My Friends Watch My Life and All routes Lead to Laughs and Sighs

by strangerwager

You know the drill, react fic yada-yada-yada. I am making my own spin to this as much as possible not looking like a complete rip-off, so if any similarities between other fics is seen here, it is not intentional. Updates whenever, may periodically go into hiatus at times. Don't expect that much.

2. Episode 1: I Recalled My Memories

A/N:Writer-san here, sorry this took long as hell to release, but here it is. Please do criticize any shortcomings or mistakes you see in this chapter as I do wish to improve. Be fairly warned though, as writing may be shit. Anyways, here's the first episode, and I do hope you enjoy reading even though it may be shit.

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They anticipated what was to come before them, what they'd see and what kind of thought process Katarina had. They were not that worried since most of them had known Katarina since childhood, with Maria only the exception. So all of them considered it just as revisiting memory lane.

"For some reason, all this rewinding of memories makes me uneasy all of a sudden…" Keith commented as the screen continued to rewind to the very start.

"Yeah… I have to agree with you…" Geordo said as glanced at everyone in the room, seeing the several expressions within the room.

"Hmph, then I guess you should prepare yourselves, as there were things hidden from you." The previously exiled villainess personality said as she crossed her arms.

"But what would Katarina-sama hide from us?" Mary asked, everyone was also clueless as no one answered. It seemed so illogical for her to hide things that may seem so grave or important.

"Don't worry, the answers you want will be shown on the screen." The chairman said, and the screen turned white for a moment.

"Ahh!" They covered their eyes as it was too bright for them to handle. It died down shortly after though the screen started playing.

A petal fell into the glistening running river stream. It was taken away along the stream shortly after. Then a sign of someone's shop was shown. And after that, a carriage was seen going up the bridge. The screen focused on the turning wheels of the carriage, and words appeared, "My Next Life as a Villainess" it said.

"Huh?" They were puzzled by the text shown,

"Okay, who tampered with the screen and made up a title?" Asked the chairman, eyeing every other Katarina, only to see the normal one chuckling to herself. "Seriously?"

"What?" The normal one whined, "They are watching it, so why not let them watch it as if they were watching an anime!"

Every member of the current council of Bakarinas had different reactions. From the awkward smiles given to sighs. "Well, I commend you for making the title as short as possible." The aggressive one jokingly said.

As for the other company with them, they had no idea what they were talking about, but they couldn't help but feel confused by the title shown to them.

'Villainess? Why would she see herself as a villainess?' This question ran through their heads as Katarina was far from being a villainess. In their eyes, she was an innocent and oblivious angel, a pure being, not tainted by the world in the slightest.

'And "My next life"... what does she mean by that?' For all they know it could have just been a phase or something. Reincarnation was not a thing right? Nevertheless, they already had several questions while watching the opening seconds of this memory.

Katarina was shown, yet her eyes hidden. Light illuminated some parts of the carriage, while the rest were slightly dim. 'The time has finally come.' She spoke in her mind.

"The time has come?" Maria repeated, "What does she mean by that?"

"Yeah, and why is she hinting so grimly at it?" Mary asked as well, everyone glanced at the council, to which the council averted their eyes as they didn't want to answer that yet.

Another shot of the carriage from a different angle was shown, this time it's from an alleyway. 'Here at this magic academy is where the game begins…' Then the shaking lamp hanging outside the carriage was shown.

"Game?" Geordo was now the one to comment, "What is she talking about here?"

"This seems to be no normal game…" Nicol uttered, everyone now playing close attention to detail to her thoughts as the memory continued to play. Concern and worry are what filled their minds as they watched on.

Keith was then shown, he glanced at everything they passed by as he observed through the window. 'And where I, Katarina Claes, meet my doom.'

"Her doom!?" Everyone shot up from their seats as they heard the line, abruptly pausing the memory.

"Insolence!" The villainess yelled in response, "Could you not react to every single moment and let it play out so that you may be enlightened!?"

"As much as I hate this, I have to agree with her." The aggressive one snorted, "Besides, if you keep asking questions after the other, you wouldn't get the answer to either of those."

"But with this short amount of time through her memories…! She doesn't sound like our usual Katarina-sama!" Sophia refuted,

"What does she mean by her doom!?" Alan and Geordo added fuel to the fire, making the unrest even more great.

"Is someone plotting to assassinate her!?" Mary gasped at the thought as it entered her mind, uttering out loud as it made the fire even greater.

"Order!" The chairman slammed her navel down. "Order I say!" Her voice echoed throughout the room, silence returned as it died down.

"Now, for the answers that you want, just please be patient and wait for the answers to be revealed to you." She sighed, much to their stubbornness, they finally relented, but thoughts continued to dwell in their minds to what type of "Doom" Katarina is facing.

The camera swooped down from the top of the carriage, and then showed the academy where they studied at.

'But…' She narrated as she took a step, "I won't let that happen." She said aloud, the breeze carried her hair with the current.

"Bring it on if you dare, doom flag." She said with determination. "I'll take you on!"

"Doom flag?" Keith repeated, "That's an odd term…"

"But it seems she's determined to change what was already prepared before her." Nicol uttered out, proving a point as it did seem Katarina was willing to fight all odds.

"But we still don't know the context of this entire… story?" Maria said, all radical and irrational thinking were now thrown out the window,

"But what is the meaning of all of this?" Geordo said as he glanced at the Bakarina council once more, and they pouted, looking away from him as they didn't want to answer anything. "Right…", 'If I had to court these five it would be a handful…' He thought to himself, 'Then again, I'm thankful that I'm only dealing with one…'

Then from the sky, the kingdom was shown, with the text "Capital of the Kingdom of Sorcier", and shortly after the royal palace was shown.

"No!" A child's voice was heard, screaming in annoyance.

"I hate this!" Katarina was shown, complaining. For some time the screen emphasized on her wide and shiny forehead.

"What…?" Everyone was taken aback by Katarina's tone.

"Why is the ribbon blue!?" She complained as she kicked up and down as she sat on the chair provided for her. Maids surrounded her as they were dressing her up. "Change it this instant!" She demanded the maids as they halted anything that they were doing.

They were not expecting such a reaction from Katarina. Baffled and surprised by the current circumstances shown.

"Are we sure this is Katarina-sama…?" Sophia asked, as this was nothing like their Katarina now.

A collective yep and yups were what she got from the council, making them even more confused in the process.

"But Nee-san would not react like that…" Keith pointed out, seeing this side of his sister was something he didn't expect to see that he had goosebumps.

Geordo had sweat on his forehead as he remembers this vividly. As such, everyone's eyes turned towards him.

"You remember this, don't you?" Mary was the first one to accuse him.

"I do…" Geordo replied, turning his eyes away from them.

"Could you-"

"Just continue watching." Said the studious one.

"But if we just remember all of these then-" Alan got cut off by the studious Katarina.

"Let me remind you again, that yes, you may share the memory, but that doesn't mean you know what is going on with her." She pointed out, "Now just continue watching."

"B-But you chose this ribbon yourself…" One of the maids reasoned with her. She turned her head away from the maid as she wasn't taking any of it.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" She yelled in response, "I'm in the mood for a pink one right now!" Anne was shown, sighing at this exchange as the maid's efforts seemed futile against Katarina.

"W-We don't have any others ready." The maid attempted one more time to reason with her but to no avail.

"Ugh! You people are useless!" She ranted like a brat, flailing her arms up and down and continuing to kick her feet, "You're all fired!" She crossed her arms as she glared at every maid around her.

"Wow… I wasn't expecting Katarina-sama to be so…"

"Spoiled?" Alan gave the word.

"Yeah…" Maria said, rather timid with the idea of saying it but, everyone agreed with her, it isn't looking so good for Katarina so far.

"It's more of a personality shock to be honest… I mean, after all, Katarina-sama was so kind hearted and sometimes dense." Sophia commented, making the council have an awkward aura among them.

Shortly after, everyone heard the door open to which they diverted their attention towards it. "Ah, my adorable Katarina!" Greeted her father who entered the room.

"Father!" She took a 180 turn from her demeanor before as she happily greeted her father as she went up to him and hugged him.

She then took a glance behind her father, and she saw Geordo walking towards them.

"This is Geordo Stuart, the third prince of the kingdom." Her father introduced him, "Go on, introduce yourself." he told her.

"As I expected, my first appearance in her story huh?" Geordo had a smirk on his face, as if he was asserting his dominance with his relationship with Katarina and the rest.

"That doesn't mean Katarina-sama is all yours!" Mary wanted to yell, but she just kept it to herself.

"But I am Nee-san's brother, so your relationship with her is a step below mine." Keith said, making Geordo try his best to keep his smile on, even though annoyed.

'They're at it again…' Some of the Bakarina council members with enough brain cells thought, as the others just gave an awkward chuckle.

There was a faint blush on Katarina's face, for a second she was hesitant, but then she greeted Geordo like a noblewoman would. "How do you do?" She started, "I am Katarina Claes."

"It's an honor to meet you, Katarina-sama." Light from the windows shined at him, giving him this majestic feel. "I am Geordo Stuart." He introduced himself, and Katarina's eyes sparkled as she stared at him, clearly captivated by him.

The screen showed the garden, various flowers present among them. "Our gardener takes meticulous care of these flowers." Geordo said. "What kind of flowers do you like, Katarina-sama?" He asked her, glancing at her, only to find that she was clinging on to him with her head leaning on his shoulder.

To everyone who was witnessing this, they were understandably jealous of Geordo having such a moment with Katarina. The one who had the flames of murder though was Mary as she wanted that moment between her and Katarina, and no one else. As for Geordo, he could definitely feel the heat of flames and the knives that were being thrown at him.

"Want to make a bet she'll murder him-"

"I'm sure she wouldn't do such a thing…" Shrugged off normal Katarina to the aggressive one.

