I’m in Love with the Villainess – 12 (Fin) – Tipping the Scales

Rae is certain that she’s lost Claire, and there’s nothing she can do to get her back. But then Manaria grabs her in the hall and asks why she’s giving up and running away so easily. Rae thinks that’s pretty rich coming from the girl who stole Claire from her, but in her thoughts she can’t deny that Manaria is absolutely right about her: she is running away, putting up a “noble front” to avoid the pain of rejection.

Manaria tells her that kind of feelings that “seek nothing in return” end up “warped”. She knows from experience, having bottled up her love for a palace maid, then one day make a terrible mistake, forcing herself on her. The maid eventually disappeared, and Manaria hasn’t loved anyone quite like that ever since. The rumors were true: she sought the clarity of money for sex, but it never satisfied.

Despite her appetites, I’ve been pretty sure since she showed up that Manaria is playing the villain on purpose to bring Rae and Claire closer. While it’s had the opposite effect so far, she knows how to get Claire to make a U-turn: by threatening to make Claire her plaything. That does the trick: the two will make their offerings to the scales of Amour. If Rae loses, not only does Manaria get Claire, but Rae as well.

Manaria later informs Claire of the contest she and Rae are undertaking, and Claire’s first instinct is to resent being used as a prize for their competition. Manaria tells her she’s not blameless, for she refuses to tell her or Rae how she really feels. In fact, the scales may not be measuring her or Rae’s feelings, but Claire’s.

She leans close to Claire to whisper something, and that leads Claire to search everywhere for Rae, only to learn she’s out performing all of the Knights missions on the bulletin board, then admires the necklace Rae gave her in the mirror. Rae’s not fighting through the night to level up, but to acquire an exceedingly rare (0.5%) drop, knowing Manaria will most likely bring a Flower of Flora to the ceremony.

When the day of the ceremony arrives, Claire is standing with Misha, who asks her straight up to say honestly who she hopes will win: Manaria or Rae. Claire says the whole enterprise is insulting (she’s no prize), but Misha hopes it will be Rae. When Claire accuses her of favoring her friend, Misha asks how she feels about Rae.

Claire goes over all of the silly and embarrassing things Rae has said and did, but ultimately looks upon those times with fondness, stating Rae is “far too cheeky for a commoner.” When asked if she’d take Rae back as her maid, Claire says it would be impossible for someone of the nobility to bow to a commoner.

Nevertheless, Misha hopes for a miracle, both for Claire and for Rae. And at first it looks like those hopes are futile, for only Manaria shows up, with the Flower of Flora (of course), and with no opponent on the other side of the scales, she declares victory, takes a knee, and dedicates herself to Claire with the same words she used years ago when Claire thought she was a boy.

Manaria leans in for a deal-sealing kiss when a filthy, tattered Rae appears and shouts “STOP!” Rae makes clear in no uncertain terms that she won’t let Manaria “have” Claire; this makes Claire blush. But Manaria declares victory, saying nothing beats a Flower of Flora for an Amour offering. Rae presents her offering: a little twig with one leaf and a couple of tiny buds.

The offering is met with laughter, but Rae isn’t joking around. Not anymore. After she places the twig on the scales, nothing happens for a dramatically appropriate amount of time, during which Claire realizes her own faith in Rae may be the key. Then a giant goddamn tree grows from the twig, weighing the scales down in Rae’s favor.

The first question everyone has is what the heck is with this tree, Rae explains it’s a Tree of Eternal Love, dropped only very rarely from a particularly nasty tree monster. It’s a secret item that would only be known to a player of the game, since getting it gives you access to an exclusive event CG. Rae vowed not to rely on something like this as it felt like cheating, but against a foe like Manaria and Claire’s freedom on the line, she realized she had no choice.

After accomplishing something no one else had done before in history (i.e. trump the Flora flower) Rae is finally able to be real with Claire. “I’m not capable of the love you see in stories,” she says. “I can’t even say what really matters without turning it into a joke.” But no matter who she loses to or has to kneel to, she will always love Claire. But before Claire can take her hand as a sign that she’s picking up what she’s putting down, Manaria gathers Rae into a hug, earnestly proclaiming that Rae was the one she’s been after from the start!

All the times she made Rae jealous by hitting on Claire? That was to get all of those adorable reactions out of Rae. But before she can kiss Rae, Claire puts a stop to it, grabbing Rae and pushing her behind her, declaring that “Rae belongs to me! You can’t take my things from me!” In response to this, Rae hugs Claire in appreciation.

Shortly after all of this hullabaloo, Manaria is called back to her kingdom, where the first prince has died and she’s now a contender for the throne. It’s around this time that Rae finally gets around to realizing that Manaria may have been playing the bad guy on purpose all this time to get her and Claire closer.

Misha, Claire’s flunkies, and the three princes all support Claire and Rae, acknowledging that love takes many forms. This irks Claire, but she can no longer deny that she cares for Rae. After all, she fought for her!

Before she departs for home, Manaria meets with Rae in private to ask her one question: “Just who are you?” Rae probably predicted that finding a secret offering that surpassed the Flower of Flora might elicit some suspicion from certain characters. All she’ll tell Manaria is that she swears on Claire that she isn’t a spy of the Empire, which is all Manaria needs.

