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Trapped In A Dating Sim / Tropes P to Z

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Tropes for Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs
Tropes Zero to F | Tropes G to O | Tropes P to Z

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    P-R 
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Julius, stealing the Sensual Spandex costume used by his father for his Secret Identity as The Masked Knight, to join the Final Battle against his parent's wishes. The other four princes are the only ones who don't recognize him.
  • Parental Favoritism: A major recurring theme of the franchise.
    • In his original life on earth, Leon's little sister was The Ace, who was always compared favorably to him. This contributes to his low self-esteem through the story.
      • In his second life, Zola, Leon's Wicked Step Mother, saw to it that his sisters grew up spoiled and pampered, while the boys toiled away farming and were treated significantly worse
    • In her second life, Marie's parents favored their older children, while severely neglecting her and pushing their gambling debts on her. Said debt being increased by her older sister.
    • In the Alzer Republic, both the Rault and Lapinasse house's children go through a bit of Angst and resentment over favoritism, perceived or real.
  • Parental Neglect:
    • Marie's prideful (second-life) parents cared more about gambling than taking care of her basic needs. She resorted to hunting and foraging to get more food and better hand-me-down clothes.
    • Downplayed Trope, in the case of Albergue Rault, and his adoptive son Serge. Albergue was consumed by the death of his son that Serge was adopted to replace, and combined with his new sister sister being the same, Serge never fit in, resented his new family, and left to become an adventurer.
  • Parrying Bullets: The Black Knight can do this with a two-handed BFS, against missiles.
  • Past-Life Memories: How Leon and Marie reverted back into their previous selves.
  • Patron Saint: The Kingdom of Holfort has had several people declared this in their history, after they are recognized by the three saint items, which seem to let them perform miraculous feats. It's a key plot point of the first game that Olivia is a descendant of the original, thus becoming eligible to marry one of the dateable cast, and is declared one. A hallmark of saints is their ability to use powerful White Magic. Marie takes up the mantle instead, until she fails to repel the Principality's second invasion, admits to being a false saint, is branded a heretic, and is nearly burnt at the stake.
  • Peer-Pressured Bully: Carla was pressured by Earl Offrey's daughter and her followers into acting as bait to lure Leon into a trap. As shown in a side-story, Carla was extremely reluctant, until her family was threatened.
  • Percussive Therapy: In the second volume, Luxion goads Leon into punching his drone, to help him feel better after an argument with Olivia.
  • Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Subverted Trope; both Angelica and Clarice were happy with their arranged marriages to Julius and Jilk, but it's one-sided affection in both cases, leading to heartbreak.
  • The Perils of Being the Best:
    • The Bartfort Household, were originally even more minor nobles, but their territory developed so much over time that eventually, a survey from the kingdom promoted Leon's grandfather to Baron. Which forced Balcus to marry Zola due to kingdom politics.
    • Leon, painfully aware of the above circumstances, wants to avoid promotions at any cost. Which backfires. It's also part of why he tries to reduce bloodshed. The higher rank he gets, the more taxes and levies he is bound to give the crown, and the more involved he is forced to be in political struggles.
  • Perpetual Poverty: Marie's is used as a Running Gag after her Reverse Harem of princes get disinherited, since the five keep on spending everything on gifts. Her prideful family also press their gambling debts onto her.
  • Phrase Catcher:
    • People invariably react to Leon, by referring to him as the worst, or saying This Is Unforgivable!.
    • King Roland is almost always referred to by Leon as "that bastard Roland".
  • Plagued by Nightmares:
    • Leon smiling and laughing becomes a recurring nightmare for King Roland.
    • Louise suffers a psychic attack from an ancient being impersonating her dead brother, gives her nightmares of him.
    • Leon notes he had this reaction to a quasi-yandere moment from Marie. No wonder he insists on sleep medication.
  • Playing Both Sides: The third volume, reveals that Frampton is trying to cooperate with the Principality of Fanoss, to eradicate his political rivals, and overthrow the King and Queen, with Leon being his main target, due to seeing the performance of Partner against the Principality. His problem was, underestimating the Principality, as well as Leon's capacity to retaliate for Frampton framing him for treason with A Taste Of His Own Medicine.
  • Please Put Some Clothes On: Chris and especially Greg receive this a lot after they take up eccentric hobbies in the later novels that involve being scantily dressed. Greg is specifically trying to show off the results of his bodybuilding, to which Marie kicks him and tells him to get dressed while Eating the Eye Candy. Jilk has to suppress the urge to shoot him while providing cover fire when Greg launches a Full-Frontal Assault.
  • Point of Divergence:
    • The What If? Marie Route Side Story, splits from the main story after the end of Volume 1, chapter 3, where Leon first sees Marie. That'd be the end of chapter 4 for the Manga adaptation.
    • In general, a reincarnator's mere presence results in this happening.
      • For the first game's plot, Marie and Leon's decision to replace Olivia and interfere with Angelica's confrontation respectively, results in the defeat and disowning of the five datable leads. This causes a very large disruption in the status quo not present in the original game,which causes the conflict with the Principality of Fanoss to begin two years earlier compared to in-game, but also prevents Angelica from being banished and allows Olivia to develop a friendship with her.
      • For the second game's plot, Lelia being reincarnated as Noelle's sister and trying to push for the True Ending prematurely winded up changing the personality of said Love Interest until he became so possessive that it was impossible, a fact that she would have known was a possibility had she not skipped all the Bad Endings. On top of driving away the other potential love interests (and taking one for herself), she all but set things towards a Bad Ending had Leon and Marie not decided to intervene.
      • The worst of all is the third game's plot due to the interference of reincarnated cast on the earlier plots. Due to Leon obtaining Cleare and needing to go to Alzer to fix the problems, Aaron who was supposed to be a capture target was turned gay by Cleare as experiment/punishment for trying to drug Olivia. Then Jake who supposed to be another target was captured by... Aaron/Erin who was now turned into girl by Cleare and Marie. Meanwhile since Leon is already a famous hero, Jake tried to abduct him by commanding his foster brother in law Oscar (another capture target) but since the latter is Literal-Minded, Oscar brought Finley whom he felt Love at First Sight.
  • Polyamory: This is rampant in Holfort Kingdom. Most noble women have multiple lovers, but the King also has a lot of concubines. In fact, it's easier to mention which characters are not in this type of relationship. Generally speaking:
    • A typical male noble will have a political marriage under harsh terms with a noble lady who lives opulently in the capital, sending a lot of his money to her every year, while taking a commoner or knight rank woman as The Mistress to live with him in his domain. Leon is the son of his father's mistress Luce.
    • A typical female noble, will have Exclusive Servants as lovers who can't get them pregnant, and possibly other men as well, to live with them in the capital. This doesn't apply to nobles of the Earl rank and above because those families caught onto the Government Conspiracy to limit their power.
    • Leon was tricked into getting engaged to Angelica and Olivia by his own family and the Redgrave House, to Leon's chagrin and Angie and Livia's delight. Officially, he'll be married to Ange and have Olivia as a concubine due to the status of the three of them. It's also noted on a few occasions that the two of them also love each other and are implicitly already in a sexual relationship, though Leon is still hesitant to do anything with either of them.
      • Leon later adds Noelle as a third fiancé, after Ange and Olivia accept her.
  • P.O.V. Sequel: The third game also takes place in the Academy, but during the third year of the first game's story, and with new characters. The protagonist is a frail lass who happens to be the illegitimate daughter of a foreign emperor. The villainess is one of Juilius's half sisters.
