(POV: Rae Taylor)

"Rae, it's very unlike you to sleep in. Please get up."

I awoke to such a lovely voice, and an equally lovelier sight. Those concerned sapphire eyes and that messy blonde hair are one of my reasons to get up every day. "Miss Claire?"

"Usually you are the one already awake and already have breakfast ready for us and the girls. Is everything alright?"

"MISS CLAIRE!" I was so happy I could barely contain myself. I immediately went to hug my wife. "I missed you so much!"

Claire looked at me with a confused gaze. "It's only been a few hours. Did you have a bad dream? If I had known, I would have woken you up much earlier. It's past noon after all." She stood up after returning my hug.

It's been only a few hours? It's past noon? That's definitely odd. I wonder if it had something to do with that dream… Well, I can only assume it was a dream…

I stood up to apologize once more, and to give Claire a kiss for helping me wake up, but the second I got on my feet…

"Rae!" Claire ran to my side as I collapsed on the floor. I collapsed? I started noticing how weak I felt in general. I also felt drained, like I just spent a day walking. I embraced Claire as she helped me to my feet. "What's going on with you today?"

Claire adjusted our embrace so she could support my weight as we made our way out of the bedroom and into the living room. Since it was past noon, I understood why the house felt a bit empty. Claire helped me into a chair and looked at me with a very worrisome expression. I love that she's so concerned about me.

"It hurts to see you like this. Did we overdo it last night? Maybe we might have to tone it down a bit if it's going to put you in this position."

"Nonono, this definitely has nothing to do with what we did last night. I worry that it might have something to do with my dream."

"How could a dream leave you so exhausted to the point of extreme weakness?"

Good question. First I had better explain a few things. "Miss Claire, you know how in my past life I had that book of prophecies?"

"Is this one of the occurrences you read about? You should have told me before so I could have prepared better!"

"Miss Claire, I would have told you. I would have had the exact date of this too. But this wasn't in the book. My dream was about… another book."

I explained this to Claire in almost vivid detail. She was still confused to how this dream could have drained me and kept me asleep for so long, but there was definitely something about that boy, Sirius Dieke. If you asked me, the name alone makes him sound like an antagonist, but to my limited knowledge of Fortune Lover, he had little to no presence.

"That's the only possible explanation you can think of? If it's a dream of another possible world, maybe your conscience just had you travel there temporarily. That would possibly explain how you feel so drained, but that's just a guess with only the basis of you being a wandering spirit." I guess that could make sense. I still have no idea how I got to this world in the first place.

"Well, hopefully it doesn't happen again. I don't want to go to another world without you, Miss Claire." I smiled weakly.

"It better not, we just made a life for ourselves after all. We also just recently got married, so you better not run off to another country without me, much less another world." Claire gave me a kiss on the cheek and faced towards the kitchen. "Let me get you something to eat. Don't get up out of that chair."

This is wrong. I should be the one pampering her! Damn otherworldly conscience travel.

"Mother Rae! Are you feeling any better?" May and Aleah ran up to me, looking very concerned themselves.

"After seeing you two, I feel ten times better. Sorry I wasn't awake to make you both breakfast." I hugged them both as Claire stood next to the door, smiling. I was no longer drained, but I still couldn't move. I almost felt confined to the house with any possibility of me leaving on my own feeling impossible. I would attempt to heal myself with my water magic, but we wanted to take precaution just in case it proves to be unsafe.

"I contacted Yu, she should be arriving soon." Claire walked over to me, giving all three of us a big hug. I could live my entire life in this moment.

"Some of that light magic really would be nice right about now." I said to myself. Light magic in Fortune Lover also has healing properties, as the protagonist uses it on multiple occasions. If this is somehow a curse that was inflicted on me by that Dieke kid, maybe light magic would also help clear it up.

"Light magic? Wouldn't that just be a variant of fire magic?" May suddenly perked up.

"Well, sort of. Miss Claire's signature spell would technically be qualified as light magic, but in this case…"

"Light magic would be used more to protect and heal than for offensive reasons. Magical Ray burns the target at intense temperatures, so it's more fire than light." Claire added, right on the money at that. "Hypothetically, if dark magic existed, light magic would be able to dispel it. If this indeed is an otherworldly condition that your mother is currently experiencing, light magic would be more effective in clearing it up than our known water magic."

