Characters / My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Characters (Catarina Claes)

This is the character page for My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!.

Claes Family

Catarina Claes/The Monkey Girl

See here for her profile.

Keith Claes

Keith Claes

Voiced by: Tetsuya Kakihara (Japanese), Sora Amamiya (Japanese, child), Griffin Puatu (English), Diego Becerril (Latin American Spanish), Lilian Vela (Latin American Spanish, child)

^{Click here to see him as a child}

Catarina's adopted younger brother, and one of the four capture targets of Fortune Lover (with Catarina acting as the rival for his route). He was taken in by Catarina's parents at a young age, but suspected of being a bastard son of Luigi. In the game, this led to him becoming an object of scorn by both Catarina and Millidiana, and Keith grew up to become an embittered and misogynistic playboy. In his route, Maria helps him to finally open up, and Catarina ends up either exiled (good ending) or killed (bad ending).

In the anime, Catarina attempts to avoid these endings by acting as a loving adoptive sister from the very beginning. She also reveals the truth that Keith is actually the bastard son of a distant relative, which significantly improves his relationship with her and the rest of their family. He therefore grows up to be a well-adjusted and responsible young man, though one who is constantly exasperated by his unofficial role as Catarina's handler.

Tropes applicable to his current self

• Abusive Parents: His biological mother practically abandoned him to the custody of his nobleman father, where he suffered even more for being a bastard child.
• Bastard Angst: He's the result of a nobleman sleeping with a prostitute, a fact which led him to be bullied by his half-brothers.
• Big Sister Attraction: While they're not directly blood-related outside of sharing a distant relative, they've been together since they were kids and are close enough for it not to matter. However, while Catarina genuinely sees him as just her little brother, the fact she loved and cared for him when everybody else beforehand treated him like a monster, along with helping him in being able to function in regular society, brought Keith to fall romantically in love with her. Since they're not directly related, their mother Millidiana is fully supportive of his desire to marry Catarina.
• Chick Magnet: He's noted to be quite good at attracting girls. He also was a major Casanova in the original game.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: A major part of his regular day-to-day life is keeping track of Catarina and doing his best to prevent her from doing anything stupid that would embarrass her and her family. Despite his best efforts, he often fails.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: Unlike his game counterpart, he's completely ignorant of all the attention he gets from the ladies due to how focused he is on Catarina.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Played for Laughs. He's practically the second out of the four male suitors to be aggressive in pursuing Catarina, frequently engaging Geordo in subtle verbal sniping for his engagement with his adoptive sister, taking every opportunity to act as the "third wheel" with Catarina and Geordo, and having to deal with everybody else who holds feelings for her.
• Dark and Troubled Past: As an illegitimate child, he was bullied by his half-siblings, who then avoided him after he gravely injured several of them when he suddenly awakened to his earth magic. In the original game, not even being adopted into the main Claes family helped, as he then gets exposed to Catarina and Millidiana's scorn, causing him to grow embittered to the point of murder (in his bad ending). Thus averting the latter scenario was among Catarina's top priorities.
• Dishing Out Dirt: He has incredibly strong earth magic to the point that as a child he could already make massive golems, while Catarina only can raise a small amount of earth. His lack of control, however, caused him no end of grief.
• Distressed Dude: In volume 4 he gets hit by the Distress Ball as Dark Magic users team up with his half brother to kidnap him.
• Eating Lunch Alone: Because his former family holds him in contempt, they never allowed him to dine with them, and he was required to eat alone in his room.
• Entitled to Have You: How he feels towards Catarina since they practically lived together as a family. This is not the case in this series, as he eats with his adoptive family.
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite how Keith feels for Catarina, he has yet to make a move on her, possibly due to his gentlemanly personality that Catarina drilled into him. Geordo points out that if he were in Keith's position, he would have taken advantage of her already.
• Family Eye Resemblance: Played for Drama. Keith and Luigi have near-identical eyes due to them being distantly related, which led to Millidiana mistaking him for her husband's bastard child. In Fortune Lover, this led her to become verbally abusive to Keith and caused the deterioration of her marriage.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible to Catarina's Foolish.
• Gender Bender: Inside of a wish-granting dollhouse, Keith wished that he could understand girls like Catarina better, and thus lived in a world where everyone's gender was reversed: Catarina, Mary, Sophia, Maria and Anne were all men, while himself, Geordo, Alan, Nicol were all women.
• Grew a Spine: After he gets kidnapped, rescued by her and kisses her while half-dreaming, Keith directly proclaims his love for Catarina and actively makes attempts to kiss her, even aggressively telling Geordo he will take Catarina from him. Even Geordo is amused by Keith's sudden brazenness.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: He has dirty-blonde hair, and while he does have some faults, he's very much a kind and courteous gentleman with a strong moral compass even at his worst.
• Happily Adopted: Putting aside his exasperation with Catarina's bizarre tendencies, Keith is quite happy being a member of the Claes family.
• Heir Club for Men: Averted. The reason why he was adopted by Luigi in the first place is since Catarina is engaged to Prince Geordo, leaving House Claes with no heir. In addition, he was chosen for his strong magic (which is indeed the strongest among his friends), which implies Luigi wasn't intentionally choosing a male as heir, either.
• Heroic Bastard: Keith's biological parents were a minor noble and a common prostitute. Despite this, he is shown to be a perfect gentleman as a teenager due to Catarina showering him with love and attention since childhood, the lack of which in Fortune Lover informs his womanizing, resentful personality.
• Hopeless Suitor: Out of all the people who love Catarina, Keith is probably the one with the least chances of ever being considered a potential lover by her because she can only think of him as her little brother.
• I Am a Monster: Keith is initially withdrawn not just because he's been abused but also because he thinks of himself as a monster with uncontrollable magic. Catarina refuses to accept this.
• Irony: Because Catarina pampered him and influenced him into being a complete gentleman, he isn't the playboy he was supposed to be in Fortune Lover, but consequently he's even more adored by the opposite sex compared to his game counterpart. Furthermore, while he is understandably hostile and suspicious towards her in the game and in On the Verge of Doom! spinoff, in this series, he's genuinely respectful to her and is in love with her.
• Love Confession: In volume 4 of the novel, after Catarina saves him from his kidnapping, he tells her he's in love with her.
• Madwoman in the Attic: Before his adoption into the Claes, he was forced to stay in his room by his biological family due to his Power Incontinence.
• Marionette Master: His specialty in magic is creating large earth golems that he can control remotely.
• Mistaken for Gay: Catarina briefly thinks he might be attracted to Nicol, given the latter has dozens of admirers of both sexes. Of course, she's wrong and Keith is just concerned he has yet another rival for his adoptive sister's love.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Keith is definitely a straight example and butts heads with his sister's fiancé whenever Geordo visits (which is often), though for different reasons than normal. Eventually, he also has this with Mary as well.
• Not Blood Siblings: Keith and Catarina are distantly related, but it sounds like the nobility is all distantly related to each other. However, Keith was adopted into the family as her little brother, and she firmly considers him one right from the start. The fact that this trope is in effect is what motivated Keith and their mother to try to annul Geordo's engagement so Keith can marry Catarina instead.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • As Geordo's most direct male rival, Keith knows that he is often all that stands between Geordo getting Catarina alone long enough to "claim" her. Thus, if Geordo's whereabouts are unaccounted for, and Catarina also happens to be alone, then he will quickly realize how dangerous that is.
  • When Catarina reveals to Mary that she and Keith sometimes feed each other when at home, Keith quickly sports an "Oh Crap!" reaction. In turn, Mary gives a very wicked smile revealing that she and Keith had entered a pact: she made him promise not to take advantage of his relation to Catarina and living with her, and in the meantime, she wouldn't take more advantage of a Pseudo-Romantic Friendship to do lewd things with Catarina. It's implied that they both broke their word, but Mary was looking for an excuse to go full throttle.
• Past Experience Nightmare: During a nice summer day, he has a flashback that reveals he used to occasionally have nightmares when he slept due to the constant insults and ostracism he got from his former family. Catarina waking him up and promising to make sure she would always be there for him if he ever has any more nightmares put a stop to these.
• Power Incontinence: One of his major psychological hangups was his inability to fully control his earth magic as a child. Quite justified, as no one even bothered to actually train him to control his magic due to his bastard status.
• Rags to Riches: Downplayed since he's technically a noble despite his illegitimate status, but Keith went from being the son of a prostitute to an unofficial member of one of the Claes' branch families to the current heir of the main family.
• Reformed Rake: Not only does Keith never become a rake in the first place, but Catarina spoiling him with affection turns him into a mellow-hearted gentleman who goes red at the very insinuation that he's romantically interested in any woman who isn't his adoptive sister, almost the exact opposite of the womanizing bad boy from the original timeline.
• Returning the Handkerchief: In Fortune Lover, Keith picks up Maria's handkerchief and uses it as an excuse to get closer to her when he returns it. However, because of Catarina, he ends up just returning to it to her after she dropped it and nothing happens.
• Royal Bastard: He was the son of a minor noble and a prostitute and was often bullied by his half-brothers for his origins, though his parentage is irrelevant in the story proper due to him having been adopted into the Claes family to serve as heir.
• The Shut-In: Keith isolated himself out of fear that his magic powers will harm those around him until either Maria in Fortune Lover or Catarina in this story bursts his bubble.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Whether it's the game or the series, Keith has never had any real interest in most girls. In the game, he was a playboy who never cared for the girls he strung along until he fell for Maria due to her kindness, while in the series Catarina's love and care for him since childhood make him only interested in her.
• Son of a Whore: His birth mother was a prostitute.
• Stronger Sibling: His affinity for earth elemental magic is stronger than Catarina.
• Tears of Joy: He sheds these when Catarina comforts him, telling him that he's not a monster and she'll always be by his side.
• Third Wheel: He has a tendency to become this on occasion when Geordo intends to date Catarina, usually via some combination of inviting himself to the date as Catarina's chaperone and Catarina not realizing Geordo expects her to show up without Keith.
• Unstable Powered Child: His magic involves creating and controlling earth golems, which means in his case, his magical awakening involved large pieces of earth falling from the sky and cratering the ground, as well as causing multiple impact wounds and even broken bones across his siblings. He was immediately given the Madwoman in the Attic treatment until Duke Claes adopts him as heir...for exactly this reason, as this story occurs in a magocracy, and training can improve a person's control over their magic.

Tropes applicable to his Fortune Lover counterpart. (And On the Verge of Doom! prior to Chapter 1.)

• Cain and Abel: The warm-hearted Abel to Catarina's horrifyingly evil Cain.
• The Casanova: Being starved of affection from both his original and adoptive families, Keith sought to sate his yearning by becoming a playboy.
• Desperately Craves Affection: His major hangup in the game, and the Freudian Excuse for his Casanova behavior.
• Elopement: In the good ending to his route, he leaves the Claes family and elopes with Maria.
• Freudian Excuse: His lonely family life is said to be the reason for his playboy behavior, as this caused him to Desperately Craves Affection.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Initially, he is a Casanova hiding a surly, aloof, and overall jerkish persona, caused by an emotional hole in his heart. But deep down, he's still a kindhearted person. It just takes being shown that someone genuinely loves him to bring it to the surface.
• Ladykiller in Love: Keith was a playboy whose loneliness was healed by Maria, causing him to fall in love with her.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: In the good ending to his route, he finally stands up to Catarina for pushing Maria one too many times and allows her to be exiled.
• Rescue Romance: Maria falls in love with him after he saves her from Catarina and her clique.
• The Resenter: He held his festering hatred of Catarina for seven years. By the endgame, he finally explodes, with either awesome or tragic results depending on how his route plays out.
• Scars Are Forever: He gains these in the bad ending of his route.
• Self-Imposed Exile: In his bad ending, he exiles himself out of shame over killing Catarina.
• Stepford Smiler: His womanizing tendencies belie a lonely heart, broken by years of verbal and/or physical abuse from his half-siblings, and then Catarina.

Tropes applicable to his On the Verge of Doom! counterpart.

• Defrosting Ice King: It takes a lot of effort on Catarina's part to convince him she's being sincere, along with Millidiana learning he's not Luigi's bastard child and trying to apologize, but he eventually starts coming around to both of them, though still being aloof and evasive since he wants to see if Catarina truly means what she says about making up for everything she did.
• Ladykiller in Love: Once Keith patches things up with Catarina, he suddenly stops taking any interest in other girls — to their great displeasure. Two even come looking for him and begging to know what they did to offend him; Keith merely apologizes and says he'll try to spend time with them later, but realizes that suddenly all of his time has been spent with Catarina.
• Love Epiphany: When Catarina gets kidnapped, Keith rushes to her aid without any additional motive; when Catarina later suggests she'll renounce her noble status as penance for her past, Keith suddenly realizes that if it weren't for her, he would never have known what a true family was like. Even if she was horrible to him for years, she's more than made up for it by now, and he wants her to stay with him forever.
• Makes Us Even: After being saved from a knife-wielding Yandere, Keith decides to show up to Catarina's dinner event on the condition that it squares his debt so that she wouldn't be able to use it against him in the future. He doesn't realize that the new Catarina wouldn't even consider helping him to be a debt in the first place.
• Rejected Apology: After being bullied for seven years by Catarina, he immediately blows up at her when she tries to apologize and call him "little brother". It takes a good deal of effort on her part to show just how sincere she is about making amends before he even entertains the thought of forgiving her, and he still holds onto his doubts, until she will truly honor her words.
• Rescue Romance: He begins to forgive Katarina and become more affectionate of her after she saves him from a a girl who had become obsessed with him to the point of attacking him for not paying enough attention to her.
• Trauma Button: When Catarina calls him "little brother" offhandedly, Keith flips, telling her never to call him that after all she's done to him. As Catarina's efforts to make up for her wrongdoings and convince him she means what she says start sinking in, it slowly loses this effect. He still gets rather annoyed at it due to them still not being very close just yet, but he doesn't deny her calling him that anymore. He eventually accepts it, and starts to refer to Katarina as his 'big sister'.

• Tsundere: Once Catarina finally convinces him of the sincerity behind her desire for atonement, he becomes this towards her, expressing doubt about her making up for all the bullying while secretly appreciating her efforts and hoping she means what she says.

Duchess Millidiana Claes

Duchess Millidiana Claes (née Adeth)

Voiced by: Akiko Hiramatsu (Japanese), Anette Ugalde (Latin American Spanish)

The biological mother of Catarina, adoptive mother of Keith, and wife of Duke Claes.

Tropes applicable to her current self

• Almighty Mom: No matter what Catarina does to get in others' good graces, or how she goes about trying to avoid tripping into her "doom flags", whenever she does anything overly unladylike or unruly, which given Catarina's personality is pretty often, she's guaranteed to get a scolding from her mother if the woman catches wind of what she did.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: In S1E04 of the anime, as she and Duke Luigi send off Catarina and Keith to the Magic Academy, she tells Catarina to mind her manners, and then lists specifically what she shouldn't do (lift up her skirt, eat things off the floor, throw her toy snake, and be loud at night) in front of everyone present, which causes Catarina (and to a lesser extent, Keith) to be visibly embarrassed before she interrupts to say she'll be fine.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
  • S1E06 of the anime has her talking with Anne about Catarina, and she states that despite Catarina being a troublemaker, she's the reason her relationship with her husband Luigi is a healthy, loving one and that she's made the Claes household a brighter place. Shortly after however, she scolds Catarina for chanting loudly while she's working her field.
  • This is also shown when Keith goes missing. Millidiana is quick to blame Catarina based off of a misunderstanding, but when she sees that Catarina wants to fix things she shows a more tender and supportive side.
• The Dreaded: Played for Laughs. Catarina is frequently terrified by the thought of angering and getting punished by her mother, which unfortunately happens just as frequently. In episode 6 of the anime's second season, she considers her mother to be scarier than any ghost (which she is also scared of).
• Faint in Shock: Played for Laughs when, while accompanying Geordo in his marriage proposal to Catarina, she finds her daughter dressed up as a farmer.
• Good Stepmother: Due to Catarina's influence and intervention, she treats Keith as if he was her biological son.
• Irony: In the game she is aligned with Catarina in their shared disdain for Keith. Here in the main story she is aligned with Keith in their shared exasperation over Catarina's antics.
• Like Mother, Like Daughter: She finds her daughter super embarrassing and wonders why she's so strong-willed and tomboyish. Luigi secretly thinks that the two of them are completely alike. Also applies on the physical level, as they're near-spitting images of each other, and when she gets angry, it's easy to see from who Catarina got her "villainess face".
• No Hero to His Valet: She has a hard time grasping how her problem child of a daughter could be worshiped as a saint by her classmates, let alone having numerous secret admirers.
• Old Maid: She confessed to Luigi that she thought she was too old as a marriage candidate when they first met. He didn't care.
• Only Sane Man: Out of everybody in the major cast, she's the only sensible and down-to-earth character among them. While everybody else either loves and worships Catarina or else dislikes her due to how much everybody else adores her, Millidiana sees her for who she truly is. While she does love Catarina as her daughter, she's constantly getting exasperated by all the craziness that happens around the girl and scolds her whenever she goes a bit too far with her weirdness. Being a noble, one step shy of the Royal Family no less, her exasperation is understandable.
• Parental Favoritism:
  • Downplayed and Played for Laughs. She likes Keith more than Catarina, but not so much out of a lack of love for Catarina as exasperation with the latter's antics. This is a far cry from her role in the game as Wicked Stepmother.
  • After Keith seemingly runs away and gives up his inheritance to become the new Duke, Millidiana flat out blames Catarina reasoning that he must have finally gotten fed up having to look after Catarina. The sad and hilarious thing is Catarina is not able to refute this.
• Parents as People: She is a very loving mother (at least, in the post-Monkey Girl timeline) but frequently gets frustrated with her daughter's less-than-ladylike behavior.
• Shipper on Deck: She likes to make opportunities for Keith and Catarina to get closer and secretly supports having them marry.

Tropes applicable to her Fortune Lover counterpart

• Affair? Blame the Bastard: She mistook Keith for being her husband's bastard child due to their similar eyes and was incredibly cold to him. "Monkey girl" Catarina throwing everything off the rails led to her learning the truth very quickly and they instead develop a much healthier relationship.
• Hidden Depths: While she was pretty villainous in the game, this turns out to have been from years of bitterness over the assumption that Luigi didn't love her as much as she loved him, to the point of having a bastard son. If she doesn't become embittered, she actually turns out to be a really nice person, if perhaps understandably strict.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In routes where any one of the Claes siblings has a role, Millidiana loses her only birth child through death or exile. In both of Keith route's endings, she loses both of her children and the Claes family is essentially doomed.
• Satellite Character: She doesn't play much of a role in the Keith route other than being Catarina's accomplice in making Keith's current family life just as hellish as his previous ones.
• Wicked Stepmother: She was abusive towards Keith in his route, having mistaken him for Luigi's bastard son. Catarina revealing the truth about him in the current story significantly helps invert her opinion of him. To further up the inversion, Keith becomes her favorite child, since he manages to meet his adoptive mother's expectations of how a noble should act and generally gives her little to no headaches, as opposed to her biological daughter. In return, he becomes her ally in her plans, from straightening Catarina up (with little to no success) to breaking her daughter's engagement off with Geordo.

Tropes applicable to her light novel and On the Verge of Doom! counterparts.

• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: She reveals that the reason she began acting coldly toward her husband was because she felt unworthy of being her husband's wife, especially after the only child she bore him turned into a Spoiled Brat, and most especially after Keith came along. After an early accident involving Catarina and Keith, and at the picnic Catarina arranges respectively, she begs Luigi to divorce her and live happily with his "mistress".
• My God, What Have I Done?: She falls to her knees and sobs when she realizes that she's treated both her husband and Keith terribly over what were misunderstandings.
• My Greatest Failure: She reveals that she's always regretted that the only child she gave birth to (Catarina) turned out the way she did.
• Please Dump Me: She begs her husband Luigi to divorce her, always feeling as though she didn't deserve to be his wife and feeling that Luigi would be happy with his "mistress".
• Poor Communication Kills: She and Luigi never opened up about their true feelings, allowing them to grow into gross misunderstandings that strained their relationship that sadly extends down to their children.

Duke Luigi Claes

Duke Luigi Claes

Voiced by: Takuto Yokoyama (Japanese), Diego Estrada (Latin American Spanish)

The biological father of Catarina, the adoptive father of Keith, and husband of Millidiana.