Instead of giving an ordinary answer, she gave a slight mewl as she was clearly delighted with her current circumstances. "U-Um…" Geordo felt slightly awkward with his situation.

"My feet hurt." she said, hoping to cling more onto him, "I can't keep walking on my own. Maybe I've developed blisters…" she added.

"Wow, she sounded so flirty for once…" Alan commented, not expecting to see the day that she would be this type of person.

"Yeah, considering Nee-san, she is not that knowledgeable with the ways of love…" Keith added, which made them sigh once more. They all stared at the probable causes for her personality.

"Oh don't blame it on us!" Yelled the aggressive one as they averted their attentions away back to the screen.

"In that case, you should return to your room." Geordo told her.

"As long as I do this, I'm alright!" She replied.

Alan was seen walking by them at the side of the garden. They glanced at each other for a second before Alan scoffed at them and walked away.

"What's his problem?" Katarina said, still looking at Alan, her arms were firmly on her waist. "How rude!"

To this, Alan felt something pierced him, hurting his ego in the process. Geordo just patted his back just to comfort his brother, all the while everyone felt sorry for the man.

"That was my younger brother, Alan." Geordo replied.

"Oh!" Katarina was surprised, "But he doesn't look the slightest bit like you!"

"Most people say that." He replied once more. Noticing that Katarina was no longer clinging onto him, he continued walking. "Your feet seem to be all right now, Katarina-sama."

"Please wait!" Katarina said as she tried to catch up with him, "Geordo-sama!" She said, before she tripped on an uproot tile. Geordo looked back at her as he saw her fall, he tried to react fast but it was too late.

From Katarina's perspective, the screen showed what she was seeing as she fell head first onto the floor.

"Katarina-sama!" Everyone jumped off their seats, concerned with what was about to happen.

Except for one person though, that being Geordo as he remembered this specific memory.

As she made contact with the floor however, it seemed like it broke into shards of glass, and nothing but white greeted her shortly after. Her vision then went through a distorted tunnel, nothing made sense out of it as it went in all kinds of directions. Up and down, side to side.

"..." Everyone was stunned and silenced by what was revealed to them, even Geordo's brain didn't process what in the world was happening.

"What in the…" Keith was trying to make a sense of things, but his mind essentially crashed in the process.

"...Are we sure that this is still a part of…?" Sophia uttered, only to see the whole Bakarina council nodding.

"And this is where I've been unlawfully thrown out…" Sighed the villainess personality.

"Thrown out…?" Geordo repeated, "What do you mean-"

"Just keep your nonsense to yourself, and continue watching."

As it continued through the tunnel, light greeted them again. And once again, they got flashbanged.

A child was shown crying as someone was carrying them.

Shortly after, the family of the child was shown as well. The mother was carrying the child, and the father was doting on the child, along with two boys who were the child's brothers.

'What's happening?' Katarina asked herself as she saw this scene. 'Who are these people?'

"Such odd clothing…" Mary commented as they all observed the scene.

"Are they all perhaps lower nobles?" Nicol asked,

"No, they're just regular citizens." The studious Katarina replied.

"Huh, they looked as if they were from a higher standing…" Keith uttered, "And how did you know that?"

Silence was what he got from them.

"That aside," Sophia said, "Who are those people?" She asked, wondering why they were being shown.

And once again, silence is what they get from them.

Then a forest was shown, and a girl with a backpack rushed towards a tree. Said girl was now climbing the tree shortly after. 'This view looks familiar… What is this monkey doing?'

'Familiar…?' Everyone thought.

Then a barking dog was shown, said dog was then shown chasing after a girl whose eyes were not shown.

'Ah, I can't stand dogs.' Katarina said, 'For some reason, they used to bark at me every morning.' She added before realizing what she had just said, 'Wait, why do I know that?'

As this vision progressed, they were fueled up with confusion and were puzzled as to why even these things are shown.

Then the scene changed once more, showing a person in a dimly lit room, nothing to light them with but a television screen.

'Where am I? Is this a closet? Or perhaps a doghouse?' Younger Katarina thought as the screen started focusing on the person shown.

'No… I know what this is.'

The screen then went to the person's perspective, and the text fortune lover was shown on the tv screen. 'It's… my room!' Katarina claimed.

"Her room…?" Everyone uttered, stunned with Katarina's claim.

"What connection does it have to Katarina-sama…?"

Various questions were thrown around the room as they were puzzled, knowing full well that this wasn't her room at all. The council remained silent as the questions lingered between themselves, opting to let the viewing answer their questions.

'And this is…!' She paused as the screen of the tv turned off, and revealed the reflection of Katarina's face. 'Me!?' Shocked by the revelation, the entire sequence ended as the screen turned black.

"Are you all right, Katarina-sama?!"

"Katarina! Katarina!

Different voices were heard, screaming out of worry for Katarina. Shortly after, the screen lit up once more, showing Katarina in her current state as she was spaced out because of the vision she saw. Blood stained her forehead and trailed off down her face, separated streaks formed by the bridge of her nose.

"Are you all right, Katarina-sama?"

"Can you hear me?"

"Call a doctor!"

They continued to cry in worry as Katarina was still unresponsive.

'That was… me?' She thought as the whole commotion was still going on before her.

Now it was shown who the people were, among them were Geordo, Anne, and Katarina's father, Luigi Claes.

"Katarina, if you can hear me, please answer!"

'I hit the fast track to becoming an otaku in middle school. In highschool, I got hooked on otome games, and after playing one all night, I was running late for school, so I rushed out into the street…' She monologue as she tried to piece out the information she witnessed.

"What in the world did she just say?" Alan furrowed his brows as he was frustrated that he didn't understand a single bit of information given.

"Why does Katarina-sama speak as if she's experienced this before…?" Maria uttered out,

"Now that you mention it, it's as if she just told somebody else's story…" Sophia added.

"But with her wordings, it doesn't seem like it was somebody's story…" Geordo said, "... It's as if she was telling her story…" Now this made everyone wonder had Katarina gone through a fever dream, or is reincarnation really real.

Out of realization, she shot right up, her eyes trembled out of shock, terrified with what had happened with her life.

'I died at the age of seventeen!' She screamed, 'That wasn't a dream! They were my memories from my previous life!' Slowly after the blood rush and the shock, her body fell limp once more as it collapsed back onto the floor.

"Eh…?" Hearing the words 'I' and 'died' come out from Katarina's thoughts was something that took time for them to comprehend, and once it did, well… "EH!?"

"H-How tragic…"

"How awful…"

"That's besides the point!" Alan yelled at the council once more, "You claim that you lived a previous life!?"

"Of course we do!"

"Then how would you explain the memories we remembered!?"

"Y-Yeah, after all, how do you think we knew those memories…"

Both the studious and aggressive personalities barked back at him, all the while Timid Katarina just twiddled with her fingers.

"I-If that was true…then…!"

"Yes, we did die at the age of seventeen." The normal personality answered Mary's question as she hit her own head with her knuckles, showing her tongue out.

"That is not something to be lighthearted about!" Everyone yelled at her.

"I-I was just trying to lift everyone's spirits from the revelation." She sniffled in response as she scaled herself down, backing and facing into the wall.

"S-So everything so far is true…?" Sophia asked, and every council member nodded.

"That doesn't explain the notebook though!" Geordo pointed out, rather in an irrational way.

"How about having some ounce of patience, and the screen will also reveal that to you." Growled Villainess Katarina.

"Katarina-sama!"

The memories then sped up once more, skipping the parts where Katarina was treated, and returned back to her mansion. The memories stopped a few days after the incident. The screen then showed the Claes Mansion from the front.

"How are you feeling?" Cutting to Geordo, he asked her.

"I feel much better. My fever has gone down." She replied, and on her wide ass forehead was the bandage to cover up her injury. Currently she is adorned in her nightgown, as she sat up on her bed.

"Fever?" Nicol uttered out, "How did that incident result in a fever?" He stared at the council, to which the council sighed,

"To be honest, we don't know either." Sighed the chairman.

"For all we could know, maybe our body is that fragile." The studious personality sighed as well.

"The more you know I guess…" Sophia said with a worried smile on her face.

"Oh, good…" Geordo stood up from his chair. Anne was now in view as well as she accompanied both of them.

"I'm so sorry I caused an injury to your face." Bowing before her, he apologized as he felt he was the one responsible for the incident.

"No, no!" Katarina fired back, she didn't want him to feel indebted to her. "I'm the one who should apologize!"

"I've caused everyone such worry." She said, stunning both Geordo and Anne. She wasn't this polite.

"Besides," She started again, this time ripping the bandaid off her forehead, "this is just a scratch. It's nothing to worry about." She claimed, showing just how fine she was.

"Ah." Every single friend of hers muttered, knowing Katarina, she would've done this too. Wait…

"Why does she seem like she's the Katarina-sama we all know?" Maria asked,

"Yeah, her usual aura seems to be in the memory now…" Alan uttered.

"So it's true that you were the cause of her personality changing to the one we know." Keith said.

"Haven't we made ourselves clear with that?"

Geordo and Anne's jaws dropped, terrified and worried at what she did. "B-But even if it doesn't bother you, the rest of high society won't feel the same." He reasoned with her.

"It might even hurt your chances of getting married."

"R-Right…"

Geordo then continued on but Katarina didn't pay any mind to it.

"I was thinking, and I believe you, and I should get engaged." She zoned him out as she monologued to herself once more. She faced the other way as she wasn't interested at all with what he was saying.

'High society, huh? Being nobility seems like a lot more trouble than it's worth.'

"I couldn't help but agree with her." Mary sighed, "After all, the rules and etiquette we have to follow are just draining." she expanded, to which the rest just sweat dropped with the exemption of Nicol.

"But wait," Nicol started once more, "aren't you a noble from your previous life?"

"Now that you've mentioned it, aren't their clothes odd to be a noble?" Keith asked,

"Well, not to break anyone's spirits or anything, but the concept of nobility in our previous life was technically nonexistent anymore."

