Ela (CV: Hanae Natsuki) is a resident of Tokyou who works as a librarian at the library. He’s somewhat reserved but longs for the outside world and often reads books.
Hairi decides she wants to ask Ela to help her solve the curse. But Kashika tells her to be weary of what she tells him since her story about solving the curse may seem unbelievable to most. He suggests trying to find out more about M first, since she is a the ruler of the clock tower. Hairi then goes to a cafe where she sees Ela and they eat cake together. The next day she gets a flyer that announces M is looking for a caretaker to assist in the clock tower. She hopes to apply and then goes to the library to see Ela. She asks him about M since she wants to apply for this caretaker position and Ela doesn’t say much about her but wonders why she’s applying. Hairi says she finds it interesting and wants to do something different for a change which Ela understands.
So after that, Hairi wakes up to find her brother congratulating her on getting the job as M’s caretaker. She’s to meet with M on the same day and goes to the clock tower to do so. She meets M’s assistant and mother named Mei who gives Hairi her uniform and takes her to M’s room. She explains the rules of not speaking to M or touching her and apparently due to M having a sickness she speaks quietly. She then whispers in Mei’s ear to speak with Hairi alone for a few minutes and so Mei leaves. M writes down on paper that she wants to know more about Hairi, so Hairi tells her various things until Mei returns and tells her she’ll let her know when she starts her work.
After that, Hairi encounters Rindo, Natra, and Ela. They ask about her job and she says she can’t tell them the details but its good. Ela also ends up revealing that M is apparently his older sister and apologizes for lying about not knowing anything about M. She asks for recommendations on what to bring her next so he tells her she likes to read. So, Hairi brings M a romance novel on her shift and even comes early so she can speak with her. M thanks her on paper and asks if she’s ever been in love and she says she hasn’t and M says she hasn’t either. After that, Mei tells Hairi that she is not M’s friend “friend” and shouldn’t try to get so friendly with her. Back at home, Hairi feels slightly disappointed that she’s so restricted in talking with M.
Ela then suddenly visits and when Hairi consults him about it, he tells her she should try writing to her instead of talking. Hairi says she wishes her hair was like M’s since its so beautiful but Ela says hers is more beautiful. Hairi tells him he’s skilled since he can braid his hair but Ela points out how she puts up her hair as well and asks to touch it. When she lets him, he asks if she can put her hair down to see what it looks like. So she does and Ela is immediately in awe of her pretty hair and strokes it. Hairi feels so relaxed she starts falling asleep. He tells her its fine if she does though and gives her a kiss on the cheek. When she wakes up, she finds Shion talking to Ela about adopting him into their family because he’s such a good kid LOL.
The next time Hairi goes to work, Mei isn’t there. Hairi goes into M’s room and talks to her like usual after bringing her a cactus as a gift. M tells Hairi its okay if she wants to stay since Mei isn’t there, albeit Hairi is reluctant about it at first. She then realizes now is her chance to try and move the needle of the clock tower and so she tells M she’ll be back. After moving the needle, she comes back to M’s room to see her looking more ill. She tells Hairi she can go ahead and go home and so she does. After that, Ela meets Hairi at her place and brings back the book she let M borrow. He suggests she make scones for her and so she brings Ela to her room. Ela tells Hairi he’s actually kind of jealous of how much she’s been with M lately and Hairi ends up falling over on top of Ela. He asks if she conscious of him as a guy and before anything can be continued, Kashika comes in and interrupts. He didnt realize they were having a “moment”” so he promptly leaves lmao.
The following day Hairi meets M again and they talk about Ela and M confirms she’s indeed his sister. M tells Hairi to look at for her brother and Hairi says she will. Suddenly Mei storms in and catches Hairi talking with M again aftet telling her not to. She also suspects Hairi of being the one to move the needle of the clock tower. M defends her though and tells Hairi she should leave for now. After that, Hairi meets with Ela at the library to ask for advice again. She asks what M does and Ela explains that she manages the clock tower. Albeit, she mentions how the needle was moves but Ela says he doesn’t know much about that except for the fact they probably want to keep the clock tower in its historical state. He then suggests they go to a cafe to eat lunch and Ela asks Hairi to tell more about herself since he wants to know.
Ela starts asking her type and if she should choose between him or Rindo lmao. She picks Rindo and Ela is seemingly bummed but hopes to become her “type”. He then asks if she considers him a friend and she tells him of course she does. He says he wants her to know him best and she’s special and there’s no one like her. After that, Hairi sees Ela again and she admits she’s been lying to someone but doesn’t say who and is starting to feel guilty about. But Ela reassures her that if its a kind lie that will benefit others, she shouldn’t worry so much about it. Ela tells her to confide in him anytime and Hairi tells Ela she should confide in her as well if he as problems. This leads to Ela to admits he’s basically confined to the clock tower like Ela but has slightly more freedom than she does. He wants to badly go outside though and wonders how different his life may have been if he’d been able to live a normal life. Hairi then suggests they go outside together but Ela tells her he can’t answer right away and wants to get permission from his mother first since apparently she’d flip if he did.
