Katarina Claes

Katarina Claes (カタリナ・クラエス) is the quintessential villainess of the visual novel game Fortune Lover and 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 she tries desperately not to wind up with bad endings like her game counterpart.

Appearance
Katarina is a pretty young woman with hip-length brown hair that has a single hair strand hanging on the right side and light blue eyes. When she was younger, she wore a blue dress with a blue necklace, and a white belt on its front as well as white socks and black Mary Jane shoes.

Personality
In Fortune Lover, Katarina is a spoiled girl who often is horrible to lower class citizens and is willing to use any means to get what she wants. Katarina is willing to go as far as to abuse her adopted brother Keith along with her mother. She herself doesn't mind using underhanded tactics, such as when Prince Geordo accidentally tripped her; she wanted to have Geordo as a fiancé as compensation.

Presently, 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, Katarina became a tomboy who enjoys sweets and romance novels. She doesn't mind getting dirty, as she will climb trees or work 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.

Game Description
Katarina was a selfish, spoiled princess-type. Because Prince Geordo 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 an adopted brother and often bullied him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Before Reincarnation
Before reincarnating as Katarina, 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 Acchan, her best friend.

After Reincarnation
Katarina 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 Geordo, 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, Katarina 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 Katarina of the game, and decides to focus on trying to stay alive.

After unknowingly accepting Geordo'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. Unintentionally, she begins to form positive relationships with the love interests and other 'villains' of the game, unknowingly averting her bad endings.

Milidiana Claes
In Fortune Lover, Katarina and Millidiana have a very close relationship. Millidiana has raised her daughter to be just like her: a proud noblewoman who believes in the hierarchy of nobility and is excellent at etiquette.

In the present timeline, while initially happy about her daughter's engagement to the prince, after Katarina'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 Katarina's role as a queen.

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

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

Luigi Claes
In Fortune Lover, Luigi was the root of Katarina's rotten personality. His constant doting on her and lack of strict guidance led to Katarina 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. While he is mostly caring towards his daughter and doesn't mind her odd and unladylike behavior most of the time, he is not completely lenient towards her, as he does become strict and serious when her behavior can affect the name of their family in important social events.

Keith Claes
In Fortune Lover, Katarina 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.

In the present timeline, because the current Katarina was able to prevent Keith from being lonely, their relationship instead became very positive. Unbeknownst to Katarina, instead of being a playboy like his game version, Keith had become a sis-con who is completely infatuated with Katarina and sees other people, like Geordo, 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.

After Keith's kidnapping, he also confesses his love to her after he has awoken from his slumber after kissing her in a daydreaming state. Katarina realizes that Keith sees her as a woman, but would constantly forget the fact and always needs to be reminded.

In Verge of Doom, Katarina and Keith despise each other. After Katarina regains memories of her past life, she tries her best to win over Keith and to become real siblings with him (out of both regret and precaution). After their reconciliation, he desires to become close with her and to open his eyes to the life that he had missed due to the misunderstandings about his background.

Anne Shelley
Anne is the personal maid of Katarina. Not much has changed between Anne and Katarina's relationship in-game and in the present timeline. However, Anne and Katarina have a stronger relationship after Katarina regains her past memories. She remains very loyal to Katarina despite her lady's strange decisions.

Tom
Tom is the gardener of the Claes mansion. Despite being a commoner, Katarina befriends him. He occasionally teaches her farming during her days at the mansion, and would come to her aid when she is in need of certain items while in the academy.

Geordo Stuart
In Fortune Lover, Prince Geordo has no love for Katarina and mainly uses her as a shield so that other women would avoid making any attempts to grab his attention. Katarina herself is very much in love with him, and would do anything to protect her position as his fiancée. She does not realize that Geordo doesn't hold any feelings for her because she cannot see through his princely façade and thinks that his politeness stems from affection instead of obligation.

In the present timeline, Geordo has genuine romantic feelings for the Katarina we see in the series, who is oblivious of Geordo’s love towards her, and only believes that Geordo is simply using her to lower any unnecessary attention from other noblewomen. Furthermore, Geordo refuses to annul their marriage despite how certain people, like her brother, Keith, and Katarina's mother, are now opposed to the marriage as they feel Katarina is not suited to be a princess. Katarina is one of the only few people who can see through his princely façade, noticing whenever he looks exhausted or upset when in front of a crowd. She is aware of Geordo's true personality, but she still extends her hand in friendship to him and wishes him happiness in his pursuits in love. Despite of her fear of the bad endings involving his route, she is good friends with Geordo, and trusts him completely to the point where it worries Keith.

