History Fanfic / MariaCampbellOfTheAstralClocktower

** Lady Lalatina Dustiness is very obviously Darkness from ''LightNovel/KonoSuba'', even if she never goes by that nickname and does not demonstrate her, um, [[CombatSadomasochist preferences]].

** Several of the new routes in Fortune Lover include an Isekai Hero ending starring [[LightNovel/KonoSuba Kazuma and Megumin]], and a DLC route starring Sienna, OG!Katarina's best friend shown only in ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'''s spinoff, Verge of Destruction.

** After rescuing the kidnapped Katarina, the carriage used to return everyone to the castle belongs to one Dame [[LightNovel/KonoSuba Lalatina Dustiness]].

* AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil: The Student Council, which includes the Third and Fourth Princes of Sorcier, the son and daughter of the Prime Minister, several other high-ranking nobles, and [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Maria]], whos is rumored to have wandered the countryside, taking down Dark Magic-wielding mages. They handle most of the paperwork involved in running the school, and the only time the Academy's principal even appears at all is when Maria has to file for a [[WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld retroactively excused absence due to needing to rescue Katarina]].

** Katarina's name from her past life is revealed to be Yamada Tae, the unawake zombie idol from ''Anime/ZombielandSaga''.

** Katarina's training in swordsmanship, introduced in Chapter 2, doesn't get used properly until [[spoiler:the School Festival's play, where the heroine, played by Maria, has an epic [[FinalFight final duel]] with the villainess, played by a disguised Katarina, to the amazement of everyone. It would later become one of the key factor for her becoming a squire under Maria's tutelage to become a knight.]]

* LostTechnology: The books from the long-fallen [[LightNovel/HowARealistHeroRebuiltTheKingdom Marvelous Kingdom of Friedonia]] describe medical procedures such as intravenous infusions, blood transfusions, and ABO blood typing, which have seemingly been lost to time by present day.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Because Katarina's friends were by her bedside [[spoiler: during her coma]], their grades dropped enough that the Third Prince couldn't become Student Council President.
** There are vast and long-lasting complications to the aftermath of [[spoiler: the fight with the dark spirit]]. At the same time, [[spoiler: no one was permanently harmed, and Rafael was both a victim of the Marchioness and possessed by a dark spirit, so he gets off with probation once he's freed.]]
** In spite of her sheer willpower, Maria's healing Light Magic is not enough to sustain her for 2 weeks straight while she skips meals and runs herself ragged [[spoiler:staffing her manor and accommodating the slaves she had rescued]].
** As someone with considerable farming experience, Katarina is well-acquainted with how to wield a scythe, in its original and intended function as a harvesting tool. As such, when later confronted with the concept of using one as a weapon, she quickly ([[OOCIsSeriousBusiness and surprisingly viciously]]) uses that same first-hand knowledge to tear apart and debunk the various myths and stereotypes about how to actually wield it in a fight.

** Taken UpToEleven when all of her various heroic deeds earn her a ''knighthood'', yet Maria ''still'' can't seem to wrap her head around the idea that [[SkewedPriorities what she did was in any way out of the ordinary]].

* AdaptationalBackstoryChange: Diana Cavendish, from ''Anime/LittleWitchAcademia'' is the only daughter of her missing father and deceased mother, who was the former head of the Cavendish Family, a long-lived line of healers. Here, her family instead owns [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavendish_banana several banana plantations]] with ties to southern merchants, and she has several younger sisters.

** Diana Cavendish, a noble who joins the student council during Maria's second year, who is named after and acts like her namesake from ''Anime/LittleWitchAcademia''.

** Night Fall, an in-universe series of novels spanning 364 volumes and penned by Annabel Crème, is a reference to another in-universe series of novels from ''Anime/LittleWitchAcademia'', down to the name, number of books, and most recent author being Annabel.

* CoolHat: Maria of Cainhurst had a nifty tricorne hat that Maria Campbell misses. She finally replaces it, just before [[spoiler: the climactic fight against Sirius Dieke]].

* NiceHat: Maria finds another tricorned hat in the storehouse [[spoiler: Sirius]] fled to, and later commissions several more like it.

* {{Corpsing}}: In-universe, Prince Alan barely keeps from collapsing in laughter when [[EntertaininglyWrong Maria]] describes [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny Katarina]] as:

*** One of the other knights on that mission, [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Thom Olvar]], wields a curved sword and dagger, the latter which has a flute built into it that his wyvern companion loves to listen to.

