Characters / Tearmoon Empire

The cast of Tearmoon Empire.

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Tearmoon Empire

Imperial Family

Mia Luna Tearmoon

Mia Luna Tearmoon

Voiced by: Sumire Uesaka (JP, drama CD and anime)

The heroine of the story and First Princess of the Tearmoon Empire. After meeting her end at the guillotine, she finds herself reborn as her 12-year-old self. Self-serving, dim-witted, and cowardly, Mia initially has a poor reputation as a princess, both among her peers and her subjects. However, armed with memories of the future, she sets out to change her fate, unwittingly altering the course of the entire continent.

In the original timeline, when revolution broke out in the Tearmoon Empire, she was imprisoned and eventually executed. In a slightly altered timeline where she is still executed, the public is far more divided on whether or not her execution was just.

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• 0% Approval Rating: Played with. In the previous timeline, Mia was hated by all people from varying backgrounds, but the current timeline has her trying her hardest to avert this, trying to win back her kingdom and become a Universally Beloved Leader. As the potential futures change she becomes increasingly popular and with more people, including Sion, openly against her being executed, though not enough of them to change it. She officially averts the guillotine timelines after resolving the Lulu situation in Volume 2, but that’s only the beginning of her adventures.
• A Friend in Need: Despite the narration constantly indicating Mia’s selfishness, she is shown to care about her friends.
  • In Volume 2, when Abel’s country is going through similar problems as Tearmoon went through in the original timeline, Mia decides to help him even though it doesn’t affect her future directly. In Volume 10, she prevents him from possibly committing a suicidal mission to confront his sister which would either result in his sister's death or his own.
  • In Volume 7, she sees Chloe is troubled by something, and she brings her to her room to find out what it was without any prompting, and she even gives her tea and snacks to ease things out. She helps Chloe’s family business partly out of necessity, but also due to the fact her father faithfully fulfilled the contract along with the fact that Chloe is her friend.
  • In Volume 8, she decides to save Sion despite him partly being responsible for her death in the previous timeline. In Volume 9, she has Sion confess his feelings to her, so she could let him down easy because she could see that him keeping his feelings to himself would be unhealthy, and it would be best for everyone, especially himself if he is truthful.
• Abhorrent Admirer: To Sion in the original timeline. While she's offended by how he ignored her advances, even she can't completely convince herself that it was his fault.
• Afraid of Blood: She can't stand pain, and if she's not expecting to see blood, the sight of it can make her faint.
• Alpha Bitch: She was this in the original timeline, surrounded by a Girl Posse at school by virtue of her high ranking but occasionally The Bully to Tiona and not a particularly likable person. As the revolution approached and the Imperial Family lost its standing, though, Mia found herself losing more and more supporters until she was finally alone.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: In the original timeline, Mia was abandoned by everyone save for Anne. Despite her rudeness and cruelty, Anne never stopped coming to visit her in prison and felt she shouldn't have had to be executed, even grooming her hair during her visits. These visits were a great source of relief for Mia, so much so that, despite the current timeline's Anne having no recollection of these, she named Anne her personal handmaid and treated her with kindness as a thanks for those visits.
• Benevolent Boss: Mia is this to her followers, especially the Princess Guard. While she technically only acts like this due to the benefits it gets her, she does come to genuinely appreciate their loyalty. However, it's played straight with some people like Anne whom she truly cherishes, and in general she makes sure to reward loyalty, given that it was in short supply in the original timeline. She also promoted a soldier who was killed in the previous timeline while remaining loyal to the Empire and protected goods from being stolen.
• Big Eater: She really, really likes to eat to the point either Anne or Ludwig needs to stop her from overindulging. At the end of each volume are journal excerpts that are largely her talking about what she ate that day.
• Book Smart: Oddly enough, she's this. Her grades aren't exceptional, but then neither are her study habits. Despite this, she's still pretty comfortably in the top quarter of her grade, courtesy of cramming like hell for her finals. However, she's about as street dumb as you can get. She's shallow, vain, rather petty and has difficulty planning ahead, so she comes off as purely stupid most of the time.
• Brutal Honesty: Mia has this tendency either to give it to someone straight to make a point or give Tough Love. One notable example was when she told Anne outright she couldn’t bring her to Remno due to Anne not knowing how to ride a horse, which would make her The Load in that scenario. It wasn’t out of malice, but due to her wanting to ensure Anne didn’t get hurt.
• Character Development:
  • Mia comes to develop genuine connections with others that aren’t just solely motivated for self-preservation or connections she made for the same - and if they were, she finds them becoming genuine nonetheless.
  • While she didn’t intend to commit 'revenge' against Sion and Tiona, she comes to let go of any grudge she held towards them, and she forms genuine friendships with them. In Volume 6, she apologizes to Tiona for her previous treatment of her, much to Tiona's confusion, but she accepts it which ironically leads to Tiona saving Mia’s life. In Volume 9, Mia recognizes Sion is in love with her, but is keeping his feelings to himself. She recognizes that bottling up feelings leads to disaster and convinces Sion to be honest with his feelings, so she can let him down easy while recognizing him as a good person.
• The Chessmaster: Everyone in Mia's camp sees her as this. Heavily downplayed as she is just going with the flow and has foreknowledge of the future. As she gets older and becomes Empress, she is shown to be capable of tricking the nobility that causes her trouble.
• The Chosen One: Mia theorizes that the reason she was able to go back through time is because God chose her to save the Tearmoon Empire.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: Mia's memories of the original timeline and the awful living conditions of her prison cell have desensitized her and made her capable of facing things that would've scared or annoyed her in her first life. She isn't disgusted by the smell of the slums because it's still pleasant compared to her prison cell. She has no problem standing up to Abel's brother Gain because having one guy mad at you is nothing compared to the bloodlust of an entire crowd cheering for your execution.
• Cooldown Hug: In Volume 10, Mia gives one to Abel to prevent him from going after his sister which would have disastrous results regardless of whether he made it out alive or not.
• Cowardly Lion: Mia is defined by being chicken-hearted and would rather everyone else take on the difficult tasks, but when the situation truly calls for it, she's able to step up to the plate.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Mia learns to ride by picking a super horse that is much faster and smarter than normal horses, but also has a bad personality and will run at full gallop without a care in the world for the comfort or safety of its passenger. The way she adapts is by letting it do whatever it wants while basically flopping around bonelessly in order to keep her balance. It works perfectly and makes her an excellent rider for one of the best horses in the world, but when she has to ride a completely normal horse later she's completely at a loss for how to make it do anything.
• Determinator: One of the defining character traits of post-guillotine Mia. She may be clueless, somewhat vapid, gluttonous, a bit arrogant, and kind of selfish... but she's also extremely opposed to pain and can remember every inch of the guillotine as it passed through her neck, something she will overturn heaven and earth to avoid happening again. Study economics and management? Learn horseback riding and wilderness survival techniques? Arrange political alliances with other countries? Set up innovative trade routes and market manipulation schemes to ensure wheat remains available even in a famine? Use her own personal wealth to ensure her citizens are healthy and happy? Create a school to ensure a new generation of scholars owe her favors? Nothing will stop Mia from avoiding the guillotine this time if she has a say in it. Nothing.
  • Even in the original timeline, she worked tirelessly to try to solve the multiple crises befalling the empire despite being woefully unprepared for any of it.
• Dude Magnet: In the current timeline, Mia has managed to win the affections of Abel, Sion, Wangel, and Cyril.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Downplayed in that she's not actually dumb academics-wise and more comes off that way due to various vices that the narrator mocks her for, but there are times where Mia does make valid points and observations. One prominent example occurs with Sion concerning whether or not he would kill Abel if he was oppressing his people; upon hearing Sion would turn his sword on him without question if it came down to it, Mia proceeds to lambast him about him judging someone as guilty if he doesn't really understand the full picture. Mia's words came from considering how Sion in the previous timeline was in a position as a classmate where he could have convinced Mia to do better for the people of the empire when things were still salvagable, yet he instead ignored her and only criticized her to her face once the revolution was inevitable, likely as he already judged Mia at face value as shallow and selfish. His judgement of her failed to account for how Mia did try her best to mitigate the effects of the famine, but she simply was unprepared to handle a situation that would be overwhelming for anyone, let alone someone as sheltered as Mia. While Sion doesn't understand the real drive behind her words, he doesn't ignore the implications she brings up about how him judging and intervening in a situation he didn't do anything to prevent before it escalated doesn't make him an arbiter of justice, especially since he heard about the unrest in the country throughout summer break and didn't investigate to check whether or not that was true before making preparations for military intervention.
• Dumb Blonde: Played with. As noted under Book Smart, she's not bad at academics (and might be better if she put any kind of sustained effort in), but her various personality flaws mean she comes off as stupid.
• Eating the Eye Candy: A chaste example, given that the characters are in their tweens/early teens for a large part of the story, but she's often swooning over how attractive Abel is whenever she sees him. Abel's eyes? Gorgeous. Abel in armor? A heartstopper. In an apron? Squee! (And so on and so forth.) It only increases after they become a couple, partly because as time goes on, puberty and sword training are kind to Abel's figure which Mia greatly appreciates.
• The Emperor: She's not there yet, but the story eventually shifts to Mia's (not entirely willing) efforts to become the first Empress of Tearmoon.
• Entitled to Have You: Her original feelings towards Sion, where she thought she was madly in love but it was more that she arrogantly assumed that she was his only suitable match, so (in her mind) he had to fall for her. Suffice to say that she's been disabused of this notion when it comes to how she should approach her love life.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • At the beginning of Volume 2, Mia becomes horrified that the new potential timeline would result in Anne and Abel attempting to save her and facing horrific consequences. While she generally subscribes to her 'Mia first' policy, she does not wish to cause the people she cares about to suffer horrible fates.
  • Despite what others may say, Mia has no issues with people from different classes forming friendships nor engaging in romances.
  • When offered a new contract at a cheaper price, Mia refuses partly because the merchant was a scumbag that screwed with her and Ludwig in the original timeline, but she also reasoned that she had no intention of reneging on her existing contract since Forkroad & Co. had faithfully been fulfilling their end of the deal.
• Evil Laugh: Well, more like evil giggle, but much of the Anime's humor derives from Mia outwardly performing kind deeds and offering kind words that warm the hearts of those she helps, only for her internal character to be snickering like a Saturday morning cartoon villain who has just gotten an advantage over the hero.
• Feigning Intelligence: Post guillotine Mia, due to having an additional 8 years of life experience, having lived through some extremely hard times, and having spent years studying under Ludwig trying desperately to fix the empire's problems... is still kind of a ditz. But she's wise enough to recognize problems and surround herself with good people, and everyone misunderstands her foreknowledge of the future and intentional confused vagueness as inhuman levels of intellect and wisdom, granting her the title of "Great Sage of the Empire" (later Saint Sage of the Empire).
• From Zero to Hero: Mia starts off as being viewed as a selfish Princess. Her actions lead her to being referred to as the ‘The Great Sage of the Empire’ who is greatly admired by her people. Eventually, she gains the respect of foreign entities as well.
• The Fool
  • Mia has next to no idea as to what she's doing and is armed only with foreknowledge that bad things will happen in the future. Much to her confusion, she ends up earning incredible recognition and respect from people who read too much into her actions since everything she does works or can be interpreted to be very benevolent and wise. Everything she does just works somehow. However, she is capable of noticing when there is a 'wave' and/or opportunity that can help her in a situation, and she rides it.
  • Subverted when it comes to the promotion of Outcount Rudolvon to Marcount Rudolvon. While a group of nobles are displeased at rewarding him for his efforts in fighting the famine, Mia offers a compromise: She'll call him a Marcount instead, arguing that 'Mar' still means the border or fringe and thus the title means the same thing. Satisfied, the nobles agree and leave her alone. However, Marcount turns out to be a valid but obsolete historical title^note The real world equivalent is margrave, which is both a noble and military title that actually outranks the title Mia had initially proposed giving him as well as having a great deal more international prestige where the title is still in use. In particular, since Marcounts are treated with a great deal of respect in Sunkland, it helps smooth the way for Sion and Tiona to eventually marry. Needless to say, the nobles who had been tricked into accepting her decision were frantic when the truth came out. When Ludwig confronted Mia to learn about her intentions after the nobles left, it became clear she knew exactly what she was doing and laughing at the nobles she tricked. The only thing that she didn't expect was how much it would help Tiona and her family.
• Genius Ditz:
  • Make no mistake, Mia is an idiot and can be plain stupid at times. However there are certain areas in which she excels better than anyone else. Her skill in dancing is one such area. It is unmatched by any of the other girls, and among the boys, only Sion is able to keep up with her. She is also quite capable of displaying a high degree of charisma that will either charm or leave other people in awe, albeit without her realizing it most of the time. The only exception to this was when she attempted to woo Tiona's little brother to her side. And she was successful.
  • Mia's learning to ride a horse puts her on par with the military minded Redmoon family, who are literally raised from birth to ride them as a military mount. Granted, this is with the power of a Cool Horse and a lot of luck, but over time, she does become a genuinely skilled rider. Similarly, her learning survivalist techniques put her significantly above most of her fellow nobles. They come in handy when she is stranded on an island with her friends to the point Keithwood is impressed by how knowledgeable she is.
  • She has a great deal of patience and determination. Completely unaware that she was being tested, she succeeds at the test of Three Visits: She needs to recruit an old sage to her academy, but he's deliberately rude and pretends to be ignoring her when she visits. Officially, he only intends to listen to her request if she overlooks the discourtesy and visits on three separate occasions. She visits and waits each time for several hours doing nothing but counting blades of grass until he shows up. Her motives are rather pathetic and the way she passed the time even worse, but the patience and good temper are genuine: She was genuinely not upset to be forced to wait for an old commoner, nor did she make herself comfortable while waiting or do anything meaningful to pass the time.
  • Also, she's really good at ad lib. This allows her to put on a performance on the spot, and somehow make people think that she's planned a situation out all along.
  • And despite coming off as a person who just wants to take credit for someone else's hard work, Mia surprisingly knows how to delegate the right jobs to the right person. A skill that is greatly needed for someone in a ruling position.
• Happily Married: Mia and Abel were married and have a lot of children in one timeline only for Mia to destroy it. They still end up married and have at least some children, as their granddaughter comes from the future in the second arc.
• Hidden Depths: Despite having varying levels of intelligence, Mia has enough emotional intelligence to ‘read the room’, which has helped her out on a few occasions. She is gifted at dancing and being a capable dance instructor, as she was able to figure out what Rania was doing wrong in her dance routine, and she was able to successfully complete a relatively complex dance routine when invited to join in on short notice. While she can get nervous, she is capable of speaking publicly after she gets the ball rolling. As the series progresses, Mia proves capable of holding her ground when speaking with royalty in other countries, such as the King of Sunkland, while others, such as Esmeralda and Tiona, are far more nervous.
• Humble Goal: Despite everyone's belief that Mia has grand ambitions of reshaping the continent, all she really wants is to just... not die. It surprises her when she starts thinking more about the future beyond averting personal disaster, and even then, her dreams are still fairly humble.
  What if she married this gentle, warmhearted boy [Abel] beside her? Her imagination began to run wild. She envisioned a pleasant day like this, where they took their children on a long ride, after which they'd all share a picnic luncheon of horse-shaped mushroom sandwiches, then...
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Mia had no real friendships originally and often spent festivals and the like alone. One of the greatest changes in her new life isn't just her survival: it's the friends she never had, as it hits her how much she enjoys this. She even becomes friends with Chloe for the express purpose of becoming book buddies.
• In Love with the Mark: After enrolling at Saint-Noel's Academy, Mia makes it her goal to try and court Prince Abel of the Remno Kingdom because she believes if all else fails and she triggers her death flag, she could rely on the Remno Kingdom to provide her support against a future rebellion. Abel ends up falling head over heels in love with her and Mia, for her part, is initially in denial that she is falling in love with him.
• Innocently Insensitive: Almost nothing bad Mia ever did was done out of genuine malice. Instead, she just happened to be an idiot who badly offended the wrong people through ignorance, apathy or laziness.
• It's All About Me: If you are a character in the series, you would think that each action the protagonist makes serves a benefit to the people. Think again. The reason why she's doing it is mostly she's afraid of repeating the first timeline where she died by decapitation. Interestingly, this mentality also ends up making her work harder than necessary. Because it is all about herself, Mia never actually considers the possibility of simply convincing her father the emperor to rule properly (she actually came close to that realization at the beginning of Volume 4, only to dismiss it straightaway because she considered it too good to be true).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Mia may be a selfish person, but she's a fundamentally good person even if it isn't always obvious. This is why Ludwig stayed so loyal to her in the original timeline: He could tell she was doing the very best she could, but the problems she was faced with were way beyond anyone's ability to fix at that point, let alone a sheltered moron like Mia.
• Lovable Coward: As the narrator will not hesitate to remind the reader, Mia is a chicken first and foremost, always motivated by avoiding pain, death, or humiliation. Much of the series' antics come from this.
• Mama Bear: She becomes quite protective of Bel, her grandchild from the future.
• Marry for Love: Double subverted. She liked Sion in the first timeline, albeit based on a shallow attraction due to his looks, and didn't consider that politically, there's no way they could ever marry; as a result, she's more pragmatic in the new timeline, focusing on Abel for the political benefit he offers. However, at least one future branch, in which Abel is exiled from his country, nevertheless has Mia marry him despite others' protests over how Abel no longer brings anything to the table whatsoever. In Volume 11, both Abel and Mia confess their feelings for each other during the current timeline.
