Fanfic / Maria Campbell of the Astral Clocktower

Maria Campbell remembers an old life. A life bathed in blood. A fishing hamlet. A research hall of many floors and many patients. And a stranger who insisted on corpse-fishing...

AKA, that fic where a grimdark DLC boss is reincarnated in fluffy otome-land and still acts like she's in a FromSoftware game (that's NOT Cookie & Cream)...

A crossover between Bloodborne and My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! (yes, really,) by Shadow Crystal Mage, this story explores what happens when a story based around someone who knows they're in an Otome Game runs into someone reincarnated without meta-knowledge.

In this case, the canon Maria Campbell awakens her past life's memories as Lady Maria of Cainhurst years before she and Katarina (reincarnated as per canon) meet.

This results in much amusing mayhem and more than one Sustained Misunderstanding as Maria fails to grasp the Lighter and Softer nature of her world even as she slowly heals from the trauma that made her into That One Boss.

Can be read on Spacebattles, Fanfiction dot net, or AO3.

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Examples:

A-M

• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: The Student Council, which includes the Third and Fourth Princes of Sorcier, the son and daughter of the Prime Minister, several other high-ranking nobles, and Maria, who is rumored to have wandered the countryside, taking down Dark Magic-wielding mages. They handle most of the paperwork involved in running the school, and the only time the Academy's principal even appears at all is when Maria has to file for a retroactively excused absence due to needing to rescue Katarina.
• Abusive Parents: Maria's mother in her previous life is heavily implied to have sexually abused her.
• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Maria when she's learning Ashinago from Katarina, who can not tell what the issue is, much to even Katarina's frustration.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Selena Berg, the Second Prince's fiancé sends a letter to her sister-in-law Susanna Randall, the First Prince's fiancé, dismissing Larna Smith as a maid for her disloyalty and incompetence after she knowingly lets her become an unwitting pawn in a kidnapping scheme. Susanna stares at the letter for a long time, before she just starts laughing.
• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Maria tries to charge a 500% profit margin for the nightflower display for Sophia's mother's birthday, even though Sophia is her business partner, to set a precedent of extravagant pricing for future clients. Sophia manages to talk her down to 10% by tripling her initial investment into their company and swearing her father to secrecy regarding the price. She then tries to charge a 5000% profit margin for the Academy's and the princes' commission to make up for the increased investment, with Maria noting that even the princes would notice the price gouging.
  Sophia: YOU WERE GOING TO GOUGE MY FATHER FOR THAT MUCH?!
• Adaptational Backstory Change: Diana Cavendish, from Little Witch Academia is the only daughter of her missing father and deceased mother, who was the former head of the Cavendish Family, a long-lived line of healers. Here, her family instead owns several banana plantations with ties to southern merchants, and she has several younger sisters.
• Adaptation Expansion: The version of Fortune Lover made by Miyazaki secretly has eight routes and twenty endings, instead of the canonical four and a bonus route.
• Adaptational Protagonist: In Bloodborne, Maria of the Astral Tower was a boss in the The Old Hunters. In My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Maria Campbell was the original protagonists Fortune Lover who is one of Katarina's love interests^note And in a meta-sense, she's an Inverted example as she was the original protagonist of Fortune Lover. As a result of Bloodborne Maria being reborn as Maria Campbell, the latter takes up a more active role as the main character.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Anne Shelley shows no real romantic interest towards either sex in the source material. Here, upon meeting Maria's mother Alice, the two of them end up falling in love and pursue an intimate relationship in the background. Also, whereas Anne and Katarina were simply as close as Heterosexual Life-Partners in the original, it's also revealed here that, prior to meeting Alice, Anne also held the torch for Katarina.
• Amazon Chaser: Rafael Walt is unashamed about his attraction to Maria Campbell, who he admits is more skilled then him at swordsmanship and Dark Magic.
• The Apprentice: Mary Hunt gains a protégé in the form of Shana, one of the Wards of the Kingdom who is capable of using Light magic, teaching the younger girl everything about how to be a proper lady so she can enter the Academy. Later, Shana herself becomes tasked with teaching Katarina proper dinner etiquette.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Armor-Piercing Comment, to be exact Sirius Dieke goes utterly berserk the first time Katarina calls him "Rafael Walt". This also prompts the Internal Reveal of Maria realizing that Katarina is an idiot rather than a cunning and subtle seductress.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Thanks to her Past-Life Memories of Cainhurst, Maria is highly suspicious of nobles and assumes as a matter of course that she has Light Magic because she's a Child by Rape. This leads to her initially believing that Katarina is an insatiable pervert who doesn't care how genetically close her lovers are, even coming to the conclusion that she may be Katarina's half-sister.
• Artistic License – Gun Safety: Averted. During a demonstration for her Gehrmans, Maria teaches the Head of the Royal Guard how to properly use it, including never pointing it at someone he doesn't want dead or himself, before allowing him to test it for himself.
• Ascended Extra: Maria's mother only had the spotlight on her a single time in the source material before just becoming a referenced background character. Here, she's given a name and becomes more of a reoccurring character after she's introduced thanks in part to her and Anne developing an intimate relationship. She becomes a major focus of a story arc after she's kidnapped.
• Assimilation Backfire: Sirius attempting to possess Maria opens him up to being pulled into her dream with her. Her Hunter's Dream.
• Bait-and-Switch: The Third Prince mentions to the Wards of the Kingdom that they will no longer be able to meet their savior, Miss Maria Campbell, to their sorrow. He then introduces them to their new guardian, Lady Maria, Knight of Sorcier, to the joy of everyone, especially after she gives him a kick in the shin for making the kids cry.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: The Dark Magic spirit tries to possess Maria when Rafael's body gives out, only to end up in a Hopeless Boss Fight against the memories and experience of Lady Maria of Cainhurst.
• Behavioral Conditioning:
  • Katarina gets hungry when she sees Maria, as she associates her with sweets.
  • The Student Council associates the sound of knocking on wood with more paperwork, something Maria instilled and later exploits.
  • Maria use sweets as a reward-based system to get Katarina to act slightly more appropriately, such as how to interact with commoners. She also uses it as an incentive to keep her in the Student Council Room; after all, everyone on the Council apart from Maria and Sirius always follow Katarina around, so having Katarina in the room is the only way to get them to do their paperwork.
  • When Katarina is finally learning about proper dining etiquette, Maria takes a different approach to the sweets-reward system. Instead of Katarina, it is her tutor Shana, a young child, that will be affected; for every behavior that Katarina gets wrong, Shana will receive one less bonus dessert after dinner, which she also shares with the rest of the children. Being the Friend to All Children that she is, Katarina immediately resolves to take her etiquette lessons more seriously.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Rafael takes Maria away to speak to her privately after the reveal of Larna Smith's many frequent and completely unrepentant rule-breaking and self-serving actions while looking for Maria's mother, leaving Larna alone in their carriage with Anne. When Maria has calmed down and they both return, they find that Larna now sports a black eye that she insists she got from tripping and is both cheerfully and enthusiastically apologizing to Maria and Rafael for her many actions while admitting to many other illegal things she's done so she can also apologize for them, all with quite too-specific wording and details. All the while, Anne just looks on serenely, leading Rafael to look at her with awe since whatever Anne did made the normally-unrepentant Larna actually repent and fearful.
• Big Brother Attraction: The First Prince, Jeffery, towards his three younger brothers. He has their portraits in his room, which he strokes and mutter compliments towards.