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• Benevolent Boss: S1E09 adds a bit more to his character in regards to his relationship with Anne during a flashback, where he's implied to care about her well-being just like Catarina, with him having a "chat" with Anne's father about annulling an Arranged Marriage the guy was forcing her into.
• Doting Parent: His most notable character trait, both in the game and the series, is how much he loves and dotes on Catarina, no matter how she actually acts.
• Good Parents: In all of the continuities, Luigi was nothing but a loving father to his daughter and adopted son. He would constantly dote on Catarina and didn't punish Keith for accidentally harming her with his dirt doll in the story.
• Mistaken for Cheating: In Fortune Lover's Keith route, the fact that his adopted son Keith had similar eyes to his own caused his wife Millidiana to accuse him of having fathered him with a mistress, straining their relationship. It wasn't until "monkey girl" Catarina revealed that Keith was actually a distant relative that he was vindicated.
• Parents as People: He is a very loving father, but his parental skills when it comes to raising his children need some work. It was a major flaw in the game, but he really gets off the hook in the series, since both Catarina and Keith are better individuals this time around.
• Parental Favoritism: Downplayed. While he's much closer to Catarina, it doesn't mean Luigi cares any less about his adopted son, since he's grooming Keith to become his successor and is very understanding of his troubled circumstances. That being said, he initially only took Keith in due to Catarina's relationship with Geordo - the implication being that, had Catarina refused to marry into the royal family, she would have remained as the Claes family successor and next Duchess... meaning Keith would have been a moot point.
• Satellite Character: Despite being Catarina's father and the source of royal heritage for Millidiana and their children, he actually has a rather small role, mainly because his personality can easily be summed up as "loves his wife and spoils his daughter".

Household Staff

Anne Shelley

Anne Shelley

Voiced by: Azumi Waki (Japanese), Cherami Leigh (English), Diana Meza (Latin American Spanish)

Catarina's personal maid.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: Downplayed. In the light novels and manga, she has a large burn scar on her back. The anime made it smaller and moved it to her arm (presumably so it'd be easier to show the audience during her focus episode).
• Alternate Self: She makes eye-contact with a gender-bent version of herself inside the world of a wish-granting dollhouse, and it freaks her right out.
• Arranged Marriage: Her father tried to force her into one, but she manages to avoid it thanks to Catarina, either deliberately (the main series) or by accident (the game and On the Verge of Doom!).
• Bastard Angst: She's the illegitimate child of a baron and a mistress. Her mother raised her to be an Extreme Doormat so the baron would take a liking to her, but he only found her valuable as a political pawn for an Arranged Marriage. When her body was scarred in a fire, the baron saw no more use in her and Anne was sent to the Claes family to work as a maid.
• Beleaguered Assistant: Anne has been Catarina's most devoted and trusted caretaker since she was a child. She adores Catarina for helping her see herself as more than a tool, and also saving her from an unwanted arranged marriage. But even she finds herself constantly exasperated by all of the trouble Catarina finds herself into, as well as the girl's complete lack of awareness. One imagines that Anne wants to pull her own hair out when her mistress asks questions like, "what do you think of my glow-in-the-dark pajamas?"
• Confirmed Bachelor: Female example. Anne shows little to no interest in getting married due to the fact that it would mean having to leave Catarina, even turning down Duke Claes' offer to find her a good husband after the awful Arranged Marriage her father tries to force her into falls through.
• Cool Big Sis: While they're only related by blood through a distant relative, this has basically been Anne's role to Catarina ever since the girl got her Past-Life Memories back. Anne cares for her, provides for her needs when necessary, and overall looks out for her well-being.
• A Day in the Limelight: The epilogue of the first volume focuses on her life prior to working in the Claes household, her assessment of the affections that everyone held for Catarina, and her own loyalty to her. This is adapted into the anime in S1E09.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She's a Heroic Bastard whose mother raised her essentially as a tool for her father, a cruel and abusive nobleman. Said mother then loses her life in a fire (that also permanently scars Anne), leaving her to be abandoned by her father who considers her "damaged goods", and would only contact her much later... to try and marry her against her own will.
• Extreme Doormat: Her mother raised her to be submissive in the hopes that she could curry her father's favor and earn a better life. Anne started growing out of it because of Catarina seeing her value as a person instead of a tool.
• Face Palm: Anne's most common reaction when confronted with Catarina's zany deeds.
• Grew a Spine: Serving Catarina not only broke Anne's submissive attitude, but also gave her the courage to speak for herself. When her father showed up to Claes Manor to tell her to come home for the Arranged Marriage he'd set up, after Catarina first pleads for Baron Shelley to reconsider, Anne openly refuses the marriage and tells her father she is not listening to him anymore.
• Harem Nanny: Anne works hard to keep Catarina presentable to society and has her own dedicated side story which is half about detailing why she's so protective of Catarina and half about her exasperation at her charge's terminal cluelessness.
• Heroic Bastard: She's the result of the short-lived relationship between a baron and one of his mistresses, and despite her depressing childhood she's nothing but a good and caring woman who holds great platonic love for Catarina.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: She's the only member of Catarina's friend group that holds no romantic interest towards her whatsoever, but that does nothing to change the fact Anne is an incredibly close friend and confidant to her. In fact, Anne might be closer to Catarina than any of the people that are actually in love with her, due to being her personal aide and knowing her before she even met Geordo and got her Past-Life Memories.
• Hired Help as Family: While she works as Catarina's personal maid, her master's view of her is somewhere between a close friend and an older sister.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Her last name has been translated as both "Shelley" and "Sherry".
• Lady-In-Waiting: She is this to Catarina, being Catarina's closest personal maid and confident. As the daughter of a baron, she's considered lower nobility, in line with what ladies in waiting were in real life.
• No Hero to His Valet: Downplayed. Anne certainly understands why Catarina has gained the infatuation of so many people, but Anne herself is calm and collected enough not to let the girl's charisma overtake her emotions. Largely because it's her duty, but also because she is much older than Catarina.
• Oh, Crap!: When Catarina directly tells Alan that he's boring and has no appeal when he accuses her of stealing Mary's affection, Anne buries her face in her hands after watching her young charge insult a prince to his face.
• Old Maid: She's nearing the point where people find it hard to get married anymore. However, unlike the head maid, she's completely fine with this because she would much rather serve Catarina until the day she dies.
• Only Sane Man: Despite the fact she loves and adores Catarina, Anne shares Millidiana's role as being calm and collected enough to actually read the situations happening around her with full understanding, with her adoration doing nothing to get in the way of her sanity. She is quite aware of the feelings and desires of each of the major characters, and is also aware of how oblivious Catarina is to all of them.
• Parental Abandonment: Her mother was killed in a fire just before her fifteenth birthday. Her father abandoned her with the Claes family shortly afterward, as the burn scars she received made her worthless for potential political marriages.
• Royal Bastard: She was born to a baron and one of his maids who had briefly served as his mistress. Her mother had hoped to give her a better life and raised her to always defer to authority in the hopes that she would either be named her father's heiress or be given a good husband. Unfortunately, a house fire killed her mother shortly before she turned 15 and left her with a massive scar on her back (arm in the anime), leading her father to disown her since she could no longer be used in a political marriage.
• Scars Are Forever: She has a massive burn scar from the fire that took her mother's life (though the severity and location differs between mediums). Unlike the small X-shaped scar that Catarina got at the beginning of the story, which near-completely vanished by the time they come to school, her scar is still there several years later, though her maid uniform helps keep it hidden.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: While searching for Catarina in the magic dollhouse, she becomes disturbed by Maria and Mary's fantasies that she doesn't stay in them for long, though she makes a mental note in saving them for later.
• Servile Snarker: She pretty much worships Catarina, but doesn't hesitate to make fun of her in the slightest. Interestingly, one of the reasons for Anne's Undying Loyalty to the current Catarina is that she doesn't mind Anne's language, which broke through her Yes-Man attitude she kept up before as a survival mechanism.
• Shipper on Deck: She ends up getting intimidated into supporting Geordo's efforts, but unlike the other shippers, she's not actually all that into the idea.
• Tears of Joy: In the epilogue of the first light novel volume, she nearly shed these when Catarina prevented her from being married away to a suspicious noble by her father.
• Undying Loyalty: Anne doesn't fall in love with Catarina like the others since she was already in her mid-teens when Catarina was just a kid, but she would still die for her.
• Yes-Man: Subverted. Anne's mother raised her to always defer to authority figures since, as the illegitimate daughter of a baron who also has no magic power, her best chance for a good life would have been to curry her father's favor and either be named his heir or be given to a good husband in a political marriage (only for her father to discard her when the burn scars she got from a house fire made the latter option impractical). Of course, someone as nutty and random as Catarina is pretty much impossible to suck up to and it allowed Anne to just be herself and become more of a Servile Snarker.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Thanks to the scarring she got from a fire plus the fact her mother conditioned her to be a Yes-Man due to her illegitimate birth, she was convinced her only worth in life was being a good servant. However, due to being in service to Catarina, whose crazy antics prevent the possibility of being a Yes-Man, plus the appreciation Catarina gives her for her efforts, she comes to realize her life isn't worthless and decides to just be herself.

Tom Wisley

Tom Wisley

Voiced by: Yuu Maeda (Japanese), Jesús Cortés (Latin American Spanish)

The head gardener of the Claes household.

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• A Day in the Limelight: He gets a focus chapter in the light novels that go into detail about his life and friendship with Catarina's grandfather.
• Interclass Friendship: He had been close friends with the previous Duke Claes (Luigi's father) from the time he was first hired all the way until the latter's death. This relationship repeats with his departed friend's granddaughter, Catarina.
• Intergenerational Friendship: He takes on a grandfatherly role for Catarina when she comes to him for help with her farming and constructing snake toys to throw at Geordo.
• Only One Name: For most of the story he is only referred to by his first name, usually from Catarina (who also attaches various terms of endearment such as "Grandpa"), so it's not until he gets his own segment in Volume 5 of the Light Novels that we learn his last name is Wisley.
• Worth Living For: Tom was good at what he did, but was never really good with people, leading to him constantly changing hands. The previous Duke Claes took notice of him, however, and became his lifelong employer and best friend. When the duke died, Tom felt alone again, and in his despair decided to simply wait for death so he can see his friend again. When Catarina came to shake things up, however, his spirits rose again, and has since decided to live his life to the fullest, assured that when his time comes, he'll have plenty of stories to tell his old friend about his charming granddaughter.

Stuart Family

Geoffrey Stuart

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (Japanese), Mitsuki Saiga (Japanese, child), Adin Rudd (English)

First Prince of the Stuart Family and eldest brother of Ian, Geordo, and Alan.

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• Arranged Marriage: Engaged to Suzanna in a relationship of convenience to each other. Geoffrey is a flirt and only interested in aiding his younger brothers and has no interest in taking over the throne, while Suzanna only wishes to research magic.
• Big Brother Instinct: Everything he does is for his younger brothers, especially Geordo and Alan. Although he ultimately has good intentions, it is a Deconstructed Trope, since he doesn't even know that his brothers have respective problems, one of them being Geordo and Alan's soured relations and their respective issues since childhood that could have grown worse had Catarina never intervened. Not to mention his love for them borders on being obsessive, potentially even incestuous.
  Suzanna Randall: I bet even Mason has no idea that you're a freak with an abnormal adoration for your younger brothers.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's got a load of eccentricities, and he likes pretending he's dumber and even crazier, but he's a very capable and effective noble whom many view as having the genuine potential for succeeding the throne despite those traits.
• The Chessmaster: Judging him on his silly antics will be the last mistake you ever make if you are a villainous individual. Geoffrey works in the shadows to outwit and apprehend nobles who abuse their statuses.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Acts like, and is, a bit of a scatterbrained loon, even if he can outwit everyone else in the room.
• Didn't Think This Through: Subverted, as Geoffrey relies on appearing like he never plans for most things, in order to appear as an idiot to the public, when in reality everything he does is well-thought and planned out.
• Jerkass Façade: Purposely makes himself out to be a conniving bastard in order to gain support from the more unscrupulous nobles within the kingdom for his campaign to gain the crown. In truth, Geoffrey has no real interest in becoming king, and intends to surrender the crown to one of his younger brothers. Not only does this prevent his amoral benefactors from gaining more power, but Geoffrey himself is able to secretly provide evidence of the crimes of his supporters to the Ministry of Magic if they ever step over the line.
• Inconsistent Spelling: The manga localization translates his name as Jeffrey.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: While most of his kookiness is very much his actual character, he deliberately plays it up to look like a controlling and greedy idiot so that nobody would suspect his hidden manipulations.
• Stalker Shrine: Has a wall covered with pictures of Ian, Geordo, and Alan to highlight his borderline unhealthy adoration of his three younger brothers.

Suzanna Randall/Larna Smith

Voiced by: Sumire Uesaka (Japanese), Erin Yvette (English)

Prince Geoffery's fiancée. Suzanna is the second daughter of the marquis of the Randall House. Secretly, she is Larna Smith, working at Ministry of Magic as the head of the Magical Tools Research Division, and is Raphael's superior.

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• Ambiguously Gay: Considering her Arranged Marriage with Geoffrey was done purely for convenience and it's made pretty clear they aren't romantically attracted to each other. The only person that Suzanna showed any intimate interest in is, of course, Catarina.
• Arranged Marriage: Engaged to Geoffrey in a relationship of convenience to each other. Suzanna is only interested in researching magic and not being a Princess, while Geoffrey is a flirt and only interested in aiding his younger brothers.
• Atrocious Alias: The name she chose for her undercover identity was Lana, literally one letter off from her work name.
• Birds of a Feather: While neither of them are romantically attracted to each other, Larna gets along well enough with Geoffrey due to the both of them being somewhat eccentric geniuses. But even she finds Geoffrey's devotions to his younger brothers to be overwhelming at times.
• Blow You Away: Her elemental affinity is wind and she is skilled enough to instantly send a man flying with just a simple gesture.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She hires anyone she thinks is "interesting" who, despite having excellent qualifications, are all self-admitted eccentrics and weirdos.
• The Chessmaster: Like her fiancée, Suzanna is genius who uses her abilities to defeat her enemies. She is even called "the Smartest Woman in the Kingdom" by the Elite.
• Dub Name Change: In the English dub, her first name when at the Ministry of Magic is Lana, same as her maid persona.
• The Glomp: She loves to give big hugs to Catarina, and would do so even when she is in disguise. This seems to be Suzanna's way of letting Catarina know which of her disguises are actually her, however Catarina is too dense to pick up on the hints.
• Hint Dropping: She occasionally tries to drop hints to Catarina to let her know that her alter egos, "Larna" and "Suzanna", are in fact the same person. Naturally, Catarina does not make the connection at all, much to Suzanna's annoyance.
• If It's You, It's Okay: Despite being Married to the Job by her own admission, Suzanna seemingly only makes an exception with Catarina. Although her plan is to have Catarina work by her side in the ministry, that way she can still pursue her career and be with Catarina at the same time.
• Married to the Job: Suzanna is fully committed to her job at the Ministry of Magic and agreed to an Arranged Marriage with Geoffrey out of convenience so the two can freely pursue their passions without being pressured by others on the topic of marriage. Even her pursuit of Catarina still lines up with her job, as she wants Catarina to work by her side at the ministry.
• Master of Disguise: Larna's an accomplished make-up artist and actor, allowing her to create multiple personas to play whatever role she needs. Most people of the royal court know her by her Suzanna persona, the alluring fiancée of Prince Geoffrey, while her Larna Smith persona work as the Director of Magical Instruments Research at the Ministry of Magic. Then there's her Lana persona, who works as a maid in the Berg household in order to uncover David Mason's scheme and protect the captive Catarina. It's unknown which identity is her first and/or true persona, but she mostly has Catarina refer to her by her "Larna" identity. Her ability is also what enables Raphael to go out in public without others recognizing him as Sirius.
• Statuesque Stunner: More explicitly in the anime, she is shown to be the tallest female character in the series, standing One Head Taller than Catarina.

Ian Stuart

Voiced by: Yusuke Shirai (Japanese), Emiri Katou (Japanese, child), Daman Mills (English)

The Second Prince of the ruling royal family. Ian is the younger brother of Geoffrey, and the older brother of Geordo and Alan. He is engaged to Selena Berg.

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• Arranged Marriage: Engaged to Selena Berg.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: The revelation about his feelings for Selena are treated this way. In universe, due to his stoic and quiet personality, this revelation is treated as a The Reveal level shock to everyone.
• Character Development: Starts the series as a very stoic and reserved young man especially for a 19 year old, after seeing that these personality traits were further damaging his fiancee, he lightens up and becomes more openly affectionate and sociable for her sake.
• Irony: Many Nobles believed Ian & Selena were having relationship issues because they were very distant unlike the rest of the Princes, yet his engagement to his fiancee is actually the most successful while his brothers' engagements are "wacky" to say the least.
• Poor Communication Kills: Ian is a stoic and quiet man. Because of this, he doesn't talk much and thus his fiancée believed he didn't like her which actually isn't true. Had he just talked to her, so many small problems could've been avoided especially Selena kidnapping Catarina.
  • He postponed his marriage because his older brother is not married yet (in the era the series is based on (Medieval Europe) a younger brother getting married before his older brother made said older brother look very bad) and not talking to his fiancee about this in detail did not help her already bad self-image issues.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: There four brothers so it is a little convoluted.
  • Ian & Geoffery share a lot of the same Sibling Yin-Yang that make up their younger brothers' dynamic.
  • Ian & Geordo are very much in love with their fiancees, but while Geordo is a little too aggressive in "sealing the deal" with Catarina despite only being 17 and still unmarried; Ian views being openly affectionate to Selena in public as "inappropriate" and restrains himself until they are properly married (which is the right thing to do).
  • Ian & Alan are both more stoic and reserved than their brothers, yet Ian takes it a bit too far while Alan is still friendly and sociable.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Known to be serious and stoic, which caused his fiancée to think that he doesn't like her, leading to a series of misunderstandings that no one among the couple even attempted to clear up. Deep underneath his expressionless face lies a genuine person, who cares for his brothers and most especially his fiancée.

Selena Berg

Voiced by: Yui Ogura (Japanese), Julia Mc Ilvaine (English)

Prince Ian's fiancee. Selena is the eldest daughter of the Duke of Berg.

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• Arranged Marriage: Selena is engaged to Ian, the second prince of the royal family.
• Book Dumb: According to her, her grades in the Wizarding School were rather "inferior," especially compared to Geoffrey, Ian and Suzanna. It didn't help with her self-image issues.
• Cloudcuckoolander: She is so out there that Selena gives Catarina a run for her money.
• Didn't Think This Through: Her plan was to kidnap Catarina, force Geordo to relinquish his claim to the throne to give Ian a better shot, and renounce her engagement to Ian so he is not implicated for her crime... even Catarina can't help but think Selena is a little out there.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: She believes she is a failure of a fiancee to Ian (Mainly due to her poor self-image) and doesn't see the obvious that she is the only fiancee to love her fiance. The women she is jealous of, Suzanna, Catarina, & Mary, are clearly not infatuated with their fiances (Suzanna even blatantly announced this during her engagement interview) while Selena is head over heels for Ian and Catarina of all people had to spell it out for her!
• Fatal Flaw: Selena is in love with the concept of true love enough to disregard what is really happening in front of her. She is (not maliciously) jealous of Suzanna, Catarina, and Mary's engagements to the other princes because she sees those pairs as being so in love with each other, and doesn't feel her engagement is to their level despite her undying love for Ian because there is nothing about herself in her mind that makes her worthy of a prince's fiancee.
  • This obsession with the idea of love causes her to not realize that since Suzanna and Geoffrey's relationship is that of convenience and they have no interest in the throne, Catarina and Geordo's relationship is wacky, and Alan and Mary are pining for Catarina instead of each other, her and Ian's relationship is actually the most stable engagement of the princes! It doesn't help that she makes no attempt to get to know him beneath his stoic façade, which causes her to fail to realize that he loves her, putting herself into legal jeopardy and risking her and her family's status due to a big case of miscommunication.
  • Selena also suffers from a very poor self-image. She spends her days wallowing that she is unfit to be Ian's wife and yet never once bothered to ask how he felt about their engagement.
• Foil: To Catarina. They are both high-rank nobles who got engaged with a prince despite being rather mediocre in their abilities. Their main differences lie in their self-images.
• Inconsistent Spelling: The manga localization translates her last name as Burgh, while the anime translates her surname as Burke.
• Kind Hearted Simpleton: Selena doesn't have a bad bone in her body and yet is prone to doing some dumb things. Which makes Rufus Broude/Sora Smith and his employer's work much easier.
• Love at First Sight: She pretty much fell in love with Ian when they first met.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Enough to put herself into trouble.
• Minion with an F in Evil: Yes, she came up with a (not very well-thought-out) plan to kidnap Catarina but she treated her so well during her imprisonment, Catarina forgot she was kidnapped and almost didn't want to leave! Catarina barely had to talk to her to make her just give up her "evil deeds" and even then Catarina almost didn't want to because Selena is so bad at being bad!
• Poor Communication Kills: The victim of it as well, as many of her mistakes could have been avoided had Ian and Selena just talked to each other!
• Walking Spoiler: Her not so well-thought-out deeds are a big spoiler for the third novel/second season of the anime.

School

The Capture Targets

The love interests of the original game.

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Geordo Stuart

Geordo Stuart

Voiced by: Shouta Aoi (Japanese), Asami Seto (Japanese, child), Griffin Burns (English), Luis Navarro (Latin American Spanish), Rosalinda Márquez (Latin American Spanish, child)

^{Click here to see him as a child}

The third prince of Sorcier, Catarina's fiance, and one of the four main capture targets in Fortune Lover (where Catarina is the rival of his route). He was forced to become engaged to Catarina as a means of taking responsibility after she injured her head as a child. In the game, he grows up to be a "black-hearted prince" who hides his misanthropy and ruthlessness behind a charming smile. He does not enjoy his engagement with Catarina — who takes every opportunity to lord her entitlement over him — but refuses to break it off to protect himself from being romantically pursued by other women.

