Katarina Claes

Katarina Claes (カタリナ・クラエス, Katarina Kuraesu) is the quintessential villainess of the visual novel game Fortune Lover and is the main protagonist of the series. After hitting her head as a child, she suddenly remembers her previous life as a high school student, and tries desperately not to wind up with bad endings like her game counterpart.

Game Description
Catarina was a selfish, spoiled princess type. Because Prince Gerald injured her during childhood, they had gotten engaged. Because of this scar, she considered the prince to be hers, and bound him to her. In addition, she didn’t think highly of suddenly getting a stepbrother, and often bullied him.

Gerald Stuart
If the heroine captures Prince Gerald successfully and gets the happy end, Catarina's extreme harassment of the heroine causes her to be declared a criminal and stripped of her social status, ending with Catarina being exiled.

In the bad end, Catarina attacks the heroine with a knife in a fit of jealousy, and instead gets killed by Prince Gerald. He then breaks up with the heroine and embarks on a journey to another country.

Keith Claes
Whether happy end or bad end, Catarina gets exiled or dies. In the happy end, Catarina's horrible harassment of the heroine causes her to become a criminal, then is deprived of her noble status and exiled.

In the bad end, Keith is unable to protect the heroine and Catarina manages to inflict a deep wound on her. Keith is heartbroken and kills Catarina with magic then disappears.

Alan Stuart
In this route, Catarina is not the main rival to the heroine and is instead replaced by Prince Alan's fiance, Mary Hunt.

Nicole Ascart
The rival in this route is Sophia Ascart, Nicole's younger sister. Catarina is not featured in this route and does not interact with any of the two.

Before Reincarnation
Before reincarnating as Catarina, she was a 17-year-old high school student. Her family consisted of a mother who was a part-time housewife, a typical salaryman father, and two older brothers. She was commonly called a monkey by her classmates, due to her quirk of randomly climbing trees. She was usually scolded by her teachers because she would regularly forget her homework. Because of this, she would always ask for help from A-chan, her best friend.

After Reincarnation
Catarina Claes, before remembering her past as a high school student, was very arrogant and quick to anger, such as when she became bored of a ribbon she herself had only just picked out, and threatened to fire the maids who helped her put it on. Upon meeting Gerald, she became possessive of him almost immediately, and was shown to have had a crush on him before hitting her head.

In the Series
After remembering her past life, Catarina becomes anxious about the number of ways she could end up ruining her life, such as death or exile. She then resolves not to end up like the game's Catarina, and decides to focus on trying to stay alive.

After unknowingly accepting Gerald's marriage proposal, she decides to train her swordsmanship and magic to protect herself, the latter leading her to start a farm to hone her earth magic.

While unintentional, she begins to form positive relationships with the love interests and other 'villains' of the game, unknowingly averting her bad endings.

Fortune Lover II
In the sequel of the first game Fortune Lover, Catarina returns as a villainess with new magical abilities.

Personality
In-game Catarina is a spoiled girl who often is horrible to lower class citizens she is willing to use any means to get what she wants. Catarina is willing to go as far as to abuse her stepbrother Keith along with her mother. She herself doesn't mind using underhand tactics such as when Prince Gerald accidentally trip her she wanted to have Gerald as a fiancé as compensation.

Upon regaining her memories of her previous life as a humble Japanese schoolgirl, she turns into a kind individual who is willing to help anyone in need of help. As a child, Catarina became a tomboy who enjoys sweets and romance novels. she doesn't mind getting dirty such as climbing trees or working on her garden. She is also willing to forgive people who do wrong towards her or people close to her. She is also incredibly simple-minded as she doesn't understand romance and is oblivious to her friends' close affection towards her.

Miri Diana Claes
Catarina's mother. While initially happy about her daughter's engagement to the prince, after Catarina's behavior becomes more eccentric due to remembering her past life, she wishes to annul her daughter's engagement, believing that not only was she no longer suitable to be a princess, but that she would also bring shame upon the family. She agrees with Keith from time to time on opposing Catarina's role as a queen.

Catarina's overall relationship with her mother may be considered somewhat negative, as Catarina would very much wish to avoid meeting her mother, although this isn't attributed to abusive conduct, but rather that Miri Diana has very high standards for Catarina and is very strict with her, in particular. Miri Diana is annoyed by Catarina's conduct that heavily deviates from the norm for nobles and reprimands Catarina on a regular basis.