"What!?"

"Yeah, and there's no magic in our previous world."

"No magic!?"

"Then how do the people live!?"

"How does society work!?"

Various questions were thrown at the council, but of course they couldn't answer it at all if they were thrown another question in the middle of answering.

"Order!" The navel came down once more, "We'll answer your questions in an orderly manner, so let's be civilized about this." They piped down, and order came back once more.

"Good, first of all… We kinda forgot our lessons in history."

"Hmph, well looks like I'll be the one to explain." Studious Katarina continued on what Happy Katarina was supposed to explain. "You see, the concept was outdated, and the people just dumped the concept out."

"And how does society work without magic? Simple. We improved our technology so that we could improve our lives." She said, while the council clapped for her, since they were the braincells that hosted none of the knowledge, all the while she felt smug about it.

"So what you are saying, your world is more advanced than ours?" Geordo asked, to which they nodded.

"Well, to be honest, the nobles were the ones who held back any development in society, so once we got rid of them, we advanced through the ages." She shrugged.

Now as for how they took the information, well they had various thoughts about it. But if it worked for Katarina's previous world so well, how bad could it possibly be? Good thing they don't know the complicated process that transition took.

"Of course, I will respect your wishes, as well."

'Compared to that, I had a lot of freedom in my previous life.'

"You are not paying attention to any of this, are you-"

"Yeah we were not paying attention to any of this." The council admitted,

'Uh-huh.' Everyone thought.

"Would that be all right with you, Katarina-sama?" She then went back to reality as Geordo was finished with his proposition.

"Uh… Yes!" She answered without thinking.

"And you gave that answer without thinking?" Mary asked them,

"Yes we did."

Hearing this, it shot through Geordo like a bullet, while the others tried to hold in much of their giggles, but a few came out.

"Looks like Nee-san is still in need of protection, since-"

"I am engaged with her as she is my fiance." Keeping his calm, although there was a hint of irritation in Geordo's voice.

The council just sighed at the result of their actions. And now this was the fruit of that.

"Tell me your side about this, Katarina." Dropping the '-sama' to show that they were on equal footing now, Geordo asked her in order to confirm that this was far beyond a verbal exchange.

"Ehehe~" The Katarina council just sweat dropped at the question and proceeded to remain silent, further damaging Geordo's ego and such.

Seeing this, he solidified his determination to be the man that would be rightfully by Katarina's side. 'I'm not giving up!'

Geordo then was preparing to walk out of the door, with Anne and a butler seeing him off, "In that case, I shall return to present myself formally on another day." He said before heading out, while Katarina was waving him goodbye.

"Present himself?" She muttered to herself, thinking what could have been the implications of that.

"Katarina-sama! Congratulations!" Congratulating her, Anne rushed towards Katarina, Holding her arms out of joy.

"Huh? For what?" Confused, she didn't get anything at all as she was busy with her own mind earlier.

"For what!? Your engagement to Geordo-sama, of course!" Anne replied with much joy.

Much to Katarina's shock and dismay however… "What!?"

"You were preoccupied to even hear that Geordo was proposing to you." Sophia giggled as she found it rather comedic, alongside everyone else, well except for the one who proposed.

"It isn't our fault that we had to comment about the nobility's lifestyle!" They fired back as the cast continued to giggle.

"Still though, without the course of events, who knows what could've happened." Alan said, to which the council looked down even more. "What happened to your mood?" He noticed the sudden change.

"Nothing…" The council simply answered,

'There's something clearly wrong…' They thought, and as for Geordo, another bullet had struck him as this unfolded.

'Is she unsatisfied that she was engaged to me…?' He thought to himself.

"We've already been informed. Congratulations!" Her mother, Milidiana Claes, congratulated her, and probably the last congratulations she'd receive from her.

"I expected nothing less from my adorable Katarina!" Her father joined in, proud that their daughter was now the fiance of the third prince of the kingdom.

"Uh, Geordo-sama simply felt responsible for my injury…" She reasoned out, not wanting to deal with this sooner.

"Indeed!"

"We must celebrate tonight!" They completely ignored her say on the matter and went on with the good news.

"Yes, let's!"

"We'll have to throw an engagement party, too!"

"Oh that's a great idea!"

"I-I'm still not feeling very well, so I'll be going now…" She excused herself out.

"You can clearly see the mood that it should be celebrated, yet you opted to rest?" Nicol asked them,

"Yeah, we weren't feeling well after that whole 'Past Life' thing as it caused our entire being to be shaken and reformed." The council sighed,

"Then again, we couldn't even comprehend things anymore at that stage." The studious personality said, to which the cast were confused with this.

"Picture it more like being hazy after a long rest." She said to have a clearer image in their heads, and a clearer image did come in their heads.

"I see." Nicol said, "Thank you for answering."

Shortly after, the memory cuts to where Katarina flopped down on her bed. "What should I do?" She asked herself as she laid on her bed.

"Master Geordo is wonderful, but I can't feel romantically attracted to an eight-year-old." She said, as she was not the type to be a shotacon, or any of the others. She crawled towards one of her drawers, picking up a mirror to look at her face.

'I'm a seventeen-year-old otaku chick on the inside, after all.' She pointed out,

Realizing that Katarina had seventeen years more worth of experience than them, they realize as to why Katarina seemed to ignore their several moves. At first they thought she was just dense, but the fact that she is supposedly seventeen years older may have a bigger impact on it.

"Y-You do give a fair point, Nee-san…" Keith said as he sweat dropped,

"But that was past that Katarina-sama~!" Mary said, still seeing that she could possibly make her fall for her. "You are eighteen in this current life~" She continued to sing her song,

"But doesn't that make her… Thirty five as of now…?" Alan said to which the cast realized that at first, they all fell for a twenty two year old woman when they first met her. While Maria fell for Katarina when Katarina was supposedly thirty two.

"Let's forget about that fact, shall we?" Said the aggressive one, with a rather menacing aura as she offered up some sweets. "Don't worry, they aren't poisoned." She said, clearly pissed at the fact they were essentially rubbing it off to her that she was old.

"W-What did I do to you!?" Alan yelled back at the Katarina before him who was trying to shove a cookie down his throat. Not long after though, thanks to their control over some aspects of the space, they sprinkled some sort of amnesia to forget that one fine detail on the sweets they made everyone eat.

Thus they forgot about that, and the viewing continued.

'Being part of high society is depressing enough, but being engaged to a prince?' She sighed as she felt unsatisfied with her new life of being a noble, not being able to live a simple life like the one she had before.

'Come to think of it, there was a similar story in an otome game I played.' She recalled, 'Prince Geordo was black-hearted and sadistic, but he had a gorgeous smile.' She commented, recalling the personality info he had in the game.

Geordo was slack jawed at the given description of him. How in the world did someone make that up? Did someone hate him that much!?

"Otome game?" Sophia asked the council, "What's that?"

"Well, in layman's terms, Otome games are basically novels where you see the story through the eyes of the protagonist, and you pick on how the story would go." Studios Katarina said.

Such detail excited Sophia, lighting up a small fire in her desire for novels. And hearing that you could essentially pick however the story goes is something that intrigued her.

"But why does it have Geordo-sama described like that?" Maria asked as she was confused. Geordo was far from the personality that was described by Katarina on screen.

"Well, you see that was the reason we knew you all beforehand…" Normal Katarina spilled it out, scratching the back of her head.

"Eh…?"

'The evil rich girl he was engaged to blamed him for a wound on her forehead, so she kept him confined…' She seemed so at peace at the moment as she recounted every detail she remembered from fortune lover.

And as she did recount all the information thus far, she realized what she was saying. 'Wait… Prince Geordo?' Her eyes opened from the realization.

A book was then shown from past memory, with a chibi Maria on the side, and Katarina's face on the other with text such as describing their profiles and what not.

'That villainess did have a name…' The screen focused on Katarina's page, mainly on her name.

"KATARINA CLAES!?" She yelled, starling the chatting maids outside of her room.

"EHHHH!?"

"Hold on, are you saying that you are also a part of this Otome game you talked about!?" Alan asked the council,

"Yeah, we are…"

"B-But why being the Villainess, Nee-san…?" Keith asked them,

"Well, it was how the story was made, the main plot if you will."

"I-If you're not the protagonist… Then who-" Sophia got cut off,

"We'll leave it to the memories to answer your question." They simply said to which the screen started playing once more.

Her hand then shakily went up to her sweaty forehead, 'That… That can't be…' Worry filled her entire being as the realization she was reincarnated into the otome she played all night long hits her.

Then the very same black notebook was shown. Her hand snatched it open as she began to write every detail about Fortune Lover she could write down.

'It's too soon to conclude that this is the world of that otome game!' She told herself to calm herself down, 'I have to remember everything!'

Then with flashy transitions, the screen showed the opening screen of Fortune Lover.

'Fortune Lover, an otome game set in a magic academy in a certain nation, it's all about fostering romantic relationships with the characters.' She introduced the game,

'The heroine, Maria, is a commoner who possesses light magic.' Sakura petals blowing with the wind, Maria's hair too was waving with it as she was shown,

'She enters the magic academy at age fifteen, and there, she meets four love interests.' The camera panned up from Maria in front of the gate of the academy, then showing the academy itself.

"I-I'm the heroine?" Maria asked, to which she got a collective nod from the council.

"But what do you mean she meets four love interests?" Mary asked, not knowing the four men with them are the same exact love interests she had.

"W-We'll leave that question up to you…" The timid personality said, to which Mary and the rest were once more left in the dark as they speculated amongst themselves.

'But I only have one person in mind…' Maria thought to herself, no one else that she has met ever rocked her heart to the point she fell in love with them. Of course it was Katarina Claes that she fell for, but Katarina was just dense enough to not even notice.

Then Geordo's character was shown, along with his name, 'The first is Geordo Stuart, the third prince of the kingdom.'

