Fanfic / Catarina Claes MUST DIE!

Catarina Claes MUST DIE! is a My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! fanfic by SixthOctavarium.

Lady Henrietta Garland, the daughter of Earl Garland, wakes up after a fall from a horse with memories of her past life as a horribly bullied otaku. She soon realizes that she had been reincarnated into the world of the otome game Fortune Lover, and now wants a front-row seat to the destruction of her favorite Hate Sink, Catarina Claes. But there's only one problem: Catarina isn't the villainess of this story.

The fic is hosted on AO3.

An omake was later posted, titled A Parent's Worst Nightmare and showing things from the perspective of Catarina's parents after learning of the attempt on her life.

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This fanfic contains examples of:

• Accidental Public Confession: Subverted. Geordo intends this with his plan to confront Henrietta publicly about her attack on Catarina, but after he and Mary present the evidence, Henrietta readily admits she did it.
• Accomplice by Inaction: Henrietta knew Maria Campbell would be bullied when she entered the academy just as Catarina did. Whereas Catarina went out of her way to help and befriend Maria well beyond any notions of self preservation, Henrietta stood back and did nothing because it would've interfered with Catarina's doom.
• Arc Words: "Vile woman" is this for the story.
  • Henrietta repeatedly calls Catarina a vile woman despite it being false.
  • Francine calls Henrietta a vile woman after she attacks her following Henrietta's declaration that she was trying to murder Catarina.
  • After hearing Henrietta declare for a second time that either he or Keith will kill Catarina when they find out "the truth" about her, Geordo calls Henrietta a vile woman.
  • Henrietta calls herself a vile woman after talking with Catarina, underscoring how wrong her actions were.
  • The very last line of the fic has Henrietta declaring to herself that Catarina never was or will be a vile woman.
• Ascended Extra: Francine Ridgeway, Samantha Bale, and Emily Carrington are based on a trio of nameless girls whom Catarina was friends with, and whom vocally come to her defense when she's falsely accused of bullying other students. Here, they're given names, backgrounds and personalities as Catarina's "Thursday Lunch Club" friends whom she hangs out with when she's not with Maria and the others.
• Assassination Attempt: After Catarina wakes up from her dark magic coma, Henrietta tries to kill her by using wind magic to push her down the stairs, partially because of her belief that Catarina has unjustly avoided her doom, and partially because after she hears how well-liked Catarina is and how many of her peers hope she becomes Queen, she concludes that a future where Geordo becomes King would lead to the kingdom being destroyed either by war or revolution.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: In her previous life Henrietta had been a bullied girl who deeply identified with Maria's and Keith's suffering and detested the classism, power abuse, and cruelty demonstrated by the nobles who hurt them. In this life, however, Henrietta's Catarina-specific sadism inspires her to ironically adopt the worst traits she identifies and dislikes in those very bullies.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: The relentless bullying she faced in her past life caused Henrietta to develop some serious mental issues. In her current life, this pushed her to first ignore all evidence that Catarina was not the embodiment of evil she believed her to be, and then eventually to attempt to murder Catarina after the latter kept evading her doom flags.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Henrietta refuses to acknowledge that this Catarina is different from the one in the game; even when Catarina's actions right in front of Henrietta directly contradict her game characterization, to the increasing concern of those around her. The only time Henrietta is open and accepting of a possible difference from the game at all is when it allows her to rationalize ways this Catarina could be differently evil, such as when Henrietta convinces herself this Catarina is intricately manipulating others and merely pretending to be a good person as a long con, despite Catarina's game incarnation famously not being that intelligent (Henrietta's surprised to hear that this Catarina isn't at the bottom of the pack academically) and possessing little subtlety. Henrietta's only open to accepting differences from the game when they allow her to give herself new reasons to hate Catarina.