** Thom Olvar is Hiccup from ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon''.

* AristocratsAreEvil: Thanks to her PastLifeMemories of [[DecadentCourt Cainhurst]], Maria is ''highly'' suspicious of nobles and assumes as a matter of course that she has Light Magic because she's a ChildByRape. This leads to her initially believing that [[TheDitz Katarina]] is an [[HaremSeeker insatiable pervert]] who doesn't care how [[IncestIsRelative genetically close]] her lovers are, even coming to the conclusion that she may be Katarina's half-sister.

** Maria has one as well, but she is somehow even more oblivious of their feelings [[spoiler:despite regularly having sex in the same bed as one of her maids.]]

* NoNameGiven: Played with the Third Prince, whose name is deliberately ''never'' mentioned in the story proper. It's even lampshaded in his focus chapter.

** When Katarina is finally learning about proper dining etiquette, Maria takes a different approach to the sweets-reward system. Instead of Katarina, it is her tutor Shana, a young child, that will be affected; for every behavior that Katarina gets wrong, Shana will receive one less dessert after dinner. Being the FriendToAllChildren that she is, Katarina immediately resolves to take her etiquette lessons more seriously.

* LoveConfession: [[spoiler:Anne gives a brief one to Katarina before setting off to save Alice. PlayedWith in that Anne's love had since become stronger for Alice, though she still feels the need to make her prior feelings known. Katarina, [[ObliviousToLove shockingly]], understands immediately, lets her down gently and playfully chides her for cheating on her girlfriend]].

** As someone with considerable farming experience, Katarina is well-acquainted with how to weild a scythe, in its original and intended function as a harvesting tool. As such, when later posited with the idea of actually using one as a weapon, she quickly ([[OOCIsSeriousBusiness and surprisingly viciously]]) uses that same first-hand knowledge to tear apart and debunk the various myths and stereotypes about how to actually wield it in a fight.

* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Maria absolutely did not twitch when Rafael was mentioned.
** Sophia is most definitely ''not'' the latest incarnation of Seath the Scaleless. That would be silly. Crosses over into RunningGag.

** Guns, another invention commissioned by Maria, which she calls [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/BloodborneEnemiesAndBosses gehrmans]] after her mentor.

''Maria Campbell remembers an old life. A life bathed in blood. A fishing hamlet. A research hall of many floors and many patients. And a stranger who insisted on corpse-fishing...''

''AKA, that fic where a grimdark DLC boss is reincarnated in fluffy {{otome|Game}}-land and still acts like she's in a Creator/FromSoftware game (that's NOT ''Cookies & Cream'')...''

This result in much amusing mayhem and more than one SustainedMisunderstanding as Maria fails to grasp the LighterAndSofter nature of her world even as she slowly heals from the trauma that made her into ThatOneBoss.

* AccentSlipUp: After serving as a translator for the Ashina slaves, Katarina starts greeting people in Ashinago, i.e. Japanese, and putting honorifics like ''-chan'' on people's name.

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: Averted. During a demonstration for her Gerhmans, Maria teaches the Head of the Royal Guard how to properly use it, including never pointing it at someone he doesn't want dead or himself, before allowing him to test it for himself.

** Guns, another invention commissioned by Maria, which she calls gerhmans after her mentor.

** Maria requests her armsmen to capture one for use in demonstrating her Gerhman, though she questions if she'll be able to kill it in one shot due to her experience from her past life. Unfortunately, they misinterpret her orders and butcher it to serve for lunch while keeping the skull as a trophy.

* SexyDiscretionShot: Nicol and Sophia's parents ends up staring lovingly into each others eyes at the mother's birthday party before running off together to a private room. A nearby maid just sighs and goes get perfume and new clothes for them.

* ShootingGallery: Maria makes a makeshift one using old armour to demonstrate her Gerhman. She considered using a wild boar or a condemned prisoner, but circumstances demanded otherwise. She later has a proper one built on her estate for use in teaching gunmanship.
* ShotAtDawn: Maria considered using a condemned criminal to demonstrate her Gerhman's firing power. Fortunately, no one had been sentenced to death in her lands, as her friends, included amongst the observers watching, would have most likely been horrified.

! Examples:

Can be read on [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/maria-campbell-of-the-astral-clocktower-hamefura-bloodborne-crossover-yes-really.870472/ Spacebattles]], [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13654825/1/Maria-Campbell-of-the-Astral-Clocktower Fanfiction dot net]], or [=AO3=] (no link due to NSFW).

-->'''Duchess Claes:''' In my experience. One who throws themselves so strongly into their duties is doing so because they're [[GuiltComplx trying to forget something. Something that won't leave their mind. Something that haunts them, and only putting their full effort into something almost constantly lets them function]].