"And that's why we got jobs as teachers. Thanks for the lesson, Miss Claire." I smirked.

"If you're referring to me as a teacher, it's Mrs. François!" Claire huffed. Cuuuuuuuuuute!

"Oh, are you gonna punish me for not referring to you correctly?"

Claire blushed. "R-Rae! Not in front of the children! Go to the corner and think about what you've done!"

"I'll be right on it! …As soon as I can." The lack of being able to move won't stop me from teasing my dear precious Claire.

"You know what? I just remembered something. There was a thing we had Lambert make for a certain friend of ours. Let me go find it." Claire perked up and went out. What is she talking about?

(POV: Katarina Claes)

"Did you hear that Miss Taylor didn't show up today?"

"Yeah, she and Mrs. François were both absent. Being teachers, I would expect at least one of them to inform their students."

"Especially when there are new students that haven't done their introductions yet. Weird seeing newcomers come in pretty much out of nowhere. They don't even have their uniforms yet."

"And this one here is asleep in class. She's dressed like a noble too. But that can't be right."

I don't know any of these voices. I opened my eyes to find myself in a classroom. I just graduated, why am I back in school? I rubbed my eyes and stretched my arms. I could go for some of Maria's sweets right about now. What was that I heard just now? New students? I gazed around and saw multiple people looking at me.

I legit did not recognize anyone here. Everyone was in uniform, while I was sitting here in the dress Anne always has ready for me every day. I waved and smiled. Some people waved back, others tilted their heads. I was really feeling like the odd one out. Where am I? Where are my friends? I tried standing up and I immediately collapsed.

"Are you okay?!" Some of the students rushed to my aid. They helped me onto my feet and I realized that I couldn't support my own weight right now. Is my obsession with sweets finally coming back to bite me?!

"We should take you to the nurse's office. You are clearly unwell." One of the students, a more muscular boy, put me on his back and we headed out of the classroom. Thankfully, I was conscious enough to take a look at my surroundings. This definitely wasn't the magic academy. I did not recognize anything. Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice.

"Put Lady Katarina down!" The student stopped in his tracks and turned to the voice. A brunette wearing a yellow dress was glaring this kid down.

"Mary!"

"Sorry Miss… but I'm only escorting her to the nurse's office. She seems to have no strength in her legs and she was asleep in the classroom a few moments prior." Mary went from angry to concerned in the blink of an eye. Mary ended up walking beside us, keeping a close eye on me.

"Lady Katarina, when we can, we need to talk." Mary reached out to hold my hand. "I'm so glad to have found you."

"Same here, Mary. I just wish I knew where everyone else was."

"For once, I agree with that."

I didn't quite catch that first part, but as we made it to the infirmary, the student left us to head back to the classroom. The nurse didn't seem to be there, but I assume that we're free to stay here until I've been checked on. "Do you have any idea where we are?"

"No clue, Lady Katarina. I have never seen this school in my life." Mary still was very clearly worried about me as she kept holding my hand.

"So it's not just me. I was so glad to have graduated, I was not expecting to be back in school so soon."

"Everyone gives us weird looks too. Almost like they know we shouldn't be here."

"Maybe because we're wearing dresses and not uniforms. Honestly, it would be really weird if we woke up in uniforms we've never seen before."

"Do you also… feel different?"

"Not really, just hungry. I wonder what kind of sweets are available nearby." My mind drifted to sweets often, and once again I was feeling a severe lack of Maria.

"I mean magically. I can actually feel my magic inside of me, at least, that's what I assume is the case."

Ah, I guess that's why I can't feel what she's talking about. I have earth magic, but it's so pitiful that I can only make a bump in the dirt. My special technique, Earth Bump, was mainly used to bully Maria originally, but I've used it on very rare occasions and it did sometimes help.

"If this is a magic academy, like the one we attended, maybe we can ask someone about it. Maybe we can ask one of the teachers."

That did sound like a good idea, but something was pulling on the back of my mind a bit. Those two absent teachers the students were talking about… I feel like I've heard those names before. What were they again? "Mary, do the names Taylor and François mean anything to you?"

"Not really. Those seem like common surnames. I guess they're teachers here considering I overheard someone mention Mrs. Rae Taylor and Mrs. Claire François being absent today."

Wait. Claire François? That name definitely rang a bell. I closed my eyes and suddenly I was reminded of my previous life. I had played multiple otome games, but none really stuck to me in the same way Fortune Lover did. There was this one that I played a bit, but it was a bit convoluted. Multiple gameplay styles, heavily political, and had a route that led to a revolution.

