In two distinct worlds during a study of an ancient rune, the third prince and the Claes heir make a wish. In one world, Prince Geord wishes that his fiancée Katarina didn't love him, while Keith Claes wishes that his adopted family loved him. In another, Prince Gerald wishes his fiancée Katarina would love him as he loves her, while Keith Claes wishes his sister wouldn't see him as a brother.
These wishes activated the ruins, switching the pair of students with their counterparts.
Through the Looking Glass
by Luki is a My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! fanfic, in which Gerald and Keith from the light novel switch places with their counterparts from the game Fortune Lover, surprising them with how different the people in the other world are.
Through the Looking Glass contains examples of:
- Amnesiac Resonance: Isekai!Sophia can attempt to figure out the meaning of the Japanese words present on the runes thanks to being A-chan in her previous life.
- The Atoner: After his dark-magic induced attempt to murder Katarina is stopped and the dark magic influencing him is removed, Geord is left horrified at what he’d tried to do and decides the best way to make up for it is by helping to get the portal working again so he and everyone else who were switched can go back. He even stops Game!Keith from trying to run away.
- Bait-and-Switch: In chapter 11, Game!Katarina, annoyed at how much she hears about Saint Katarina, decides to peak into Isekai!Katarina's diary to learn her secrets, setting up a reveal of her discovering her future doom, only to find that it is written in an unfamiliar language implied to be Japanese kanji.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The switched pairs each discover this in the new world. Isekai!Keith wishes for a world in which Katarina doesn't think of him as her brother and finds himself in a world where his beloved sister treats him like scum and his family is equally cold. Gerald is initially pleased with that game!Katarina loves him, only to be horrified at how spoiled and wicked she is. Geord is satisfied that Isekai!Katarina is willing to nullify their engagement, leaving him open to pursue Maria, only to discover that Isekai!Maria is in love with Katarina. Game!Keith is the only one that is satisfied with an adoring and caring Claes family until it is revealed to everyone that he and Geord are from another world, leading to their arrest.
- Blinded by Rage: Geord's anger over Isekai!Katarina's supposed plot to humiliate him by seducing Maria, combined with Sirius manipulating him with dark magic, pushes him to attempt to murder Isekai!Katarina. When Isekai!Katarina is able to escape thanks to her toy snake, his fury over her toy snake attack and thirst for her blood blocks out the logical part of his mind telling him he won't get away with murder.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Deconstructed with Game!Keith towards Isekai!Katarina. While his counterpart did what he could to have Katarina be presentable while allowing her to do what she was passionate about, Game!Keith is less tolerant, yelling at Katarina for her farming hobby and for not realizing the implications of her engagement to Gerald being annulled.
- The Corruptor: Sirius Dieke using his dark magic, including increasing Geord's resentment to both Katarinas to cause havoc, though only with the intent of humiliating or banishing her. It is implied the Sirius from the game has been doing the same to Geord and the others.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While Sirius wanted to use Geord to try and get rid of Katarina, his intent was for Geord to exile her or humiliate her out of the Magic Academy. Geord's attempt to murder Katarina makes Sirius immediately regret his decision to influence him with dark magic, and he attempts to pull it back, even fighting off the dark mage possessing him to do so.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: According to her internal narration, Game!Katarina is unable to relate to her counterpart until she finds out a partial version of the truth about the doom flags, allowing her to recontextualize her counterpart's actions as manipulation in the interest of self-preservation, rather than beneficence.
- Failed a Spot Check: When Katarina mentions about the secret Fortune Lover ending involving a dark mage, Gerald and Keith ask her what details she can remember. She replies that the only spoilers that A-chan manage to sneak through was that the dark mage had red hair and gray eyes... a dead ringer for Sirius Dieke.
- Fantastically Indifferent: From Isekai!Keith and Gerald, Katarina took the situation so well that when she correctly guessed the differences, she shrugged it off. Internally she’s screaming.
- Foreshadowing: In the Isekai World, Sophia (who is the reincarnate of Katarina's friend A-Chan) says that the strange code on the runes written by a magician centuries ago looks familiar to her. At the end of chapter 9, Katarina recognizes the code as Japanese from her old world.
- Hypocritical Humor: Isekai!Katarina laments how both versions of her parents were married for years and never realized that the other loved them... while Gerald and Isekai!Keith struggles to hold back their laughs.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: Game!Keith, having grown up with the cold and abusive Claes family, is surprised but pleased to have a loving sister and mother in the Isekai world. This leads him to damage the rune to keep himself from switching back with Isekai!Keith.
