Visual Novel / Court Of Darkness

Welcome to the Magical Realm

Court of Darkness (Japanese: 魅惑のナイトメア miwaku no naitomea, lit. Enchanted Nightmare) is a mobile Visual Novel by Voltage, Inc.

You are a regular human woman, living alone with her pet house cat. One evening, after serving dinner to her parents’ memorial, she witnesses a crimson moon in the sky, making her suddenly sleepy. Deciding to take a nap before dinner, she wakes up in another world to five strangers in weird clothes standing over her. Touching them causes a surge in their magic, and they instantly start vying for her kiss to amplify their abilities.

Saved from this encounter by her cat, who followed her to this strange place, and a mysterious man in all white who claims to be the headmaster, she’s given a magical choker to mute her powers, and told she will be sheltered at his academy until she can return home.

MC thus becomes the first ever transfer student of Concordia Academy, where the five princes she met upon arriving are also enrolled as the highest-ranking students. In order to find a way home, she has to navigate the magic, politics, and threats present in Saligia.

Tropes applying to Court of Darkness:

• Academy of Adventure: The Royal Academy of Concordia
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Lynt pats the MC on the head in chapter 4 part 2 of his consort path. In Rio’s consort path Rio pats the MC on the head. In Fenn’s path of the story event Scintillating Summer Escape Fenn pats the MC on the head. In the Prince’s Path Lou pats Christoph on the head. The MC pats her cat familiar on the head.
• Alignment-Based Endings: Which ending of a consort path can be played depends on if the player got enough points to unlock the Magic ending, Mischief ending, both and gets to choose, or neither and can either buy more Magic points or Mischief points from the shop or restart and replay the path. In the Japanese version of the game the endings are called the Honey ending and the Spicy ending.
• Alice Allusion: Alice in Wonderland has been used as a Nightmare Battle event theme.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: In a story event Guy’s npc fans say they like it when he glares at them.
• A Match Made in Stockholm: Guy Avari keeps the main character in his room and over time they start to have feelings for each other.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: After completing a story in a story event the player gets a clothing item as a reward. Clothing items are also rewards in the Nightmare Battle events, birthday events, Colde Collection events, and Eclipse Battle events.
• Animating Artifact: The golems are figures made of clay and are animated by magic gemstones in their heads.
• An Interior Designer Is You: The player’s avatar room can be decorated with furniture items won from events and draws.
• April Fools' Plot: In an event story released on April Fools Day the five S rank Princes wake up to find they have cat ears magically stuck to their heads for the day by Headmaster Lou. As part of his prank on them he also uses his magic illusions to send them to a few different locations.
• Apocalypse Cult: The Iritum organization
• Applied Phlebotinum: The various magic rocks, gems, crystals, potions, and lotions that appear throughout the stories. Too many to list.
• Baby Morph Episode: In the Bamboozled and Bewitched story event in Guy’s story the main character is turned into a child.
• Bazaar of the Bizarre: Imports from all over Saligia can show up on the Isle of Colde including trends, rarities, and seasonal items. Some shops in the Town of Colde sell rare and strange magical ingredients and items.
• Beach Episode: Story events on the island of Lyster.
• Bedmate Reveal: The main character wakes up to find a consort sleeping in her bed.
• Behemoth Battle: In the Familiar Royale two dragon familiars fight.
• Big Brother Worship: Aquia admires his older brother Guy. Teto admires his older brother Rio. Sherry admires her older brother Roy.
• Big Fancy Castle: Each of the seven kingdoms has a castle their King lives in.
• Big "WHAT?!": The main character says this a lot due to being a fish out of water in a different realm. Knight has said this in reaction to Fenn teasing him.
• Blinded by the Light: Light magic blinds characters in several event stories. In book 1 of the Prince’s Path Fenn stumbles into a light trap set by Guy and gets blinded. He has to sit on a bench until it wears off.
• Calming Tea: The main character is offered tea and after she drinks it she finds her tension has eased.
• Cash Gate: The consort paths and the event stories have checkpoints that can only be passed with either gold, gems, or an item purchased with gold or gems.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: The main cast of love interests are all very attractive Bishōnen.
• Cats Are Magic: The main character’s familiar is a black cat who can fly and speak.
• Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: The player avatar’s clothing, hair, makeup, and accessories can freely be changed by the player.
• Character Tics: Guy and Lance click their tongues when annoyed, mad, or impatient.
• Chocolate of Romance: The Valentine’s Day story event.
• City Guards: The gates of the Academy have guards who don’t allow students who aren’t S ranks out after curfew.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Several of the in-story fan club girls. The main character herself begins to feel clingy and jealous in some of Roy’s stories after she sees his fan club girls talking to him.
• Closed Circle: In the Prince’s Path the princes, valets, and Lord Dia get stuck and have to work together to get out.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All of the cast, often to differentiate them in a crowd and as indication of which kingdom they're from. Each of the kingdoms has associated colors and each of the dateable characters has their own associated colors.
• Color-Coded Speech: In the Take a breathe! comics the mini consorts speech bubbles are color coded.
• Confronting Your Imposter: In an event story about Rio there is a magical creature on campus who can mimic objects and people. When the main character is mimicked she confronts it.
• Cool Crown: The animated mini consorts have little crowns.
• Creation Myth: The Magical Realm has a creation myth about a woman named Vane splitting their world off from Earth and creating their world, Saligia, the Magical Realm.

