I Became the Younger Brother of the Villainess

There’s a romance fantasy otome game called [The Garden of Blue Roses].

It’s your typical reverse harem otome game set in a fictional academy called Arcadia Academy.

As someone who’s a self-proclaimed otaku who prefers games with female characters, it’s no surprise I wouldn’t even know the title. However, it seems my parents failed spectacularly at raising their kids, as my one and only sister turned out to be just as much of an otaku as I am. Thanks to her, I ended up being exposed to it in my daily life more often than I’d like.

Honestly, being force-fed information I had no desire to know was far from pleasant. I still can’t believe I let myself get swayed into drawing fan art for her in exchange for some pocket money. What an idiot I was.

Looking back now, though, I’m oddly grateful for those moments. Drawing those illustrations gave me an excuse to listen to her ramble on about the game, and I absorbed more information than I ever would have on my own. Otherwise, my usual tendency would’ve been to let it go in one ear and out the other.

Why, you ask, would it be a good thing to have detailed knowledge of a game I’d never even consider playing?

Well, as always, life followed a cliché.

I woke up in the world of [The Garden of Blue Roses].

Not as the heroine, nor as one of her romantic interests, but as Scarlett Tepes, the younger brother of Leticia Tepes, the villainess who obstructs the heroine in every single route.

It’s been about a month since I reincarnated. While I’m not entirely used to being called “Scarlett Tepes,” I’ve adapted enough to respond when someone calls me by that name.

Every morning, I wake up to the care of a pale-faced maid. With not a hint of vitality, she seems more machine than human—practically indistinguishable from a corpse.

Well, she is a ghoul, after all. My sister and I, on the other hand, are vampires. After washing up, I look into the mirror and see my crimson eyes glittering like jewels.

Being a vampire seems to come with breathtaking looks. I couldn’t help but smile, satisfied. At the very least, this body is to my liking.

Before reincarnating, I’d heard bits and pieces from my sister about this world. Apparently, the Tepes family—one of the oldest and most prestigious vampire clans—had accepted a title from the empire as a symbolic gesture of harmony between humans and humanoid beings.

They even openly purchased blood like it was any other commodity.

Since [The Garden of Blue Roses] is more character-focused than world-building-heavy, the vampires in the game were pretty resistant to traditional weaknesses. Silver and crosses? No problem. Running water? Child’s play.

Their only notable weakness was sunlight, and even that didn’t apply to high-ranking vampires.

That last part, I didn’t learn from my sister—I experienced it myself. Walking in the garden under the midday sun felt no worse than a faint prickling sensation on my skin.

If the predetermined future didn’t involve complete ruin, I could probably live a life of luxury without a care in the world. However, knowing that the Tepes family is doomed to collapse—or even face total annihilation—no matter which route the game takes makes it impossible to feel truly at ease.

Sure, the thought of returning to my original world has crossed my mind, but survival here has to come first.

Besides…

Scarlett Tepes

Strength ▶ 102 (44)
Agility ▶ 121 (41)
Stamina ▶ 105 (39)
Endurance ▶ 84 (32)
Magic ▶ 214

Status: Fatigue, Thirst
Traits: Vampire, Void (空), …

When I quietly muttered Status, a translucent window popped up before my eyes. It’s the classic status screen you’d expect as a perk for reincarnators. Incidentally, the same type of screen appears in the game to help the heroine track the affection levels of her love interests.

Scrolling past the long list of stats, I found another tab labeled Quests.

Main Quest – Survive

▶ You are fated to face ruin! Break free from destiny and create a new ending!
Reward: Varies based on the difficulty and completeness of the ending.

Tutorial – Set a Goal (??? 0/1)

▶ Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Set a small goal to take your first step toward completing the main quest.
Reward: Varies based on the difficulty of the set goal.

The Main Quest caught my attention. The reward being tied to the quality of the ending meant that the effort I put in would directly impact the outcome.

I couldn’t be certain if completing this quest would let me return to my original world, but it seemed to be the most plausible option I had.

I didn’t have the luxury of choosing anything else.

The first priority was to prevent my sister, Leticia, from falling for the crown prince.

In the original storyline, the plot kicks off when Leticia is in her third year at the academy, and according to the game’s lore, she develops feelings for the prince during the middle of her second year. That means I still had time to intervene.

I would be enrolling in the academy in two months, just as Leticia started her second year. While there were other routes where she fell for the Tower Master or the Duke of the North, those branching points didn’t occur until the second semester of her second year, so they weren’t an immediate concern.