• Misery Builds Character: While this doesn't apply to every timeline, Mia was a seemingly lazy complacent girl who thought nothing of commoners and even partook in bullying Tiona in most timelines. It wasn't until she was captured and thrown into prison where she was abused by the guards and those that she once looked down upon that she finally learnt the error of her ways. It's a major reason for her change in the current timeline and why she is attempting to do better.
• Modest Royalty: While Mia's happy to dress up, she also recognizes the need to dress practically at times, which her subordinates find refreshing.
• Moral Pragmatist:
  • She sets out to stop the plague and famine from devastating Tearmoon, though only out of a desire to avoid execution, not out of a sense of compassion or justice.
  • She also tries to be kinder and avoid pissing off others this time around, but when it comes to people she didn't get along with in the original timeline like Tiona and Sion, she would rather avoid them entirely than help them out. When she first witnesses Tiona getting bullied after arriving at Saint Noel, she only helps her out because she doesn't want to lose Anne's respect, as she's confident Mia will step up and help Tiona.
  • In Volume 10, she tells Citrina and Miabel that they should learn to ride horses because it would be good for them to know, doing it partly because she doesn't want a repeat of when the Wolfmaster chased her and Miabel on horseback, and the horse was slowed down because he was carrying two people.
  • Mia chooses to spare Jem and his allies from execution because there's a chance they could go back in time like she did if they were killed. Mia has no clue what triggered her Mental Time Travel in the first place, so she assumes the worst case scenario, which is that they would go back in time and kill her before she can get in the way of their plan.
• Nice to the Waiter: In the original timeline, she was not nice to her servants until Anne was her caretaker during her incarceration. At the beginning of the second timeline, she attempts to be more patient with her servants, and she even compliments her chef for his cooking skills much to everyone's surprise. While she comes close to subverting this after Anne accidentally ruins her cake, Mia officially turned over a new leaf after deciding to make Anne her handmaiden as a reward for her service in the original timeline. Mia is shown to generally treat servants far more respectfully, and she will not tolerate those that would mistreat Anne.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Expect more than one ohoho from Mia, given that she's a rather cocky princess.
• No Hero to His Valet: Averted. While Mia is certainly thinking that, she's also learned that being a Hero to her Valet is a very good thing and in fact, she really needs the support of other people to keep the damned guillotine away from her. No one, not her undyingly loyal maid, not her tireless government official, not her newfound friends, realizes that her motivations are self centered. Not even her own granddaughter from the future.
• Obsessed with Food: To Keithwood's dismay, she constantly has mushrooms on the mind. And if she's not daydreaming about or getting distracted by mushrooms, it's sweets. Or any kind of delicious-looking food, frankly.
• Odd Friendship: Mia has a tendency to form these with different people during the current timeline regardless of her initial intentions, forming friendships with individuals from backgrounds that most wouldn't think a Princess would generally associate with, whether becoming book buddies with Chloe, joining the Equestrian club with Lin Malong, or getting close with her commoner maid, Anne.
• Older Than They Look: After traveling back to their past self, Mia is this, being mentally 20 but physically 12.
• Only Friend: Mia is the only person whom Rafina truly considers to be a good friend. Even in the timeline where Rafina becomes evil, she is affected by Mia’s death by poisoning.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Mia is aware that she's going to get killed soon, but she can't find a way of preventing it from happening, everyone can tell that something is wrong, because the Obsessed with Food Mia isn't finishing her meals.
• Parental Title Characterization: She prefers to call her father "your majesty" due to a mixture of teenage rebellion and finding his overbearing doting embarrassing. She will reluctantly compromise to "father", but point blank refuses to call him "daddy".
• Peggy Sue: The main plot point and framing device of the series; Mia's life ends when she's 20, but she is returned to when she's 12 years old to try again — with her blood stained diary intact. Her knowledge of the future (including a running commentary on how her actions are changing things via the diary) give her the ability to change things for the better.
• Pet the Dog: Mia invites Anne’s family to the castle on a few occasions partly, so the guards can become familiar with them. If the famine ever gets out of control, she wishes to bring Anne’s family into the castle for protection.
• Picky Eater: Mia used to be one, including a notorious dislike for certain vegetables, and one account of her pettiness was firing her head chef just for this. After experiencing a famine and being reborn, though, she's become more open-minded when it comes to food and appreciates all that the aforementioned chef does for her. (With that said, she'll still take sweets over healthy food any day.)
• Politically-Active Princess: Mia pointedly wasn't this in the previous timeline until the famine began — and at that point it was too late, really — but having learned from her mistakes, she's absolutely making sure to be more proactive in politics this time around.
• Red Baron: The Empire's Wisdom/Sage of the Empire.^note Depending on the translation
• Reformed Bully: Mia learned the hard way in her previous life that acting like an Alpha Bitch does her zero favors, and thus makes sure to do better in this life. Additionally, after being persecuted as the princess, she's now able to empathize with those on the receiving end of abuse, rather than just dismissing it as minor.
• Retroactive Precognition: This is one of the factors that allow her to seem wiser than she actually is. Her best bet for solving the empire's upcoming problems is making allies with people who showed they were more aware of them than she was in the original timeline. As a result, she finds herself parroting information and opinions to the past counterparts of the very people who first shared them with her, at points where she would have been among the many people not giving them proper attention.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Mia is an interesting variation in that she is very conscious in not overspending, lest she anger her people in wasting their tax money (except maybe for the occasional sweet). The problem is that during the height of the famine in the first timeline, food was massively overpriced due to inflation, so she still doesn't have a good idea of how much things should cost. Thankfully, she at least has the sense to have Anne handle her personal allowance and Ludwig handle the budget for her government projects. Also, the few times she does personally overpay someone for their services has them singing their praises for her perceived generosity, furthering her reputation.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Even as she changes things (and her diary changes as well), Mia remembers the previous timeline. When she eventually questions this inconsistency, she comes to the conclusion that whatever force controls time-space continuity, be it God or the unthinking unfeeling universe, doesn't do more work than it has to. Rewriting a book is easy, but rewriting a person's entire brain is probably harder, so until the timeline stabilizes into its final form it won't bother to do so.
• Royal Brat: Mia was one in the original timeline, and her selfish requests inadvertently lead to a number of tragedies. In the new timeline, she has matured somewhat and is also anxious to ensure everyone has a good opinion of her to avoid the guillotine. But she still delivers special treatment to Viscount Berman, using her selfishness for excess guards as an excuse to have them retreat from a contentious area he was hoping to spark a battle in.
• The Scapegoat: Viscount Berman needed an excuse to massacre the Lulu tribe and claim their land. The idea he came up with was to claim that he needed the wood of their forest to create a gift to please Princess Mia with. This would result in Dion, the leader of the soldiers assigned to the Lulu's forest, as well as the surviving Lulus swearing vengeance on Mia, who was not actually involved at all. It was also a factor in Tiona cutting off Mia's head in multiple timelines, even the timelines where Mia was kind to her. Mia only knew that she had received a nice jewelry box and didn't know why everyone was so angry until several timelines in.
• Secretly Selfish: A lot of humor driven from the series is that now Mia has been given a second lease on life, her now seemingly altruistic actions almost always have a self-serving end goal. The populace at large now views her as an in-universe Purity Sue, while the narration is always quick to remind the reader that she is anything but. However, as the story continues onward, she is shown to legitimately care for others, such as deciding to try and help Abel during the Remno incident and refusing to abandon Chloe’s family due to Chloe being her friend, and Chloe’s father had consistently kept up his end of the contract.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: In Vol. 3, it's acknowledged that when both Mia and Rafina dress up in religious garb for a ceremony, people are gobsmacked by Mia more so than by Rafina for this reason. She's not actually prettier than Rafina, but their classmates are used to seeing Rafina like this whereas it's a new look for Mia, hence the impact.
• Shipper on Deck: After she finds out that Ruby is in love with Vanos, she is in favor of their romance because she likes the idea of a romance that transcends both age and social ranks.
• Shrouded in Myth: She's practically a figure of legend by Bel's time, especially thanks to the Princess Chronicles written by Elise that greatly exaggerate her feats, to the point where Mia herself is horrified by them.
• Siblings Wanted: A minor case and Played for Laughs, but in the original timeline, she declared that she wanted a genius little brother the way Tiona had Cyril (since Cyril was a key part of Tiona's rise to fame) and in the new timeline, she can't relate to Echard because she thinks having an overachieving older sibling like Sion would be great, actually (after all, she could just leave everything to them!). Alas, Mia is an only child and therefore has to take care of everything herself.
• Sickening Sweethearts: Once Mia and Abel unofficially start courting each other, it's occasionally commented on how disgustingly affectionate they are. Funnily enough, this has spies convinced their letters to each other must be some kind of code, oblivious that said letters are really just what you'd expect from smitten young teenagers.
• Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: In the original timeline, Mia crushed on Sion simply because he was The Ace. Him getting her executed obviously put an end to that, and so...
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: In the new timeline, very much over Sion, Mia ends up falling for Nice Guy Abel for his thoughtfulness.
• Skewed Priorities: Mia would gladly prioritize mushrooms above her own life. She has rationalized this as entirely natural because... You need to eat to live, right? Her original theory as to how Chaos Serpent will somehow manage to lure her to her death is that they will use mushrooms as bait, so she hastily gathers her own mushrooms beforehand so that she will have no reason to be tempted.
• Slave to PR: Once she starts developing a reputation as a saint, based on misunderstandings and lies, she finds herself having to keep it up and get involved in situations she wants absolutely nothing to do with, lest she disappoint her followers. In Volumes 10 & 11, she realizes it would not be a good idea for her to lose the horse race because her followers have a strong opinion of not only her benevolence, but her skills.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • It is acknowledged by the Chaos Serpents that in Volume 2, Mia has ruined their initial plans to destroy the Tearmoon Empire. This causes them to target Remno immediately. When Mia interferes with that plan, Jen attempts to behead her out of frustration for what she’s done.
  • In Vol. 2, she derails the plans of enemy spies through... her love letters to Abel, and vice versa. However, because she's the Empire's Wisdom, the spies are convinced that these incredibly frequent and sappy letters must be some kind of code that they just can't break.
  • Her complete obsession with mushrooms results in her randomly stumbling over a cluster of extremely deadly salamandrake mushrooms. This ends up completely ruining Chaos Serpent's plans, depriving them of the poison they were going to slaughter the Principality of Belluga's servants with.
• Spotting the Thread: In Volume 2, she notices how there are huge similarities in the Remno incident to the downfall of Tearmoon in the previous timeline. She is able to realize everything that’s going on is a setup. She later realizes it was the Chaos Serpents who brought about Tearmoon’s destruction as well as her death in the previous timeline.
• Stronger Than They Look: Downplayed. In one bonus story, Mia's surprised to find that intensive exercise doesn't strain her body as much as she's used to. The narration notes that Mia is actually pretty physically active now, thanks to all of her horseriding, so it's to be expected.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Mia often won't realize if others have read too much into the situation. If she does, she will jump on the chance to exploit it:
  • When she tries to recruit Ludwig as an advisor, she tells him about all the problems the empire is dealing with. Ludwig doesn't think he can help Mia because she already seems so intelligent and well-informed about the empire's internal politics, which leaves Mia dumbfounded. In reality, Mia just remembered all the talking points Ludwig drilled into her head in the first timeline, which the current Ludwig has no way of knowing. Ludwig then assumes that she's trying to recruit him because she's young, and no one will take her seriously because of her age. Mia goes along with Ludwig's assumption to make sure she can recruit him.
  • When Mia confronts Rafina over the nobles who kidnapped Tiona, Rafina seems angry with Mia over how lenient she was with the guilty nobles, as she just had their servants deported and warned them to be on good behavior. Mia ends up too scared to talk to Rafina, causing her to babble about how she used to hate Yellow-Moon tomatoes until there was nothing left to eat, only to realize this has nothing to do with the topic at hand. Rafina assumes Mia is being metaphorical, and is saying the nobles only did these bad things because they didn't realize how wrong their actions were, and that it would be better for them to reflect on their crimes instead of giving them an overly harsh punishment. Mia goes along with this to avoid Rafina's wrath and insists that this was indeed the point she was trying to make.
• Sweet Tooth: She absolutely loves her desserts. It doesn't matter what kind — there's no such thing as an inferior sweet in her eyes.
• Terrible Artist: When Mia tries to draw a picture of Abel in a side story, it leaves a lot to be desired. Despite that, Anne is able to realize who Abel is due to the illustration.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Zig-zagged. It's true Mia is making an effort to be nicer this time around, but that's in the interest of self-preservation, and she understands mistreating others, whether it be on purpose or accidental, could cause them to hate her in the future. Except it gets played straight later on as the story progresses and Character Development kicks in. In Volume 2, she is horrified that Anne and Abel suffer terrible fates trying to save her in different timelines, and she resolves to save them and not just herself. During the events leading up to the Holy Eve festival, Mia finds herself unable to escape her impending death as stated by the book despite her best efforts, so she takes the time to reflect on herself and all that she has done in the new timeline before coming to the realization that she no longer fears or feels uncomfortable around those who were her enemies at one point in time, and in fact feels remorse and regrets for the things she did, especially to Tiona. And even goes so far to apologize despite her knowing nothing about it.
• Trademark Favorite Food: She's obsessed with mushrooms.
• Trauma Button: Just about anything that was sufficiently involved with her death in the original timeline has the potential to make her extremely uneasy, sometimes going as far as making her Faint in Shock. The most awkward case is people she remembers being more than happy to see her be executed, but in the present have yet to develop that sentiment; there are plenty of reasons she can't tell those people that their very presence is the thing making her uneasy when her reaction is visible enough for others to notice.
• Tsundere: Towards Sion, once her grudge fades and she begrudgingly acknowledges him as a friend. She still acts as though she doesn't care about him and finds him infuriating, but when push comes to shove, she thinks he's genuinely a great person and she'll be there to support him when he needs it.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Played for Laughs, but in contrast to her gratitude towards Anne, Mia heavily downplays the sheer magnitude of what Ludwig did for her in the original timeline, to the point where she never bothered to learn his name. At heart, though, she does appreciate his loyalty.
• Universally Beloved Leader: Due to some big misunderstandings, Mia is this to the people interacting with her. In the grand scheme of things, the entire series is about her winning over her allies until she goes down in history as a beloved Empress.
• Unknowingly in Love: For about a volume or so, she's so caught up in her practical reasons for pursuing Abel that she doesn't realize that she's fallen for him for real. When she decides that it'd benefit her the most if he loses at the tournament to his brother, she finds herself instead urging him to win, to her surprise — and then concludes to herself that it's because she doesn't want him to be too upset to enjoy the lunch she made. To the reader, it's obvious that her real reasons were, for once, more altruistic than that.
• Villainous Princess: At the beginning of the story, Mia was a very selfish princess whose numerous misdeeds included abusing her servants and supposedly neglecting serious disasters affecting her empire like the plague and famine, all because of her inflated ego, which resulted in her empire overthrowing her and sentencing her to death by guillotine. However, she gets resurrected eight years back in time for a chance to turn her behavior and misdeeds around and avoid repeating the same outcome, with the narrative poking fun at her Secretly Selfish tendencies every now and again. Her efforts appear to be working, as her bloodstained diary changes the future events that unfold prior to her upcoming execution. It also becomes clearer over time that she was more incompetent than actively malicious or truly neglectful.
• Villain Protagonist: Deconstructed. Mia's previous incarnation was uncaring and could be cruel, but she was not responsible for many of the bad things that she was being blamed for. Part of her poor behavior was due to how she was raised and spoiled, but her interactions with Ludwig and later Anne proved that there was more to her character, and she had the capacity to be good. Her current incarnation shows shades of trying to be as good as possible, with occasional lapses of her bad behavior appearing out of habit.
• Vocal Dissonance: Try not to drink when watching the Anime, because Sumire Uesaka will have you spitting out your coke on the screen in laughter, as she can switch from elegant and ladylike when things are going Mia's way to coarse and masculine at the drop of a hat when she is shocked.
• Wild Take: Mia is prone to hysterical-extremes of stylistic exaggeration that would make the cast of One Piece proud; whether it's turning black and white, blurring out, or outright turning to stone, Mia will have you rolling on the floor in laughter whenever her anger/disappointment/fright/shock is played for humor.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Despite being reincarnated into a 12-year old, Mia still retains her 20-year old mentality from her previous life, and comes off as wiser as a result. Naturally, this leads her servants to be confused about her sudden change in personality. Though it's both played straight and subverted at times, as Mia occasionally does silly things such as opening her mouth when she knows nothing and getting into trouble (and as the narration points out, solitary confinement in a dungeon for three years didn't do wonders for her mental growth, effectively and literally locking her emotional maturity at 17 years old at best). At the same time, she showcases what she had learned previously and uses those lessons to great effect.
  • Spending 3 years in solitary confinement in a damp prison cell, all while being tormented by the few people she did see, ending with her being brought out in front of a jeering crowd to be put to death by guillotine lead to Mia having a vastly different outlook on things like the smell of the slums, food that she used to dislike, and minor inconveniences such as having her cake dropped on the floor or having a horse sneeze on her. This comes across as humility, wisdom, and true nobility to onlookers. (It very, very much isn't.)

