To Claire the next few days we're a jumble of delirious memories, those that were familiar to her and those that weren't.
She was half conscious of people entering and leaving the room she was in. Occasionally she'd feel a hand on her forehead. Or a grasping of her own hand. She was also aware of blankets being changed, and a damp cloth on her forehead.
I must be in the hospital, or maybe at my moms. Hopefully she didn't have to take off work on account of me.
The more she stewed in the delirium, and the more of these memories that seemingly weren't Claire's washed over her. The more things started to become clear. She wasn't at a hospital, and she wasn't at her mothers. She was in the Blackwood's estate. The large mansion that Catherine, the Villainess of Love and Malice resided in.
It would be more specific to say that Claire resided in. Because somehow some way she was now Catherine Blackwood. She figured these thoughts were merely delirium caused by the fever, but as time passed she knew it wasn't the case.
This was reality? But how…It's just a game! Time travel would even make more sense at this point. At least that really happened! This world never even existed in the first place!
Claire quickly made the decision to drop this line of questioning. Even if there was some kind of answer it would no doubt be completely unsatisfactory. So it was better to just move on, she had other memories to sort through anyway.
Namely that of Catherines, as Claire had garnered all of the Villainesses' thoughts, and life experiences. She still had her own of course, but they didn't seem to intertwine very well with Catherine's memories. Reflecting on both experiences at the same time only made her feel worse.
Best to just focus on Catherines life experience right now, since that's what is most pertinent for my day to day.
The basic facts are these. Catherine was born to a noble household. Her father was Arthur Blackwood the II, and her mother Emilia died 5 years after Catherine's birth due to complications with the delivery. She had an older brother Arthur the III that was 5 years her elder.
It was clear to anyone who knew the Blackwoods that the family didn't exactly get along. The death of Emilia had put a rift in the household. The death of his wife caused the duke to become emotionally closed off to both of his children.
This manifested radically different personalities in both of the Blackwood offspring. Arthur the III followed his father's example and became purely focused on the affairs of the family.
Catherine took the neglect of her father much worse. On top of losing the only remaining parental figure in her life at a much younger age, she wasn't entirely sure if the Duke blamed her for Emilia's death and that thought gnawed at her.
The once well behaved young noble women soon became a brat. Lashing out at anyone who even slightly displeased her. Still even at her worst her father never felt the need to intervene, and her personality only degraded from there.
Despite the shortcomings of his daughter the Duke, and by virtue the entire Blackwood estate was extremely influential. Catherine's Father was renowned for his business acumen and a lot of enterprises were tied up with the Blackwoods.
It is for this reason that the crown prince was to be engaged with Catherine Blackwood. This way the considerable power of the royal family in the Kingdom of Avalon could be combined with the continually increasing profits of private enterprise.
For the two families it was a marriage of convenience, but to Catherine it didn't seem that way. In spite of the factor of "pre-arrangement," she was deeply in love with the crown prince Isaiah. It all could have worked out smoothly if not for the fact that Isiah did not feel the same way about Catherine.
It was not the case that Isiah was unfaithful or particularly cruel to Catherine, he was polite but distant. However, he made very little time to see her, much to the chagrin of anyone under the roof of the Blackwood household.
This was two fold. When the prince did make his presence known Lady Catherine was satiated, and could be considered almost pleasant to be around.
However, when the prince ignored the Lady's requests to come visit her, there was going to be hell to pay at the Blackwood estate, and the sounds of various items smashing was not an uncommon occurrence.
Fortunately for everyone involved Catherine had just turned 18, and she would be attending an "academy of higher learning." Which would keep her out of the house for most of the day, and Catherine would be able to see the prince far more often.
The Avalon Academy was renowned across the kingdom. Even the lowliest royal or noble attended. Regardless if they needed further education or not. Frankly most didn't, and Catherine fell squarely into this category.
Her fathers only expectation was for her to simply marry the prince. On Catherines end there was not even a slight interest in anything of an academic nature. However, it was a time honored tradition to attend, and even if you couldn't care less about study you could always make connections.
Unfortunately that was essentially an impossible task for Catherine. Considering that she despised everyone save for the prince, who she was already engaged to.
The "education" was little more than an ornament. Even if she failed all of her classes, strings would be pulled so she could graduate. Even if the degree was essentially useless.
Catherine had unwittingly been given the short end of the stick, as she would ultimately be left with nothing.
The school was merely a convenient set up for the player of a video game to have lots of opportunities to meet with a large variety of male suitors. Including Catherines beloved prince.
Having played the game before Claire essentially knew the future, at least in broad strokes. It was a shame she hadn't played the game sooner before her reincarnation. College had been a while ago and she was having troubles remembering the minutiae of all the events.
Claire stirred in her feverish state.
Is it really that important at any rate?
Probably not. She wasn't planning on taking advantage of every bit of knowledge to become the supreme ruler of the country or some such thing. She just needed to know what to look out for in order to keep herself out of trouble.
Well that shouldn't be too hard, given the circumstances.
Given that Catherine's thoughts and memories were essentially her own at this point Claire had extremely mixed opinions on Isaiah. However, she had to be pragmatic.
No matter what route the player took the prince never ended up with the Villainess. He renounced her over her wicked ways and kicked her to the curb. So Claire knew she could never be with him.
What's worse, the easiest route in the game was romancing the prince. In this scenario Catherine gets so enraged with jealousy she actively tries to have the heroine assassinated. Her plan is foiled, and she is jailed for the rest of her life.
Well all I have to do is avoid trying to kill her, and I'll be in the clear. Doesn't seem too hard.
It probably would have been better to just avoid being mean to the heroine all together, and Claire would try but it was an unlikely possibility. The game purposely put the Villainess in almost every class you attended.
Now that I think about it, that's honestly a bit trite. What would the odds of that even be?
The reason for this seemingly lazy inclusion was a healthy dose of hand waving by the game's original creators.
It was a given that the developers couldn't show the player going to every class. So often only one or two lessons would get dedicated screen time per each in game day.
But they wanted to make sure that Catherine was there to get in the players way no matter the circumstance. However, this world was now real. So Claire would be spending the majority of the school day alongside Miss Goody two-shoes.
Catherine wasn't exactly a low maintenance individual to begin with. Now that instability was being combined with Claire's years of emotional abuse.
There is a strong possibility I won't be able to keep myself in check…I guess we'll find out soon enough.
The basic layout of her new memories we're starting to click in place. It wasn't exactly complete yet, but it was good enough for now.
Claire, now Catherine, finally opened her eyes. She was finally awake to the new world she now inhabited.