For now, I’d focus on preventing her from falling for the prince.

As I resolved myself, the tutorial text in the quest window updated with a chime.

Tutorial – Set a Goal → Raise Leticia Tepes’s Affection!

▶ Increase Leticia Tepes’s affection to ensure she doesn’t fall for another man!
Objective: Raise Leticia Tepes’s affection to 70 or higher (61/70).
Deadline: Before entering Arcadia Academy.

Of course, being an otome game, the quest had to involve something like this.

I let out a hollow laugh as the quest auto-registered before I could even think about rejecting it. Since I couldn’t cancel it, I resigned myself and closed the quest window. I then changed into the clothes handed to me by the ever-silent ghoul maid who had been standing by.

I appreciated the convenience of having a maid who moved solely based on commands and didn’t require me to tiptoe around her feelings. Still, there’s a certain romantic allure to having a living maid that this situation lacked. Perhaps I’d consider hiring a human maid later, provided Leticia didn’t object.

With that idle thought in mind, I headed to the dining room. As I approached the door, the ghoul maid bowed slightly and opened it for me. Inside, Leticia sat waiting with a faintly irritated expression.

She tapped her palm lightly against the table with graceful movements. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if tapping on a table could ever be considered elegant, but Leticia managed to make it look that way.

“You’re late,” she said curtly.

“Sorry, I had a lot to think about,” I replied.

“Liar. You were probably half-asleep, stumbling around, weren’t you? Didn’t I tell you? If you’re going to blend in with humans, you need to get used to mornings.”

She had a point. No matter how resistant high-ranking vampires like us were to sunlight, we were still fundamentally creatures of the night. Our strength grew under the moonlight, and we moved through shadows as nobles of the dark.

Yet here we were, up and about in the early morning. Among the three great vampire clans—Tepes, Dracul, and Nosferatu—our family alone chose to represent vampires in human society, adapting to their ways.

Leticia, as an academy student, had no choice but to follow human schedules. Soon, I would be enrolling as well, and Leticia had been nagging me endlessly to adjust to daytime activities.

Admittedly, mornings weren’t my strong suit. I nodded slightly, conceding to her point.

When I complied so easily, Leticia softened her stern expression and sighed, as though resigning herself to my shortcomings.

“Fine. If you understand, I won’t harp on it. Are you feeling better?”

“Almost fully recovered. Don’t worry.”

The day I reincarnated into Scarlett Tepes’s body, something significant had apparently gone wrong with it.

A vampire’s body shouldn’t even be capable of running a fever, but the day I possessed this one, it was said that Scarlett Tepes’s blood had been boiling. Was it a side effect of my possession? Or had his body been in such a critical state that my possession became possible in the first place?

Regardless, it didn’t matter now. What mattered was that Scarlett Tepes and I were two completely different individuals. To avoid suspicion, I preemptively claimed memory loss right after my possession.

Not full-blown amnesia, of course. I told them I could still recall essential memories—who I was, who my sister was, and the basics of daily life. Beyond that, I explained that most of my memories were hazy and fragmented.

For the past month, I’d rarely left my room, staying holed up to collect my thoughts. From Leticia’s perspective, it was only natural for her to worry.

Every single day, whether it was mealtime or not, she made it a point to visit my room. She’d patiently sit by my side, recounting stories and trying to jog my supposed lost memories.

Thinking back, it made sense that her affection score was already over 60.

In the game, affection above 50 signified a significant emotional connection. While the standards might differ slightly for family members, her score was higher than I’d expected.

I glanced at Leticia. Her gaze, filled with concern, carried a distinct warmth and affection as she looked at me.

Subtly—very subtly—I let my eyes trail over her figure, taking her in. She didn’t notice. Even though she wasn’t my actual sister, Scarlett Tepes would undoubtedly see Leticia as his real sibling. Raising her affection score felt questionable, even if it was mandated by a quest.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized: I didn’t really have a choice. Even if I didn’t want to do it, it was a quest, and quests weren’t optional. And despite Leticia’s kindness and genuine care for her “amnesiac” brother, there was no room for hesitation. I had to do this.

That’s what I told myself, anyway.

To be honest, I was just using the quest as an excuse to stop holding back.

After the meal, I raised a glass of blood-filled wine to my lips and let the liquid slide down my throat. Drinking blood was starting to feel natural now—almost enjoyable. These days, it even tasted good…

For the record, being a vampire didn’t mean I couldn’t eat normal food. Human cuisine was still fair game, but it was more of a luxury than a necessity. To survive and gain sustenance, blood was indispensable.