  • Power at a Price: A common theme for powerful magic in the setting:
  • Power Fist: Leon's Mini-Mecha the Arroganz has this as its signature attack style, especially when using its IMPACT ability.
  • The Power of Hate: The Black Knight attributes his extreme combat capabilities to his anger over what the Kingdom of Holfort took from him.
  • The Power of Love: Their world being based on various Otome Game, naturally this is how each of the game's Final Boss is supposed to be defeated:
  • Power Perversion Potential:
    • In the Drama CD, Luxion uses his abilities to make a Hologram, and impersonate voices, to project in front of Leon a simulation of Angie and Livia having a sexual encounter, much to Leon's surprise and enjoyment.
    • Cleare using her abilities as a biological scientist A.I., to make Aaron, one of the third game capture targets, into a woman. Purely for her own amusement as a Fujoshi.
  • Power Stereotype Flip: Marie uses White Magic, Healing Hands, and Barrier Warrior abilities. Yet, she's The Cynic, a Cute Bruiser, and is obsessed with money.
  • Power Tattoo: The World Tree of Alzer visually marks their nobles. The crests have Power Levels, meaning that their feudal caste system is very much physically reinforced. These can get stripped from breaking sacred promises or otherwise upsetting the sacred tree, and any such person is disinherited due to their children not being able to receive one.
  • Precursors: There exist two, Old Mankind, and (early) New Mankind, both of which leave behind relics that make up major plot elements (and each of the games cheat items). The two fought a genocidal conflict, forcing Old Mankind to flee the planet in space ships like Luxion. Old Mankind, seem to be a futuristic Earth, with robots and Artificial Intelligence. New Mankind, which the population of the world at large now descend from, specialized in Magi Tech and Organic Technology, leaving behind Living Weapons with a creepy eldritch nature.
  • Pretender Diss: Marie repeatedly has these for Leon, mostly in her Inner Monologue, voicing it aloud during the elven ruins expedition. She feels taunted by Leon resembling her past-life brother so much, reminding her of her sweet and coddled formative years she can never have again.
  • Privileged Rival: Dorothea Roseblade, serves as a High Noble one to the Low Noble Jenna, being more popular and beautiful than her, sparking Jenna's envy. Dorothea isn't afraid to play dirty in this rivalry.
  • Proper Lady: In the Holfort Kingdom's Fantastic Caste System, this is subverted by noble ladies below the Earl rank, who are Royal Brats instead; the knight-ranked maid Cordelia is the main exception. Ladies of the Earl rank and above, such as Angelica, Clarice, Deirdre, and Dorothea, are this to varying degrees.
    • It is said that Noelle and Lelia from Alzer have a Tomboy and Girly Girl dynamic with the former not fitting into noble society growing up while the latter did, although Lelia's conduct is shown to be more rude and controlling than anything.
  • Property of Love: A recurring element of how the author likes to dabble in BDSM:
    • Deirdre Roseblade wants to make Leon her "pet", due to his aggressive treatment of her when all the other men are Extreme Doormats. Despite Leon thinking she's bad news when he first learns this, that doesn't stop him from inviting her to tea parties, or writing her letters.
    • In the fifth volume, Noelle suggests she wants this kind of relationship with Leon, flirting with him using the Slave Collar stuck on her from Loic. Before Leon's fiancée walk in on them, and she spends the next few volumes in Angst over the relationship.
  • The Prophecy: In a interesting twist, the Elder Elf who can read the fortune is not pertaining to the present but rather to the alternate timeline: the Marie Route especially to Marie, Angie and Olivia.
    • Marie - She has a destined partner but unfortunately they have already separated their paths and would never be together again. It talks about the start of the Marie Route where Leon was able to stop Marie from taking over Olivia's (Actually Saintess Anne's) role as the protagonist of the Otome game that led them to fall in love with each other without knowing that they are really brother and sister from the past life.
    • Olivia and Angie: Their fates are intertwined and their paths have been greatly diverged. Someone already took on both of their burdens and that man is a hero that even the demon king bends his knee to. It's actually Leon despite his denial. If not for him (and also not stopping Marie from taking Olivia's role) meddling with the flow of the story , it would lead Olivia to be possessed by the first Saintess and Angie consumed by The Power of Hate leading to countless tragedies.
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality: Discussed: in a living world reflecting an Otome game, the situation is a lot more complicated than what the game depicts.
    • In the game, Olivia is portrayed as the pure-hearted heroine, while Angelica is portrayed as the villainess who opposes her. But from Angelica's perspective, she is trying to defend her engagement with a man she genuinely loves from someone trying to steal him away.
    • Leon also notes that Marie's pursuit of a Reverse Harem would have dramatic political implications that weren't addressed in the game, due to being a Power Fantasy for heterosexual female players: not only is she breaking the preexisting engagements of several of the boys, but even were such a relationship to go through, it would foul up the successions of their own houses since none of the boys could be completely sure he was the father of any given child.
  • Psycho Supporter:
    • Jilk is ready and willing to play dirty pool as part of his cliché archetype, which results in Jilk receiving more Laser-Guided Karma and hatred from Leon than the other princes.
    • It's later shown that, in retribution for people messing with Leon and Angie, her father Duke Redgrave has been destroying quite a few noble houses. The most specific instance of this trope, would be his son Gilbert giving Angie a Psychotic Smirk when asking if she wants to know the fate of two women who betrayed her.
  • Punched Across the Room: Happens due to body strengthening magic. Such as when Leon realizes The Queen is about to be assaulted by Exclusive Servants while Incognito, or when Marie snaps from having her savings raided by the five princes too many times.
  • Put on a Bus: Since the eighth volume sees Leon return to his homeland from Alzer, most of the surviving second game cast were left behind.
  • The Quisling:
    • Marquess Frampton sells out the Kingdom to the Principality in the hope of coming to power during the post-war chaos.
    • In volume 7, Lambert Feivel serves as a Double Agent for Serge, his rebels, and the Holy Kingdom of Rachelle's invasion of the Alzer Republic. He gets Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves by being De Powered and captured along with the rest of the council.
  • Rage Breaking Point: Leon's anger built up from his mistreatment by Holfort's noblewomen, and seeing how fortunate Marie is in comparison. Hearing the reaction to Angelica issuing her duel challenge, is The Last Straw, causing him to volunteer as her champion.
  • Railroading: In the second game, the True Ending is achieved if the protagonist Noelle is paired with Loic. As such, Lelia, another reincarnator who ended up as Noelle's younger twin sister, worked to pair the two together. Whatever she did, her attempt is failing due to formerly Nice Guy Loic becoming Entitled to Have You towards Noelle. Leon and Marie getting involved and trying to ensure at least a happy ending didn't help matters.
  • Ramming Always Works: Justified Trope, seeing as Cool Airship Einhorn was designed by Luxion specifically for this purpose, themed as a unicorn, and created with much more advanced technology than its opponents possess. Luxion rams through the Alzer flagship using Einhorn, during his False Flag Attack rampage through Feivel territory. He didn't actually need to ram it, he just wanted to make a point.
  • Ready for Lovemaking: Subverted. Angie and Livia fall asleep while waiting for Leon in his cabin within Partner.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Leon's father Balcus, and his tea ceremony teacher, would seem to be the main things keeping Leon from going insane due to the unfairness of his situation, in the beginning. As time passes, Angie's father Vince, the Queen, and Albergue, also show themselves as this.