In the series proper, Catarina's sudden shift in personality after her head injury eventually causes Geordo to fall in love with her for real, and changes the context for why he refuses to break off their engagement.

Tropes applicable to his current self

• The Ace: Deconstructed. He is skilled at absolutely everything, up to and including being more efficient on Catarina's farm than the girl herself, but his lack of struggles left him with an inability to understand those of others (especially Alan's), as well as being bored at everything since all things come off as too easy for him.
• Achilles' Heel: Though he seems virtually perfect, he's so terrified of snakes that unexpectedly encountering a toy snake is enough to send him into panic mode. Catarina carries a stuffed snake in case she needs to mess with him, and uses it to prove to Alan that his brother isn't as flawless as he assumed.
• Always Identical Twins: Averted. While he and Alan are twins and have similar body structures, Geordo has golden blonde hair and bright blue eyes.
• Always Someone Better: To his younger brother Alan, especially in that it worsens the latter's inferiority complex. However, Catarina points out to Alan that there are some things that not even he's good at trying despite his innate talents. In chapter 4 of the first light novel volume, taken from Alan's perspective, he even admits to having his own flaws besides his ophidiophobia, such as a relatively lesser talent in music and an inability to predict Catarina.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Geordo's golden hair, light color eyes, and light and warm-colored clothing are fitting for his character design as a stereotypical fairy tale prince and being deliberate in contrast to his lesser talented brother, Alan.
• The Baby Trap: He has directly proclaimed that the moment he can have Catarina alone long enough, he will "help himself to all of [her]" in order to create a "fait accompli" (aka, an act which cannot be undone). So he definitely intends to sleep with her, but whether that's meant to lead to her being forced to marry him after losing her virginity or getting pregnant is vague.
• Beneath the Mask: Unlike Mary, Geordo's calm and pleasant veneer almost never visibly breaks. Though his smile may twitch a bit when upset or disappointed, he almost never gets flustered. This is largely because of the substantial "lead" he enjoys over the rest of his rivals as both the crown prince and Catarina's fiancé. With those two privileges, he knows that all he needs to do is wait patiently until he gets one opportunity, and then he'll make Catarina his forever.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He always looks calm and pleasant, but a side story in the fifth novel reminds the readers that it's a very, very bad idea to get to his bad side. For one thing, not long after his engagement with Catarina, he effectively sent a noble girl of his age to exile (by reassigning her father to the countryside)... because she badmouthed Catarina.
• Big Brother Bully: By way of being Innocently Insensitive. When Geordo tells Alan to just give up because he kept losing to Catarina in tree-climbing, his intention was more rooted in jealousy for his brother spending time with her than outright maliciousness. Unsurprisingly for Alan, he took that as the latter.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Downplayed in the story and played straight in the game...at least initially.
  • In the game, he is a straight-up example as while he acted like a princely gentleman, The Monkey Girl described him as "a black-hearted, sadistic prince" who had no interest in Catarina and only used her as a shield against other women who wanted to marry him for his status.
  • In the story, Geordo has the appearance and mannerism of a Fairytale Prince Charming but deep down, it is a cover to hide that he is disinterested in most things and has a bit of a sadistic side. He is also very possessive of Catarina and is not afraid to use his status as both the prince and her fiance to his advantage. Nevertheless, he does genuinely care about her and admits that before Catarina came into his life, he was bored and unhappy with almost everything.
• Character Development: At the start of the story, he found the entire world bleak, and could only be genuinely happy when near Catarina. In the later volumes, he finds himself capable of enjoying smaller moments without her and having fun with the rest of his friends even when she's not around.
• Chick Magnet: Like Keith, he also has no problems drawing women to him.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: It's downplayed, but much like Keith, Geordo doesn't seem to notice nor care about other women due to his own feelings for Catarina.
• Covert Pervert: While Prince Geordo has the appearance of a proper gentleman and is polite, it is obvious that his interest in Catarina isn't completely chaste as it is heavily implied that his goal is to seduce her and pull a Baby Trap in order to have her all to himself.
  • During Catarina's birthday, he made his infamous "Fait Accompli" statement before kissing her neck and telling her that one day he will "help himself to ALL of her". Catarina is too dense to figure out what he means while Mary and Keith are aware and worried about this.
  • During the time they were trapped in the book that made everyone live out their desires, it shows Geordo and Catarina after getting married and are alone together on their wedding night. Geordo states that she is now his and seemed very eager about it. Thankfully, Mary closes the book before anything can happen between them.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Played for Laughs. Out of the four male suitors, Geordo is definitely the most aggressive in pursuing Catarina despite his polite disposition. In fact, he constantly gets into Passive-Aggressive Kombat with Keith for acting as the "third wheel" between him and Catarina, along with preventing his younger twin brother from realizing his own feelings for her as well.
• Cynicism Catalyst: In the Animated Adaptation of his backstory in S2E05, the fact that his mother spent most of her time tending Alan (who is bedridden due to Soap Opera Disease) and essentially ignored him—not even on their birthday—is the major reason why he lost interest in most things.
  Geordo, as a child: I feel sad and lonely because I get my hopes up. If I don't get my hopes up, I won't have to feel that way. Nothing will matter. No expectations, no interest. A boring, colourless world...
• Dissonant Serenity: He maintains his usual cool, pleasant demeanor as he confronts Catarina for exploiting his fear of snakes.
• Dude, She's Like in a Coma: In the anime, he kisses Catarina while she's been put in a deep slumber by Sirius/Raphael.
• Entitled to Have You: While in the game it was the other way around, the main series has him believing that Catarina belongs to him due to their engagement.
• Ermine Cape Effect: He is the only one among the princes who wears something remotely like a member of the royal family: the cape he often puts over his blazer.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Like his Fortune Lover counterpart, Geordo is very cheerful and has a bright, pleasant smile. However, the smile primarily exists to make others put their guard down (specifically Catarina) or as intimidation (specifically, his rivals). Geordo is hardly the sadist he was in the game, but he's still very deceptive, albeit with a functioning moral compass. Considering his station where he's regularly exposed to a Decadent Court, he really needs to play his cards right.
• Fiery Stoic: He's a fire mage, but is well-mannered and cool-headed. However, he's quite warm-hearted and is very passive-aggressive in conveying his feelings for Catarina with only the equally passionate Mary comparing, so Elemental Personalities are still at play there.
• Green-Eyed Epiphany: Geordo has long since been aware of his feelings for Catarina, but Catarina's kidnapping in volume 3 of the novels, not to mention her offhandedly mentioning she was pushed onto the bed and received a hickey on her neck, pushes him to be aggressive in his pursuit, as he realizes he no longer has the patience to wait for her — he wants her to be aware of his feelings before he loses her or someone else gets to her first.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: It wasn't really the case in the game due to Catarina's influence until meeting Maria set him straight, but in the story, Geordo is a kind and reasonable person thanks to the current Catarina who actively tries to become a better person.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: It's what led to him falling in love with Maria in the game and Catarina in the story since he can't predict their actions compared to other nobles.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Spelled as "Jeord" in the localized novel and manga and "Geordo" in the anime.
• Innocently Insensitive: He never means badly by it, but the fact he's so skilled means him complimenting others on their skills and accomplishments often sounds condescending coming from him, especially when complimenting Alan, since Geordo constantly overshadows the guy with his talent.
• Irony:
  • In Fortune Lover, despite not loving Catarina, he doesn't break off the engagement due to being held "responsible" for the scar on her forehead and wanting to use her as a shield from catching the attention of other women and getting entangled with the fallout of Altar Diplomacy. In the story, he doesn't break off the engagement because he's genuinely in love with Catarina despite the scar being fully healed and doesn't really notice the attention of other women.
  • In addition, the girl who would become Catarina found his route very difficult to win, barely winning his route—after a lot of complaining to Acchan—in the last play before she died. In the series, Geordo is arguably the first of Catarina's suitors to fall in love with her. It's hinted that the day he went to formerly present himself to her as her fiance and first saw Catarina farming and witnessed her bizarre yet kind and innocent nature is the moment he started to fall in love with her.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It's heavily downplayed compared to Alan, since he hides it behind a facade of niceness and chivalry, but while Geordo holds a great deal of disinterest and apathy towards anybody besides Catarina, beneath that hidden negative personality is a genuinely good guy, even if he's a bit possessive of Catarina.
• Lonely at the Top: Geordo is a genius, but is unable to find interest in anything, leaving him bored with everyday life. In the original game, Maria catches his interest, and in this story and On the Verge of Doom! Catarina does the same.
• Love Confession: Not willing to risk any more rivals appearing, he kisses Catarina, much to her confusion. She passes it off as a dream, so he kisses her again the next day and then confesses. This gets her to finally finally pay actual attention to his obvious feelings, even though she doesn't understand at all. While the next volume makes it seem at first as though she's become more conscious of him, the moment there's something to distract her it turns out there was no real lasting impact, and she just doesn't really know how to handle it.
• Middle Child Syndrome: According to him, he feels this way compared to his two older brothers (who are the focus of everyone's attention) and his younger twin brother (who was having a Soap Opera Disease).
• Not So Above It All: He may be a patient and polite young boy, but when he found out that Catarina exploited his ophidiophobia, he went to go tell her mother of her "unladylike" mannerisms. Also, he even flat-out admits to his younger brother of his own flaws.
• Not So Stoic: The two things that can break Geordo's usual politeness are his fear of snakes and other people who show an interest in Catarina (mainly Keith and Alan).
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Geordo briefly loses his composure and punches a wall when Catarina is put into a dark magic-induced coma, as he blames himself for not being able to protect her and is terrified at the thought that Catarina could die.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: His quarreling with Keith over Catarina often involves an outwardly polite conversation that includes subtle jabs at each other.
• Playing with Fire: He can cast fire elemental magic.
• Poor Communication Kills: His lack of struggles when it comes to trying things out along with being ignorant of those around him (especially his brother) has caused notable tensions with Alan as a kid. Fortunately in the series, they're starting to open up with each other.
• Removing the Rival: Defied. Geordo sometimes muses to himself that it would be very possible and rather convenient to have his more aggressive romantic rivals (such as Mary or Keith) "removed", but he refrains from it because it would make Catarina very sad. In particular, when Keith goes missing Geordo admits that he enjoys not having the Third Wheel around ruining his time alone with Catarina, but it isn't worth it because Catarina is very upset about her missing brother.
• Romantic Fake–Real Turn: Originally, he only got engaged to Catarina to keep away girls who approached him for his status as a prince. Thanks to Catarina's original bratty personality being replaced with that of a funny and kind girl, Geordo ended up actually falling in love with her. Now, he refuses to break off their engagement because he doesn't want to lose the one advantage he has over his many love rivals.
• Sacred First Kiss: After Rufus (a.k.a. Sora) gives Catarina a love bite on her neck (with Catarina thinking it was a bug bite), Geordo, unwilling to lose her to any other love rivals and no longer wanting to take it slow, gives Catarina her first kiss in front of all their friends to their surprise (and Keith and Mary's horror).
• Samurai Ponytail: Although he's a European-inspired prince, Geordo does sport a short one as a child.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Geordo is constantly cordial and approachable towards others and quite forward about his love for Catarina, while Alan is aggressive and standoffish while being belligerent about whether he's interested in Catarina.
• Stepford Smiler: Most of the time, Geordo's princely smile only consists of this.
• Student Council President: He becomes this as he enters his second year in the Wizarding School.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Before his engagement, he was bored with everything and lacked any direction or purpose in life. Catarina's randomness makes her the only thing he found Worth Living For, something he can actually enjoy.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Geordo was supposed to take an interest in Maria when he spotted her climbing down from a tree while wearing a dress, finding such unladylike behavior refreshing compared to what he's used to. Problem is, by the time it happens he's known Catarina (for whom random tree-climbing is far from her most unusual behavior) for years, so seeing Maria do it doesn't really stand out.
• Uptight Loves Wild: He is this in both timelines.
  • Prince Geordo is a proper, intelligent, talented prince who is engaged to (and sincerely in love with) the unpredictable, tomboyish and kind-hearted Catarina Claes.
  • In the game, Geordo was supposed to fall in love with Maria because he found her "unladylike" behavior (climbing trees in a dress) to be refreshing due to growing up with a strict upbringing.
• When He Smiles: It's actually pointed out by Nicol that he's a heavy Stepford Smiler, with his normal smile being a fake one plastered onto a boring face, but when he's around Catarina he gives off some genuinely happy smiles.
• Worthy Opponent: He considers Maria to be his biggest threat to romancing Catarina. While Keith and Mary are the most scheming and aggressive, he likens Maria to "an angel from another world": a gentle, sincere goodness that he can't counter or plot against in any way.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Really, his one weakness is ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), and Catarina carries a fake snake around just in case she needs to use it against him. When he and Katarina find Keith after he has been kidnapped and see him bound by dark magic, he freaks out when she points out that the magic bindings look like snakes.

Tropes applicable to his Fortune Lover counterpart. (And On the Verge of Doom! prior to Chapter 1.)

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Geordo's princely facade belies a rather twisted mind, likely borne of Catarina's toxic influence and his own lack of direction. In this story, this rarely comes up, also largely due to the new Catarina's positive influence, such as an Inner Monologue in Volume 5 suggesting he is as two-faced as ever.
• Fetishized Abuser: His game persona as a twisted, possessive sadist is likely intended by Fortune Lover's developers to invoke this trope, although even in the game he eventually grows out of it.
• Love Redeems: His love for Maria helps him find a purpose in life, find his inner kindness, and liberate him from Catarina's clutches.
• Manipulative Bastard: He's described to be quite cunning and possessive, but it's mostly due to being tied down in a loveless engagement to Catarina and his lack of drive in life.
• Prince Charmless: While he has the design of the archetypical Prince Charming, the more unsavoury parts of his personality—the "Monkey Girl" once succinctly described him as a black-hearted sadist—puts him to this, at least initially.
• Self-Imposed Exile: In his bad ending in Fortune Lover, as in Keith's, he breaks up with Maria and exiles himself out of shame over having killed Catarina while defending Maria.

Tropes applicable to his On the Verge of Doom! counterpart.

• Crazy Jealous Guy: After Catarina begins taking lessons from Gerran, Geordo shows obvious hurt that she chose another man to teach her rather than himself. His discomfort over this continues, with Geordo even dueling Gerran to try to force him to stop teaching Catarina. He later warns Catarina to not get too close to Gerran, as there's something off about his intentions. While he is right about that, it's clear that Geordo is mostly worried about Catarina possibly gaining feelings for him.
• Defrosting Ice King: At first, Geordo is merely amused by Catarina's sudden personality change, still uninterested in her as a fiancée. However, he shows hints of jealousy when he notices Alan having fun with Catarina's antics (quickly reminding his brother that Catarina is his fiancée like in the series), and when he finds out that Catarina is attempting to learn to use a sword, he is genuinely hurt that she didn't come to him to learn, since he's the best swordsman around, and seems envious that she chose a male teacher to train with. He later even duels said teacher over Catarina, indicating that he's indeed slowly falling for her.
• Excellent Judge of Character: Geordo is the only person to figure out completely on his own that Catarina has changed her ways. He figures it out by realizing that Catarina is too dumb and impulsive to put on such an act for long. He doesn't understand why she suddenly changed, and he is initially more amused by it than impressed, but he at least believes she's sincere. This winds up saving Catarina in the end, as he and Maria are the only two people who can testify on Catarina's behalf when the "trial event" comes in this version of the story.
• Ironic Echo: When Catarina tries to call off their engagement to save herself, Geordo refuses because he feels the engagement is still "useful" to him, and turns down the offer by using Catarina's own past arguments against her.
• Irony: What Catarina believed to be Geordo's ulterior motives in the original story becomes his actual explicit characterization here. In this setting, Catarina regains her memories as a teenager already enrolled in the Academy rather than as a child, and while Geordo finds the sudden change in her personality interesting he has no interest in pursuing her romantically or breaking off their engagement.
• Love Epiphany: After multiple attempts on Catarina's life and/or to get her exiled, Geordo becomes increasingly angry and determined to protect her. When Catarina suggests renouncing her noble title (thus becoming unfit to be Geordo's fiancée), Geordo has a panic attack and has to stop and wonder why he cares so much. It's then that he realizes that recent events with Catarina have brought color into his dull gray world, and he couldn't stand to lose her no matter what.

Alan Stuart

Alan Stuart

Voiced by: Tatsuhisa Suzuki (Japanese), Yuki Ito (Japanese Bonus CDs), Mutsumi Tamura (Japanese, child), Bryce Papenbrook (English), Pablo Mejía (Latin American Spanish), Cassandra Valtier (Latin American Spanish, child)

^{Click here to see him as a child}

Geordo's younger twin brother and the fourth prince of Sorcier, as well as another capture target of Fortune Lover. In the game, he is constantly being compared to Geordo, resulting in him having self-esteem issues. Only with Mary or Maria's association makes him slowly steps down from Geordo's shadow. In the series, his Friendly Rivalry with Catarina finally snaps him out of his insecurities, stops comparing himself to Geordo as he realizes that there are things that his twin brother can't do well, such as music. With that, he and his twin brother start to mend their strained relationship.

Tropes applicable to his current self

• Always Identical Twins: Averted. While he and Geordo are twins and have similar body structures, Alan has silvery grey hair and dark blue eyes.
• Always Second Best: Alan has decent skill in most things, but almost everything he can do is nothing compared to how great Geordo is, which gave him a lot of insecurities. It's not until his skill with music is pointed out that he realizes how, just because Geordo is better than him at most things, doesn't mean he lacks talents that he's better at than Geordo.
• Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better: Growing up with an inferiority complex toward his twin brother led Alan to be competitive in absolutely anything, even if he has never done the activity in question before. He also refuses to give up when beaten and will try again and again for as long as it takes.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Fittingly for his character design to be a deliberate contrast to his more talented brother Geordo, Alan has silver hair, darker color eyes, and wears darker and cool-colored clothing.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite having grown feelings for Catarina, there are still moments he shows genuine affection for his fiancée Mary.
• Belated Love Epiphany: After Catarina's kidnapping, Alan finally realizes how he feels about her.
• Best Friends-in-Law: While theoretically one of Geordo's rivals, he at one point notes that he would be fine if Catarina became his sister-in-law by marrying Geordo, since they would still live under the same roof in the royal palace.
• Competition Freak: Initially, Alan cannot stand losing at anything. After he learns his talent for music, he accepts that there are some things he's not good at, or that others are better at, but if he gets teased for not being good at something, he will still eagerly accept the challenge as a friendly competition to learn and improve himself instead of a desperate attempt at self-validation.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He wears darker color clothing and can be quite gruff towards others, but otherwise he's an aloof yet goodhearted guy.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He briefly shows up in the anime during Catarina and Geordo's walk in the garden (just before the former's Past-Life Memories reawaken).
• Elegant Classical Musician: Alan is incredibly gifted at the piano and violin, to the point that people say that the god of music had blessed him. Given that he had spent most of his childhood living in the shadow of his twin brother, he quickly came to embrace music once his talent was discovered. The brothers' relationship started to improve soon afterward.
• Hot-Blooded: He had this attitude as a child, but later grew into a calmer, but aloof young man.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Alan acted brash and arrogant as a kid as a way of compensating for his low self-esteem in regards to his brother. When he grew up in the game's timeline, he grew worse. However, when he's shown that he's a more talented musician, he mellows out and he's fine with placing third in the exams in the alternate timeline compared to how he was in the game.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Of the four male suitors, Alan was the most overtly belligerent, though as both Maria and Catarina proved, deep down he is a better person than he thinks he is, both in terms of personality and skills.
• Like Brother and Sister: Alan loves Mary, but only as a sister. This isn't just a changed scenario thing, since he felt the same way in the game.
• Making a Splash: Alan can cast water elemental magic.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Alan considered Mary to be like his little sister and was originally annoyed with Catarina for "seducing" her but before long he, too, has fallen for her.
• Not So Stoic: Not very expressive usually, but he's often the first to crack up at Catarina's shenanigans.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Alan is highly talented, but not quite as good as his genius brother at most things. This causes a complex that Catarina helps him get through by noticing that he's a much better musician, which Alan focuses on from then on.
• Perpetual Frowner: Due to his abrasive personality, most of the time his face is settled into a grimace. About the only thing that can make him smile is seeing the hilarity that comes from Catarina's weird ideas.
• Power Stereotype Flip: He's a water mage, but is shown to be quite impatient and Hot-Blooded as a kid. He later grew out of this thanks to Catarina.
• Royal Brat: His aggressive and antagonistic attitude makes Catarina calls him a brat in private. In his POV chapter, it was suspected that he was spoiled during the time when he was chronically ill. Subverted after his Character Development.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Alan is aggressive and standoffish, plus being belligerent about whether he's interested in Catarina, while Geordo is constantly cordial and approachable towards others and quite forward about his love for Catarina.
• Soap Opera Disease: Before the age of five, Alan used to be sickly, bedridden, and had to be constantly looked after. His condition has never been clearly described, other than the fact that people once thought he would die as a child. While he is apparently healthy in the present day, it is one of the origins of his inferiority complex.
• Successful Sibling Syndrome: As a kid, Alan is fiercely envious of his twin brother Geordo because the latter effortlessly exceeds Alan at whatever he does, to the point he's been told several times that "Geordo snatched all the talent at the womb." In the original game, Alan eventually moves past it with the reassurance of the heroine Maria. In the series, he instead overcomes it (at a much younger age) when Catarina makes him see that there are things he's stronger in than Geordo (namely, his talent for music and the fact he isn't afraid of snakes like Geordo is). The brothers get along a lot better afterwards, but still have friction over their shared interest in Catarina.
• Tsundere: He is the most hostile of the four suitors of Fortune Lover, and it takes time for Maria and Catarina to bring out his better side. At the beginning of the anime when Catarina gives a brief introduction of Fortune Lover and its romanceable characters, he sports one of the most archetypical tsundere lines:
  Alan: I-It's not like I was looking for you or anything, okay? I just happened to be passing by.
• Unknowingly in Love: At first, he doesn't really understand how he feels about Catarina, which isn't helped by the fact Mary is deliberately trying to keep him in the dark about his actual feelings. It's not until Catarina winds up getting kidnapped that he finally realizes what he feels for her is love.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Maria in the game and Catarina in this story win him over by proving to him that he is already a talented man on his own merits.

