I've been verbally ambushed while unarmed. I've no better description of what just happened. The woman in front of me is clearly enjoying peeling off the persona made for the purpose of disguising me, and if it was just that, then I would have been fine... however, I know nothing about this woman other than that her father was killed and that she was a tyrant in the book... no. I know more. I know a bit from her political actions.

"What?! If you knew that was a woman why did you not tell me?!" bursts out from Jacques irritatedly as he turns to Catarina while tensing up.

"I am sure you have the wrong person Princess Catarina, and prince Jacques, please do not refer to others in such a crude manner," Lionel cuts in while I'm still gathering my thoughts. He looks angry, and he looks confused. Keeping up with this is likely difficult for him since he knows nothing clearly. No, back to Catarina. The only time she could have connected the dots was when 'Augustus' appeared at the academy-

"Don't try to pull the Augustus facade. Lily Celeste never had a brother, though you don't look surprised at all. How unexpected that you'd know," Catarina brushes Lionel off and then smiles to Jacques.

"If I had told you, then you would have used that to get her in trouble. You would have ruined the meeting... now now, don't look so angry, you already agreed that the benefits of working with us was worth it." Her bright smile is betrayed by the gleam in her eyes. They may be 'Allies' but there seems to be only superficial trust between them. Jacques visibly tenses his jaw and crosses his arms, but doesn't say anything further. Whatever the benefit, it must be important. Though, by the way she said that just now, that means Jacques isn't reincarnated.

"Ho~ and how can you make such a bold claim, as to know the Celeste lineage, Princess?"

There. We'll pry her for the information. If she doesn't answer then face will be saved.

"Ah, that's simple. I am one of the original developers of the game. Ah. You do know about the game, right? I forgot to confirm that part."

...developer... inventor... maker... for books... author...

"Ah. You're the idiot pervert that decided on the lewd school uniform."

Finally reaching a usable conclusion I end up saying out the first thing in my mind. Unfiltered. I don't know why it came out. I didn't mean for it to get out... must be the horror of wearing the perverted uniform for months and dealing with the horribly written love script... and Gilbert. Wait... if this is the author... I have a bunch of complaints to make!

I end up continuing after a moment of awkward silence of Catarina being shocked and neither Lionel or Jacques apparently knowing what to say.

"First of all, why would you make the skirts so short?! Secondly, why would you make creepy a character like Gil?! And why by the gods would you make Lionel a sadist?! What made that sound like a good idea?!"

Catarina finally puffs up a bit, though she's already bigger than me in multiple dimensions.

"What do you have against Japanese school girl skirts?! Gil-Chan isn't creepy, he's cool! The charm is in how he gets all possessive and lovey dovey and gets rid of everything that wants to bother you!" She yells back at me with a whine.

"What part about that is good?! Have you ever been on his bad side?! He fed me poison when I was 8 because I slapped his hand for touching my butt!"

At this point Catarina goes blank.

"Eh? He wasn't supposed to do that. What did you do to anger him?"

...what?! That part was my fault?!... I feel dizzy. I think too much blood rushed to my head just now. I don't feel so good...

I take a few deep breaths and glance to the two quiet guys. Jacques is looking exhausted and is ignoring the conversation entirely, but Lionel appears to be trying to keep up with everything. Once I glance to him he looks to Catarina determinedly.

"What is this 'game'?"

I'm not sure if he is buying time for me to gather my thoughts, or if he is sincerely trying to get an answer, but I am thankful.

"Ah, think of it as writing a bunch of ways about how this world could turn out, except I was one of the people that made the world."

She then turns to me and looks as though she's about to continue. Us. Not Jacques. The north. The actions of the first princess Catarina of Crinia and the young king Landon of Semor match up! Wait. That means Jesmaine is from the east, Catarina is from the south, Landon is from the north... what about Zocria?

...they were planning to make me marry Alstair and have Claire killed. That's why there was never any assassins after me... wait... no... why did they try to kill Alstair as well if they wanted me to marry him... of course the realization hits me like a club. They were using the marriage as a secondary plan in case they failed in killing him. Lady Pelenet had probably been reporting to Catarina.

"Anyway. I was not the only developer, but I did make most of Eric and Lily's story parts. I had quite a lot of fun designing them, so seeing a character I made in real life is so satisfying. I just want to try dressing you up a bit and have you twirl-"

Her stare got more intense as she reached out for me in sheer fascination and looking at me as though part of me was a doll... I was planning on stopping her, but Lionel was ahead of me and pushed her hand down as it got near me. Staring her down angrily.

"If you made this world, and finely made the part with Lily and Eric, then you're the one that made Lady Adela and made Lily fall in love with his Highness?"

I admit, I didn't expect him to be this calm. No... perhaps not calm. I didn't expect him to play along with this. I'm quite sure he doesn't believe what she is saying as it is right now. He's merely distracting her.

Catarina's lips simply curl into a cruel grin.

"Yes. Though, I wasn't the one that wrote how your brothers was supposed to die at a party because you didn't have time to find them because Alstair was afraid Lily would sneak into his room... and Lily was naive enough to think the drink and food from the maid were fine and gave it to your brothers... or how Gil-chan knew all along... or how your mother died of her poisoned pendant... or how you went mad after that and killed Bertrams' mother and then how Bertram saw you with a knife in his mother's throat, as he had run to her after being forced to drink poison by a maid..."