… Wait. Revolution?

It's time for a Bad End Avoidance Strategy Emergency Meeting!

Meeting chairwoman: Katarina Claes.

Meeting representative: Katarina Claes.

Meeting secretary: Katarina Claes.

We shall now begin an emergency meeting to discuss everything we know so far and how to proceed.

"Revolution is one of the omote games we played in our past life! How did we get from Fortune Lover to Revolution?"

"Well, it's clear we didn't reincarnate into one of the characters like we did with Katarina."

"If we did, I bet we would have reincarnated as the villainess in that game too. Claire François."

"Knowing our luck. Considering what she goes through, I don't think there could be any possible way to survive this game if we were."

"At least she isn't engaged with one of the princes like we are to Geordo."

"But she's apparently a teacher in this world, and so is the protagonist it seems."

"Rae Taylor. I guess that was her default name in development or something, considering you choose her first name at the start."

"That also explains the uniforms and why everyone is looking at us weird."

"Is this a post-revolution route then? That led to there no longer being a separation between nobility and commoner."

"No wonder we're so out of place. We're all inadvertently showing off our nobility where there nobility no longer exists! Why couldn't we have been brought here in our beloved farming gear?"

"Mary is here as well, and we heard the students talking there being other newcomers too. Do you think Maria, Sophia, Keith, Geordo, Alan, and Nicol made it here too?"

"Maria at least fits in naturally, it might be a bit harder to find her, even in her normal dress. Everyone else will stick out like a sore thumb."

"Didn't a volcano erupt as well? If we go back to farming, it's going to be hard making produce if we have to keep living in this world."

"Our money is going to be useless here too. Getting sweets is going to be much harder. If I recall, they don't even have chocolate yet."

The entire meeting group heard their stomachs growling at the thought.

"Let's get the plan started. We can't really do much as long as we're unable to move."

"Wait, why are we having so much trouble moving while Mary seems perfectly fine?"

"Maybe our lack of magic is the case?"

"We'll figure that later, back to the plan please!"

"Okay, so until we can move, we have to rely on Mary to either find everyone else or drag us around."

"We should hopefully be safe here in the nurse's office for the time being."

"So, we have Mary find everyone else, and then I guess find any of the important characters. Meeting up with Rae Taylor might be a good idea."

"Do we try to avoid or befriend the villainess of this world?"

"If she's a teacher, she might be trustworthy so befriending her might be good."

"As for the capture targets?"

"..."

"We went down the Revolution route in our past life because we had trouble with them."

"There's Rod the carefree prince, Yu the cheerful prince, and Thane the unapproachable prince."

"They're all different from Geordo, Keith, Alan, and Nicol."

"And considering the route, Rae didn't seem to woo any of them either."

"The king also ends up dying in this route so one of them might be king right now. It might be impossible to request an audience with him, whoever it is."

"So, for now, we find our friends, and try to find Rae Taylor so she might be able to explain a few things for us."

"Agreed. Meeting adjourned!"

(POV: Claire François)

Oh, where is that thing?! I know it's a prototype but I had a feeling it would be useful later.

As I searched for a certain item, multiple things started running through my head. My darling Rae had been abducted in her sleep to another world and I wasn't there with her? And she came back under some sort of curse? If there was some way I could find that Dieke kid, I would give him a piece of my mind.

I also wonder if any of the others Rae met are wondering about where she went… AHA!

The fruits of my labor had revealed themselves as I pulled out a chair with wheels and handles. We had this made for a dear friend a long time ago. She has the finished product but we kept the prototype just in case it was ever needed. Never thought it would be because of something like this. I wheeled the chair out into the living space. The prototype ain't much but it gets the job done.

"Oh! That's what you meant. No idea why I forgot about that." Rae exclaimed.

"Please say that you weren't snarking again. You know how sensitive that topic is."

"No, I genuinely forgot. I've been kinda traversing worlds lately after all."

"Fair enough, but try to avoid more world travel. If you plan on doing that, at least take me with you."

"I would have done so the first time if I could, but you know… Where was I going with this?"

I smiled and helped Rae to her feet to bring her over to the wheelchair. It really does pain me to see her like this and not knowing any way of helping her. I just hope Yu is able to come up with an idea when she arrives.