  • "Reborn as Villainess" Story:
    • While Leon and Marie derail the story in varying ways, they manage to save the villainess character by accident: Marie keeps Angie from getting upset at Olivia for getting too close to her fiancé and Olivia makes a proper introduction for herself with some prompting, allowing the two to end up close friends and Leon's closest allies. She ends up with a crush on Leon after he steps in to save her from an unfair duel.
    • A more straight example of the trope name appears later, as someone does reincarnate as the villainess of the third game. As the third game begins during the third year of the first game, the reincarnate is aware that events have diverged from canon due to the actions of Leon and Marie.
  • Recorded Spliced Conversation: Luxion recorded some of the "conversations" involving Pierre Feivel and his henchmen as part of the plan to make them look like they are actively warring against the other nobles and his own family.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: The color scheme of the Principality of Fanoss, which is shown by their Princesses having Raven Hair, Ivory Skin and Red Eyes, Take Warning.
  • Red Baron:
    • The Black Knight, is an Old Soldier dreaded throughout The Holfort Kingdom as their greatest enemy, renown as a One-Man Army and living up to the hype.
    • Leon becomes known as The Fiendish Knight, after his first real battle, due to his attitude.
    • Leon is later known as Holfort's Greatest Weapon. So much for a quiet and peaceful life.
  • Red Herring: In volume 4, a reincarnator named Aaron was introduced who tried to drug Olivia. Not only this fails because Cleare is monitoring both her and Angelica's surroundings 24/7, her experiments also turned Aaron gay.
  • Reduced to Dust: Justified Trope. Monsters and other remnants of the Precursors known as New Mankind's Organic Technology all do this, and said magical particles get recycled to produce new monsters. Notably, the World Tree of Alzer absorbs these particles much like normal trees do Carbon Dioxide, and uses them for sustenance and Super-Empowering the nobles of Alzer with their various Power Tattoo.
  • Regent for Life: Albergue has been serving as "Acting Chairman" of the Alzer Republic ever since leading its Ruling Family Massacre ten years earlier. Technically, the chairman is supposed to be the country's Guardian, who is designated by a priestess, who can only come from said slain noble house.
  • Reincarnate in Another World: Leon reincarnates as an NPC of the otome game his sister forced him to play. He wants to avoid interfering with the main plot, the problem is, There Is Another, who is also an NPC, but doesn't have such scruples.
  • Relationship Upgrade: Following the war against the Principality, Leon is engaged to both Angelica and Olivia.
  • Remarried to the Mistress: Between the mass desertion during the Principality's invasion, and the post-war reforms, a great many male nobles end up doing this, most prominently Balcus, making Leon's mother his full wife.
  • Replaced with Replica: The Principality of Fanoss, logically for such an important item, use fakes of their Summon Magic flutes they use to control monsters. Since Luxion has Super-Senses, it doesn't work.
  • Resistance as Planned: According to the Queen in volume 3, a lot of the Crapsack World elements of the kingdom were set up deliberately by its founders to subtly encourage an eventual revolution that would abolish the aristocracy in favor of a liberal democracy. The protagonists saving Holfort means that it instead turns into more of a constitutional monarchy.
  • Restraining Bolt: This is why A.I. like Luxion ended up staying cooped up in their decaying installations over millennia. They couldn't disobey orders to leave, ironically gaining freedom by receiving a new master to replace their long-dead ones.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Vandel's grudge against the Kingdom is so strong that despite his own princess making solid points as to the stakes of a war and the lives that'll be lost, he still goes through with it.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves:
    • Two of Angelica's followers who were acting as Double Agent for the Principality of Fanoss, sending smoke signals, were left on their vessel to be executed alongside the rest of the students.
    • When Leon compiles evidence to publicly try Marquess Frampton for treason, Princess Hertrude sells him out, as he's already served his purpose. If the Principality had won the war, the Kingdom he wanted to rule would have been sunk into the ocean anyhow, too.
    • In the 7th volume, Lambert Feivel, who was a Turncoat for Serge's rebellion and the invading Holy Kingdom of Rachelle, gets De Powered and imprisoned alongside the rest of the ruling council of Alzer.
  • Rich Bitch: Many noble women are pretentious and unpleasant due to their wealth and status as women in the kingdom, with Leon stating the regular class girls, which lower level nobles attend, are in general far kinder than the advanced class girls, where the higher level nobles attend.
  • Rite of Passage: Since the kingdom was founded by adventurers, each noble is expected to get to the end of the Academy's dungeon before graduation. With their society being so decadent, it has become common practice to hire more successful students to act as bodyguards for this, which Leon gets roped into.
  • The Rival: One of the most unique aspects of the franchise compared to its contemporaries, is that in place of a Stock Shōnen Rival, we have Marie, and her Reverse Harem. This leads to interesting Rivals Team Up moments that allow for plenty of Character Development. After Leon and her discover they're past-life siblings, she becomes The Lancer, and they and their respective friends and Love Interests combine to form The Team.
    • In Alzer, Marie's relationship with Lelia is like this, even getting into an ugly girl fight.
  • Romantic Wingman:
    • Luxion proves to be a ruthless one for Leon: First, in recording Leon confessing he would be happy to marry Angie and Livia to show their families. Secondly, in laying an elaborate trap to make it look like Leon's been having an affair with Noelle to break past their romantic tension.
    • Marie serves as the female variant as part of her friendship with Noelle, both in providing protection from her Stalker with a Crush Loic, and contriving date opportunities for her.
  • Royal Brat:
    • The daughters of Baron and Viscount ranked nobles in the Kingdom, tend to grow up in the Capital as this, while the men toil away in their homelands. Considering those are the ranks that Leon must court while marriage hunting, he has a lot of horrible experiences and undergoes abuse by them and their demihuman servants. Women below Baron and Viscount ranks in the Regular Class, are more normal, and above Viscount, they tend to be a Proper Lady.
    • The Alzer Republic introduces second-prince Pierre as a violent delinquent, Hugh as a womanizing Dirty Coward, and Serge as an angry Troubled Teen.
  • Royal Favorite: Leon gains a reputation as 'the queen's favorite'. Between his several promotions at a young age, and his many private conversations with Queen Mylene, it's not hard to see why. This reputation later earns Leon the moniker of The Queen's Toy Boy in rumors.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something:
  • Ruling Family Massacre: Deconstructed Trope. According to the presented backstory of the second Otome Game, Rault House, led by the games Final Boss Albergue, killed the protagonist's parents and destroyed their Lespinasse House, while she escaped. Only for the daughter of the perpetrating House (Louise), to end up bullying the protagonist while she attends classes under an alias. The reality of the situation is quite a bit more complicated: The reason Lespinasse house was vulnerable, was due to the protagonist's parents doing socially outrageous experiments to take control of the Sacred Tree, which caused them to be de-powered. Their daughter was betrothed to Rault House's heir, but they didn't show up to his funeral in order to hide fact that they lost their Crests. Anger over this disrespect, caused Albergue to uncover the secret, share it with the other House leaders, and attack with their blessing, but he spared their daughters because he knew they were innocent, as well as tasking his daughter Louise to protect them.

    S-T 
  • Saintly Church: Of the local faith that venerates the Saintess that helped found the Kingdom of Holfort, and looks vaguely modeled on Catholicism. Noble boys are shown scrambling for a chance to join Temple forces to be free of the harsh marriage terms awaiting them. Their commander that Leon meets seems like a Reasonable Authority Figure, and they generally help the Kingdom fight off threats with their own fleet, but they'll bite down hard if justifiably angered.