Lionel is paralyzed at this point. It sounds like a twisted version of what actually happened. But... I think both Lionel and I know that all of that could... no, would have happened if not for small coincidences. No... if I hadn't been able to kill her or known about poison then it would have happened. If I hadn't reincarnated, then that is probably how it would have turned out. Lionel realized too. Catarina's grin widens as she continues.

"Either way, Gil-Chan's parents managed to make up some excuse that Lily-Chan here was supposed to have been in another room. Cute Lily-Chan never dared to bring up the truth with you. Ah, but, for Alstair's good ending, where the Heroine ends up with the prince, Lily cries so much in prison that you went mad. After all, you knew that something stupid like bullying a baron's bastard child wouldn't get a marquess daughter executed. Especially not the crown prince's fiancé. At worst it would have been covered up and she would pay a small fine. At the very worst. So you knew that Alstair just wanted her dead, and you had to watch her naive and love filled head as she begged for him to forgive her... so you laid a hand on her, or had someone lay a hand on her. We never really decided on one. Just to force her to face the truth. You're a sadist after all. Of course... other than her clothes being ripped and hope gone from her eyes on the image, we never wrote about that it happened. As a little present for those who were a bit too observant."

Jacques isn't entering the conversation at all, and I am honestly at a loss for words. I thought he had tortured Lily... no... wait- did he do it in the 'harem' end too which Helena had mentioned? Where is Helena?!

"I am not a sadist, how dare you make accusations that I would act like that or put a hand on a woman in such a way!" Lionel roars our at her in a loss of composure I haven't seen before. He may have snapped at our argument, but this time was only angry. He tenses up and I can see color rise to his face at a dangerous pace. Catarina just grins a satisfied smile at him with no sense of regret whatsoever. I grab Lionel's arm and watch him cautiously.

"Lionel. She's just taunting you." He doesn't look away from her, but he doesn't move either.

"That's right, just taunting you. After all, our little bottle of chaos stepped into Lily's body and prevented all of that from happening and ruined all of the story I made for Eric who is now apparently a confident young man with no grudges against his sister and a family that is getting along. No, I mean, the whole little misunderstanding between your parents might have been a bit too easy to solve, but did you really have to work out Eric's troubles too?" She looks somewhat sullen... this conversation is going off the track...

"He fixed that himself. I just gave him a little push. Now, all of these pointless things aside, you had something more important to say, didn't you?"

Catarina brushes her silken black strands over her shoulders casually and undignified. Erotic some would say, but not dignified.

"Ah, I just got distracted by Alstair's mad guard dog for a moment." She casually flings out another insult at Lionel which he swallows with a tensed jaw. If I take my hand off of him he might fly off the handle. I never took Lionel as someone this fast to anger, but perhaps she just touched a few triggers. Catarina's expression turns serious, but she still ignores Lionel.

"You know the end of the story?" She asks briefly, probably to know how much she needs to explain. I nod quite simply.

"In that case you probably already know why I want to talk with you. After all, we all die in the final purge. To think we all reincarnated as characters doomed to die." She sighs... and I feel like someone was forgotten...

Lionel perks up a bit and for some reason calms down at this purge thing. Not sure if he's looking forward to her death...

"What purge?" He asks out, somehow still thinking he will get a proper answer from her. I decide to answer before Catarina can do it and taunt him again.

"It is a final war after my execution, where Ristaze conquers Crinia. Headal, Semor and Zocria by Claire using mass healing spells to keep the Tepet army alive, and what I assume is the actual Salender army doing their usual things."

Lionel turns sheet white at my words. Not at all happy with the news. He just keeps staring at me as the anger from before kind of dissipates and he almost looks worried and hurt instead... oh, no, here comes the anger.

"Why-?!" He cuts himself short immediately and takes a deep breath to calm himself down again... Now, while he puts some puzzle pieces together I can continue the other nightmare talk. I'll worry about his weird little burst of anger later.

"In other words, you're trying to kill Alstair and or Claire so the purge will never happen, and you want me to assist you in this, since making me marry Alstair failed." She had probably been thinking the same as Lionel, that I would keep Alstair in check. Catarina puts a hand back on her hip and glances to Jacques and then back to me with a satisfied look.

"That would sum it up, yes. The time is limited after all, after they get a hold of the mass healing techniques our time is out."

Lionel's brows furrow at her words and they shake him out of his trance of trying to let things make sense.

"Those are a secret kept by House Listere. Claire will not be able to learn them," he says out softly. Though, even I can hear the doubt in his voice this time. I suddenly understand why she allowed Lionel to attend. She's trying to turn him against Alstair completely... but how does she intend to do something like that...?

"That aside, going against our lord is against the contract. It cannot be done. If you will fight, then so will we, but not on your side." I try to cut the conversation short and glance behind me to prepare to leave. Helena is running towards us. I'll just pull her back, Jesmaine isn't here.

"Ah yes, the lord-vassal contract. There's very few of those the royal family haven't broken. Like how all light magic users in House Listere die an... unexpected death..."