WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 6 of My Next Life as a Villainess, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Katarina Claes, the heroine of the Fortune Lover otome game, formed a harem of friends to protect herself from the villainess' doom flags while keeping everyone happy and romance-free. However, she must also contend with Prince Geordo's romantic feelings for her, which are more serious than ever. She wonders if the simple life is behind her for good.
That simple life involved playing outside with friends such as the Ascart twins and the adoring Mary Hunt, and Katarina recalls a fond memory when she and Mary inspired Sophia to be brave and use imagination to face her fears. Inspiring others has been Katarina's M.O. for years now, and Season 2 Episode 6 of My Next Life as a Villainess expands this further.
Prince Geordo invites Katarina to his family's summer home to spend some alone time with her, only for Katarina's many friends to join her -- most of all her possessive foster brother Keith. Katarina doesn't recognize her mixed-gender harem for what it is but Geordo does, feeling exasperated that he can't have any alone time with his fiancee, even after kissing her. Katarina feels overwhelmed by the prospect of marrying Geordo Stuart and parting with her carefree youth, which she mentions to her best friend, Mary Campbell.
Mary and Sophia join them, and once the girls retreat to a vacation house to escape a sudden rainstorm, Katarina tells Maria the tale of how she once invited all her friends to the forest to hunt a ghost. A rainstorm struck, and Sophia couldn't stand the thunder and lightning until Katarina cheered her up. The event demonstrates her easygoing personality as she explains that relaxing during a thunderstorm makes it much more bearable. Mary followed Katarina's example, describing the rain as musical.
In the memory, Katarina practiced ballroom dancing with Mary and Sophia to brighten the mood, and Mary urges Sophia to imagine the thunder as something fun. Sophia pictured herself and Katarina as fantasy heroes slaying a thunder dragon and then marrying, showing how much Sophia looks up to Katarina for inspiration and protection, past and present. Chronologically, this is one of the first big moments of the two girls' friendship before the events of My Next Life as a Villainess. Later, as an adolescent, Sophia will realize just how special her feelings for Katarina are. She wouldn't trust anyone else to help her take down an imaginary lightning dragon.
Later that evening, Keith and Geordo admire how happy Katarina and her friends are, both setting aside their rivalry momentarily to agree that Katarina is the best part of their social circle. Geordo, Keith, Sophia and the others compete endlessly for the clueless Katarina's affection, but in the end they are all on the same team, being lonely or hurt souls who found a common friend in Katarina Claes. No matter who "wins" the harem game, they are all truly winners at heart.