- This is also the original Katarina’s inner desire even though she hates to admit it. When everything she does bring her hate and unpopularity, all she has is her status and engagement, the latter very loose when Geord has no interest in her. All she knew was loathing, insecurity, self-hatred, and cynicism.
- Impeded Communication: In the game world, the Student Council are able to use a melody to allow a message to the isekai world with instructions of how to respond. Unfortunately, the first to receive it is Game!Keith, who uses his magic to damage the rune on his side, blocking any form of contact, with exception of two counterparts saying "I wish".
- Internal Reveal: In chapter 13, Katarina tells Keith and Gerald the truth of her past memories from another world and her original destiny as a villainess in Fortune Lover.
- Inventor of the Mundane: Game!Katarina adopts a variant of this as her backup plan after realizing that her engagement with Prince Geordo isn't likely to work out. She gets copies of the new, Japanese-inspired recipes that Isekai!Katarina had been sharing with her favourite restaurants, planning to take them back to the game!world, introduce them there, and use them as a seed from which to grow a restaurant consortium.
- Irony: Played for Drama.
- Game!Keith decides that after Katarina's engagement to Gerald is broken, he's going to ask his parents for more authority over Katarina so he can make her act like a proper noble lady, including planning to rip up her farm. While he does this with the best of intentions, he fails to realize that he's becoming to Isekai!Katarina the same thing that Game!Katarina is to him: a controlling and manipulative influence.
- Isekai!Katarina had been preparing for the possibility of death by either Gerald or Keith because of the game's bad end. The moment that Geord attempts to kill her, she is completely caught off guard, always thinking deep down that her childhood friend would never consider it.
- Game!Keith sabotages the transition rune in an attempt to stay in the Isekai world, with a family that loves him. It's only later that he finds out that activating the rune properly makes a stable portal rather than swapping counterparts, meaning that they didn't need to send him back to get Isekai!Keith and it's entirely possible that if he hadn't sabotaged the rune the Isekai!Claes family would have taken him in.
- Game!Katarina spent much of her life trying her best to live up to noble manners and standards of behaviour, in an attempt to win her fiancé's favor. It's only after the whole incident with the transition rune that she comes to understand that the third prince fell in love with Maria (in the game world) and Isekai!Katarina (in the isekai world) in large part because neither girl cares a whit for noble manners or proper ettiquette.
- Played for Laughs in one instance. Once the Isekai!Keith and Gerald learned there is a harem with a different girl, they realized there is no justice in the world when there is no escaping a harem.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: When talking to her counterpart, Game!Mary states that she has already decided that she will back off if she is convinced that Game!Maria and Game!Alan truly love each other, because she wants Alan to be happy more than she wants him to herself. The only reason she's still competing is that Game!Maria still doesn't seem to have picked a suitor.
- More than Mind Control: Like in canon, Dark Magic can only enhance negative emotions already present in the target. After Geord tried to kill isekai!Katarina thanks to Sirius's magic increasing his anger at both Katarinas, he decides that he needs to end his engagement with his world's Katarina for both of their sakes.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Sirius used his dark magic to increase Geord's resentment towards Isekai!Katarina, which causes Geord to try to murder her due to his mistaken belief that Katarina seduced Maria in order to humiliate him. When Sirius comes across Katarina attempting to flee Geord and senses Geord's resentment towards Katarina, he immediately regrets using his dark magic on Geord and tries to pull it back.
- After Geord awakens from his attempt to kill Katarina due to the dark magic Sirius used on him, he is utterly horrified by his actions, even thinking this verbatim to himself before asking if Katarina was OK.
- Nightmare Sequence: A Played for Laughs version where Gerald dreams of losing his Katarina to his rivals after Geord annuls their engagement (in order, Nicol proposing to her following the annulment, Katarina and Mary fleeing the country to start a farm, Katarina falling in love with the Game!Keith, and Katarina marrying Maria to start a grocer/bakery and adopting several children).
- Noodle Incident: Gerald mentions to game!Nicol that when the former's Katarina and Sophia first read The Devilish Count, they got Nicol to cosplay as the story's protagonist.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Isekai!Alan points out Game!Katarina reminds him of himself when he was younger, who was constantly angry due to never getting love or praise from others and envious of those that did get attention.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Gerald when he realizes his other self will try to annul his engagement to the former's Katarina, removing his only advantage over the other rivals.
- Sirius when he discovers his dark magic has pushed Geord enough to attempt to kill Katarina.