    • One exception is the snobby priestess in league with Zola who demands the Saint's Necklace from Leon and a "donation" as well. The commander is mortified after hearing this, saying they had only come to retrieve the necklace.
  • Save the Villain: Though the reason itself isn't to save her so much as using her as an excuse to beat up the otome game's harem cast, Leon steps up to fight Marie's gang and saves Angelica from her spiral into tragedy.
  • Saying Too Much:
    • Angelica gives Leon a key clue that the woman she took into his café is actually The Queen Incognito, prompting Leon to become Laughing Mad and rampage against the group harassing them.
    • In the third volume, Zola lets slip in an argument that her son Rutart is a Bastard Bastard and part of her Secret Other Family via a lover, causing Balcus to divorce her and disown her children.
    • Generally from the fourth volume onwards, Marie calls Leon big bro all the time, which causes a misunderstanding that Leon's father had an affair with Marie's mother, and put a bump in Leon's parents' otherwise Happily Married domestic life. As well as put fuel on the fire of Leon being suspected of having some kind of sister fetish, since Leon was also witnessed calling Louise big sis before the two kissed.
  • The Scapegoat: Angelica serves as one for people who bully Marie (who's usurped the role of otome protagonist from Olivia), with them saying that Angelica ordered them to do it to avoid punishment, and Julius believing them.
    • Much later, Leon's older sister Jenna serves as one, after her 'Exclusive Servant' Miauler frames Leon for treason, of which he is later proven innocent. Leon had to pay some bribes to clear that up.
  • Schizo Tech: A more or less feudal society with airships and Mechs based on Lost Technology. A number of these airships fight by lining up broadsides.
  • Science Fantasy: Magic and science are blended all over the place. For instance, most airships get their Deflector Shields from magic. Luxion can help channel Leon's magic. The magical particles in the air that serve as building blocks and fuel for many different magical lifeforms sound suspiciously like Nanomachines, with at least some monsters being organic equivalents to robots, as described when Luxion analyzes the Summon Magic flutes of the Principality in the Marie Route.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: Alzer Noblemen can do as they please to commoners. Which ends up making Leon's antics in the Republic surprisingly popular.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the third volume: The vast majority of men in Holfort Kingdom fence sit, defect, or flee when the Principality crushes the main fleet. We're shown a montage of them taking their mistresses and her children, while abandoning their legitimate wives and children. Leon's group of poor nobles were about to do the same, until he blackmails them into helping him instead. This has the after-effect of the fleeing aristocrats (including the recently-divorced Zola, as well as Marie's family) being stripped of their nobility.
  • Screw You, Elves!: Leon visiting Kyle's hometown in the third volume is filled with this, giving the elves Laser-Guided Karma for their Fantastic Racism.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Lost Items from the New Humans, particularly Organic Technology ones, tend to be this.
  • Second Love:
    • Leon for Angelica after she gets over Julius.
    • Also, Leon for Clarice, after she gets over Jilk.
    • Marie is this for Loic, after he gets over Noelle and has a Heel–Face Turn.
    • It's revealed in the seventh volume that Louise was The One That Got Away for Serge, and Lelia his second love.
  • Sensual Spandex: It's noted that these are standard mech pilot uniforms for boys to show off their physique, to appeal to women (the game's target audience), which Leon complains about. He puts a vest over his as a compromise after Luxion refuses to get rid of it, which Marie notes to be more tasteful looking.
    • The Masked Knight outfit, made by The Casanova Roland, is noted to be even more perverted looking than the standard uniforms.
  • Sentry Gun: In the third volume, Cleare activates some of these within her lab, to protect Leon from the Mad Scientist elves there.
  • Sequence Breaking: Invoked Trope by Marie, trying to get Luxion to burn down the second game's World Tree that was supposed to be part of its final encounter in the fourth volume prologue, before the implications of that are explained.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: Princess Hertrude finds out the government she was supposedly leading, were Evil All Along, with The Conspiracy using her as a puppet, and selling her out the moment it's convenient. Hertrude ends up watching her beloved little sister die for nothing, and her country suffers a crushing defeat, with heavy reparations, restrictions, monitoring, and annexation enforced by the Kingdom. On top of that, she blew all of her chances with her Love Interest.
  • Shame If Something Happened: Earl Offrey's Daughter makes this kind of threat to Angelica, regarding Olivia and Leon. She gets a Neck Lift for the trouble.
  • Shocking Defeat Legacy:
    • The third volume has a major example: The Principality crushing the main fleet of Holfort causes mass desertion of noblemen with their mistresses, leaving behind their official wives, also causing the breakdown of the Lady Land aspects of society in the Kingdom after the war, alongside deserters being punished.
    • Leon's actions in the fourth through sixth volumes causes a revanchist War Hawk insurrection to ferment within Alzer's lower ranked nobles, and soldiers. Although many commoners take to Hero Worship instead, being under the thumb of Smug Super nobles for so long.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Sibling Rivalry: Pierre, the second son of the Feivel family, is trying to supplant his elder brother as heir, using any dirty means he can think of. After Pierre is beat down and humiliated by Leon, and disinherited, his brother is implied to return the favor by faking Pierre's death to torture him in secret.
    • Lelia has a strong resentment against her sister, Noelle. This is carried over resentment from her past life, where she competed with her older sister for who could be the better Gold Digger, with their parents favoring the older sister.
  • Sickeningly Sweethearts: Multiple people remark that Nicks and Dorothea have ended up like this.
  • Silk Hiding Steel: Dorothea Roseblade is a feminine Proper Lady, but she surprises the men of the Bartfort domain by being an excellent shot. She had been trained and experienced as an adventurer in part due to her family's rich heritage as such.
  • Simple Solution Won't Work: Parodied. The first solution suggested by Leon's Heroic Comedic Sociopath AI servant Luxion to virtually any problem is invariably "obliterate the entire country of the person or group that caused it", which would be relatively simple for his "main body", a Lost Technology space battleship. By about book three Leon et al. have stopped even trying to explain to Luxion why that wouldn't be helpful (it's mostly an excuse to kill the "New Humans" he hates anyway).
  • Sky Pirates: A problem in the world. Primarily the responsibility of local nobility to keep them in check.
  • Slasher Smile: Leon is said to make these when enjoying other's suffering. The manga adaptation somewhat flanderizes his tendency to make them. They're described as his eyes and mouth making crescent shapes.
  • Slave Collar: Loic repeatedly tries to offer one to Noelle as an 'engagement ring'. It turns out, it's a powerful magical item, made using Sacred Tree roots. Its chain disappears until summoned, and when the chain is summoned, the victim is pulled towards the master. Loic puts it on Noelle, only to have his arm cut off before Leon takes the master half. Leon and Noelle have some fun with it.
  • Slave Race: Subverted. Elves and Demi-humans are colloquially called slaves in the narrative, but they actually get much more preferential treatment than the lower and mid-ranked male nobles, and are more properly called "Exclusive Servants". For one, the women (who are the only ones allowed to have Exclusive Servants), tend to have boys do tasks such as carrying luggage, while their servants serve mostly as either lovers or Hired Guns. Non-humans are preferred in this role, because they can't get human women pregnant, and they're on average stronger than humans. They themselves, see the arrangement as long-term work contracts that they don't mind, since they're long-lived. There is no sign of racism against, or mistreatment of, them, in fact, attacking one is considered social suicide for men.
  • Slipping a Mickey:
    • Aaron tries to do this to Olivia, but she doesn't drink, and he's knocked unconscious by Cleare who's guarding her, for use in experiments.