• Big Brother Instinct: Maria to Katarina, to the point of even once referring her to her as her child inside her thoughts.
• Bizarre Instrument: Alan tries to see if he can tune nightflowers, ie fireworks, to explode at particular tones to make music.
• Black Sheep:
  • It's Played for Laughs with Katarina not acting like how a noble should and not really serious. However, her own mother, Millidiana, was this in her original Adeth family due to her social awkwardness and inability to interact with people casually along with her villainous face compared to the rest of her family's bright, happy smiles (the "Adeth smile", as Leona calls it). Though she wasn't discriminated by her family for this; matter of fact, they always loved her and accommodated her for her social difficulty, and defended her against other people who tried to discriminate against her. She was even given an affectionate nickname of "Little Mushroom" by her sister Leona, both because of her tendancy to stand next to walls in dark corners at parties to avoid being noticed by people, and as a reference to the Elizabeth Mushrooms of Dark Souls II, since those mushrooms heal you and Millidiana's hugs always made Leona feel better.
  • Olga, Tsundere daughter of Leona, is Millidiana's replacement in the Adeth family for this role. She is even called "New Mushroom" by her mother in reference, though Olga didn't understand it and thought her mother was saying she was dark, gloomy, and covered in muck. She is reassured of this misconception by Millidiana, and the two bond over their shared social aversion and difficulties, along with the fear of Leona's "eccentric" phases, with Olga declaring Millidiana to be her favorite aunt (much to Millidiana's happiness).
• Blood Bath: This was Maria's desire when living out her fantasy in the Book of Painted Aria (the Book of Desire from canon). Seeing that her deepest desire is to bathe in and drink unending amounts of blood makes Mary frightened and distrustful of Maria, with her belief in the story of Goodwife Bathory making her believe that Maria constantly wants to kill everyone around her.
• Body Horror: Seeing Alice being rescued causes her kidnapper, Almera, to fly into a blind rage and transform into a beast similar in description to Manus and the Cleric Beast, with all of the gruesome details that entails.
• Boob-Based Gag: Katarina's aunt by marriage, Henriette, is noted repeatedly to have "Huge Tracts of Land", and her wife, Sheryl, frequently has Henriette rest her bosom on her head like a hat.
• Bookcase Passage: The Prime Minister and the King of Sorcier have a secret door between their offices, in order to share an office while preserving the fiction that they don't. It's an open secret among the staff.
• Boss Battle:
  • Lady Maria Campbell of the Astral Clocktower versus Cursed Spirit of Vengeance, Wielder of Dark Magic
  • Lady Maria Campbell, The Wandering Knight of Sorcier versus Kent Ashmore, The Fiery Ryu of the West
  • Lady Maria of Campbell, The Wandering Knight of Sorcier versus Sarah, The Dreg of Dark Magic
  • Lady Maria Campbell, The Daughter of Alice versus Estella Almera, The Covetous Demon of Hatred
  • Lady Maria Campbell, Wielder of Light and Darkness versus Life-consuming Dark Familiar Dragon, with assistance from Kal, the Windrunner; Lalatine, the Immovable; and Wacsill, the Dawnshot.
  • Dame Maria Campbell, the Blade of Artorias versus The Gilded Slave Knight
  • Notably, Maria gets her own boss-grade health bar in every one of these.
• Brain Bleach: When Katarina and her harem drop by unannounced when Maria is studying, she (still believing that Katarina is a Harem Seeker) comes to the conclusion that the library is muffled enough for trysts. She ends up nearly running from the room in embarrassment and disgust.
• Bridal Carry: Katarina carries Maria to her dormitory room after she drives herself to exhaustion. Katarina comments that she's heavier than she thought from all her muscles, and that she has a tight butt.
• Bullying a Dragon: Maria broke the arms of a few would-be noble bullies.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: While arguing with Larna Smith, Raphael tries to needle her by saying that Lady Susanna is better at makeup and disguises. A delighted Larna proceeds to gush poetic about Lady Susanna.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp":
  • The ABO blood typing, which is named Sword, Shield, Armed, or Bared type blood. Otherwise known as Campbell-typing, as she was the only one who remembered to actually take notes during the discovery.
  • Fireworks, which are called nightflowers and were made by Maria experimenting with gunpowder.
  • Guns, another invention commissioned by Maria, which she calls gehrmans after her mentor.
• Chaste Hero: This is something Maria and Katarina have in common: they are both utterly clueless to the fact that their actions or the actions of others could be interpreted as intimate or sexual in nature, all the while they each, separately, cause the entire Academy(and more) to develop huge crushes on them. Katarina for her kindness and fun, Maria for chivalry and Bifauxnen beauty. The author even put a hidden joke in the Spacebattles version of the story that Anne and Alice began their relationship by bonding over "raising super-dense black holes".
  • The trope gets downplayed over time in Maria's case, especially after she begins a relationship with Rafael. And after they become engaged she is eager to drop it entirely. She still doesn't realize the effect she has on others, though.
• Chastity Dagger:
  • Maria carries one after seeing Katarina practice her sword skills.
  • Several of Maria's servants, such as her personal maid, also learn to carry these. Maria even gives them express permission to use them should they ever feel threatened.
  • Shana, a Light Magic wielding child that Maria rescued, ends up apprenticing under Mary Hunt to learn proper etiquette so she can better attend the Academy when she grows up. She would later end up becoming Squire Katarina's etiquette teacher because of her experience.
• Children Are Innocent: The slave children Maria rescued start playing with the Wards of the Kingdom almost immediately, while the older ones remain suspicious of their surroundings after being transferred to Lady Maria's manor.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: Maria's Bifauxnen mode of dress and intense demeanor tends to "outrage" women wherever she goes. It only gets worse once she is knighted and becomes a proper part of the nobility. She even starts getting direct comparisons to Katarina, with the main difference between the two being that Maria is actively pursuing a relationship with one of her Unwanted Harem.
  For some reason, Lord Claes was muttering something about there being two of them. Two of what?
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Maria's poor mother is subjected to days of this at the hands of Almera and her apprentice, which includes being physically cut with a knife and subjected to experiments with Dark Magic. By the time she's rescued, she's suffering from several serious infections and has potentially suffered literal damage to her soul.
• Cool Helmet: Rafael initially wears a helmet while helping to staff Maria's estate to prevent the returning Dieke staff from recognizing him. They do, however.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: Considering the reproduction method of Great Old Ones back in her homeworld, Maria considers it a face of life that she probably conceived when a nobleman raped her mother and fortunate that her mother survived.
• Corpsing:
  • In-Universe, Prince Alan barely keeps from collapsing in laughter when Maria describes Katarina as:
    "…a shrewd, cunning mind possessed of great power and influence… a subtle and manipulative seductress without compare."
  • Maria tends to provoke this reaction in Katarina's harem in general, but especially whenever she gives her own account of the events during the summer break.
• The Corruptor: Sirius uses his Dark Magic to exacerbate people's hate towards each other.
• Covered in Kisses: After a Romantic Candlelit Dinner where Rafael convinces Maria to accept assistance in regard to her manor, Rafael emerges with bite marks on his ears and neck, along with sauce on his nose.
• Cowboy Cop: Larna Smith frequently acted outside the law without Ministry authorization, using her authority as a department head and the protection of her fiancé, the First Prince to get away with it. After her attempt to root out a dangerous element by helping to kidnap Katarina ends in failure, she is disciplined by the Ministry, where her history of this is used to both defend and condemn her. In the end, she is demoted and banned from making magic tools for several months.
