the bed, my mind immediately switched off and I enjoyed several hours of good, peaceful rest.
★★★★★★
I, Keith Claes, was alone in my room trying to regain some amount of control over my face, which was still ablaze. However, every time I remembered how Katarina’s embrace had felt and the words she had whispered in my ear, I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks once again.
Katarina didn’t seem to understand that she was a woman, with all that it entailed. If she did, certainly she would think twice before hugging a man against her bosom while telling him that she loves him.
Had it been Jeord instead of me, who knows what he would have done! And honestly, who knows what I could have done? I voiced my disdain for my sister’s actions inside my heart, shaking my head as if to wash away the feeling of her body against it.
“She has probably already forgotten the confession I made to her… And to think of how much effort that took me,” I mumbled to myself with a sigh, saddened by my own words.