Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End

Ahhh… the morning sun stings my eyes.

Then I stared at the sun rising from the valley of the building, shielding it with my hand as if it was dazzling me.

My name is Mariko Kanzaki, a 27-year-old office worker with a… well, no boyfriend. I’m an average looking arasa living alone in the city.

And although there are few people walking around me at this time of day because it is still early, most of them are wearing suits or school uniforms and walking to work or school at a brisk pace.

But I was walking among them in my civilian clothes, a little weakly.

But even so, I had a satisfied look on my face, with shades under my eyes.

The reason for this is because…

Hmmm! I ended up completing the game, but it’s refreshing to finally drop all the characters in the morning!

That’s right, I’ve been working on the latest otome game, “Eternal Time With You”, a fantasy game of romance in the royal palace, for several days until my paid holidays.

As a result of being so addicted to the game that I didn’t even spare a moment to sleep, I stayed up all night until the sun rose and finally managed to reach a happy ending with all the characters I wanted to capture.

However, I don’t know how many times it took me to bring down the prince I had attacked at the end…I don’t know how many times I thought there was no more happy endings for this prince, because no matter how many times I tried, it would always end in a normal ending or worse, a bad ending… Still, the feeling of accomplishment I felt when I finally brought him down was unbelievable. (It wasn’t!)

I remembered a still of the prince smiling at the heroine in a loving way with a happy ending, and my face naturally began to grin.

Then I noticed a man in a suit who passed me and looked at me strangely and I hurriedly returned to my expression.

No, no, no! I forgot that this wasn’t my room, it was outside! But… even now, I still get annoyed with the heroine’s rival, the villainous young lady. She looked beautiful on the outside, but she had the worst personality. I can’t tell you how many times I muttered to myself in annoyance every time the villainess appeared… But even so, when the happy ending comes, the villainess usually ends up being killed by the target of the attack, which is probably terrible, to be honest. I know, it’s refreshing.

Remembering this, I was heading for the convenience store across the street.

I had hardly eaten a meal at all, and as expected, I had been working hard, so I was feeling liberated and hungry, so I had no choice but to head to the convenience store to get some breakfast.

But I was caught by a traffic light on the way to the convenience store, so I took out my phone from my bag, turned on the phone and displayed the screen on the standby screen.

And I smiled again when I saw the standby screen on the screen.

Because there was a standby image of the first edition of “Eternal Time With You” which I was addicted to, on the standby screen.

Hmmm! After all, no matter how many times I see it, the men I’m attacking are still cool! But most of all, our heroine is so cute! This fluffy blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. And a dainty, sheltered look! Plus, she had a great personality in the game! If I were a man, I’d definitely be in love with you.

I was loosening my cheeks as I saw the heroine smiling with her cheeks surrounded by the men she was targeting on the screen.

But then, I suddenly heard a loud horn sound and, startled, I took my eyes off the screen and looked ahead.

There was a toddler boy tromping through the crosswalk and a big truck was approaching him, braking hard.

In addition, a woman, who I believe to be the child’s mother, was running frantically from across the crosswalk.

It was obvious that she was not going to make it in time no matter how I thought about it, and my body moved before I could even think about it.

I threw away my bag and phone amidst screams from everywhere, and in a flash, I ran under the boy and pushed him out of the way as hard as I could.

The next moment, my body was hit by a violent impact and I flew through the air.

Then I received another violent impact and fell to the ground, and in my waning consciousness, I closed my eyelids quietly, relieved to see the boy crying in his mother’s chest safely.

My consciousness fell into the depths of the abyss as it was, leaving such regrets in my mind.

***

…hmmm, what is it? It makes me feel kind of fluffy…and also kind of warm…

I wondered at the uncomfortable feeling in my body and tried to doze off in my sleep, but for some reason my body didn’t move well.

Huh? I’m not sure why my body isn’t moving well. Why isn’t it working? I… Oh, right! I got hit by that big truck, and…? But then why am I still alive? I thought that one was completely dead… or did he survive? Well, at any rate, let’s open my eyes once.

I told myself this and slowly opened my heavy eyelids.

Then my eyes met those of a woman who had been peeking at me from nearby.

Whoa, whoa! She’s so beautiful!!!!