• Dances and Balls: The Academy has dances and balls hosted by the Headmaster.
• Dating Sim: Though there are choices in the game, they only determine whether the ending you get is more romantic or dramatic in tone, but both are good endings and there is no Level-Up at Intimacy 5 mechanic, meaning the "simulator" aspect is downplayed.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: The main character had loving parents who she has fond memories of.
• Delivery Not Desired: In Toa’s consort path the main character writes a letter to Toa and then tosses it into the trash.

• Don't Go in the Woods: The forests on the Isle of Colde are home to magical beasts, magical plants, and magical fungi. In a story event the main character is warned some of these are dangerous.
• Dragged by the Collar: Several times when Fenn is bothering the main character or Knight and Toa drags Fenn away by the collar.
• Dramatic Necklace Removal: The main character tears off her choker necklace.
• Dramatic Stutter: Most notably the main character but several of the characters stutter when nervous, surprised, or scared. Too many examples to list.
• Dub Name Change: A few of the character’s first names were changed in the English translation. Lint is Lynt, Grasse is Grayson, and Leu is Lou.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Fenn’s in game description calls him woman-like and Dia often gets mistaken for a girl by anyone who doesn’t know him.
• Eldritch Abomination: In Lou’s consort path, Lou and the main character search for and find a magical beast over 50 years old. When they find one it is huge with countless eyes all over its body.
• Embodiment of Vice: Each kingdom and prince has a deadly sin. The seven kingdoms are named after the Latin names of the seven deadly sins, characters from those kingdoms have that respective vice, and the princes each have their vices.
• Fantastic Flora: The forests behind the Academy on the Isle of Colde are home to magical plants.
• Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: Sky apples are blue fruit that look nothing like real apples. Voleri wheat is a gold colored wheat from Voleri. Rio and Thoma’s garden has pink fruit called fragipirum on fragipirum trees.
• Flower Motifs: Blue roses are a reoccurring visual in the game.
• Flowers of Romance: Roy uses magic to make flower petals swirl around the main character.

• Free-Range Pets: The dragon familiars roam freely in the woods behind the Academy.
• Full-Boar Action: In the Prince’s Path Rio, Teto, and their father King Voleri fight large boars called needle swine.
• Garden of Love: The rooftop garden is Roy’s favorite place and where he takes the main character for tea parties. The Academy greenhouse. The plant room Headmaster Lou takes care of.
• Giant Squid: In an event story about Knight a ship is attacked by a kraken.
• Glasses-and-Ponytail Coverup: As a disguise in an event story Guy wears glasses and uses a spell to give himself a fake ponytail. Inverted with Jasper. His usual appearance is glasses and ponytail but when disguised he has neither.
• Glowing Gem: In the story event The Cursed Jewel of Avari: Kiss of Life the titular jewel emits magical light.