We also learn that at some point in the game, Claire, the villainess, is executed, so Rae’s goal going forward is to prevent what for her would be the Worst Ending. Until then, she continues to openly flirt with Claire in class, and not only does Claire not hate it, but everyone around is on board.

Will we ever get a continuation of this nascent romance? Who’s to say? All I know is we end things on a high point, with Rae not settling for unrequited love. Claire, who is classically so easily made to be lonely, need not worry about being alone ever again. Manaria provided the kick in the butt Rae needed to fight not just for Claire’s happiness, but her own. If this story ever continues in the future, you can be sure I’ll be watching.

I’m in Love with the Villainess – 11 – Jolene Complex

You’ve probably heard Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”, or her apprentice Miley Cyrus’ cover of same. It’s a gorgeous, song full of pain and longing, and reminded me of Rae’s situation here. She cannot hope to compete with Princess Manaria’s beauty, charm, ability, or even confidence.

Manaria could be with anyone, man or woman, but she is taking Claire from Rae “just because she can”. She’s all over Claire to the point Rae doesn’t get any time with her. She complains to Misha, who tells her that if she can’t take it anymore, the only thing for it is to fight her.

Now, it is abundantly clear that a fight is exactly what Manaria wants. But I don’t think she quite wants it for the reasons Rae thinks. While poor Dolly had to beg Jolene not to take her true love away, this feels to me like tough love: like Manaria is forcing Rae to get off the sidelines and act for what she wants.

The thing is, Rae is so sure she has zero romantic shot at Claire, she’s settling for being happy that she’s happy. She recalls from the game that Manaria helped the Heroine (i.e. her). I think she still is, but Rae can’t see it. And then the flunkies ask Rae to protect Claire from Manaria, whom they’ve learned has a “reputation” among the ladies of the night in her kingdom

The prospect of Manaria hurting Claire has Rae on edge, so when Manaria is just outside Claire’s door after Rae bids her good night, she accepts her invitation for a chat. Manaria doesn’t mince words: she has been provoking Rae on purpose. Rae declares that she doesn’t mind if Claire won’t look her way, while also insisting her love for her trumps everyone else’s.

Manaria calls her out on this, saying wishing for her happiness without bothering to consider if she’d make her happiest is nothing but running away and giving up. Manaria even says she feels bad for both Rae and Claire. At the tea party, she says “love is blind” when Claire, who is clearly thinking about Rae a lot, voices her concern with her odd behavior.

Manaria manages to get Rae to agree to a duel, even though they both know Rae can’t beat her. The next day, that’s borne out, as Rae doesn’t mess around and launches her most powerful attacks, which don’t even put a scratch on the quad-caster. Rae fights valiantly and hard, and then Manaria brings the hammer down: Domination. For once, the magical battle animation not only looks good, but packs a genuine punch.

The vicious attack leaves Rae bloodied and unconscious, and who is the first to rush to her aide? Claire, just as Manaria knew she would. Rae isn’t the only one running away from their feelings. No one has known Manaria longer than Claire, so when Manaria continually states that Rae means something to Claire, I believe her, even when Claire denied or deflected.

One need look no further than the faces Claire makes after Manaria yeets Rae: intense concern for her welfare, anger at Manaria for going too far (though Manaria does heal her), and unbridled joy and relieve when Rae opens her eyes. But Rae is so caught up in losing Claire, she doesn’t bask in the rare gifts Claire is so earnestly presenting to her.

Rae believes her loss to Manaria means Claire is now hers, and she no longer has any right to stand beside her. But if my theory about Manaria is correct, she succeeded in getting Claire to be more honest about how she feels about Rae. When the three are assigned to a team and Claire runs ahead, Manaria tells Claire to let her be; she’s fine on her own, but it’s Claire who isn’t fine with Rae on her own.

Claire isn’t acting by the game’s script anymore; she is who she is in large part due to the time she’s spent with Claire all this time. Now that Rae is acting completely different, she wants to know why. She doesn’t like how Rae’s not being herself. Then Rae tells her: she and Manaria dueled over her.

Claire, channeling Princess Jasmine and says she’s “no prize to be won”, which is true, but this is the same Claire who’s fine with her kingdom’s legend of a bunch of guys fighting for a woman’s hand via the Scales of Amour.

Then Rae, now no longer having any fun playing the real-life version of the only thing that made her happy in her past life, continues her steady retreat from Claire’s side, and does something she’d never, ever do before all this Manaria business: she’s mean to Claire. She tells her to go off with Manaria, who was her prince and first love anyway. When Claire tells her she’s not fit to be her maid right now, Rae quits.

This wounds Claire worst of all, and you know it because while she maintains her aristocratic composure in officially accepting Rae’s resignation—she even calls her “Miss Taylor”—she also tears up in the process. Rae knows she’s fucked up badly, and wants so badly to unsay what she’s just said, but also believes she can’t take it back, so she walks away.

As she does, Claire doesn’t stop smiling her sad, sad smile, for even the Commoner has left her, even though she promised she never, ever would no matter what. Rae has gone and made herself a liar in the eyes of the one she loves. It will not be easy to recover from this, but I think I know one person who will do all she can to help both her and Claire make up, just because she can: Manaria “Jolene” Sousse.