• Berserk Button: When Henrietta Garland openly confesses to deliberately trying to kill Catarina with no regrets, the idea of someone as compassionate and good natured as Catarina being victimized sets off several young women who then attack Henrietta. And that includes Henrietta's former best friend Francine.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Francine was characterized as Henrietta's much more reasonable and levelheaded best friend, but after putting up with Henrietta's stubborn belief that Catarina is a vile woman and then learning Henrietta tried to kill her, Francine snaps and almost kills Henrietta. And this was after she prayed that Henrietta wasn't responsible for Catarina's near death experience because she didn't want to believe Henrietta would sink that low.
• Big Damn Heroes: Catarina intervenes and stops Francine from being bullied by some other girls, which causes Francine to begin to develop admiration for Catarina and question what Henrietta had told her about Catarina.
• Bittersweet Ending: Henrietta ends up being sentenced to at least twenty-five years in prison for her crimes, her fiancé breaks their engagement, and her parents accept her disclaim and tell her it'll be a while before they will be able to speak with her again. However, she receives letters from Francine and the other girls that beat her in the cafeteria apologizing for doing so, and Catarina visits her with Geordo, offering her friendship and visits every two weeks while she is imprisoned. Henrietta begins crying after hearing the offer, moved by Catarina's empathy and with a sense that her life has a chance to eventually improve.
• Blow You Away: Henrietta's magic affinity.
• Broken Tears: Several instances.
  • Catarina breaks down into tears after Henrietta's Motive Rant and insults cause Catarina to believe her doom is inevitable despite her efforts.
  • Millidiana begins crying after Catarina blames herself for Henrietta attempting to murder her, heartbroken that her daughter thinks so even after the duchess outright tells Catarina she did nothing wrong.
  • Catarina breaks down again after she reveals her past life and Fortune Lover to her closest friends and explains why she feels she has to go into exile.
  • Finally, Henrietta breaks down into tears after she talks to Catarina while imprisoned, realizing that Catarina really is a kindhearted girl and that her actions led her to throw away a life that was far more comfortable than her previous one.
• Bullied into Depression: Henrietta nearly descended into this in her past life after being relentlessly bullied her whole life. Then she watched Catarina die in one of Fortune Lovers' bad endings and became worse in a completely different way.
• Bully Hunter:
  • Played with. Catarina garners a reputation as someone who refuses to let others be bullied, best demonstrated when she steps forward to defend Maria and later Francine Ridgeway. She also did this for Emily Carrington at one point. Samantha Bale is another noble who shares Catarina's views and is inspired by her example, defending girls like Francine and Emily when Catarina's not around. It's said that Catarina's influence leads to the toxic social cliques the academy's infamous for dissolving.
  • Henrietta fancies herself one, punishing Catarina for her bullying by ensuring she meets her Doom. Unfortunately, she's working from the false premise that Catarina Claes is exactly like her Fortune Lover counterpart, and she gets violent when this turns out to be anything but true.
• Chekhov's Gift: In chapter 5, Francine gifts her friends Catarina, Sam, and Emily handkerchiefs, each uniquely hand-embroidered and decorated with her initials as an artist's signature. In chapter 9, Henrietta loses a handkerchief while fleeing from the scene of her attempted murder. The handkerchief has Francine's initials on it.
• Confirmation Bias: In-Universe. Henrietta's major flaw, besides her Catarina-specific sadism. Henrietta is so emotionally fixated on Catarina's suffering for catharsis that she can't imagine a world where she isn't right to want Catarina to suffer. As such, she does everything she can to validate her sadism towards Catarina by only acknowledging some parts of events she witnesses and not others and even seemingly rewriting events to herself to comform to her belief that Catarina is evil and deserves to suffer.
• Courier: The omake starts with a detailed description of a courier, under Keith's orders, delivering news about Henrietta's Assassination Attempt on Catarina. When Luigi meets Dan the next day, Dan mentions Sophia doing the same thing.
• "Dear John" Letter: After she's jailed for the murder attempt, Henrietta receives a letter from her fiancé Sherman Billingsley, breaking their engagement and saying he regrets ever having feelings for her.