• Cultural Translation: Chiharu references several things she sees in their Ashinago term, like referring to Maria as a shinobi, due to not knowing the Sorcier language and thus their original term.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Maria versus Sirius is about as fair as putting a novice against one of the best swordswomen in Yharnam can be expected to be. The following Battle in the Center of the Mind between the Dark Spirit possessing Sirius and Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower is, if anything, even more unfair.
• Damsel in Distress: Maria's mother, Alice, is kidnapped from her home by a Dark Magic practitioner who deeply hates her for winning the heart of the man who would become Maria's father.
• David Versus Goliath: Maria versus the spirit of Dark Magic in her dreams. Maria's astral self is 7 feet tall and still dwarfed by the spirit. In this case, David rips Goliath apart until Goliath is about the same size as David, then proceeds to tear Goliath's metaphorical heart out. It happens a second time when Almera is twisted into a towering abomination by her Dark Magic. As this doesn't take place in the dream world, Maria struggles a lot more before finally getting the upper-hand at the last minute.
• A Day in the Limelight: An entire arc is devoted to Katarina going on vacation to meet her relatives.
• Declaration of Protection: Lady Maria declares the Ashina slaves are under her protection, before passing out from her fight with Kent Ashmore and forgetting she even made such a declaration. She still keeps her word, later housing them in her manor.
• Did You Just Have Sex?: Katarina observes that Anne is suddenly in higher spirits after taking the carriage and leaving the estate for two days on vacation. She concludes that this happened to Anne. It turns out she's completely right. Anne had taken the carriage to see Maria's mother, who she's secretly started a romantic and sexual relationship with.
• Didn't Think This Through: After realizing Katarina was kidnapped during the school festival, she grabs a wooden sword and chases after them to the capital on foot. Halfway, she realizes she should have brought a horse. After reaching her objective, she sneaks into a closet and immediately passes out.
• Disappointed in You: Diana becomes disappointed in Maria when she learns that she planned to oversee her manor and the freed slaves' accommodations by herself, rather than get help. Even Maria feels defensive and awkward about this.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Maria unwittingly does this to the guards when she walks up to Marquess Mason's residence in a maid uniform. Then she smiles.
• Draconic Humanoid: One of the slaves Maria rescues is a dragon-kin girl named Shio. Much ado is made over how pretty her tail is, and how the other children like to snuggle with it while sleeping.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • For the first 20 or so chapters, Maria is convinced that Katarina is an unscrupulous mastermind whose only concern is sating her depraved sexual appetites.
  • Katarina's friends wonder where her knowledge of Ashina culture came from. Maria concludes that she learned from talking amongst the Ashina slaves, not knowing that she's a reincarnation from Japan, Earth's version of Ashina.
• Even the Girls Want Her:
  • Maria's Bifauxnen mode of dress and intense demeanor tends to "outrage" women wherever she goes. Combined with a suitably knightly Declaration of Protection, and it's enough to cause several noble ladies to outright swoon.
  • Katarina's ability to attract either gender goes without saying.
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite being consistently portrayed as Katarina's most ethically-challenged suitor, the Third Prince at the very least refuses to use assassination to get rid of his competition. Anyone who offers to do it for him gets singled out for special attention and usually ends up either dead or in disgrace shortly thereafter - except for Maria, who was understandably distraught after her mother was kidnapped. Instead he's just going to hold it over her head as blackmail for the rest of their lives... Or at least, that was the plan. After she rescues her mother, he actually has to go to some trouble to convince her to not turn herself in and confess the crime to the king.
• Expy: A few examples that are so subtle one may not even notice. Several side characters the author added are based ever so slightly on characters from other series he's written stories about in the past.
  • While never given a very detailed physical description, one of the new members of the Student Council, Lady Fate Redmane, is mentioned to have a sister who died when she was very young, prefers to wield a scythe in combat, and has a crush on a childhood friend who injured her when they were young. Much like another Fate in Lyrical Nanoha. (For added Genius Bonus, "Testarossa" means "redhead" in Italian, while the girl she's crushing on, Nancy Hightown, is the literal translation of "Takamachi".)
  • King Artorius looks suspiciously like Artoria from Fate/stay night, though by all indications he's just a feminine man rather than secretly a woman (he managed to produce four children, after all).
  • Lady Lalatina Dustiness is very obviously Darkness from KonoSuba, even if she never goes by that nickname and does not demonstrate her, um, preferences.
  • One of Katarina's cousins is a young greatshield-wielding knight named Matthew, who was nicknamed "Mashu" when she was younger.
  • Kal Elstrom of the Blue Sentinels is Kaladin Stormblessed of The Stormlight Archive.
  • Thom Olvar is Tommy Oliver from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
  • Wacsill Cett is Waxillium Ladrian from Wax and Wayne. Cett was his famous ancestor.
  • Knight!Katarina is Okita Souji of Fate.
    Timid!Katarina: Oh god, she's an FGO joke. SHE'S JUST ANOTHER FGO JOKE!
• Failed a Spot Check: Maria sees the smoky tendrils that signify Dark Magic, but she mistakes it for a new fad in noble fashion and dismisses it, even when Katarina is in a coma and emitting smoke.
• Female Gaze: Maria got a lot of this during the sleepover on account of her being both being nude, and because how endowed and well-trained her body is, with the girls either staring at her breasts or her muscles when Maria unknowingly "shows off". Maria is also noted as having a really tight butt, both when Katarina was carrying her and when Mary decided to bounce a coin off her rear, much to Maria's indignation.
• Femme Fatale: Susanna Randall, also known as Larna Smith. She's a unrepentant woman who tends to tease and act seductive especially towards people she's fought with before, and prioritizes making Magic Tools and acting like a secret agent, over her duties as head of her department. Despite this, she is genuinely heroic, as she intended to help Katarina during her kidnapping before Maria intervened, and later helped Maria rescue her mother at risk to herself. Admittedly while still acting like an ass before Anne intervenes.
• First-Name Basis: Maria, after a year and a half of forcing Katarina to call her "Miss Campbell" and later "Lady Campbell", finally allows her to call her "Lady Maria" after Katarina impresses her with her swordsmanship during the School Festival's play. She also allows herself to call Katarina "Lady Katarina", rather than "Lady Claes".
  • Sophia also gains the privilege after they start a business together, so their noble clients won't assume Sophia is the senior member of the partnership.
• For Science!: One of the Ministry employees researching blood types injects another person's blood into his own, which turns out to be incompatible. After nearly dying to blood clotting, he exclaims that they should repeat the experiment. At which point, Maria knocks him out.
• Fractured Fairy Tale: Mary Hunt uses the tale of Goodwife Bathory baking nobles into pies as evidence against trusting Maria (a commoner). Interestingly, the commoners have their own version of the tale, which appears to be closer to the original.
• Flashback Nightmare: How it all begins for Maria, remembering her past life.
• Flash Step: Quickening is specifically noted to be something separate from Maria's Blood Magic, and thus something she can perform in Sorcier.
• Flynning: Averted hard. During the School Festival's play, Maria, the princes, and Katarina all have multiple realistic and brutal duels over the course of the story, impressing the swordsmen within the audience.
• Freudian Slip: Katarina talks about giving Maria her "really big, long and thick" cucumber.