"If I'm by your side, I'll never know boredom as long as I live." On screen Geordo said. If they weren't well acquainted, they would surely fall for him with his voice line.

"How did they know what I sound like?" Geordo asked,

"Yeah, it's rather uncanny to know that somehow another world knows what you sound like…" Alan commented,

Then Alan was shown in the same manner as Geordo.

'The second is Geordo's younger twin brother, Alan Stuart.'

"I-It's not like I was looking for you or anything, okay?" He said in a stereotypical tsundere way. "I just happened to be passing by."

Everyone just giggled, knowing Alan's antics sometimes, the other world was definitely spot on with Alan. And with that, he was currently blushing red, well, not that much, just from embarrassment.

'The third is Katarina's adopted brother, Keith Claes.'

"Pretty young miss, would you like to play with me?" He said in the most un-Keith-like way possible.

Keith turned white and became stiff as he heard his counterpart. Everyone held in their giggles and chuckles as Keith remained motionless.

"I didn't know you were that type of person Keith." Mary said teasingly to Keith.

"I-I am not!" Keith fired back, his face was red as an apple,

Seeing the brother being so flustered, Geordo was having a hard time controlling himself from bursting into laughter.

'The fourth is the son of the premier, Nicol Ascart.'

"You have such fantastic ideas."

"Looks like Nii-sama is still Nii-sama in that story." Sophia commented, delighted to see her brother still being himself. Nicol just gave a smile at his sister's words.

'And then there's…' Katarina stopped momentarily as the screen showed someone approaching Maria, 'Katarina Claes. She's Geordo's fiance, and the villainess.' She said as on screen Katarina was shown with a sinister and villainess-like face.

"I am still puzzled as to why Nee-san has to be the villainess of this story though…" Keith said,

"Yeah, why was Katarina-sama deemed as the antagonist?" Sophia asked, in her mind, Katarina was the purest thing you could possibly think of. She could be a saint for all they know.

"Even so, you told us that we could determine how the story goes right?" Alan asked the council, to which the council was now sweating once more. "What are you worried about?" He deadpanned.

"W-Well you see…"

"You can only affect how the story goes depending on certain decisions you make.."

"For example, if we went ahead to meet with Geordo and be with him, there is already a story that is waiting to be unlocked for that." The studious one took the charge from the timid one and the normal one.

"Simply put, it is a set of doors you have to go through, and each door leads to a different room." She said to further clarify her point.

"Ah." Everyone collectively realized how it works now.

"Then if things are already predetermined, how does the story go?" Maria asked them, to which the council felt lightning struck them.

"W-Well, it either goes between a good or bad ending… For you at least…" The last bit given was not at all reassuring.

"For me?" Maria pointed to herself, to make sure, to which the council nodded.

"But what about Nee-san…?" Keith asked them, to which the council remained silent, letting the memories play again.

'Looks like you'll know what kind of fate is in store for us if we hadn't changed how things were progressing.' The five council members didn't dare to face them at all.

All the while, the villainess was clearly enjoying the revelation. Did she want to see them drown in guilt for not telling, or for manipulating the story, or did she really just want to see all of this purely out of entertainment? She was the only one to know as she continued to be the observer.

'And the fate she meets if you go with Geordo's route…' She paused for a bit before she continued,

Everyone remained quiet, their ears perked up as they anticipated what was going to happen in Geordo's story with Maria.

'In the happy ending, after tormenting the heroine with bullying that bordered on crime, Katarina is stripped of her rank and exiled.' She said as a series of events was shown. From the bullying, to the court trial, to Katarina's exile. 'After that, the heroine is happily engaged to Geordo' "You won't get away from this!" on screen Katarina yelled.

'In the bad ending…'

'Katarina attacks Maria with a knife, only to be killed by Geordo instead and dies.' Once again, the screen showed Katarina pulling a knife on Maria, then to Geordo slashing and opening her with his rapier, with blood spilled out from her.

'Having murdered his own fiance, Geordo breaks up with the heroine and leaves the country.' She ended with a scene showing Katarina's grave in the background with Maria trying to reach out to Geordo as he leaves.

Everyone's jaws dropped at what they heard at full. Katarina, THEIR Katarina-sama, either killed or exiled. Their heads were an inch away from being separated from their shoulders as this was an outrageous claim, a depressing one at that.

"E-Exile…?" Sophia started to tear up at the thought of Katarina leaving them all behind, her heart became heavy as the burden of the thought was too heavy. What more if it was actually a reality?

"O-Or killed…?" Keith's eyes were shaking, his nerves shook as his fingers fidgeted at the thought. With the imagery shown to them, the scene was engraved in his mind. 'N-No, that's not possible…' He thought to himself, images of Katarina laying down on the floor with blood coming out of her wound flooded Keith's mind further. 'That's not possible…!' He internally screamed as his grip became tighter.

At first, Mary was holding it well, but tears then started to leak out, yet she didn't cry. She was too shocked to even cry.

"Katarina-sama…Dead…?" Her eyes were hidden by the shadows formed by her hair, tears trickled down her face.

Alan's eyes remained wide and his jaws open. He couldn't believe what he heard and saw. He DIDN'T believe it at all.

'G-Geordo…? Killing Katarina…?' He saw it as impossible to happen. Even if the word was destroyed and made anew, there was just simply no way Katarina would end up dead, or exiled. She was an important part of their lives after all. 'She IS.' He corrected himself.

"..." Nicol's eyes were wide and his jaws slightly hung down. Even though his emotions were not that obvious, he felt like a part of him had been torn down hearing the words "Katarina" and "Killed" in the same sentence.

'No.' He escaped from his trance, 'That cannot happen.' he firmly told himself as he gathered his composure once more.

Geordo was terrified with what he heard. 'I-I killed…Katarina…?' His thought process was nearly broken, on the brink of insanity as the scene too was stuck in his mind. Voices of Katarina then started haunting his mind, the possible things she could've said to that alternate Geordo now started to flood into his mind.

From her pleas, to her last words, he couldn't shake it off his head. Not shortly after though, things got even worse.

"I couldn't possibly do that against my fiancee!" He lost it, he shot up from his seat as he defended himself. His entire form was stiff yet shaky, as if a breeze could easily make him fall. His legs shook at the mere thought.

"Even if I die several times over, I wouldn't have done that to Katarina!" He continued to yell, panting, palms sweaty, knees weak, mom-

This broke everyone out of their trances as Geordo continued to defend himself.

"C-Calm down, Geordo-sama…" Maria pleaded as she tried to calm him down.

"Yeah, besides, this is just someone else's sick story!" Alan yelled in anger as he pointed out to Geordo that none of this was real. It was all fiction.

Geordo took a look at his state, and seeing how he was faring, he regathered his composure, fixing his posture.

"Ahem, sorry for my violent reaction." He said, still sweating from his fit of anger.

"Hmph, now you get it now." Villainess Katarina said, "See what would happen to me, if you fell for the commoner?" She asked Geordo, staring him down with his eyes still shaking.

Everyone could sense the heat and tension between the Villainess and them. This was only broken once she was once again put in her place by the council.

"Let me go this instant!" Yelled the currently restrained villainess, "I shall not forgive this act of-" they commedically threw her into another room just to have their peace once more.

"Now that she's gone for now, I'm sure you all have questions about… that…, yes?" The chairman asked them rather calmly

Everyone nodded up and down, eager to have an explanation on why such a cruel story was made for Katarina. Even Maria, the main heroine, was disregarding her fantasy story as Katarina was more important. None of them gave a damn about what happened to themselves as they only were concerned about how Katarina's story goes.

"Well you see, that was only Geordo's path, but for the sake of simplicity, the story boils down into two endings for us." Sighed the chairman, "It's either we get killed, or we get exiled. And to be fair, exile is a much better fate instead of being killed." She said, gaining the agreement of the rest of the council.

"T-Then-!" Sophia choked on her words as she realized what had transpired for them to be still here with them.

"Yup! We changed the story!" Normal Katarina said as she had her own little celebration.

"T-Then at what point-"

"Hold it up right there," Aggressive Katarina cut Geordo off, "that's why you're here, you are going to watch our experiences on avoiding these doom flags."

"You keep referring to them as doom flags…" They all collectively said, downplaying them, the term sounds rather childish than it should be.

'All the other routes are basically the same!' Her hand trembled as the notebook was again shown, the only page not covered with her trembling hand was a page with the text "Katarina Dead or Exiled" written on it.

'Exiled in the happy ending and killed in the bad!?' Worry and terror was clearly written on her face as she realized what she was heading towards to.

'How are either of those "happy"!? Bad endings only!?'

"I have to find out for sure!" She once again yelled, and once again startled the maids outside.

A stack of books was placed on a table, then Katarina was shown reaching for another. 'It can't be… It can't be true!' She tried to deny the possibility as she didn't want to die again at the age of 17.

'The more I look into this, though, the more it seems to be.' She was then shown asking the maids about certain topics.

Then she made a checklist on the notebook, from Geordo's twin brother, to magical attributes, all matching the game's descriptions as well.

'This is the world of Fortune Lover!' She finally concluded, her fears slowly becoming a reality.

From above, Katarina was shown sitting by the table, stacks of books scattered throughout the field of vision as she was there, trembling with the information of her current circumstances.

"I'm on the path to doom!" She raised her head, facing the ceiling as she shouted, and once more the title was shown.

Then the opening sequence started playing as music was heard playing, the opening screen of Fortune Lover was shown.

"What the…"

"Why is there music…?" Keith asked them,

"Looks like someone wants this to be like watching an anime." Every other member stared down at the culprit, which was Normal Katarina.

"Ehehe~ I just want to remember what it feels like!" She said, all the while some parts of the council were also in agreement. To be fair, they hadn't seen anime for a while now since reincarnation and the fact they were in a fantasy world at that.

Then it immediately cutted to Katarina's villainess expression. Then the characters were shown one by one, Geordo, Keith, Mary, Alan, Sophia, Nicol, and Maria. All in the order how Katarina met them formally.