• Establishing Character Moment: During her recollection of her Past-Life Memories, Henrietta recalls that when she played Fortune Lover, her reaction to Catarina's death in the Bad End of Keith's route isn't shock or horror but rather glee, seeing a bully like the one's that torment her in real life to brutally die as cathartic. It sets up her obsession for Catarina's brutal death in her new life.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Downplayed, since Sirius/Raphael isn't truly evil to begin with. He begins using dark magic to manipulate Henrietta, thinking she'll be useful for his plot to have Catarina expelled and exiled. But when Henrietta openly suggests having Catarina killed and then says she'd be willing to kill her while Sirius is manipulating her, Sirius immediately undoes the manipulation, wipes memory of their conversation from Henrietta's mind, and then crosses Henrietta's name off a list of potential pawns because the idea of having an innocent woman killed is abhorrent to him.
  • Henrietta only wants to kill Catarina Claes because she's deluded herself into thinking that Catarina was still a bully. When it's finally forced through her head that she tried to kill an innocent woman, she's horrified.
• Fiery Redhead: Word of God describes Henrietta as having bright red hair. Her Irrational Hatred towards Catarina and her unwillingness to see reality as it is pushes her to contemplate and eventually attempt to kill an innocent person, crossing her into Evil Redhead territory.
• First-Name Basis: After stopping some bullies from picking on Francine and inviting her to lunch, Catarina asks Francine to call her "Lady Catarina". For Catarina it's simply because she doesn't like being referred to by her last name. Francine however (correctly) takes it as a sign that Catarina is a Nice Girl and requests Catarina refer to her by her first name as well.
• Foil:
  • Henrietta to Catarina. Both of them are ignorant of the fact that the world they now live in is not a linear story like Fortune Lover was. Catarina however is optimistic, selfless, and empathetic, while Henrietta is pessimistic, selfish, and callous. Catarina also tries to make an effort to change her fate, while Henrietta does nothing because of her need for personal catharsis.
  • Henrietta in her past life is also one to Atsuko, especially before the latter befriended the girl who became Catarina. Both of them were heavily bullied nerds and relied on romance fiction as a form of Escapism. However, while Atsuko mainly seeks Wish-Fulfillment for companionship by self-insertion (which is often the author's intent), Henrietta's past life projected her bullies on Alpha Bitch characters (such as Fortune Lover's Catarina) and seek their "death" as a form of catharsis, to the point of repeatedly "killing" Catarina through deliberately choosing routes where the latter dies. It's not surprising that, after reading the first chapter, many readers suggested Henrietta was already a "walking bomb" in her past life.
• Frame-Up: Henrietta attempts to frame Estella Morel for the attack on Catarina.
• Hated by All: Subverted. When Henrietta confesses to trying to murder Catarina, she's immediately attacked by a group of young women and almost killed before Catarina begs her to stop. It's plainly clear that Henrietta's confession turned her into one of the most hated people at the academy. Catarina is still sympathetic towards her when she finds out the truth behind Henrietta's actions, and she convinces Francine and the others who attacked her to apologize for their actions (Francine was shown to regret what she did even before then).
• Heel Realization: After Henrietta talks with Catarina while she's in the jail and sees up close how kind Catarina is, she is so overcome by guilt and regret that she decides to plead guilty to whatever crimes she is charged with so Catarina and Geordo don't have to deal with testifying at a trial. After Catarina and Geordo leave, her thoughts when she's back in her cell demonstrate just how wrong and short-sighted her actions were.
  Henrietta: I could've had a friend and instead wanted an enemy. I wanted to see an innocent woman suffer for my own selfish desires. I had happiness but threw it all away in favor of suffering. I am a vile woman and a fool.
• Hourglass Plot: With canon. Catarina was a spoiled and selfish child who hit her head and woke up with past life memories that made her self-aware she was living the life of Fortune Lover's villainess, but through her kindness, she never earned the bad karma that caused her doom flags. Meanwhile, Henrietta was a kind and talented girl who became self-aware of her status as a character not particularly involved with any of the doom flags and able to live out a life of privilege without challenge, but her choice to enable and eventually actively cause bad things for her own satisfaction earns her the functional role of the new villainess, and she is eventually imprisoned.