    • Cleare swaps out Leon's sleep medication with a special formula. Luxion tried to dispose of it, but Leon found it and took it out of frustration of Luxion's attempts to break him out of his Descent into Addiction. The formula gives Leon a Mushroom Samba.
  • Smug Super: Alzer noble's attitude towards the rest of the world, due to the many military benefits granted by the Sacred Tree. To the point, some nobles are happy to engage in War for Fun and Profit, with Feivel House hosting Sky Pirates without it causing any uproar, due to them only targeting the outside world.
  • Spanner in the Works: In the eighth volume, Cleare turns Aaron, one of the third game's dateable cast, into a woman. Aaron is grateful for this and doesn't want to change back.
  • Spirit World: Olivia takes others into this in the sixth volume. It allows one to see another's feelings and memories.
  • Springtime for Hitler: Leon's attempts to get demoted by doing bad behavior, and to shift fame and glory onto the five capture targets instead of himself, all end up backfiring, leading to him being promoted. The former, due to having one of the most powerful aristocrats in the Kingdom backing him, and the latter because of said capture target's Honor Before Reason stubbornness and the appreciation of their families for the bribes Leon sends them.
  • Stalker with a Crush:
    • Downplayed with Angelica, who develops a habit of eavesdropping on Leon.
    • In Alzer, Loic is always coming out of nowhere, to try and threaten Noelle into being 'his'.
  • Stalker without a Crush:
    • Leon's little brother Colin likes to snoop on everyone around him.
    • Jenna stalks Dorothea for days, desperate to see her slip up. This is out of envy for how she could be so happy and accepted by everyone, while she herself is dissatisfied.
  • Status Buff: A common one, being physical strength enhancement, leading to targets being Punched Across the Room, mostly used by Marie. Another one, favored by Leon, is giving ones bullets elemental properties.
  • Stealth Insult: Leon asks Luxion what Arroganz means, Luxion just replies it is a word that perfectly fits him.
  • Strong, but Unskilled: Leon is overly dependent on Luxion, Arroganz, and other high-tech items, and knows it's his main weakness, especially after his near-fatal battle with the Black Knight, which causes him to train more rigorously.
  • Success as Revenge: In volume 1, after befriending both Livia and Angie, Leon advises them that the best revenge on their respective opponents (Livia's bullies, Angie's former fiance and his new girlfriend) is to be happy, because directly taking revenge on somebody is too much work for too little gain. Leon's way, the other person will see you being happy despite them and it'll make them miserable.
    "Classic revenge takes an insane amount of effort, and it only makes the other person unhappy. Meanwhile, you don't really get anything in the process. You both go down together. If you're going to spend that much effort on something, you might as well spend it on making yourself happy."
  • Successful Sibling Syndrome: Lelia has a deep resentment of her sister, which was carried by her previous life Sibling Rivalry, over who could get the more successful and wealthy partner.
    • Nicks feels this way about Leon, being mocked for being outdone by his younger brother, and having Heroic Self-Deprecation over it.
  • Suddenly Suitable Suitor: Deconstructed: This was supposed to happen in the game's plot, to make Olivia eligible to marry one of the dateable cast, who are each high nobles. However, since Leon knows this, it serves as one of the obstacles keeping him from considering her as a partner. Unlike the five, his status cannot compare to a saint's.
  • Summon Magic: The Ancient Artifact Magical Flutes used by the Principality, can summon and command many, many monsters. They've analyzed the flutes enough to replicate some of their capabilities without the flutes, as well. Luxion's analysis of the flutes, is that they use a combination of magic and technology, digitally storing the information of the Guardian Spirits, and manifesting them using the user's life as fuel.
  • Super-Senses: Luxion, being an A.I. with Sufficiently Advanced Technology, has X-Ray Vision, and can both run medical scans and verify the authenticity of magical items.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Where do we begin?
  • Surveillance Drone: Old Mankind A.I.s like Luxion and Cleare tend to use these as terminals to talk to characters, while using other ones to keep track of important people and investigate, all types using Chameleon Camouflage. The variant used for communication can act as a Video Phone between one another, and project Hologram, including recordings.
  • Sustained Misunderstanding: Due to an Out-of-Context Eavesdropping situation, Marie calling Leon big bro often, Leon inadvertently causes his father to be suspected of having an affair, and put a bump in his parents' Happily Married domestic life.
  • The Swarm: Most monsters (besides huge ones) aren't very threatening, but they make up for it with massive numbers, which has the byproduct of jamming communications.
  • Sword of Damocles: The existence of the Royal Airship serves as this to help keep other nobles from dethroning the Holfort Dynasty. What the other nobles don't know is that the current rulers cannot make it work because it runs on The Power of Love, and theirs is a loveless political marriage. After the airship is eventually destroyed, the Holfort Dynasty's grip on the Kingdom becomes precarious.
  • Symbolic Blood: When the World Tree of Alzer is damaged, it spills red sap.
  • Tactful Translation: The official Seven Seas translation tones down some of Leon's more colorful insults.
  • Tagline: "Pretty boys must die." For the Japanese releases.
  • Take That!:
    • The second volume has one towards the Isekai novel trend of having female demi-human slaves. Leon muses about using Luxion's power to remake the world as he sees fit, only with men having demi-human slaves instead of women. He then realizes that'd make him just as bad as the academy girls he's been enduring the abuse of.
    • The eighth volume has Leon delivering a take that to Idol Singer fans, when discussing School Idol Clarice. Specifically, how the way those fans see Idols is far from pure, and is a long way from the original meaning of the word "Idolizing".
  • Talking the Monster to Death: Marie being practiced in reading and manipulating people, manages to do this multiple times:
    • From Marie's perspective, she was doing this to Angelica by triggering the duel challenge, more than a year before it was supposed to happen in the game, exploitng her Hair-Trigger Temper. It would have been a success, if not for Leon.
    • When Princess Hertrude makes one of the Final Boss attack everyone after being betrayed by her homeland, and her little sister dying, Marie successfully comforts her into standing down, since they both know what it's like to lose a beloved sibling.
    • In the Alzer Republic, Marie not only talks Loic out of his attempted Suicide by Cop against Julius, but earns his friendship and love, with a Do Not Go Gentle speech ending his Death Seeker mindset.
  • Tall Poppy Syndrome: This is part of the reason Leon hates getting a Rank Up, it increases his number of political enemies. It's also a justification he gives Luxion for trying not to kill people; that would lead to escalation. Leon's fears prove founded.
  • A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Often Leon's response to dirty tricks:
    • In volume 3, Marquess Frampton, plants forged documents in Leon's room, to get Leon arrested publicly for treason. Leon does the same back (albeit copies of real documents that were burned.)
    • In volume 4, Pierre, beats Jean and Brad to a pulp, and uses a Duel challenge under Sacred Vow to put Leon's allies into a Leonine Contract, and steal Leon's powerful vessel. Leon does the same back, only beating Pierre himself, in addition to Leon and Marie torturing Pierre's minions via rubber bullets.
  • Tea and Tea Culture: Leon takes a strong interest in tea ceremonies, which he initially dismissed as pandering to girls. Of note, the series uses some Symbolism from them. For instance, characters holding their tea cup with both hands to show great respect, such as Olivia did when first meeting Angelica.
  • Teacher/Student Romance: This is a Discussed Trope, when it comes to Narcisse, one of the second game's datable cast, whose route was this. It's basically agreed that if it was only a videogame it'd be fine, but since it's reality now, it's a can of worms they don't want to open.