"I'm a puzzle that's not easily solved, spinning round and round you can see!" Katarina was shown, holding her hoe as she marched in place with cartoonish backgrounds of the forest and crops she grows.

"Nee-san does give a point…" Keith commented,

"Yeah, she often is unpredictable." Alan sighed, with the rest agreeing with him.

" I can quickly change to something new! Someone I wish to be!" She was then shown walking through the hall swinging her toy snakes, shortly after she was mortified to see her mother once again ready to reprimand her.

"When you feel like you are in love, life can become sour or sweet!" She was shown climbing a tree then macaroons were shown. "And though I may make mistakes sometimes! Please go easy on me!" She was shown eating sweets, only to feel her stomach full shortly after.

The screen then swirled along, showing a bunch of tea cups after. In the middle spinning teacup was Katarina and Maria, eye to eye with one another.

"Lovely twirling all round~! Here's the next part now~!"

As the distinguished piano notes were played, the Katarina council was shown in a lightly suspenseful manner, facing the screen simultaneously. Then a red curtain opens with Katarina and Geordo preparing for a dance.

She swung him across the screen, and with smooth transitions, the screen showed the current versions of themselves. He tried to kiss her but she fell as the lyrics started once more.

"Just a little more imagination that will lead you away!" Then Katarina and Keith were shown from childhood to their current selves with Katarina riding on Keith's back.

"A maiden's path, not simple as that! It opens other ways!" Then Alan was shown competing once more with Katarina from the tree top. She goes down, and Alan was shown catching Katarina with a faint blush on his face as he looked away from her.

"Welcoming a lucky dream to show up, and wake me up real soon!" The screen rapidly played from Mary with Katarina in the garden, Nicol and to Sophia where they were reading a book, and lastly Maria where she served her cake. "So no matter what, I know I'll make it through~!"

Then A-chan was shown holding a book as she sang the next line, "I will keep on running around all over, so everyone likes me~!" Then a bunch of flags popped up,

"Who was that?" Maria asked,

"I don't know…" Sophia said, "But she seems so familiar…" she added, pushing her own mind to remember that person,

'Familiar?' Everyone thought to themselves, they didn't expect Sophia to even recognize the girl that they haven't even met.

"Always being beautiful, smart and graceful all the time, will ensure my victory~!" Then Raphael Walt was shown, giving them an innocent smile.

Then by the sunset, A-chan and Katarina were shown holding hands, "Welcoming a happy future for me, and pray there is no doom~!" Their hands firmly held one another, then it fades to Katarina with her hair being blown by the wind as she faces the screen once more.

"So no matter what, I know I'll make it through~!" She then bowed along with her friends as the opening ended.

"Well… That was interesting I guess…" Geordo commented,

"Yet still, some of the music was rather odd, and yet it did clearly define how Katarina-sama usually is." Mary sighed,

"Yeah, but it also told her determination to fight her fate." Keith added.

All the while they kept on discussing the introduction, Normal Katarina was smug that her fondling with the memory and adding an opening was not merely for entertainment value. The rest of the council however was still slightly disappointed with her meddling.

A gavel came down to the wood as the sound of the impact echoed throughout the room. Then it showed the same exact room they were currently in right now with five Katarinas.

Text with "Meeting Inside Katarina's Mind" Was shown above the Katarinas while the Katarina with the white mustache spoke.

"Huh, so you're featured in this as well, huh?" Maria said,

"Well of course." Said the aggressive one, with pride at that, "We are a part of her thoughts, so now you're going to see how it works around here." She said, so smug about it.

"We will now commence the first meeting to discuss our strategy for avoiding the doom ending." She said, "Does anyone have a good idea?" Then her title was shown, 'Chairman Katarina'.

"I do!" Yelled another Katarina.

"Go ahead, Katarina Claes-san."

The said Katarina's title was now shown, 'Fearless Katarina' aka 'Aggressive Katarina'.

"We should not get engaged to Geordo!" She proposed.

Again, Geordo felt something pierced his heart, blood came out of his mouth, all the while everyone gave an awkward smile, well except for Mary and Keith.

"W-We didn't mean that we didn't… you know…" Timid Katarina tried to explain, but her innocent and timid nature was obstructing her.

'K-Kawaii!' Everyone thought in their heads as they saw this image of an innocently flustered angel before them, it was enough for the scene to gain light.

Then another Katarina was shown, 'Spineless Katarina'.

"B-But it was Geordo who proposed the engagement." She said, rubbing her fingers together, "Can we really do that to him?"

"Good point…"

"So let's just not go to the magic academy!" Happy Katarina told them after the former got shut down.

Then studious Katarina took the spotlight, "It is the duty of all who possess magic to attend the magic academy." She pointed out,

"Looks like you're the only one actually capable of reason…" Alan glanced at Studious Katarina,

"Well, if you look at it that way, it is more of a must than an option." She reasoned out, "Besides, what would benefit us if we didn't learn anything, hm?" she looked at the others, which in turn turned their gazes away from her.

"Take a look." She said as the screen came down, showing an even younger version of Katarina. "Katarina manifested her earth magic at the age of five." She said, only for the screen to show a small earth bump after casting her magic.

"There it is! The Earth Bump!" Happy Katarina excitedly said, "That was the first time we managed to make a bump in the earth!"

"..." The cast didn't know how to respond, they could fake that they're impressed, yes, but it would definitely hurt them more than Katarina thanks to their consciousness for her.

"You don't need to be impressed, we too were disappointed when we remembered that." Sighed the aggressive one, gaining nods from every council member except for the normal one.

"A-At Least we know magic!" She reasoned out,

"That isn't enough, considering the efficiency, the practicality and the power of our magic, it is simply useless." The studious personality shot her down, and basically killed her entire mood completely.

"We really have to go to school to learn about wimpy magic like that!?"

"Wouldn't it be best to simply just not bully Maria?" Offered the studious one as it seemed to be the most simple solution possible.

"B-But…" The timid one butt in, " Isn't there a chance we could still be blamed as the evil mastermind?"

"What do you mean?" Asked the studious one who was seated right next to her.

"Geordo is a black-hearted prince who wears the mask of an angel." She reasoned, all the while looking so defenseless. "Isn't it possible he might vilify us in order to end up with Maria?"

"Oh, no!" The studious one realized the possibility.

"I would do no such thing!" Geordo refuted, he simply couldn't do that to anyone, especially if it were Katarina.

"Calm down, calm down, you haven't done that, and we believe you." Chairman Katarina said,

"Yeah! Besides, if you did, do you think we're still here today?" Normal Katarina said, unknowingly however, she made them reflect about what would happen if she was gone, or dead.

Seeing the results of her one simple statement, she took everything back and said, "Ehehe? Why don't we continue watching shall we?"

"So what should we do then!?" Whined the normal one.

"Please calm down, everyone."

"I have a great idea!" The aggressive one stood up in excitement for her plan, "We'll brush up our swordsmanship in case we're ever about to be killed! And we should boost our magical power, too."

"If we can use magic well enough, we won't have trouble finding work even if we're exiled!" She ended, all the while the others seemed impressed by this.

"Then are we all in agreement that we should improve our sword and magic skills?" asked the chairman.

"No objections!" They all chanted as a response.

Then the scene went to a wooden training dummy, all the while struck by a wooden sword by Katarina.

"I see, so that's why you kept training with your sword everyday, Nee-san." Keith commented, 'No wonder Nee-san kept training…'

"Well, it was better to be safe than sorry right?" Mary said, making the council wholeheartedly agree with her.

Sophia was about to refute, but she remembered that there were several times that Katarina's life was in danger.

"Hm? Do you have something to say, Sophia?" Nicol asked her,

"No, it's nothing, Nii-sama." She shook her head, 'Then again, it's Katarina-sama we're talking about here…' She thought as Katarina filled her head, from her innocent nature, that of cluelessness and density.

"She's been acting strange since she got injured." Said the maid as she saw Katarina training her skills with the sword.

"But the doctor said everything was fine and normal…" Said the other, worried by the sudden changes that had happened.

Then the screen panned down revealing Katarina underneath the covers of a tree, studying with a stack of books next to her.

"To boost one's magical power, it is essential to converse with the source of one's magic, huh?" She read aloud, shortly after she got an idea. "That's it!" She exclaimed.

Then Anne was shown, observing Katarina starting her own field. Worried and awkward about the situation she couldn't comprehend. "Katarina-sama, what are you doing?" She asked as she did not have a clue as to why Katarina is even doing field work all of a sudden.

"I'm conversing with the earth to boost my magical power!" She responded so innocently as she thought she was doing it right. "What better way to converse with the earth than by farming, right?"

"Farming is how we talk to the earth." A memory of her grandmother saying that suddenly was shown.

'Ah…' They looked so blank after finding out the reason as to why she farmed.

"W-We're right, right?" Normal Katarina asked as she saw the expressions they had,

"Not in a million years." They all unanimously said, making the council look so defeated and embarrassed. Their pride essentially shattered, so shattered in fact that they didn't bother asking what was the correct way to 'converse' with their element.

'Thank you for teaching me just the lesson I needed, grandma!' She thought as she had cartoonish teary eyes, all the while thanking her for the knowledge she didn't expect to use now. It's not useless when developing magic right?

"I have no idea what you are talking about, " Anne responded with a straight face, "and I have a feeling you are fundamentally mistaken…" she added.

"Definitely…" Everyone sighed, their faces were still blank as ever.

The council just sniffled as more salt was added to their already exposed wound.

Then she remembered the important part she needed to report to Katarina. Katarina was broken from her trance as Anne told her that Geordo was coming to see her.

And speaking of the devil himself, he came to her with her mother and his entourage, they witnessed her in her farming attire. Much to their reaction, her mother was undoubtedly pissed, Geordo didn't expect her to be in such an attire, the maid that was with them and his entourage were too caught off guard with Katarina's outfit.

