Chapter 4: Meeting the Heroine
"Onii-sama, you"re slow~. You still haven"t come back~"
On that day, I impatiently waited for the return of my brother who had gone out hunting. I gazed at the forest from a second floor window where I had an unbroken view of the outside. Onii-sama periodically left to go hunting in order to polish his horseback riding and leadership skills. Before long I saw the hunting party return and hurriedly started running.
"Onii-sama, welcome back!"
When he noticed me, onii-sama dismounted from his horse. I ran into onii-sama to embrace him.
"Rosalin! Take a look. I hunted a deer monster today!"
"Wow, amazing! As expected of onii-sama!"
"Tonight we"re having venison roast!"
Hooray! It was real wild game!
As deer monster does not taste much different from normal deer meat, its value as food ingredients was high. Behind the castle, the forest called Stanley Forest extended. Monsters and beasts frequently appeared. Because they increase in numbers too much during breeding season and come out of the forest and lay waste to the plantations in the vicinity, they would be periodically hunted to manage the numbers.
"Aw, I also wanted to go."
"Rosalind, you can still only ride ponies. But that"s right, you might be able to go hunting with us next year."
"Yes!"
Then one year later, onii-sama"s prediction came true. When I turned eight years old, I put on my custom-made pants and boots and mounted my horse. I held a weapon and accompanied them to go hunting.
"It went over there, Rosalin!"
"Yes, onii-sama!"
The prey driven on by the hunting dog jumped out before our eyes. We followed onii-sama"s orders and aimed our spears at the prey, a boar-type monster. I served the role of weakening the monster, and lastly onii-sama killed the prey with his spear.
"Ooh! Rosalind-sama, nice a.s.sist!"
"You wouldn"t think that this is her first time out hunting!"
I was showered with words of praise from the huntsmen who came hunting with us.
"Ohohoho! This is nothing special!"
Reincarnation year 3. I had perfectly become accustomed to being a n.o.ble young miss. Well, I was originally an otaku. I had mastered the language of n.o.ble girls in an online n.o.ble girl club.
"Now, let us continue hunting! Let us slaughter the monsters in this forest!"
"You can"t slaughter them, Rosalin. Monsters are part of the forest"s ecosystem. Although we will hunt those that have increased in number to the point of harm and those that damage human habitation."
"Uh, yes. That"s right. Onii-sama!"
"The monsters we killed today are of the species that damaged the fields of Lowes Village last year. If we hunt a few more, we might be able to prevent an increase of them this year."
Onii-sama"s sat on his horse, his hair fluttering and his white teeth peeking out in his smile. The 13 year old onii-sama whose voice had finished changing had recently become more and more cool.
"Now, let"s go hunt the next game!"
"Yes, onii-sama!"
Forgetting myself after awakening to the joy of hunting, I got excited and spurred my horse to gallop.
"Hey, Rosalin, where did you go!?"
"Rosalind-sama~!"
When I realized it, I had separated from onii-sama and the group.
"Hm, hm? Where would this be? Well, it"s fine. Let"s head back."
The horse I was riding was one used to hunting, so it had already entered the forest many times. It remembered the way back, so I had no need to worry.
"Eh?"
At that moment, I heard a small scream-like voice in the distance.
Was it my imagination? Was it the cry of a bird? ……No, that was the voice of a person. It was the scream of a girl. There were no girls among the group that entered the forest with me. That meant a girl from the nearby village had gotten lost?
No good! I spurred my horse and headed toward the direction I heard the scream from.
"No! Help!"
At the destination I finally arrived at, there was a girl around my age being chased by a pig-type monster. The girl stumbled. Immediately, the monster made to attack her.
"Look out!"
I quickly made my horse slide behind the monster and stabbed the monster from behind with my spear. The angered monster"s attention went to me, and it charged at me with vigor.
"Hoh!"
I nimbly avoided it on my horse. The recklessly charging monster crashed into the large tree behind me and became disoriented. I jumped off of my horse and thrust my spear into the monster"s neck. My speartip cut into its artery like it was being sucked in. I felt in my hands that I had killed the monster. The monster trembled, and then it finally stopped moving.
"Huff, huff. Are you okay?"
"Y-yes. Thank you. You saved me."
"You"re welcome."
When I turned around and ascertained that the girl was fine, my heart felt like it would stop.
Soft chestnut-colored hair, emerald-like eyes. Smooth and tender skin. Soft and plump cheeks. Cherry blossom colored lips against those rosy cheeks. The girl I saved was a girl so beautiful you would doubt your eyes.
C-cuuuuuuuuute!
Eh, what, this girl!? Was she a doll? A princess? An angel? A forest fairy!?
"Wha――what were you doing in such a place!? From appearance, you must be a kid from the nearby village, right? Didn"t you hear that it"s dangerous in the Stanley Forest now because monsters are coming out!? It"s crazy for a girl to come into the forest by herself!"
After I got excited in front of the overly beautiful girl and said everything in one go, the girl stared at me in wonder.
"Um, but you are also……"
"I-I"m okay! I"m with onii-sama! Right now we"re a bit separated, but I"m not lost! I properly know the way home!"
