Once upon a time, Maria watched Katarina-sama try to study. Back days were peaceful, and the shadow looming behind the country's back didn't make itself apparent.

"Huh, Katarina-sama?" The blonde asked, getting the brunette lady's attention "What is this?"

"Oh, those? Those are my study notes!" Katarina-sama gave her a thumbs up "How is it? Sophia-chan says they're great!"

Of course, this worried Maria greatly. Because what Katarina-sama had drawn weren't words, but small doodles that took two lines of height, with some random words spread without order here and there.

"Huh…" And Sophia-san had allowed this? Maria didn't want to doubt the young lady, but having studied tirelessly to get into the Academy; plus the hours she put in to stay at the top of the class made her feel uncomfortable about this.

It was one thing Ascart-sama apparently took his education in a rather lax way, taking breaks as often as Katarina-sama got distracted, from what Maria heard, but it was another one entirely for the younger Ascart to encourage this sort of lifestyle to Katarina-sama!

"These are just some drawings!" Maria said calmly, not at all exasperated or frustrated.

"Nu-huh!" Katarina-sama took the book from Maria "See, since taking notes is plain and boring, and I'd probably fall asleep, Sophia-chan devised this trick for me! These are my notes, this way I can cheat my way through the course! Look, I'll tell you what is what…"

And then Katarina-sama proceeded to explain her notes.

Maria had never seen notes like this, and although it'd take some time before she opened up to the Ascart siblings more, it still dawned on Maria the main reason why they had managed to stay with Katarina-sama for as long as they did.

Even Keith-sama took a patient approach when Katarina-sama's antics came up. The person she lived with often put up a smile and dealt with her like a babysitter would with a meddlesome child. Of course, Gerald-sama (who probably could have come up with something, but didn't in order to keep 'helping', now that Maria thought about it) and Mary-sama had their own reactions to Katarina-sama, but in the end, they always assumed a somewhat defeated stance whenever Katarina-sama got away with her antics.

Had she ever seen Sophia-san like this? Probably not.

She would work alongside Katarina-sama's quirks, and manage to give better results than even Alan-sama could. She didn't know the older Ascart as well, but it wasn't difficult to understand it.

They didn't need to work against Katarina-sama's personality, they could get away with their own antics just as easily as Katarina-sama got away with hers.

They understood her.

Maria knew from experience that Katarina-sama could pull off quite the physical feats, if she put her mind into it. But being carried for such a long distance, only to be put on a horse and ride it all the way to the nearest town, was something Maria would've rather been told. Rather than seeing it first hand.

Throwing capes over their clothes didn't help the pounding heartbeat that threatened to make her pass out, nor did the late hour they arrived at did. After so much scurrying around and trying to go incognito, the two ended up walking rather late at night with very little visibility. Except for the occasional tavern or hosting place they walked by.

"Hey, gorgeous. How abou—." The drunkard didn't even finish his sentence before Katarina-sama slammed him against the wall, letting him fall on his rear and silently pass out on the spot.

She didn't mind the roughness, but the silent frown that the brunette lady had on her face since they left the manor… It scared her a bit.

"K-Katarina-sama…" Maria whispered, preparing herself to have to act without the lady's consent.

Maybe she had traces of dark magic. She doubted it, but it could be. Maria couldn't detect anything like the miasma that cloaked Dan Ascart from her sight, but this special ability hadn't been the most reliable so far.

She felt, rather than saw, the dark power at first. Only starting to notice the odd visual effect around the time she met back with the two princes, and only fully seeing the dark miasma with Dan Ascart.

The point being, she didn't want to stay in a 'maybe', she needed to make sure.

Katarina-sama stopped in her tracks and regarded Maria with a side glance.

"...We should use codenames, just in case." She murmured, her usual perkiness nowhere to be found "I'll be Kat. You'll be… Hmmm… Bell? Belle. Mary. You'll be Mary."

"H-Huh?" No, she couldn't be. Maria was Maria. Mary-sama was Mary-sama. They were totally different.

"Call me Kat." Katarina-sama insisted.

"Kat…Sama?"

"Kat."

"Kat-san."

"That works." Katarina-sama nodded "We don't know who could be listening."

No, they didn't. Did they?

"So, huh. Kat-san?"

"Yes?" The brunette fully turned to face Maria.

"I… I want to make sure you're not…"

"I'm not…?" Katarina-sama looked puzzled, but it dawned on her rather quickly what Maria meant "Oh, right. Sure."

Maria touched the lady's hand without a second thought, using her magic on her as quickly as she could. Lest someone noticed the light that came with its usage.

