It was often said that an action was worth a thousand words, meaning actions conveyed intent more easily than any words could ever do.
This was not the case.
Countless interactions raced through Hachiman's mind. Days, evenings, and some nights where he had talked and spent time with Claes walking around, checking her swordsmanship and his magic, reading with Sophia, having lunch together, or even going out to buy supplements for her fields. Ever since they met, Claes had always been different. Unlike anyone else he met in this or his former world.
He had taken for granted, she was either the most moronic girl he had ever met or the most cunning witch. Reality reared its head all the same. That regardless of whichever was the real her, Hachiman had spent way too much time with her to care. She had meant to befriend Sophia in the beginning, but at some point Hachiman had naturally drifted closer to the only girl that treated his little sister right.
In the beginning, that had been enough for Hachiman to not immediately turn away from her. Eventually, her presence had become a part of his current life. Simply something he took for granted, and took off the edge from everything he disliked about this world.
It made sense, in retrospect. That Claes was the same as he was shouldn't have been as much of a surprise as it felt.
And yet Hachiman couldn't help folding onto himself, several questions raced through his mind and the distinctive need to cover himself from her sight threatened to overpower him.
What if she was something he knew? What if she knew of his past? Could she have been one of his classmates? A teacher? Someone from another class?
The logical part of his mind told him that couldn't be. No matter how much they had changed through this second life, there was no way they would get along when they hadn't in their previous life.
The other part, bigger than he was willing to admit, reminded him of all the changes his new body represented. It reminded him of the stares and attempts to get in his pants from his own servants, even when he was a child. Nicol Ascart was indeed a beautiful person. In such a way that Hachiman himself would never be. Even if the world saw him as Nicol, perhaps the face he saw in the mirror was the one thing Hachiman would never get used to.
"K-Katarina-sama? What are you…?" Campbell's expression contorted, twitched. She couldn't have expected the serenity in Claes' face, the absolute certainty and faith in her own words that followed. Of course, she couldn't have understood the implications. The fact that Claes probably knew her in and out from having playing through the routes of the game built around her.
It was easier to believe this so-called game was built around Claes instead. After all, she was constantly surrounded by beautiful, unique people. The very first two points that made it obvious when a character was a major one. And to be honest, Hachiman's need to scoff and brush off her words started overpowering him.
"Maria-chan, this year at the Academy was meant to be all about you." Claes brought her hands to her chest "In this game you were the heroine, you were supposed to heal the hearts of the capture targets and find a happy ending finding love with any of them. I played this game a lot. Played through most of the routes except…"
Claes' eyes rested on Hachiman. The silence that followed was damning, but he couldn't really understand what was happening. Campbell looked just as lost, probably unable to understand most of what Claes was saying since she had no concept of otome games, or even video games at all.
"I didn't know Nicol-sama beyond being the cool, silent type. Who loves Sophia-chan very, very much. So it was a surprise, but so great too. I should have expected it too, after all everyone had much more to them than what the game showed through each one's route."
Hachiman could almost hear his mind clicking everything in place. Coldness spread through his body, threatening to freeze him solid with how strongly the sensation was. He replayed the time he spent at the Academy, every time Claes turned to topic towards Campbell, each time she praised the blonde and melted a bit while fantasizing about her. He remembered Hunt's reaction to Hachiman telling her about Claes and Campbell, and somehow he felt even colder than before.
"C-Claes…" Hachiman gulped. The girl perked up, her pained smile looking a bit more cheerful as she finally got a reaction from him. The ellation spread to the point Hachiman imagined she had been replaced, that somehow that girl in front of him was someone else. He was scared "You don't mean that…"
"You know." It was a statement. Nothing more and nothing less, but somehow it was as damning as a confession of guilt "It's exactly as you think, Nicol-sama."
"What is it?" Campbell interrupted, the need to understand oozing from her expression "Nicol-sama, what is she…?"
He turned to Campbell, her words having faded into complete silence. She looked so lost, so vulnerable. Like when they were hunting down Keith.
Hachiman took a lungful of air, trying to remind himself that he wasn't fighting that monstrous magic again.
He still steeled his nerves, the memory making him push the idea of keeping Campbell safe to the forefront.
"It means that she has known you since before you two met. That she saw the world through your eyes, however limited it was. That she has been fond of you for quite some time already, and all of this… From a whole different world." Hachiman's lungs burned as he pushed through the pain, as he discreetly used his magic to overpower his body's shutting down from the emotional baggage of Claes' reveal.
Hachiman shut his eyes.
"...Does that mean Nicol-sama knew?" Campbell asked dumbly.
Woman, if he knew, Claes would have told you without his presence.
"No." Hachiman shook his head "It just so happens that I too, have memories from another world."
His chest stopped hurting, his heartbeat slowed down to normal.