"Hey Rae, what else do you know about that world? Maybe we can get some clarity with some extra information."

"Miss Claire asking for Claire-ity?"

"Focus, you cheeky girl."

"Well, Maria was the protagonist. Honestly, fairly obvious due to her pretty much being the 'perfect girl', having light magic and several love interests. The way things looked, she wasn't on anyone's 'routes' because when I protected her, I was the only one there. If I hadn't been there, she would probably have gotten seriously hurt."

"Would that Dieke kid have come in to save her? He said he saw you protect her."

"Maybe? Minus the weirdness coming off of him, he never came off as a bad person originally."

"What about that Katarina girl that was mentioned several times?"

"Katarina would be the equivalent of you. Well, the you from the book, not the real you. She was the villainess of the story, but she was way nastier honestly. She would actively hurt Maria, and in some of the endings she would actually attempt to kill her."

My mind jumped to when I first met Rae, when I was trying to come up with ideas to bully her. Pipi and Loretta were helping me brainstorm and their ideas were… similar to what Rae said Katarina would do. Thankfully they just let me do my thing, I would've felt HORRIBLE if I went with their ideas. Katarina… you absolute fiend.

"Thankfully, I never actually came across her. I don't know her magical prowess and if it were to compare to you, I don't think I would have been able to do much wandless."

"Anything else you remember?"

"Let's see, I had met Prince Alan, who in the original would be comparable to King Thane if he had a competitive streak, but he seemed pretty chill. Drastically different from what I expected. I also met Sophia Ascart, who was a very shy girl originally but she seemed really eager to chat with me so her shyness was toned down quite a bit. She was very excited to hear that I had a wife though."

"What are you, a homosexual magnet?"

"Ehehe, considering that the only straight people I know are Lord Rod and King Thane, maybe I am."

"Next you'll tell me Maria is bisexual like me."

"I have no way of knowing, she didn't really react to my mention of having a wife but that was likely due to my dual casting overriding my sexuality in her mind."

"There was no route where she ended up with another woman?"

"Not that I know of. If I knew everything about Fortune Lover, I would know how to deal with my useless legs already."

"Not that you knew everything about this world either, but you knew a lot more than I would have expected."

"Wow, low blow. You know how much I love you."

"I know, and you know how much I love you."

KNOCK KNOCK

"That must be Yu, I'll be back in a sec." I went to open the door and indeed it was her. Misha was also there, looking a bit annoyed. Did we interrupt something?

"Greetings Claire, glad to see you." Yu smiled radiantly. Even as a boy, she smiled a lot, but this looks a lot more genuine. Is this the gender euphoria that Rae mentioned? "I brought Misha along if that's okay. She is closer to Rae than I am after all."

"Closer to constantly making me lose my mind, but a housecall must mean this is serious." Misha snarked.

"Good to see you two, and yes this is serious. Please, come in." As I led them inside, I saw their expressions drop when they saw Rae sitting in the wheelchair. Misha, despite poking fun earlier, ran to her side.

"Hey Misha, sorry about the state I'm in. Hello to you too, Yu."

Yu walked over to her and immediately started running things through her head. Misha worriedly examined her as well. I see their training in the church hasn't gone to waste.

"I was not expecting to see you wheelchair-bound. Yet, your legs seem to be no worse for wear… This better not be an elaborate prank."

"Misha, you think I would make Miss Claire worry this much?"

"Has that stopped you before?"

Yu stepped in. "Ladies, please. Even Rae wouldn't pull a prank that would worry Claire to the point of obtaining a chair like this."

"With how significant this chair prototype is, she wouldn't dream of it." Not to mention if it was a prank, I would punish her severely, and not in a way that would excite her.

After several minutes of the two nuns poking and prodding and examinations, Yu and Misha truly looked stumped.

"This does seem like a curse, but none like we've encountered. Possibly something mental that is affecting you physically. I would suggest the Tears of the Moon, but we don't have the authority to use that again." Yu hypothesized.

"Not without an elaborate scheme again." I chimed in. I would be willing to do it, the Church be damned. Rae went through so much for me and I would do the same.

"So, either time to scheme or wait for a freak accident where someone with light magic comes to our front door and removes this curse." Rae said nonchalantly.

"Light magic?" Yu and Misha questioned, leading us to explain what got Rae into this situation.

Little did we know… we wouldn't need the first option.