Miabel Luna Tearmoon

Miabel Luna Tearmoon

Mia's granddaughter from a Bad Future, introduced in Volume 3. As the last of the Imperial Family, she was hunted down but unexpectedly found herself in the past — Mia's present — before she could be killed. Lacking her grandmother's selfishness but sharing in her airheaded qualities, Miabel is keen to enjoy her newfound peaceful life. Mia considers her a guide sent to help steer Mia away from the timeline Miabel hails from, though with dubious reliability.

Since Mia died before having any children in the earlier timelines, Miabel's existence wasn't possible until Mia altered the future enough for her blood-stained diary to vanish.

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• The Baby of the Bunch: As Mia even notes, Miabel's actually barely younger than the rest of the cast but gets treated like a little kid anyway, receiving headpats from both Abel and Sion upon their first encounter within minutes.
• Bad Liar: For someone trying to keep her identity under wraps, she is very, very bad at it.
• Big Eater: Like her grandmother, she can pack away quite a bit of food, and unlike her grandmother, she doesn't seem to need to worry about getting fat, much to Mia's jealousy.
• Book Dumb: Her grades are horrendous to the point where she managed to receive the worst grade Saint-Noel has ever seen.
• Character Development: She comes to learn that she can’t just use money to reward people.
• Cute Little Fangs: She's occasionally drawn with these, likely to differentiate her from Mia and because she's The Cutie of the cast.
• Disproportionate Reward: Any time someone does something nice for her, she responds by giving them money. Lynsha and Mia consider it a worrying habit. It becomes clear that Miabel does it because she's used to a lifestyle where she may never again meet the people who were kind to her, so she makes sure to pay back her debts while she can. Part of her character development comes to understanding that she shouldn’t do this.
• Fangirl: Miabel — to the extent that the narration sometimes nicknames her Maniabel — is a huge fan of Sion, who became the Libra King in her timeline, and by proxy Keithwood as well. It's a running joke that while not unappreciative, she's much less excited in comparison about being in the vicinity of Abel, her grandfather.
• Fearless Fool: Bel has very little sense of danger or self-preservation, much to the chagrin of those around her who want to keep her out of trouble.
• Friendship Trinket: She makes a matching troya — a stuffed horse charm — for both herself and Citrina, which becomes the symbol of their friendship.
• In-Series Nickname: Usually just referred to as Bel.
• Kid from the Future: As she declares before she gets warped into the past by an apparently magical copy of the "Princess Mia Chronicles":
  Miabel Luna Tearmoon: My name is Miabel! Miabel Luna Tearmoon! She who inherits the noble blood of the Saint and Great Sage of the Empire, Mia Luna Tearmoon!
• Last of Her Kind: In her timeline, she's the Sole Survivor of the Imperial Family, pursued by the enemy and protected by everyone else who futilely hoped that she could carry on Mia's will.
• Nerves of Steel: Despite her young age and ditziness, Bel's used to a life of being hunted down and fully expects to die sooner than later. She tends to be much better about keeping her cool in the face of danger compared to, say, Mia.
• Noble Fugitive: In her original timeline, Empress Prelate Rafina, attempting to Take Over the World in a mad effort to stamp out Chaos Serpent, ordered all members of the Tearmoon Imperial Family exterminated. Miabel spent much of her life hiding and running from those who would wish to erase her family's legacy.
• Only Friend: To Citrina, who even states outright that she doesn't need anyone but Bel.
• The Pollyanna: Bel comes from incredibly depressing circumstances, being constantly persecuted and losing the people she loves. You would never guess this from her attitude, both in her timeline and Mia's. It turns out that she invokes this, as so many people have died for her that she feels she must live happily so that their sacrifices weren't in vain.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: In-universe, Miabel's name is a combination of Mia and Abel, apparently selected by Mia herself in that timeline.
• Sweet Tooth: Again, like grandmother, like granddaughter: Bel's very fond of sweets.
• Undead Tax Exemption: Since not a lot of people know about Time Travel, Mia lies that she is her illegitimate half-sister, and everything seems to work out.

The Four Dukes

Shared

Tropes that are shared among the scions of the four dukes.

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• Fair Weather Friends: They were all guilty of this in the original timeline, but it appears with the bonds they build with Mia in the current timeline, along with learning the truth of the Choas Serpents, that they will not be this anymore.
• Heel–Face Turn: All four of them start off against Mia in some respect, but they are all won over to her side in the current timeline.
• The Promise: In Volume 7, all four of them along with Mia, Rafina, and Ludwig swear to work toward a better future for the Empire rather than be bound by the first Emperor’s wishes.
• Took a Level in Kindness: All four of them become considerably kinder after Mia recruits them to her side.
  • Esmeralda: Thanks to Mia's influence she softens up significantly, and they officially become best friends.
  • Sapphias: He starts off rather arrogant. However, after being frightened by Rafina along with Mia allowing him into the student council, he becomes far nicer and more sensible, as well as losing much of his classist attitude.
  • Ruby: She becomes grateful to Mia allowing her to get closer to Vanos after Mia defeats her in their race duel, and recruiting her into the Princess Guard.
  • Citrina: While she acted nice, she is allowed to finally embrace the bonds she made with Mia and Miabel after being freed from the bonds of the Chaos Serpents.
• Uptown Girl: In all their engagments, they are technically of higher standing.
  • Esmeralda: While she is engaged with the second prince, he is also a prince that has basically been banished from his home country due to him being manipulated by the Chaos Serpents, and Esmeralda is allowing him to live with her family due to her building a bond with him.
  • Sapphias: He is ranked above his fiancé, but they are close enough that there isn't any political or social drama.
  • Ruby: She is in love with Vanos who has been recruited into the Princess Guard. While it is a respectable position, it is far below her station.
  • Citrina: She eventually falls in love with Dion who is far older than her and below her station. They even had an odd partnership during their time in Sunkland when Citrina was attempting to gain information for Mia.

Esmeralda Etoile Greenmoon

Esmeralda Etoile Greenmoon

The eldest daughter of one of the Etoilers, the Four Dukes of the Tearmoon Empire, and thus making her a distant relative of Mia's. Allegedly best friends with Mia, though Mia herself would be hesitant to agree after events in her past life, leading her to largely ignore Esmeralda in this one.

In the original timeline, the Greenmoon family fled the country when the revolution began, abandoning the royal family in the process.

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• Adapted Out: The anime omits Esmeralda's early appearances (and therefore her character entirely) from before Mia's entry into Saint-Noel.
• Arranged Marriage: Volumes 8-9 focus on her arranged marriage to Echard, Sion's younger brother.
• Cool Big Sis: She's a literal one to her younger brothers, and she tries to be one to Mia with mixed results. Citrina also comes to see her as one, wondering if this is what having a sister is like.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: In some ways, she's even more dim and cowardly than Mia. However, piss her off and you'll find that socially, she's a fierce force to be reckoned with.
• Happily Married: Flash-forwards reveal that despite her protests at first, she ends up in a Perfectly Arranged Marriage with Echard.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Ruby correctly calls out Esmeralda's attempts at sabotaging Mia as a convoluted way of trying to get Mia's attention. As it turns out, Esmeralda's quite lonely in general, since her obligation to acting like a "typical" noble makes it difficult to form real connections with people.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Although Esmeralda tries to sabotage Mia, she's more of an annoyance than a genuine threat. Later, when she invites Mia to a cruise, Mia's aware that it could be a trap but decides that if it's one sprung by Esmeralda, it can't be all that bad. After all, she trusts the amount of air in Esmeralda's head, and Esmeralda seems more buoyant than Sapphias.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Akin to Mia, Esmeralda's shallow, clueless, and self-centered, but she can be rather sweet and actually does try to be a good friend, in her own bizarre way. Mia notes, in both exasperation and amusement, that Esmeralda's the kind of person who could be trying to screw you over one day and then sincerely want to hang out with you the next. Case in point: she's annoyed with Mia for not paying enough attention to her and so she decides to humiliate her by showcasing Mia's inability to swim, but afterwards, she gives everything she has in teaching Mia how to swim properly.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Esmeralda's laugh is described as distinctive, i.e. it's this one.
• Outdoorsy Gal: She loves the outdoors and is an expert in swimming and camping, despite appearances.
• The Promise: In the original timeline, when the revolution was beginning and Mia understandably was becoming rather gloomy, Esmeralda tried to lift her spirits by promising to host a tea party, where they'd have cake and all reaffirm their vows to the empire. It never came to be, as her father had the family flee shortly thereafter, and the regret of breaking this promise haunts her even in the present timeline.

Sapphias Etoile Bluemoon

Sapphias Etoile Bluemoon

The eldest son of one of the Etoilers, the Four Dukes of the Tearmoon Empire.

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• Afraid of Blood: Like his cousin, Mia, Sapphias Bluemoon has no tolerance for pain. If anything, he is even worse than she is, fainting at the mere sight of blood, meaning that no matter how angry he is, he will not resort to violence or corporeal punishment.
• Break the Haughty: Mia rejecting his plan to win the student council election and then Rafina seeing right through him dissolves any delusions he had of being an effective schemer, and he's left grasping at any lifelines they give him.
• Devil in Plain Sight: Subverted. Mia concludes that he's obviously a Chaos Serpent and thus becomes horrified when the others don't seem to realize this. Of course, the narrator points out that it's clear both to the reader and everyone but Mia that Sapphias is not, in fact, a Serpent.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: He tries to ally himself with Mia as someone who can scheme against Rafina, but it's a good thing for Mia that she didn't take him up on it, as Rafina strikes down his plots before they even start. It's easy to feel a little sorry for him when he's panicking over how his plans aren't working and that he's making a fool of himself.
• Odd Friendship: He ends up getting along quite well with Keithwood, despite their very different personalities and biases. History notes that this friendship continued even after Sapphias graduated from the academy, as they kept in touch after returning to their respective countries.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: He's in one with his fiancee, with much of his motivation being to impress her.
• Sickening Sweethearts: Sapphias and his fiancee are this. As the cherry on top, his attendant is her younger brother, who's stuck either listening to Sapphias gush about his sister at the academy or listening to his sister gush about Sapphias back home.
• The One Guy: The only boy among the eldest Etoiler children.

Ruby Etoile Redmoon

Ruby Etoile Redmoon

The daughter of one of the Etoilers, the Four Dukes of the Tearmoon Empire.

In the original timeline, Ruby held a grudge against Mia due to her being scapegoated for the Lulu tribe massacre that resulted in Vanos' death, so when the revolution started, she convinced her father not to lend military aid to the Imperial family. In the end, however, war reached the Redmoons and they were wiped out, Ruby included.

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• All for Nothing: In the previous timeline, she got her ‘revenge’ on Mia by convincing her father not to help Mia. However, that resulted in her father’s death, her brothers’ deaths, the destruction of her land, and her own death.
• Bifauxnen: Ruby's described as having both masculine and feminine attractiveness, and that some of her female classmates swoon over her.
• Crush Blush: When jokingly asked by Princess Mia if she has a crush on Vanos, Ruby reacted with this trope.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After Mia defeats Ruby in a duel, that acts as a catalyst that wins Ruby over to Mia’s side.
• Has a Type: Though she's been in love with Vanos specifically since young, she likes big men in general.
• Karmic Death: In the previous timeline, her actions led to Mia’s death, and those said actions led to her death as well.
• Last Stand: In the original timeline, she died fighting, knowing she was doomed at that point.
• Likes Older Men: Ruby likes Vanos who is much older than her.
• Rescue Romance: She fell in love with Vanos after he saved her life when she lost control of her horse.
• Token Good Teammate: Downplayed. Of the Four Dukes, Ruby's the only one who doesn't bother with any scheming or sabotage since it's not her style. She doesn't exactly disapprove of the others' antagonism towards Mia, mind you, but her ultimate goal — stealing Vanos from Mia's army — isn't even particularly harmful, considering Mia's panic is born from her delusion that Vanos is Dion's Morality Chain. Mia has some level of appreciation of Ruby being more straightforward rather than a schemer.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In the original timeline, not knowing that she had been framed for the Lulu tribe massacre, Ruby blamed Mia for the death of Vanos. She wanted her dead so badly that she convinced her father to abandon the royal family when the opportunity showed up. This would come back to haunt her when immediately following the downfall of the royal family, they were next on the list. Her last few moments in life were spent in regret at how her selfishness had destroyed everything and everyone around her.
• Uptown Girl: She's in love with Vanos, a commoner. Upon learning this, Mia immediately becomes a Shipper on Deck, finding the idea of an inter-class romance absolutely juicy. Mia even gives them her blessing to get married.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: In the previous timeline, she felt empty after her actions led to Mia’s death.