• Hypocrite: Henrietta is this:
  • She calls Catarina a vile woman, but eventually plots to murder her and frame someone else for it.
  • She claims that Catarina bullied and abused Maria for being a commoner, but when Maria protests that it's not true, Henrietta yells at her to "know [her] place" and calls her an "ungrateful peasant" for not backing her up.
  • She claims she tried to kill Catarina to save Maria and Keith from her, but as Geordo points out when he and Mary interrogate her in the jail, she had foreknowledge of Maria being bullied but did nothing because what she really wanted was for Catarina to suffer. Mary also adds that Catarina made everyone's lives better than before and that includes her younger brother. Henrietta just willfully ignored the signs of Keith's pleasant and cordial relationship with his sister.
• Hypocritical Humor: Sirius, after he decides against using Henrietta as a pawn in his plot against Catarina, calls her a psycho as he crosses her name off in a book he keeps of potential pawns. At the time he was being influenced by the spirit of a revenge-driven dark mage and not completely himself so this trope is in effect. His hypocrisy is downplayed however, since he is clearly saner and more open to reason (even at his worst) than Henrietta.
• Ignored Expert. Downplayed. Raphael warned Geordo about Henrietta due to his previous interactions with her, and both he and Mary took Raphael's warning seriously and looked into her, but due to a lack of Henrietta actually doing anything against Catarina and her lack of association with those that dislike Catarina, Henrietta slipped out of Geordo and Mary's views. It's not so much that they didn't believe Raphael (though Geordo admits he wondered if the trauma from the dark magic incident made Raphael exaggerate things), but more that they had nothing they could really go on and felt other potential threats were a higher priority.
• I Have No Son!: Inverted. After Henrietta is interrogated by Geordo and Mary and realizes that her actions were based on incorrect assumptions, she wrote a letter to her parents stating that as of the day of her actions, she disclaimed herself from House Garland in order to save her family from the fallout. As a result of this and her genuine remorse, Geordo decides to absolve House Garland of blame for their daughter's crime.^note It's easy to turn cases like this into a political witch hunt, in which case House Garland could easily just be the earliest victims. And played straight after her parents accept her disclaim, telling her via letter that they need time before they will speak to her again. The effect of the disclaim is shown when Henrietta tells Catarina that the latter should address her as Miss Garland instead of Lady.
• Internal Reveal: In Chapter 13, Catarina reveals her past life and Fortune Lover to her friends. She also explains why Henrietta's words made her have a nervous breakdown, and why she feels that going into self-exile is the only option for her.
• In-Universe Catharsis: In Henrietta's previous life, seeing Geordo's and Keith's bad ends in Fortune Lover gave her solace because she imagined her bullies in Catarina's place. After she regains her memories, she begins looking forward to seeing the same thing happen for real, not realizing that reality is vastly different.
• I Reject Your Reality: Henrietta rejects Francine's explanation of events repeatedly, insisting that what she witnessed went just like it did in Fortune Lover when Francine tries to explain what actually happened. The last time it happens, Henrietta severs their friendship, believing that Francine has allowed herself to fall under Catarina's supposed corrupt influence and allowed her to escape her doom.
• It's All My Fault: Catarina blames herself for Henrietta's attempt on her life, partially because she feels she had to have done something to make Henrietta upset. Millidiana is heartbroken by this and breaks down into tears, while Luigi pleads with Catarina not to think that way.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Henrietta is eager to see Catarina die horribly, but the worst thing she does prior to Catarina falling into her dark magic coma is simply let the story as she thinks is playing out happen, which means not intervening when events where Maria would be bullied happen. But after Catarina wakes up from her coma, Henrietta concludes that Catarina is unfairly escaping her doom and attempts to kill Catarina as well as frame another student for the crime.
• Karma Houdini: Part of Henrietta's Wrong Genre Savvy is that after Catarina's Doom never happens, she still doesn't realize that this Catarina was a good person who had good karma, instead concluding that Catarina had somehow found a way to cheat her Doom- and resolves that the only way to get a "just" ending is to kill Catarina herself.