Tropes applicable to his Fortune Lover counterpart

• Defrosting Ice King: Throughout his route, Maria not only helps him let go of his initial resentment towards her but also repairs his relationship with Geordo.
• Happily Married: While he ties the knot with Maria in his good ending (as do the other routes), he is unique in that even in his bad ending he still gets married, albeit in this case to Mary.
• The Resenter: Besides his rivalry with Geordo, he and Maria didn't exactly start off on the right note, the latter having edged him to take second-place at the Magic Academy's entrance exams, just behind Geordo.

Tropes applicable to his On the Verge of Doom! counterpart.

• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Has this dynamic with Mary, since he still has his inferiority complex of his Fortune Lover counterpart, while Mary lacks her Clingy Jealous Girl traits of her main timeline counterpart.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Downplayed. But he does give a look of disapproval when Mary reveals that she has been memorizing the men's steps so she can dance with Catarina.
• A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 5 is this for him. Afterwards, he is absent for most of the story up until the last few chapters.
• Defrosting Ice King: He is introduced as a brooding, short-tempered young man in Chapter 4, since he is still The Resenter towards his brother. He does get better after his A Day in the Limelight when Catarina tries (and fails) to scary Geordo with a toy snake to prove to Alan that Geordo isn't as perfect as Alan thinks he is. Alan just found the whole thing to be hilarious and talks it out with his brother afterwards.
• Demoted to Extra: Unlike his main timeline counterpart, this version of Alan gets very little focus to a point that you could cut him out of the story entirely and nothing would change to the overall plot.
• Just Friends: This version of Alan does not fall in love with Catarina, and only views her as a friend by the end of the story.
• Satellite Character: Being Demoted to Extra, there is not much to say about this version of Alan other than being Mary's fiance and Geordo's brooding brother.

Keith Claes

See his entry on the The Claes Family page.

Nicol Ascart

Nicol Ascart

Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Japanese), Mao Ichimichi (Japanese, child), Nicolas Roye (English), Ilitch Pichardo (Latin American Spanish), Mariana Castañeda (Latin American Spanish, child)

^{Click here to see him as a child}

Sophia's older brother, son of Dan and Radia Ascart (the former being the current prime minister of Sorcier), and the fourth capture target of Fortune Lover. His route is the only one Catarina didn't play, only knowing what she does about him thanks to Atsuko. In the game, his coldness stems from his fear of his sister getting discriminated against due to her looks, and progressing to his route requires the player to be considerate towards Sophia in addition to him. In the series, Nicol harbors feelings for Catarina due to being Sophia's First Friend as well as sharing his sentiment of having a loving and blessed family.

Tropes applicable to his current self

• A Day in the Limelight: A story in the fifth novel (animated in S2E08) about him trying to go through an omiai is the first one where he doesn't look like Sophia's satellite.
• Attractiveness Isolation: People can't look him in the eyes because he's too attractive, but he thinks they just don't want to interact with him, further hurting his self-proclaimed poor conversational skills. And while Catarina is as attracted to his charm as the rest, she makes an effort to look right into his eyes without avoiding it, which fuels his feelings for her even more.
• Big Brother Instinct: He would often protect Sophia from all the discrimination she faced for being albino when they were younger. It caused her to develop a crush on him in the game's timeline. One of the reasons he ends up falling in love with Catarina is due to her being the first person to befriend Sophia.
• Blow You Away: He can cast wind elemental magic.
• Bros Before Hoes: Part of the reason why he treats his crush on Catarina as Forbidden Love – it's less about the fact that she's betrothed, but that she's betrothed to his Childhood Friend Geordo.
• Caregiver Angst: Subverted. Many people believes he is being "burdened" with this from taking care of Sophia. He resents people thinking of him that way, seeing it as bad as calling Sophia "cursed."
• Chick Magnet: Like Keith and Geordo, he's got several girls pining after him. Unlike them, however, he also has a good deal of boys interested in him.
• Converted Fanboy: He started to like romance novels due to Sophia's influence.
• Curtains Match the Window: In the light novels and in the manga, he has black hair and eyes. Averted in the anime, in which he has purple eyes.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: One of Nicol's hangups is that people tend to pity him for being burdened by having to constantly care for and protect Sophia. This attitude infuriates him, not because of pride, but because he couldn't comprehend how they could look down on so gentle a soul like her. Catarina first catches his interest by being the first person to match this sentiment, complimenting him for having such a blessed family.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Nicol has a large number of male admirers. Catarina thinks Keith might be one of them.
• Emotionless Boy: To many people, it seems like he doesn't really differ often from his aloof but attractive quiet and stoic persona, but in actuality, he's just as emotional as the other guys, with his image simply being a combination of a naturally reserved mindset and possessing a Frozen Face that makes it extremely difficult to be anything but a Perpetual Frowner, with it taking immense effort just to form a light smile.
• Friend Versus Lover: Nicol is Geordo's best friend, and thus does not act on his feelings for Catarina (Geordo's fiancée) out of respect for his friend. However, he is also unable to completely give up on her, holding out a thin hope that Catarina may someday return his feelings. Sophia, on the other hand, is constantly pushing her brother (in subtle ways) to outright steal Catarina from Geordo, friendship be damned.
• Frozen Face: A major contributing factor to his aloof image in the public eye is that his face is practically stuck as an inexpressive Perpetual Frowner, with the very act of moving his facial muscles consciously taking great effort. It's a big part of why everybody swoons when he gives a true smile, as he can only really smile when he's truly and wholeheartedly happy, meaning his face does it instinctually, results in such an event being extremely rare.
• Graceful Loser: Seems to be resigned to this fate since he sees his feelings for Catarina as something that he shouldn't have. Although they can't be together, he admits to her that he's much contented staying by her side.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Wherever Nicol goes, people of both sexes are going to stare and blush at his stunningly handsome looks.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Although he himself pines for Catarina, he has resolved that it will likely never happen and so he doesn't bother trying to compete with the others. It's only because his sister tries to play matchmaker between the two that he makes any advancements at all.
• In-Universe Nickname: Privately, Catarina refers to him as the Devilish Count, after the in-series fictional character of the same name whose description is agreed by the girls to be similar to him.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: As revealed in the fifth volume of the light novel, his father Dan pursued Radia despite the latter being engaged to another man. He approached Radia's father (and Nicol and Sophia's maternal grandfather) asking for her hand in marriage but he refused, telling him that he would only let his daughter be married to Dan if he became the King's advisor. He meant it as a taunt, yet Dan did it anyway and thus he managed to marry Radia. On the flipside, Nicol maintains his distance from Catarina due to her being engaged to Geordo. After he finds out about how his parents got married from his sister no less, he finds it outlandish.
• Not So Stoic: While he's normally a strong case of The Stoic, anything involving Catarina has a common habit of breaking him out of it. Whether it's smiling due to how well she understands him, perking up while enjoying a picnic she put together (even if only Sophia really noticed), or showing a shocked expression when he hears she got lost in a dungeon.
• Perpetual Frowner: He wears a usual frown or neutral expression, but when he actually smiles, everyone starts swooning.
• Power Stereotype Flip: He's a wind mage, but is notably serious and steady.
• The Quiet One: Nicol is a man of very few words. Catarina comments at several points how hard it is to hold a conversation with him.
• Samaritan Relationship Starter: From what little detail Catarina has on it (since she never played the route before she died), courting Nicol in Fortune Lover required showing kindness to his bullied little sister Sophia. Catarina ends up doing this by complete accident when she befriends Sophia due to their shared interest in romance novels (plus the whole Reincarnation Friendship thing, but neither of them are aware of that).
• Satellite Family Member: At least compared to the other love interests, much of Nicol's characterization centers around being Sophia's protective older brother. Other than that, he's just a very handsome, quiet guy. Even the reasons why Nicol loves Catarina relate back to Sophia because Nicol is grateful that Catarina praised Sophia's albinism instead of finding it creepy and became Sophia's first friend ever.
• The Stoic: He normally speaks in a flat, near-monotone voice, with his regular facial expression being very neutral. That said, there are moments where it slips.
• Student Council President: He becomes this after Sirius' departure, as he is the only member of the Student Council from the graduating year. As a result, he becomes the representative of the graduating class during the graduation event.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Beneath his stoic and reserved expression, Nicol's rather a sweet individual, as seen by his interactions with his sister Sophia and later with Catarina, who he has feelings for.
• Tears of Joy: While he didn't shed any tears, the anime does imply that Nicol is on the verge of it when Catarina genuinely says he's blessed with such a loving sister, especially since all he ever heard from others is how much of a burden Sophia was to him.
• When He Smiles: Sophia describes him as someone who doesn't smile very often, but the sight of it is so beautiful that grown women would swoon even when he was a child. The first time Catarina actually sees him smile, she treats it as if she was under some sort of spell.
• Wind Is Green: He's a wind elemental mage, and wears darker, teal green clothing.

Tropes applicable to his Fortune Lover counterpart

• Defrosting Ice King: From what little the "monkey girl" knew of his route, progressing through his route is as much a matter of convincing him that Maria cares for Sophia as much as she does for him.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Sophia's Fortune Lover counterpart is extremely dependent on him emotionally.
• Mysterious Stranger: As far as the "monkey girl" is concerned, Nicol is a man shrouded in mystery, given that she hadn't come around to playing his route when she died, and what little she knows about him comes from Atsuko spoiling parts of his route.
• Only Sane Man: One of the few things the "monkey girl" knows of him is he's the "least deviant" of the capture targets.

Tropes applicable to his On the Verge of Doom! counterpart.

• Demoted to Extra: Gets it worse than Alan. Nicol's only role is be someone Catarina recognizes from Fortune Lover and to act as a protective brother to Sophia. Unlike Alan, he does not get his own A Day in the Limelight.
• Just Friends: Like Alan, this version of Nicol does not fall in love with Catarina, and only views her as a friend by the end of the story.
• Satellite Family Member: Even more so than his main timeline counterpart. His only role in the story is that he is Sophia's supportive brother, and not much else.

The Ladies

The female characters from the game including the original protagonist, Maria.

---

Mary Hunt

Mary Hunt

Voiced by: Miho Okasaki (Japanese), Colleen O'Shaughnessey (English), Cecilia Guerrero (Latin American Spanish)

^{Click here to see her as a child}

Alan's fiancé and the rival for his route in Fortune Lover. Suffering from severe self-esteem issues due to bullying from her older half-sisters for being the daughter of the second wife of their marquis father, she finds solace in Catarina, and ends up falling in love with her after the latter compliments her gardening skills, in the process accidentally stealing a line Alan was supposed to say to her in the game.

Tropes applicable to her current self

• Ambiguous Situation: Was Mary always a closeted lesbian who only discovered her "true" sexuality after meeting Catarina? In Fortune Lover, Alan's "bad" ending results in he and Mary being happily married, but in every other scenario, Mary gives up on him rather unceremoniously. In the "good" ending, she wishes him and Maria luck and that's that. In the novels, she only shows attraction to Catarina and admits to not even considering the possibility of having a male lover. In On the Verge of Doom!, Mary initially starts out in love with Alan, but again quickly shifts all interest to Catarina not long after meeting her. Thus, aside from the aforementioned game "bad end", Mary seems to have very little true interest in Alan.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite deliberately halting the possibility of Alan realizing his feelings for Catarina, there are still moments where she'll show genuine affection for him.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: She fell in love with Alan because he was the first to compliment her gardening skills. Because Catarina accidentally swipes that flag by doing so in this story, Mary falls for her instead.
• Beneath the Mask: Mary is very sweet and friendly, but that is largely a persona. Inside, Mary discreetly analyzes every situation, is suspicious of everyone close to Catarina, and is always scheming her next move in the romantic game. This isn't to say that she isn't a very nice girl, but when it comes to anything involving Catarina, Mary takes no prisoners.
• Butch Lesbian: In S2E07, Mary is transported into a wish-granting dollhouse. Mary's wish was to be reborn as a monarch of higher status than Geordo. Monarch Mary is shown to either be a man or an extremely masculine girl with short hair and less curvaceous body, who seizes Catarina forcefully and takes her for their own. Either way, Mary's wish was to be the butch to Catarina's femme.
• Caring Gardener: Mary tended the flowers in her family's garden when she was younger, and it was Alan commenting on her green thumb that caused her to fall in love with him in the original game. Catarina ends up stealing that line by accident, befriending her in hopes that she could help with the wilting plants on her farm.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: When it comes to Catarina, she's among the most aggressive of the suitors, with only Geordo really comparing.
• Converted Fangirl: In this timeline, Catarina and Sophia get her interested in romance novels.
• Crazy-Prepared: Mary has a plan for every possible permutation of 'Catarina falls in love with me, finds me sexually attractive, or at the very least expresses a desire to be with me.' During Anne's POV episode, Anne even reflects on a time when Catarina let slip she didn't feel worthy of being a Prince's consort, at which point Mary quickly and efficiently laid out a plan where they renounced their nobility and lived out the rest of their lives together in another country, down to the boat they could take off Sorcier.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Mary is the daughter of the second wife of a prominent marquis, both of whom were made to feel unwelcome in her father's family, her in particular facing bullying from her three older half-sisters. When her mother died, she retreated to herself tending to flowers before Alan came along.
• A Day in the Limelight: S1E08 of the anime has Mary as the point-of-view character for the majority of the episode, where she gets to bear witness to her worst nightmare - seeing every other member of Catarina's harem (besides Maria, who acts as her Lancer minder for the episode) live out their desires regarding Catarina. She does save Catarina as a result of bearing through the process ^note  The world in the book only moves when it's open, shifting to the next person in the harem every time it is re-opened after being closed. If Mary or Maria hadn't opened it, none of the desires would have ever played out, and thus, no one would ever leave. but it's a bitter pill for Mary to swallow - especially when afternoon comes, and Alan and Catarina have an actual moment of romantic tension between each other, which Mary ends the episode attempting to hamper.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: When she reaches Alan's desire in S1E08 of the anime, she can only close the book quickly and look utterly soulless, reasoning to Maria she knew how the scenario was going to play out.
• Fiery Redhead: She's far more passive than other redheads of this trope, but she is still the second most aggressive member of Catarina's harem, just below the fire-elemental Geordo.
• Flowers of Femininity: She wears a large and prominent orange rose flower ornament on the right side of her hair, which does well to underscore her notable girliness, romantic fervor, and sensuality.
• Gaslighting: When she notices that Alan is starting to act on his feelings for Catarina, Mary schemes to make moves on him herself and "sow the seed of doubt", to make Alan unsure of which girl he has feelings for so that Mary can successfully woo Catarina herself.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Downplayed. Most of the time, she is a Lipstick Lesbian. However, at Catarina's birthday party, she, Catarina and Sophia take turns dancing together, explaining that she had learnt both the woman's and the man's parts of the dance, just in case the opportunity to dance with Catarina came up.
• Grew a Spine: Before she met Catarina, she kept to herself while enduring taunting remarks and bullying at the hands of her older half-sisters. After Mary met Catarina and realized her feelings for her, she became more confident in herself and strong-willed, leaving her as the most aggressive member of Catarina's harem, tied with Geordo. She even develops Manipulative Bitch tendencies thanks to this trope. This is an inversion of her game personality, where she bows out gracefully once she knows that she doesn't stand a chance against Maria for Alan's affections.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Played With; in a flashback to her backstory in Volume 5, she practiced hard to be a noblewoman respectable enough to be with Catarina. Her sisters called her an ugly and talentless fool while Catarina had nothing but praise for her efforts to improve herself while helping Mary. Of course, since her older half-sisters had been bullying her for a long time, they probably wouldn't have said anything nice about her, even if she'd earned it.
• Has a Type: In Volume 5 of the light novels, Mary states that her ideal lover is someone gullible (which she rephrases to a "straightforward and honest person") and can be easily manipulated. Of course, her description fits both her potential suitors, Catarina and Alan. Granted, Mary made this statement based on the assumption that she had no choice but to take on a male lover.
  • Played for Laughs in the Season 2 finale when Mary claims her type is blue-eyed brunettes, which Catarina finds to be oddly specific.
• Hidden Depths: Catarina considers Mary to be a graceful and elegant lady, and she is. But she also isn't above nagging her best friend.
• If It's You, It's Okay: Once Alan realizes his feelings for Katarina, he approaches Mary about possibly breaking off their engagement since he doesn't consider it fair to Mary. Mary turns down the offer however because while she also clearly has feelings for Katarina, she still considers Alan the best choice of fiancee for herself if she's not able to win her over.
• Irony:
  • In the game she and Catarina had a frosty relationship, with it noted even she wouldn't want to be associated with her potential sister-in-law, who is known to be needlessly cruel. In this story, she becomes Catarina's first friend and later is in love with her.
  • In the game, Mary was in love with Alan but was willing to annul their engagement to let him be with Maria. In the series proper, she refuses to let him go despite having no feelings for him because it's more useful for her in pursuing Catarina.
  • At one point, Mary states that one of her fondest dreams is to wear the dresses of the woman she loves (Catarina). By complete chance, Catarina offers to let Ginger wear one of her dresses to a party, as she is otherwise too poor to have one. Mary overhears and immediately demands to have one, too, (and so does Sophia a moment later). Throughout the party, Mary remains immensely jealous of another woman enjoying her fondest wish.
• Lipstick Lesbian: And proud, going off some of the bonus manga. Of all the girls, she's the most overt about being at the very least bisexual, and states she would enjoy braiding her lover's hair and sharing dresses. Her hobbies are also traditionally feminine. When Catarina asks what sort of things she would do with a male lover instead, Mary just bluntly states that she can't think of a single thing.
• Longing Look: In S1E09, as Anne is recapping the events and telling the audience about Mary's crush on Catarina, Mary stares longingly at Catarina, with the camera giving a closeup on her eyes as they sparkle with pure infatuation.
• Making a Splash: Like Alan, she can cast water elemental magic.
• Manipulative Bitch: Mary ends up growing into this role in the altered timeline. The volume 4 omake even has her saying that if hypothetically she's exiled, the one thing she'll take along is her notebooks with various compromising information about certain nobles.
• Moment Killer: Very much by design. Mary, being a Clingy Jealous Girl, will not allow anyone else to be alone with Catarina or do anything romantic or personal with her. This is especially true for Alan, because her position as his fiancée allows her to confuse his emotions and delay his Love Epiphany for Catarina. Later, her primary target shifts to Geordo, especially after he makes it clear he is no longer willing to wait for Catarina and that he will "help himself to all of her" if given enough time alone with her.
• Not Hyperbole: When both women express reluctance at marrying into the royal family, Mary immediately and gleefully suggests that she and Catarina runaway and elope, even producing a map showing a route they can easily take to escape and a place where they can live out the rest of their lives together. Catarina goes along with it as a joke, but an observing Anne points out that Mary is dead serious.
• Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: Exploited. Of all Catarina's female admirers, Mary takes full advantage of this. Since Catarina assumes that she has this kind of relationship with her, it allows Mary to be the most "physical" of Catarina's suitors. Although this just means Mary gets to do more hand holding and hugging. At one point, Keith tries to call her out on it, only for Mary to retort him that her gestures of affection towards Catarina are hardly inappropriate and that it is normal for women in their society to be more "intimate" with each other than towards men.
• Psychotic Smirk: Gets one when she learns that Keith and Catarina have been feeding each other since childhood. Catarina doesn't notice, but Keith sure does.
• Power Stereotype Flip: Downplayed. Mary is still very much feminine and ladylike as other hydrokinetic females are often portrayed, but she's also quite impulsive and manipulative. These traits are often associated with fire.
• Red-Headed Stepchild: Her red hair comes from her commoner mother. Because of this, her older siblings' insults towards her often include insults about her hair color, treating her as a literal red-headed stepchild. Eventually, before she met Catarina, she came to view her hair color quite poorly.
• Runaway Fiancé: The ultimate goal for Mary is to convince Catarina that both girls should call off their engagements, run off together far away, and live together for the rest of their lives. Mary has planned exactly how to get away with it down to the smallest detail, including eagerly showing Catarina a map of escape routes and the perfect destination for the two of them to escape to.
• Schemer: Of all Catarina's suitors, Mary is the most diabolical. In addition to her gaslighting of Alan, she is constantly looking for opportunities to seduce Catarina and prevent others from doing the same. One of the first signs of this being when she reveals that she learned to dance both the men's and women's segments of a romantic dance because she knew Catarina wouldn't, and refused to fall behind the boys.
• Secretly Gay Activity: Mary has zero qualms about taking advantage of girls being more tender, affectionate and feely with other girls in order to be intimate with or seduce Catarina. When Keith tries calling her out on it, Mary dismisses it as "normal" and then brags that, sooner or later, she and Catarina will also be bathing together. Keith is not fooled and knows that when Mary's involved, nothing about this is "normal" anymore.
• Shrinking Violet: She was very shy and reserved as a child due to being bullied by her older half-sisters. Falling in love with Catarina (or Alan in the original game) helps her to grow out of it.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Mary maintains the veneer of a proper lady, always smiling, cheerful and effeminate. However, Beneath the Mask, she is a conniving, scheming, unscrupulous and sometimes even vindictive manipulator who will stop at nothing to eliminate any threat to her relationship with Catarina, with much of her attention focused on Catarina's fiancé, Geordo. For example, when Geordo takes Catarina's first kiss, Mary's first reaction is to attack him with magic, when in a magic wish-granting dollhouse, Mary's wish was specifically designed to give as many "Take Thats" to Geordo as possible including stealing Catarina while he watches, and lastly, when Geordo and Catarina go searching for Keith, Mary hires Sora to thwart any advances toward Catarina. When discussing his objective, a brief cutaway shows a cackling Mary as Sora says that targeting Geordo was the main objective.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Mary only has eyes for Catarina, to the exclusion of everything else. Everything and everyone else are either tools to help her finally woo Catarina or obstacles she needs to overcome. Or both, in the case of her legal fiancée Alan, whom she is fond of but feels no romantic attachment to. To completely emphasize the point, when asked what she dreams of doing with a lover, Mary lists a number of girly activities she'd like to share and when Catarina asks what she would do if her lover was a guy, Mary just flatly states she can't think of a single thing and believes no one could make her happier than Catarina.
• Stepford Smiler: According to Catarina, Mary has two types of smiles. First is the genuine, affectionate smile reserved almost solely for Catarina herself. Second, there is the "social" smile that she uses as a mask. At one point, Catarina notices the change, but does not put two-and-two together that it's because Mary noticed that Geordo was up to something with Catarina.
  Mary, who had been smiling at me just a second ago, now suddenly had the smile she usually reserved for social affairs on her face.
• Take That!: In the wish-granting dollhouse, Mary's wish was specifically crafted as a Take That! to Geordo, with Mary being in a higher social position than him and making Geordo watch as Mary stole Catarina from him.
• Two-Faced Aside: Mary is prone to these sorts of reactions. On the surface, she is sweet smiles and friendly words to everyone she encounters...but if it involves something that threatens her relationship with Catarina, her face turns much more sinister as she thinks or whispers her true feelings.
• Undying Loyalty: While all of Catarina's friends would likely defend her with their lives, Mary aims to take it up a notch. She has eagerly stated that her entire world revolves around Catarina, and (if it were Catarina's wish), she would eat deadly poison without hesitation.
• Unscrupulous Hero: Within the context of her relationship with Catarina, Mary is willing to do absolutely anything. She will lie, gaslight, scheme and manipulate if it brings her even a step closer to Catarina, or makes Catarina happy in the slightest. She has even taken a journal of compromising information of the various nobles and people in her social circle to use as ammunition (and revenge, if she should ever find herself exiled). However, this extremism only applies to Catarina; as long as it's something unrelated, she is very sweet and kind. She genuinely likes most of the friends she spends her company with, even if she considers them rivals. Further, Mary's extremes also apply to herself: she has stated ardently that if Catarina wanted her to do something like eat poison, she would do it even if it killed her.
• Water Is Womanly: She's a feminine and beautiful noblewoman possessing the magic element of water.
• Yandere: Shows some shades of this when she sinisterly talks to herself about not wanting more competition with Catarina. She was also willing to burn the book Catarina, Sophia, and the boys were trapped in after seeing Nicol's desire in the eighth episode.
• Youngest Child Wins: Despite being the sire of her father's second wife, she is the only member of the Hunt family stated to have any magic. If her marriage with Alan proceeds as planned, she can outrank his father and her older half-sisters as a princess.