It was as if he had been drowning all this time and he had resurfaced somehow. He turned to Claes, who looked surprised but soon enough smiled gently at him. He wasn't sure what expression his face was making, but the warm feeling within him couldn't be that bad.
Claes ran towards him and hugged him tightly. Hachiman enveloped her with his arms in return, feeling the muscles she had developed through countless times practicing the blade. That had been the oddest of her hobbies, the one thing that didn't fit Claes' usually goofy personality except for her conviction that she would someday be in danger.
"I'm sorry." Hachiman whispered, the word 'villainess' appearing in the forefront of his mind. He wasn't sure when his voice broke "You must've been so scared. I… If I had known…"
Claes herself was having trouble breathing "You've always been by my side. Even when you hated it, even when you were against it, even when you couldn't understand it… Where would I be without you?"
Her strength cut his breathing as she clung even more, to the point Hachiman had troubles keeping his balance. Her weight was something he knew, though. His magic answered the call as Claes got herself comfortable, knowing full well Hachiman would catch them both through the countless times she had cuddled him as they grew up.
"I'm sorry for being such a kid." She whispered "I can't imagine how Nicol-sama felt."
Hachiman wanted to chuckle, but it wasn't his way of doing things.
"Like I do every time you cause trouble." He replied without actually giving a true answer. It would've been too embarrassing and Campbell was watching. And speaking of… "Does that mean Campbell and you aren't dating?"
"What?!" Claes bounced off him, overpowering his magic and sending him to the floor "N-No?! How could we?! I'm the villainess, Nicol-sama! She's the heroine!"
"Could've fooled me." He groaned, leaning in on the familiarity of this exchange to put everything else behind them "Say it without blushing, fool."
They both turned to face the blonde. As she hadn't muttered a word while they hugged. Campbell was pale to the point she almost looked dead, staring wide-eyed at Hachiman with so much dread Hachiman immediately snapped his face behind himself.
Gerald Stuart was glaring daggers at him.
"Stuart…!" Hachiman bounced to his feet and lifted his hand.
The third prince was in his face the next instant, a fist on Hachiman's stomach and the opposite arm trapping his own to prevent Hachiman from escaping.
Air and thoughts alike escaped Hachiman, the cries of the girls just barely audible through the ringing of his ears.
Hachiman tried to use his magic, but the prince stepped aside and threw something hidden behind his back at Hachiman.
A… A book…?
"Nicol-sama!" Katarina's fingers closed on themselves as her beloved transmigrator disappeared from reality, swallowed by the book Gerald-sama threw at him a heartbeat before.
Her mind rushed through the possibilities, trying really hard to remind herself to just not let go of any thought that crossed her mind.
One of the memories clicked, one of the wonders of the Academy was a book that swallowed people or something like that. Maria-chan had mentioned it while the Academy had been swallowed by Keith's magic, and jokingly told Katarina it would have been an easy answer to simply trap Keith like that and scold him when he came out.
"You filthy, filthy bastard." Gerald-sama murmured, venom almost physically dripping from his mouth "Getting so close to my Katarina… Know your place, trash!"
Katarina's body moved without her input. She kicked the book away a blink before Gerald-sama thrusted his sword through the ground where it had been. He didn't look particularly surprised, but his body language still told Katarina he was hesitant to retaliate.
Katarina hopped and changed the foot she held her weight with, spinning around and throwing a spinning kick straight at Gerald-sama's chest.
The prince blocked her attack with the blunt part of his blade, but Katarina's strength still threw him back some distance.
"Maria-chan! Get Nicol-sama!" Katarina screamed as she gave chase to the prince.
"Katarina!" He pleaded, eyes filled with pain in such a way she had trouble looking straight at him "That bastard has blinded you! I cannot hold myself back, knowing you're being used! You mean everything to me!"
"That's so creepy though!" Katarina tried to grapple for the prince's sword, but he swiftly circled his arms in such a way she couldn't lay a finger on him "Gerald-sama! You're under the effects of dark magic!"
"You mean everything to me!" Gerald-sama's expression contorted "I can make this right! I just have to get rid of…!"
Katarina followed him, but he changed directions an instant before she could catch up. The prince shot his magic at the book Maria–chan had just picked up and forced her to throw herself away from it. Magic surging from the open pages as it swallowed the flames with a puff of smoke.
"You'll get swallowed if you open it!" Katarina shouted.
How was Maria-chan supposed to get Nicol-sama out, then?
"Katarina, please!" Gerald-sama pleaded, like he wasn't trying to do something horrific.
"You saved Nicol-sama's life!" Katarina reminded him as she threw punch after punch to keep him on his toes "You don't hate him! Gerald-sama, please come to your senses!"
The prince's expression broke, like Katarina had said something he couldn't recover from.
He stopped for a moment, and Katarina used the respite to catch her breath. She couldn't lay a finger on him without a sword, and even then it looked like she was fighting a losing battle.