The glare her mother had was enough to kill her soul several times over.

This sent shivers down each member's spine as they were familiar with it every time they saw it. Everyone just held back their giggles as this scene was nothing like earlier.

"You know, it relieves me that we see Nee-san when she's with mother." Keith commented, giggling slightly,

"Hey!" Every member yelled at him,

"Katarina…sama?" Geordo uttered as he was still questioning why Katarina is in said outfit.

All the while Katarina knew she had done it again. Worried about the outcome of the events playing before her.

But luckily for her it was not the time for her to get reprimanded as her mother fainted, the maid catching the lady before she fell to the ground.

"Madam!"

"Good day, Katarina-sama." Geordo greeted her as he ignored his soon-to-be mother-in-law fainting behind him. "May I ask what you're doing?"

'Geordo is the black-hearted, sadistic prince.' She thought before giving a response, 'His cheerful expression looks like the devil's smile…'

"You wound my heart, Katarina-sama." Geordo dramatically said.

The timid one was trying to scramble for answers, while the rest just dodged the move entirely. Seeing this, he went over to the timid one, head patting her,

"Sorry, I was just teasing you." He said, "Besides, I understand that you were in a new world, with your own understanding on how things would go." he smiled.

Timid Katarina grew bright red and steam came out of her ears, embarrassment filled her entire being, frying her own brain cells in the process.

'She really is like a soft female protagonist…' Every other council member thought, well out of all of them, she was the softest.

"Good day, Master Geordo." She greeted back, "I'm communing with the earth in order to train my magic." She answered.

"Huh?" Confused by the answer as he didn't think that this was the correct way to converse with one's source of magic.

"I felt that starting a farm would be the best way to do that." She reasoned.

"Communing… with the earth?" He uttered as the camera angle changed, making him look more menacing as his eyes were hidden by the shadows of his hair. "Starting a… farm?"

Katarina was taken aback as Geordo was shook, 'Oh no! Did I make him mad!?' She asked herself as she was now worried with how things were developing,

Soon after though, the menacing aura was gone as Geordo finally responded. "I see!" He said with a cheery look on his face. "That's a new and unique way to train!"

'Oh, good! He's not mad!' She faced away from him as she monologued to herself, 'I thought I was about to be exiled!' She wiped off sweat from her forehead.

He then proceeded to kneel before her, "Katarina-sama…" He started, "I've come to present myself to you formally." Looking ever so charming before her.

"Will you accept my proposal of marriage?" He asked as he gave his hand to her.

"Oh." Katarina turned around to face him, "Yes." She replied, giving her hand to him as well, rather unknowingly, that she set herself up.

And with that, Geordo placed a kiss on her hand, the scene looked like it came from a children's fantasy book, with the scenery and the lighting effects of the scene.

'Crap! Now I've done it!' She finally realized that she had sealed her path towards her own doom.

'Mhm.' Everyone thought,

"W-Well, we were too focused with our thoughts okay!" They defended themselves.

Of course as a normal response to this, the whole house and the staff congratulated her official engagement to Geordo. Then came at night time, and Katarina was sitting by one of the balconies, all by herself.

'A wound on my forehead and an engagement to the prince…' She recounted everything that had happened thus far, evaluating her current standing as she contemplated. 'This is turning out just like the game did.'

"But it didn't, right?" Keith objected, afterall, she didn't meet her doom,

The council just silently nodded as they didn't want to complicate things further.

'Looking at it now… Our actual chances of meeting our doom is low…' They contemplated, seeing their current situation with their friends, everything seemed so distant from the doom they were worried about.

"But, going back to the supposed story," Mary opened up the topic once more, "How did Katarina-sama's relationship with everyone go?" She asked, yes sure they know the ending, but they didn't know the things before the ending.

"Well, it's best we continue watching our memories first, then we'll explain things later." Chairman Katarina said, but in reality, every council member had one thought in their minds, 'S-Should we even tell them?'

Knowing her faith in each route conceivable, she either lives in another country in exile, or she dies young once more. 'But I don't want to die young again…' she said to herself, wanting to experience a full lifetime rather than less of a quarter of it.

'I'm going to live out my life this time!' She said in determination.

"Katarina." Out of nowhere, her father called for her.

She turned around to see her father, but to her shock, it was not only her father, but in the shadows of the room, she could vaguely make out who it was. Stepping into the light of the night, it was revealed that it was Keith's turn to enter the story.

"Looks like this is my debut in your life Nee-san." He said with a smile, albeit, a smile that could be easily broken in a matter of seconds.

"But why do you seem so…Ominous?" Sophia asked him, seeing that the Keith on screen was truly different from the Keith she knows.

"Now that you mention it, he does seem like a different person here." Alan pointed out, and with this,

Keith let out a long sigh as he remembered his thoughts during this time. 'Looks like I have to see my pitiful self.' Keith, for the lack of a better term, was disappointed in himself. Not disappointed in an embarrassing way, but that of pity. Looking back at it now, it was merely the monsters of his mind that consumed him.

'Then again, Nee-san was the one to bring back the light.' He smiled at the thought of her smiling face that time, while she held the axe that she used to break down the door.

"This is Keith." He introduced him, "He's going to be your brother from now on."

"I-It's nice to meet you." He greeted her, rather shy at first.

Instead of being happy, Katarina was terrified and worried at the current developments of her life. One after the other these doom flags just kept appearing. 'And there's the second doom flag!'

"Why's Keith- Oh… Nevermind." Mary remembered that Maria had four love interests in the game, and of course, Keith was one of them.

"W-What kind of fate awaited you here…Katarina-sama?" Maria asked nervously, worry slowly drowned her entire being.

"Remember what we said earlier?" Chairman Katarina answered, in turn it did make them remember.

'E-Exile or d-death…' They thought grimly, especially Keith and Maria since the pair felt responsible for the main story Katarina's demise or decline in high society.

It bore heavy on them, a part of them couldn't afford to overlook the possible scenario. Speaking of possible scenarios…

"H-How does Nee-san die i-in my route..?" He asked the council, fear and distraught was what dominated his heart. He wanted to know, yet the pain was crawling all over him.

"I-" Timid Katarina took the lead to answer, but her pitiful self couldn't bear to tell him as it also pained her. Then again, they would know at some point in the viewing, so they were better off telling it now.

"I-It's worse than Geordo's…" She said, not bearing to look at them as she looked down on her hands as she twiddled with her fingers, some sweat formed and trickled down her head.

As they heard this, they gulped as they braced themselves for the possible truth and scenario on how things would've gone.

"W-We successfully hurt Maria…P-Placing a deep wound in her…" Maria couldn't help but widen her eyes with the revelation she heard, but that was only a part of it, "B-But Keith then used his magic t-to protect Maria, but it led to us being killed…!" She finished as she retreated once more to the comforts of her chair as she hid her face from them.

"..." Everyone remained silent as they didn't know what to say after that. Sure that Katarina did hurt Maria, but they couldn't help but merge their Katarina with the other. They would afford any injury just to keep Katarina alive.

Then again, this Katarina did hurt Maria. The weighing scales within their minds were about to break, but in the end, it didn't. They could only feel pity for that version of Katarina's relationship with their alternate selves.

The memory then went back to the notebook, Katarina opening it to the page where Keith's details were.

"Keith Claes. A distant relative of the Claes family who had a very lonely upbringing. Because he was the son of a mistress, he was bullied by his siblings. Even after the Claes family took him in, Katarina bullied him, so he spent most of his time locked up in his room." She narrated the course of events in the game.

"As if to bury the loneliness of childhood, Keith grew into a frivolous playboy who fooled around with many girls." She continued as now Keith was shown with a harem of girls clung onto him.

After that grim revelation sunk in their minds, never to see the light of day again, comedy and bliss filled the room once more. With a steaming Keith with a bright blush on his face, and the chuckling of their friends around him.

"I-I-I-" Keith stuttered as he tried to explain himself, but to no avail. Sounding more like a broken tape than anything else.

"Looks like that broke Keith." Sophia giggled as she saw his comedic efforts to defend himself.

"But after meeting Maria, his loneliness is soothed and he falls in love for real." She said as Keith and Maria were shown staring into each other's eyes lovingly.

"And when Katarina intervenes, she's exiled or killed by magic!"

Once more, the gavel came down announcing another meeting in session.

"As of right now, everything's progressing like how the game did!" The aggressive one pointed out.

"What's more, Keith is family." The studious one joined in, "There's no telling when he might kill us."

"I-I wouldn't do such a thing to Nee-san!" Just like Geordo, Keith was now the one defending himself from the claims of his dear sister.

"Well, that proves to be true now, but then you were just like the original Keith at the start before the story ever took place." Studious Katarina said, "Based on our history, many people, especially from the nobility, would go to such lengths to keep their power and or their riches."

"Wow, I never knew that!" Normal Katarina exclaimed,

"Well, I was the only one who paid attention to our classes back then…" The only thing left to do for the Studious personality is that she'd raise a sign with her name on it, with her supposed trait.

"But enough of that, you don't need to defend yourself now Keith," She went on, "Besides, you're not the lonely Keith anymore." she flashed a smile to him, to which Keith was taken aback.

He saw through the usually opaque lenses of her glasses, seeing her eyes like that of sapphire, glistening as he stared into them.

'Nee-san… is so adorable…' He said, as he possibly developed a new liking towards his sister having glasses.

"Seeing things how they are, how did you resolve that problem?" Maria asked, to which the council felt a force so great that it made them stumble onto the floor.

"W-Well…" Chairman Katarina tried to get back on her seat, not wanting to remember the first plan they proposed to resolve the issue, "C-Continue watching…"

"Now that it's come to this, we have to take action while we still can."

"You don't mean…"

"B-But we can't…"

An uproar from the studious, timid and the chairman came as they were faced with a possible decision to choose to deal with the threat to their lives.