Tropes applicable to her Fortune Lover counterpart. (And On the Verge of Doom! prior to Chapter 1.)

• Attractiveness Isolation: In the Fortune Lover and On the Verge of Doom! timelines, she is friendless into her teenage years mainly because she grew up into such a perfect Proper Lady that the other noblewomen found her unapproachable.
• Everyone Has Standards: She is noted to be demure and friendly, but even she knows better than to associate with her prospective sister-in-law Catarina.
• Extreme Doormat: Her history of being bullied by her half-sisters and the death of her mother at an early age left her with problems asserting herself, down to willingly stepping out in favor of Maria in the good ending to Alan's route.
• Foil: Mary serves as this to Catarina, taking over as the primary rival in the Alan route. The key difference is while she is in love with Alan, she never actually antagonizes Maria and this gets reflected in both endings; she either bows out gracefully in the good ending, or ends up winning Alan's heart in the bad ending.
• Graceful Loser: In Alan's good ending, she gave up with grace and tearfully wished for Maria's happiness.
• Happily Married: To Alan in the bad ending to his route.
• Hopeless Suitor: For much of Alan's route, she seeks his romantic attention; he merely treats her like a sister.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In Alan's good ending she was willing to gracefully bow out of her engagement with Alan despite having loved him for years when he shows more interest in Maria. Her love for Catarina in the series proper on the other hand...
• The Rival: In Alan's route.
• Youngest Child Wins: In the bad ending to Alan's route she marries into the House of Stuart, outranking all of her older half-sisters.

Tropes applicable to her On the Verge of Doom! counterpart.

• Ambiguously Bi: Like in the main series, Mary quickly befriends Catarina after she compliments her flower garden. It doesn't have the same impact, because in this timeline Alan said the "green thumb" line first. However, Mary's loneliness still made her take interest in Catarina. Mary is nowhere near as much the aggressive Clingy Jealous Girl that she is in the main series, but the way she often blushes when speaking to Catarina and tells Catarina that every day she spends with her fills her life with light definitely indicates some growing feelings. Becomes much less "ambiguous" at the conclusion, where Mary (once again) reveals she learned the gentlemen's dance steps on the off chance that she would have an opportunity to dance with Catarina.
• Friendless Background: Taken to an even greater degree than the main series, since Mary did not meet Catarina (or Sophia) as a child. Instead, the only person she had any closeness to was Alan.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Mary has the same Friendless Background that she did in the main series, and she did not meet Catarina at the age of nine. When she finally does meet Catarina and the two bond over their mutual tending of plants, Mary is grateful to have finally made a true friend.
• Rejected Apology: Discussed. When Catarina comes to Mary for advice on how to properly apologize to Keith, Mary tells her that as someone who was also bullied by older siblings her entire life, she would find it extremely difficult to even consider such an apology. She turns out to be completely right, as Keith becomes furious when Catarina tries to apologize to him and calls him "little brother" after years of treating him like dirt.

Sophia Ascart

Sophia Ascart

Voiced by: Inori Minase (Japanese), Kira Buckland (English), Casandra Acevedo (Latin American Spanish)

^{Click here to see her as a child}

Daughter of Prime Minister Dan and Radia Ascart, as well as the rival for the route of her older brother Nicol in Fortune Lover. In the game, she is infatuated with her brother for having cared for her where everyone else scorned her for her albinism, to the point that the progression of Nicol's route is just as much a matter of courting her as much as Nicol. In the series, Catarina becomes her friend due to sharing Sophia's love for romance novels as well as being the first outsider to not shun her for her appearance, she spends her time getting Catarina and her brother together.

Tropes applicable to her current self

• Albinos Are Freaks: Mostly played straight, but there's some zigzagging going on as well.
  • People instantly react poorly to Sophia because of her white hair and red eyes and keep calling her a "cursed child", despite being a gentle and friendly girl. She had been a Hikikomori due to, more or less, bullied into both social phobia and disastrous self-image out of this. While Catarina both helped with her self-image and expanded her social circle, there're still lingering effects of both on her.
  • However, this has changed somewhat with time; being in one of the most visible positions among her peers as a member of the student council (and not being The Hermit as in the game) means a few more of her peers have, at a minimum, get used to it—a side story in the fifth novel mentions she gets romantically approached during one of the few balls she attend, to her surprise.
• All of the Other Reindeer: In her early years she has been discriminated enough for her albinism that she is no longer comfortable going out of her room until Catarina enters her life.
• Ambiguously Bi: In a rare twist, the homosexual attraction is not what's in question; without any doubt, Sophia is in love with Catarina. The ambiguity comes from whether or not she is still in love with Nicol; it is implied that she is pushing Nicol to marry Catarina simply because she sees it as the surest way to bring Catarina into the Ascart household, so that she can have both at once, since unlike homosexual or incestuous relationships Sorcier society has nothing against a girl living with her brother and his wife, and what goes on behind closed doors is nobody's business. She also shows clear interest in an all-guys slumber party. Of course, there's also the question of how much of this is "Sophia", how much of this is Acchan, and to what degree there's separation (if there is any at all).
• Ambiguous Situation: There's a lot of mystery concerning how being Acchan's reincarnation has affected her compared to the game version, with this ambiguity being very clearly intentional on the part of Yamaguchi and the writing team for the anime. The "monkey girl" never played the Nicol route, so all we know was that Sophia was Nicol's little sister that the latter is rather overprotective towards, and as a "rival", is probably a bit of a bro-con. We learn upon meeting the actual Sophia that she's considered "cursed" due to her appearance, and we see firsthand that she experiences strange dreams where she sees her previous life but doesn't remember much afterward, and there are a few times when Acchan clearly does exert control, but how much this may "impose" on Sophia, whether Sophia's attraction towards Catarina is based on or strengthened by Acchan's feelings, and whether Sophia would mind if she knew who she really was, are all open questions, in fact with Sophia's Past-Life Memories mostly dormant it's impossible to know where one ends and another begins, if such a distinction even exists in the first place.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Catarina thinks Sophia's white hair and red eyes are pretty. Since other people badmouthed Sophia for the way she looks, Catarina immediately endears herself to Sophia and her older brother Nicol as a result.
• Best Friends-in-Law: Her approach to winning over Catarina is by having Catarina hook up with her brother so that Sophia can become this with her. Sophia determined that this approach would be the least scandalous way for Catarina to join the Ascart household, then Sophia would be free to hang out with her "sister" as much as she wants.
• Blow You Away: Like her older brother, she can cast wind elemental magic, but isn't as skilled compared to him.
• Bully Magnet: Sophia is bullied for her albinism.
• The Chessmaster: While she appears to be the least aggressive person in Catarina's harem, she's not being passive. She's just being sly.
  • For starters, it's hinted by Anne that her interest in playing The Matchmaker for her brother Nicol and Catarina is is a ploy to have both for herself. While Sorcier society frowns upon both incestuous and same-sex relationships (which is the primary barrier the aggressive Keith and Mary each face), Sophia is planning to have a very forbidden harem that's completely under the radar. Due to being a "cursed child", people expect Sophia to never marry anyone and be a "burden" on her big brother for the rest of her life. So if she just happens to live with her brother while he's married to her best friend...what happens at home stays at home.
  • On Catarina's fifteenth birthday, she is the reason why Nicol is the only person who can get Catarina to accept a thing as girly as a necklace—she reasons that Catarina won't reject it if it looks like one wore by the protagonist from one of the romance novels she reads.^{Modern analogy}The "monkey girl" won't reject an item if it happens to be Fortune Lover merchandise, despite it might be a bit too girly otherwise.
  • When Sophia is put in charge of writing a school play, it's implied that she uses it as an opportunity to help Nicol seduce Catarina. First, the actress meant to play the wicked stepsister mysteriously "gets sick" and Catarina is the only person left to fill the role. Second, when Catarina ad-libs her lines, Sophia "conveniently" presents a hastily-rewritten script that gives Catarina an expanded role and a Love Interest via a dark knight. When the other characters try to offer themselves to portray the role, Sophia turns down their offers so quickly that it's clear her responses were premeditated, meaning that her brother is "conveniently" the only person who can fulfill the role.
  • She introduces her brother to romance novels, in particular recommending the "stolen love" genre (where a woman betrothed or promised to another man instead falls in love with someone else—exactly the thing she wants to happen between Catarina, Geordo and Nicol). She gleefully tells him to read them in order to "gain confidence" and become more willing to ignore societal expectations. It's blatantly transparent that she's trying to get him to more actively pursue Catarina and, at the very least (as in the anime), succeeds in helping the two of them bond over the books they read. In the novels, this goes even further—Nicol ends up abandoning his plan to forget Catarina and be more active in pursuing Catarina.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Downplayed, but because of her love of romance novels she has a lot of... unrealistic expectations when it comes to actual romance. She also frequently daydreams for long periods before uttering some Waking Non Sequitur, further adding to this trope.
• Commander Contrarian: Played for Laughs when Sophia modifies a school play to add a romantic part for Catarina's wicked-stepsister character. Everyone immediately volunteers themselves to play the part, but all of them were already conveniently had other roles to fulfill for the production, and Sophia swiftly and cheerfully shoots down each one. She then offers the part to her brother Nicol, who (conveniently) happens to be the only person without a role (as he was no longer a student).
• Confirmed Bachelor: Her plan of hooking up Catarina with Nicol so that she can have them both implies she does not expect herself to be married, because most of the nobility considers her "cursed".
• Cute Bookworm: She's a big fan of romance novels, and bonds with Catarina over their shared interest in them. In-universe, this is explained from her past as a Hikikomori, but the possibility of it being a carryover from her past as Atsuko cannot be ruled out, especially when the latter was also this before meeting the "monkey girl".
• Derailed Train of Thought: When asked what sort of things she'd like to do with a lover, Sophia says that she just wants to do "ordinary" things like visiting a bookstore...fighting for the good of their country, fighting an evil witch, and visiting a world of gods. A confused Maria questions whether these activities are "ordinary", while Mary and Catarina recognize these activities as things from a romance novel Sophia's read.
• Disease by Any Other Name: Canonically, there's no discussion regarding the reason for Sophia's appearance, other than she's born with it. To the readers, Catarina's first impression of her^note  White hair, red eyes, and significantly fairer skin than any other character clearly established her to be completely devoid of melanin, and thus identify her if having albinism beyond reasonable doubt.
• Don't Look At Me: As a result of having internalized the insults on her appearance in her early years. This is the main reason why she became an Hikikomori at one point. Despite Catarina's influence having greatly improved her self-confidence, there are still vestiges of this trope—she still dislikes crowded places because she'd get stared at.
• Dreaming of Times Gone By: One of the ways her Past-Life Memories comes to her is through her dreams. While she forgets most of it when awake, she gets a feeling that she's dreaming of her past, before her own birth.
• Encyclopedic Knowledge: This is one of the first things Catarina noticed from her as they start their regular novel discussions, mainly because she is a big bookworm herself. The anime-original practical exam segment showcases this attribute through her ability to read some ancient inscriptions.
• Freakiness Shame: Her history of being bullied has convinced her that her albinism is a curse. Catarina convinces her otherwise.
• Grew a Spine: Her case is more subtle than Mary's, but in her early life she was brought down with how other think of her. Due to Catarina's influence she has been able to assert her self-worth despite how others think; and eventually she even tries to persuade her own brother to do the same, i.e. "stealing" Catarina away from Geordo despite societal expectations.
• Guy on Guy Is Hot: She blushes profusely at the thought of all of her male friends (and her brother) having a guys-only sleepover.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: While trapped in a scenario fulfilling her heart's desire, Sophia becomes elated when Catarina offhandedly mentions she wishes she could live at the Ascart manor and says that she loves Sophia. Sophia pins Catarina to the wall and excitedly asks if Catarina loves her more than sweets.
• Hide Your Otherness: Zigzagged. As a teen, she usually doesn't hide her albino features. However, when she and Catarina (as well as Nicol) go to visit a bookstore in the more commoner part of the capital during the summer vacation, the novel specifically mentions why she wears a hat—it's less about being Prone to Sunburn than hiding her white hair.
• Hime Cut: She has straight full bangs, waist-length sidelocks, and hip-length straight hair. Being a noblewoman and daughter of the prime minister, the high-class hairstyle is perfect for her.
• Hikikomori: Because of her abnormal appearance, she would isolate herself to avoid the hurtful words of other nobles, as well as not wanting others to look at her, although befriending Catarina put an end to this. This is also why she becomes a romance novel fan as she started reading those out of escapism.
• I Am Not Pretty: Thanks to the fact she spent most of her life being called cursed because of her albinism, she was convinced she's creepy and unattractive. However, she's actually quite beautiful, as Catarina points out, with her albinism actually acting like a charm point. When this is pointed out, she cries happily, since nobody besides her brother has ever complimented her appearance before. The way she recalls this part of her past when she's fifteen indicates that, by the time, she no longer sees herself that way.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Before she met Catarina, she resigned to not having any friends in her life due to the discrimination she faced. Yet, this trope is why she reads romance novels for escapism; she's self-inserting into the protagonists to fulfill this trope.
• I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: Sophia ends up crying unconsciously after having a sad dream, unaware that she was dreaming of her past life, Atsuko, coming to grips with the "monkey girl's" death. In the light novel, it is loud enough that her maidservant comes in to check for her well-being.
• Irony: In the game she is deeply protective of her brother, leading the player (as Maria) to spend as much time trying to win her approval as dating Nicol. Here, she wastes no time shipping Catarina and her brother.
• The Load: In all timelines, many nobles consider her a burden on the Ascarts, especially on Nicol, owing to her condition. Subverted in the novel's timeline; due to Catarina's influence Nicol and Sophia lead separate lives, and Sophia is no more dependent on Nicol than any other family member.
• Lipstick Lesbian: The fact that she usually fantasizes about her relationship with Catarina as Tomboy and Girly Girl scenarios where she takes the Girly Girl role indicates she sees herself to be on the lipstick side of a homosexual relationship.
• Matchmaker Crush: Sophia has a bit of a thing for Catarina but instead chooses to encourage her to marry Nicol.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Her reflection is briefly replaced with Atsuko's in the anime when the latter's consciousness comes to the surface.
• Ms. Imagination: The character profiles in the fifth novel lists her special skills as "fantasizing and daydreaming." Of course, it's referring to romance-novel scenarios.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Inverted. Sophia is super protective of her big brother but seemingly tells Catarina to marry him all the time.
• Next Life as a Fictional Character: Although her Past-Life Memories remain dormant, Sophia is actually the reincarnation of Atsuko, "monkey girl's" best friend from her previous life in Japan. After her dear friend died, Atsuko wished to be friends with her in her next life, which let Atsuko be reborn as another character from Fortune Lover.
• Nice Girl: In contrast to her so-called "creepy" appearance, Sophia is a genuinely kind young lady who cares deeply for the happiness of her brother and friends.
• Otaku: Her obsession with romantic novels makes her the Medieval European Fantasy equivalent of this, more so given Catarina mentioned the latter treats romantic novels as a substitute for the manga and anime in her past life.
• Out-of-Character Moment: While usually the least aggressive of Catarina's suitors, she is extremely aggressive in the Book of Desires, to the point of giving Catarina a Wall Pin of Love and telling Catarina she loves her. Justified, as the book grants Your Heart's Desire.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Subverted. After dreaming of what the viewer would identify as a Japanese schoolgirl's grief towards the death of her best friend, Sophia cries loud enough that her maidservant comes in to check for her well-being. After explaining she had a sad dream and she was "probably remembering the past," the maidservant freezes up, suggesting Sophia was probably dreaming her ostracized past. Sophia clarifies she wasn't dreaming about that, but something much further into the past. What she doesn't know is that she was dreaming of her past-life experience as Atsuko.
• Past-Life Memories: Like Catarina, Sophia has memories of her life as Atsuko, though they only come to her when she's asleep and she quickly forgets them when she wakes up. Or that's how it appears, at least, but later events make it rather ambiguous.
• Power Stereotype Flip: She's a wind mage, but was much more somber and serious as a child. She later grew to be more cheerful as a teen thanks to Catarina.
• Reincarnation Friendship: She's the reincarnation of the monkey girl's best friend Atsuko, though they both remain unaware of this fact due to Atsuko's memories remaining mostly dormant. There are also shades of Reincarnation Romance involved, though Sophia is by far the least aggressive among Catarina's female suitors (since she seems more interested in hooking Catarina up with Nicol). The finale of the first season, though, throws some ambiguity on just how unaware of the situation "Sophia" truly is.
• Reincarnation-Identifying Trait: Her Hime Cut hairstyle is literally just a wavy version of her previous life Atsuko's with additional sidelocks. Sophia's love for romance novels also mirrors Atsuko's love for anime, manga, and otome games.
• Sharing a Body: One of the interpretations of Sophia and Atsuko's personalities after the latter reincarnated into the former, although with Atsuko always staying in the background, such as when Catarina is in a coma in Volume 2, and Atsuko's voice inside Sophia's mind guides Sophia to Catarina in her bed before Atsuko apparently jumps into Catarina's dream to try to wake her up.
• Shipper with an Agenda: She's told Catarina point-blank several times that she should marry her brother, but Catarina doesn't catch on. It's implied that she pushes her brother to get together with Catarina to satisfy her own crush on her. After all, if Nicol marries her, Sophia can have the two people she loves close to her.
• Shrinking Violet: She was rather shy as a child, due to her history of being bullied. Unlike Mary, who completely grew out of this, at present day Sophia is certainly a lot less shy as her game counterpart, but she's still more of a Dandere. Since My Next Life as a Villainess is mostly written from Catarina's point of view, we do see her being rather outgoing (if still quite demure) as a teen. However, a side story in the fifth novel mentions she's extremely anxious in balls if not accompanied by Catarina and/or Mary, not only because she is afraid of being stared at, but also because she'd never been socially inclined, not unlike her brother Nicol.
• Strong Family Resemblance: When Catarina sees her mother Radea for the first time, she comments that Radea looks a lot like her. In Nicol's side story, he comments her personality is similar to their father Dan's, especially on their "act now, think later" mindset.
• Tears of Joy: Following Catarina's declaration that she finds her white hair and red eyes pretty, along with wanting to be her friend, Sophia gives a tearful smile due to how incredibly happy Catarina's words made her.
• Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Sophia's fondest desire is to live out a romance like the ones she reads about in books. This is especially the case with Catarina; in a false world created to grant her heart's desire, she pins Catarina to the wall and confesses her love. At a slumber party, when asked what she would want to do with a potential lover, she lists everything she's ever read in books (including things that are clearly impossible, such as saving the world from an evil mage).
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: When she fantasizes about herself and Catarina in romantic adventures akin to those they read about in books, Sophia always envisions Catarina as the strong, assertive, physical warrior/knight and herself as the princess or mage who assists her.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Meeting Catarina helped lift Sophia's spirits after spending much of her early life being withdrawn to herself due to the discrimination she faced.
• Wall Pin of Love: When in the book world where one can act out their greatest desires, Sophia pins Catarina to the wall and declares her love for Catarina after Catarina offhandedly states she'd like to live in Sophia's home.
• Wind Is Green: Like her older brother, she wears green clothing and is a wind elemental mage.
• Wistful Amnesia: While not exactly amnesia, being with Catarina does give her a sense of nostalgia for their past life as friends.
• Yaoi Fangirl: At the mention of the guys potentially having a "guys-only slumber party", Sophia begins to blush and starts to have her imagination run wild. This becomes literal as she grows older, as she eventually gets a taste of "what [Catarina] used to call 'BL' in [her] previous world".
• Yuri Fan: Quite a few of the books she reads are about romantically-tinged friendships or full-blown romance between women.