"How do you feel?" Maria asked, ready to do it again in spite of knowing it wouldn't be necessary.

"Terrible." Katarina-sama assured her.

"I… Mean mentally?"

"Same." Katarina-sama sighed "Oh, and nothing's changed I guess."

That… Was a good thing, right?

"...We should find a place to stay the night." Maria commented, unsure about what else to say.

"Right." Katarina-sama smiled bitterly "I don't know how to look for a hotel. Whenever I needed to go out, Keith would handle everything. And if not him…"

Katarina-sama brought the magic book from within her cloak; tightly gripped from the side it opened from, as if to force it to stay shut no matter what. Even though the girls bound it with rope at the first opportunity.

"I can find us a place." Maria spoke more calmly, at least having a sense of purpose now "Don't worry about it… Kat-san."

Granted, looking for a place to stay didn't come naturally to Maria either. But she could easily navigate the streets while the only light came from big buildings and the moon. She could guess if one of them had rooms to stay the night, or if they simply sold alcohol for people with nothing better to do.

They eventually settled on a nondescript place and rented a room.

Maria didn't like that Katarina-sama used one of the decorations of her dress to pay, but they really didn't have a lot on them. Using the book wasn't an option, at least not with Nicol-sama still trapped within it. But they couldn't just sleep on the street either.

She couldn't sleep. But she didn't have the energy to pace around the room either, and the anxiety from having escaped one of the leaders of the nation ate away at her thoughts. No matter how much she reviewed the events of that day, reality didn't change.

"Huh, Katari…"

"Kat."

"Right. Kat-san." Maria looked at Katarina-sama from across the room. She had kicked her boots off, and basically threw everything but her dress to the floor at the first opportunity. She still had that dead expression from before, and had the book under her head like a pillow.

She wanted to ask things, to know more. But seeing the lady like this…

"It's… It's nothing, sorry." Maria turned around, staring at the ceiling instead.

"Now, now. If anyone saw you, they'd think I'm bullying you." Katarina-sama chuckled darkly, not really sounding amused.

Maria sat up in an instant "Of course not! Katarina-sama is…!"

A villainess, according to herself.

The lady was smiling again "Kat."

Maria shook her head, standing up from the bed "Is… Is this how things went? Is this why Katarina–sama was so fixated with your… Your…"

"Destruction flags?" Katarina-sama supplied without moving from her position "No. It's all wrong, it's all different."

She looked straight at Maria's eyes.

"It's so different it's scary. And yet here we are, with everything in ruins. I guess this is really it, in a way. The future I wanted to avoid wasn't really the one I died in, not really. I guess somewhere along the lines I just couldn't see that future happening anymore." She blinked looking at the floor instead "Then why did I went on? Because I'm dumb, that's why. But maybe, just maybe, somewhere in my mind I knew things would go really wrong all the same."

"But this is reality." Maria insisted "It doesn't just end, we have to keep going. For us, the last words in the last page aren't the finishing line, Katarina-sama. What should we do?"

Katarina-sama blinked.

"I don't know, I'm not the protagonist."

Somewhere in the distance, Maria heard something crack.

"Alright, fine." She stated more forcefully "Katarina-sama said I am the one, right? So I get to choose. And I say we have to do something, we can't just give up here!"

"That could work." Katarina-sama murmured "Stall for a bit to let Gerald-sama recuperate, rozenvou with him, maybe another capture target, get Nicol-sama out of the book and then…"

"Rozen… What?"

"Huh, meet up."

"Right, yes." Maria's mind came to a halt "Actually, that's not a bad idea."

"Maria-chan's so smart~."

"Katarina-sama, please…" Maria sighed "I… I'm really sorry this is happening, but seeing you like this is…"

"Imagine I'm a pretzel."

"A… Pretzel?" What was she saying now?

"I'm hungry." Katarina-sama confessed with a deep sigh "Don't mind me, I'm just… Thinking, is all."

Maria sat on the edge of the bed and caressed the lady's head.

"We'll get out of this, Katarina-sama." She gave the lady her best comforting smile "We'll get Nicol-sama out, and then…"

"Everything will go back to normal?" Katarina-sama suggested "That's not true, you know this."

"Why do you suddenly sound so much like Nicol-sama?" Maria suppressed a groan "This… Defeatist way of behaving? It doesn't suit you, Katarina-sama. I… It's so confusing I don't even know what to do with myself."

"Guess it rubbed on me." Katarina-sama shrugged, still lying on her side "When life gives you lemons…"

"There's still good things in life." Maria looked at the ceiling "I want to think there's things to look forward to, even now."

Katarina-sama turned around, lying now on her back "I'd like to see everyone again."