• Kirk Summation: Geordo gives one to Henrietta, saying that in spite of her claim of wanting to help Maria and Keith, she never once tried to intervene when Maria was bullied despite the fact that she knew that Maria would be bullied upon entering the Academy, unlike Catarina, who also knew the same thing would happen and instead actively protected Maria and other classmates from those that would take advantage of them. Instead, all that Henrietta wanted was to see Catarina die painfully as she had in Fortune Lover's Bad Ends. Furthermore, she has no right to pull the "Not So Different" Remark with Catarina because while they are both ignorant of how the world they live in doesn't follow the events of Fortune Lover, Catarina is trying to make the most of her current life by surviving, helping others, and certainly not trying to harm anyone on purpose. This leads to Henrietta's Villainous BSoD.
• Love Confession: All of Catarina's friends confess their feelings to her after they find a way to get through to her that her doom is impossible and after Catarina visits Henrietta while she's imprisoned. Due to those events shattering her doom flag mindset, Catarina finally realizes how her friends truly feel about her and apologizes to them for not recognizing their feelings.
• Make an Example of Them: Geordo and Mary agree to confront Henrietta in the cafeteria partly to send a message to anyone else who might wish Catarina harm. Although they get what they want, it also opened another can of worms as at the end of the confrontation, Catarina ends up having a Heroic BSoD that her doom is inevitable.
• Mirror Character: While she initially grew to hate Catarina because she emotionally related to Maria and Keith, like the girls who harass Maria (and in particular, like the game version of Catarina), Henrietta alleges that status and magical ability bias how the school handles grades in order to belittle those who succeed, only permits friendship with lackies who blindly support her, tells the school's resident "peasant" to "know her place," and uses her magic to attack the object of her hostility.
• Misplaced Retribution: In the side omake focusing on the Claes parents, Estella Morel's mother goes to confront them about her daughter's reputation being slandered in this incident. Despite that Geordo and Mary proved Henrietta Garland deliberately tried to frame Estella for the crime, her mother doesn't even consider confronting the Garland family (which still would've been wrong since Henrietta's parents had nothing to do with her actions, but it still would've made more sense than attacking the Claes Family).
• Motive Rant: After admitting she attacked Catarina, Henrietta goes on a rant saying she did so because of Catarina's supposed misdeeds of abusing Maria and Keith. Both Maria and Keith protest that her accusations are lies, and everyone else in the cafeteria is bewildered at the accusations, with one student wondering if Henrietta is insane. This causes Henrietta to go off the deep end and admit she was trying to kill Catarina to prevent a future where Catarina would become queen and lead Geordo as king to make decisions that would destroy Sorcier.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Both Francine, Henrietta's former friend, and several other girls express shame after having attacked Henrietta for her attempt to kill Catarina.
  • Henrietta herself is initially left horrified at learning that not only had the world changed, meaning she'd been trying to kill a totally innocent woman, and quickly feels even worse when she talks to Catarina herself and realizes what a kind and forgiving lady she is, finally dawning on her that she threw away her comfortable life because she couldn't move on from the suffering she endured back in her past life.
• Necessarily Evil: Played with and deconstructed. Henrietta remembered from Fortune Lover that Maria Campbell and Keith Claes were horribly bullied and abused by Catarina. While she believes the Catarina of this world is a vile woman and deserves to be punished for her crimes, Henrietta is more than willing to allow the supposed "bullying" to go on if it means Catarina will eventually be judged for her actions. Geordo and Mary destroy Henrietta's notions of this belief, stating if she actually cared she would've helped Maria and Keith if she really thought they needed it, and was fine with the idea of them suffering in order to see Catarina's doom. She was even willing to watch as others bullied Maria, and still had the nerve of accusing Maria and Keith of being "ungrateful" for "what she's done for them."