Even my body wasn’t exempt from this rule. Especially after the possession, when it was in a severely weakened state, consuming blood became essential for recovery. Having never tasted blood before, I initially found the experience revolting. But with Leticia watching me so intently, refusing wasn’t an option.

Thanks to that, I’ve grown accustomed to drinking blood—now, it’s no different than sipping tomato juice or wine.

I drained the blood in the wine glass and stood up. While I had resolved to raise Leticia’s affection score, there wasn’t much I could do at the moment. After all, we had just finished a meal, and with the ghoul maids silently watching, Leticia likely wouldn’t allow anything suspicious to happen.

Fortunately, Leticia visited my room daily under the pretense of helping me regain my memories. That would provide the perfect opportunity to act, given we’d be alone in the privacy of my bedroom—a far better setting for making progress.

The real question wasn’t when or where to act, but what I should do. No matter how much affection she had for me, her feelings likely didn’t extend beyond familial love. To Leticia, I was simply a younger brother who’d lost his memory and needed care.

Her affection wasn’t romantic, and physically, I was no match for her.

This was evident just by looking at her stats.

Leticia Tepes

Strength ▶ 142
Agility ▶ 156
Stamina ▶ 122
Endurance ▶ 141
Magic ▶ 133

Status: Anxiety
Traits: Vampire, Form (形), Interim Head of House, …

Compared to Leticia, the weakened stats of Scarlett Tepes were laughable. Even if my body fully recovered, there’d be no guarantee of victory. While my Void (空) trait was absurdly overpowered, Leticia’s Form (形) trait was no less formidable.

With my lack of strength and her instinctive protectiveness toward a “memoryless” brother, it wasn’t hard to guess how she saw me—at best, a handsome younger sibling.

The fact that she even thought of me as a good-looking sibling was a miracle in itself. If my real-life older sister from my previous world was any indication, having this kind of dynamic with Leticia felt like stepping into a dream.

Still, this wasn’t the real world but an otome game world. A fantasy world of swords, magic, and apparently good sibling relationships. Even so, I couldn’t afford to remain stuck in the “good sibling” category. If I didn’t act before entering the academy, Leticia might end up falling for the crown prince, just like in the game.

To complete the quest and keep her from being distracted by others, I needed to shift our relationship beyond the standard sibling dynamic. I had until the academy term began.

If I simply waited in my room like usual, Leticia would come to check on me. For her, it would just be another part of her daily routine—nothing more than fulfilling her responsibility toward her “ailing” brother. There would be no excitement, no spark—just concern and pity.

I decided it was time to shake things up a bit.

“Leticia,” I called.

“Yes? What is it?” she replied.

“When do you plan to come to my room today?”

“When I find the time, I suppose. Why? Are you looking forward to it? Feeling lonely?”

She smiled at me with the same warmth one might reserve for a cute little sibling. It was almost surreal to think that this same Leticia was portrayed as a cold-hearted villain in the game.

What was love, anyway? Honestly, I didn’t see her as my actual sibling.

Even if this world had become my reality, just a month ago, it was nothing more than the setting of a game to me. And now, I was here, trying to seduce her—not as a brother, but as a man.

Despite that, thinking about her fate made me feel conflicted. Suppressing my complicated feelings, I answered with a hint of sincerity.

“Not lonely, just… I like spending time with you.”

“We already spend time together every day,” she replied with a light chuckle.

“Spending time alone with you feels so short,” I said casually. “If I could, I’d spend the whole day with you.”

“…”

It was a throwaway comment.

I wasn’t expecting any immediate change from such a line. It was more of a seed, something to sow for later, laced with just a hint of sincerity.

But her reaction was unusual. Her cheeks turned slightly red, and her tightly pressed lips quivered.

Normally, she would have laughed it off with a teasing “Do you really like your sister that much?” Yet, she remained silent. Her uncharacteristic lack of response made me curious.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Well, um, spending the whole day together… does that include… at night, too?” she stammered.

“Ah.”

I realized what misunderstanding she had. Still, something about her response felt off. I decided not to hold back and pressed further.

“What’s so strange about sharing a bed? Honestly, I thought you’d be the one excitedly suggesting it, saying you’ve always wanted to.”

It was true. The Leticia I knew would have likely leaped at the idea, eagerly suggesting we sleep together without hesitation.