  • Teamwork Seduction: Olivia and Angelica try this multiple times on Leon, subverting Ready for Lovemaking by falling asleep in Leon's bed during one attempt. Noelle tries to give them common sense advice to take other approaches after they fail the second time.
  • Technologically Advanced Foe: The Principality of Fanoss is this for the Kingdom. They are experts in, and to a degree, able to reverse-engineer Lost Technology comparable in some respects to Luxion. All while the Kingdom just keeps said objects as trophies to display.
  • That One Boss: In-Universe, Leon views the Black Knight of the Principality at this, having gotten numerous game overs due to the sudden Difficulty Spike. As such the Black Knight is the first opponent that gives Leon a hard time, especially since the Black Knight has a sword made of a fantasy metal that can even pierce through Arroganz.
  • There Is Another: The story begins with the assumption that Leon is the only person from Earth reincarnated in the otome game world. However, when he enters the Academy, he discovers that there is another reincarnator from Earth, and this one is actually meddling in the events of the game. Then when Leon travels to the country where the events of the second game takes place, it turns out there is a third reincarnate from Earth as well.
  • These Hands Have Killed: Leon suffers lingering psychological-effects from having killed someone he knows, including insomnia.
  • Those Two Guys:
    • Leon's friends Daniel and Raymond - heirs to relatively minor titles who commiserate over the difficulty of finding nice girls to marry.
    • Vince and Gilbert Redgrave, Angelica's father and brother, serve as this, informing the audience about Leon and Angelica's political and romantic situations.
  • Thou Shall Not Kill: Leon goes out of his way to not kill any other people, at first. The war with the Principality changes that, forcing him to take his first lives. He does try to abide by this as much as possible afterwards.
  • Threat Backfire: Jilk learns why it's bad to threaten people's families when he is recorded doing so, and it's held as blackmail material over him. He'd lose all of his honor and social standing if it was revealed.
  • Throwing Down the Gauntlet: Angelica's duel challenge event from the game, which Marie manipulates Angelica into issuing much earlier. She throws a glove, and Marie's Reverse Harem defend her. Unfortunately for them, Leon is at his Rage Breaking Point, and intervenes on Angelica's side.
    • In Marie Route SS, we get to see the proper version of this event.
  • Throwing the Fight:
    • When dueling Leon, Julius indirectly commands him to do this, which only makes Leon angrier. Then he quickly states he'd never do that.
    • When challenged to a re-match by the princes, Leon plans to do this as an attempt at re-railing the Off the Rails game plot by aiming to restore the princes to their previous positions of authority. Unfortunately, their mech was assembled by an Honest John's Dealership, and he has to win to keep his opponent from being fried.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: Nicks' romance plotline in the eighth volume. Before that, he was just stuck in the shadow of his more successful younger brother.
  • Time Abyss: A.I. like Luxion survived for such a long time that multiple civilizations rose and fell, all while they were cooped up in their bases from Restraining Bolt programming.
  • Title Drop: Leon partially throughout Volume 1 when things go wrong for him, then saying the complete title at the end.
  • Took a Level in Kindness:
    • Angelica spends most of the first volume cold, strict, and irritable. After gaining Olivia as a friend, and Leon convincing her the best way to get revenge is to live happily, she is much more easygoing. Although she's clearly thrilled at chances to let out her anger, such as against Earl Offrey's daughter.
    • Jerk Jock Greg, after being humiliated and mocked by Leon, and then being a Deer in the Headlights while facing down Sky Pirates, becomes a much more caring and positive person.
    • Carla spends most of her introductory arc bullying Olivia as much as she (thinks she can) get away with. However, After a Villainous Breakdown due to getting exposed as The Mole, and threatened, as well as being disowned by her family, and bullied by rest of the Academy, she shows a more timid and caring personality, being saved by Marie, and becoming her follower.
  • Too Much Information:
    • Since her father Vince Redgrave is acting as a Psycho Supporter, Angelica would rather not know what he's planning with some women who got caught betraying her.
    • Julius is disturbed to hear how his mother is Leon's Hero's Muse.
    • Luxion talks about how excited Nicks was during a date, in way too much detail, right in front of Nicks family, and his date's father.
  • Trademark Favorite Food:
    • Leon, after initially rolling his eyes at them, becomes obsessed with tea and tea ceremonies, with it being his primary hobby. According to Noelle, he also likes meat and fish.
    • Jilk seems to share Leon's tea hobby but unlike Leon, makes horrible tea.
    • Julius loves common meat skewers and later becomes obsessed with cooking them.
  • Transhuman Treachery: The Precursors known as "New Mankind", who won a war of annihilation against Old Mankind, who unlike them, couldn't use magic. Before the two races apparently interbred.
    • The elves Leon goes up against in the third volume see this Played With. Elves in the setting were Artificial Human genetically engineered specifically to help Old Mankind win a war. Yet, this group of Evilutionary Biologist elves are under the impression that normal humans were created to be the servants, and trying to re-assert control over them.
  • Trash of the Titans: In the fourth volume:
    • Adventurer Archaeologist Narcisse let his office get this way due to nobody attending his classes, meaning he'll be cut off from his expeditions soon. He falls in it and can't get up without help.
    • Pierre and his Japanese Delinquent and Sky Pirate minions totally trash the interior of Leon's second Cool Airship the Einhorn after stealing it in a Leonine Contract. This really ticks off Luxion, motivating his False Flag Operation rampage through Alzer, and Leon gets the Alzer government to pay him reparations for the damage.
  • Trauma Button: Leon's older sister, Jenna after the Kingdom's post-war internal reforms, cries and runs away when the fact no men are interested in marrying her comes up.
    • Angie, with the prospect of being cheated on, due to what happened with Julius.
    • Leon grew so used to being treated like a servant and abused by noblewomen for eleven plus years, that seeing women be regularly caring and helpful like in his old world in the Alzer Republic, makes him cry spontaneously.
  • Traumatic Haircut: Played for Laughs— The minor villain Earl Garrett is prideful of his dastardly fancy mustache. So, at Leon's suggestion, Luxion decides to do some laser-hair-removal, leading to Garrett holding an impotent grudge against Leon.
  • Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: In a series where Laser-Guided Karma usually takes the form of humiliation, stripped statuses, or general suffering, Miauler's betrayal is punished with no mercy.
  • Trick Bullet: Shows up in two forms: Built into the ammunition, and as a temporary Status Buff. Both being favorites of Leon, who puts sleep or elemental effects on them.
  • Troll: Leon really enjoys making people who hate him suffer, often spouting a Slasher Smile when witnessing their reaction. This comes back to bite him, when it comes to Marie, who he knows is a fellow reincarnator, but Leon prioritizes tormenting her over cooperation, leading to them acting cross-purposes.
  • True Companions: Seemingly unaffected by jealousy of one another, the five capture targets form a bond like this. Each losing to Leon helped make them Fire-Forged Friends, seeing him as a rival. It also helps that Marie treats them fairly.
    • Subverted by Leon's poor nobles group, who present themselves like this at first but are pressured into vandalizing Leon's room, and take some convincing to work together.

    U-Z 
  • Uncertain Audience: In-universe example. The game the world was based on was an otome game designed for women, but it had stuff that would appeal to men like mecha battles and dungeon crawling. It was also a Genre Mashup of otome games and RPGs, a combination that makes Leon wonder who the game was made for. Justified as it's pointed out that up until that point, the company behind the game had only ever made games geared toward men, and this was their first attempt at making a game marketed towards women, implying they had no idea what they were doing during development.