Citrina Etoile Yellowmoon

Citrina Etoile Yellowmoon

The daughter of one of the Etoilers, the Four Dukes of the Tearmoon Empire. Due to Citrina's young age, Mia never met her in her past life; her debut comes when she enters Saint-Noel as a first year.

In the original timeline, Mia has no recollection of the Yellowmoons' involvement, but comes to suspect that they may have been involved behind the scenes...

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• Crazy-Prepared: As revealed in Vol. 9, she makes a habit of carrying around several poisons and/or antidotes on her. As she tells Sunkland's court, she didn't happen to have the exact antidote needed to cure the king's poison; she happens to have many exact antidotes so that she can deal with any poison.
• Creepy Child: A thug notices the obviously wealthy girl in a bad part of the capital with no apparent bodyguard and decides to use her for ransom. When her escort reveals himself and they begin interrogating him, he realizes that she is not a naive child, and the abnormality completely creeps him out.
• Daddy's Girl: She's her father's only daughter and his pride and joy.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: She's a cute-looking, doll-like girl who's always smiling and an expert assassin through poisonings underneath.
• The Ghost: While mentioned frequently as the last of the Etoilers, she's the only one Mia has never met and doesn't show up in person until much later.
• Good Feels Good: She realizes that using her expertise to save lives rather than kill is actually pretty nice, which is why she's annoyed when the Sunkland court, thinking that she's trying to assassinate their king, is initially outraged at her assistance.
• Heel–Face Turn: She and her father are with the Chaos Serpents, but end up defecting to Mia's side.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: She becomes extremely close with Bel, with the two spending all of their time together. Mia knows that if she needs to bring Citrina along on a trip, all she needs to do is get Bel on board first.
• In-Series Nickname: Rina.
• Master Poisoner: As a family of assassins, she and her father are extremely knowledgeable in all kinds of poisons.
• Obviously Evil: By the time she properly appears before Mia, the timing is so suspicious, combined with the utter lack of info on Citrina, that even Mia has alarms blaring in her head. She quickly rationalizes her fears away after hearing that she's a mushroom expert, because any expert on mushrooms couldn't possibly be evil.
• Only Friend: To Miabel, being her only true peer. Likewise, Miabel is her only friend too. All of the other "friends" she was ordered to make died tragically due to them being targets for Chaos Serpent. She is eventually forced to make that choice for Miabel too, whether to place herself at risk by standing up to Chaos Serpent, or to sacrifice her like her other friends.
• Stepford Smiler: She's always smiling. This is not a good thing for anyone else, necessarily.
• Third-Person Person: Occasionally refers to herself as such, using her nickname of Rina.
• Tranquil Fury: Citrina is so used to concealing her true emotions that it takes even her a moment to realize, when serenely chewing out nobles for yelling at her, that she's angry.
• Trapped in Villainy: The Yellowmoons, for generations, have basically been coerced into doing the Chaos Serpents' bidding. She and her father manage to break the chain, in part thanks to Mia and in part thanks to her father's refusal to actually carry out any assassinations, keeping their hands clean.
• Unseen No More: After being mentioned multiple times, she finally makes her debut in Volume 5.

Mia Faction

Anne Littstein

Anne Littstein

Voiced by: Tomori Kusunoki (JP, drama CD and anime)

Originally nothing more than a clumsy commoner maid, Anne's kindness towards Mia in her past life has Mia repay her deeds by promoting her to her personal attendant despite Anne's status as a commoner.

In the original timeline, Anne was one of the few to remain by Mia's side to the end.

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• Celibate Hero: Anne's decided to never marry as she intends to devote her life to being Mia's attendant. While upon learning this, Mia encourages her to find love if she wants to as the two don't have to be mutually exclusive, Anne doesn't show any particular interest in pursuing romance nevertheless.
• Cool Big Sis: Anne is the closest thing Mia, an only child, has to a loving big sister, being five years older, and doting on the princess unconditionally through all 3 years of her imprisonment in the first timeline, because she still saw the fundamentally good-hearted little girl inside and couldn't bear to leave her alone without love and support.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: She's a klutz, albeit a harmless one, hence why Mia shocks everyone by appointing her as her personal maid.
• First Friend: In the first timeline, Anne was the only person to show Mia unconditional kindness through her three years of solitary imprisonment and torture despite no longer being bound by employment to her, holding her mistress in a loving embrace while praying for her salvation as she was lead to the guillotine, giving the Fallen Princess just enough courage to Face Death with Dignity without breaking down in hysterical tears. In return, in spite of the socially-enforced professional distance due to their differing classes of birth, Mia dearly loves Anne, who is for all intents and purposes her Best Friend in all but name, with repaying the love and kindness she was given by her unconsciously becoming the secondary goal of her new life besides evading the guillotine.
• Girlish Pigtails: She wears her hair in these, and while she's actually one of the oldest characters at five years older than Mia, she's also one of the most innocent and pure-hearted.
• Lady-In-Waiting: Anne serves as Mia's, being her personal maid.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Anne has two younger brothers and three younger sisters.
• Morality Pet: Anne is this to Mia. While most all of Mia's "kind" actions have selfish motivations behind them, her kindness towards Anne is completely genuine as Mia is thankful for Anne's own loyalty and kindness towards her in past life. A key criteria for if someone wants to associate with Mia is how they treat Anne; the moment someone looks down on her, Mia cuts them out.
  • She also serves as this in a different vein: Mia prefers not to get involved in anything too troublesome (e.g. her first encounter, where she witnesses Tiona being bullied) but can't afford not to if Anne's watching, as Mia doesn't dare disappoint her.
• Nice Girl: She's an extraordinarily kind girl, to the point that she stayed by Mia's side in the original timeline to the very end despite Mia having been a Bad Boss to her.
• Nice to the Waiter: She establishes good relationships with the working staff of the academy, which helps her and Mia by association at least once given that they're happy to bend over backwards for her.
• Number Two: Mia considers Anne to be one of her right-hand men, with Ludwig as the left.
• Only in It for the Money: At the start, she only serves as an imperial maid for the paycheck, leaving her understandably confused when Mia promotes her to her maid-in-waiting out of "loyalty", none of which Anne has. (Needless to say, this changes very quickly.)
• Parental Substitute: She was one to Bel in Bel's timeline.
• Put on a Bus: During the Remno incident in the latter half of Volume 2, Mia leaves Anne behind because she didn’t know how to ride a horse. This ends up affecting Anne greatly. While she goes back to Tearmoon to recruit Ludwig and Dion’s help, Anne goes through great pains so she doesn’t get left behind again, including learning how to ride horses. She is present for Mia’s subsequent adventures.
• Shipper on Deck: She's Mia's romantic advisor for a reason, and that reason has less to do with Anne's (nonexistent) romantic experience and more to do with her being even more invested in Mia's love life than Mia herself.
• Undying Loyalty: To Mia, both in the previous timeline and this one, where she swears to follow Mia for the rest of her life unless Mia herself decides she no longer needs Anne.
  • Tragically, in some timelines this loyalty ends up costing Anne her life. One such example was a timeline where despite Mia making an effort to better the nation, the revolution still happened. Although she made an attempt to save Mia after she was imprisoned, she was caught and killed. In the timeline where Bel comes from, it was noted that the Chaos Serpents hunted down and killed many of Mia's closest servants and friends. Eventually, they caught up to her and killed her as well.
• What You Are in the Dark: Despite the fact she'd originally became an imperial maid for the paycheck and was mistreated by Mia in the past, Anne still chose to treat Mia with kindness and genuine care during her imprisonment up until Mia's execution. It was because of this that Mia upon returning to the past promotes Anne to her personal maid knowing Anne would always stay by her side.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Everything Anne knows about romance comes from her younger sister Elise's writing, and since Elise has no experience in the matter herself...

Ludwig Hewitt

Ludwig Hewitt

Voiced by: Yuichiro Umehara (JP, drama CD and anime)

A government official and Mia's teacher in her past life, Ludwig's genius and efforts were crucial in trying to keep Tearmoon Empire afloat. It's for this reason that Mia swiftly enlists him as her minister in the new timeline, counting on his intelligence to successfully avert disaster this time.

In the original timeline, Ludwig was one of the few to never abandon Mia, futilely arguing against her execution and remaining her ally to the end. After the revolution, he declined to work with Sion and went his own way.

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• Brutal Honesty: In the original timeline, he didn't hold back his opinion at all, resulting in many, many lectures for Mia and a Blunt "Yes" when she asked if she really came across as so selfish to hoard a hypothetical cake after seeing starving villagers.
• Character Development: At the start of the series, he believes that solving the Empire’s problems is purely financial, and while his intelligence is useful his condescending attitude makes it difficult for people to work with him. After being recruited by Mia, as seen in the Heel Realization, he comes to understand that to solve problems the financial issues need to be mended, but there is a human factor as well. He also comes to understand that nobles have a different way of thinking as well. He becomes more cooperative, takes initiative to recruit people to help both him and Mia with future endeavors, such as Dion, and becomes more patient and less condescending when people ask him questions.
• Do Not Call Me Sir: Tries to get Bel to stop calling him Professor, to no avail.
• The Good Chancellor: Ludwig serves as Mia's advisor (and brains in general, really), and whether it's the original timeline or this one, he has nothing but the country's best interests in mind.
• Heel Realization: Prior to Mia visiting the New Moon District, he previously dismissed the people who lived there. After Mia visited the area along with rescuing the child and pointing out a pandemic could originate from there, Ludwig realized that the problems with the Empire weren't purely financial, and he should not simply dismiss people for being in unfortunate circumstances.
• Honest Advisor: He's one to Mia, particularly in the original timeline where he didn't hold back with his opinions at all. He's less blunt in the new timeline as even when he disagrees with her, he's convinced that it's probably part of her plans or it's at least overshadowed by all that she allegedly does well.
• In-Series Nickname: Mia continues to call him Four-Eyes (kuso megane) in her head even after she's warmed up to him.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: In the original timeline, he becomes extremely angry when people speak poorly of Mia after her execution, especially if it goes to extremes that make it seem like she was responsible for all the Empire’s woes when she was trying to help.
• Number Two: If Anne is Mia's right hand, then Ludwig is considered her left.
• Odd Friendship: In the new timeline, he and Dion become two of Mia's primary supporters, going down in history as her Brains and Brawn.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Nicknamed Four-Eyes by Mia and easily one of the smartest characters in the series; Mia keeps him around in part so that he can come up with all of her strategies.
• Stern Teacher:
  • To Mia in the original timeline, where he would frequently lecture her but with her best interests in mind. One bonus story has Mia meet with OG!Ludwig in a dream, where she tells him that she's grateful for all of his lectures now, as they've saved her life, and she appreciates that he stood by her to the very end.
  • On the other hand, he wasn't one to Bel, who describes him as always very lenient and understanding. Mia is appalled at the different treatment, though the narrator points out that Bel was also a much younger student than Mia so Ludwig's different standards were quite reasonable, actually.
• Tragic Dream: In the original timeline, his greatest hope was that Mia would be able to use all the lessons he had taught her and become a better ruler after the empire had recovered from the famine.
  Ludwig: Please, I hope that this foolish princess’s hard work will be rewarded, even if just a little.
• Undying Loyalty: To Mia both in this timeline, where he sees her as the ideal leader, and in the previous one, where he declined to serve Sion because he was responsible for her death. One flashback to the latter time reveals that even though logically, Ludwig knew she was incompetent and people had the right to criticize her, a drunken man badmouthing her after her death has Ludwig, of all people, fly into a violent rage.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After being recruited by Mia, Ludwig remains practical minded, but he is shown to be more patient when dealing with people not as intelligent as him as he’s more willing to explain things to people who ask him questions without being condescending.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In the original timeline, it is unknown what happened to Ludwig after he gets into a bar fight defending Princess Mia’s name. Apparently, he went into hiding and no one had any record of his whereabouts.

Tiona Rudolvon

Tiona Rudolvon

Voiced by: Kanon Takao (JP, drama CD and anime)

The eldest daughter of Outland Count Rudolvon, an impoverished noble family of the Tearmoon Empire. Tiona is a target of bullies from the Tearmoon Empire due to her status, originally including Mia due to jealousy over Sion favoring Tiona. In this timeline, however, Mia is determined to stay far away from the girl, never mind bullying her.

In the original timeline, she became the spearhead and saint of the revolution, making her a direct contributor to Mia's execution. Afterwards, upon realizing the truth of what happened, she went on to live the rest of her life in regret.

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• All of the Other Reindeer: She's the daughter of an Outland Count; as a result, other Tearmoon nobles look down on and bully her for being a "backwater" noble whom they feel doesn't deserve to be at the academy.
• Birds of a Feather: She and Sion are both righteous individuals willing to stand up in the face of injustices no matter the consequence, which came to be the backbone of their relationship in the original timeline. Mia lampshades it, noting that Tiona (and Rafina) is the only girl she could imagine keeping up with Sion and making a relationship with him work.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: She starts off adept with a sword and later decides to take up the bow as well to cover her bases, making her one of the few characters who's established to wield different types of weapons.
• Dramatic Irony: Tiona is responsible for putting Mia to death in the Guillotine timelines, and she comes to regret her actions later on. However, after Mia and Tiona make peace in the current timeline, she ends up being the one to save Mia from certain death at the Wolfmaster’s hands.
• Fatal Flaw: In the original timeline and to a certain extent in the current timeline, Tiona has let her anger get in the way of her judgment. Due to her past treatment, she believed that all nobles were bad which was a contributing factor to her refusing to meet with Mia both in the original timeline and in the second guillotine timeline despite becoming friends with Mia in that timeline because she didn’t want to take the chance of forgiving her. Part of her character development is overcoming her built up anger.
• First Girl Wins: Subverted. From a certain perspective, Tiona's the "first girl" thanks to her Ship Tease with Sion in the original timeline (as well as being who Sion technically met first then). However, not only did they not end up together, but in the new timeline, Mia's actions erase the trigger for Tiona and Sion's Rescue Romance and Sion instead falls for Mia. Double subverted later on: OG!Tiona's regret over not reaching out to Sion — setting him down the lonely path of the Penal King — bleeds over to the present, and Tiona becomes Sion's confidant after Mia rejects him. In time, romance blooms between them, redeeming their failed relationship from their past lives.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: In Vol. 6, after a few years of Mia bonding with the others, including even Sion whom she acknowledges as a good friend, she realizes that — despite Tiona helping her out on several occasions — the two of them never really connected in a meaningful way. One of the major plots of the volume is Mia rectifying that, especially as she attributes this to her unrecognized remorse over how she treated Tiona in her previous life, with Tiona also admitting that she wants to talk with Mia more due to her similar subconscious guilt of not doing so in the original timeline.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In the original timeline, she let Sion go because she feared that she was a reminder of his trauma, and hoped that whoever he'd marry instead would make him happy. Tragically, this never came to pass, fueling one of Tiona's many regrets that bled into the new timeline.
• Jeanne d'Archétype: Tiona hails from (relatively) humble origins and was seen as a saint and the symbol of the revolution in the original timeline.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In multiple timelines, including ones where Mia befriended Tiona, she cut off Mia’s head without trying to get her side of the story. She finds out far too late that Mia had nothing to do with her father’s death and regrets it. Some of the regret spills over to the current timeline in the form of dreams and fragmented memories.
• Never My Fault: Played straight only to be quickly subverted. When the truth came to light that Mia had nothing to do with her father's death, Tiona was quick to deny any wrongdoings at first. She attempted to try and justify killing Mia by telling herself that since the public was angry and wanted Mia dead, it didn't matter if she was innocent of that crime or not. However as time passed, it became harder to think that way, and eventually she caved to the guilt and admitted that she had made a grave mistake in killing her without trying to learn the full story.
• Nice Girl: She's a polite and earnest girl. Even Mia, who starts off wary because of Tiona getting her executed, doesn't seem to have anything bad to say about her actual personality (besides Mia's usual brand of petty complaints), compared to Mia's genuine criticisms about Sion.
• Put on a Bus: While Mia takes Tiona and Liora with her to Sunkland to help prevent Sion’s assassination, she becomes sick at the end of Volume 9, so she is left behind while Mia travels with the rest of her entourage to the Equestrian Kingdom in Volume 10.
• Revenge Before Reason: It is indicated in all the timelines where she has Mia executed, she was blinded by revenge. She refused to speak with Mia despite Ludwig’s urging. She even ignored Sion’s urging in the timelines where he was against executing Mia. In all timelines, she eventually learns Mia was not responsible for her father’s death and lived with regrets. In the current timeline, she appears to be instinctively attempting to correct this due to having faint recollections of her past lives.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Tiona's way of doing things, which is what led her to being the saint of the revolution previously. Rules and social guidelines, explicit or implicit, don't matter in the face of doing what's right.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Tiona tries very hard to be a Proper Lady in order to win the approval of other nobles... which has included studying things like swordsmanship, not to mention her willingness to stand up for her beliefs even in the face of propriety.
• Unwanted Assistance: Due to her honest and upright personality, she has a tendency to lend this to Mia, such as openly declaring her support for Mia during the student council election when Mia is secretly hoping to remain inconspicuous. With that said, Tiona's help ends up saving the day for Mia, more often than not.
• Unwitting Pawn: Tiona was the leader of the revolution that overthrew the Tearmoon Empire in the original timeline. She was already unhappy that a tribe her family was friendly with was massacred, seemingly due to Mia's selfishness. Then her kindly father distributed food to the starving commoners, only to be assassinated, apparently at the whim of the emperor who was jealous of the popularity he was receiving. Determined to avenge his death, Tiona formed powerful alliances with Prince Sion, Rafina, and others with grudges against the Imperial Family, forming the revolutionary army. She ultimately succeeded in putting the Imperial Family to death. While the Imperial Family was incompetent, they were not actually responsible for any of the incidents that created grudges against them. Without her knowledge, Mia was simply used as an excuse to massacre the Lulu tribe by a noble that wanted their land. Furthermore, Tiona's father was actually assassinated by people who were hoping for her to react exactly the way she did by framing the Imperial Family for it. Tiona, due to refusing to speak with Mia properly prior to her execution, realized this far too late and regretted it for the rest of her life.
• Uptown Girl:
  • Subverted in the original timeline. Mia idly wonders in the present if Tiona and Sion hooked up after she died, but the truth was complicated: though Tiona had feelings for Sion and it's implied it could've been mutual, she chose never to act on them. For one, their different social stations made it impossible, as even her role in the revolution hardly made her equal to him, but above all, because after he went to war for her — and came out scarred — she felt she was hardly in any position to share a future with him. After he returned to Sunkland, they became virtual strangers over time.
    First loves are doomed to wither.
  • In the new timeline, her family eventually receives a different title, shedding the stigmatized one of Outcount. However, people realize that said title means nothing, especially since it doesn't exist in Tearmoon proper. It becomes a double subversion when word spreads of how much Tiona and her family have achieved by this point, along with the fact Tiona helped save Sion’s father. This leads people to see the title as a recognition of prestige. As a result, while Tearmoon nobility still looks down on Tiona, Sunkland welcomes her and sees her relationship with Sion as romantic and inspiring.