"For our own sake, we have to!" Closing her hands into fists, the aggressive one was determined with her plan for this.

"We have to put him in a box and dump him under a bridge!" All tense and seriousness faded as this was suggested.

"Eh?" Everyone had a blank expression, expecting a genuine solution.

The Katarina council was essentially rolling on the floor, cringing at what they've said. Begging that they would at least forget this one.

"I see…" Keith said as he stared off into the abyss.

"W-We didn't mean it Keith!" The timid personality apologized, trying to shake off their blank and dead expressions on their faces.

"I guess Nee-san didn't really want me…" He said as light shone down upon him, and he walked towards it. Every council member tried their best for Keith to stay put in his place.

"Don't go for it Keith!"

"We're sorry!"

"We can't do something so cruel!"

"I don't wanna do that either!"

Several of the other members of the Bakarina council replied as they clearly didn't have to go that far.

"Wait a moment." Said the studious one.

"We just have to ensure that Keith is not lonely." She said, "If he isn't lonely, he won't fall in love with the game's heroine, and doom will not befall Katarina."

This time, the whole council was delighted with the idea, and this doesn't include abandoning him in the dust.

"B-But how do we do that?" Asked the timid one.

"Well, shouldn't we just give him lots of attention?" The studious one replied.

"That's a brilliant idea!"

"I always wanted a little brother!"

"You do?" Alan asked them, to which they rigorously nodded,

"We only had older siblings back in my previous life!"

"Yeah! They'd always dote on us!"

They began recounting to them the memories they had with their previous life, as if it was a family reunion conversation. As they heard this however, they couldn't help but feel remorse for Katarina's loss in her previous life.

Both aggressive one and normal one were overjoyed with the idea of pampering Keith with all the attention they could give.

"Then, are we all in agreement that we must lavish Keith with attention?"

"No objections!" The rest of the council replied.

And shortly after the plan was enacted. The door opened revealing Katarina. "Keith!" She called.

Keith was not expecting a sudden visit from his adoptive sister as he gasped and turned around to face her.

"Since it's such a nice day, I'll show you the garden!" She said to him,

"Thank you, Katarina-sama." He replied, shy and timid with Katarina as he still feared the worst to happen.

"Katarina-sama?" Maria repeated, confused as to why Keith would address her that way,

"W-Well…" Keith started playing with his fingers as he couldn't exactly tell the reason. Looking back at it, it was kind of embarrassing to even tell.

"We're brother and sister now." Katarina pointed out, "You can call me 'Nee-san'." She added.

"B-But wouldn't that be rude?" He asked her, still uncomfortable with the prospect.

"It's always been my dream to be called 'Nee-san'!" She exclaimed in joy, "Please, I insist you call me that!"

"Hai… Nee-san." Keith was still worried as he still thought that this was a rather shaky and delicate relationship he shouldn't dare challenge nor break.

The memory immediately went to where Katarina was showing around her garden, walking him around the field she was tending.

"These are eggplants, and those are tomatoes." She told him as they passed by each patch.

"Are you the one who tends this garden?" He asked her, seeing that she knew most of the plants in it.

"Yes." She said as she glanced at him. "I'll let you taste some fresh produce sometime. It's delicious!"

"Katarina-sama seems to care for the garden as if it were her child." Sophia commented, 'Then again, it's one of the aspects of Katarina-sama that I love.' She lightly giggled,

"We thought we were training our magic so we took good care of it." They looked so down after the comment.

"I-I didn't mean to hurt your feelings Katarina-sama!" Sophia stuttered out.

Keith did not expect such an energetic member of the family, especially now she was giving him the proper attention he needed. Then again his worries were still there, he had a new shot with family and he did not want to waste it.

Scene then showed the glistening water as its current ran through the river, shortly after, their reflections were seen on the water.

"There are fish in here, you can even go fishing." She said to him as they looked into the riverstream.

"Really?" He asked, "You fish?"

"Yeah! We can fish together sometime!" She promised him, she grabbed his hand and this made him blush. The sis-con was born. "Now I'll show you my favorite place!" She said as she pointed towards it and she pulled him along with her.

They ran through the trees as they made their way to the place Katarina mentioned.

"Here it is!" She said as they stood before a rather large tree. "The view from the top of this tree is the best!"

"Of course it's the tree." Alan sighed, "Wait don't tell me-"

"Yep, we'll see that again, Alan." The aggressive personality smirked at him, to which he was ready to roll on the floor, remembering his childish acts back then.

"What do you mean, Katarina-sama?" Mary asked,

"You shall see soon."

"What?" Now what he heard was just something a noble wouldn't generally do, so of course he was confused. "You climb trees?"

"I do!" She replied to him, "Have you ever climbed a tree?" To which he shook his head as a response.

"Then I'll teach you how!" She said, sounding like a responsible older sister, yet not responsible enough. "Watch me!"

She then proceeded to climb the tree, making significant progress. 'I was a tree-climbing expert in my previous life.' She said to herself, rather happy about it. 'Everyone called me a wild monkey.'

"Hey Ke-" She suddenly fell as her grip as a new person was not the same as before in her previous life. Ergo, she fell on top of Keith.

"Ow…" She uttered, only then to realize that she had landed on her own brother. "Keith!?" She yelled out of worry as he was face-first on the dirt.

She then held him for dear life, as he was there still unconscious in her arms. "No!" She yelled on the top of her lungs. "Don't die!"

Tears then started forming on her eyes as she shook him to wake him up. She failed to notice that he had already woken up, but she still shook him either way.

"I finally got such a cute little brother! I can't believe I killed you with my butt!" Tears then began running from eyes as she stopped shaking him for dear life.

"Why do I feel like I heard that last line from before…?" Sophia muttered to herself, still puzzled by the feeling of Deja vu.

'There's no possible way a person could die like that…' Everyone else thought.

"K-Katarina-Nee-san!" Keith responded as he caused her so much worry.

"Thank goodness, Keith!" She said as she hugged him tightly.

The memory then showed Geordo having tea with Katarina, visiting his fiancé.

"I was surprised when I heard you fell from a tree." He said to her, "I'm glad you're alright."

"Hai…" Katarina responded. "I'm usually pretty good at climbing, but I got carried away and fell."

"I-I see…" He replied, as this was the first time he encountered someone from the nobility doing things that seemed to be out of line. He began chuckling from the tale.

"And I landed on Keith, so my mother was terribly angry with me."

In Geordo's mind however, the image he had of her parents was that of sweet and kind hearted. "Now that you mention it, your parents have seemed more affectionate than before."

"Welcome, Geordo-sama!" They greeted him.

"Yes… Well, some things happened." Katarina replied.

"Mother mistakenly thought that Keith was Father's illegitimate son." A memory of her mother dragging her along with her out of the mansion, all the while her father was in the background kneeling on both knees reaching out to them was shown.

"Since the misunderstanding was cleared up, they've been very loving." She ended as now it was shown they were staring at each other's eyes with love and passion. All the while, in the background, Katarina was smug as hell, all the while Keith had no clue what's going on.

"We're a perfectly happy family now."

"That's good to hear."

"I didn't know that had happened…" Keith said, surprised by the information,

"Well, there were things left best unknown." Studious Katarina said, with the rest of the council agreeing to her.

"Then again, it was a funny incident." Said the normal personality.

'I don't think that's supposed to be funny, Katarina-sama/Nee-san…'

Then the memory went to Keith helping Katarina with her sword training. They were making their way back into the mansion.

"You helped me make a lot of progress with sword training. Thanks, Keith." She thanked him, and Keith was satisfied with this.

"Mm." He nodded in response.

"And my farm's coming along great!" She exclaimed, "This should give my magic a big boost!" feeling the progress pave the way towards her salvation. In reality the farm did absolutely nothing to her magic, but hey, at least she knows how to farm now.

"Magic?"

"Oh yeah, you also have earth magic right?" She asked him,

"Huh?" Keith was not expecting her to ask this, "Y-Yeah…" His face was painted with a hint of pain at the thought of his magic.

"Hey, would you show me what you can do with your magic?" She asked him again, wanting to see what he could do with her own eyes. "I'd like to learn from it!"

"B-But…"

"Just a little bit! Please?"

"W-Well if it's just a little…"

Then the screen showed a little earth doll, given a life of its own and was able to move.

"That's amazing!" Katarina was delighted to see his magic in action.

"When I pour magic into a dirt doll, I can make it move how I want it to." He explained as the earth doll danced before them.

"Can you move a bigger doll?" Once more curiosity filled her as she wanted to see and learn more.

"Well, yeah…"

Then it struck Katarina like lightning, a new thought made its way into her mind.

'Using dirt dolls would eliminate labor costs! Even if I'm exiled, I could make a fortune!'

"Now that you said about it, it does bring the potential…" Geordo thought as he could see the potentials of this magic,

"But wouldn't some workers be left jobless if you were to implement this?" Maria pointed out,

Geordo was about to make a stand, but he evaluated what she said and what he said, "Good point…"

"Show me, Keith! Please!" Her eyes sparkled as he stared into them.

At first he was not doing it, but that was then, and he agreed.

Then a large dirt doll's foot stomped onto the ground. It was probably three or four stories tall.

"That's amazing!" Katarina praised as she looked up at the large doll. She then gave him more compliments as she was bewildered by the magic before her. She ran towards it, with no regard for safety whatsoever.

"Watch out!" Keith warned her, "Don't get close to it!"

But then, one of its limbs had hit her and the screen went blank. All that was left was a yell, "Nee-san!"

"Natural Katarina-sama…" They all said, knowing her full well that she'd head straight into danger head first.

"I-It was just out of curiosity okay!?" The aggressive one defended themselves,

From Katarina's perspective, she had woken up once more. In her vision, she saw both her parents. As soon as her eyes were open, both of them yelled her name in relief.

"Thank goodness! We were so worried!" Said her father as he had a teary eye once more.