In a side story, Miri Diana feels uneasy upon hearing Catarina's rising popularity and how her daughter has a lot of secret admirers.

Luigi Claes
In the game, Luigi was the root of Catarina's rotten personality. His constant doting on her and lack of strict guidance led to Catarina becoming extremely spoiled and selfish.

In the present timeline, not much has changed. He still loves his daughter dearly and dotes on her. But most of all, he cares for her well-being as well.

Keith Claes
In the game Fortune Lovers, Catarina and Keith had a cold relationship. Due to her sometimes physical abuse towards him and general neglect from the mansion staff and his family, he became a playboy who vied for attention.

Because the current Catarina was able to prevent Keith from being lonely, their relationship instead became very positive. Unbeknownst to Catarina, instead of being a playboy like his game version, Keith had become a sis-con who is completely infatuated with Catarina and sees other people, like Gerald, as rivals. Keith is constantly worried about his sister, who is oblivious of how many people she unintentionally seduces. Despite the fact their relationship is a positive one Katarina often relays on Keith to help her with the thankless tasks such as homework in turn Keith takes upon himself to make sure Katarina doesn't embarrass herself in public.

He confesses his love to Catarina later in the series.

Anne Sherry
Anne is the personal maid of Catarina. Not much has changed between Anne and Catarina's relationship in-game and in the present timeline. However, Anne and Catarina have a stronger relationship after Catarina's reincarnation. She remains very loyal to Catarina despite Catarina's strange decisions.

Tom
Tom is the gardener of the Claes mansion. Despite being a commoner, Catarina befriends him. He occasionally teaches her farming during her days at the mansion.

Gerald Stuart
In the game Fortune Lovers, Prince Gerald has no love for Catarina and mainly uses her as a shield so that other women would avoid making any attempts to grab his attention.

Gerald has genuine romantic feelings for the Catarina we see in the series, who is oblivious of Gerald's love towards her, and only believes that Gerald is simply using her to lower any unnecessary attention from other noblewomen. Furthermore, Gerald refuses to annul their marriage despite how certain people, like her brother, Keith, and Catarina's mother, are now opposed to the marriage as they feel Catarina is not suited to be a princess.

Catarina later falls in love with Gerald later in the series, but distanced herself from him and locked up her feelings because she felt a strong sense of inferiority between the other girls and herself. She supports Gerald's relationship with Maria, thinking that they made a better couple without Catarina in sight.

Mary Hunt
In the game, Mary and Catarina were fellow rivals for the heroine. They were barely acquainted with each other, and there was not much interaction between them.

In the current timeline, Mary was the first female friend that Catarina made. They met during a tea party, where Catarina met her in the garden and told her how she had 'green fingers'. This moved Mary. She eventually became infatuated with Katarina, causing Mary to be sharply protective of her and cutting her rivals' advances as much as she could.

During their childhood, Mary also visits the Claes mansion regularly as an attempt to escape from her sisters' harsh remarks and bullying.

She also states that if she were a man, she would definitely ask for Catarina's hand in marriage.

Mary states that one of the reasons why she fell in love with Catarina was because Catarina was always there for her when she was most stressed and despaired. When Catarina praised her necklace, Mary felt happy and grew even more fond of her because it was a memento of her mother.

Originally, Mary had no interest in romance novels. But after Sophia and Catarina exchanged romance novels, she began to borrow them from the two as well.

Sirius Deek
In the current timeline, Sirius first heard of Catarina through Gerald and Nicole before they entered the academy. He was surprised to see how much Gerald and Nicole had changed due to Catarina's influence. He misinterpreted Katarina's acts of kindness and viewed her as a hypocrite, going as far as to call her a 'saint'. His impression of her eventually led him to hate her, as well as framing her in bullying Maria. Still, he slowly opened his heart to her and eventually befriended her.

Sirius finds a similarity between his dead biological mother and Catarina. He grew indebted and grateful to Catarina for showing him light once again. Eventually, they become good friends.

Despite being expelled from the academy, Rafael still keeps close contact with Catarina.

Alan Stuart
In the game, Catarina and Alan did not interact with each other. They were not acquainted.

In the present timeline, Alan was irritated seeing Mary who always spoke of Catarina, visibly infatuated. In order to make Catarina stay away from Mary, Alan then visited the Claes mansion regularly to compete with Catarina on a daily basis. He slowly opened up, and became good friends with Catarina when she showed him Gerald's weakness. This made his inferiority complex toward Gerald gradually go away.

