Chapter 22: Oluris

Before my stunned gaze was a beautiful young man with a cool face, with beautiful light green hair that reached his waist and swirled around his body. He was eighteen years old this year, as I recall.

He is dressed like a magician in a loose robe of deep blue with gold trim.

He was intently observing some herbs, and his profile was oblivious to me.

If I remember correctly, he’s a character from the otome game, ‘Golden Rose: The Villainous Lady Blooms Beautifully.’

This game, called ‘Golden Rose’ for short, was a game lent to me by a subordinate at a company in my previous life just before I was reincarnated.

Her face and name are blurry now, but a junior colleague who loved the game told me “It’s really fun! You should try it senpai!” And I remember the way she offered me the game.

But at that time I was pretty much a dark corporate slave. I didn’t have time to play games like when I was in school, so I left it on my desk and never got around to playing it.

The reason I couldn’t be sure until I saw Oluris now is because the way he looked two years ago and the way he looks now are completely different.

The Oluris of two years ago, in my vague memory as a three-year-old, had a refreshing bob-style of hair tied up. He was often dressed in light-colored clothing, wearing a white blouse and slim brown pants.

The only thing I had seen in my previous life was the standing picture of the capture target character on the back package, and the first name ‘Oluris’ written underneath it.

No one would normally think that this young man named Oluris, who looked completely different, was the same man from an otome game before reincarnation…Hey, what’s with that? There are a few things that I thought about though…

“Seriously…he really was…”

The moment I muttered that, Brother Oluris turned to me as if he had been surprised.

“…?! Oh—Alice?!”

A muffled, deep voice called out to me.

The moment I heard that voice, I understood that my brother was in the same situation as was set in the game.

The junior at work who lent the game to me had even developed dark circles under his eyes himself playing it, and had managed to get me to play the guessing game with him to try to cheer him up.

I got a brief description of the character for a few people at that time, so I know a little bit about the current Brother Oluris. My junior’s description comes back to me.

“Oluris is a slender and handsome man! He’s a character who hates people and seems cool, but I can’t tell you more about him because it would be a spoiler…He’s had a bad family relationship and had lived a life of barely talking to people until he met the heroine. She unravels the heart of such a handsome man. Isn’t that great?!”

Brother Oluris, who had just muttered my name, had a scratchy voice, as if he hadn’t spoken in a long time. Apparently, the family relationship here was already out of touch.

The reason for Brother Will’s attitude was clear.

“Good day, Brother Oluris. It’s been a long time.”

When I approached slowly so as not to provoke him, Brother Oluris seemed dismayed.

“…Ahh. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

I could see a glimpse of his jade-colored eyes swimming behind his long bangs.

Brother Oluris—he’s grown quite tall.

He seems to be at least 170 centimeters tall now, and with my height of a young girl, his beautiful eyes hidden by bangs can barely be seen from below.

The older brother stepped back a little and made noise, as if scared.

“Are you feeling better? I had heard you were very sick but…”

“Yes, I feel much better! I came here today to meet Brother Oluris as well, so it was nice to finally see you!”

When I smiled at him to reassure him, Brother Oluris also laughed.

Well, he’s still the same older brother after all.

He was probably misunderstood as a cold and misanthropic type. The Brothers Oluris I know is fluffy, timid, and kind to his family and friends.

That’s partly why I didn’t initially make the connection to him with the character in the game.

…By the way, the game starts when the heroine is about 10 years old, so technically, he still had another 4 or 5 years to put on the ‘cold facade’ to protect his heart.

After that, I’d have to organize my thoughts a bit more.

“What was Brother Oluris doing?”

“Um…I came here to pick up some medicinal herbs.”

My brother muttered to himself about how he had been thinking of herbs that could help me.

“You had been feeling depressed for about two years now for no reason at all…I’ve had a lot going on at home lately, too. So I could see that Alice was having a bit of a hard time and I wanted to look for something that could help with the depression…”

“I see. I’m so glad you thought about it so much….But why do you seem so depressed, Brother Oluris?”

Does he get depressed for no reason? Brother Oluris was very sensitive to begin with, so he might be the type of person who could go mentally unbalanced easily…

“I really don’t have a reason…but it seems that I was making things uncomfortable for Will, so…we had a fight…”

As he said that, Brother Oluris lowered his long lashes and dropped his eyes.

“Brother Oluris…”

It seems that the cause of the brotherly disagreement has something to do with the nature of Brother Oluris. It seems to have deep roots.

“Oh yes, this…”

Brother Oluris took out two potpourri sachets from his pocket.

“I had always wanted to give them to you if we ever met…This is for you, Alice.”

Brother Oluris smiled slightly with his beautiful, delicate face.

“Wow, so cute! What kind of potpourri is this?…the scent of roses?”

The little potpourri sachet, tied with a pink ribbon, gave off a nice scent of roses.

“It’s mainly various roses that have been bred for improvements…It is filled with tranquilizing and protection effects…It’s something that can still be improved upon, but you may not even need it anymore.”

“No, I’m very happy! I’ll take good care of it!”

I’m really happy and a big smile appears on my face. Then Brother Oluris, seeing my reaction, also blushes light pink and squints his eyes with happiness.

Oh, wow, beautiful…

I move my eyes to the other potpourri sachet that was handed to me.

“And this one?”

“Hmm…I wanted to give it to Will…but he won’t take it from me, so I’ll give it to you…”

The potpourri with the green ribbon tied around it is apparently for Brother Will.

“I see…What effect does this one have?”

“That’s…” said Brother Oluris, as he opened his mouth.

“—What are you doing?!…Get away from Alice!”

A sharp, angry voice cried out from behind me.

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T/N: I added Oluris’ picture from the manga, but you can also see a colored version on the cover page (upper right corner) in the table of contents!