ClaiRae

Claire x Rae is the femslash ship between Claire François and Rae Taylor from the I'm in Love with the Villainess fandom.

Canon
Rae and Claire are originally from different universes. Rei, as she's known in the "real world," is an office worker who suddenly dies due to being extremely overworked at her corporate job. She then finds herself reincarnated into Rae Taylor, the protagonist of her favorite otome game. Instead of pursuing the goal of romance with either of the game's three princes, she seems completely uninterested in them. This is because Rae is a lesbian, so she decides to romance her all-time favorite crush in the game, the villainess, Claire François. Knowing how the game plays out, Rae spends her time trying to win Claire over and make sure she gets a happy ending before the end events of the game take place.

Rather than being discouraged by Claire’s bullying, Rae receives it gleefully. Rae quickly falls in love with her new life as well, and also gains a friend in her roommate, Misha. Also, Rae succeeded in obtaining the position of Claire’s maid by “talking” with her father. While spending every day in happiness of taking care of Claire together with her coworker, Lene, Rae begins the struggle to avoid Claire’s eventual ruin.

Although, through the Founding Festival, Claire’s bond with Rae deepens a little, it isn't until the events of what was known as the campaign called Commoner’s movement, advocating for equality of every citizen, spreads within the academy, that they get way closer. With the courtyard incident, where a noble attacked a commoner, the movement grew fiercer. Behind that movement was the Naa Empire’s spy who instigated Orso's older brother and younger sister to work behind the scenes. Although it was Claire and Rae who prevented the attack on noble children inside the academy, the Orso family faced the crisis of extinction.

As compensation for resolving the incident, Rae and Claire appealed to spare the Orso family’s lives. Despite Prime Minister Salas Lilium’s opposition, the king granted their wish, and the Orso family was banished from the country. Claire had a painful farewell with Lene, but she opened her heart to Rae just a little after this. Sousa’s Kingdom’s First Princess, Manaria Sousa, arrived as an exchange student. She turns out to be Claire’s first love, and she tried creating a rift between Claire and Rae. Manaria denied Rae's notion of “I don’t mind being only a maid as long as Claire is happy”. Claire and Rae suffered a crisis due to a trivial misunderstanding. But through a rematch with Manaria, using the love scales, the distance between the two closed in quickly. Claire began showing dere to Rei, and Rei began honestly thinking of wanting Claire to become her partner.

During the holidays, the two decide to return to the port town Euclid, which is Rei’s hometown and where Claire’s summer villa is. Rei invited Claire to her home, since she was dispirited after her father Dor preached how an ideal noble should be, to her. Rei was welcomed in her hometown. Being warmly welcomed in Rei’s home, Claire witnessed the difference between lives of nobles and commoners first-hand.

The two of them tried enjoying their holidays, but a ghost ship appears off the Euclid’s coast, blocking off the outside world with magical fog.To solve the situation, a ghost ship assault team was organized. Claire and Rei also participated. The mastermind behind the ghost ship was Louis, someone who has a crush on Rei and whose mother’s life was taken hostage. Wishing to eliminate the tragedies brought about by poverty, Claire tackled the poverty issue of commoners. Rei wanted to support Claire.

Although Claire began tackling the poverty issue of commoners, the clues were considerably hard to find. To discover the workings of the Spirit Church that extends a helping hand to commoners, Rei and Claire visited the cathedral. There, the two of them met Cardinal Lily, who was also a lesbian like Rei, and by a strange coincidence, she fell for her. When the three of them talked about love, Rei’s past became clear. To return the favor of being taught the workings of the Church, Claire and Rei decided to participate in the Offering Dance. In addition, the truth that Yuu was a woman was revealed. Rei began acting so that Yuu can live true to herself, and so that her close friend’s, Misha’s, love is fulfilled.

Children
May and Aleah

May and Aleah are twin sisters. After the death of their parents, they were imprisoned by their close relatives. Later on, both sisters were taken in by the church's orphanage until Rae and Claire adopted them. The two of them, at first, acted like "lifeless dolls" due to the events they experienced leading up to the Revolution. However, over time, with the love from their mothers, they became very sweet girls who will speak up and look out for their family and friends. May acts as the more spoiled of the two sisters, often vying for attention from Rae and Claire against Aleah. Her fondness for Claire has lead to her replicating Claire's attitude towards Rae to some extent.

Fanon
is the most popular ship within the I'm in Love with the Villainess fandom due to the fact that they're the main couple of the series and that the story revolves around their relationship. This ship quickly became very beloved within the fandom, but more importantly, amongst LGBT+ fans of the series, who find the representation of their story in the visual novel to be pretty accurate and relatable in many senses.

Fandom
FAN FICTION