  • Underestimating Badassery: When Leon steps in to represent Angelica against Marie and the five love interests, no one thinks that Leon is going to win the resulting duel. Needless to say nearly the entire student body bets against Leon winning the duel, thinking they could earn easy money, especially since he pulls out a shovel in which they laugh at initially... only to find out the hard way that Leon is quite good at using said shovel as an excellent weapon in which he easily curbstomps the five princes easily with it, resulting in losing every cent they placed in the bet when Leon wins.
  • The Unfair Sex: Deconstructed. Because women hold all the power in the new world, they treat the boys very terribly and it is not played for laughs at all. Men will have to work their butts off and earn a lot of wealth to get a woman to even consider looking at him, and even then he'd more than likely be a Meal Ticket while women fool around with their "lovers". Men who are unable to get married before hitting 20 will be considered leftovers and will be sent to marry old women who have far passed their prime. When Queen Mylene wittiness one of the female students mistreat a boy, she expresses disappointment in how far noblewomen degraded themselves.
  • The Unfavorite: Downplayed, this is how Leon feels compared to his past life Manipulative Bitch little sister. This proves somewhat untrue when we learn that, after learning about what she did to Leon, she was shunned by their parents, and her life made a living hell.
    • In the past life of Lelia, she was looked down upon by her parents and her older sister to an extreme degree, to the point where all three cooperated to push Lelia's fiancé towards her sister.
  • Unishment:
    • Leon sees being scolded by Mylene as this.
    • Duke Redgrave punishes his daughter for humiliating her family by kowtowing publicly to Marie, by wedding her off to Leon.
    • Jilk seems to take a masochistic pleasure in earning Marie's wrath.
  • Unobtainium: The "float stone" that allows islands, airships, and Mini-Mecha to fly. It occurs in seemingly natural deposits, and there have been cases of floating islands being destroyed to get more of said stone to build fleets, sometimes while still inhabited.
    • The Alzer Republic mines deposits of a different mineral generated by their World Tree to sell to the rest of the world, and use that to influence other countries with discounts and embargoes. They also use it to fuel their old style cars.
  • The Unsmile: Olivia typically makes one when jealous, which is part of what makes Leon fear she's a potential yandere.
  • Unstoppable Rage:
    • After Marie admits to being a false saint, the temple tries to force her to drink poisoned wine, resulting in the five princes going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge into the temple's headquarters. This gets the ones who've been reinstated disinherited once more.
    • Leon goes into one strong enough to resist getting dogpiled by guards when he finds out that Marie made Angie and Olivia kowtow to her in public, in exchange for help breaking him out of prison. Leon tries to behead Marie, but Luxion incapacitates everyone in the room.
  • Unwanted Rescue: Noelle, seeing that Leon has two fiancées, refuses both his rescue attempts, seeing her feelings for him as unrequited and something she has to get over, not knowing that he's the Guardian (and thus, lover to the Priestess, i.e. herself). The second attempt, Leon takes her against her will anyway, saving her from being killed by Loic.
  • Unwanted Spouse: Both Leon's father Balcus' marriage to Zola, and King Roland's marriage to Mylene, are mutually unwanted political marriages. From Mylene's point of view, it's more that she tries to make it work, but Roland doesn't care at all and gets around as The Casanova adding to his Royal Harem instead, pushing all his work onto her, leaving her desperately craving affection.
  • Upper-Class Twit: The vast majority of the students in the Academy wouldn't know heads or tales of managing a government or politics, what the academy is supposedly preparing them for. This is especially hilighted in the second volume, where Leon, Angelica, Chris, and Deirdre, are clearly the only ones in their situation with any political awareness.
  • Uptown Girl: This was how the Otome Game went, with Olivia a commoner ending up with one of (or a reverse-harem) of rich boys. She ends up with Leon, who also counts due to his wealth and status.
    • Leon's mother Luce might count, becoming Balcus' mistress, although he ended up heavily in debt due to Zola demanding regular payments from him (like most other barons to their wives).
  • Uriah Gambit:
    • Leon's father's wife Zola, is involved in an entitlement fraud scheme taking advantage of yearly payments given out to widows of soldiers that are killed in action. The way the organization works, is it marries off men to older women, sending them out to die in battle, only to marry another man and repeat, using the payouts to arrange more marriages. Leon was planned to be such a sacrifice, forcing him to exploit his game knowledge to survive by finding Luxion.
    • In-game, Earl Offrey's daughter would ask Olivia to get involved in the suppression of the sky pirates, when in fact the earl has dealings with the pirates, meaning this was a plot against Olivia. Normally, this event would be how Olivia acquired the Holy Necklace, one of the Saintess items, from the pirates, as well as establish who would be Olivia's chosen lover in the ending. In the novel, the event takes place a year earlier and it's Leon who is asked to suppress the pirates, with Leon accepting knowing he can easily thwart the pirates and that Olivia needs to acquire the Holy Necklace.
  • Vengeance Feels Empty: Leon invokes this when trying to get Angelica to move on from the situation between Marie, Julius and her, saying the best revenge would be to live happily without him. It's still complete hypocrisy coming from the petty and spiteful Leon, but his advice succeeds in helping her cope and be happier. She gets this revenge on Julius in the third volume, when she shows how much happier she is with Leon.
  • Villain Has a Point: Most of Princess Hertrude's criticisms of the Kingdom of Holfort Leon can't help but agree with. Indeed, the kingdom is quite strange even by the setting's standards, as shown in the Culture Clash entry.
  • Villainous Friendship: Subverted Trope: The Principality's Princess Hertrude and Hertruda, think of and treat Black Knight Vandel as a friend. However, he helped murder their parents, and lied to them as part of The Conspiracy, using them as puppets, alongside the rest of the war party, to get his revenge on the Kingdom.
  • Visions of Another Self: Olivia had a vision where everything was destroyed by Luxion and Ideal with Olivia was Luxion's Master. Luxion happens to know the history of the betrayal of the Saintess and explains to her that "she" wished for it and both of their objectives happen to coinside with each other. This means that this would be the end result if Leon and Marie stayed as mobs that faded on the background as they didn't distrupt the storyline. and it is the true ending of the game itself.
  • Voluntary Vassal: In the seventh volume, Leon annexes the Republic of Alzer to both help it rebuild after the prior devastating battle where they lost their Sacred Tree, and to irritate his Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Roland. Alzer reforms its government around Albergue, who is now Roland's vassal.
  • The Von Trope Family: Fantasy variant. Three different "tiers" of nobility exist in the Kingdom, each with a different name-particle:
    • Regional (and often lower-ranked) nobles, such as Leon and Marie, have "Fou" sandwiched between their first and last names.
    • Court nobles have "Fia".
    • The highest-level (Dukes and the Royal Family) have "Rapha".
  • Wall Pin of Love: Leon does this while pleading for Queen Mylene's help, making her blush and give in, before asking him to step back.
  • War Hawk: Multiple countries have factions of this:
    • Earl Garrett and The Black Knight Vandel are members of the one in the Principality of Fanoss. The first, due to opportunism and greed, and the second due to the Family Extermination he suffered at the hands of Kingdom troops. Said faction is The Conspiracy that rewrote their history and uses the two Princesses as Puppet Queen after having assassinated their parents. Leon kills both named members.