After Catarina fell into a long sleep due to Sirius, Alan helplessly felt grief and realized his feelings for Catarina. He began competing with his rivals afterward.

Maria Campbell
In the game, Maria was the beautiful heroine and the center of hate for the villainess Catarina. She was constantly bullied by Catarina and her clique due to her getting close with Gerald, Catarina's engagement partner. Catarina's childish nature leads Maria to become the root(albeit not directly) of all Catarina's destruction ends.

In the present timeline, Maria and Catarina became very close friends. This started from Catarina accidentally sabotaging Gerald's line while rescuing her from other girls. Catarina then fended off Maria's bullies as much as she could.

During their academic years, Maria wholeheartedly bakes sweets for Catarina on a nearly daily basis. She also states how much she adores Catarina and wishes to stay by her side.

Nicole Ascart
In the present timeline, Catarina stated how lucky Nicole was to have such a family. They were words Nicole wanted to hear from a very long time, due to the criticism the Ascart family received(and especially Sophia). Nicole opened his heart to Catarina and then became one of her close childhood friends. He began to harbor feelings toward Catarina but refused to make any advances because it was 'forbidden' since Catarina was Gerald, Nicole's friend's fiancee.

However, Sophia fully supports Nicole's relationship with Catarina. She encourages her brother to make moves on Catarina.

Sophia Ascart
In the game, Sophia and Catarina were fellow rivals for the heroine.

In the present timeline, Sophia and Catarina became friends. They became very close and often discussed about romance novels from time to time as novel readers.

Before Catarina's reincarnation, Sophia was Atsuko Sasaki, nicknamed 'A-chan', the protagonist's best friend.

Sienna
Sienna is Catarina's friend in the spin-off manga. She plays the 'straight man'(tsukkomi) towards Catarina.

Dewey Percy
Catarina and Dewey are colleagues of the Ministry of Magic, where Catarina works at post-graduation.

Sora
During the volume 3, Catarina was kidnapped by Sora. However, during her time as a hostage, they became friends with each other and Sora even developed a romantic interest in Catarina. They promised to travel somewhere together as they share an adventurous trait. After volume 3, Sora repeatedly flirts with Catarina and by all means tries to romance her, which all ends up in vain due to Catarina's denseness. Sora and Catarina are later colleagues of the Ministry of Magic.

Pochy
Pochy is the present Catarina's darkness attribute dog familiar, staying true to the game's events during Fortune Lover II as Catarina's destined familiar. Pochy's true identity is the magician Sarah. She fell in love with Catarina.

Caesar Dall
While pretending to be of lower status, he and Katarina often talk together as close friends. Despite Cesar having little trust in women, Katarina remains an exception and both have mutual trust.

He is waiting for the moment where Katarina breaks her engagement so he can bring her to his homeland and marry her himself.

Arte
In the collaboration manga, Arte and Katarina become good friends. Katarina deeply respects Arte and admires her works.

Earth Magic
Catarina possesses earth magic which she awakens at the age of 5. However, her magic is so weak that she could only crack a small area of ground. this limits her to use only the 'Earth Thud' skill.

Dark Magic
Catarina is able to use dark magic later in the series.

According to Pochy, users of dark magic are fated to succumb to illnesses and have their life forces drained at some point during their lifetime but for some reason, Catarina remains immune.

She also obtains a familiar named Pochy.

Tree-climbing
Although played for laughs, Katarina possesses the ability to easily climb any tree.

Physical Strength
Katarina has strong physical strength; this may be the result of farming since her childhood.

Trivia

 * She dislikes everything related to academics.
 * Along with Anne(who is incapable of magic), she has the weakest magic.
 * She is officially the dumbest out of all the characters.
 * She and Nicole share the same level of charisma, though Katarina's charisma is limited to only some people.
 * Her physical strength is on par with Keith, Nicole, and Sirius; making her the strongest female character in terms of physical strength.
 * When asked what she would like her lover to do for her, she replies that she would like them to treat her like the princesses in romance novels, although she changes her mind.

"Being held like a princess like in those romance novels, having them whisper sweet nothings into my ears in a place with a beautiful night view... or so I thought. Lately, though, I've discovered that hearing sweet nothings in my ears is way too intense! This is a lesson I've learned the hard way."

- Katarina