Tropes applicable to her Fortune Lover counterpart (And On the Verge of Doom! prior to Chapter 1.)

• Because You Were Nice to Me: It is implied that she grew fixated on Nicol because her brother was the only one to treat her well where everyone else shunned her.
• Big Brother Attraction: Sophia is explicitly stated to be in love with Nicol.
• Hikikomori: Because in the game, she did not meet "monkey girl" Catarina like in the novel, she stayed as a shut-in until when forced out of it at the age of 15, since attending the Wizarding School is mandatory. Even so, it is implied she is more or less The Hermit while at school, as Catarina in On The Verge of Doom! mentioned having never seen her at any point.
• Little Sister Heroine: She is designed by Fortune Lover's developers to be this; in addition to her borderline incestuous crush on Nicol, she is also the most youthful-looking of the main cast.
• Morality Pet: She is not only Nicol's protectorate but also his moral anchor.
• Mysterious Stranger: Because the "monkey girl" never played the Nicol route, she is this to Catarina—the best she knew is from Acchan's spoiling the fact that Nicol is very protective of her and that she is the rival on the Nicol route. Catarina doesn't even know her name or how she looks.
• The Rival: In Nicol's route, which is unique in that progressing through the route is as much a matter of courting her as it is courting Nicol.
• The Runt at the End: Unlike the other rival characters, Sophia, the last character to be introduced in the main story, must be won over in order to earn the good ending to Nicol's route.
• Samaritan Relationship Starter: The Nicol route opens up by being nice to Sophia when others would discriminate against her for being an albino.
• Shrinking Violet: She is a lot shier in this timeline than in the main timeline, probably as a result of having been isolated longer, as well as being more self-conscious. For example, in On the Verge of Doom!, she can't bring herself to Catarina's literature discussion meeting despite having an interest in the subject.

Tropes Applicable to her On the Verge of Doom! counterpart

• Birds of a Feather: Just like in the main series, Sophia and Catarina meet and bond based on their mutual love of romance novels, and Catarina wins her over by praising her albino beauty instead of being repulsed by it.
• Irony: In the main series, Catarina accidentally rescues Sophia from bullies while trying to rush to the bathroom. In this continuity, Catarina's rescue is very deliberate.
• Stations of the Canon: Sophia and Catarina pretty much follow the exact same story beats here as in the main series. The only difference was that poor Sophia had to wait another five years to make her first friend.
• Trauma Button: Just like Keith and the phrase "little brother," Sophia is traumatized when the issue of her appearance is raised, far more than her reaction in the main story counterpart. She blames herself for inviting scorn on her family and initially rejects Catarina's suggestion that she is beautiful. Catarina only succeeds in persuading her by saying no matter how Sophia thinks, she will always think Sophia is beautiful.

Maria Campbell

Maria Campbell

Voiced by: Saori Hayami (Japanese), Melissa Fahn (English), Azucena Miranda (Latin American Spanish)

The original heroine of Fortune Lover, before Catarina's change. In the Geordo and Keith routes of the game, Maria is the target of Catarina's bullying. In the series, however, she and Catarina become friends after the latter protected her twice from her bullies, the same events in which the game's Catarina took part as ringleader before Geordo or Keith (depending on the route chosen) rescues her. Furthermore, Catarina discovers more about Maria that she didn't learn back from her old life when she played Fortune Lover.

Tropes applicable to her current self

• All of the Other Reindeer: Her aptitude for light magic has made her an object of suspicion from her fellow commoners and noblemen alike. The former suspect her of being a bastard and using her magic to deceive her way to success, while the latter look down on her for having so rare a magic type for someone of so humble an origin as hers. Catarina defends her, of course, though other characters like Sirius are also confused at how foolish people have to be to bully someone who may one day enter the Ministry of Magic and have an influence on par with the House of Stuart in a few years.
• Amazonian Beauty: Downplayed in the wish-granting dollhouse, where she has a huge, hulking body, not unlike a man's, though still has a pretty face.
• Ambiguously Bi: She was supposed to have a harem of pretty boys, but she ends up falling hard for Catarina instead. The ambiguity comes from whether she's still attracted to boys or if she's gone completely gay for Catarina. Considering her answer when asked directly if she has any boys she likes by Catarina, there's a strong hint she might be completely homosexual in this version of the story.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Maria is a kind, forgiving soul who hasn't even reported the bullying she has experienced. But the moment Catarina was falsely accused of masterminding the bullying, she threatens to name all her actual bullies in order to defend her. When she realizes Sirius was behind the slander, and after shaking off his attempt to use dark magic on her, she warns him that if he hurts Catarina in any way, she will make him regret it.
  • Later on she plays it more straight as she learns more advanced magic from the Covenant of Light, and eventually asks Cyrus to teach her self-defense.
• Blessed with Suck: She felt her light magic brought nothing but misery to her, from her father abandoning her to being isolated from her peers. It was not until she met Catarina that she started thinking more positively about it, since it was the reason she came to the school and met her in the first place.
• Broken Bird: The deterioration of her family life and the discrimination she faced for not only being a commoner mage but a light-elemental caused her no end of grief, leaving her with severe self-esteem issues she tries to cover with her smiles.
• Bully Magnet: Even without Catarina being the Alpha Bitch from the game, Maria is cruelly bullied by noblewomen for being a commoner with a rare magic affinity.
• Chocolate Baby: Maria has the ability to use magic despite neither of her parents coming from a noble background, which while not unheard of is noted to be incredibly rare. It leads to rumors that her mother had an affair and eventually drove her father away.
• Cipher Scything: A rare In-Universe example. While the Maria in the original Fortune Lover lacked a face, something that the anime demonstrates with Catarina's recollection of the game, this Maria not only has a face but also a backstory.
• Comfort Food: Maria bakes sweets using a recipe from her mother, as it reminds her of the times from before she was discovered to have magic (which eventually drove her father to abandon her family and isolated her from her peers).
• The Cutie: Maria's angelic looks, sweet personality, and talent for baking has even Catarina, who initially feared her potential to trigger her doom flags, finding herself quickly attracted to Maria's adorableness.
• Demoted to Extra: In a meta sense. Catarina's attempts to avoid her doom flags have removed everything that made Maria unique as the main character (besides her commoner background and rare light magic) in Fortune Lover to make her just another Love Interest to Catarina in the story.
• Disappeared Dad: Maria's father walked out on her and her mother after her light magic was revealed, triggered by rumors that his wife might have slept with a nobleman.
• Eating Lunch Alone: Because she is self-conscious of the fact that she's the only commoner at school, in all timelines she would prepare her lunch in her room and eat in the courtyard while the other students are at the dining hall.
• Elemental Personalities: Out of everyone in the main cast (besides perhaps Geordo), Maria comes the closest to fitting the expected personality of someone with her elemental affinity. Maria is characterized by her kind, caring attitude, diligence, and her willingness to help others. She's constantly giving to others, and often doesn't expect recompense for her good deeds. Such a personality serves a light elemental well.
• Face Framed in Shadow: All of Catarina's memories of her as a game character depict her with her eyes hidden. It's only when she finally appears in person, years later, that her full face is revealed.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Maria's baking hobby is one of the many reasons Catarina finds her so sweet and charming.
• First-Name Basis: Maria and Catarina initially call the other "Claes-sama" (Lady Claes in the English version) and "Campbell-san," (Miss Campbell in the English version) although Catarina privately refers to Maria as "Maria-chan" in her thoughts (Maria in the English light novel, Sweet Maria in the English manga). Catarina refers to Maria by her first name while defending her from bullies, and the two get onto a first-name basis shortly thereafter.
• Flowers of Femininity: Maria has four small pink flower hairpins on both sides of her head, which do well to underscore how, while more understated than Mary, she's heavily inclined towards being a sweet, caring girl with strong romantic interests.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Maria's blonde hair reflects both her kind heart and her light magic.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Subverted. At first, Catarina thinks that Maria only got high grades because she was super talented, but eventually learns how dedicated Maria is when she studies.
• Healing Hands: It's shown via flashback that one of the powers light bestows on Maria is the ability to heal wounds, and she mostly does so by sticking her hands close to the wounded area.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: When discussing their life goals after graduating, Maria tells Catarina and Raphael that she plans to join the Department of Magic, but Raphael points out that doing so would separate Maria from Catarina, who would likely be getting wed around the same time. Just as Maria grows despondent, Raphael then suggests that Catarina could join the DoM as well, and Catarina becomes interested in the idea. Cue Maria absolutely BEAMING at the idea of joining the DoM alongside Catarina, and she immediately gushes that she would do everything in her power to help Catarina.
• Heroic Bastard: While her life went into a downward spiral before coming to the academy thanks to the rumors that she was one, it's averted, as no matter what the rumors said, she is indeed the child of her married commoner parents.
• Hero of Another Story: Quite literally. When the world was just a normal otome game, she was the main character of the story, with each of the main guys being her love interests and Catarina being the nastiest of her romantic rivals. However, after the memory situation with Catarina, her role has been flipped, and instead she has become a love interest for Catarina, with her former love interests and the rivals for said love interests becoming rivals for Catarina's love now.
• Hidden Depths: Catarina is surprised to find that Maria is actually fairly more complex than she appeared in the game. Where in the game she seemed like a confident genius, in reality, she's absolutely desperate for any kind of personal recognition and is an extremely hard worker, largely informed by her unhappy life both at home and at school.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Having magic power isolated Maria when she was younger, making her wish that she could just go back to being a normal little girl again.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Having shunned by practically everybody of her age since her magic manifested, she is extremely desperate for friendship. This trope is one of the reasons for her Tears of Joy after Catarina rescues her for the second time; Catarina granting her Friendly Address Privileges makes her realize she finally has a friend.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: They both highlight her kind and down-to-earth personality and serve as a contrast to game Catarina's Icy Blue Eyes in the game.
• In-Series Nickname: Catarina privately refers to Maria as "Sweet Maria" because that is exactly what she is.
• Interclass Friendship: Being one of the few commoners born with magic, Maria has this with her circle of friends in the academy.
• Light 'em Up: She can cast light elemental magic, which's known to be rare amongst all users of magic.
• Light Is Good: She's a rare light elemental mage and a very kind person.
• Love Confession: While attending the graduation ceremony of their seniors, poor Maria tries really hard to let Catarina know her feelings, but Catarina, being Catarina, mistakes a very clear confession of love as an offer for life-long friendship, not helped by the rest of her harem showing up shortly after. Understanding how dense Catarina is, Maria decides to simply reaffirm her vow of companionship by the school festival, which Catarina reciprocates. (Though Catarina still has no idea Maria loves her.)
• Mage Born of Muggles: Maria is a powerful light mage from the lower classes, making her a double rarity. The suspicion that she might be a bastard ruined her parents' marriage.
• Meaningful Name: If it wasn't obvious, her first name is one of the Virgin Mary, and Maria is one of the kindest characters in the story along with her association with light as her innate magic.
• Nice Girl: In all continuities, Maria is defined by her angelic personality. In the original game, she's the one who helps the capture targets deal with their various dysfunctions; in the main story, she brings Catarina sweets and helps her with her studies and homework.
• No-Sell: Light magic grants her blanket immunity to dark magic. This is why Sirius kidnapped her, as he was unable to wipe her memory when she found out about his dark magic, which is susceptible to light magic.
• Not So Above It All: A Nice Girl and All-Loving Hero though she might be, even she isn't completely immune to moments of jealousy, most famously demonstrated when she and the rest of Catarina's close admirers catch Geordo trying to make the moves on her in private. While Sophia and Mary outright threaten Geordo with magic, Maria, rather than dissuade them from resorting to violence, asks them to keep injuries to a minimum so she can heal them.
• Penny Among Diamonds: Every other character in the school is a noble with large amounts of money to their name, while she's a middle-to-low class commoner who was struggling to get by before coming to the school.
• Pink Means Feminine: She is heavily associated with the color pink, and out of all the girls in the cast, she's the most feminine.
• Present Absence: Maria does not appear in person until partway through the second volume, but her very existence dictates just about every action Catarina takes from the second she realizes she's in the world of Fortune Lover out of fear of the potential death flags she could bring.
• Protectorate: Catarina takes it upon herself to become Maria's principal advocate and defender against those who would look down on her. This stands in stark contrast to the original who would bully Maria in the Geordo and Keith routes.
• Rags to Riches: Maria in the game went from a commoner to being married to one of the numerous nobles. However, even in this distorted setting, it's noted that she's still going to end up in a position of authority based on her own merits because of her rare and powerful magic.
• Rescue Romance: She starts to fall in love with Catarina after she rescues her twice from bullies at the Magic Academy and helps her reconcile with her mother. It's unclear when that love truly blossoms, but by the third rescue, this time from a dingy room after Maria was kidnapped by Sirius, it's quite clear Maria is smitten.
• Significant Monogram: Maria's initials are MC, because she is the main character of Fortune Lover.
• Sixth Ranger: While Catarina may have known about her since they beginning, they don't actually meet and become friends until after they're both fifteen. By that point, every other member of Catarina's circle of friends had already known her for at least half a decade.
• Stepford Smiler: While she's always been and always will be a genuinely kind and caring girl, everything that happened since the reveal of her light magic drove her into deep loneliness, which she kept hidden by masking it with her normal kind and caring attitude before meeting Catarina saved her from her loneliness.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Played for Drama. She inherited pretty much all her looks from her mother. Given that she doesn't look like her father at all, it only helped to spread the rumors that she wasn't actually his child.
• Superpower Lottery: Deconstructed. The ability to use magic is almost exclusively found among the upper class, let alone light magic, which is so rare there are only ten known living practitioners throughout Sorcier. That such a lowborn girl like Maria has the ability to use magic—let alone light magic—caused rumors to spread that her mother must have slept with a nobleman, causing her father to abandon them, and that she simply used her magic to succeed at the magic academy (in spite of her sheer efforts).
• Supreme Chef: One chapter of the anthology has her almost perfectly recreating some Japanese snacks after Catarina gave a basic overview on how they're made.
• Sweet Baker: Some of Maria's happiest childhood memories were baking cookies with her parents. After the discovery of her light magic causes her life to fall apart, she starts baking them herself, both to recapture the feelings in her memories and to offer them to others in the hope of making friends.
• Tender Tears: Maria simply starts crying after Catarina defends her from her bullies, telling them that she is too wonderful to deserve such treatment and then death-glares them into leaving them be, and then after the latter affirms to her that she is her friend.
• Through Her Stomach: Inverted. Catarina's love of her sweets is part of why she loves Catarina.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: For most of her life, Maria barely got by before coming to the Magic Academy, with things only getting worse for her emotional state after she got there. However, the moment Catarina expressed her appreciation for her, the darkness in her life gradually lifted, before being completely blown away when Catarina defends her from bullies and exclaims how wonderful a person she is. Ever since Maria regains the cheerfulness and genuine sweetness she used to have as a little girl.
• True Sight: When she confronts her bullies who are now accusing Catarina of masterminding said bullying, Maria notices dark magic wafting around them, alerting her that there is more than just blatant slander at work.
• Uniqueness Decay: By the time the story takes place in the academy, Maria doesn't really stand out much to the main cast due to them growing up with Catarina's antics. In fact, Maria's rare light elemental magic and commoner status are merely an afterthought to them and she's treated as just another friend who's also a hardworking student council member.
• Uptown Girl: All of her potential suitors in the game and her crush in the story proper vastly outrank her in terms of social status.
• What You Are in the Dark: Maria's desired reality as shown by the dollhouse is one where she has a huge, muscular body which she'd use to create lots of baked goods for everyone. She's the only one aside from Catarina and Raphael whose desires aren't built around someone else as the center of their world (as the rest all have fantasy worlds that hinge on Catarina's role in them).
• When She Smiles: When Maria found acceptance from Catarina after suffering years of being an outcast, her smiles have also become genuine and are noted to be absolutely adorable. This is also noticed by her mother, who then starts to mend the distance between them.
• White Mage: While the exact details of light magic aren't known yet, what is known very closely fits this trope; light magic dispels dark magic and can heal others, as well as grant useful immunities to dark magic. Maria thus fits into this category, especially given her temperament.

Tropes applicable to her Fortune Lover counterpart. (And On the Verge of Doom! prior to Chapter 1.)

• Featureless Protagonist: In-Universe, the "monkey girl" assumed Maria was not only purely an insert character, but also a perfect lady despite her humble upbringing. It's not until she lives the game as an outsider that she begins to learn more about her.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The original Fortune Lover game lets you name the protagonist with Maria Campbell as the Canon Name.
• The Hero: Of Fortune Lover before Catarina unwittingly took over the role in her attempts to avoid her doom flags.
• Marry Them All: According to Catarina, there is a reverse-harem ending in the game where Maria can end up with all 4 of her suitors: Geordo, Keith, Alan, and Nicol. Of course, since it involves Geordo and Keith, Catarina also meets her doom in that ending.
• Morality Pet: Where Catarina won over the suitors (and more) through her free-spiritedness, Maria does so over by simply being their moral compass, helping free them from their resentments, as well as, in particular, freeing Geordo and Keith from Catarina's control.
• Rescue Romance: She falls in love with Keith after he saves her from Catarina.

Tropes applicable to her On the Verge of Doom! counterpart.

• All-Loving Hero: In this timeline, Catarina hits her head while in the middle of bullying Maria, and Maria's first instinct is to check on her and make sure Catarina is alright.
• Armor-Piercing Question: When Catarina decides to renounce her noble status as penance for what she did to Maria and others in her history, all of her friends step forward and plead with her not to. Catarina does not seem convinced...until Maria steps forward and asks Catarina "Do you value your time in the past more than you value your time now, with your friends?!". This completely throws Catarina for a loop, and it's at that moment that it's obvious she's changed her mind.
• Chaste Hero: Unlike in Fortune Lover, Maria does not seem to take interest in anyone, as Catarina notes after following her around. The reason is unknown, as this Maria did not fall for Catarina immediately, either.
• Forgiveness: When Catarina presents sweets that she (and her friends) baked themselves and apologies to Maria, Maria reveals that she knows Catarina has been protecting her for some time and that she has wanted to thank her properly and forgive her. The two of them become friends thereafter.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Shown even more clearly in this version. She doesn't hesitate to forgive new Catarina for everything the old Catarina had done to her.
• Love Confession: During the final chapter, Maria gives Catarina the same love confession that she she did in the main timeline, but this time with a Headbutt of Love. However, Catarina and the rest of their friends seem to assume it was an offer for life-long friendship.
• Nice Girl: She worries about Catarina after she hit her head — and that was while the latter was bullying her.
• Protectorate: A "disguised" Catarina (and later Sienna) declare that they will be protecting Maria from then on, leaving Maria confused (but grateful) that Catarina has suddenly begun looking out for her.