The woman who was peeking in on me was a beautiful woman with sparkling silver hair and beautiful blue eyes like an emerald.

Such a beautiful woman looked at me and smiled softly.

Ki, beautiful~

I watched that smile in awe.

“Hmm, looks like you’re awake.”

“You’re right.”

The beautiful woman said happily, and as if in response to her words, I heard a man’s voice coming from very close to me.

I turned my gaze in the direction of the voice, startled by it.

Whoa! This one’s a great looking guy too!!!

The man who was happily peeking at me, blinding me with surprise, was a beautiful man with silky blond hair and beautiful purple eyes like amethysts.

“Huh, you’re peeking in from so close that this girl is surprised.”

“I just couldn’t help myself because she’s so cute.”

Then they were smiling at each other in front of me.

What’s with these two beautiful people? And he’s obviously not Japanese, but he’s not like the foreigners I’ve seen on TV…

I was looking at them in wonderment as they were still smiling at each other.

Then someone poked me on the cheek.

…What now?

I glanced so dubiously at the person who had poked me and saw a boy who was about as tall as my face position, staring at me.

What?! There’s another awesome beautiful boy!!!!

The beautiful boy with his silky blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes was smiling and poking me in the cheek.

“You’re so cute! And these cheeks are so soft!”

While saying that, the beautiful boy poked me further in the cheek.

…No, as expected, stop it already.

I frowned at the thrusting attack and looked uncomfortable, but the man who noticed me smiled bitterly and took the hands of the beautiful boy to stop me.

I’m sure the boy is in trouble. This boy is in trouble, isn’t he?

“I’m…I’m sorry.”

The man told him off and the boy became depressed, so the man gently patted him on the head.

The man gently patted the boy’s head, and the boy looked up at him with a shy smile, probably because he was happy to be patted.

I’m glad to see you’re feeling better… but I’d rather ask you where I am!

With that thought I opened my mouth to speak.

“Ahhhhh…ah?”

Huh? I can speak, but I can’t get the words out…

I wondered about it and decided to try it again anyway.

“Ahhh! Ahhhh…ah!”

I can’t talk! Why?!

My eyes were wide open and my mouth was agape at this unfamiliar phenomenon.

Then the three of them peeked at my face and broke into a big smile.

“Well, that’s cute~!”

“How adorable that you’re trying so hard to talk!”

“Cute! Cute!”

I was confused by the situation, as I was slightly taken aback by what was being said.

I don’t know if they’re that cute, but are these people’s eyes okay? If it makes you feel any better, I’d say I’m not what you’d call pretty…

As I wondered about this, I suddenly noticed a beautifully decorated mirror hanging on the wall out of the corner of my eye.

I was blindsided by the reflection of the person in the mirror.

Hey, what an adorable baby!!!!

What was reflected in the mirror was an adorable baby with silver hair and big, crinkly purple eyes in a pink baby suit, and I couldn’t help but think she was an angel.

What the hell is she?! I’ve never seen a baby like that! And if you look closely… she has silver hair like the mother who’s holding her, and her eyes are the same color as the father standing nearby. What a picture-perfectly beautiful family… Huh? It doesn’t feel right… Oh! I’m not in the picture! Why? Because for all intents and purposes, it would be weird if it wasn’t reflected there in terms of position… hmm? Position?

There I compared the mirror to the people around me.

…Well, no way…

With a very bad feeling, I managed to lift my right hand, which was not moving as it should, as hard as I could.

Then the beautiful man in front of me, with a smile on his face, wrapped his hands around my right hand and said,

“Oh, oh, you want me to hold it?”

I looked in the mirror at the face of the beautiful man who was gently grabbing my hand, and I was astonished.

Ah, I knew it…it’s that baby!!!! Huh? Why!?

I stared at my little hand, which was being held in bewilderment, and a thought suddenly passed through my mind.

Oh, I see… I died and was reincarnated after all. But I didn’t think it would happen in reality, although it was a common story in stories.

I smiled bitterly with mixed feelings.

For some reason, the three of them misunderstood that I laughed at them when they saw my face.

“Well! It made her laugh!”

“After all, my daughter has a pretty smile!”

“I’m going to be an older brother who can protect my sister!”

As I watched the three of them, I laughed even harder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

T/N: Truck-kun strikes again

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