• Gorgeous Period Dress: Many of the avatar dresses are based on historical fashion, ball gowns, Victorian clothing, Elizabethan fashion, high class gloves, fancy ladies’ hats and fans.
• Gotta Pass the Class: The main character desperately tries to pass her exams to pass her classes.
• Group-Identifying Feature: The citizens of each kingdom all have the same color eyes. Which kingdom a Saligian is from can be identified by what eye color they have.
• Guide Dang It!: Consistently picking the choice that gives you both Magic (Romantic) and Mischief (Dramatic) points can involve this.
• Hand Blast: Offensive magic often takes this form. Light, fire, wind and ice blasts.
• Hard Light: Offensive magic can take this form. Light used as a weapon. The Headmaster’s simulacra are illusions of wild magical beasts made of hard light. They disappear in a puff of smoke once defeated.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Sirius wears a shiny black leather jacket and pants. Grayson and Roy have casual black leather jackets.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: The main character to several of the consorts including Roy, Jasper, and Lou.
• I Choose to Stay: After spending time with and falling in love with a consort the main character gives up wanting to return to Earth and chooses to stay so she can be with him.
• I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: In an event story about Rio the MC likes Rio but worries about ruining their friendship if she confesses her feelings to him.
• I Kiss Your Hand: When a consort kisses the main character’s hand. Too many examples to list. Roy does this most often.
• Important Hair Accessory: The main character’s hairpin was a gift to her from her mother. In several character paths or event stories a consort buys a beautiful hairpin for the main character as a gift.
• Instant Cosplay Surprise: Fenn uses his magic to change the main character’s dress into a new outfit. Guy has also used his magic to change the main character’s outfit.
• Instant Messenger Pigeon: In Saligia the mail is delivered by messenger birds, doves, pigeons, sparrows, hawks, and owls.
• In the Hood:
  • Headmaster Lou wears his cloak hood up to hide his face and white hair.
  • Chris wears his cloak hood up when he’s outside to hide his white hair and eye color.
  • Members of the Iritum organization wear black hooded cloaks to hide their identities.
  • Lord Dia Akedia often wears his cloak hood up.
• Intimate Open Shirt: The top of Fenn’s shirt is always open. Also the tops of Prince Zoff, King Avari, and Prince Rio’s shirts are always open. King Voleri has the most open shirt in the cast. His shirt is always open all the way down to his waist and shows most of his chest.
• Kidnapping Bird of Prey: Princess Idina’s blue bird familiar picks up the main character and flies off with her screaming in an event story.
• King Incognito: In this case Princes Incognito when one of the princes wears a disguise before going out into public. Guy, Fenn, and Roy have all done this.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Fenn, Toa, Dia, King Luxure, and Knight.

• Mage Tower: The Academy of Concordia’s Headmaster resides in a tower. His office is in there too.
• Magical Library: The Academy library is full of books on magic.
• Medieval European Fantasy: The world of Saligia

• Multiple Endings: Each consort path has two endings, a Magic ending and a Mischief ending. In the Japanese version they are the Honey ending and the Spicy ending.
• New Life in Another World Bonus: The main character has unique magical powers no one else has.
• Non-Human Sidekick: The main character’s sidekick is a cat.
• Palette Swap: Several of the background NPC sprites are the same base models used over and over again with different color palettes.

• Power Floats: The S rank princes and the Headmaster can all float and fly. It takes having considerable magical power to do this.
• Power Glows: Magic users glow after the main character transfers magic power to them.
• Power is Sexy: Several of the consorts are attracted to the MC because of her latent magical power.
• Power Perversion Potential: Fenn is shown to magically unlock the MC’s window and get in at night. Toa is shown to magically make a wall one-way transparent so he and the MC can see and hear through it but no one can see or hear them. Headmaster Lou has a magic crystal ball in his office he can use to check out what’s happening on campus and anywhere on the Isle of Colde. The S ranks can magically change the MC’s clothing, magically undress themselves and her too. The S ranks can levitate people and fly so if they wanted to abduct someone they could do it very easily. The S ranks can magically tie someone up. The S ranks are so overpowered if any of them wanted to sexually assault someone they easily could.
• Real Men Cook: Rio and Thoma are Big Eaters who love to cook, eat, and share meals with people. The valets Jasper, Tino, Grayson, Knight, and Jay can all cook.
• Regenerating Mana: The magic users have a finite amount of magical energy and if they use some of it they have to wait for it to replenish.