The Student Council

Sirius Dieke (Unmarked Spoilers Ahead)

"Sirius Dieke" / Raphael Walt

Voiced by: Toshiki Masuda (Japanese), Yōko Hikasa (Japanese, child), Chris Hackney (English), Luis Flores (Latin American Spanish), Sammir Hernández (Latin American Spanish, child)

The Student Council President of the Magic Academy and an old friend of Nicol. It is eventually revealed he is in fact Sirius' paternal, commoner half-brother Raphael Walt, who the real Sirius' mother, the Marchioness Dieke, tried and unknowingly failed to turn into a Soul Jar for the sickly Sirius. Ever since, Raphael has been forced to hide his true identity and the dark magic he had gained from the botched ritual, all while nurturing a deep-seated grudge not only against the Dieke House, but the nobility in general.

In the game, he is the secret fifth capture target, whose route is almost impossible to unlock during a first playthrough, and even harder to achieve the "Good Ending" first time without a walkthrough. The bad news is the "Bad Ending" of his route concludes with the entire cast of Fortune Lover being killed. In Fortune Lover 2, which follows the Friendship Route of the original Fortune Lover, he, as Raphael, is one of the nine potential capture targets.

---

Tropes applicable to his current self

• Adaptational Early Appearance: The anime introduces the mysterious dark magic user somehow connected to the magic school far earlier in the story than in the original novel, with Raphael being shown trying to control Catarina, and even intervening to save both Catarina and Sophia, during the exams right after summer vacation.
• Arc Villain: He is the antagonist of the second volume, with him trying to get revenge for how his entire life was ruined due to circumstances outside his control. Following him being stopped by Catarina and her talking him through his issues, which helps drive out his own anger and the anger of the dark mage's spirit influencing him, he ends up stepping down from the antagonist role.
• Beleaguered Assistant: At the Ministry of Magic, Lahna/Suzanna left all the desk work to him, leaving him more overworked than when he was the Student Council President.
• Blow You Away: Hinted at being his natural magical element in S1E07 of the anime.
• Child by Rape: The circumstances behind Raphael's birth were Questionable Consent at best, with Marquess Dieke having more or less forced one of his servants to have sex with him. Despite that, his mother loved him unconditionally.
• The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Raphael thinks his mother's dying wish was for him to wreak vengeance upon the people who had her sacrificed so his body can be used as a receptacle to his half-brother's soul. In reality, his mother's real last words were that she loves him and wants him to live a happy life, and that apart from his genuine anger and grief over losing his mother, much of his wrath is actually that of the dark mage who conducted the ritual, only to be executed afterwards by the Marchioness Dieke.
• Easily Forgiven: Zigzagged. After Catarina saves Raphael from his possession, she and all her friends are willing to forgive him for what he did to her and Maria and forget about what happened. Raphael respectfully declines, still feeling horrible over what happened, and instead turns himself in and leaves the Academy under the pretext of having fallen gravely ill and in need of treatment. However, while Marchioness Dieke and her men get arrested and the spirit of the dark mage possessing him was exorcised for good, Raphael is let off the hook on the grounds that he was just as much a victim in the whole affair as Catarina and Maria.
• Enemy Within: Unbeknownst to Raphael, he also harbors the spirit of the dark mage who conducted the ritual meant to transfer the real Sirius's soul into his body, who is also out for vengeance against the Marchioness Dieke (in his case, for having him executed after the ritual seemingly worked). When Raphael started to lose his will to carry out his vengeance due to Catarina's influence, however, the dark mage forces him into committing such questionable actions as pinning Maria's bullying to Catarina (by manipulating Maria's actual bullies into doing so), and outright kidnapping Maria lest she get in the way. When Raphael realizes this, he forces the mage's consciousness out and finally lets go of his anger and grief.
• Evil Redhead: Subverted. While he's the only redhead in the named cast and acts as the vengeful antagonist of Volume 2, he's not truly evil, just a tragic victim of circumstance being manipulated into taking his rage out on everybody around him. When his plot is foiled and Catarina helps him relieve his emotional pain, banishing the controlling dark mage's spirit in the process, he turns out to be a genuinely good and kind person.
• Fiery Redhead: While he doesn't have fire powers and he hides his true self behind false niceness, he's a redhead with a lot of pent-up fiery and volatile emotions beneath his Mask of Sanity, which quite readily explode when he's caught off-guard and trying to fight back the dark mage's influence. He loses this once he's freed of the dark magic, becoming much calmer and more stable emotionally and mentally.
• Heroic Bastard: He was born as a result of the playboy Marquess Dieke sleeping with one of his maids. Despite being influenced by the dark mage's hateful ghost for years, Raphael is a really nice guy who never wanted to hurt anyone.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: In the Magical Tools Research Division, where he's the vice-head. It's outright stated that the division is capable of functioning normally despite Larna's truancy because he picks up all of her slack.
• Identity Absorption: Marchioness Dieke's plan had been for Raphael to be used as a Soul Jar for the fatally ill Sirius, but the ritual ended up failing and instead granted Raphael all of Sirius's thoughts and memories without taking away his sense of self. Raphael simply pretended that it worked in order to avoid being killed.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: Inverted. He claims that the sleep spell that he cast on Catarina was supposed to kill her, but she counters that if he really wanted her dead, then he would have just killed her on the spot.
• Inconsistent Spelling:
  • Seven Seas Entertainment's translation translates his assumed surname as "Deek."
  • The anime translates his birth surname as "Wolt."
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: It's the similarities to the gentle personality of his late mother that he sees in Catarina which make him fall in love with her.
• The Man Behind the Man: He's the one behind the more extreme bullying of Maria and eventually the attempt to pin it all on Catarina, using his dark magic to influence those who have negative feelings against the two.
• More than Mind Control: He (or rather, the mage possessing him) exhibits magic that amplifies people's negative emotions, allowing him to manipulate Maria's bullies into falsely accusing Catarina of being their ringleader.
• My Sibling Will Live Through Me: The young man that everyone refers to as "Sirius Dieke" is actually his illegitimate half-brother Raphael Walt. After the real Sirius fell deathly ill as a child, his mother had a mage use dark magic to transfer his consciousness into Raphael (which also required sacrificing Raphael's own mother). However, because Sirius had completely lost the will to live, Raphael merely inherited all of his memories but functionally remained as himself, merely pretending to be Sirius for years by the time he's introduced, in order to keep himself from being killed by Marchioness Dieke should word ever get out that the ritual failed its purpose.
• Nom de Mom: His situation is a bit complicated. While it might be possible for him to continue to go by Sirius Dieke after the events in the second novel since that's the name he's known for most of his life anyway, he goes by his mother's surname "Walt" instead. This is probably because he hates the Diekes so much that's it's better off being (technically) a commoner.
• Only Sane Man: Since Larna has a stated preference of hiring Bunny Ears Lawyers into her department, Raphael stands out in the department for his lack of eccentricities. The reason he's working there is that no other department wants to hire him due to what he did in the first arc.
• Paperwork Punishment: He finds that while he escaped serious penalties for the crimes he committed under the influence of a dark magician piggybacking his soul, he now has daily mountains of paperwork to deal with, more than when he was the Student Council President.
• Precision F-Strike: In the localization of the light novel, he lets one off shortly after Catarina exposes him as a dark magic user.
  "You know what...? You should just fucking disappear!"
• Soul Jar: Raphael's body was planned to serve as the receptacle to the real Sirius's soul. Instead, he winds up being one for the soul of the dark mage who sacrificed Raphael's mother for the dark magic and was killed due to him having served his purpose.
• Stepford Smiler: His sweet smiles hide a lot of grief and suffering.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Played for drama. Raphael looks near identical to his half-brother Sirius, which made him the perfect candidate to act as a Soul Jar.
• Walking Spoiler: It's impossible to discuss this character without revealing his real identity and the conflict during the second volume of the series that he instigated.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Raphael used to have a happy childhood, until he was forced to become a receptacle to his half-brother's soul, which unfortunately required a Human Sacrifice in the form of his own mother. Worse still, the ritual was ultimately a failure because Sirius was more or less dead at that point, forcing him to pretend to be Sirius for years lest the Marchioness Dieke kills him. All the trauma, compounded with also bearing the vengeful soul of the dark mage who performed the ritual (and who also had a score to settle with the marchioness for having him executed after the ritual seemingly worked), slowly gnawed into his psyche.
• You Killed My Mother: Subverted. Turns out that he was influenced by the vengeful spirit of the dark mage who used his mother as a sacrifice needed for the ritual of transferring the real Sirius's soul to Raphael's body (and was killed by the Marchioness Dieke after the ritual seemingly worked), amplifying Raphael's grudge against her. Their anger against the Marchioness align with each other enough to make Raphael slip out, who clearly becomes reluctant in enacting his vengeance thanks to Catarina's influence.

Tropes applicable to his Fortune Lover counterpart

• Guide Dang It!: He is the secret fifth conquer target of Fortune Lover, but the route is almost impossible to uncover on a first playthrough and is extremely difficult to finish without a guide. Atsuko teased the "monkey girl" about spoiling his route, even as the latter tried to tune her out.
• Hero Killer: In the bad ending to his route in Fortune Lover, he ends up being consumed by the vengeful spirit of the mage responsible for the ritual and murders Maria and the rest of the cast. Compare Geordo and Keith's bad endings, in which Catarina was the only one who died.
• Hidden Villain: Implied to be pulling the strings behind at least some of the more extreme bullying Maria underwent in Fortune Lover, but his plans and true identity remain entirely unrevealed unless you play his route.
• Secret Character: He's the suitor for the secret route in Fortune Lover. While the "monkey girl" knew that there was a fifth route, she didn't know he was the suitor in question until she recalled Atsuko's description of him.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Even more so than Catarina. While game Catarina is a major Hate Sink Alpha Bitch bully that made life miserable for the characters and tries to kill Maria in her bad endings, Sirius/Raphael is a dark magic user who has been manipulating others for his goal of revenge, technically killed at least one person by proxy of being possessed by the spirit of the man who murdered his mother for said dark magic, and in his bad ending outright kills every member of the main cast.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Without main-story Catarina to serve as his moral compass, Raphael's smoldering hatred, compounded with that of the dark mage possessing him, reaches its tragic crescendo in the bad ending of his route, where he is ultimately driven to outright slaughter every member of the main cast.

Frey Randall

Frey Randall

Voiced by: Megumi Han (Japanese)

A first-year student at the Magical Academy that joins the Student Council in Catarina's second year. She is also the younger sister of Suzanna.

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• Be Yourself: This is the cardinal rule she lives by. She bluntly tells Nicol that she has no interest during their marriage interview, and that she plans to join the Department of Magic despite there being a stigma against it. She also encourages both Nicol and her best friend Ginger to pursue the objects of their affections, despite the fact that Frey herself is hinted to be in love with Ginger.
• Excellent Judge of Character: She reveals very quickly that she's aware Nicol isn't interested in their marriage interview, and also hints that she's aware of the entire cast's interest in Catarina.
• Family Versus Career: She tells Nicol that she has no intention of ever being married, because her dream is to work in the Department of Magic, which is something that noblewomen are not supposed to do. It's also heavily implied that she wants to join the DoM to follow the true object of her affection, her best friend, Ginger.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: When she suspects that Ginger may be falling for Catarina, Frey encourages her to welcome those feelings and be honest with herself. This is despite Frey's own hinted feelings for Ginger.
• Shipper with an Agenda: She encourages Nicol to pursue his romantic interest (Catarina) but partly for her own purposes: if Catarina avoids her marriage to Prince Geordo and joins the DoM, then it could open the doors for other noblewomen like herself.
• Student Council President: She becomes this after Geordo graduates.
• Tsurime Eyes: Her upturned eyes indicate her headstrong nature.

Ginger Tucker

Ginger Tucker

Voiced by: Kanon Takao (Japanese)

A first-year student at the Magical Academy who is also a member of the Student Council. She is Frey's best friend.

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• Defrosting Ice Queen: She snubs Catarina and treats her rudely, although Catarina (being Catarina) still treats her with friendship and kindness. When Catarina stands up for Ginger while other noblewomen talk behind her back, Ginger happens to overhear it and blushes profusely. Frey also suggests that Ginger had hidden, growing feelings for Catarina even before this, but that moment is likely what cinched it.
• Generic Cuteness: Catarina says she is "not particularly beautiful," but her character design is in a standard moe style, and if there was any Hollywood Homely, it's not appreant.
• Girlish Pigtails: She wears a pair of braided pigtails, and she is the more feminine among Those Two Girls.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Ginger works and studies very hard to improve her grades and become better at magic, because her dream is to join the Department of Magic. Thus, she is somewhat jealous of Catarina, who was invited to join despite having an underwhelming academic performance and very little magical talent.
• Impoverished Patrician: Her father is a baron, but it's noted her family's financial status is no different from a commoner; it's at a point that she was schooled with commoners before her magic manifest.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is "Ginger", and her hair is a reddish-brown color.
• Oblivious to Love: It's suggested that Frey is deeply in love with her, but that Ginger fails to notice. Even more so after Ginger falls for Catarina, and Frey encourages her.
• Tsundere: She treats Catarina with outward disdain and annoyance, but still tries to help her when she needs it (while claiming she just wanted Catarina to stop moaning about her studies). When Catarina secretly stands up for Ginger against other noblewomen, Catarina flat out says that Ginger is a "Tsundere" type, but the other girls are confused by the term. Frey acknowledges shortly afterward that she suspects Ginger has had growing feelings for Catarina for some time.

On the Verge of Doom! Characters

Sienna Nelson

Sienna Nelson

A member of Catarina's posse in the original game.

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• Ascended Extra: She was just an unnamed member of Catarina's posse in the game and is a non-entity in the main series, but she ends up being the first person that Catarina befriends in On the Verge of Doom!.
• Beta Bitch: She was the first person to join Catarina's Girl Posse at school and was the one who was closest to her.
• Blow You Away: She can use wind magic, but like Catarina, she has very little magical power.
• Bring Help Back: When Catarina is put on trial by Noelia for bullying Maria, Sienna tries to defend her but Noelia silences her by reminding Sienna that she was complicit as well. Sienna appears to run away out of guilt, leaving Catarina to fend for herself, until she comes back a few minutes later with Maria and Geordo — the only two people who can testify how much Catarina has changed.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Sienna's bullying of Maria is largely borne by her insecurity over her poor magical aptitude and envy over Maria's abundance thereof.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: No matter how Sienna worked to improve her talent for magic, she always has very little to show for it. This is what largely fueled her early hostility towards Maria.
• Love Confession: Downplayed. When Catarina announces her plans to renounce her nobility, Sienna (and the rest of her friends) try to change her mind. Sienna gives a firm, sincere declaration that she will never, ever leave Catarina's side, no matter what.
• Morality Pet: To date, she is the only known person that the old Catarina has been shown to be kind to. Sienna admired her because she managed to be proud despite lacking any real magical talent.
• Reformed Bully: She stops bullying Maria after seeing that she doesn't just coast by on raw talent, and begrudgingly joins Catarina as one of Maria's masked protectors.
• Subordinate Excuse: Implied. Although it never outright stated, it's hinted that Sienna does have feelings for Catarina and it's the primary reason why she sticks with her after Catarina's reform, granted with a lot of convincing on Catarina's part.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Both Catarina and Maria note that she's fond of apple pie.
• Undying Loyalty: By the conclusion of the manga, Sienna has pledged that she will never leave Catarina's side, no matter what.

Kai Gerran

Kai Gierran

A medicine instructor at the Magical Academy whom Catarina goes to for swordsmanship lessons in On the Verge of Doom!.

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• Ascended Extra: He's never mentioned in the main story, but here he becomes essential to Catarina's efforts to avoid her doom flags.
• Eyes Always Shut: His eyes are almost always closed into slits.
• Master Swordsman: He is a skilled enough swordsman to teach Catarina lessons, although he admits that Geordo would be a far better person to learn from.
• Mysterious Watcher: In his introductory scene, he at first turns down Catarina's request to learn swordsmanship, under the rationale that it's Geordo's place to protect his own fiancée. However, after watching from afar and learning that Catarina is friends with Maria, he changes his mind, although his internalizations make it clear that this is only because of an interest in Maria's light magic.

Noelia Flores

Noelia Flores

A high-ranking noble who takes over Catarina's role as the school's Alpha Bitch after the latter regained her memories.

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• Alpha Bitch: To perhaps a worse extent than even Catarina, considering she not only looks down on commoners but even nobility of lower ranks such as Sienna.
• Big Bad: Of On the Verge of Doom!. She takes over Catarina's role as the school's Alpha Bitch during the last third of the story. Noelia fully cements herself as the main antagonist when she actively tries to get rid of Catarina by either having her exiled or killed.
• Evil Is Petty: She targets Sienna because the other girl had the gall to stand up to her and protect Maria despite being a low-ranking noble. She later targets Catarina full-force just because Catarina defended Sienna against her. She even tries to arrange for Catarina to become trapped and experience a slow and agonizing death from starvation solely because the girl stood up to her.
• Hate Sink: As expected of Catarina's replacement as Alpha Bitch, there is nothing remotely likable about her. In some ways, she's actually worse, as her petty vendetta against Catarina is not so much rooted in entitlement towards someone she likes (such as the original Catarina towards Maria regarding Geordo) as much as in the simple fact that Catarina had the gall to call her out on bullying Sienna.
• Playing with Fire: She has fire magic.
• Replacement Flat Character: She becomes Maria's primary tormentor after Catarina awakens her memories as the "Monkey Girl".
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: While the plot of On the Verge of Doom! is a bit more serious due to Catarina's Reformed Bully status meaning genuine potential danger for her, overall it's still decently light and comedic. But Noelia attempted to, and nearly succeeded at, trapping Catarina in a way that would result in death from starvation solely because Catarina stood up to her and her classist ways.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Her attempt to get Catarina exiled is dealt with in a series of montage panels with no mention of what happens to her afterwards, as she doesn't show up at all at the end of the final chapter.

Antagonists (All Villain Spoilers Unmarked)

Baron Shelley

A nobleman and Anne's estranged father.

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• Abusive Parents: He treats his illegitimate daughter horribly, telling her that she's of no use to him after she gets scarred in a fire, resulting in her going to the Claes family to work as a maid. Years later, after Anne has become happy with working as Catarina's maid, Baron Shelley returns to force her into another arranged marriage.
• Arranged Marriage: His ultimate goal for Anne, regardless of what she personally wants.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He wears eyeglasses and is a rather unpleasant person.
• I Have No Daughter!: He disowned Anne after she gets scarred in a fire, viewing her as unmarriageable because of that.
• Jerkass: He shows that he places no value on Anne as a person after she's scarred in the fire. Even when he's in a relatively good mood, such as when he learns of someone who's willing to overlook Anne having scars, he comes off as rather condescending.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He only shows up in flashbacks involving Anne, and nothing he ever does directly affects any members of the primary game cast, but him sending Anne to be with the Claes family after effectively disowning her was how she and Catarina become such close friends and she started breaking out of her submissive shell, and Catarina's efforts to stop him from marrying her off against her will is the major push that truly allowed Anne to break free of her mental shackles and decide to be her own person instead of what would potentially please other people.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He sends Anne away due to believing that her scars make her unmarriageable.

Marchioness Dieke

Voiced by: Yo Taichi (Japanese), Alma de la Rosa (Latin American Spanish)

The wife of Marquess Dieke and the mother of Sirius Dieke. She was responsible for arranging the dark magic ritual to transfer her son's memories into his half-brother, Raphael Walt.