Liora Lulu

Liora Lulu

Voiced by: Fuko Saito (JP, drama CD and anime)

Tiona's personal attendant and member of the Lulu tribe who reside within the forests between Count Rudolvon's territory and Viscount Berman's.

In the original timeline, she participated in the revolution.

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• A Friend in Need: During the Lulu tribe incident in Volume 2, she stands up for Mia’s character when the Lulu chief attempts to deny that Mia is being honest with him.
• Alliterative Name: Liora Lulu having a Species Surname, being of the Lulu tribe.
• Cute Little Fangs: Liora has these due to her "wild" nature.
• Lady-In-Waiting: Liora serves as Tiona's.
• Master Archer: She's explicitly described as this, and one bonus story even has her show off archery tricks to Mia.
• Ninja Maid: She's very athletic and a skilled archer, which is one of the primary reasons she was appointed as Tiona's personal maid upon being sent to Saint-Noel.
• Odd Friendship: She forms one with Anne in the spin-off focused on Anne’s time while Mia is away. Anne tries to help her become a better maid.
• Put on a Bus: She stays behind while Mia and the rest of the entourage goes to the Equestrian kingdom due to Tiona getting sick.
• You No Take Candle: She's not entirely fluent in the main language of the continent. Normally, this would disqualify her from being a personal maid, but putting aside her valued athletic abilities, the Rudolvons couldn't afford anyone else. They also hired her due to her loyalty and athletic ability.

Chloe Forkroad

Chloe Forkroad

Voiced by: Rie Takahashi (JP, drama CD and anime)

The daughter of a wealthy merchant and Mia's classmate. In the new timeline, Mia is eager to befriend her to have a book buddy; as a side benefit, though, Chloe's connections ultimately make her a useful ally in Mia's attempts to prevent the famine's fallout.

In the original timeline, Mia ignored her presence, making Chloe uninvolved in her life.

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• Character Development: Bonding with Mia causes Chloe to become more capable of socializing with others as she becomes part of Mia’s group. In the future, she becomes worthy of succeeding her father as head of the company.
• Commonality Connection: Mia bonds with her over a shared love for reading (adventure stories, in Mia's case; Chloe likes all genres).
• Cute Bookworm: She's the scholarly but painfully shy daughter of a merchant-turned-lesser noble. Mia's own growing interest in reading causes her to reach out to Chloe and the two become fast friends.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: She doesn't enjoy being a loner, but is too timid to change things until Mia comes along.
• Shrinking Violet: In the original timeline, where she was too shy to ever reach out to anyone, not helped by the fact that the nobility looked down on nouveau riche like her.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: She has glasses, marking her as the bookish one among Mia's friends whom Mia sometimes goes to for advice.

Dion Alaia

Dion Alaia

Voiced by: Makoto Furukawa (JP, anime)

A soldier of Tearmoon Empire, though loyal more to his men and love of fighting than any master. That is, until events in the new timeline lead him to joining the Princess Guard — ironically so, considering his role in Mia's past life.

In the original timeline, he participated in the revolution. As a reward for his services, he personally requested to be Mia's executioner.

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• Blood Knight: He lives for the battlefield. It's a source of surprise for him when, after meeting Mia, he starts to consider fantasies of one day retiring and passing away from old age.
• Deadpan Snarker: Every other line of his tends to be sarcastic or flippant.
• The Dreaded:
  • Even as Mia comes to acknowledge that Dion has been a pretty loyal subject to her, she'd rather stay ten feet away from him as long as there's no bigger threat in the vicinity. As she puts it, there's always the lingering paranoia that he's going to suddenly whip out his sword and decapitate her.
  • What with Dion being the Empire's Finest, any enemy to Mia or the Tearmoon Empire knows to be afraid if his name is mentioned.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: In contrast to Vanos, his second-in-command who has the Face of a Thug but Wouldn't Hurt a Child, Dion looks like a gentleman but is far more ruthless and would without remorse take out any threat no matter their age or gender.
• Odd Couple: He developed this dynamic with Citrina when they are in Sunkland while she investigates possible Chaos Serpent activity on Mia’s behalf.
• Odd Friendship: With Ludwig.
• One-Man Army: Better send an entire squadron after Dion if you want to take him down. The narration even explicitly refers to him as a one-man army.
• Papa Wolf: Surprisingly, as the leader of a mercenary company operating out of Tearmoon. In the original timeline a disastrous conflict not really caused by Mia lead to his entire mercenary company being slaughtered, to a man, except himself. He spends the rest of his life seeking revenge on her. This attitude ends up spreading to Mia in the new timeline, which is all the more amusing considering her opinion on him.
• Sole Survivor: In the original timeline, only he among his squad came out alive after the Battle of Sealence, fueling a murderous grudge against Mia.
• World's Best Warrior: In a one-on-one fight (and then some), Dion can wipe the floor with just about anyone and everyone. It's telling that if Mia personally requests for Dion to accompany her somewhere, Ludwig essentially considers that to be the Godzilla Threshold as his singular presence is typically overkill.
• You Shall Not Pass!: In Miabel's timeline, he and his men held off an army of Miabel's pursuers, dying in the process but allowing Miabel to find safe haven in the capital. In Mia's timeline, the first thing Miabel does upon seeing Dion is hug him.

Elise Littstein

Elise Littstein

Voiced by: Hina Yomiya (JP, anime)

Anne's sickly, bedridden younger sister. She occupies her time with writing stories. After Anne was hired by Mia to become her personal maid, Anne was able to send a larger amount of money to her family, and Elise was able to eat more, which allowed her to recover. In the timelines in which she doesn't die of the famine, she becomes the writer of the Princess Chronicles, a biography of Mia of which a copy from the future eventually replaces her diary.

In the original timeline, Anne would read one of her in-progress stories to Mia while visiting her in prison. Her death from the famine kept her from ever finishing it.

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• Delicate and Sickly: Her health is poor enough for her to spend the entire day in bed and the original timeline's famine to claim her life. She recovers in the other timelines.
• invokedDied During Production: In the original timeline, she leaves the in-progress story Anne was reading Mia unfinished with her death.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: While Elise does say this in kinder words, she makes it clear to Mia that originally, she doesn't want to be hired simply because Anne is Mia's maid and Mia feels sorry for her. It takes Mia a bit of convincing that her writing is truly worthy of praise for Elise to accept the job opportunity.
• Spotting the Thread: Mia accidentally reveals information about Elise's story that she has't written yet. However, Anne simply states Mia probably guessed how Elise was developing the story, which was an opportunity Mia seized upon, and Elise decided to simply drop it.
• Undying Loyalty: She develops this towards Mia. In different timelines, she continues to look over Miabel partly due to her loyalty for Mia as well as the affection she developed for Miabel herself.

Chaos Serpent (spoilers)

General

General

A Religion of Evil that seeks Revenge against the world itself by ending human civilization.

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• Ancient Conspiracy: They predate the Tearmoon Empire, and their plans were set into motion by the First Tearmoon Emperor.
• Allegiance Affirmation: One method they use to ensure that their less willing pawns never betray them is to coerce them into committing a murder. Even if the pawn turns on them later, the previous murder will be weighted against them. Duke Yellowmoon, who was too cowardly to defy the Chaos Serpents but was also too cowardly to actually commit murder, kept Faking the Dead all of the people they ordered him to assassinate.
• Bad Samaritan: One of their tricks is to befriend the downtrodden, the outcasts, and those who have tragically lost their family members to mysterious murders. The Chaos Serpents are often responsible for engineering their situations in the first place.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: At first, Mia assumes that the Tearmoon Revolution was a result of bad luck, but as she uncovers more and more Contrived Coincidences that just so happened to lead the Empire to its doom, it becomes apparent that everything was planned, and an Ancient Conspiracy was responsible. The First Emperor is the closest thing the story has to a main antagonist, except that he is long dead. Due to the Serpents' nature as a cell-based organization, there is no single main villain.
• Chaos Is Evil: As their name suggests, they are big on chaos, and their ultimate goal is the destruction of all manmade order to make everyone else suffer like them.
• Civilization Destroyer: One of their goals is an end to all manmade order. And that's when they aren't full fledged Omnicidal Maniacs.
• Et Tu, Brute?: One of their favorite tactics is to exploit the cracks in people's relationships and from there manipulate them into doing something against them, many of which are usually considered a form of betrayal. Even when they are cornered, they usually try to salvage the situation in trying to break the relationships up.
  • In volume 6, upon being cornered after having their plans foiled, they try to force Mia to make a Sadistic Choice of executing a traitor family. But whichever option she chooses will result in her betraying the trust of one of her closest.
  • In volume 9, they take advantage of Sion's younger brother, knowing that he has an inferiority complex, to try and poison Sion. It fails and ends up poisoning his father instead.
  • In volume 11, upon being defeated, Mia stops the Big Bad from falling to her death by catching her by the wrist. The Big Bad just laughs at her, telling her that either saving her or letting her die will result in her betraying a different person, and because of that, she's already won.
• The Exile: In ancient times, they were banished from the continent to a small island for their crimes.
• Forced into Evil: A few members are not Serpents by choice, but have been forced into their ranks by Serpents acting as Bad Samaritans. The Yellowmoon Ducal house is the most prominent example. Their founder was a cousin of the First Emperor who was as eager to spread misery and suffering as the Emperor, but his descendants were forced into it by a mixture of the oppression by the Imperial Family (as was deliberately set into motion by their ancestors to keep their descendants in line) and the Serpent cultists who permeated their own ranks.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: They love to set things up so that most of the time they profit even in defeat. Usually it requires some outside help or luck in order to secure a real victory over them. Even the act of capturing one and executing an agent of their usually backfires, as many of their members were originally from low standing positions or even have pitiful circumstances. They will try to spin their version of propaganda in order to garner hatred towards the ruling authorities to weaken them and in turn just get another new member.
  • Throughout Volume 2 several Serpents show great displeasure that Mia's outside intervention had completely derailed their plans to the point that they couldn't salvage anything from it.
  • In Volume 6, upon being cornered upon their defeat, they try to force Mia into making a choice in executing a traitor family. Do so, and she'll betray her family, but spare them, and she betrays her friends instead. Fortunately Lord Yellowmoon’s secret actions in sparing the lives of his intended victims while faking their deaths allows Mia and her friends to Take a Third Option and emerge victorious while also gaining the Yellowmoons as allies.
  • In Volume 11, upon cornering the Big Bad, Mia has grabbed her by the wrist to stop her from falling to her death. During this time, she boasts that she's already won. If she saves her life, she'll be betraying one person, while by letting her die, she'll be betraying another person. Either way, she believes that she still wins in the end.
  • In Volume 12, Barbara escapes from custody, and almost kills Mia in a form of revenge. However, she is saved at the last moment by Abel and is recaptured. However, the group are then left with a problem, as letting her live will allow a similar case to happen again, but executing her will run the risk of the Serpents using her death as a form of propaganda to garner more people to their side while directing hatred towards the ruling parties.
• Manipulative Bastard: They specialize in agitating people's emotions and weaknesses.
• Martyrdom Culture:The true believers are willing to give up their lives for their cause.
• Mind Virus: The true nature of the Serpent, according to the High Priestess. A parasitic thought that warps the morality and destroys the conscience of the weak and trampled, encouraging them to destroy the order of society.
• Misanthrope Supreme: A common sentiment among them is that the world is so awful that it does not deserve to exist, so they plan to deal a Karmic Death to the world itself as painfully as possible.
• N.G.O. Superpower: While based in Tearmoon, they have a spy network embedded throughout the continent and enough connections to cripple entire nations.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Not that they can realistically pull it off, but many of them dream of ending the world and killing everyone in it as painfully as possible.
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: Most members are people who suffered from some injustice and now want everyone else to suffer like them.
• Religion of Evil: They are chaos worshipping anarchists who oppose all manmade order.
  • A large faction of them are literal demon worshippers in service to God's enemy, the Archdemon. They are the only demon worshipping cult that is stable enough to have maintained its existence throughout the ages. While the cultists are immune to conventional torture, they absolutely cannot stand hearing the scriptures of the continent's dominant religion, which causes them to have nervous breakdowns.
  • Plenty of them are also atheists, but they still count, as they zealously devote themselves to the values of Chaos Serpent, which call for inflicting despair upon others.
• Sacred Scripture: The Serpents do not form any large organizational units. While they are somewhat organized into cells, they mostly operate individually. They are unified in one direction mostly by their evil holy book, the Book of Those Who Crawl the Earth. The book is said to reek of such malice that it gives ordinary people the shivers. It appeals to the darkest desires of the human psyche and gives them instructions for tearing down human society. While Chaos Shamans are allowed pieces of the text, only the Chaos Serpent High Priest is allowed to have the full text.
• We Are Everywhere: How Rafina describes them. Members of Chaos Serpent are embedded in all levels of society, from nobles to merchants, peasants, and soldiers. It is by far, their biggest advantage, since while they lack direct power, let alone an actual army, they can pull strings all over society to set big events into motion.