• Friend to All Children: The Third Prince towards the Wards of the Kingdom, i.e. the children Maria rescued, earning him the unintentional nickname of Uncle Prince.
• Full-Boar Action: Boars roam the forest of Sorcier.
  • Maria requests her armsmen to capture one for use in demonstrating her Gehrman, though she questions if she'll be able to kill it in one shot due to her experience from her past life. Unfortunately, they misinterpret her orders and butcher it to serve for lunch while keeping the skull as a trophy.
• Fusion Fic: As repeatedly told and alluded to in story, and by the author, this world this story is set in is one where Demon's Souls, every Dark Souls, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice happen in the same universe as Hamefura. The former two groups happened way in the past and in another world, as Hamefura is apparently the new painted world the Painter made at the end of The Ringed City, while Sekiro is happening roughly at the same time as Hamefura. The only game not made as part of the same world is Bloodborne, with Maria's reincarnation being the only element from it. This new connection is due to Miyazaki being the one to direct Fortune Lover in this universe, and, according to Katarina, the Otome game was the first game he was given complete free rein on. For some reason.
• The Gadfly: How Maria flirts.
  Rafael: "Miss Campbell, would you take a walk with me?"
  Maria: "Oh? Are you trying to get me alone for some nefarious purpose, former-Head Clerk?"
• Gadgeteer Genius: Larna Smith, former head of the Magic Tools Department, who spends her time making magic tools, such as a sentient tracking device and a radio, at cost to her other duties. She has a rivalry with fellow Gadgeteer Genius Leona Romani, who invented an air conditioner and an improved ice cream machine for Katarina.
• Growling Gut: Maria mistakes Katarina's for an actual beast at one point.
• Has a Type: Susanna Randall is immediately attracted to any person who seems interesting to her, regardless of sex, beauty, or current engagements. She's attracted to Katarina and Maria because of their respective personalities and odd propriety, and then develops one for Selena after her doubts are assuaged with Ian assuring his love for her, causing her to act more confident and authoritive that inadvertedly both terrifies Susanna and turns her on.
  "Ah, those eyes… such intensity, such fire… " she whispered to herself. "She could destroy me so easily…!"
• The Heavy: Though Almera is the one who ordered Alice's kidnapping, it is her assistant, Sarah, who ends up doing pretty much all of the work. That includes creating the obstructions that Maria and company face during their rescue attempt as well as overseeing Alice's torture. Sarah even skews Maria's fight with Almera in her master's favor by both shaking Maria's resolve by suggesting that Alice has hollowed out and pointing out Maria's location when she attempts to get a breather.
• Hey, You!: Katarina repeatedly called Maria "Maria", which Maria insists is improper for a noble to address a mere commoner by. Even after Maria becomes knighted, she still insists that it's improper for her as a lowly knight to be called "Maria", rather than "Lady Campbell". Maria threatens to forget how to bake, which scares Katarina enough that she starts calling her "Miss Campbell" even in her thoughts.
  • Later, Maria allows Katarina to call her "Lady Maria" and herself to call Katarina "Lady Katarina", rather than "Lady Claes", after she impresses her with her training and swordsmanship during the Student Festival's play.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs:
  • The events concerning Sirius Dieke and the Marchioness Dieke, and subsequently Rafael's revenge, which would became known as "Rafael's Vengeance".
  • 'Shield, Sword, Bow', better known as 'Rock, Paper, Scissors'.
• Homosexual Reproduction: Averted with Katarina's aunts, Henriette and Sheryl, who are married to each other and have a son, Watson, but he is from Henriette's previous marriage. Katarina further states that Fortune Lover isn't a series with "yuri pregnancy magic".
• Horrible Judge of Character: Maria spends the entire early part of the story thoroughly convinced that Katarina Claes is some sort of highly intelligent master seductress.
• Human Sacrifice: Dark Magic can only be attained by someone who kills another person on top of a specific ritual circle. The climax to Maria's Battle in the Center of the Mind has her kill the Dark Spirit of Vengeance happens while her and Rafael's bodies are on top of the ritual circle that originally gave the Dark Spirit, and subsequently Rafael, his powers. Because of that, the Spirit's death was considered a sacrifice, which gave Maria Dark Magic in addition to her natural Light Magic.
• Hypocrite: The Adeth family taught their daughters that is was proper to wear heels to social events, even if they were painful as it was a pain "all women go through". The daughters eventually find out that all of their mothers and aunts (barring Henriette and Millidiana) have been wearing boots and hiding them under their skirts. Since wearing heels is what made them angry at Katarina when they found out she also wears boots, insulting her until she cried, they coldly snub their mothers the next day before going shopping with Katarina for boots and dresses with longer skirts.
• Identical Stranger: Charlotte, the maid of Katarina's mother, looks like an older Anne. Katarina wonders if this was a case of reusing game assets during Fortune Lover's development, or if there was a deeper lore reason like some time-travel plot that she doesn't know about because it was either cut from the game or was hidden in some item description that she was too impatient to read.
• If I Can't Have You…: As it turns out, Maria's Disappeared Dad was actually murdered by Almera, who was obsessed with him and completely lost it when he married Alice.
• If It's You, It's Okay: Maria hopes that if Rafael ever takes up a mistress like his father did, that he chooses someone like Lady Ascart, who she finds sensible.
• I Have This Friend: Sirius Dieke opens up to Maria about his past as Rafael Walt under the guise of talking about his sickly, deceased bastard of a half-brother.
• I'm Having Soul Pains: Sarah's Dark Soul experiments on Alice leave her with most of her soul ravaged, leaving her without the energy to remain conscious for longer than moments at a time. A doctor says Alice can recover by taking in a large quantity of souls. As being present during executions is a privilege, he instead suggests Maria slay a paledrake while Alice is in close proximity, as they possess a multitude of souls. Thankfully, the soul of Alice's deceased husband proves to be a good enough substitute.
• Impoverished Patrician: Several of the Ashina slaves are implied to be former noblewoman, who were sold off by their families for reasons unknown. Ashamed of this, they refuse to speak to anyone.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Maria, repeatedly. Usually of blood, but she'd settle for alcohol too.
• In Love with Your Carnage:
  • Downplayed into a subversion, as the only attraction to Katarina Claes that Maria feels occurs when she sees Katarina practicing her sword skills one morning, but it never develops into anything.
  • Similarly, Rafael Walt becomes very attracted to Maria after she fights him with a sword and banishes the spirit possessing him.
  • Larna Smith expresses interest in Maria after hearing of her exploits, and especially after facing off against her cold ferocity during Katarina's kidnapping.
  • In contrast to the rest of the harem, Sophia springs a Nosebleed when she sees Katarina in combat.
• Incest Yay Shipping: In-Universe. In the second Katarina interlude, the Katarina Council mentions the existence of Fortune Lover doujinshi involving "Princest" (Jeord/Alan) and "Ascest" (Nicol/Sophia) ship-pairings.
• Insane Troll Logic: During his rant at the end of the International Assembly, the Lord Presider simultaneously claims that the other nations are only willing to send "worthless crap" to La Sable and that any suggestion of reducing trade is an attempt to deprive La Sable of "essential goods". Several of the other leaders sardonically point out the inconsistency.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite forging a genuine friendship with Maria, Rafael Walt still goes through with his revenge on the nobility, putting Katarina in a Dark Magic-induced coma. This time, however, it last several weeks.
• Irony: Light Magic can't be used to generate visible light.