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• All for Nothing: In the end, the dark magic ritual failed to make Raphael into Sirius, who merely pretended to be Sirius to save himself from being killed. Because of that, Marchioness Dieke killed two people and ruined a third's life for nothing. This also leads to her downfall once Raphael finally reveals himself and the truth about the ritual in order to bring her to justice.
• Awful Wedded Life: Heavily implied with her and the marquess in the fifth volume.
• Exact Words: She offers to return the dark magic user in her employ to his family. Unfortunately for him, this involves killing him to send him to his family in the afterlife.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Her actions to save her son are the entire reason the subplot involving Raphael came to be, but despite still being alive and active in the present time, she never gets directly involved with the main cast, with her eventual defeat and arrest happening without any involvement from Catarina or the other main characters.
  • Later on it's been revealed she arranged for several orphaned children to be experimented on with dark magic. The surviving dark magic users produced from the experiments, like Sora and Sarah, go on to become antagonists towards Catarina and her friends.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She's jealous of Raphael's mother for attracting the marquess' attention, even though the other woman was effectively raped, along with her being able to live happily with Raphael while Sirius was deathly ill.
• Hate Sink: She's one of the most despicable characters in the series. Her only redeeming characteristic is her love for her son, but even that drives her to do terrible things to Raphael, his mother, and even the dark magic user she employed. Also, as the fourth volume reveals, she was involved in despicable experiments utilizing dark magic, most of which involved children, showing that Raphael wasn't the only one who was victimized by her and her conspirators.
• I Have Your Wife: She claimed that she was holding the dark magic user's family hostage to force him to perform the ritual for her. In reality, she had them killed off as she had no intention of letting him return to them.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: She gets away with conducting a dark magic ritual and having the man responsible murdered for years, but all this ends when Raphael informs the authorities about her crimes.
• Love Makes You Evil: Her love for her son and desperation to save him from death led her to resort to dark magic.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Her desperation to avoid this led to her trying to use dark magic so that Sirius could live on in Raphael's body. In the end, it was for naught, as Sirius died and Raphael never truly became Sirius.
• Unnamed Parent: She's only ever referred to as Marchioness Dieke, with her given name never being stated.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: She is the most despicable character in the entire series. In a series where the intended Hate Sink was simply a bully who tried to murder one innocent teenager in a fit of rage, Marchioness Dieke premeditated the murder of her husband's ex-lover, a dark mage's entire family along with the dark mage himself, attempted to have the body belonging to the child of her husband's mistress possessed by her own child, and accidentally caused that child to be possessed by the murderous spirit of the wizard. Raphael and the dark mage were relatively tragic victims compared to her, and no doubt that the only reason she didn't steal the Hate Sink crown from the original Catarina is because of her relatively minor role.
• Walking Spoiler: It's impossible to discuss her role in the story without spoiling the truth about "Sirius".
• Would Hurt a Child: Raphael is understandably worried that Marchioness Dieke will kill him if she learns that he never became Sirius, thus he maintains the illusion that the ritual worked.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: She kills the dark magic user responsible for the ritual, since he's played his part and knows too much to be allowed to live.

Sora Smith

Voiced by: Kosuke Toriumi (Japanese), Kylen Deporter (English), Amber Lee Connors (English, child)

A butler turned unwilling criminal turned Ministry Special Agent. He is also one of the "new" romanceable characters in Fortune Lover 2.

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• Arc Villain: Serves as the main antagonist of Volume 3/"The Prisoner" arc until his Heel–Face Turn.
• The Butler Did It: He is the Man Behind the Man, manipulating Selena into kidnapping Catarina. However, he's also not a real butler.
• Crocodile Tears: He generally gets away with things when caught by looking sad and saying he was forced to do whatever he did. Contrary to her normal attitude, Catarina seems to be one of the few who can actually see through this with ease. She wonders how anyone could fall for it.
• Didn't Think This Through: Now, he was supposed to be in charge of kidnapping Catarina and manipulating Selena for his employer, however, the plans rely on Catarina being somewhat complicated, so she uses this as an opportunity to force Sora to bring her snacks & novellas, making him her prisoner in a sense.
• The Dragon: To the corrupt noble, David Mason, who serves as the Greater-Scope Villain for Volume 3. When Mason was arrested off-screen for masterminding Catarina's kidnapping, Sora sees no point in continuing the scheme, and peacefully gives himself up to the Ministry.
• Dumb Muscle: According to his stats polygon in the fifth novel, he has the highest power and stamina points among the entire cast, but his intelligence is on Anne's level—better than Catarina but lower than everyone else in her harem.
• Happiness in Slavery: Downplayed. Despite being David Mason's slave who is forced to do his dirty work, Sora acknowledges that it isn't the worse thing that could have happened to him. He is still well-fed, gets to wear nice clothing, has a warm bed, and manages to get together with several women among The Beautiful Elite. He also takes his arrangements with Ministry very well seeing as he was to work with them as a part of his "community service" (with being able to stay close to Catarina as a bonus).
• Heel–Face Turn: He was instructed to kidnap Catarina and to force Geordo to renounce his claim to the throne, but instead winds up falling for Catarina, and turns himself in after his master is captured.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: He's not a bad person. In fact, Catarina considers him outright admirable after learning his backstory. She also calls his sky-blue eyes extremely beautiful.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When his boss is arrested off-screen and realizing who "Lana" truly is, Sora knew that his kidnapping scheme has to come to an end. Although after developing Lima Syndrome, he did consider running away with Catarina so that he can have her all to himself, but realized how foolish this plan was. Instead, he decides to go peacefully when the Ministry comes to arrest him.
• Ladykiller in Love: He only cared about one person before, a random sick guy who was something like a best friend or father figure. But Catarina wins him over with her innocence and lack of pride and for the first time, he finds himself in love with a woman, though he definitely has a lot of experience.
• Lascivious Beauty Mark: He's a laidback and seductive man with a beauty mark below his eye and a Dark and Troubled Past that involves him being The Casanova. In the fourth episode of the second season of the anime adaptation in which Catarina starts to grow closer to Rufus, he pins her to a wall while telling her about his Dark and Troubled Past and she muses to herself that he's attractive up close, even lampshading this trope. (He acknowledges this fact himself, too.)
  Catarina: [thinking] He even has the mole under his eye that sexy characters always have!
• Lima Syndrome: He is the butler Selena charges to look after the kidnapped Catarina, but after exposing himself as The Man Behind the Man, he is intrigued by Catarina's lack of fear towards him and engages with her in conversation, even telling her his true backstory. By the end of their talks, he is completely smitten with her, literally carrying her to bed and probably would have had his way with her if he were not interrupted.
• Meaningful Name: He is explicitly named after the color of his eyes.
• Mr. Smith: His fake last name Larna gave him, which he only accepted because it would make the paperwork for getting employed at Department of Magic easier. Catarina notes that it's especially lazy because it's the same last name Larna uses, which Catarina also suspects is fake.
• Never Given a Name: He was abandoned before his parents gave him a name, and was given multiple aliases depending on where he was working after that. The name "Sora" was given to him by a kindly man who taught him how to read and write, and even then was never used until his Heel–Face Turn because the Ministry required him to have one.
• Street Urchin: As an orphan, he spent his early years as this until the Marchioness uses him as a test subject.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He never really was a bad guy, even during his time as a villain. Sora had no personal grudge against Catarina or Selena, and made it clear that he had no intention of physically harming either of them when following through on his master's plan. As soon as Mason was caught, Sora simply gave up without a fight knowing that there is no point in trying to resist arrest.

Thomas Coleman

Voiced by: Eiji Miyashita (Japanese), Nanako Omoto (Japanese, child), Landon McDonald (English)

The eldest son of Viscount Coleman, and Keith's biological half-brother.

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• Arc Villain: Of Volume 4/"Keith Disappeared" arc, until the true villain of the story, Sarah, pulled a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on him.
• Cain and Abel: The Cain that mistreated The Abel, Keith, out of spite and later sets out to ruin his life.
• Disinherited Child: He gets on the receiving end of this later on, due to his arrogance and poor performance leading to his father sending him away.
• Fat Bastard: He's a short, chubby man and definitely one of the more despicable characters in the show.
• Formerly Fit: To the point that Keith was unable to recognize him when he saw him again years after.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He's furious at the fact that Keith is now better off than him, to the point of kidnapping him for a ransom.
• Hate Sink: Thomas is portrayed as nothing more than a vicious bully who tortures his half-brother, Keith, for no reason other than petty spite. Granted, it does not help that Sarah was amplifying his negative traits using her dark magic. He is also one of the few villains to be killed off instead of redeemed. Its strongly implied that Sarah stole his life force to replenish her own dark magic because he was such a hateful person.
• I Have No Son!: He and his other siblings didn't consider Keith their brother, even calling him "whoreson".
• Laser-Guided Karma: He bullied Keith for being a Son of a Whore that he didn't consider his sibling. Thomas would later get disowned by his own father for his haughty attitude and poor performance, with his younger brother replacing him as heir.
• Never My Fault: He blames his teachers for his poor performance in school, and his servants' incompetence for quitting from his abuse. None of it had anything to do with his mistakes, of course. Arguably, his inability to reflect on himself is what got him disowned in the first place.
• Remittance Man: After he was disinherited by Baron Coleman, he was sent to live in a distant estate with a small allowance.
• Riches to Rags: Due to his haughty attitude, he was disowned by his father and his younger brother was made heir. He was sent to live to a faraway estate where he quickly wasted his money on gambling and alcohol.
• Unwitting Pawn: He was used by a Dark Magic-using witch to kidnap Keith. While it was his wish to merely torment him and ruin his life, hers was to use Keith as the catalyst to create a Dark Familiar.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: On the receiving end of this when his accomplice, Sarah, drained him of his life force to replenish her dark magic shortly after Catarina started their rescue mission to raid their headquarters save Keith. He died not long after he was arrested by the Ministry.

Sarah

Voiced by: Aoi Yūki (Japanese), Amber Lee Connors (English)

A mysterious young woman who is able to wield Dark Magic. She was initially introduced as Thomas Coleman's accomplice in his plans to kidnap his brother, Keith. It's eventually revealed that she is far more dangerous than her partner, and serves as a major reoccurring antagonist towards Catarina and her friends.

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• Affably Evil: She can be very polite and keeps an upbeat attitude even when committing some of her more heinous acts, such as using Keith as a test subject for her dark magic experiments. Her interest and fondness towards Catarina does seem to be genuine.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: She ends up causing Thomas's death when she stole his life force after pulling a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness.
• Breaking Old Trends: She is the first dark magic user introduced in the story to not be a one-time Arc Villain who undergoes a Heel–Face Turn after interacting with Catarina, like Raphael and Sora before her. She instead continues to act as a reoccurring antagonist for the several volumes after her introduction.
• Cute and Psycho: She is a young woman with pretty black hair and a cute, innocent smile of a child. However, her outward appearance hides her true psychotic nature.
• The Dragon: She was initially introduced as this to Thomas Coleman, until it turns out that she was the one manipulating him. Later, it's revealed that she does serve a yet-to-be-seen master.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Sarah always has a perky and jovial smile on her face, but she is actually a sadistic psychopath.
• Freudian Excuse: Sarah was an orphan who was sold into slavery and used as a human test subject for the Dieke Family's experiments with dark magic. She was able to escape with the help of her future master, but it is pretty clear that the inhuman experiments performed on her took their toll on the girl, turning her into the psychotic villainess that she is today.
• Hot Witch: The Cute and Psycho variation.
• Lady of Black Magic: She is the first female dark magic user introduced in the story, not counting Catarina who has yet to fully develop her dark magic when Sarah makes her first appearance.
• More Deadly Than the Male: Compare to her fellow dark magic users, Raphael and Sora. According to Maria, Sarah's dark magic and high magical aptitude far exceed anything she has seen before. Also, whereas Raphael and Sora only served as antagonists for a single arc respectively before each of them undergoes a Heel–Face Turn, Sarah has been a reoccurring antagonist for multiple arcs whose crimes are far more severe than anything they ever did.
• Perky Goth: Has long black hair and wears dark clothing befitting a Lady of Black Magic, but keeps up a cheerful and lively attitude even when she is committing inhuman experiments with her dark magic.
• Perpetual Smiler: Regardless of the situation, she almost always has a big childish smile on her face.
• Teleportation: This is how she managed to pull off her Karma Houdini act to get away completely scot-free, there's currently no telling if it'll ever have a Karma Houdini Warranty attached to it...
• Villain Takes an Interest: Toward Catarina after the familiar that Sarah was trying to create attached itself to her. Sarah's interest in Catarina only grows over the course of the story when Catarina herself starts to develop her own dark magical abilities.

Others

Atsuko Sasaki (Unmarked Spoilers Ahead)

Atsuko Sasaki

Voiced by: Inori Minase (Japanese), Kira Buckland (English)

Catarina's best friend in her previous life. It's later revealed that she reincarnated as Sophia Ascart.

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• Affectionate Nickname: The "Monkey Girl" called her "A-chan"("Atsu" in the dub). She's apparently so used to calling Atsuko that, when she is in her Lotus-Eater Machine dream, she once used a double honorific by calling her "A-chan-sama".
• All of the Other Reindeer: Her crippled social skills caused her elementary-school classmates to see her as a weirdo, and as a result, she was often ignored and bullied.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's never made clear how much time passed between the "monkey girl's" death and her own (or even how she died), though Sophia's comment about having a dream from a long time ago seems to suggest a rather large gap.
• Ambiguously Bi: The fact that she is into Romance Games such as Fortune Lover indicates she is interested in heterosexual romance, and her side-story has no clear indication of her friendship with the "monkey girl" has grown beyond platonic. However, since it is ambiguous as to whether she has any role in her reincarnate Sophia's crush on the "monkey girl"'s reincarnate Catarina, it also means it's ambiguous as to whether she hid her romantic feelings towards the "monkey girl."
• Backup from Otherworld: After Catarina falls into a coma, she leads Sophia to her and then seemingly jumps into Catarina's mind, helping her wake up and giving her the information she needs to find Maria and help Sirius.
• Best Friend: She and the "monkey girl" had been best friends ever since middle school, and her greatest wish was to be with her friend again in her next life.
• Bullied into Depression: Having been bullied and generally treated like a pariah in grade school caused her to become afraid of people.
• Bully Magnet: In elementary school, kids bullied her over her social awkwardness, which in turn caused her social phobia.
• Character Development: Due to "monkey girl"'s Positive Friend Influence, she changed from a Shrinking Violet who literally wasn't comfortable speaking to anyone to a talkative girl who is proud of her hobbies. Besides, she has been able to make other friends, although they were all otaku as well.
• Crash-Into Hello: She first met her "monkey girl" best friend...when the latter falls out of a tree and lands butt-first on top of her.
• Cry Laughing: Coming across the "monkey girl's" final text message (complaining about having trouble with Geordo's route) helped break her out of the Heroic BSoD she'd been in since the latter's death and she began to laugh at how ridiculous the whole situation is... before the fact that her best friend is never coming back finally sank in and she broke down in tears.
• Cute Bookworm: Before she met the "monkey girl," she's essentially this—shy, socially awkward, and treated reading as the only thing she enjoyed. Unlike most other examples she actually didn't like being in this trope; she described herself at that point as being "lonely, shy, and unhappy." She grows out of it due to the Monkey Girl's Positive Friend Influence, and hobbies aside, Catarina's recollections of her shows she became a lot more outgoing.
• Dream Weaver: In addition to her occasional mind controling of Sophia, she potentially has the ability to influence other people's dreams. For example, in the sixth novel, Catarina has several dreams about herself in Acchan's body, playing Fortune Lover II...which she should not have known, since it was released on Earth after the "Monkey Girl"'s death. Acchan is the only plausible reason Catarina can have such a dream in the first place.
• Friendless Background: She was unable to make any friends in her life before befriending the "monkey girl."
• I Just Want to Have Friends: She did want to have friends before she met the "monkey girl," but she resigned to not having any since she knows she's too socially inept for it. This is why she uses fiction for escapism; she's self-inserting into the protagonists to fulfill this trope.
• Loners Are Freaks: She was seen as a weirdo due to her inability of making friends.
• Love Transcends Spacetime: Her (presumably) platonic love for her best friend was so great that in death her spirit followed her and ended up being reincarnated alongside her in the world of Fortune Lover.
• Ms. Exposition: Since she actually completed all the routes in Fortune Lover, she's able to fill in bits and pieces for the audience that the monkey girl never got a chance to play via flashbacks of her giving the "monkey girl" spoilers. Even her Big Damn Heroes moment boils down to her giving Catarina more spoilers. She does it again in the sixth novel, where she took over Sophia's body to write a summary of Fortune Lover II to Catarina. When Catarina asks Sophia whether she wrote that, Sophia has no recollection of writing in a language (Japanese) that she doesn't know a single bit.
• My Greatest Second Chance: She felt terrible for being unable to prevent "Monkey Girl's" death or to do anything to save her after the fatal event. So when Catarina is put into a magically-induced coma, she rouses her own present incarnation from despair and explicitly instructs her what to do so she/they can save her/their best friend.
• No Social Skills: The reason for her Friendless Background, but mostly an Informed Flaw. She had difficulties interacting with people, which made her isolated at school. And given that this made her very lonely, the trope was Deconstructed.
  I don’t know how to speak to my classmates... or how to try to be friends with them. I don’t understand things like that.
• Otaku: She was a big fan of anime, manga, and otome games and was the one responsible for getting the monkey girl interested in them in the first place. It is implied she is more into these than the monkey girl.
• Posthumous Character: She's dead in the story proper, though her memories live on in her reincarnation Sophia.
• Proud to Be a Geek: Post-Character Development. In Catarina's recollections of her, she was often smug about her otome game skills.
• Shrinking Violet: As a result of having bullied for her awkwardness. It's at a point that she essentially tuned out everyone else in the class and withdrawn to herself; this is why at the time the "monkey girl" fell on her from a tree, she didn't even recognize the "monkey girl" was her classmate.
• Significant Double Casting: She shares a voice actress with her reincarnation Sophia.
• Significant Monogram: A slightly more complex example given that the characters in question live in societies with different name order conventions, but Sasaki Atsuko reincarnated into Sophia Ascart.
• Worth Living For: An unusual example, as the thing Atsuko found herself worth living for after the "wild monkey" girl's death is the latter's Positive Friend Influence. She saw it as a new and better world than before she met her late friend, one that she's willing to live on even when her friend is no longer there.

Mrs. Campbell

Mrs. Campbell

Voiced by: Aya Hisakawa

Maria Campbell's mother who lives in the countryside.

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• Green-Eyed Monster: Something she regrets, as she nearly decided to give Maria away to another family after developing resentment for her daughter for all the hardship caused by the discovery of Maria's light magic, but stopped and feels great shame for thinking like that.
• Happily Married: Until her husband left her after the rumors of a possible affair on her part became too much for him to bear it longer.
• Irrational Hatred: It's downplayed, but ultimately Played for Drama as she knows that Maria isn't to blame for their situation and even saw past her daughter's Stepford Smiler persona yet couldn't bear to look into her eyes for the fear of being hated by her for almost deciding to give her away and feeling guilt for even thinking that.
• Mistaken for Cheating: When her daughter was revealed to have light magic, it didn't take long for rumors being whispered around town that she had cheated on her husband with a noble.
• Parental Abandonment: Defied. She was tempted to give Maria away to another family after developing resentment for her daughter for all the hardship that came after the latter could use light magic, but quickly stopped this train of thought when realizing this and felt guilty afterward.
• Parental Neglect: It's somewhat justified when she distances herself from Maria because of her own misplaced anger and later fears the possibility of Maria showing hatred towards her.
• Parents as People: She did not handle the fallout of Maria having light magic in the best of ways, but she's still trying to be a good parent.
• Perpetual Frowner: She hadn't once smiled after her life fell apart from the discovery of her daughter's light magic.
• Shipper on Deck: Subtle, but there. In the episode that introduces her, after Catarina pays a visit to the Campbell household, Maria's mother offer her daughter a wistful and knowing smile, suggesting that she is aware of Maria's growing affection for Catarina, and giving her tacit approval, which causes Maria to blush and smile in turn. And in the final episode of the first season, a line of dialogue suggests that Mrs. Campbell is giving Maria new recipes to try on Catarina, likely trying to invoke Through Her Stomach.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: She's noted to be a very beautiful woman in her town, and was quite popular because of it. Deconstructed when her daughter shows aptitude for casting the rare light elemental magic, leading to rumors that she slept with a nobleman behind her husband's back.
• Unnamed Parent: Is never referred to by name, which is justified since the only time she's seen, the only other people there are Catarina and Keith (who wouldn't know it in the first place) and Maria (who just calls her "mom").
• When She Smiles: Gives one to her daughter in the anime, which is the start of mending the strained relationship between them.

Spot/Pochi

A familiar of Dark Magic, which becomes attached to Catarina and refuses to leave her side.

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• Adorable Abomination: He looks like and has the personality of an adorable little puppy, but as living Dark magic he's a Living Shadow that embodies negative emotions. Most characters that see him get incredibly unnerved about the little guy, and find it especially concerning that Catarina sees him as little more than a nice and friendly dog who just happens to be able to go into her shadow.
• Black Magic: He is literally made of Dark Magic; when he first takes the form of a dog, a puddle of liquefied dark magic takes his shape.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He's made up of Dark Magic (which itself is composed of negative emotions), but he's nothing but cute and friendly.
• Familiar: He was created by a witch using high levels of dark magic that hoped to have her own familiar, but instead, he became attached to Catarina.
• Hellhound: He can grow into a much more terrifying form if he senses danger toward his mistress.
• Irony: Catarina is a girl who normal dogs instinctually chase after and attack, but Spot, a dog who is literally made of negative-emotion-fueled Dark Magic, is completely friendly to and adores her.
• Literal Genie: His dog form seems to have come about because while trying to free Keith from his snake-shaped Dark Magic restraints, Catarina literally tore them apart and said that she would have shown more restraint if it were a cute puppy. Cue the dark magic literally turning into a cute puppy.
• Living Shadow: When Catarina tells him to "go home", he dissolves into her shadow... something that makes Anne wince when she witnesses it.
• Meaningful Name: His name is "Spot" and he was created from a literal "spot" of Dark Magic.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: An incredibly cute puppy, albeit created from Dark Magic.
• Shadow Walker: Likes to hide in Katarina's shadow when unneeded.
• Undying Loyalty: Initially, Catarina wished to give him to the Department of Magic so that they could study him, but Spot literally clung to her and refused to be separated.

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