Claire François

 is the deuteragonist and the title character of the I'm in Love with the Villainess light novel and manga series. She is a noble hailing from the François house, one of the most influential houses in the Bauer Kingdom, and is the original villainess of an otome game called Revolution. From the start of the series, she becomes the love interest of the player character Rae Taylor, and major events somehow revolve around her.

She is also the protagonist in the spin-off series, She's so Cheeky for a Commoner.

Appearance
Claire wears the finest clothing even down to what she sleeps in. She's described to have clear, porcelain skin with fine texture. She may not be tall but has long slender arms and legs. Her blue eyes are almond shaped and usually fierce. Claire's blonde hair is naturally straight and her trademark curls have to be fixed every morning. She wears her iconic big red bow on the back of her head.

She is commonly seen wearing her Royal Academy uniform, which consists of a red jacket with gold lines, a white ruffled necktie, a red ribbon bowtie with an attached blue gem, and a long black skirt with white lines. She also wears white stockings and brown shoes.

During her time at the Imperial Academy, she wears a military-style uniform. It consists a navy uniform collared dress with gold lines, gold buttons, white diamond like-insignia on one of its sleeves, and white frills at the end of the dress. She also wears a black belt, black stocking, and white boots.

Personality
Claire is prideful with a competitive side to prove her worth as well as her family name. Her threatening behaviour conceals her fragile heart that comes from her childhood experiences. Becomes more prone to jealously as people she cares for may leave her. Her arrogant personality is mainly influenced by her father doting on her in her childhood more than anything.

She is motivated by tradition just as much as pride, which causes her much dismay as Rae pursues her and, in Claire's mind, disrupts public morals. Since she is ingrained by tradition and raised as a noble her entire life, she often thinks lowly of commoners as selfish and carefree people. When the Commoner's Movement starts to gain momentum, she disregards their cause because she thinks that they do not have the proper knowledge and capability to run a stable society. She reasons that they disregard all the formalities and contributions that nobles worked hard for their kingdom.

Rae's true love for her was surprising for Claire since she was open from the start.

As earlier mentioned, Claire has a fragile heart. She harbors deep scars from her mother's passing, especially when the last thing she told her was full of spite. Due to this, she is unable to move on from her death, as shown as she rejects changing her curly hairstyle, which resembles her mother's. Ever since her passing, she has difficulties sharing her heart to people and is afraid of losing people she cares about. When Lene Aurousseau left her, Claire expressed deep grief and fell into a depressed state as she cared for Lene, a close friend who has been by Claire's side since her mother's passing. Similar reactions occurred when Rae retired from being Claire's maid and left her side; Claire kept her tears behind a friendly façade in front of Rae, felt abandoned by her, cried that entire night, and fell into a depressed state.

Background
 is the former romantic antagonist, the "Villainess", of the otome game Revolution and is currently the main target of Rae's affections.

Because of Rae's actions, Claire never becomes the villainess portrayed in Revolution. None of the male leads attract Rae and alienate her from Claire.

Outside of the princes, Claire is considered to be the top of all internal students at the Royal Academy. Considered an angel growing up, she also received special education from top tutors. Driven by her competitive instincts, she often studies and trains for some part of the day.

The François family is the foremost noble house just below the Prime Minister and Royalty. For generations, they worked at the top of the Ministry of Finance. Positions like these are inherited through blood lines and some lateral movement include personal connections and marriage. In SSCC, her house rivals the Achard house as both are aiming for power.

In the original Revolution game, she is doomed to be executed, along with the rest of nobility, as a result of the revolution. In the story, this outcome almost plays out (willingly by Claire, not forcibly in the original game); however, due to Rae's interception, the bad ending never happens, and she is reduced to common status.

Powers and abilities

 * Familiar: The water slime named Ralaire.
 * Fire Magic - High
 * Fighting Style - Crimson Queen - The use of free, flowing flames make the user balanced in both offense and defense.
 * Spells:
 * Flame Bullet - A basic level low damage, small fire projectile.
 * Flame Lance - An intermediate level high damage, large fire projectile.
 * Advanced: Split - Can break apart into many flame bullets and the cumulative effect is similar to a shotgun effect rather than a precise, large caliber.
 * Flame Wall - A defensive barrier of fire that typically is ineffective against solid objects but with Claire's power, it becomes the exception.
 * Guided Lance - A flame lance that can change direction at the discretion of its user.
 * Magical Ray - A high level attack in which four flame crests are created and controlled by Claire, where each crest replicates a super high output beam cannon.
 * This magical beam has no physical similarity to beams of Rae's previous world; it appears instantly and is almost impossible to dodge.

Trivia

 * Despite the Royal Academy policy of allowing noble households to bring two maids, Claire only has Lene until Rae takes the second position.
 * Dislikes bell peppers to the point of declaring them unfit for humans.
 * Pepi and Loretta are childhood friends of Claire.
 * In a weekly stream, Inori-sensei revealed that Claire loves otters.
 * Claire has never been in a deep relationship with a woman other than Rae, so she never knew about Rae's previous life experience.
 * If she were to find out, it would be in character for Claire to punish Rae.
 * Rae and Claire are relatively good with their sleeping habits.
 * Claire has a habit of sleeping poorly when she dreams about ghosts.
 * Rae has been physically kicked out of bed due to this.
 * Sometime after the revolution, with high self-awareness, Claire thinks that Rae is more of a "main character" than she is.
 * To this, Claire regards herself as a "heroine" (more so as a deuteragonist and damsel in distress).