- Katarina when she realizes she is now in the original Fortune Lover, where her doom flags are still present.
- Other Me Annoys Me: Aside from Isekai!Katarina, every one of the switched characters questions, scoffs at, or is shocked by the decisions and beliefs from their counterpart. Examples include:
- Isekai!Keith is left mortified and disgusted at how much of a shameless flirt Game!Keith is while Game!Keith scoffs at how devoted Isekai!Keith was to his sister.
- Geord thinks Gerald was insane for being so willing to stay with Katarina that he would even give up the throne while Gerald comes to despise Geord for trying to murder Katarina, even desiring to kill him as payback.
- Game!Katarina, upon hearing about her counterpart, is horrified and angered that she would be so unladylike. This comes to a boil in the Isekai world where she is so aggravated at hearing about Isekai!Katarina that she becomes determined to prove they are not the same person. Part of this comes from Game!Katarina being envious of how beloved Isekai!Katarina is despite all the work Game!Katarina put in to be seen as a proper lady.
- Properly Paranoid: Zigzagged. Isekai!Katarina's preparations against Gerald (including the toy snake and her sword training) aren't needed against Gerald, who genuinely loves her. However, they were helpful in her keeping her alive against an enraged and murderous Geord, which Isekai!Keith lampshades.
- Reincarnation: The fic posits the popular theory Monkey Girl and the original Katarina are one and the same. They grew up in different circumstances (Monkey Girl in a normal life while Katarina was raised in the restrictive society) yet shares the same core, not just likes and dislikes.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Having known Katarina the longest, Gerald thinks the reason the two versions are so different was primarily because of the head injury his Katarina received as a kid, since before she was as spoiled and cruel as the current Game!Katarina, and afterwards she became kind-hearted and free-hearted. But that theory is dismissed when Game!Alan informed him that his world's Katarina also had the same injury. Of course, none of them are aware that the injury Isekai!Katarina had led to her regaining the memories of her former life.
- Something Only They Would Say: To calm his Katarina down after she arrives in the Game world following her attack by Geord, Isekai!Keith tells her of the time she broke down the door to his room with an axe to apologize to him for causing him emotional pain after she got hurt with one of his earth golems.
- Spot the Imposter:
- Nicol had determined that Keith and Geord were not the ones they grew up with, and had contacted the king to inform him about the switch.
- Sirius had also figured out that Geord was not the Third Prince he knew, due to sensing his resentment towards Katarina with his dark magic.
- Katarina picked up signs that Keith and Geord weren't acting like the versions she knew, but did not come to the conclusion until the bloodthirsty Geord questioned how she knew how to use a sword, something Gerald would have known.
- Stating the Simple Solution: When the students in the game world are wondering how isekai!Katarina knows about game!Maria's encounter with the boys, Sophia suggests directly asking Katarina. Gerald admits that spending so much time deciphering the runes had left them to overthink things.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: As much as they are fighting for Katarina’s heart, the harem has a modicum of respect and love for each other. They want to win her heart fairly for the most part.
- Wham Episode:
- Chapter 7, both Katarinas make a wish by the runes (the Isekai version wishing for her Gerald and Keith back, and Game version wishing she'd be the Katarina that Gerald loves), leading to them switching worlds.
- Chapter 9, where Isekai!Katarina discovers that the notes about the rune had a message in Japanese, proclaiming the rune creator's vow to avoid dying in the otome game Time Tales All, the prequel to Fortune Lover.
- Wham Line:
- Sirius: "Huh. I really didn’t think that would take as quickly as it did. Your version of Katarina must have done a number on you, Fake Prince.”Explanation
- Nicol: "Pity I'll never get the chance to give it to her."Explanation
- "Like Hell I'm dying in an otome game! I'm getting out of this world if it's the last thing I do!"Explanation
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- All of Isekai!Katarina's friends from the Isekai world called out Geord for his treatment of his Katarina, including cheating on her with Game!Maria, his selfishness and attempting to murder Katarina out of jealously due to Isekai!Maria loving Isekai!Katarina and not him.
- Gerald to Isekai!Katarina after learning that she'd thought he or Keith would kill her even after years of being friends based on her memories of Fortune Lover. Thankfully, Keith goes to calm him down, letting him realize Katarina's tunnel vision of her Bad Ends has been keeping her from realizing how much all her friends care for her, which they help explain to her.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Gerald tells Game!Alan that he admires and even envies his twin's talent in music, and suggests his counterpart does the same.