• Interrupted Intimacy: Alice Campbell is kidnapped just as she was about to masturbate to the perfume of Anne's letter.
• Just Ignore It: Maria's first strategy at handling nasty rumors, until Katarina starts poking at Maria's love life. It mostly works afterward for non-Katarina annoyances.
• King Incognito: The King and Queen of Sorcier attend the Student Festival disguised as Lady Noble and her butler.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: The First Prince, Jeffery, towards his three younger brothers. He, with the help of his fiancé Susanna, use their power and influence to root and destroy anyone who would dare harm his precious brothers for political gain.
• Language Barrier: The Ashina and Gerudo slaves rescued by Maria do not speak Sorcier's language, requiring the use of Katarina and later Diana to act as translators. Maria hopes to at least learn Ashinago from Katarina, considering they are under her protection.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: One use of Dark Magic. Maria later inverts this to recall specific memories (cookie-baking instructions) that she had forgotten.
• Lima Syndrome: Lady Selena Berg develops a close friendship with Katarina, who she helped kidnapped. Then again, she was an unwitting pawn under the influence of Dark Magic.
• Long-Runners: Night Fall, the in-universe series of novels with over 364 volumes, written about an AU where it is the Age of Dark.
• Lost Technology: The books from the long-fallen Marvelous Kingdom of Friedonia describe medical procedures such as intravenous infusions, blood transfusions, and ABO blood typing, which have seemingly been lost to time by present day.
• Lotus-Eater Machine:
  • Maria is too blissed out on blood to notice time passing or anything else when they get pulled into a book that gives readers their desires.
  • Because Maria was never kidnapped by Sirus, Katarina didn't have the incentive to break free of her coma like in canon, resulting in her spending eighteen days asleep compared to the couple of days that she did in canon. Acchan slowly gets more and more frustrated about Katarina not realising she's dream as time goes on.
• Love Confession:
  • Anne Shelley becomes the first person to successfully confess to Katarina Claes, when Katarina is the first person to realize that Anne is sleeping with Maria's mother. Katarina politely turns her down.
    Katarina: That's nice, but you shouldn't cheat on your girlfriend.
  • The Third Prince, with significantly more difficulty, becomes the second person to successfully confess. After years of friendship, several false starts, and Katarina's cousins repeatedly pointing out that he's being serious, he finally manages to convince Katarina that he's in love with her.
    There was silence.
    "Wait, WHAT?-!-?-!-?-!-?-!-?-!-?-!-?-!" Katarina Claes shrieked.
• Love Epiphany: Katarina helps the Second Prince, Ian, and his fiancé Selena realize their love for one another, while utterly failing to apply this to her own situation.
• Love Redeems: Downplayed, but after the Academy's First Year, many of Maria's former bullies ended up falling in love with her beauty, with one of them planning to sacrifice getting her arm broken by Maria just for the chance to ask her out. Even though said person wanting to date Maria is noted to be already engaged.
• A Match Made in Stockholm: Katarina is friendly to Lady Berg, Larna Smith, and Rufus, even though they kidnapped her. Then again, two were unwitting pawns, and one was sent to protect her.
• Meaningful Echo: Rafael Walt repeats Katarina's words when he thanks Maria.
• Mirror Character: Maria and Katarina have totally opposite personalities – one wearing Jade-Colored Glasses and the other living in a Rose-Tinted Narrative – but they both constantly misinterpret others' actions and motivations, coming across as similarly oblivious to personal relationships and significant developments. Sirius even points out that both are good at making people think they're less knowledgeable than they are (and he doesn't even know about Katarina's meta-knowledge). To say nothing of their ability to seduce people entirely by accident.
• Mistaken for Romance: Maria mistakes several nobles as trying to seduce her several times. Later on, classmates mistake her as confessing love to Nicol Ascart.
• Moment Killer: Averted. Mary and the Third Prince choke out Alan when it seems his laughing will interrupt Rafael and Maria's moment after the graduation.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: When her mother was kidnapped and she had no leads, Maria offered this to the Third Prince to gain his help: if he found her mother and Maria saved her, Maria will then go and kill everyone who ever desired Katarina, whether they be man, woman, child or animal. Keith, Mary, Sophia, Nicol, even his brother Alan, along with anyone who ever badmouths her or opposes her ascension to the throne with the Prince. And all without it ever being connected to him. Needless to say, even the Third Prince is horrified and stares at Maria like she's a monster.

N-Z

• Named by the Adaptation:
  • Maria's mother was an Unnamed Parent in the source material, while she's given the name Alice here.
  • Katarina's past life was named Yamada Tae, as revealed in the dream sequence.
• Nice to the Waiter:
  • Katarina, who is grateful for her maid Anne's help, and who greets the palace's staff by name and often comment and ask about their lives and family. They in turn care for her greatly.
  • Diana, who is close to the workers on her family's banana plantations, even referring to the manager as her uncle.
• Ninja: Chiharu, one of the Ashina slaves rescued by Maria, refers to her as shinobi.
• Ninja Maid: Maria borrows a maid uniform from Lady Berg's residence when her own outfit becomes soiled. She would later wear it during her raid on Marquess Mason's residence, and her battle against the slavers and Kent Ashmore.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction:
  • The narration does this with the end-of-chapter item description for the Nightfall books.
  • More like "Ew just... ew" when the third prince finally communicates his true feelings to Katarina. She also shoots down the rest of her Unwanted Harem in the same sentence, saying she likes them but only as friends and cannot picture marrying any of them.
• No Name Given: Played with the Third Prince, whose name is deliberately never mentioned in the story proper. It's even lampshaded in his focus chapter. There are moments where his name is written down, but it's in Japanese.
• Not Blood Siblings: Zigzagged. Maria briefly believes that Katarina is trying to seduce her and that they may be half-siblings, but neither assumption is true.
• Not Hyperbole: Much is made during Katarina's Fuming about how a knight's duty is to "go beyond death". Then after several knights are slain fighting a Dark Familiar, it's shown that, no, that's not just romantic metaphor.
• No Sense of Direction: Director Hart of the Magic Tool Department, who has to be literally chained to his desk or else he'll get lost. One of the very few quirks of that group that is not Played for Laughs.
• Not So Above It All: Katarina get her mother to wear vegetable pajamas while on the journey to their relatives. Millidiana admits privately to herself that they are actually rather comfortable sleepwear.
• Not What It Looks Like: Mary freaks out when she reads that Maria's Lotus-Eater Machine is drinking gallons of blood while bathing in it. While disturbing, in Cainhurst and Yharnam blood is an entirely acceptable drink and panacea, and as a Vileblood Maria is empowered by it, so in reality it's just Maria going on a long bender and powering herself up.
• Number Two: Diana Cavendish, who unofficially serves as Student Council President Maria's right hand man, similar to Maria under Sirius's term.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: A clerk trying to get their details pushes an Ashina girl too far and makes her cry. Katarina responds by smacking him with a scroll. The rest of the clerks become much nicer afterwards.
• Ominous Fog:
  • The tendency of this to appear around boss chambers in the Souls series is parodied when, for no apparent reason, Sirius/Rafael's ritual chamber develops a cloudbank, causing both Maria and reincarnated Soulsborne nerd Sophia to have an Oh, Crap! moment, Sophia even tackling Nicol away from it.