• Right in Front of Me: The main character talks casually in front of royals before realizing they are royals. Subverted with Prince Rio and Princess Sherry who don’t like formalities and want her to speak casually with them.
• Rodents of Unusual Size: In a Nightmare Battle Roy fought beasts the main character describes as looking like giant rodents. In an event story about Knight there are giant rodents ruining a farm field.
• Savage Wolves: In an event story the wolves in the forest on the Isle of Colde attack the main character.
• Secret Circle of Secrets: The organization named Iritum
• Seven Deadly Sins: The Magical Realm is named Saligia. Saligia is an acronym of the Latin names of the seven deadly sins. Each kingdom is named after one of the deadly sins.
• Secret Relationship: In the story event Secrets from the Master the main character dates a valet and the valet doesn’t want the Prince he serves to know he’s dating the main character so they keep it a secret. In Lou’s consort path they keep their relationship a secret for a while.
• Shout-Out: The main character makes references to modern media she saw back when she still lived on Earth.
  • The characters will also exclaim "what in the devildom" when confronted with something, which may be a reference to Obey Me!
  • The Prince’s Path has a reference to 1337 speak.
  • In Rio’s consort path a professor says “fly you fools” which is a reference to J.R.R. Tolkien’s books.
• Skipping School: Dia and Lance skip class so much they haven’t attended even one lecture.
• Slipping a Mickey: In an event story and in the Prince’s Path Idina drugs the main character’s drink.
• Stock Shoujo Bullying Tactics: The fan club girls corner, harass, yell at and steal from the main character.
• Story Branching: After the prologue the player can choose one of the consort paths. These are separate parallel stories. There is also the Prince’s Path which is separate and parallel to the consort paths. The event stories are also separate and parallel to the consort paths and Prince’s Path.
• Super Powered Date: A consort takes the main character flying while on a date. Guy, Fenn, Toa, Roy, and Lou have done this.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: In an event story King Avari has the main character poisoned.
• Tastes Like Chicken: When the main character tries Saligian foods she describes them and compares them to foods from Earth.
• The Fair Folk: The fairies in Saligia are venomous and will bite you.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The shady underground organization called the Iritum.
• The Proud Elite: Most of the Quelsum nobles and royals.
• Through His Stomach: The consorts often invite the main character to meals, cook with her or for her, or offer to hand feed her. Examples are too many to list.
• Translator Microbes: The main language in Saligia is Latin but something magic allows the main character to hear the Saligians in her language and for them to hear what she says as in Latin even though she doesn’t speak Latin.
• Trapped in Another World: The MC is trapped in the Magical Realm Saligia and must find her way back to Earth and modern Japan where she is from.
• Treasure Is Bigger in Fiction: The familiars have huge cut and polished gems on their heads.
• Truce Zone: The Isle of Colde is neutral ground in Saligia.
• Underground City: On the Isle of Colde there is an underground city named Seiktopia where most of the Vanum/Abell people live.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Provided the player keeps collecting or buying wardrobe space items there does not seem to be a limit to how much wardrobe space and avatar items a player can have.
• Vagueness Is Coming:
  • In the prologue Headmaster Lou warns the main character that people will be after her for her magical power but he does not say if he knows who.
  • In Book 1 of the Prince’s Path Headmaster Lou releases something at the beginning of a Nightmare Battle but it is not revealed what it was until several chapters later.
  • At the beginning of Book 2 of the Prince’s Path Headmaster Lou and a hidden group say something is coming but they don’t say what.
• Virtual Paper Doll: The player avatars can be customized. This includes hair, eyes, eyebrows, mouths, make-up, clothing, shoes, and accessories.
• Who Needs Their Whole Body?: In Book 2 of the Prince’s Path a golem gets its limb cut off but keeps moving anyway.
• Wine Is Classy: The Kingdom of Luxure is known in Saligia for its blue wine.
• Wizarding School: The Royal Academy of Concordia teaches magic to Saligian students who have at least some magical power. To be accepted and stay in they have to have some magical power to begin with.
• You Can Talk?: The main character in reaction to finding out her house cat can talk after he becomes her familiar. Also in reaction to finding out Nix the Headmaster’s bird familiar can talk.
• You Remind Me of X: In Book 2 Chapter 7 of the Prince’s Path Headmaster Lou tells the main character she seems familiar.