After Katarina's kidnapping, she finds out that Geordo is genuinely in love with her after receiving her first kiss from him as a confession. When she realizes this, she would become hyper aware of Geordo's sweet words and actions towards her, something she used to think was just normal behavior of him as a prince. Though in most cases, she would regularly forget about his feelings whenever her minds in preoccupied with other matters. Katarina supports a possible relationship between Geordo and Maria, believing that he will still inevitably fall for their friend.

In Verge of Doom, Katarina remains madly in love with Geordo until she's 15 years old, but loses her attraction towards him after gaining memories of her past life. She realizes the doom that will occur if she continues to be engaged with him, so she actively tries to break it off, despite his refusal. She still likes Geordo, but it is more of admiration than adoration.

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

In the present timeline, Mary was the first female friend that Katarina made. They met during a tea party, where Katarina met her in the garden and the two bonded over their shared interests in plants and gardening. During the build-up of their friendship, Katarina told her how she had 'green fingers' that made her very special, which moved her. Mary 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, and Katarina would visit Mary to support her during her etiquette training. Originally, Mary had no interest in romance novels, but after Sophia and Katarina exchanged romance novels, she began to borrow them from the two as well.

In Verge of Doom, the two barely interacted until they arrive at the Magic Academy. Mary and Katarina become friends due to their similar interests in gardening. Katarina is one of the few nobles who approaches Mary despite of her unapproachable and perfect image, which Mary appreciates a lot.

Sirius Dieke
In the present timeline, Sirius first heard of Katarina through Geordo and Nicole before they entered the academy. He was surprised to see how much Geordo and Nicol had changed due to Katarina'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 fell for her.

Sirius finds a similarity between his dead biological mother and Katarina. He grew indebted and grateful to Katarina for showing him light once again. Eventually, they become good friends. Despite being expelled from the academy, Sirius, who now confidently uses his original name "Raphael" thanks to Katarina, still keeps close contact with her. As Raphael, he aids her in getting into the Magic Ministry in order to delay her marriage with Prince Geordo.

Alan Stuart
In Fortune Lover, Katarina and Alan did not interact with each other. They were not acquainted, as she did not care for anyone that isn't her fiancé.

In the present timeline, Alan was irritated seeing Mary, who always spoke of Katarina, visibly infatuated. In order to make Katarina stay away from Mary, Alan then visited the Claes mansion regularly to compete with Katarina on a daily basis. He slowly opened up, and became good friends with Katarina when she showed him Geordo’s weakness. This made his inferiority complex toward Geordo gradually go away. Alan is Katarina's childhood friend who can keep up with her more tomboyish hobbies the most, such as tree climbing. After Katarina fell into a long sleep due to Sirius, Alan helplessly felt grief and realized his feelings for Katarina. He began competing with his rivals afterward. Not knowing of Alan's feelings for her, Katarina is secretly wishing in her heart that he would hold his affections for their friend Mary, instead of the heroine Maria.

In Verge of Doom, Alan and Katarina barely interacted until they arrive at the Magic Academy. They find kinship in wanting to find Geordo's weakness.

Maria Campbell
In Fortune Lover, Maria was the beautiful heroine and the center of hate for the villainess Katarina. She would constantly bully the commoner and would rally other noblewomen to do the same, in order to intimidate Maria. Katarina despises Maria for becoming very close to her fiance, despite the differences in their status. Katarina's childish and high-horsed nature leads Maria to become the root (albeit not directly) of all her destruction ends.

In the present timeline, Maria and Katarina became very close friends. This started from Katarina accidentally sabotaging Geordo's line while rescuing her from other girls. Katarina then fended off Maria's bullies as much as she could. She realizes that Maria was not the perfect protagonist of the game, but was instead a hardworking girl who deserves happiness, which made Katarina desire to befriend her. During their academic years, Maria wholeheartedly bakes sweets for Katarina on a nearly daily basis. She also states how much she adores Katarina and wishes to stay by her side. Maria's desire to stay by Katarina's side leads both of them to apply in the Magic Ministry.

Despite being the cause of a lot of her doom flags, Katarina is very supportive of Maria's relationships with the love interests of Fortune Lover. She does not want to get in-between Maria and the boys, and desires to support her friend while trying to push herself away from the narrative to prevent possible doom. She truly treasures Maria as a friend, and one of her biggest fears is that her role as a villainess would lead to Maria hating her for meddling in her relationships. Katarina would often put herself in grave danger in order to protect Maria, because of how much the heroine attracts danger to herself because of the nature of their work in the Magic Ministry.