After that, Hairi goes to work and talks to M once again. She mentions how Ela brought up her going outside and she tells her she always wanted to but can’t. But if she’s able to go with Ela, she hopes for her to pick her a flower. M then tells Hairi she’s the only one who came to visit her and takes her hand, even with Hairi knowing she shouldn’t touch her but M won’t let go. And so Hairi tells her that even though she’s her caretaker she’s with her and M thanks her. Hairi then goes on her break and moves the needle of the clock tower again. After that, Hairi goes to the library again to see Ela and discuss going outside together. Ela takes her to an old archive in the clock tower where only royalty related to M and his family can access so they can talk in private.
Hairi gets straight to the point and asks Ela if he’ll sneak outside with her. He asks why she’d do that for him and tells him its because they’re friends. Ela whispers to himself that “they” (him & M) really do need her and decides to accept her offer. He tells her he’s really happy and decides to give her a ribbon as a symbol of their promise and ties it around her ankle. He asks where she got her glass shoes and she tells him Kashika gave them to her. He reveals he actually received a glass shoe like hers and a note that said “the person who wears it will make your wish come true”, knowing it was probably from Kashika and talking about her. Ela then asks for one more request and that being he takes her shoes and gives her his.
After that, Hairi makes preparations by telling Shien and the others at the church, telling Natra to keep Ela going out a secret by bribing him with gummy candy and giving Ela a formal invitation card which he’s super excited about. So finally on that day Hairi and Ela go outside and Ela is super excited and follows Hairi to the church she often visits. There, all of them meet Ela and he finds out that he actually already met Ulen via mail since they’re pen pals who never met each other in person with Ulen calling himself “Zoe” and Ela calling himself “Ash”. They end up talking and the rest of them have a good time until its time for Ela and Hairi to leave. Hairi then takes Ela to one last place which is the flower field that Shien first showed her. Ela watches it in awe as they sit together holding hands. Ela then gives Hairi the glass shoe he received and Hairi also realizes she’s in love with Ela. When they go back to Tokyou, Ela thanks her for taking him outside.
After that though, when Hairi tries to do her regular job to take care of M, she’s told by Mei that she’s no longer allowing contact to M and fires her from her job. Hairi is super confused and goes to the library to look for Ela, but he’s not there and hears from one of the librarians he was injured. She goes to Natra and Rindo’s place to try and find out more but they don’t know anything. Not long after that, Natra tells Hairi to come back to their place and Rindo explains Ela and M are locked in the clock tower. He gives her a note from Ela that said he was confined because his mother found out he snuck out. So Hairi decides to help Ela and both Natra and Rindo decide to cooperate as well. Meanwhile, Ela is cooped up in his room wishing to see Hairi again.
So Natra, Rindo, and Hairi come up with a plan to get Hairi into M’s room where Hairi is by putting her in a crate of apples and giving it to Ela. In doing so, Mei doesn’t suspect anything and leaves the room after Rindo asks to speak to her. After that, Hairi jumps out of the crate and surprises Ela uttering him speechless. He ends up hugging Hairi immediately and tells her over and over he wanted to see her. He ends up confessing he loves her and so does Hairi. So Ela decides to help Hairi in looking for a special “royal seal”, which is a symbol of the strongest authority for Tokyou, that should be hidden somewhere in the clock tower. Hairi manages to find it in M’s room hidden in the cactus that she gave M. However, because the flower that bloomed was different, she knew it wasn’t the same one she gave M and it was changed.
After that, Ela is about to tell Hairi something but Mei discovers their plan and storms into M’s room, interrupting him. She tells Ela to give her the royal seal but he refuses. Mei tells him she merely wanted him to fulfill his duties as “M” and reveals to Hairi that Ela was M all along. Apparently its true all the “M”‘s in the past were female and had the power of Astrolabe to move the meedle of the clock tower but Ela could only “fix” it. In other words, they were preventing it from hitting 12:00 (which is the opposite of what Hairi was doing) so no more bad things could happen such as the curse spreading. So Ela’s mother did all she could to disguise Ela as a woman and keep him isolated so no one would find out. But Ela tells her she’s just delaying the inevitable and something needs to change. Which is why he’s decided he will break the curse and demands her cooperation. She finally agrees and backs down.
After that, Ela reveals to the public his true identity and how the only one to succeed M was him who was male and did not have the power to move the needle but rather fix it. Hairi receives a notice to come visit Ela and she goes to his room in the clock tower. There, he formally apologizes to her for lying about his identity but Hairi tells him she’s more embarrassed more than anything since she told M a lot of different things but she’s not mad. Research being done in the clock tower to find a way to undo the curse now that Ela has asked the help of the citizens. Meanwhile, Ela feels his vision get blurry (he wore glasses before) and Hairi gets worried and tells him to rest. Ela says he’d be scared to lose his vision if he couldn’t see her and asks how she’s react if she couldn’t. But Hairi tells him she’ll always no where he is even if she lost her sight. He decides to “test” it by covering her eyes and drawing closer to her and eventually kissing her. 😂
After that, Hairi is conflicted about moving the needle of the clock since Ela claims it’ll mean the end of the world and the release of the curse. So, she confides in Kashika who insists she continue to move it and not tell Ela. So she moves the needle again and when she’s summoned by Ela, she goes into his room to find him in pain. Apparently his eyesight is worsening because of how much he’s used his power to fix the clock tower. That being said, he had been using it to stop it from going to 12:00 after Hairi had moved it. So now she’s full of guilt for not telling him she’s the one who moved the clock tower needle. So she decides to reveal she was the one who’s been moving the needle. Hairi tells him that Kashika had told her what to do and truly believed the curse would be solved if she moved the needle to 12:00. But Ela tells her its not her fault and is actually happy there is another Astrolabi like him and he tells her to keep it a secret for now but believes it’ll be easier to solve the curse now.