  • It is a known occurrence throughout Sorcier, as it indicates a malevolent being with a powerful soul. People seeing it become frightened by the sign of a monster and try to get the government to send specialised soldiers in to kill the boss and lift the fog. One criminal water mage took advantage of this to conjure fog around his hiding spot, hoping it would keep the guard out. This backfired when the guards were so terrified that they came in swinging and killed the criminals indiscriminately.
• One-Note Cook: Rafael Walt's tea is so distinctive, Katarina and Maria can instantly identify it by its scent.
  • Maria bakes excellent pastries, though she can't successfully make them with blood yet.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Maria, being a reincarnated Fallen Hero who lived a very traumatizing life in a foreign culture, tends to provoke these. It's generally Played for Laughs and gets chalked up to her being a commoner.
  • A particularly egregious one happens with Diana. Maria makes a rather desperate request for her help as a translator; Diana believes she is being propositioned in front of the entire Student Council, an offer she eventually accepts. Her blush eventually subsides after the misunderstanding is cleared up.
• One-Steve Limit: Katarina lampshades this when she meets her extended family, since she knows a Mary, a Maria, and now she's met a cousin named Marie, and wonders if the creators of Fortune Lover really like the name.
• One-Winged Angel: Upon seeing Alice being freed from her clutches and healed, Almera goes ballistic and transforms into a giant beast reminiscent of the Cleric Beast.
• The Only One I Trust: After everything Maria has done to help protect her daughter Katarina for no reward, Duchess Claes swears that House Claes will always be there to provide aid, and shelter her from any pursuers, even from the kingdom for acts of treason. Maria is left completely shocked.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Diana Cavendish of the Student Council, who has to deal with Katarina's harem trying to avoid paperwork and a President who frequently acts like a lone wandering hero.
  • Prince Alan, who is seen as the sane one amongst Katarina's harem and the 4 princes of Sorcier, with Maria lamenting the fact that he is not interested in inheriting the throne. He himself lampshades that out of Katarina's harem, he counts himself and Maria as the sane ones, and he wasn't entirely convinced of the latter's sanity.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Diana have the Student Council stop their paperwork after seeing Maria drive herself to exhaustion over her manor, in order to hold an intervention on Maria's behalf.
  • Katarina almost never cries, and if she does it is because of someone else's pain and not her own. So when Katarina is insulted by her cousins for wearing boots while they wore heels, she runs to her mother crying because she thought her cousins hated her now (and because she thought she got a Bad End and was about to be exiled). Millidiana, realising that Katarina is genuinely upset and remembering all the times she herself was insulted to the point of tears by other nobles growing up, is overcome with such fury and anger that she planned to take a decorative sword and kill all her nieces for making her perpetually-happy daughter cry. Once she found out the reason why they were upset, her murderous impulses went away, but she still wanted to throttle them by their necks.
  • The Third Prince failing to rush to Katarina's side when she is given time-off, after the big storm, has Maria, Sophia, and Mary immediately assume him to be either sick or afflicted by Dark Magic (plus Prince Ian, whom they recruit in order to gain access to the palace). He's neither, however the uncharacteristic lack of concern he shows over said unattendance – he's been trying to shape up, after Duchess Claes' utter rejection of his betrothal to Katarina shook him badly – has them all conclude that he's finally gone completely insane.
  • Katarina, of all people, goes off on a vicious (yet insightful) rant about the use of scythes in combat and how that would actually work – versus the stereotypes clearly based on Rule of Cool – that it leaves Maria taken aback. Maria then challenges her Squire to prove her knowledge, which definitely did not result in Katarina bashing her ankles with the training scythe until they were sore.
• Pain to the Ass: During a sleepover, Mary convinces Maria to turn around and bend over, before Sophia throws a coin to see if they can literally bounce a coin off her tight butt.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Rafael wears a helmet while staffing Maria's estate to prevent the Dieke estate's former staff from recognizing him. As he didn't change his voice and they've known him since he was young, they recognize him almost immediately, but don't overtly admit to knowing. Instead they make allusions to it, and express their desire to see their ''mysteriously gone'' master roam the grounds once more, face free to the wind.
• Parental Incest: After Maria realizes her mother is bisexual, she mentions that had she known sooner, she would have helped her find someone sooner, and maybe even offer herself up, as mother would never hurt her. Thankfully, for Alice's sanity, Maria doesn't say the last part out loud. It's likely a mental scar from her previous life, in which her past self was heavily implied to have been sexually abused by her mother.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: Maria wishes for a sedative after her thoughts drift to the possibility of a new sibling born between Keith and her mother.
  • Again in Chapter 186(not counting interludes)/Chapter 193 (counting interludes) - Maria runs into her mother and Anne going at it, and goes comatose as a result. This mostly resulted from Maria being traumatized by the memories of her mother from her previous life, who raped and murdered their maids and is implied to have done similar things to Maria as well. Once she realizes they are both in a healthy relationship, she mostly gets over it, as long as she doesn't think of them going at it again.
• Parents Know Their Children: The Dieke estate's old staff helped raise Sirius from birth, and knew immediately when he was replaced with Rafael, due to going from deathly ill to healthy, 20 pounds heavier, and 3 inches taller in a single night. They also immediately recognize him when he came back to help staff Maria's estate, in spite of him wearing a helmet.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: When Rafael finally visits the school, Maria demurely assures him that she knows how much more important his revenge is to him than anything else (like her).
• Pen-Pushing President: The Student Council in general, and the President in particular. Sirius and Maria even have a running joke about being the Head Clerk instead of the President.
• Person as Verb: As the series continued, various characters such as Sophia would use Maria or Katarina as verbs, claiming they would "Maria/Katarina at them" in order to solve various problems that had arisen. Lampshaded early on as well, with the person incredulously asking the speaker if they had used their name as a verb.
• Post-Victory Collapse: After fighting the slavers and their boss Kent Ashmore, freeing the slaves from their cages, and declaring them under her protection, she proceeds to fall unconscious. She briefly gets up to talk with Katarina, then falls into a 2-day sleep and recovers at Lady Dustiness's house with her mother visiting.
• Punishment Detail: After her attempt to root out a dangerous element by helping to kidnap Katarina ends in failure, Larna Smith is disciplined by the Ministry by being demoted from department head, and being forced to file almost all of her department's paperwork as the newbie.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: Sarah, Almera's apprentice, is physically around the same age as Maria at the youngest, but she is described as having innocent, child-like eyes and speaks in simple words more appropriate for a grade-schooler. Her writing is also nearly illegible and full of spelling errors.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Magic Tool Department. Originally a dumping ground for weirdos and those the other departments don't want, which comes back to bite said other departments once Rafael becomes Vice Director.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil:
  • What Kent Ashmore did to the Ashina slaves he kept and sold, cementing him as pure evil and allowing Maria to kill him with no regrets.
  • Maria and Duchess Claes discuss the possibility of someone abusing Katarina's trusting nature to have their way with her, much to Duchess Claes' anger and concern. This conversation becomes one of the catalyst for Maria taking Katarina under her wing as a squire.
• Read the Fine Print: During her second year at the Academy, Maria manages to rope Katarina's harem into three days of paperwork without Katarina (whose presence is normally the only thing keeping them in the student council room) by having them sign a contract that would ban Katarina from Maria's sweets should they refuse.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: It takes ritual murder to give someone Dark Magic, however having Dark Magic on its own is not a crime because most people dabbling in it would usually give powers to a (disposable) third party first, in order to test whether it works. Such victims usually tend to get probation, followed by a job offer at the Ministry once they prove sufficiently trustworthy.