In Verge of Doom, Katarina despised Maria for being a privileged Light Magic user despite being a commoner. She originally lead the bullying of Maria, until she regained memories of her past life and did all she can to stop the harassment that she caused. Katarina apologized for her previous behavior, and Maria accepted it, and now the two are good friends. After Katarina saves Maria from a group of noblewomen who were planning to harm her with fire magic, she shares her sentiments about wanting to become friends with her, and the two officially become friends and starts to call each other by their first names.

Nicol Ascart
In Fortune Lover, Katarina and Nicol did not interact with each other. They were not acquainted, as she did not care for anyone that isn't her fiancé.

In the present timeline, Katarina stated how lucky Nicol was to have such a family. They were words Nicol wanted to hear from a very long time, due to the criticism the Ascart family received (and especially Sophia). Nicol opened his heart to Katarina and then became one of her close childhood friends. Katarina is not aware that Nicol holds romantic feelings for her. Katarina is one of the only few people who can tolerate Nicol's beauty, albeit not all the time. In order to remove any awkward air between them, Katarina would often tell funny and interesting stories about things happening around her in order to converse with Nicol, which he would appreciate a lot. Unbeknownst to her, she is one of the only few people that he would show a genuine smile to, because of how much he trusts and cares for her company.

Katarina would often faint at Nicol's attempts to be close or to confess to her, leading her to either assume it was a dream or forget everything when she wakes up.

In Verge of Doom, Nicol and Katarina have only started interacted when they arrive in the Magic Academy. She is awestruck by his beauty. Nicol is struck with gratitude at Katarina's sentiments of envy of the close familial bond of the Ascart Family, since it is something that the Claes Family does not have. Nicol wishes Katarina good luck in mending the relationship of her family, which motivates her to become more close with Keith.

Sophia Ascart
In the game, Sophia and Katarina were fellow rivals for the heroine. They did not interact much, if at all, due to Katarina's self-centered nature and disregard for anyone that isn't her fiancé.

In the present timeline, Sophia and Katarina became friends. They became very close and often discussed about romance novels from time to time as novel readers. Sophia desires to become Katarina's sister through a marriage between her friend and her brother, which makes her advertise her brother's charms at every opportunity that she can. Katarina is not aware of this though, and believes that Sophia is simply acting as a very affectionate little sister.

In Verge of Doom, Katarina becomes friends with Sophia thanks their similar tastes in romance novels. Katarina becomes her first friend in the Magic Academy. Thanks to Katarina, Sophia had slowly begun to make more friends through the other people in Katarina's circle.

Before Katarina's reincarnation, Sophia was Atsuko Sasaki, nicknamed "Acchan", her best friend in her past life.

Sienna Nelson
In Verge of Doom, Sienna is Katarina's friend and most loyal follower in the spin-off manga. Katarina, in the past, often encouraged Sienna to keep her chin high as her selected follower, and to be more proud of herself as a noble. After she gains memories of her past life, she becomes a little bit clingy to Sienna, not wanting to be alone as she loses the confidence to approach her other followers in the same way as she did in the past. She plays the 'straight man' (tsukkomi) towards Katarina.

Sora Smith
During the Magic Academy's School Festival, Katarina 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 Katarina. She admires his cool-headed way of thinking, and thinks that he is attractive and cool not for his looks, but his personality, They share the same adventurous spirit and promised to travel somewhere together in the future. After the event, Sora repeatedly flirts with Katarina and by all means tries to befriend and romance her, which all ends up in vain due to Katarina's denseness.

Sora and Katarina are later colleagues of the Ministry of Magic, under the Magic Tools Department. The two are very close in the Ministry, often working alongside each other during tasks given to them because they work in the same department. Sora walks Katarina to her carriage during the end of the work day, where they would chat to strengthen their friendship.

Dewey Percy
Katarina and Dewey are colleagues of the Ministry of Magic, where Katarina works at post-graduation. At first, he looked cold towards Katarina; but after having a conversation with Maria, he apologized to her and have opened up to her. After the Magic Ministry Test, the two have become good friends and would often eat lunch and do tasks together with Maria and Sora.

Cyrus Lanchester
Cyrus and Katarina are good friends. Cyrus shares Katarina's interest in farming and Katarina helps him out with interacting with Maria. They both see each other as old people, making them very comfortable of each other despite of Cyrus' fear of talking to women.