Her face, usually pale enough to seem ghostly, now bore a faint blush that looked even more vivid against her complexion.

Whether it was embarrassment or something else, one thing was clear—she was flustered.

This was strange.

“Well, um, that’s true… I suppose,” she muttered.

Yet, she still couldn’t compose herself, now fanning her face with her hand in an attempt to cool down. She didn’t even seem interested in hiding how visibly shaken she was.

What was wrong with her?

I could have pushed further, but something told me that if I did, she might bolt. Instead, I decided to let it go for now. Rising from my seat, I approached her as she continued to look utterly lost.

Tap.

I lightly flicked her forehead with my finger.

“Why are you acting so weird? I’m going to rest in my room for a bit. Let’s say… two hours? You can come by then, right?”

She didn’t respond verbally. Instead, she gave me a slow nod, looking too preoccupied with her thoughts to say anything. Whatever was going through her head was beyond me, so I left her there and headed back to my room.

Leticia Tepes was flustered.

Her younger brother had always been the epitome of a noble. Arrogant, dignified, and undeniably capable. As the scion of the Tepes family, he commanded respect and carried himself with the authority of a future patriarch. Among the illustrious bloodline of Tepes, his talents were unparalleled. If not for the meddling elders of the Dracul and Nosferatu clans, it wouldn’t have been surprising for him to ascend to the throne of the Blood King within the next decade.

That perfection made him intimidating to her—too flawless. Yet, it wasn’t fear, jealousy, or envy she felt. It was admiration. Despite being much younger than her, he was someone she couldn’t help but revere, even if she questioned the appropriateness of such feelings toward her own sibling.

And now, that brother of hers had changed.

A month ago, when her younger brother lay silent, as if dead, enduring excruciating pain without a sound. And later, when he finally woke. She had sensed then that something about him had changed.

At first, she felt wary. Perhaps it was her inability to accept the difference in him that made her try to keep her distance. That was, until the night he called for her and confessed that he’d lost his memories.

A weakened body and lost memories. The pitiful sight of him laying himself bare before her, so vulnerable, was heartrending. The brother she had once admired so much was gone, replaced by someone fragile and needing her care.

He had begged her not to hate him. Even if he was a shadow of his former self, he was still her brother, he whispered again and again. “You don’t have to love me—just don’t hate me.” That desperate plea stayed with her, etched into her memory.

Clutching her chest, she felt her heart race even now, just thinking about that night.

She loved this version of her brother. The role of acting as head of the house in his stead had been daunting at first, but every evening, when she came to visit him, all her worries melted away.

Even with his memory gone, he was unmistakably still her brother. If nothing else, his uncanny ability to absorb everything she told him like a sponge proved it.

He was still the brother she had once admired. But now, he was also the brother she cherished.

At first, she thought it was maternal instinct—this fluttering feeling she got every time she saw him weakened.

But it didn’t take her long to realize that wasn’t the case. Each night, as he rested his head gently against her hand or as she planted a light kiss on his forehead, his relaxed smile would make her insides tighten.

And when she bade him goodnight and left his room, trembling legs barely carrying her away, she’d feel the dampness creeping up her thighs. It was impossible to ignore.

Still, she refused to call it love.

He was far too noble and beloved—too precious. And besides, they were siblings.

It wasn’t love, she convinced herself, but rather a twisted fetish of hers—a perverse thrill from seeing someone she once revered in such a weakened state, leaning on her for support.

You’re disgusting. She whispered it to herself every night before falling asleep. Even that wasn’t enough to stop her hands from wandering.

And so, after nights of failing to restrain herself, she’d finally told her brother he needed to adjust to mornings if he wanted to adapt to life at the academy. With that excuse, she made sure to send him to bed before nightfall.

…But here she was again, shaking her head to clear those thoughts. Thoughts she’d sworn to banish during the day.

Shameful.

Every night, under the moonlight, her blood and desires came alive, driving her to a frenzy she could barely contain. She’d promised herself that at least during the daylight hours, she would hold back. Yet here she was, faltering.

Fanning her flushed face desperately with her hand, she couldn’t seem to cool the heat. Her thirst only grew worse. Her gaze fell to the empty seat where her brother had been moments ago.

This is all his fault.

Of course, he hadn’t said anything particularly outrageous, but she needed an excuse.

She steadied her trembling legs, forcing herself to stand. Slowly, she approached the seat where he had been sitting, as if drawn to it.