The First Emperor

The First Emperor

The man who founded the Tearmoon Empire and the ancestor of the Tearmoon Imperial Family, including Mia.

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• Abusive Parents: His plans were intended to ensure the suffering of his own descendants for all time.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The annihilation of the Tearmoon Imperial Family in the original timeline was completely by design. He planned for his descendants to be overthrown and massacred by different branch families in a Vicious Cycle he hoped would last for all time.
• The Conqueror: He lead a tribe of hunters to conquer the fertile land upon which he would establish the Tearmoon Empire.
• Misanthrope Supreme: He hated the world and everyone in it.
• Posthumous Character: He is long dead by the start of the story.
• Villainous Legacy: He is a long dead Posthumous Character, but the plot he set into motion would plague the world for long afterwards.
• Villainous Lineage: He intended for his descendants to become a family of avengers, who would plague and torment the world long after he was gone. In practice, they came to enjoy the inherited positions he had conquered for them and ended up becoming a bunch of Upper Class Twits. Seeing no reason to care about a grudge no one could even remember, they tossed aside his plans for vengeance and forgot all about them. Out of all of his descendants, only the Yellowmoon ducal family honored his wishes, and even they became increasingly unwilling. When Mia uncovers a stone engraved with his commandment, she finds it dreadfully annoying.

Jem

Jem

An infiltrator in the Wind Crows.

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• Arc Villain: Of the Remno incident.
• Heel–Face Turn: He is forced to go through one when he has to go through Rafina's sermons which are, more or less, a painful experience for him due to how her teachings contradict the Chaos Serpent teachings in every way.
• Mole in Charge: The Wind Crows were supposed to be a passive spying agency, ferriting intel for Sunkland. Under his influence, they became Overzealous Underlings, ostensibly aimed at toppling other countries to pave the way for Sunkland to take over. In actuality, he has no loyalty to Sunkland at all and is using his Unwitting Pawns to foment chaos.
• Slasher Smile: He has this when putting a blade to Mia’s neck while threatening to kill her.
• Villainous Breakdown: Taken together, the plans to destroy Tearmoon Empire falling apart, not getting any valid information from the letters between Mia and Abel, and the rushed Remno plans becoming a bust do not go down well with him.
• Would Hurt a Child: Attempts to cut off Mia’s head out of revenge for ruining his plans.

Barbara

Barbara

Citrina Yellowmoon's personal maid.

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• Don't Create a Martyr: While the Wolf Master wants to kill Citrina to Make an Example of Them for turning on them, Barbara worries that Mia will spin the death into martyrdom instead.
• Evil Mentor: Part of her job is to teach Citrina the ways of the Chaos Serpents and ensure that she properly serves them.
• Evil Old Folks: She is a deeply spiteful and malicious old woman.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: She goes through this which leads to her breakdown, specifically after realizing why the Head of the Yellowmoons was interested in learning about all kinds of poisons besides the ones that are lethal.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Upon having her plans in volume 6 foiled, she and her group are chased back all the way to Yellowmoon grounds where she tries to make a last stand. There she essentially tries to use a hostage situation to break the bonds between Mia and her friends. She reveals the role of the Yellowmoon family, along with how their role is to assassinate potentially troublesome people to the Serpents and a list of some of their previous victims and what happened to their families, trying to force Mia into making a judgement that she believes would only result in her side benefiting, as whichever action she takes will result in her losing people close to her. Let the Yellowmoon family go, and she'll prove herself a selfish and corrupt royal, and in turn would also betray the trust of those closest to her, especially Sion and Raffina. Or execute the Yellowmoon family which in turn severs the bonds between her and Bel. However, this ends up not working out as seen in Villainous Breakdown.
• Manipulative Bastard: How she describes the Chaos Serpent's modus operandi, using sweet words to worm their way into their victims' hearts.
• Master Poisoner: One of her skills as an assassin.
• Misanthrope Supreme: Hearing Miabel's righteousness makes her feel sick.
• Ninja Maid: She is an assassin on top of being a maid.
• This Cannot Be!: She goes through this trope after realizing she had been duped by the head of the Yellowmoon family, and her plans fall apart.
• Villainous Breakdown: She begins to go through this after realizing that the head of the Yellowmoon family had managed to pull the wool over her eyes. Having a superior knowledge of poisons, he was able to fake their deaths very convincingly. And goes into detail when given the chance to speak in his defense. His knowledge is so great that even other users of poisons like Barbara were completely unaware of this. This piece of news allows Mia to Take a Third Option, and issue a lighter punishment that everyone else can accept without any problems. Well, everyone except Barbara who snaps and tries to kill the hostage. Fortunately, Dion manages to put a stop to that.

The Wolfmaster

The Wolfmaster

Chaos Serpent's most dangerous assassin.

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• The Beastmaster: He specializes in controlling wolves and has a great deal of skill with horses.
• Cain and Abel: A brother and sister example. The Cain to Aima's Abel. He works for the Chaos Serpents as their best assassin to further their goals, while his sister joins up with Mia in order to oppose their goals. At one point in time, Aima was about to renounce him as her family after he had crossed the line by kidnapping Citrina at a clan gathering while she and Mia were having an important race.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He is against the idea of the High Priestess killing Abel, her own brother, and simply suggests killing Mia instead.
• Hero Killer: He is responsible for killing Mia in several timelines, and has probably killed many good people in his past.
• Love Makes You Evil: It is implied that he is in love with the High Priestess, and that is why he follows her bidding to fulfil the Chaos Serpents' goal.
• One-Man Army: He attempts to assassinate Ludwig knowing full well that Ludwig is surrounded by numerous escorts. If Dion, a somewhat stronger One-Man Army hadn't been present, he would have inflicted a Curbstomp Battle.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Combined with Even Evil Has Standards; he states that rather than killing Abel to corrupt Mia, they should just kill Mia who is traveling along with Abel.
• Worthy Opponent: He is one to Dion.

The High Priestess

The High Priestess

The idol of the Chaos Serpents, and the closest thing the anarchists have to a leader.

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• Big Bad: As the icon of the Serpents, she is the closest thing the story has to a main antagonist.
• Broken Pedestal: She is this to Abel, specifically because he knows she is indirectly responsible for the attempts on Mia’s life.
• Cain and Abel: Volume 10 reveals her identity as Valentina Remno, the first princess to the Kingdom of Remno, and Abel's elder sister. Sure enough, Abel suffers a temporary breakdown upon learning the truth.
• Decoy Damsel: In the Empress Prelate timeline, she managed to ingratiate herself by Empress Rafina's side by pretending to be a prisoner of the Chaos Serpents.
• Evil Counterpart: She is to the Chaos Serpents' Religion of Evil what Rafina is to The Church.
• Hiding Behind Religion: A sizeable faction of Chaos Serpent are literal demon worshippers in service to the Archdemon. The High Priestess is an atheist, but will take advantage of any tool that can help achieve her goal, including faith.
• High Priest: As per her title, she is the closest thing the Chaos Serpents have to a top religious leader.
• In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves: In her opinion, the greatest strength of Chaos Serpent is that it cannot be killed. Even if you somehow tracked down every cell of the actual cult, humanity's intrinsic nature will ensure that one day, it will again cause a case of Create Your Own Villain, creating someone who will succeed in their goal to destroy the world.
• Knight of Cerebus: She spends much time in the background, mostly delegating orders to her followers. Yet when she finally takes direct action against Mia and her party, she leaves a huge impact in her debut. From kidnapping Citrina during a Fire Clan gathering, to poisoning her and using her in a hostage situation in order to lure Mia out and kill her. Yet this is nothing compared to the finale. Where she successfully kills Bel who had just saved Citrina from her trap by shooting an arrow straight through her throat.
• Long Game: She wishes to contribute to the end of the world, but she isn't in a rush to see it within her lifetime.
• Misanthrope Supreme: She believes the world is so awful, it has no right to exist and it should therefore be destroyed.

Kingdom of Sunkland

Sion Sol Sunkland

Sion Sol Sunkland

Voiced by: Shun Horie (JP, drama CD and anime)

The First Prince of the Kingdom of Sunkland. Righteous and prodigal, Sion is what would come to mind when one pictures those blessed by God. These qualities made him the target of Mia's crush in her past life; however, the events of that timeline have turned him into her Arch-Enemy, unbeknownst to the Sion of this life.

In the original timeline, he lent the Tearmoon revolutionaries his foreign aid and was the one who sentenced Mia to death. He eventually became known as the Penal King, living a long but difficult life.

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• Abstract Apotheosis: His first timeline counterpart, the Penal King, is described as having fulfilled this trope metaphorically, becoming more of a living ideal than an actual human being.
• The Ace: He's described as being perfect in every way. Handsome, popular, heir to one of the most powerful countries on the continent, a prodigy with the sword, skilled at everything he does, etc.
• Alliterative Name: Sion Sol Sunkland.
• Aloof Big Brother: It's not exactly intentional on his part, but his existence gives Echard a massive inferiority complex, and Sion himself doesn't seem to know how to handle it.
• Always Someone Better: To both Abel and his younger brother Echard. He has Abel beat in every department, whether it be status or looks or skill, and Echard is stuck living in the shadow of an overachieving brother.
• The Atoner: After the events of Vol. 2, where Sion is forced to acknowledge the flaws in his and Sunkland's ideals, he strives to do better and make amends. It's one of the things that Mia comes to respect about him: his willingness to genuinely make up for past mistakes.
• Bash Brothers: With Abel in Vol. 6, with their fighting styles complementing each other and Sion able to read Abel's moves so well that he can tell that Abel would die to take down the enemy, to Sion's refusal.
• Big Good: To an extent in the Empress Prelate timeline, thanks to Rafina (who usually holds the position) being the Big Bad and Mia (who otherwise would) being dead, which likely plays a role in Bel's idolatry of him. Factions were split towards those who followed Rafina and those who followed Sion, even in Tearmoon, until Rafina won.
• Big Man on Campus: He's the male School Idol of Saint-Noel and while he has his flaws, he's generally a kind and compassionate person no matter how much Mia insists that he's the utter worst.
• Born Winner: Abel feels this way about Sion, what with Sion being born as a prodigy and heir to the throne of one of the continent's mightiest countries. With that said, it's also clear Sion puts a lot of effort into being The Ace, and none of it prevents him from often leading a deeply unhappy life.
• Broken Ace:
  • In the original timeline, the chaos in the world did not end with Mia's execution and continued to expand, even to Prince Sion's country. The continuous moral dilemmas he had to face left him bitter and he would go to his deathbed as a respected, but unloved king.
  • In the current timeline, even with his Character Development in Vol. 2 cementing his future glory as a beloved king, it becomes clear that being "perfect" has strangled his family dynamics and his ability to express himself as anything but a paragon of virtue, rather than the very human, teenage boy he actually is. In time, he realizes that he's the one who envies Abel now for being able to live freely with a pure heart, not weighed down by constant responsibilities and expectations.
• The Chains of Commanding: The basis of Sunkland's rule is that their king is a better and more just ruler than anyone else on the continent, which grants Sunkland a high quality of life compared to other nations due to their relative lack of political corruption, but it also gives their royalty one heck of a pedestal to live up to. The pressure of this is part of what led Sion to becoming the Penal King.
• Chick Magnet: Adored by the female student population, including Mia in the original timeline. Due to his position, though, he can't be seen favouring anyone without it being a potential political mess.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: He's utterly incapable of ignoring anyone in need and jumps into any situation to help without reservation, to Keithwood's dismay.
• Et Tu, Brute?: In the original timeline, the final nail in Sion's coffin was Keithwood's betrayal, even if the man largely did it in hopes of keeping Sion from crossing the line. A crime was still a crime, and as The Fettered, Sion put him to death.
• The Fettered: In the original timeline, he became more ideal than man, completely and utterly devoted to the idea of fair and equal justice without bias and incredibly inflexible in his thinking. Later volumes reveal that he even executed Keithwood, showing just how far he'd gone.
• Friendly Rivalry: Sion and Abel end up becoming friends, while still competing in swordsmanship and political power plays. Furthermore, when it comes to romance, there's no bitterness between them over Mia; Sion supports Abel's relationship with Mia despite his own crush, and Abel considers it his own responsibility to be worthy of Mia rather than try and quash Sion's prospects. In fact, Tiona, Chloe, and Anne swoon a little over their male friendship.
• The Good King: After the events of Vol. 2 alter his fate, he goes down in history as a beloved, heroic king. Bel is a huge fangirl of him for this reason.
• Humble Pie:
  • Volume 2 serves as one to him, forcing him to reevaluate his sense of justice and whether his way of doing things was truly righteous. He comes to understand that things aren't so black-and-white, and he can be manipulated by others with that type of thinking. He references this on several occasions to showcase that he needs to think things through more and atone for nearly killing Abel.
  • In Volume 9 he gets another serving of this after he is defeated in his duel against Abel, and after Mia forces him to finally be honest with his feelings so she can turn him down. However, he is grateful to Mia for seeing through him and turning him down because it allows him to move forward.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Of sorts. In time, he admits to his father that Sunkland's view of kingship — being the embodiment of justice — has become stifling, leaving him to feel as though he's not allowed to have emotions. To that end, he wants to be a king of the people; that is, a human figure, not a perfect one.
• Knight Templar:
  • He has a strict sense of justice, with the mindset that evildoers must be punished — leading him to execute Mia. In the original timeline, he goes down in history as the Penal King, known as a fair and unbiased king but one that others remained wary of due to his unwillingness to see in shades of grey. He accepted a life devoid of all companionship under the belief that a true king — the embodiment of justice — didn't need anyone.
  • In the new timeline, the events of Vol. 2 see him loosen up on his views, changing his eventual fate and title to that of the Libra King.
• Master Swordsman: Described as a genius swordsman, and a Child Prodigy who was able to defeat full-fledged knights even when he was young.
• No Hero to His Valet: While Sion is Keithwood's lord, he's also a younger brother of sorts and so Keithwood isn't above teasing him or treating him casually.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Downplayed, as Sion has his fair share of flaws and moral hypocrisy pre-Character Development, but in a timeline where the Tearmoon revolution didn't traumatize him, it quickly becomes clear that he's not the terrifying villain Mia paints him as. Tellingly, as soon as he has any reason to think Mia's a decent person (alongside Keithwood's support for her), one of the first changes to the future is that Sion advocates against executing her, rather than be for it.
• Red Baron: In any noteworthy timeline, Sion goes down in history as a famous figure.
  • The Penal King in the original timeline.
  • The Libra King in subsequent timelines.
• Romantic Runner-Up: There really isn't anything wrong with the Sion of this timeline, but he's doomed from the get-go thanks to Mia's grudge from her past life and her immediate courtship with Abel. Once her animosity fades and she notices Sion's feelings, she realizes she truly could've fallen for him in another life, but at this point her heart very much belongs to Abel alone. Mia gets Sion to be honest with his feelings rather than bottle them up, so she can turn him down gently which he appreciates.
• Slave to PR: In Vol. 2, to justify to a protesting Keithwood as to why he should be allowed to follow Mia into dangerous foreign territory, Sion invokes his reputation as a righteous prince, pointing out that it would reflect poorly on him if he sat by idly when Mia didn't. Keithwood's forced to concede that it's a valid argument, as Sion has no shortage of political enemies who'd love to damage his image.
• Talented, but Trained: While gifted with natural talent, Sion also works hard to maintain and improve his skills.
• Unknowingly in Love: Sion isn't quite aware of his own crush on Mia for several volumes until Tiona points it out for him.
• Unrequited Tragic Maiden: He has whiffs of being a Gender-Inverted example, unable to act on his feelings for Mia because a) she's already a couple with Abel, and b) he could never throw away his responsibilities as a future king for her. Tiona even encourages him to say something, rather than wallow. It's defied when Mia forces him to confess so she can properly reject him, knowing from experience that silently pining is not a good approach to romance (and that continuous heartbreak will potentially make him a target for the Chaos Serpents' manipulation), and tells him that he'll find someone worthier of his love. She ends up being right, as he goes on to fall for Tiona.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: He ends up forming this dynamic with Mia in the new timeline, where she warms up to him but rises to the bait whenever he teases her.
• Warrior Prince: Royalty in Sunkland is expected to fight on the front lines and protect their people, and Sion is no exception.
• Worf Had the Flu: Played with. Volume 9 sees Abel finally defeat him, but everyone's aware that Sion forwent his usual genius style in favor of meeting Abel's attacks head-on; as it's put, it was a duel of heart and soul, not technique. However, Sion believes that doesn't make Abel's victory any less valid, as Abel proved he fought with more devotion than Sion.