"...Especially Nicol-sama?" Maria tried to tease the brunette to change the mood.

"Especially Keith." But Katarina-sama was having none of that.

"...Right."

"Nicol-sama is important, yes." The lady added "But… I guess I can't imagine him being in danger? It might be childish, but I honestly don't feel anything right now about this."

She took the book from below her head and lifted it with one arm.

"Somehow… This feels like a comedy skit? Like, he'll just pop out of it at some point. Right?"

"We don't know that." Maria didn't want to admit it, but that line of thinking was rather dangerous.

"Right, I guess it's just the way I see Nicol-sama."

"Huh?" Maria snapped her face back to Katarina-sama "What do you mean?"

That wasn't too forceful of her, was it?

"Maria-chan, you might not understand because you don't have siblings." Katarina-sama snorted "But growing with someone? It warps your vision of them. Like… Not a parent, that'd be too weird. But I guess Nicol-sama is like a big brother to me. Knowledgeable, standoffish, but always there."

"So that's what you meant…" Maria brought her hands to her chest.

"Yes? I love everyone." Katarina-sama stated something outrageous "I grew up with them! Why wouldn't I?"

Ah… Oh…

"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."

Suddenly, the proximity between the two bothered Maria a lot.

"...What about me?" She whispered, not really meaning to say out loud.

"About Maria-chan?"

"You…" Maria gulped, trying to get her bearings while her heart tried to burst from her chest "You said… That I… That you were…"

Why was it so difficult to speak? To begin with, the things Katarina-sama said were so alien to Maria that she didn't fully understand them. She could somewhat grasp at strands, but the fact that this lady beside her somehow knew her, and the rest of their group resulted in… Quite the crazy story.

To begin with, she couldn't even imagine herself being fictional. Or piloted by somebody else, for that matter.

She didn't understand, and because she didn't understand; she couldn't unwrap the knot that locked her stomach in place.

No. This has always been the case, right? Katarina-sama sometimes didn't make any sense. So, to get to her, Maria would have to use the lady's logic instead of her own.

"Katarina-sama said I am the protagonist." Maria's mind twisting and turning as the nonsensical words came out of her mouth.

"Huh, yes?" Katarina-sama frowned. So even she didn't understand her own way of thinking? Maria would laugh if she didn't feel so trapped.

"Then… I get to decide who I want to get together with, right?" In the stories Sophia-san and Katarina-sama shared, that usually was the goal. Usually, romance was the final victory for the cast. Love won out in the end, or at least that's what Maria understood when she heard them talk about it "Then I…! I choose you, Katarina-sama! I want to be with you!"

The brunette sat up so fast the two almost bumped heads.

"What?" Her eyes were so wide they almost looked like they'd fall off her face "No, huh? Maria-chan? What are you talking about? The guys! Think about the guys! Why me?!"

Why indeed…? Wasn't that always the question that didn't have an answer?

"Because you're beautiful, and bright. You're the light that makes everything okay, and the world flourishes when you're in it." Maria took the lady's hands between hers, her face heating up as she allowed the words to go on without thinking "It's an impossible reality, one that does not exist without you. Because this world is bleak, and things turn for the worse all the time… But if it's with you, I feel like I can go on and make things right."

Katarina-sama's face became so red she almost started glowing "M-Maria-chan?! This is… This is not the time! I can't—!"

"The right time doesn't exist!"

"But! Aren't you close enough with everybody else?! What about…? Huh…" See? She couldn't even think about her friends! Katarina-sama herself knew Maria was the closest to her!

"I want Katarina-sama." Maria stated firmly.

"Uwaahh…"

"I love Katarina-sama." Maria insisted.

"So this is the power of the heroine…" Katarina-sama murmured, eyes unfocused and all the way as embarrassed as Maria felt "Bu-But… Anyone else can give you a better life."

"I don't want to live a better life." Maria knew for certain. The people that surrounded Katarina-sama were no joke in their pedigree. But, as Katarina-sama taught her time and again, logic didn't always apply when making decisions "I want to live a happy life, with you."

Because, if life can be a dream… Why would she decide to wake up? She had seen it time and again. Before she entered the academy, and through the hours waiting for Keith-sama to go out of hiding. If she can stay in this dream-like life forever, then she'd do her best to stay asleep.

"Let's go back to before the dark magic." Maria whispered, closing in on the lady with determination "We'll save everyone, I promise."

Katarina-sama was magnitudes stronger than Maria, so the lack of resistance emboldened the blonde to close in and give her lady a long kiss.

Katarina-sama didn't reply, but at least she didn't say no.