Chương 75: Book 1 Afterword + Book 2 Announcement

To start with, thank you for reading Clara Casewell, Attorney to the Villainess. It's been an amazing joy to share this story with so many readers, and I never expected it to grow like it did. Clara's story began as a side project after finishing another novel (which I'm in the process of trying to traditionally publish), making this the very first piece of fiction I've shared with an audience bigger than a few (mostly unwilling) friends.

That novel is a dark political thriller/speculative historical fantasy with no magic, no isekai, no progression or reincarnation of any kind, so I thought I would challenge myself to write something completely different to 'reset' my writing mind after spending years immersed in that world. It was more of a way to practice than anything else, and when I first posted on Royal Road, I figured I'd consider it a success if it reached a couple hundred followers.

Suffice to say, the response I've gotten has blown me away. So again, thank you for giving this story a chance. Thank you to everyone who viewed, followed, favorited, commented on, and reviewed it. And thank you to all of you who thought this journey was fun enough to want to read ahead on Patreon. The writing process for a web serial is a very different beast compared to the writing process for traditional fiction.

There are a lot of habits that make a work 'good' in the traditional world that are hindrances for web serials, and vice versa, so exploring these contrasts has been very interesting for me. In the end, I'm satisfied with how the overall plot of book one turned out.

I already had the major pieces outlined before I started—the trial at the high court, the mystery behind Stella and Leofric (if you reread the first few chapters, you will probably notice some clues you missed), the conspiracy against House von Rhenia, and so on—but I think I discovered a lot about these characters as I went, and I've grown to love them in ways I didn't expect to. I wanted to take this chance to share answers to some questions I've gotten along the way, in the comments, via DMs, or on Discord.

If you're not interested in FAQs, feel free to skip this section. Author Q&A Why an Otome Isekai Legal Drama? People might assume that it's a simple case of combining two of my favorite things. In truth, Ace Attorney is not my favorite video game series, and Otome Isekai is not my favorite novel genre, even though I of course love them.

If you're curious, my favorite video game is Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and my favorite novels are all historical fictions, like Shogun by James Clavell and Winter of the World by Ken Follett. As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to write something that went in a totally different direction from my first novel. Specifically, I wanted a light comedy, and I wanted to try my hand at romance.

But as for the actual reason that concept materialized into an Otome Isekai Legal Drama, well, that comes from a trait I share with Clara in Chapter 1—I was reading a villainess story with a trial scene that really annoyed me, and that motivated me to try my hand at it. Note: Please do not speculate on which story this might have been. If I see comments speculating on this, I will have to delete them. It's not an RR story and I don't want to start a hate train against another author.

Is Clara an authorial self-insert character? There are parts of Clara that are inspired by my life and my career. I did spend around half my professional life in Corporate M&As, and I have lived in many of the countries mentioned in Clara's past. But aside from loving to nitpick worldbuilding, Clara's personality probably couldn't be further from mine! I think that's what ended up making her fun to write. Besides the main trio of Clara, Warren, and Iris, who is your favorite character?

I would have to say Reginald Vainglory. I originally intended for him to be partially guilty, too, instead of just fully manipulated by Marcella, but I ended up liking him so much that I changed things to keep him in the story. It's rare to find a story that deals with an abused man like him, especially someone so prideful and in such a 'powerful' position who was still brought low. I look forward to seeing more of him in the future.

Other notable mentions would be Adelheid von Rhenia (I loved twisting the notion of "strong, bloodthirsty husband with a cute healer wife" on its head), as well as a character from book two that I won't spoil, and, of course, the lovely old bishop Dicton. What is your favorite chapter of Book One? This is a really tough question. I tend to love the big courtroom twisty chapters, but I also really liked the fight scene with Leofric.

Still, I think if I had to pick just one, I would go with Clara and Iris's confrontation in Chapter 42. How much time has passed in this story? It's been a wild ride for such a short amount of time! This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I can say more time will pass in Book 2 than in Book 1. How does magic work? Can Clara just go and do the Blessing of Truth now that she has her magic back, if she says 'in vino veritas'?

Magic has three parts: the incantation, the visualization, and control of her own magical energy. The more complex the spell effect, the clearer the visualization and the incantation need to be, and the more magical energy is required to sustain the spell. The Blessing is an indirect spell, because it is cast on an object (the wine), then that object is drunk to produce the effect, making it far more complicated than something like a light or even a fireball.

The visualization has to be really specific, and the correct way to do it is a secret passed down through the Holy Inquisition, and it consumes very high amounts of magical energy, requiring you to be at least reasonably proficient at managing it.