Keithwood

Keithwood

Voiced by: Toshiki Masuda (JP, drama CD and anime)

Sion's personal attendant. As an orphan indebted to the King of Sunkland and raised alongside Sion, he's known for his loyalty to his master, though not without plenty of exasperation and near heart attacks.

In the original timeline, he assisted Sion in the events that led to Mia's execution, but died early into Sion's reign.

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• Battle Butler: On paper, he's just Sion's attendant. In practice, he's as capable of a fighter as Sion, with Anne even asking if all male attendants are expected to know how to fight like him. (The answer is no, it's just a necessity when your master is the way he is.)
• Beleaguered Assistant: Keithwood is this to Sion and, amusingly, Mia whom he actually has no obligation to. And yet, after the sandwich incident, he starts seeking her out when he knows that she's getting up to antics so that he can preemptively do damage control.
• Beneath the Mask: Ever the professional, Keithwood usually keeps up a stoic, passive attitude around others. That he drops it around Mia and Abel means he's comfortable around them (through dealing with Mia's antics and Abel's sparring sessions with Sion, respectively).
• Big Brother Mentor: On top of typical valet duties, he serves as both Sion's advisor and an older brother figure to him.
• Chick Magnet: Very popular with the ladies, to the point that he admits that he doesn't think much of love after going through so many shallow relationships.
• Childhood Friends: With Sion, with whom he was raised.
• Deadpan Snarker: He tries to keep it internal, as he's aware of his place as a servant, but once in a while his snark slips out.
• Married to the Job: In Keithwood's own words, he can't see himself getting married because he doesn't have the time to dedicate himself to a spouse with how busy Sion keeps him, which is also why he's never been invested in any of his previous relationships.
• Morality Chain: In the previous timeline, Keithwood regretted that he couldn't be this to Sion, who became a ruler he could no longer respect. With that said, Keithwood could be seen as one in an unfortunate way — after all, losing him was what cemented Sion's descent into the Penal King.
• Number Two: To Sion, as his closest vassal.
• Odd Friendship: With Sapphias.
• Only One Name: Keithwood stands out for not having a known last name. Given that he's been an orphan since young, he very well may not have one at all.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Keithwood is saddled with this role when Mia, Anne, Chloe, Tiona, and Liora try to make sandwiches for Sion and Abel, being the only one with a lick of cooking sense (Mia's ideas are Awesome, but Impractical, Anne is an enabler, Chloe's basing her knowledge off Foreign Queasine, Tiona has no sense of proportions, Liora is too used to outdoor cooking...all this not being helped with the one with actual cooking sense among the peers (Rania) being away at the time).
  • He finds himself in this position yet again when Mia suggests that the student council go on a mushroom-collecting trip, on the basis that a good bowl of mushroom stew is key to victory. Through the power of sheer confidence, she manages to persuade the others...
    All except Keithwood who, horrified by what seemed to be a simultaneous relinquishing of good sense by everyone present, immediately spoke up.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: He's noted to move like a phantom and can easily catch people off-guard by appearing out of nowhere.
• Undying Loyalty: Towards Sion, earning him the moniker of Keithwood the Loyal in later timelines.

Echard Sol Sunkland

Echard Sol Sunkland

The Second Prince of the Kingdom of Sunkland and Sion's younger brother.

In the original timeline, he attempted to rebel against Sion's rule and was executed.

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• Adorably Precocious Child: Esmeralda is endeared by how he tries to come off as mature despite his young age.
• Arranged Marriage: He's in one with Esmeralda. It eventually shifts into being a Perfectly Arranged Marriage, despite Echard's initial reservations.
• Happily Married: Flash-forwards confirm that he and Esmeralda are quite in love in the future, with an adult Echard denying a promotion so that he can spend more time with her.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: He suffers from quite the inferiority complex. His father is seen as an incredibly stern and strong person that makes it hard for anyone to approach him. His brother is The Ace who excels in almost everything. And it only gets worse when he meets Mia later on who was able to hold a proper conversation with his father on even grounds. Giving the impression that she truly is worthy of being called a sage despite being around the same age as Sion.
• Unwitting Pawn: For the Chaos Serpents, who try to use him to poison Sion.

Kingdom of Remno

Abel Remno

Abel Remno

Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (JP, drama CD and anime)

The Second Prince of the Kingdom of Remno. Considered to be a second-rate prince from a second-rate kingdom, Abel initially has little motivation in life. However, his position makes him the ideal target for a reincarnated Mia, who hopes to use an alliance with him as a safety net if she's unable to prevent the revolution — resulting in an encounter that inadvertently changes the course of Abel's life.

In the original timeline, Abel was uninvolved with Mia and the events of the Tearmoon Empire and was eventually assassinated in his country.

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• Bash Brothers: With Sion in Vol. 6. As it turns out, they make just as good brother-in-arms as they do rivals.
• Beware the Nice Ones: In the swordsmanship tournament, no one expects Abel to win against his brother, not even Abel himself. It doesn't help that Abel's considered a bit of a pushover. Then Gain makes the mistake of threatening Mia — cue Gain being carried away in a stretcher afterwards.
• Born Unlucky: Before Abel gains self-confidence, he's painfully aware that he was born "mediocre", between his place in the line of succession, Remno's status, and his own talents (or lack thereof). Even separate from that, he does have extraordinarily poor luck, meeting as many disastrous fates as Mia herself across timelines: being assassinated in the original, going down bloodily in a failed rescue attempt, getting exiled, crossing the Despair Event Horizon and basically following Mia into death, etc.
• Casting Gag: Abel's Japanese voice actor Yoshitsugu Matsuoka is famed for playing Kirito, a confident and charismatic warrior who sweeps every lady he meets off her feet and is arguably the current greatest living swordsman of his saga, barring his wife Asuna. In contrast, Abel is a meek and soft tempered wallflower who is all but ignored by the opposite sex, and while capable of competently wielding a sword, is woefully outclassed in skill and strength by virtually every other named warrior in the Tearmoon Empire setting.
• The Champion: Out of Mia's allies who aren't her own subjects, Abel's the least likely to have clashing interests with her. Namely, since there are no real political expectations of him, he can afford to devote himself more wholly to Mia's cause. It's no secret that being of use to her is one of his primary motivations in bettering himself, especially with the sword.
• The Charmer: He's constantly causing Mia to swoon with his unabashed cheesy lines, as he did in general with girls before she came along.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Subverted. Abel makes it clear that he picks Mia over his sister, Valentina, unable to forgive Valentina for voluntarily being a high-ranking Serpent. On Mia's part, though, she doesn't want for Abel to have to choose, aware that past Abel's fury on behalf of her and the Serpents' other victims, losing Valentina again — let alone killing her with his own hands — would hurt him.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Defied. While not immune to insecurity, Abel actively avoids being possessive of Mia or resenting Sion for being a potential rival, as he sees it as his own responsibility to be worthy of Mia's affections. Amusingly, Mia's actually miffed by the complete apparent lack of jealousy. In Volume 9, he accepts Sion’s challenge to due for Mia, and he admits he feels like he needed to do something like this.
• Endearingly Dorky: As much as Abel sweeps Mia off her feet when he's being charming, she adores it whenever he's being awkward or innocent. It prompts her to tease him, typically to her detriment as Abel's very good about turning the tables on her.
• The Exile: One short-lived timeline has Abel get into unspecified trouble with his father, prompting Mia to rescue him and give him permanent refuge in Tearmoon Empire. It's the blemish on what was otherwise an idyllic future for everyone else, hence why Mia's not torn up about accidentally writing it out of existence.
• For Want Of A Nail: Perhaps one of the biggest in the series. Abel has one of the largest changes between timelines because of Mia inviting him as her partner to the ball leading to Abel choosing to not give up as his original counterpart ultimately did.
• Friendly Rivalry: Despite Abel's inferiority complex towards Sion and the fact that they both like the same girl, they end up becoming good friends; Abel even goes to Sion for romantic advice, with Sion supporting him in turn. It's a mild Running Gag that their camaraderie tends to steal the spotlight over Abel and Mia's romance.
• Grew a Spine: The backbone (pun unintended) of Abel's Character Development, both in terms of gaining confidence in his abilities and becoming more assertive, rather than avoiding confrontation. Monica describes it as Mia taking his kindness and giving it teeth.
• Hair Color Dissonance: While unusual hair colours exist — Rafina is stated to have blue hair, for instance — Abel's hair is described as black despite being depicted as a bluish purple shade in illustrations.
• Happily Married: Mia goes on to marry him in various future timelines, with the two being no less in love as they grew older.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: He's initially quick to put himself down. As time goes on, though, he makes an active effort to be more confident in himself thanks to Mia's influence.
  Mia:^note In a rare moment of sincerity Prince Abel, please do not disparage yourself. You are a wonderful person.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: As an Insecure Love Interest, this is essentially Abel's reaction to Mia declaring him her partner for the dance, considering he's nothing next to her rank and she rejected Sion for him. It doesn't help that he and Mia had never even spoken until then, so there truly was no reason to think they would ever associate (notably, they never interacted in the original timeline). Up until the dance, he's half-wondering if he hallucinated the entire thing.
• Insecure Love Interest: He's well aware that he's mediocre at best and thus shocked when Mia rejects Sion for him. When he straight-up tells her that he's not worthy, she simply tells him to become worthy in that case, and he does step up to the challenge.
• Loving a Shadow: Subverted. When deep into their relationship Abel lists the things he likes about Mia, she's touched that they're genuine, rather than based on her idealized image.
• Meaningful Name: He and Gain appear to be named after Cain and Abel, with Abel as the "good" brother Abel to Gain and to their older sister, Valentina.
• Morality Pet: To an extent, he's this to Mia, being one of the few people Mia offers genuine moments of kindness to even before her Character Development kicks in. Not unlike with Anne's case—though in this timeline, as Mia and Abel never met in the original one—it stems at least in part because Abel was sincerely kind to Mia, rather than displaying only the expected courtesy towards a princess.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Abel has a brush with this in Vol. 2, where he decides that he'd rather have less-than-ideal royalty in Remno than none at all. A vacuum of power would only allow bandits to thrive, and while foreign intervention — namely, from Sunkland — could take care of that, Abel's loyalty "with kin and kingdom" is understandably not keen on the idea of Sunkland effectively taking over Remno.
• Nice Guy: He's a kind and thoughtful gentleman, making him popular with the girls in the original timeline and winning over Mia's heart in the new one when she'd initially picked him solely for political benefit.
  • Before Mia's influence gives him some steel to go with it, Abel's kindness is actually considered to be his flaw: he's a little too sensitive and non-confrontational to be an effective ruler.
• Rage Breaking Point: Abel's put up with a lot of mockery and bullying from Gain and never stood up for himself, but when Gain then threatens Mia, Abel snaps, furious to a degree that surprises even himself.
• Safety in Indifference: How Abel operated before Mia stepped into his life. After realizing that the world didn't reward effort alone, he decided to stop letting himself down and instead live the easier life of a kind-hearted but unambitious slacker, resulting in him being rather mediocre and ultimately getting assasinated in the original timeline.
• Sibling Rivalry: His brother is a Big Brother Bully who's always been his superior in swordsmanship; Abel managing to best him in a match cements his development by showing that his efforts do pay off, giving him a boost in confidence.
• Sickening Sweethearts: With Mia, complete with gushy letters and embarrassing PDA.
• Stepford Smiler: In Mia's past life, she recalls that Abel wore a "listless smile". Eventually in the new timeline, his happiness becomes genuine, but he at times defaults to a smile whenever trying to shield himself from his insecurities.
• Tell Me How You Fight: Abel settles into a very simple fighting style with no trickery and his full force behind every swing, reflecting how Abel himself, even outside of combat, is straightforward and uses effort and sincerity to compensate for his lack of innate talent. It's especially prominent in Vol. 9, where Sion duels him the same way but ultimately loses, demonstrating that Sion doesn't have the same single-minded heart and soul that Abel puts into things.
• Token Good Teammate: For his family, considering his brother is a Jerkass and his father is hinted to not be much better; and for Remno as a whole, where misogyny is rampant. Even Monica, who bitterly thinks that Remno kind of deserves to fall to ruin, thinks well of Abel's character, if not his ability to rule.
• Took a Level in Badass: He goes from being a notoriously weak-willed and indecisive prince to Sion's top rival, as well as a determined and knightly young man in his own right.
• Unskilled, but Strong: In Volume 1, Abel fights in the swordsmanship tournament this way. Knowing that he can't train enough in time to surpass Sion in sheer skill, he focuses on honing one and only one move to make it so powerful that Sion has to concentrate solely on making sure he can't execute it.
• Unwitting Pawn: In Vol. 2, Abel narrowly avoids becoming one. He's made to fulfill what was Mia's role in the original timeline, i.e. royalty who accidentally instigates a revolution that tears the country apart. To this end, Abel is led to believe that a violent rebellion is about to break out and needs to be put down, until Mia and co. reveal that things aren't that drastic yet and can be resolved peacefully by locating and rescuing the right person.
• Warrior Prince: Remno has a strong military culture that extends to their royalty, which is what feeds Abel's initial inferiority complex towards those stronger than him. Of note is the fact that he goes on his first military campaign when he's barely in his teens.
• What Does She See in Him?: Until the swordsmanship tournament reveals Abel's potential, Keithwood cannot fathom why Mia is seemingly so into him that she turned down Sion.

Gain Remno

Gain Remno

Voiced by: Toshinari Fukamachi (JP, drama CD and anime)

The First Prince of the Kingdom of Remno and Abel's older brother.

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• Always Someone Better: To Abel, who at the start of the series has never once beat him in a fight.
• Big Brother Bully: He's introduced by yelling at Abel and striking him across the face, succinctly telling the reader what he's like.
• Cynicism Catalyst: He looked up to his and Abel's oldest sister, Valentina, who tried to fight against Remno's rampant misogyny. Her dying an anticlimatic death disillusioned Gain and convinced him that the world does not reward effort or idealism.
• Humble Pie: He's made to eat one when Abel defeats him in the swordsmanship tournament.
• Meaningful Name: As with Abel, Gain is likely a reference to the "evil" brother in Cain and Abel as a Big Brother Bully to Tearmoon Empire's Abel, though he's also the Abel to their older sister, Valentina.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Abel recounts that there was a time where he and Gain actually got along well.

Lynsha

Lynsha

Voiced by: Haruka Shiraishi (JP, anime)

A citizen of the Kingdom of Remno, who later goes on to become Bel's attendant.

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• Cain and Abel: Downplayed since her brother's only antagonistic, not evil or particularly interested in harming Lynsha, but she's the one who assists Mia and co. in putting an end to his attempts at revolution.
• Determinator: In Vol. 6, after being seriously injured, she crawls across the ground to make her way back to Saint-Noel to get help for the kidnapped Bel.
• Only One Name: She has no known last name.