  • It likely says something about Yharnam that Maria believes the only reason she would be summoned to the capital is to be executed.
  • Apparently, the Academy has standardized forms needed to excuse unexpected absences caused by the sudden pressing need to save the day.
• Recursive Fanfiction: Shadow Crystal Mage also wrote Lazy Maria Days, which is about the My Next Life as a Villainess canonical cast reading Maria Campbell of the Astral Watchtower.
• Red Armband of Leadership: Several of the Ashina slaves, including Chiharu, wear an Oathsworn Armband to symbolize their allegiance to their savior, Maria.
• Red Herring: Upon diagnosing Alice with a case of hollowing, the doctor tells Maria that she should kill a paledrake in order to feed Alice the necessary souls, heavily implying that Maria will go after Sophia, the latest incarnation of Seath the Scaleless. This does not come to pass as Maria is able to fully revive her mother using the soul of Maria's murdered father.
• Refuge in Audacity: When rumors begin claiming that Katarina is pregnant since she's in a coma and her classmates don't know why, the one naming Mary Hunt as the father is so outrageous Maria actually pauses to consider it.
• Relationship Upgrade: Maria proposes to Rafael while searching for her mother. He says yes.
• The Reliable One: Diana Cavendish, who unofficially serves as Student Council President Maria's enforcer in ensuring the paperwork is done.
• Retcon: Katarina's uncle Henry is originally mentioned as having two daughters named Garnet and Amber. When actually introduced, his daughters' names are Adella and Iosefka.
• Romantic Candlelit Dinner: Maria and Rafael have a purple-candle-lit dinner in Maria's room, where he convinces her to let him and the Student Council assist her in staffing her manor and accommodating the freed slaves staying there. It's later implied to have become intimate, as Rafael emerges later with several bite marks on their ears and neck.
• Rousing Speech: Katarina gives one to Maria about finding the truth behind Sirius Dieke and Dark Magic uses together to get her to accompany them.
• Royal Harem: Rumors spread of Maria's harem of exotic beauties hidden inside her manor. Considering they were actual Ashina sex slaves she rescued, she's angered by the insinuation.
  • Later, when attempting to file her taxes and learning that many of the former slaves are too old to be properly listed as dependents, it turns out that the simplest legal solution is to simply declare them as concubines. Maria is not amused by this.
• Running Gag:
  • Early on, Maria misunderstanding Katarina's friedly overtures for lewd advances.
  • During her 'summer vacation' of playing Knight Errant Maria dutifuly updates the ministry of her doings and locations. The twin princes have to often tie up Raphael to keep him from stealing a horse in order to chase after Maria whenever she goes on a rescue mission.
  • Maria and/or Rafael waking up to determine that some grisly fate has not befallen them while they were asleep.
• School Festival: The Academy has a school festival during Maria's second year, complete with a ball and a play performed by the Student Council. Maria is so confused by the notion of high nobility acting as commoners, she questions if it was Katarina's idea.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Maria reflects that when a group with two princes, a future duke, and several other nobles decides to bend the rules, they can do so.
  • Later averted when the Third Prince tries everything short of actual abuse of power to bring his grades up and qualify to become Student Council President, but fails.
  • Also averted when nobles try to enter Maria's estate several times to see the Ashina slaves for reasons that are implied to be less-than-good, flaunting their titles and claiming that they were hired by Maria personally to check on them before resorting to threats. Rafael chases them off with a sword, knowing that they're lying about knowing Maria.
• Secret Identity: Ministry department head Larna Smith, who is also the First Prince's fiancé, Susanna Randall. It's an illusion she works hard to maintain, changing carriages mid-journey and hiding in barrels to do so.
• Secret Relationship: Anne and Alice, Maria's mother, ended up falling in love at some point after meeting each other. Anne secretly meets with her afterwards under the guise of vacations. As Anne's loyalty ends up extending to Maria, she does feel some guilt over sleeping with Maria's mother.
• Secret Test of Character: Katarina's etiquette studying under Maria is eventually revealed as this: Maria knew that Katarina would never be able to remember all the rules and nuances of Noble Society, due to her short attention span and bad memory when it comes to anything boring and difficult. However, she needed to "break" Katarina in order to see if she had the determination to become her Squire officially, as the normal method Knights use on potential squires is hard physical labor, something Katarina would enjoy. So she had to strain her mind instead. And Katarina passed her test: even though she was at the point of collapsing from exhaustion, was constantly crying, was lonely and and miserable from not doing the things she loved and being with her friends, had all her notes disappear, would constantly forget said notes, be unable to get even a passing grade in her test each week, and had just found out that the tests so far were simply about the first section of etiquette, she still silently persisted in trying to study a book that she hates and can never remember, even when Maria was heavily tempting her to give up and go back to having fun. That she kept going even after all that and until she actually did collapse, showing that Katarina was able to keep moving forward in the face of a seemingly-immovable obstacle, made Maria officially accept her as her Squire.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Nicol and Sophia's parents ends up staring lovingly into each other's eyes at the mother's birthday party before running off together to a private room. A nearby maid just sighs and goes to get perfume and new clothes for them.
• Shame If Something Happened: Maria threatens to "forget" how to bake sweets whenever Katarina misbehaves, usually by calling Maria improperly.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Both Katarina and Sophia ship Maria and Rafael, and squee in joy whenever they see them act cute together. Katarina is even upset when it appears in her eyes that the Third Prince is seducing Maria.
  • Katarina is also fully in support of Anne's relationship with Alice, to the extent that she hopes Anne will one day marry Alice and become Maria's Good Stepmother.
• Shooting Gallery: Maria makes a makeshift one using old armour to demonstrate her Gehrman. She considered using a wild boar or a condemned prisoner, but circumstances demanded otherwise. She later has a proper one built on her estate for use in teaching gunmanship.
• Shot at Dawn: Maria considered using a condemned criminal to demonstrate her Gehrman's firing power. Fortunately, no one had been sentenced to death in her lands, as her friends, included amongst the observers watching, would have most likely been horrified.
• Shrinking Violet: Selena Berg, fiancé to the Second Prince. She gains some backbone after being involved in a plot to kidnap Katarina and becomes more assertive, but still lapses from time to time, like when she's meeting new friends.
• Signature Headgear: Maria of Cainhurst had a nifty tricorne hat that Maria Campbell misses. She finally replaces it, just before the climactic fight against Sirius Dieke.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Both Mary and Keith refer to the Third Prince as "The ADVERSARY And Enemy Of The Alliance" at various points, due to his engagement to Katarina.
• Skewed Priorities: Maria laments not being able to return the maid uniform she had borrowed during and after her fight with Kent Ashmore.
• Small Girl, Big Gun: Sophia expresses interest in a gun the size of a building, shooting projectiles the size of people to "remove bridges, castles, dragons and inconvenient gods".
• So Proud of You: Maria is so proud of Katarina for not only showing up to partake in the play even though she didn't want to, but also for her training and swordsmanship, allowing the two of them to put on an epic final duel between the heroine and villainess, that she even allows her to call her "Lady Maria" in private.
  "And good students who make me proud may call me Lady Maria in private."
• Spot the Imposter: The Dieke estate's old staff knew of the Marchioness replacing her son Sirius with Rafael when he suddenly went from deathly ill to completely healthy, 20 pounds heavier, and 3 inches taller in a single night.