Right now, Clara, as someone who has a better grasp of Latin than the people of this world but less experience in visualization and in managing her energy, would likely cause unfortunate side effects (much worse than exploding apples) if she attempted a more complicated spell. But now that she isn't limited to Morris's charging, she can learn much more than she could before! Oh Goddess, have I accidentally written a progression story? What makes a good case for you?

How did you pick the cases that ended up making it into the story? There are several factors that I have to consider when designing a case. First (and perhaps the hardest one), I need it to stand against the Blessing of Truth. It can't be something that is immediately solved by using the Blessing and asking obvious questions. Second, I want attentive readers to be able to figure out the answer before the story spells it out. Maybe not every single element of it, but at least the largest bits.

I think that's what makes a mystery satisfying—I wouldn't like a case where the answer is just, "well, actually, the culprit used this magic I'm just revealing right now that people would have no way to see coming." The hard part here is not making the answer too obvious, which was something I struggled with. Third, the case has to move the story forward.

This doesn't necessarily mean the central mystery directly, though it can mean that—it could also simply be that the case causes growth in the main cast and forces them to confront their biases or insecurities, or it reverberates in the world at large. I also don't necessarily think the entire case has to be a mystery.

For example, most people immediately suspected Leofric of Ricardo's death, which was fine, because the real 'mystery' of this case was how and why he did it, how Clara would figure it out, and how he would be stopped. How far do you have things outlined? How many books will the series have? The current plan is for three books, but that's not set in stone and could go up or down.

I already know more or less what will happen in the second book (and of course, it is partly already written and posted on Patreon), but as far as the third book goes, I only know what I want the last case to be. Do you want to be a professional author? I enjoy my 'day job' as a lawyer. I wouldn't say I would refuse to be a full-time author if things turned out that way, but it's not a life goal for me.

I mostly write for fun, and because I have a weird taste which puts me in the position of having to write what I want to read, or I just won't get it at all. I also live in a very high cost-of-living country (Ireland), which would make it difficult to survive on the income of a small author (or at least to live a life comparable to one on a lawyer's income!). In fact, pretty much all the earnings I've gotten from the story so far have gone into commissioning art and paying for ads to get the story out there.

In the future, I also want to get some editing done. Do you plan to publish the series on Amazon? I have no plans for this in the works as of posting this chapter. I won't say it will never happen, but it's not something I'm actively working toward right now. That said, I would love to see a Webcomic version of this one day. Or maybe a game. Or both! Both is good. What's the difference between 'lawyer', 'advocate', 'solicitor', 'barrister' and 'counsel'?

These terms have regional differences, so I'll try to keep my answer broad and simple. Lawyer is a general term for anyone qualified to practice law (in many countries, even prosecutors and judges are technically lawyers). In most jurisdictions, for example the United States, France, and Brazil, 'lawyer' is the term used for the people who review contracts, give legal advice, negotiate deals, and so on, and also the name for the people who appear in court to argue cases.

But in other places, like the United Kingdom and Ireland, the profession is split in two: solicitors do the out-of-court work, while barristers do the trial work. In the Holy Kingdom of Arcadia, solicitors exist, and they do the work of drafting contracts and dealing with bureaucracy for nobles and merchants. But barristers do not exist, as the court system they have (at least before Clara's arrival) simply relied on the inquisition and a judge.

Advocate comes from advocatus, the Roman law term for people who appear to plead for another in court. Since the Elysian Empire is based on the Roman Empire, advocate would be a more familiar term to the native Arcadians than 'lawyer' or 'barrister' to describe what Clara does in court. And lastly, Counsel is a formal way of referring to a lawyer, especially in court or within law firm hierarchy. Where does the name cocopi come from? It comes from the name of one of my cats.

He was called Cocopo, after a pet in the game Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception, and he unfortunately passed away a few years ago. I may change it one day if I ever decide to publish on another platform, but for now I think it's a nice tribute. Book 2 Announcement I'm happy to announce that Clara's story will continue in Book 2: Clara Casewell, Attorney to the Duke.

I hope you're all excited to seeing what comes next as our now-independent protagonist embarks on the arduous task of establishing a whole new profession! Personally, I'm looking forward to being back in the courtroom in Book 2 after this more action-packed climax for Book 1. To close this out, I'd ask one thing of anyone who's read this far—if you haven't already, please consider leaving a rating or review (and even make it an advance review, if you're feeling generous!).

They are by far the biggest factors contributing to this story's growth, and every single one is much appreciated. Thank you for following Clara's journey. - cocopi