The prince was too strong, too smart. He was a genius being blinded by dark magic and if he wanted to get rid of Nicol-sama, he would do it no matter what.
"I see…" Gerald-sama looked to the ground "Katarina, you've fallen for him… Haven't you?"
What did that have to do with anything?
She spent her life trying to protect herself. Preparing in case everyone simply decided to betray her one day. Deluding herself into thinking everyone and everything would fall in place in accordance to the game she had played a whole lifetime away from now.
Everyone except him. It had been a slow seed to bloom, and it had been ugly, painful, and traumatizing. But the reality of what she was doing presented itself in full force all the same. People were more than their game self, the world didn't just follow a script she could take advantage of and cheat.
"Then! Why go so far?! Don't love him?!"
At some point, the idea that he too would turn around and fall into the scripted path scared her senseless.
"Gerald-sama. Are you, perhaps, stupid?" She called out without thinking, her eyes burning in a sensation she couldn't quite describe. But one she knew from seeing Nicol-sama catch people talking about Sophia behind her back "Of course I do."
Katarina caught the prince's hand as he flinched, catching the other one with her own as he casted his magic and the flames scorched the sky above them.
He reeled her head back and pulled the blond towards her as she delivered a headbutt straight to the nose.
The prince turned his head, instead being hit in the eye. It didn't matter because Katarina prepared to hit him again.
"Enough." Strength was drained from her as a black mist enveloped her. Forcing to release the prince.
The two of them fell as a man stepped out and looked at the scene in front of him. He was someone Katarina knew, but whose name didn't really come back to her with her heart beating between her ears.
Dan Ascart's furious glare fell on the prince, who was just as capable of moving as Katarina was at the moment. He still tried, though. So that encouraged the girl to do just the same.
"Oh, Rina-rina." Dan-sama lamented "I'm so sorry, let me just…"
He placed a hand on the prince's forehead and the teen went limp. A dark mist was lifted from him at the same time, and clung to Dan-sama like a cloak of darkness.
"Here, and…. Here." He raised back to his feet, the veins on his head more pronounced than they had been before "This would be easier with light magic… When I got wind that the prince escaped the castle I came as soon as I could and…"
Katarina kept struggling against the man's magic, which finally made him pay attention to her.
"Ah…" He knelt in front of her and placed a hand on her face. She could feel the numbness draining from her limbs like he was slurping through a straw.
Katarina jumped to her feet and snatched the prince's sword from the ground, rushing to put Maria-chan behind her and raised the sword at the Ascart patriarch.
He lifted his arms as if to placate her "Can I at least make sure my son is safe and sound?"
Maria's magic clung to Katarina like a cloak as the blonde tried to heal her from an ailment Katarina didn't have. The silence stretched, but neither gave room for the other.
She didn't have any idea of what was happening anymore, but she knew that she needed to protect Maria-chan at all cost from the dark magic.
Dan-sama sighed "Please? Maria-san's magic trumps mine in any case, you have nothing to fear from me."
"You cursed your own child!" Maria-chan yelled from behind Katarina.
Dan-sama reacted like he had been shot in the foot "That's… That's fair. It's okay if you don't trust me, Maria-san. But you can at least trust your own magic, no?"
He motioned above his head, as if trying to get a mosquito away from him.
"Can you see it? The dark power clinging to me? If you disperse it… Will you let me get Nicol out of that artifact?" The book was an artifact?! Wait, no! Concentrate! Of course it was!
"...How do I know it'll work? That it's not a trap?" Maria-chan asked, earning her a chuckle from Dan-sama.
"Dark magic is unlike the rest of the elements, unnatural." He explained matter-of-factly "Not only does it find its counterpart in light magic, it also can never overpower it because people don't naturally produce it. Just think about it, even if you get tired you'll always be able to cast more, right? Dark magic is not like that."
Right, because dark magic…
"...Requires the sacrifice of a person to obtain." Katarina murmured and felt Maria-chan grow tense behind her.
She didn't blame her, Katarina too was sweating buckets at the reminder of how much time she had spent in that man's presence.
She held onto the sword all the same, a piece of her mind wishing Nicol-sama was there to help fix the situation.
"At the count of three." Katarina murmured "One, two… Three!"
Katarina rushed onwards, sword in position to strike.
Dan-sama lifted a hand and a small vortex caught her blade, biting at her skin as it lifted her off the ground.
Maria-chan tackled the man, her magic eclipsing the sun itself for a moment as it was forced all at once.
The wind magic released Katarina a moment later, and Dan-sama bell on his rear with his head between his arms.
Okay, now he was a bit less fearsome.
"...Can I see Nicol now?" He groaned through the pain in his head.
Katarina flinched, seeing him be the same as he had been while holding onto the dark power was… Unsettling.
"...No." So Katarina held Maria-chan in arms and ran away.