"F-Father…"

"How do you feel?" Her mother asked. "The doctor said you were all right, but still…"

"Yes, I feel fine." She replied as she sat up. She then glanced at both her parents, and saw no one else. "Wait, what about Keith?"

"He's fine." Her mother replied.

"Oh… Thank goodness."

"Katarina, about Keith…" Her father then proceeded to start the topic, "He has very strong magic, but he doesn't have full control over it yet." He explained.

"So he had promised us that he wouldn't use his magic for no reason. He once injured his brothers by letting his magic get out of control. He knows very well how dreadful his magic can be, so we were very surprised to hear that he had used it." He paused for a moment.

"Keith said that it was all his fault, so he'll accept any punishment."

"Oh dear…"

"Oh, poor Keith…" Everyone showed sympathy and pity towards Keith, then again, Keith waves his hands,

"Don't worry everyone, I've passed on from all that." He said with a sincere smile on his face, but there was a little part of him that still felt pain for what his former family did to him. A handful only felt his worries.

Hearing all this, Katarina couldn't help but feel guilty for all of this. "No! It was my fault" She defended him, as it was true that she was the one responsible, feeling bad that her brother had to carry this burden because of her.

"I talked him into using his magic!" She continued, "He even warned me not to get close, but I didn't listen and ran up to his doll anyway!" She gripped the sheets of her bed tighter as the guilt filled her further.

"Katarina…" Her father uttered.

"I have to apologize." She immediately discarded the sheet as she stood up. She dashed her way to the door and into the hall.

"Katarina!" Her mother tried to stop her but it was not effective.

She ran through the hall, trying to find where Keith's room was. "Keith!"

Everyone saw how Katarina was compassionate towards Keith, the same compassion she has for everyone else. But other than that, Nicol was reminded of Sophia and himself. With how Sophia was persecuted due to her being an albino, he always would comfort his sister as to lift her spirits up.

Nicol slightly smiled at the scene as he felt warmth once more from Katarina's charms. 'I'm thankful we're friends with you.' He thought.

Keith on the other hand couldn't believe his sister. 'Even after I hurt her…' He heard his past thoughts, his chest tightened as remorse, regret, and self loathing started to flame up once more.

The the screen showed Anne and a butler standing outside of a room, she stopped and Anne took notice and glanced at her,

"Katarina-sama, I see you've awakened." Anne greeted her, Katarina still gasping for air after she ran.

"Yes… Where's Keith?" She asked, panting still.

"Well, he took the spare key and locked himself in his room." Anne told her.

"What?!"

She then began knocking as loud as she could, trying to reach out to Keith to open the door.

"It's me, Keith!" She yelled along with her knocking, "I need to talk to you! Could you open the door, please?"

And then a simple answer came from the other side of the door, "I'm sorry. I can't do that."

"Why not?" She asked, she stopped knocking, and worried about what could possibly happen next.

"I can't be close to you anymore." He said as he was now shown, nothing but black and gray thanks to the room's darkness.

"Huh? Why were you being so hard on yourself?" Sophia asked, not knowing that Keith was slightly shaking.

Once everyone's attention finally diverted their attention to Keith, they saw his trembling form.

"I-I…" Keith stuttered, he didn't want to remember such pain, but it swelled within him once more.

"I felt responsible for hurting Nee-san, because I was too weak…!" He yelled in response, his hatred for himself embedded in his words.

"I was too weak to control my magic…" He added as a single tear rolled down his face. His fists clench harder than before.

Everyone was stunned at the sudden outburst, not expecting to hear such things coming from Keith.

'This is going to end up the same as the game!' She thought, "No, Keith!" She began knocking once more, trying to make an effort to at least break Keith's shell.

"Open the door!" She yelled, but it fell into deaf ears. Keith had his back against the door as he was huddling himself.

"Keith! Keith!" Katarina cried out, but Keith just hid his face.

Then a nest of birds was shown, someone else's memories were being shown. Keith was shown observing the birds, only to see a rock hit one of the nearby branches.

"Hey wait a minute, how did that get in there?"

"Who tampered with the screen?"

As the council debated amongst themselves, Keith didn't want to witness this again. What already was in his heart grew tenfold as he was being reminded of such a scene.

"Look! A bird!" One of his brothers yelled.

"Move it!" The other said as he shoved him aside and they began harassing the birds with rocks.

"Take that!"

"Fall!"

"Are they…" Maria asked, only to be immediately answered by a nod.

Everyone watched in bewilderment. Sure, Katarina didn't act like a noble most of the time, but this was the exact opposite of what Katarina does.

They continued to do so, yelling things in the hope of hitting the nest, and Keith was watching it all until he had enough.

"S-Stop!" He yelled at them, only for the ground to burst shortly after.

As the dust settled, he saw the injured forms of his brothers, some blood caked the side of Keith's cheek. He was terrified with the incident.

"Y-You're a monster…"

"Monster."

"How frightening…"

Various voices were heard, from threats to warnings about Keith as he was covered by his family's shadows and that he could do nothing about it.

'This is how it should be.' He thought to himself, 'If I'm alone, I can't hurt anyone. I can live without hurting the people I care about.' The screen then faded black.

Everyone can't help but be saddened for Keith. They never knew Keith that long other than Katarina, and now realizing the things he had gone through, they couldn't help but sympathize with him.

Keith himself was holding back his tears from the previous pain, yet held his ground.

"Keith!" This broke all of his thoughts away, "If you're near the door, get away from it!" She told him.

"Wait! Katarina-sama!?" Anne's worried voice was heard as Keith stood up from the door, "What are you going to do!?"

"Now what in the world is she trying to do?" Alan asked, knowing her, she would probably do something unprecedented.

Hearing this however, Keith's mood started to change. 'Right… Nee-san didn't treat me like that…' He thought, light returning to his world, 'Nee-san really treated me like her own brother…!' He broke from the shackles of the past once more.

"You really wouldn't want to know…" Keith scratched the back of his head, remembering the events that followed this incident.

"Either way, it will be shown…" The chairman awkwardly uttered,

"You'd better move, too, Anne! This'll be dangerous!"

Out of nowhere, an axe came down onto the door, revealing light from the small gaps created by it.

"Goodness me!" Sophia was taken aback by the sudden action, not expecting that drastic measures would be used for this.

"If he hadn't moved, he could have gotten his arm off!" Alan reprimanded the council, to which the council was slightly terrified with his yelling.

The rest of them, with the exception of Keith, had their souls barely in check as they were about to slip away from their mouths. Overthinking the possible consequences of the scene, it was not making them fare any better with their current condition.

Keith was taken aback by the sudden action as he stumbled down onto the floor.

Several more slashes came, light coming from each of the holes created, as if it were lights of salvation. After so many hits, the door finally broke down.

Katarina stepped in, still wielding the axe she used.

"Sorry!" She said as she got on all fours, kneeling before him.

"Huh?" Keith was confused, "Why are you apologizing? It was my fault" He reasoned, still insisting he's the one to blame.

"What are you talking about!? It was my fault!"Katarina argued, "I talked you into doing it!"

"You're not afraid of me?" He asked her, for him, everyone else seemed to be wary and afraid of him, and Katarina was an anomaly to all of that.

"Huh?"

"At my other house, I hurt my brothers. I could hurt you next!" He said, his form shook as tears formed, scared of the possibility of that ever happening. "I always hurt people with my magic!"

"Of course I'm not afraid." Katarina assured him as she held him, she grabbed his hand and pulled it closer to her, "You just need to start training so you can control it. Let's work hard together, okay?"

"You'll… stay with me?" In disbelief, he asked as he didn't hope to see the day someone would be by his side.

"Of course!" Katarina replied with a smile, "We'll always be together, Keith!"

"Don't worry Keith, we'll always be with you too." Maria sincerely said to him, with everyone also approving that they'll be with him.

"Thank you, everyone." He said with a smile that's brighter than Katarina's forehead.

'Hey! We heard that!'

As he heard this, he couldn't hold it any longer and the dam broke. He cried his heart out as he felt a large weight was removed from his shoulders. "Thank you, Nee-san…" He thanked her as he cried.

"Katarina!" An angry yell broke the moment between the two as their mother was revealed standing outside of the broken door, with a worried Anne. Katarina's expression was priceless.

"Mother!" She turned around to face her mother, "I can explain!"

"I don't need to hear excuses! Come to my room right now!"

"I'm sorry mother!"

And seeing the antics between mother and daughter, and with the new found home he had, Keith smiled for the first time since he ever got into the Claes Family.

Everyone had a good laugh at the end, afterall, Katarina was involved in the entire thing, so it would be lighthearted in every situation possible, and making it comedic in the process.

"Now that you have your good laughs, do you wish to take a break from watching our memories?" The chairman asked them, only to be interrupted by a loud banging noise.

"Let me out of here you heathens!" Remembering the fact that Villainess Katarina existed, the door was being furiously knocked on, it was a wonder it was still holding up.

"A~ny ways, do you wish to take a break before we watch the continuation?" She continued to ask, ignoring the loud knocking.

"Well, we would like to process some of the information, so gladly." Geordo said, to which every nodded along.

"Alright then, just say the word, and we'll resume." The chairman said as the council dismissed themselves from the room.

"Hey, uh…" Alan paused for a second, "Where are you going?"

"Oh, to our own rooms." They replied,

"Wait, you have your own rooms?" Keith asked them,

"We do control the space after all."

"If you wish we could make you your own rooms to rest in."

"That would be lovely." Mary said, 'But I want to share a room with the five of you!' She was clearly having other agendas in her mind.

Then suddenly, doors appeared on the side of the space, one for each of them.

"There you go, take your leave and rest, we still have a long way ahead of us after all." Studious Katarina said, and the council finally dismissed themselves to their own room, leaving their friends in the main hall.

It was just the beginning for their viewing of their friend's rather comedic, and lighthearted life, all the while she dodged every possible doom flag that could befall doom upon her.