    • Leon's various actions in Alzer cause a faction of young revanchists to grow, hoping to overthrow the ruling regime for being too weak in the face of foreign interests. Serge as an Unknown Rival of Leon, rallies them and gives them Great House Power Tattoo thanks to a Brainwashed and Crazy Yumeria, only for them to be crushed by Leon's two Cool Airship with the help of Leon's poor noble "Friends".
  • War Refugees: The old humans ultimately lost The Magic Versus Technology War and the survivors fled in migration ships, which was actually Luxion's original purpose.
  • Wearing a Flag on Your Head: In the manga adaptation, the Ambiguous Robot Organic Technology monsters summoned by the Principality to supplement their fleets, each have holographic Fanoss crests over their heads.
  • We Can Rule Together: Princess Hertrude spends most of her interactions with Leon trying everything she can think of to get him to join the Principality's side. She even does proper research on his motivations, which Leon finds ironic, when compared to the ridiculously selfish marriage negotiation letters he'd been getting from Kingdom noblewomen who couldn't care less. Thanks to this, she nearly succeeds, after he is framed and imprisoned for treason, but Luxion reveals that her current offer isn't real; likely to make him look more guilty.
  • Wedding Smashers: In Alzer, Noelle's status as priestess and member of the destroyed Lespinasse family gets discovered by Loic, who then forces Noelle to marry him. Leon, after being convinced to not worry about causing another international incident, crashes the wedding to rescue Noelle.
  • We Do the Impossible: Exploited Trope. Leon uses his victories against the odds, as a key element of persuasion to get Reluctant Warrior allies to fight alongside him. Later on, Angie actually repeats the tactic, invoking Leon to rouse their ally's morale.
  • We Have Become Complacent: The ruling families of the Alzer Republic suffer from this due to the magic granted to them by their World Tree, blissfuly dismissive of potential threats. Which actually works towards the protagonist's benefit, for a while.
  • What If?: The aptly named "Marie Route" is an ongoing side story that explores an alternate route in which Leon and Marie get to each other first before any of their other love interests.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Leon with his Jerkass and Sadist tendencies receives this a lot, to which he usually responds with Sarcasm Mode. Luxion, for being a Robotic Psychopath with his suggestions, receives it as well.
  • White and Red and Eerie All Over: This is the color scheme of Alzer's World Tree's corrupted form, white bark covered in red eyes.
  • White Magic: Healing Magic is considered a rare talent in the setting, and wielders of it can make powerful barriers, and easily wipe out monsters. The only named characters to use it, are ones with the blood of the First Saintess.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: After Cleare's experiments on him, Aaron's attempts to become more feminine lead into this. It's portrayed as a better path than his earlier delinquent ways.
  • Whoring: In-Universe, Luxion accuses Leon of doing this by avoiding challenging the Academy's dungeon more than necessary until he got an Amplifier Artifact charm, after witnessing him donate a huge amount of cash to a shrine that gave benefits in the game. Leon denies doing so, but then later admits to only learning the most useful magical spells, such as his bullet enhancing magic.
  • Who Writes This Crap?!: Leon lampshades how dark and violent the setting is, compared to typical Otome Games.
  • Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: Loic's justification of beating Noelle to the point her body is covered with injuries, after blackmailing her into a relationship and collaring her.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Olivia starts as this, and a bubbly, energetic, flirty nerd. Constant bullying, and having to rely on her friends for protection, breaks her down.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: Leon's younger brother Colin seems to be this in the eighth volume.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: The higher one's rank, the more they are expected to contribute in terms of money and manpower, especially in times of war. Leon's grandfather was dismayed when his land was elevated to a barony because he would have to pay more taxes while his own family was barely making ends meet. Leon himself hates getting promoted, his dreams of a peaceful life slipping further out of reach every time he advances in rank.
  • A Wizard Did It: Leon invokes this when asked by Olivia to explain the Video Game Tropes behind how the dungeon they're exploring functions. Later subverted when he explains that the monsters are Reduced to Dust and their remains get recycled to refill the dungeon.
  • World in the Sky: The setting of the Otome world the protagonist is reincarnated into.
  • World Tree: The Alzer Republic has a giant Sacred Tree in the center of their nation, which provides magic stones for export and can grant blessing to the those belonging to the Six Noble Houses of Alzer. In the otome game series, it serves as the Final Boss of the second game, under the control of the head of the Rault family. Everything about the tree isn't all what it seems, however, as Luxion discovers the existence of a military base once manned by its creators under the tree. As it turns out, the tree was originally a sapling discovered by an old human scientist who sought to find a plant that could survive the magic-rich environment the New Humans created. Ideal had assisted Yume, the elf assistant of the scientist, in planting it.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In the Sixth volume, Leon pretends to lose a battle with Serge, to manipulate Louise. It helps but isn't enough, causing him to rely on tricking an out of her senses Louise into thinking he's her brother, which backfires.
  • Yandere:
    • Leon has some suspicions about Olivia being this, but they ultimately prove false.
      • The Marie Route sheds light on why he suspected this.
    • Loic from the second dating sim, although the Fetishized Abuser trope may be a better fit for his behavior towards Noelle (he is from an Otome Game after all).
    • Also from the second dating sim, as part of his Hidden Depths, Emile turns out to be this, shooting at Lelia in an If I Can't Have You… moment. Him being this was suspected by Marie prior.
  • You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious:
    • After Olivia has an argument with Leon, where she accuses him of seeing her as a pet, he starts calling her Olivia rather than Livia. She takes that as a sign he now hates her, while he feels he has been doing more harm in helping her and is trying to distance himself from her.
    • In the seventh volume, Leon finally granting Louise's request to call her big sis like she wanted, causes her to become ecstatic and give Leon his First Kiss.
  • You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With:
    • Zola talks down to Angelica for a while, before getting this and learning she's been talking down to a Duke's daughter.
    • Earl Offrey's daughter gets this twice from Angelica, once for unknowingly attacking the queen, then again for Bullying a Dragon.
    • Royal Brat Alzer Prince Hugues Toala Druille says this after being easily defeated by "barbarians", before pouting due to being ignored.
    • Leon enjoys taking the opportunity to use his rank for this, with a freshman bully at the start of his third year. Other people in the crowd do recognize him.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle!:
    • When Olivia uses her powers to eliminate the monsters summoned by the Principality of Fanoss, it seems the war is about to end. However, a Principality noble overseeing the battle decides to sell out Princess Hertrude to the Holfort Kingdom in order to save his own hide. As he does so, he reveals that Hertrude's parents were killed because they opposed any war with the Kingdom. Having seen her younger sister already sacrificed her life in order to summon the monsters, Hertrude in despair summons monsters to wipe out both the Kingdom and the Principality.
    • After winning the war against the Principality, Leon figures he's done with the dealing with the events of the otome game, but then he is told that the game received sequels after his past life's death, meaning another world-threatening Final Boss is potentially in the horizon. Marie, having some knowledge of the sequels, uses this to negotiate for some cash in exchange for the info.
  • Yuri Fan: Leon enjoys seeing Angie and Livia being close, much like Marie does with the boys of her Reverse Harem. Leon even gets a nosebleed from Luxion's simulation of them beginning an encounter, as well as his All Just a Dream side story involving it.
  • Zero-Approval Gambit: Leon wanted to be expelled from the Academy and have his titles stripped from him, in order to free himself from marriage hunting and other responsibilities. Unfortunately for him, in trying to protect his family from retribution by securing the help of an already aggrieved-against-the-crown Duke Redgrave, he is instead knighted and promoted, in part to placate said Duke. Afterwards, Leon revels in making those that hate him suffer more, which only makes the hatred grow.

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