After that, Ela has Hairi accompany her to do experiments with his power to try and solve the curse. He intends to use his Astrolabi power on a book with blank pages that was in the archive since it should reveal words that are unseen to those not using it. But Hairi insists she do it since she has more power as him as a female Astrolabi and doesn’t want to risk his eyes from further injury. So she uses her power on the book and it says that using the power of two Astrolabi can turn back time even further than with one person and will undo any events that happened prior. This was a sort of “ceremony” done in the past as a way to prevent tragedies that would happen. But with the two of them they can move the clock tower’s needle back a day. So the public is told about the day they intend to try and solve the curse. Hairi decides to believe in Ela’s way rather than what Kashika had told her. The two of them use their power as Astrolabi to move time back before the curse was created.
In the epilogue, Ela does his work as M while both he and Hairi continue to watch over the clock tower as Astrolabi. At the library, Ela decides to give Hairi a sneak kiss in the library. After that, Ela invites Hairi to the same flower field she took him too but at night when the flowers are glowing. Ela tells Hairi his work is important but he wants to go on adventure with her like they promised. And so they kiss after saying how much they love each other again.
In the 1st bad end, Ela strangles Hairi with his ribbon after he starts thinking she’s going to go leave on an adventure without him (this ending made literally no sense). In the 2nd bad end, Hairi comes out of the box full of fruit at the wrong time and is never able to see Ela again. In the 3rd & 4th bad end, Hairi and the others are caught while looking for the royal seal. In the 5th bad end, Hairi betrays Ela’s trust by moving the clock’s needle to 12:00 thinking she’ll save the world. But in doing so it does nothing and Hairi is locked up and overhears that Ela has died. In the 6th bad end, Hairi doesn’t tell Ela that she’s an Astrolabi and continues to allow Ela to try and read the book with his own power. He essentially decides to use a method that just does what he normally had been doing which was fixing the needle. However, when Ela tries to do this to solve the curse, its too much for him. Hairi then decides that she’ll try instead and tries to turn the needle in the way Ela was without telling him she was an Astrolabi as well. Ela tries to warn her not to but she ends up breaking the “knob” to move the needle because the method used is only something male Astrolabi can do so the result was unpredictable. Ela ends up losing his eyesight and his eyes start bleeding. Hairi cries and begs him to forgive her but Ela just tells her to only look at him now that he can’t see and well… It turns yandere again I guess.
After that, Hairi is now taking care of Ela who is completely blind. He essentially guilt trips her about it all the time which makes her feel obligated to take care of him. She apologizes over and over about it but then Ela tells her its fine as long as she’s with him and continues to contradict everything he said (boy you were just guilt tripping her lmao wtf). They’re hated by citizens and keep themselves locked in the clock tower. Hairi feels endlessly guilty about what she’s done but then Ela starts saying they’re better off anyway with just the two of them. He tells her she’s the only one who’s broken him and he’s the only one who’s broken her.
Final Thoughts: Ela was kind of the type of route I expected and if I did have to choose a fave route I think it would be his?? Maybe because it had the most build-up to something and felt really close to the plot (maybe even more so than Kashika’s). You actually get a big chunk of backstory to the whole Astrolabi thing and then there’s M. I actually predicted that Ela was M only because in doing Shien’s route, there’s a part or end?? where M speaks for a second. Plus, I kinda figured they wouldn’t show so many scenes of M if it wasn’t Ela (even when he claimed she was his sister) especially because she didn’t talk. My favorite scene in this route was probably when Hairi literally jumped out of the crate of fruits yelling ‘ta-da!!’ it was just too cute. Ela was just a super lonely boi who wanted to go outside instead of doing his DUTIES that mother forced upon him. I guess this also just adds to the green-hair collection of lonely bois. Anyway, another contradiction to add to this route was RINDO. I did not understand why they kept jumping back and forth to Rindo being a friend/foe relationship. It really made no sense. LASTLY, Ela’s bad ends annoyed me. I couldn’t see why he’d suddenly choke Hairi (with his ribbon no less) or even want to be with her after she essentially blinded him. Honestly, that bad end was weird cause he kept contradicting himself and saying “oh you blinded me you have to take care of me” to “its okay … as long as you understand”. I guess I understand she felt guilty af cause she didn’t tell Ela the truth, but if I were her I’d say fk it and just skip town after that LOL.
Otome Adventures 