Holy Principality of Belluga

Rafina Orca Belluga

Rafina Orca Belluga

Voiced by: Nao Tōyama (JP, drama CD and anime)

The daughter of the Duke of the Holy Principality of Belluga. This makes her a key figure in the church and a person of authority across the entire continent, Saint-Noel Academy included. Rafina carries with her all the grace and maturity one would expect from a saint, but one would do well not to get on her bad side, as Mia previously found out the hard way.

In the original timeline, Rafina was one of Tiona and Sion's supporters, though she did not directly participate in the events that led to Mia's death. Years after Mia's execution, she was assassinated.

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• Big Bad: Ironically, Rafina becomes this in the Empress Prelate timeline, with the Chaos Serpents serving as a Greater-Scope Villain. Mia lampshades it, noting that frankly, it seems like all the problems were Rafina's fault rather than the Serpents'. Tellingly, dealing with Rafina in the present single-handedly prevents this timeline from occurring.
• Big Good: She serves as this for the efforts against the Chaos Serpents, being both the representative of the force and the one in charge of acting against them.
• Black-and-White Insanity: In the Empress Prelate timeline, she decided that there was no need to investigate accused Serpents, thinking it was better to kill entire masses of innocent people to kill a few Serpents than waste energy to filter them out. Conversely, those alleged to be victims of Serpents received her utmost compassion. Which is how the Big Bad, a sneakier evil, managed to ingratiate herself by Rafina's side, becoming a Decoy Damsel.
• Broken Ace: Considered to be a genuine saint due to her participation in religious rituals and all-encompassing love for people no matter their station, giving her nigh unquestionable authority within the school and even outside of it to an extent; among Mia's friends, Rafina is the political heavyweight, even more so than fellow ace Sion. However, she's also a deeply lonely Workaholic, and at least one timeline sees her snap from the pressure of her responsibilities and reputation.
• Caring Gardener: One story reveals that she's an avid gardener, growing not only flowers but her own herbs and fruits.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Platonic example, but as Mia's her Only Friend, Rafina easily gets jealous if Mia appears to be favoring other friends.
• Dark Messiah: In the timeline where she becomes the Empress Prelate, her dubious sanity and behaviour as a tyrant who easily sentences people to death contrasts her moments as the saint, merciful and compassionate to the vulnerable.
• The Dreaded: Rafina is quite possibly the only person Mia fears more than Dion — and Rafina doesn't even have the honor of having lopped off her head.
• Friend to All Living Things: Lin Malong makes note that Rafina helped make things easier regarding public opinion regarding horses at the school.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: In one potential timeline, she shocks the world by declaring herself as an Empress and throws the continent into chaos in her attempts to eradicate the Chaos Serpents.
• High Priest: Rafina's family is basically royalty heading the region's dominant religion. In addition to ruling their own island, their influence is so great that were they to order it, they could throw every country in the region into Civil War.
• Humble Hero: While Rafina's sense of responsibility means that she makes full use of her authority, she doesn't believe that she's any more special than anyone else, and she finds the constant portraits of her embarrassing even if she appreciates that the proceeds go to good causes.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Due to her position intimidating everyone, she has literally no friends, not even a close attendant. It's for this reason that she actively asks Mia if they can be friends, desperate for the opportunity.
• Knight Templar:
  • Like Sion, Rafina is very strict on the notion of righteousness and doesn't believe in letting off wrongdoers lightly — at least until Mia's influence has her soften a bit.
  • Taken further in Miabel's timeline, where Rafina's inability to prevent a mass poisoning causes her to lose it, becoming even more devoted to stamping out evil — specifically, the Chaos Serpents — and becoming the tyrannical Empress Prelate. Volume 3 focuses on ensuring that the present Rafina never turns out this way.
• Lonely at the Top: Rafina is regarded as a genuine saint and one of the most powerful people on the entire continent, thanks to the church's influence, but as a result, the only peers who view themselves as her equal are usually the arrogant sort who look down on everyone else. Mia is the first person (albeit due to misunderstandings; Mia is actually terrified of her) who seems like a decent person and whom she can befriend without intimidating.
• Nice to the Waiter: Rafina is in favor of Nobles treating people of lower classes well. She is pleasantly surprised seeing Mia treat Anne with such dignity, and she endorses it.
• Not So Above It All: Underneath Rafina's saintly image is a teenage girl who longs to do normal teenage things, like hang out with friends. Mia's inability to realize this is, humorously, why she tends to overanalyze everything Rafina does.
• School Idol: Rafina is one of them for Saint-Noel, alongside Sion. In the previous timeline, Mia tried to suck up to her for this reason.
• Ship Tease: Rafina shares several moments with Lin Malong during Volume 10.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Rafina is as polite and graceful as they get, but with a strict sense of justice and a righteous fury to watch out for.
• Student Council President: She's unchallenged for the position until Vol. 3, where Mia is forced to compete against her. With that said, while Rafina settles for vice-president, she's still pretty much the true authority while Mia pretends that she has any idea what she's talking about and isn't just nodding to Rafina. However, Mia becoming the President allows some of the burden to come off of Rafina, allowing her to consider some of the security measures at the school might have some flaws in Volume 6 when in a previous timeline she never considered it due to being overwhelmed with work.
• Tranquil Fury: Rafina is a master of this, to the misfortune of anyone who runs the risk of getting on her bad side. Mia is constantly trying to decipher whether Rafina is mad at her or not, since a smile could mean anything.
• Unwitting Pawn: In the Empress Prelate timeline, in her efforts to stamp out the Chaos Serpents, she used her influence to send every country in the region into Civil War, spreading chaos and destruction, killing countless people, and earning hate towards the dominant religion, exactly like the Chaos Serpents wanted.
• Villainous Princess: One bonus story has Rafina play this role in-universe as the Villain Protagonist for a play Mia wrote, and funnily enough, she loves the experience.
• What You Are in the Dark: In Volume 10 when Mia and Rafina are forced to ride away from bandits that attempting to chase them, she makes note that Mia could have tried forcing her off the horse, so she could get away, but Mia doesn't suggest it. Additionally, when Mia is knocked unconscious, Rafina decides to hide Mia and confront the pursuers hoping they won't spot Mia. Thankfully, it turns out to be the Malong.

Monica Buendia

Monica Buendia

A member of the Wind Crows, Sunkland's intelligence agency. Events lead her to leaving the organization and joining Rafina's service instead.

In the original timeline, she was the one responsible for assassinating Abel.

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• Heel–Face Turn: She chooses to betray the Wind Crows and leak info that becomes vital to ending the conflict in Remno peacefully.
• Honey Trap: How she assassinated Abel in the original timeline.

Kuolan

Kuolan

One of the horses at the academy. Mia favors him as a mount despite the annoyance he causes her due to his competence.

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• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite how he treats Mia, he does seem to care about her.
• Nearly Normal Animal: Kuolan cannot talk, and probably doesn't understand human language fluently, but his well-timed sneezes suggest that he understands human language an awful lot better than a normal animal should. Lin Malong outright warns Mia that he can sort of understand what humans say and she should be careful with her words in his presence.
• Troll: He chooses to sneeze on Mia at inconvenient moments and seems to enjoy messing up her attempts at taunting him.

Shalloak Cornrogue

Shalloak Cornrogue

A ruthless merchant based in the port city of St. Baleine.

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• Corrupt Corporate Executive: He is the type of man who doesn't mind starving thousands of people to death by abusing a monopoly over the food supply to price-gouge. While he acknowledges contracts as being sacred to merchants, he is also fine with exploiting Loophole Abuse or even reneging on them if the increase in profit is high enough to adjust for the loss in trust.
• Greed: To him, money is God, so seeing his fellow businessman, Marco, treat money as a secondary objective, and the already wealthy imperial Mia say that some things are more valuable than money disturbs him. Deep down, he fears they may be right, which irks him all the more, since it would mean the life he has lived up till now was All for Nothing.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: He pays a scholarship for poor yet talented children to attend school. While this could just be a way to make himself look good, he originally did this before he had a lot of spare money to spend on it. Mia theorizes that while he currently values ruthless greed, he may have been more idealistic in his youth, and would consider this an embarrassing hidden weakness if brought up now. She turns out to be right, and when reminded of it, he initially dismisses it as foolish nonsense from his youth. But paradoxically, when he realizes that the life he has been living has no meaning, he interprets it as the one thing he did right. He proceeds to become one of the major benefactors of Mia's anti-famine charitable organization.
• Ignored Epiphany: He is one of the people to receive a dream of how his life ended in the original timeline. Unlike most people who received such a dream, he refuses its epiphany, declares that I've Come Too Far, and proceeds to continue working against Mia in order to profit from the coming famine. A close brush with death in the new timeline forces him to accept the epiphany, leaving him feeling utterly defeated as his entire life has been proven to be All for Nothing.
• I've Come Too Far: Mia's words and the accompanying Visions of Another Self shakes him to the core and forces him to revaluate his beliefs. He manages to reject changing on the basis of himself being in his sixties. It would be All for Nothing if he changed his opinions now.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste:
  • In the original timeline, when the famine hit, he recognized the opportunity for profiteering. With local competitors in short supply, he was able to monopolize his connections to further away countries to charge excessive prices for his goods. By the second year of the famine, he could have used those connections to save many lives while still turning a profit, but continued to take to take advantage.
  • In the new timeline, Mia makes a deal with Marco Forkroad, an Honest Corporate Executive. She will pay him extra to buy wheat from far away lands, less likely to be affected by local famines, but in return, the price will be locked. In times of plenty, Marco will still be able to make some profit, while in times of famine, he can widen the already built trade route to ship in more. An annoyed Shalloak dismisses Marco's actions as a waste of the crisis. He attempts to takeover Marco's deal with Mia and wreck his business. But while Marco does make a lot less money than Shalloak did in the original timeline, the mutually established trust between him and Princess Mia rewards him with valuable connections instead, with Mia coming to his rescue.
• The Magnificent: In the original timeline, he called himself the Merchant King due to the wealth he acquired from the famine. Mia found his self-proclaimed title ostentatious, but he wasn't entirely wrong when he dismissed the Tearmoon Imperial Family as beneath him at this point.
• Money Is Not Power:
  • Money is his god, worth far more to him than friendship or even loyalty, yet it failed to save him in the original timeline. In the original timeline, he overworked himself to make more money and became a Fat Bastard to spend it. The combination ultimately broke his body and caused him to collapse. Lacking family and heirs, control of his company passed over to his loyal, but inept Number Two. Unable to even speak, he could only watch in impotent fury as all his hard work was destroyed little by little by his underling's incompetence. He ultimately died alone in shame.
  • In the current timeline, Mia more or less outright rejects his proposal to her by referencing this trope much to his shock. While he attempts to ignore what Mia said and attempts to win over the Perujin royal family, his attempts ultimately fail. He ends up being forced to learn this lesson after he nearly suffers a fatal stroke, and he is saved by a girl who learned essential medical knowledge thanks a scholarship he set up in his younger years.
• Pragmatic Villainy: In the original timeline, he took full advantage of the famine to make an enormous profit. Allowing lots of people to starve to death allowed him to squeeze out lots of money. Even so though, he placed limits on how far he would go, since dead customers are not returning customers.
• Took a Level in Kindness: At the end of Volume 7 and beginning of Volume 8, he has finally seen the error of his ways and realizes that money isn't everything. He even apologizes to Marco Forkroad for attempting to derail his business with is less than ethical tactics. The two even work together to form a business venture with the Perujin royal family to help combat the oncoming famine.
• Villainous Breakdown: He begins going through this when Mia manages to win over the Perujin royal family which was possibly one of the factors that trigged her stroke, besides his unhealthy lifestyle.

Kingdom of Equestria

Lin Malong

Lin Malong

Voiced by: Junji Majima (JP, anime)

A prominent member from the Lin tribe and the leader of the Equestrian Club, of which Mia and Abel are members. After graduating from the academy, he occasionally returns to help take care of the horses when his tribe is close to the area.

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• A Friend in Need: In an alternate Guillotine Timeline, he conspires with Abel in an attempt to rescue Mia. While the attempt fails, he did attempt to help.
• Big Brother Mentor: To Mia in horsemanship and to Abel in general, essentially being brothers in spirit with the latter. Mia even realizes that if she wants a smooth relationship with Abel, Malong's seal of approval is necessary.
• Born in the Saddle: All in Equestria believe that horses are blessings from God and valued, lifelong partners, and Malong is no exception.
• Everyone Has Standards: In certain timelines where Mia has befriended Malong, but she is still sentenced to death, Malong is very much against Mia's execution, and he even attempts to help Abel free her. He is also fine with the idea of welcoming Mia and any of her followers into the Kingdom.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: With his uniquely Asian-based name and appearance, among an otherwise completely European inspired cast and setting, and with his culture's fame for being masters of Equestrian Arts, Malong's homeland is implied to be based on the Tearmoon Empire universe's equivalent of Mongolia, the Asian diaspora in our world that is famed for horsemanship.
• For Want Of A Nail: Malong's friendship with Abel, his optimism, and the future of his clan is largely affected by Mia helping turn things around for Abel. In the original timeline, he and Abel have a falling out, he briefly feels bad about Abel's assassination, but is ultimately apathetic, he believes no one outside his kingdom is capable of appreciating horses, and the fate of his clan is less than ideal. In the timelines where Mia convinces Abel to strive to be better and she joins the club, Abel and Malong are able to become friends again after falling out of contact to the point they consider each other brothers. Malong also can see that people outside of his Kingdom are capable of appreciating horses. In the Empress timeline, he comes to appreciate Mia attempting to help with the internal problems of the Kingdom.
• Meaningful Name: Lin Malong(林 馬龍) literally means "Lin-Family's Horse-Dragon" in Mandarin Chinese (and is written as above in official Mandarin translations in Taiwan & Hong Kong). Since Dragons are the symbol of Kings and the pinnacle of an ideal or art in Eastern Cultures, Malong is appropriately named as he is a Grandmaster in the art of horsemanship.
• No Hero to His Valet: Malong tends to be rather casual and friendly with others, whether it be Abel, Rafina or Mia, and doesn't seem to care much about their reputation or rank. He appreciates them for valuing horses.
• Shipper on Deck: In all the timelines where Mia befriends Malong, he is in favor of Mia and Abel becoming an item.

Perujin Agricultural Country

Rania Tafrif Perujin

Rania Tafrif Perujin

The Third Princess of Perujin, who attends Saint-Noel Academy.

In the original timeline, Mia and Ludwig attempted to negotiate with Perujin for wheat, only for discussions to break down when Mia failed to recognize Rania.

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• Adapted Out: The anime removes the story focusing on Rania's introduction, likely due to her character not being directly relevant until much later in the novels.
• A Friend in Need: When Rania becomes aware of her father becoming tempted to conduct a rather shady business deal that could affect Mia, Rania goes out of her way to send word to Mia, so Mia could potentially do something about it.
• Conflicting Loyalty: In Volume 7, she feels somewhat conflicted about technically betraying her father to inform Mia about possibly conducting a shady business deal that would affect the Tearmoon Empire, but Mia is her friend, and she recognizes that Mia is not like other nobles, and she deserves to be aware of the situation.
• Honorary True Companion: While not a core member of Mia's group, Rania is a loyal companion when needed and vital to managing the outbreak of famine.
• The Prankster: When hosting an annual party by unwilling tradition, she sneaks in secretly stale treats as a prank, figuring that the only people who'll show up will be the usual arrogant nobles who look down on her country. To her horror, Mia is a guest that year. This actually ends up working out for her because Mia thinks she did that to showcase her country's food preservation technology because the stale treats were still perfectly edible and tasty, offering her country a collaboration to provide agricultural research.

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