• Never Say That Again: When her parents return to the Academy to comfort her, Millidiana says she never wants Catarina to say she deserves to be hurt, because it's not true and because of how much it hurt her to hear Catarina say that.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: After Henrietta reveals to the school that she had not only attempted to kill Catarina, but felt no regrets for it and would do it again, several girls attack her out of anger. Catarina thankfully stops them, as Word of God says that she would've been killed if Catarina hadn't pleaded with them to stop.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Geordo and Mary destroy Henrietta's delusions of acting for the greater good. They point out that for all her claims of Catarina abusing people such as Maria, Keith, and various students, Henrietta was more concerned with seeing Catarina punished than actually helping people with her foreknowledge of certain events, and thus was fine with letting all the supposed "bullying" happen if it meant seeing Catarina get exiled or killed.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Geordo is so angered by Henrietta's ranting after she's arrested that he loses his composure and brashly demands she be silenced.
  Geordo: Take that vile woman out of here AND SHUT HER UP!!
• Phlebotinum Analogy: In Chapter 11, Catarina has to make the Internal Reveal about her Past-Life Memories, especially the fact that she sees herself being reincarnated into an Otome Game she played in her past life. The world she's now in, however, is a standard Medieval European Fantasy, and as a result, nobody would have any idea what a Video Game is. She describes otome games as a kind of romance fiction that is "projected towards you" where the player "attempt[s] to win the heart of a character." The audience still finds the idea bizarre, but Sophia is able to get what Catarina says, and further simplifies it as "a romance novel where you make the story yourself" for the rest of the cast.
• Power Fantasy: Catarina Claes MUST DIE is a textbook deconstruction of this trope. Henrietta's past life engaged this by "killing" Catarina through deliberately choosing routes where the latter dies, so the fact that nobody has a single motive to kill this universe's Catarina drove her nuts. To add further to the deconstruction, Geordo and Mary are both disgusted when Henrietta talks about playing Fortune Lover just to watch Catarina die, feeling she's mentally ill to be that obsessed with watching someone die over and over again.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: Henrietta Garland was the privileged, talented, and much-loved daughter of an Earl with a bright future... until she woke up with the memories of a deeply emotionally damaged and unstable social outcast who died young, and happened to have had a cathartic and vengeful obsession with Catarina Claes' Doom Endings in '"Fortune Lover.'' From that point onward, no matter how much her logical mind initially tries to consider the possibility that this world could be very different from the story she remembers, Henrietta cannot let go of her desire for Catarina's cathartic suffering. Unable to cease letting the traumas of her past control her life, Henrietta becomes obsessed with seeing Catarina meet her doom in the place of the bullies who hurt her, unable to comprehend that any other reality or outcome could be justified given her prior suffering, to the point that she came to enjoy and fantasize about Catarina's suffering and considered the suffering of innocents pitiable but worth it if it meant Catarina also eventually suffered. Henrietta's deeply disturbed idea of right and wrong and her poor relationship with reality eventually leads her to plan and commit monsterous acts without a shred of remorse, for which she is initially hesitant but eventually proudly proclaims to the world. She eventually has a Heel Realization but by that point she's already made herself the villain and suffered her own downfall.
• Protectorate: Catarina begins watching over Francine and another low-ranking noble girl named Emily on Thursdays so that they don't get bullied. Later on, another girl Catarina becomes friends with named Samantha does so when Catarina isn't able to.
• Psychological Projection: Henrietta doesn't see Catarina as a person so much as the physical embodiment of all of her tormentors in her old life, which colors all of her interactions with the canonical Catarina and keeps her from seeing Catarina for the kind person she very clearly is.
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • Francine suddenly attacks Henrietta, hitting her over the head with a plate after Henrietta's Motive Rant and declaration that she has no regrets trying to murder Catarina.
    Francine: YOU VILE WOMAN!