Caesar Dall
While both of them were pretending to be of lower status, Katarina and Caesar often interacted during the International Meeting. Despite Caesar having little trust in women, Katarina remains an exception because of how her carefree and fearless personality made him feel comfortable and intrigued. She is one of the very few people who doesn't discriminate him for his unique eyes, which solidifies Caesar's trust in her. Even though they had only been interacting for a few days, the two are very close. Caesar reminds Katarina of her older brothers from her past life.

Caesar is waiting for the possibility that Katarina breaks her engagement with Prince Geordo, so he can bring her to his homeland and marry her himself. Despite thinking that she will never see him again due to their duties as nobles, they continue to interact through her work investigating dark magic.

Selena Burke
During Katarina's kidnaping in the midst of the School Festival, she had forged a friendship with Selena, who prior to the event was merely acquainted with the point where she didn't even remember her name. Despite the fact that Selena was the one who orchestrated her kidnapping, she was not wary of her due her impressions as a kind fiancée to Prince Ian. After Selena opens up her feelings about being a prince's fiancé and about the truth of the kidnapping, Katarina gives her advice about being honest and upfront about her feelings to Prince Ian, and the two share a bond. The two became very good friends after the event.

Ginger Tucker
Katarina is very doting and friendly towards Ginger, as she was her junior and a member of the student council. After Ginger discovers Katarina's farm and have a meal together where they eat newly harvested vegetables, she believes that they have shared a deep bond and became even closer. Katarina's enthusiastic attempts of approaching and feeding Ginger freaks her junior out, without her knowledge. Unlike the other junior members of the student council, Katarina believes that Ginger is not "rude, unintelligent or ugly", but instead insists that Ginger is "kind, cute and a tsundere". Once Katarina graduates, she notes that being able to see Ginger and Fray's antics will be one of the many things that she will miss from the Magic Academy.

Arnaud
Arnaud and Katarina had been acquaintances during their stay in the Ocean Port Town. Arnaud had been taking care of a stray cat alone, until Katarina finds the cat and offers to help him take care of it, while also helping him find a new owner. While she was initially warned about interacting with civilians in the port due to the nature of the Ministry's mission, she immediately trusts him because she was able to tell that he was a kind-hearted man beneath his cold demeanor. The two bond over taking care of the cat, creating a friendship between them.

Kai Gerran
In Verge of Doom, Mr. Gerran is currently Katarina's sword training teacher. She is a very enthusiastic and diligent student to him, and is always willing to learn.

Pochi
Pochi is presently Katarina's darkness attribute dog familiar, staying true to the game's events during Fortune Lover II as Katarina's destined familiar. Katarina is very much attached to Pochi, being very enthusiastic about having a dog that actually likes her. They would often play fetch in Katarina's farm. It is also thanks to Pochi that Katarina has been admitted as an employee into the Magic Ministry, under the title of "Wielder of a Darkness Familiar". The dog is very loyal to Katarina, and would often protect her when she is in danger

Alexander
Katarina and the bear have been enemies since of finding Keith. Katarina addresses the bear as 'Ugly Bear'. She isn't sure why Alexander dislikes her, but she would reciprocate the rude attitude and small pranks that the bear would do to her.

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

Earth Magic
Katarina 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 Bump' skill. In her Character Profile, it says that her magical power is rated a 1 on a 5-point scale.

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

She obtains a familiar of darkness named "Pochi" after destroying a dark familiar that was placed in Keith's neck, manifesting through a magic tool that she held at the time. According to Sarah, owners of familliars of darkness are fated to succumb to the darkness or go insane at some point during their ownership of one but for some reason, Katarina remains immune.

Katarina also gains the Dark Covenant, a book of lost magic that on she can read.

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

 * Katarina dislikes everything related to academics.
 * Among the cast, Katarina and Sora have the weakest magic (both are rated 1 on a 5 point scale).
 * Katarina is officially the dumbest out of all the characters.
 * Katarina and Nicol Ascart share the same level of charisma, although Katarina's charisma is limited to only some people.
 * Katarina's physical strength is on par with Keith, Nicol and Sirius; making her the strongest female character in terms of physical strength.
 * Katarina is the only one in the cast who still can't read Ancient Scripts, despite studying it for two years.
 * This could be because Katarina is already multi-lingual by nature, knowing different forms of japanese thanks to her past life, as well as the preferred language of Sorcier.
 * Katarina is very similar to Selena Burke.
 * Both women are brown haired duchesses that are engaged to a blonde prince of the kingdom. They are both deemed unfit to be fiancées of princes by their family and other noblewomen of high society.
 * They both have very weak magical aptitudes.
 * When Katarina is 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