Geez, I seemed to have been saying a bunch of needless things since just now. But in front of such a cute girl, I end up losing my bearings!
……I might understand the feelings of a boy teases the girl he like……
"U-um, I also entered the forest with my brother."
"My, was that so?"
But looking at the shaking girl, indeed feelings of guilt sprouted. That was right. This wasn"t the place to act tsundere. This was right after this girl met with a scary experience, so I had to be nice to her!
"So, where is that brother?"
"Um, when I realized, I was alone……"
"I see. My horse knows the way back, so it"s okay. Come with me. By the way, your name――"
At that moment, we heard a voice from within the forest.
"Hey, Jenny! Where are you?"
"Ah! Aaron-onii-chan! I"m here, onii-chan!"
"……Jenny? Aaron? Eeeh!? That would be to say that, could you be by any chance――"
The otome game Rose of the Battlefield"s heroine Eugenie"s nickname was Jenny.
It was true that the girl before me had Eugenie"s looks. Eugenie was one year younger than Rosalind, so by her age, it wasn"t strange.
She was childhood friends with Aaron who would become the leader of the Arch Knight Order, but she was not born and raised in the same village or town as him. The setting was that they became close when she came over to her uncle and aunt"s home to play.
(If I remember correctly, as a child, she entered the forest with Aaron and got lost. She should have been chased by a monster. And then it should have been that when she fell into a pittrap and cried, Aaron saved her. That was spoken of as a memory――）
I took a sidelong glance at the slain monster.
……could it have been this monster!?
I killed it, so Eugenie and Aaron"s memory will never happen!?
Well, in this world, I was aiming for the onii-sama x Eugenie route, so it didn"t matter, but…
"What"s wrong?"
"Um. No, there"s nothing really……"
Incidentally, there was no setting for onii-sama and Eugenie to meet in the forest as children. Of course, she wasn"t acquainted with Rosalind either. In the game, Rosalind was a lady-like young miss, so she didn"t cling to her brother and enter the forest. As I replaced Rosalind on the inside, I somehow managed to make contact with Eugenie at such a young stage! I turned to face Eugenie.
(C-……cute！ Such cuteness!? Is this the charm of an otome game heroine!? I had become accustomed to seeing beautiful people and beautiful women, but her aura was different!)
I had reincarnated for 3 years; my chances to meet face to face with the children of the upper cla.s.s had increased. The children of n.o.bility were of course all beautiful boys and girls.
However, Eugenie"s aura was different! As expected, she would charm the several elite, handsome men who would ignore the beauties of the upper echelons. She even seemed to have attracted me of the same s.e.x. Rather, I had fully been charmed by her. This girl was too cute!
(But, Eugenie and I can"t be acquaintances here! The outline of fate will be greatly changed!)
To aim for guiding Eugenie toward the difficult onii-sama route, I have to properly manage the flags!
If Eugenie and I became acquaintances here, times where she and onii-sama are acquainted would appear one after another. If that happened, the timing for her to meet the other capture characters would become strange, and my previous conjectures would be messed up! That would trouble me, so I had to prevent it!
"It seems that your brother is coming close. Well then, excuse me!"
"Eh?"
"Good bye!"
"Ah, wait!"
I mounted my horse and left. After checking that she wasn"t following, I hid myself in a place hidden from view and made sure that they would reunite without trouble.
"Jenny! What a relief. Let"s head back!"
"Y-yes……"
Eugenie and Aaron went to leave the forest. When I could no longer see their figures, I also returned to search for onii-sama.
"Rosalin! I"ve been searching for you! I"m glad you"re okay!"
"I"m sorry, onii-sama. You know, I also killed a monster by myself! It"s over here, so follow me!"
"Amazing! As expected of Rosalind-sama!"
My game was brought back to the castle, and onii-sama"s game was sent to nearby villages. That night, monster meat cooking lined the dining tables of the Stanley family and surrounding people.
I was Eugenie Carolle. I turned seven this year.
Although I usually lived in a district in the Oaks Territory with Papa and Mama, this year I was visiting an uncle"s house in the Lowes Village of the Arch Territory. My parents said that it was "for the sake of developing aesthetic sensibility," but I didn"t really understand what they meant.
At the Lowes Village, there were many animals as well as empty fields and forests, so I would run around and play with the neighbor big brother Aaron everyday.
On one of those days, I got lost in the forest and was being chased by a monster, and an attractive girl who looked like she came out of a fairy tale saved me.
Shining silver hair, golden eyes. That terrifyingly beautiful girl seemed just like a G.o.ddess.
"Good bye, Jenny. Come over again sometime, okay?"
The day I left the village, I was seen off by my uncle and aunt, and with my parents who came to pick me up, I got onto a horse-drawn carriage. I wanted to meet that girl, but I wasn"t able to see her again. Even so, her figure was left in my heart.
……I also wanted to become like that girl. With a feeling that I hadn"t had when I came to the village, I returned to town.
TL NOTE: The formatting got really messed up for a moment, but good, I am alive and I have made it less messed up.