The Sword Saint Chronicles is a series of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! fanfics by SixthOctavarium
.
It all started with the Academy of Magic's Duelists Society holding an Open Entry Tournament. Catarina simply planned to enter the tournament to test her ability and possibly face Prince Geordo in a match. But her entry starts a chain of events which will bring her life to its next phase and have her come to some realizations about her place in the world.
The series is hosted on AO3.
This series contains examples of:
- Batman Gambit: Catarina pulls one off against Geordo in the Finals of the Young Lions Tournament, intentionally giving a tell for one of her most effective attacks, which allows her to score the winning touch.
- The Bet: In order to get Prince Geordo to go all out against her when they face off in the Open Entry tournament, Catarina tells him that if he can beat her, she'll let him dress her up as he likes for an upcoming ball.
- Bullying a Dragon: Byron Whitney (in the first two stories) and Milton Ferris (in the sixth) picking fights with Catarina. Byron is from a barony and Milton from a marquessate, while Catarina is not only the beloved daughter of a duke, but also the fiancée of a prince and close friends with another prince, a marquis's daughter, a rare light mage, and the children of the Prime Minister. And those are just her closest friends, half the Academy reveres and loves her for her kindness and her taking a stand against bullying.
- Confusion Fu: Alan uses this against Geordo to beat him in the Finals and win the Open Entry Tournament by switching his stances each round so that Geordo can't get a bead on how to approach him. Alan decides on this tactic when he notices Geordo needed time to figure out how to approach Catarina after she switched her stance in their duel.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Keith starts slipping into this in the fifth story, as he realizes that Catarina is starting to fall for Prince Geordo. Fortunately, he has a Heel Realization before he can do anything too drastic.
- Didn't Think This Through: Keith in the third story. Rather than send out invitations for Catarina's 17th birthday party, he just posted a notice on the Academy's bulletin board inviting anyone who wanted to RSVP and attend. This ends up ruining the group's plans for a smaller, more intimate birthday party when a large number of their peers take up the offer and RSVP, forcing them to come up with a different plan for Catarina's birthday.
- Gender Flip: In the fifth story, the Theater Club is putting on a production of The Beautiful Dreamer (Sorcier's equivalent of Sleeping Beauty). Catarina intended to audition for the role of the evil sorceress Malignia, but accidentally put her name down for Prince Phillip instead. The club leadership was so impressed by Catarina's performance as Prince Phillip that they decided to invert all the gender roles in the play, making it the story of how Prince Arlo is cursed by the evil sorcerer Malignus to fall into an endless sleep and must be rescued by the valiant Princess Philomena.
- Heel–Face Turn: Byron Whitney turns in the sixth story, helping Catarina by preventing Milton Ferris from cheating in his honor duel with her and stopping Milton from fleeing the duel venue after he tries to get out of paying his wager to Catarina.
- Hidden Depths: Catarina's revealed to be incredibly talented as a duelist, taking third place in the Open Entry Tournament at the Academy of Magic and then winning the Young Lions Tournament, beating Geordo in the Finals to claim the title.
- Like Mother, Like Daughter: As it turns out, Catarina's mother, Miri Diana, practiced swordsmanship when she was young. She was even the winner of the 92nd Young Lions Tournament and was the first woman to become champion. Catarina later followed in her footsteps and became the winner of the 115th Young Lions Tournament.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: After Milton challenges Catarina to a duel due to the argument they have, Adam Hargrove, a member of the Duelists Society, and Robert Sheringham, the Society President, look at each other in disbelief before bursting out laughing over the fact that Milton challenged Catarina, who by that point is the reigning Young Lioness and an instructor at the Duelists Society.
