Rae Taylor

 (Also: Rei Taylor) is one of the main characters in "I'm in Love with the Villainess".

Appearance
Oohashi Rei Pre-reincarnation Rei has dark hair and is described as being tall. She wears glasses and has bags under her eyes due to being so overworked.

Rae Taylor Rae has dark brown hair and brown eyes.

Personality
Rae deliberately plays herself up as being a foolishly happy-go-lucky girl who is obsessed with gaining Claire's affection. However in reality this is more of a coping mechanism brought about by her early experiences with exploring her sexuality. She is actually far less open with her true feelings, often bottling them up and covering it with humor.

According to the game plot, the original Rae Taylor had many saint-like characteristics to which the story Rae Taylor considered troublesome. At the start of the story, Rae Taylor has been friends with Misha Jur for ten years.

Background
Rei Oohashi is a former Office Lady who died of overwork and found herself reincarnated in the world of her favorite otome game, Revolution, assuming the role and identity of Rae Taylor. Her encyclopedic knowledge of Revolution comes from a plethora of sources such as memorizing the kingdoms history for the Liberal Arts exam, multiple playthroughs of the game, and studying all the secondary materials released about the game. Her motivation to understand all the details led her to consume all fan made materials and she was a perfectionist in the doujin novels she produced as well.

Rae was accepted into the Royal Academy, where the story takes place, by scoring well in examinations and earning a scholarship to attend.

History
Rei died from overwork, waking up in the body of Rae Taylor.

Powers and abilities

 * Modern Knowledge: Rae retains all her knowledge from modern-day Japan, including recipes and bookkeeping techniques.
 * Game Knowledge: Rae was a huge fan of the game Revolution, having an almost encyclopedic knowledge of its world, characters, and events.
 * Familiar: The water slime she names Ralaire.
 * Dual-caster: She has the highest magical aptitude, super, in both water and earth magic.
 * Spells:
 * Stone Arrows: A basic level low damage, small earth projectile.
 * Advanced: Tungsten Carbide Bullets : The strongest Earth projectile possible.
 * Shut (Earth Magic): A trap spell where a thick rock wall imprisons the opponent.
 * Earth Wall : Basic: A regular strength wall made with common earth materials.
 * Advanced: An extremely durable wall made of tungsten carbide, material only known by people with knowledge of another world.

Trivia

 * The "零" in 大橋 零 (Oohashi Rei) commonly translates to "zero", possibly alluding Rei's life being far emptier before reincarnating.
 * Oohashi Rei's appearance is first seen in the first episode of the manga.
 * She looks like, but not exactly, Rei Taylor.
 * Rei's hair has been kept short since her reincarnation into Bauer, but it was long when she was a student and an office worker.
 * She is not comfortable with long hair because it is difficult to take care of in the Revolution world; as it lacks the Modern haircare products.
 * Oohashi Rei was from a rural area but started living alone in Tokyo after enrolling into university.
 * She had a girlfriend which she brought home but it's not known if they ever lived together.
 * At some point, Rei forgave Misaki and her friends from high school, as well as a few other people that could be called her best friends.
 * Rei acquired her cooking skills by caring for her younger brother.
 * Her parents often work and left home together.
 * Rei naturally took care of the housework.
 * As a college student, Rei was not a very serious student.
 * Earned her driver's license in college.
 * Her father wouldn't allow her to drive a motorcycle because he was concerned for her safety.
 * She commuted to school exclusively by bicycle.
 * She started going to lesbian bars and had same-sex lovers, but none of them lasted long.
 * Perhaps she was still reeling from the scars of her high school days.
 * Rei most enjoyed studying gender theory and philosophy.
 * Rei has been writing fanfiction about Claire since she was in college.
 * In the interlude of the second volume of the manga version, Claire has a chance to see it.
 * Rei was a difficult person to befriend but she had a few deep friendships as opposed to the broad and shallow romantic relationships.
 * A girlfriend at the time introduced Rei to Revolution.
 * Once she started playing, she began her lifestyle as an otaku.
 * From that point on, her activities as an otaku became more important to her than finding romance.
 * Rei knew that Claire in Revolution was an objectively unlikeable character, so she didn't argue with people online but instead tried to promote Claire's appeal in her fanfiction.
 * Rei first learned about tungsten carbide during her training period after she joined a trading company and before she was assigned to the auditing department.
 * It was because one of the products they handled at their company was made of this material.
 * While working at a company, Rei's only source of entertainment was games, specifically love simulation games. Rei will essentially play any game which includes board games and card games. She's shown to be adept at both chess and poker due to their inclusion as minigames in Revolution.
 * In a weekly stream, Inori-sensei revealed that Rei loves penguins.
 * If Rei were a dog, she would be a golden retriever.
 * Rei's birthday is July 19th, the same as the author, Inori-Sensei.
 * Rei is based off someone Inori-Sensei knows in real life, her partner Aki.
 * While not stated, Rei may be masochistic; given she enjoys the bullying Claire put her through. Even demanding she slap her or verbally abuse her.
 * During a visit during a fan-run event, Inori-sensei answered a fan's question about Rei's love for Claire.
 * "If there is a possibility of baldness, [it would more likely happen to Rei.]"
 * "... but even if Claire were to go bald, Rei's love for her would not change."