  • Geordo angrily yells out an order to the guards that arrested Henrietta to silence her after her declaration that either he or Keith would kill Catarina when they find out "the truth" about her.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In a desperate attempt to justify her actions, Henrietta says that she is not so different from Catarina due to their respective ignorance of their situations when Geordo and Mary interrogate her in the jail. Geordo promptly shoots this down by pointing out that while both had foreknowledge of events that would happen, Catarina's actions led her to change things for the better and her actions were genuine instead of acts of self-preservation, while Henrietta did nothing because all she wanted was to see Catarina suffer, and that if she truly cared for Maria's well-being, Henrietta would've intervened to stop the bullying. This particular speech alongside Mary's summation are what finally snap Henrietta out of her self-righteous attitude and pave way to her Villainous BSoD.
• Replacement Goldfish: After rejecting Francine as her best friend for siding with Catarina, Henrietta briefly considers a girl named Olivia Hearn as a replacement best friend. After Catarina awakens from her magically-induced coma, in a fit of rage Henrietta rejects Olivia as yet another Catarina supporter.
• Selective Obliviousness: Henrietta only accepts events she can rationalize as conforming to her view of Catarina as an evil person. Even after Maria and Keith have refused to denounce Catarina, Henrietta brushes this off as fear of standing up for themselves, ignoring the fact that even that would be proof that events are not following the game, as they did denounce her in Fortune Lover.
• Somebody Doesn't Love Raymond: Subverted. It's acknowledged that Catarina is disliked by a few noble girls specifically because they're jealous of her popularity and kindness. In Henrietta's case, her dislike stands out because as far as everyone can tell she has some unfounded belief that Catarina's a vile woman who abuses people beneath her station. They're especially confused when she rants about Catarina mistreating Maria and Keith, despite all evidence showing that she adores the two and vice versa. When Henrietta gives her Motive Rant for trying to murder Catarina, the student body is dumbfounded by her reasoning and wonder if she's legitimately insane.
• Spanner in the Works: Henrietta's plan to pin the attempt on Catarina's life on Estella Morel gets derailed thanks to two witnesses. While Henrietta thought of this (which is why she dressed up as Estella in the first place in case anyone saw her), the witnesses pointed out that "Lady Morel" seemed shorter than she should be. One of them followed her and says she saw "Lady Morel" enter a room but only saw Henrietta Garland exit.
• The Spock: While at first he's in disbelief at Catarina's claim that she had a past life, Alan listens intently to Catarina and recognizes the similarities between her explanation of Fortune Lover and Henrietta's words. Alan points out to everyone that Henrietta said some of the exact same things that Catarina did and concludes that Henrietta must also know about Fortune Lover and also must've misunderstood the situation. Geordo and Mary then visit Henrietta while she's in the town jail and find that Alan's conclusions were correct.
• Staircase Tumble: Henrietta uses her wind magic to push Catarina down a flight of stairs in an attempt to kill her. Catarina is knocked unconscious when she falls down the stairs, but her injuries are limited to some bumps and bruises and a possible concussion.
• Stealth Pun: Because of Henrietta's eventual fate, the fanfic could be described as the story of her next life as a Villainess.
• Sympathy for the Devil: After Henrietta tells Catarina and Geordo about how she was bullied in her past life and why Catarina became such an intense focus of her hatred, Catarina shows her empathy and states that she understands why Henrietta acted the way she did. Geordo also shows Henrietta sympathy after she realizes the true cost of her actions and in addition to granting her request to publicly absolve her family of responsibility for her actions, says he will put in a word for leniency after she pleads guilty and leaves the door open for further potential clemency.
• Teens Are Monsters: Becoming consumed by her hatred for Catarina causes Henrietta to resort to attempting to murder her.
• Theory Tunnelvision: Henrietta refuses to believe Catarina isn't the villainess of this story despite all the evidence that refutes her belief.
• Thinks Like a Romance Novel: This trait of Sophia's, already seen in the source material, comes in handy when Catarina has to explain the concept of "otome games" while revealing her Past-Life Memories in Chapter 13. When she describes otome games as a kind of romantic fiction where the player attempts to win the heart of a character, her audience is initially mystified... save for the romance-loving Sophia, who takes over and further simplifies it as "a romance novel where you make the story yourself".
• Title Drop: The fanfic's title is dropped in Chapter 8.