• Staging an Intervention: Diana, Katarina, and Rafael, along with the rest of the Student Council, intervene when the guilt-ridden Maria drives herself ragged over staffing her manor and accommodating the slaves she had rescued, convincing her to let them help out.
• Stating the Simple Solution: An encounter during the International Assembly makes Sophia wonder why they never just tried engaging Nichol to a blind woman, as she would obviously be unaffected by his looks (or Sophia's, either, come to that).
• Strangely Arousing: Maria, who found the description of blood transfusions in an ancient medical textbook to be very erotic, to the point where she pounced on Rafael when they later met.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Katarina and her mother, Duchess Millidiana Claes, including their villianous eyes and especially when they smile.
• Stunned Silence: The crowd's reaction to Katarina's Single-Stroke Battle victories in the Fight Club. It redoubles when she blithely admits she's still only a squire.
• Suicide Watch: Several of the Ashina form a nightly watch in Maria's estate to look out for former slaves, some with nothing left to live for, attempting to commit suicide in order to stop them.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  • Maria absolutely did not twitch when Rafael was mentioned.
  • Sophia is most definitely not the latest incarnation of Seath the Scaleless. That would be silly. Crosses over into Running Gag.
• Sworn in by Oath: Chiharu pledges her undying loyalty to their savior Maria, wishing to serve her new lord as a vassal. While reluctant, Maria is unable to refuse and promises to protect her in return. After this, 6 other Ashina slaves also swear their loyalty to Maria, for a total of 7. They are distinguished from the others by an Oathsworn Armband.
• Technology Uplift: Maria introduces the concept of intravenous infusion to Sorcier from her old world, disguising it as something she read about in an ancient Friedonian book. It would prove instrumental in saving Katarina when her Dark Magic-induced coma lasted several weeks.
  • She later introduces the concept of gunpowder (and its less-violent application, fireworks), claiming it as a "fortuitous discovery in Alchemy class".
• Temple of Doom: One of the school's tests is set up to resemble this. Maria naturally assumes it to be genuinely lethal, and is astonished that all her classmates survive.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Maria observes that the Dark Magic spirit could have had its revenge by as early as the third month of the prior school year, simply by asking friends for help.
• Think Nothing of It: Whenever recompense for Maria's actions is discussed.
  Third Prince: Not even reimbursement? You did spend a lot of money so those children can stay at an inn.
  Maria: That was money well spent in their care. I parted with it gladly.
  • All of her various heroic deeds earn her a knighthood, yet Maria still can't seem to wrap her head around the idea that what she did was in any way out of the ordinary.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Katarina is pulled from the Academy to act as a translator for the Ashina, as the only one in Sorcier who knows how to speak Ashinago, i.e. Japanese.
• Trumplica: The Lord Presider of La Sable is a rather blatant example.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: While not ugly, Duchess Claes has sharper features and a quiet grace to her, unlike her daughter. And their villainous eyes are more prominent without Katarina's constant smile, making her look like she's constantly glaring. Though she greatly resembles her happy-go-lucky daughter when she smiles.
• Unaccustomed as I Am to Public Speaking...: A prime case. Maria of Cainhurst was a noble of the highest house, with the instilled etiquette and upbringing thereof, before she was reborn as Maria Campbell, a low-born commoner of (self-claimed) questionable parentage. Her former life's manners don't really so much shine through, as blaze like a beacon of eldritch propriety, skewed morals, and unblemished comportment. She frequently corrects nobles on their improper behaviors and assumptions, while remaining unfailingly polite, as behooves a commoner.
  Maria: It would be in the coin of greatest value to the realm, lives and power.
• Underestimating Badassery: All of the harem tried to discourage Katarina from fighting during the ballroom battle despite knowing she was training as a squire. Later on, they (and pretty much everyone except Maria) are shocked at the sheer number of people Katarina managed to nonlethally subdue during the fight.
  Maria: Lord Ascart, are you doubting my ability to teach my squire?
  Prince Alan: We're not doubting your ability, I'm trying to reconcile history with what you just told me!
• Undying Loyalty: Several of the Ashina slaves swear their body, their lives, and their Dark Souls to their savior Maria, who is initially reluctant.
• Unknown Rival: Almera was obsessed with Maria's father and went off the deep end after he married Alice. Alice doesn't even know who Almera is.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: It's looking like everyone in Katarina's Unwanted Harem will get this treatment.
• Unreliable Narrator: Everyone. No exceptions.
• Unwanted Harem: Katarina seems to regard every one of her suitors/childhood friends as this, thinking of them only as friends.
  • Maria has one as well, but she is somehow even more oblivious of their feelings despite regularly having sex in the same bed as and with the enthusiastic participation of one of her maids.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Sara, the Dark Magic wielder who's been causing trouble in Sorcier, constantly manages to escape from Maria's wrath.
  • When she was caught sneaking around in the Royal Castle, she employs brainwashed guards and dark smoky cover to escape Maria, before jumping out a window.
  • During the climax of the Maria's Mother Kidnapping and Rescue Arc, she flees during the battle between Almera and Maria, losing a bag of jam rolls in the process.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Almera in her One Winged Angel Form becomes the first opponent Maria truly struggles against, both because of her size and darkness-based attacks, and because Maria's resolve was shaken by the possibility of her mother being Hollowed. It also doesn't help that Almera's assistant is present during the fight to assist her master.
• Wall Pin of Love: Maria → Rafael. And later Rafael → Maria. They do this a lot more throughout the series after their relationship progresses further.
• We Want Our Jerk Back!: Once Maria figures out that Katarina is naive and innocent, she becomes so protective that the others long for the days when Maria avoided everyone.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Maria kills several guards but leaves their employer alive for trial.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Maria initially suggests using Katarina when she learns about several of the Ashina slaves having attempted suicide, before Rafael mentions that while they appreciate her company, it had been to limited effect and they haven't fallen in love with her like the others.
  • Because of the International Assembly making Maria nervous, she mutters to herself that Sorcier had a secret weapon for handling such. Shortly afterwards she encourages Katarina to act as herself and make friends with the visiting delegates and their entourages.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Maria has too many bad memories to realize her new life is Lighter and Softer than her old life as a Cainhurst Vileblood. She is slowly getting better.
  • Somewhat subverted. After the Third Prince gets rejected there is a segment where Vaati Vidya reveals in-universe a possible future Dark Souls IV where the prince loses his mind and imprisons Katarina, bringing ruin to Sorcier in the process whilst definitely not triggering Sophia's not-transformation into the Paledrake. This serves as a reminder that while Fortune Lover is indeed lighter and softer, the sequel marks a return to the darker theme of the series. That said, the current timeline with Maria of Cainhurst reincarnated was allegedly part of in-universe cut content as mentioned in an earlier Vaati Vidya segment (where Maria is designed strikingly similar to how she looked in Bloodborne). Only time will tell whether or not the segment was foreshadowing or merely a red herring.
• Yandere: Estella Almera was utterly obsessed with Maria's father and took it really badly when Alice won his heart. As in, she later killed and buried him. Even then, it still isn't enough and she ends up kidnapping Alice to subject her to her Dark Magic experiments years later.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Maria discards her initial plan for rescuing her mother after Larna Smith approves of it.
• You Are Not Alone: Diana, Katarina, and especially Rafael plead to Maria to take assistance when she runs herself ragged over staffing her manor and accommodating the slaves she rescued, with the rest of the Student Council helping her as well.

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