  Henrietta: [angrily writing down in her notebook] Today made me realize that this world is just as cruel as the previous one. That vile woman Claes has managed to cheat her destruction again. She should've been exiled, or preferrably, dead by now, and yet she isn't. Whatever has happened to the universe to allow that villainess to avoid facing justice for her evil ways must be corrected. After hearing the situation yesterday with how many people Claes has poisoned, I have decided to act. The future of the Academy, and the future of Sorcier, is in the balance! I cannot wait for the universe to right itself. Action must be taken now! And to save the future, there is only one possible solution. Catarina Claes MUST DIE!
• Toxic Friend Influence: Henrietta to Francine. Henrietta uses Francine's trust in her to get Francine to join her in avoiding Catarina after Catarina expressed overtures of friendship to Francine; Henrietta keeps this going despite reality not matching what she tells Francine by using the threat of revoking their friendship as leverage to force Francine to comply and refuse offers of friendship based on Henrietta's approval.
• Troubled Teen: Henrietta in her old life was one, showing signs of becoming a budding Sadist if not worse as she began using Catarina's grisly fates in Fortune Lover as a form of catharsis to deal with the rampant bullying she endured, deriving a disturbing amount of pleasure from watching her be killed. She only gets worse in her new life when her past memories reawaken, and she realizes that she's in the same world now as Catarina.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • Upon being cleared, Estella begins to insinuate that Catarina was the one who spread the rumor that she attacked her until Mary warns her not to, pointing out that Catarina didn't even realize she was attacked until Geordo and Mary spelled it out for her.
  • Henrietta views Keith and Maria as this after they don't back up her accusations against Catarina.
• Villain Protagonist: Henrietta is a bitter, spiteful young woman who goes to insane lengths to ensure Catarina gets killed, and deludes herself into believing that she's doing the world a favor by getting rid of "that vile woman".
• Villainous BSoD: After Henrietta finds out from Geordo and Mary that Catarina was also from Henrietta's old world, that Catarina is nothing like her Fortune Lover counterpart, and that as a result Henrietta had attempted to murder an innocent woman, Henrietta falls into one.
• We Used to Be Friends: Henrietta and Francine are close friends until their different views regarding Catarina prompts Henrietta to sever her ties with Francine.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 11. Geordo and Mary publicly confront Henrietta about her attacking Catarina and trying to frame Estella Morel for it. Henrietta proceeds to go on a Motive Rant where she not only admits everything, but also reveals her attack was meant to kill Catarina. Her ex-best friend Francine then suddenly attacks her, which leads to Henrietta getting beaten by a mob until Catarina pleads for them to stop. Henrietta then gets arrested, but her Motive Rant leads Catarina to suffer a nervous breakdown because Henrietta's words lead her to conclude that her doom is inevitable.
• Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour: In the omake A Parent's Worst Nightmare, when the news of Catarina's Assassination Attempt arrives at the Claes mansion, Duke and Madame Claes have already gone to bed. While Duke Claes is relatively calm at being waken up at this hour, this is not the case for Madame Claes.
  She groaned as she woke up, and looked at her husband. "Wha?..what's going on?"
  "It's about Catarina!" replied Luigi.
  She continued to wake up and then asked, "What did our daughter do now that required you to be woken up and you to wake me up?"
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Henrietta assumes Catarina is a mastermind who has everyone convinced of her goodness while being the vilest woman in the world.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Several instances, all near the end of the story:
  • Francine, Emily, and Samantha tell Catarina after she begins recovering from her nervous breakdown about her positive reputation and how other students refer to her as the Academy Saintess. Catarina thinks it's a bit much, but nonetheless accepts the compliment.
  • Her closest friends, after they admit their feelings for her, spell out for her in plain language what she did for them. Geordo also explains that her empathy and kindness make her rare for a noblewoman, and that more than anything made him and everyone else fall in love with her.
  • Finally, her parents return to the Academy to comfort her after her nervous breakdown. Millidiana and Luigi both express their gratefulness, saying that she's been a blessing to their family and that she deserves to be loved.