CH 2

Shiny silvery white hair that looks as if it’s sprinkled with stars.

Golden eyes as sweet as honey.

A face as sweet and beautiful and young as a delicate flower.

White marshmallow skin and rosy cheeks and lips.

The mirror reflected features that were completely unfamiliar, at least to me, who had always had the standard Japanese features with black hair and black eyes.

Apparently, I am Alice Rebecca Archelaus. A doughy-faced little girl, five years old.

I say “apparently” because, if I remember correctly, I should be Japanese. And what I remember is that I was a Japanese woman who lived to be twenty-nine years old. I was a splendid corporate slave.

But now, reflected in the luxurious full-length mirror, is a beautiful silver-haired girl with pure white skin and delicate features.

While rubbing my brow with a gesture that doesn’t match the beautiful girl’s appearance, I decided to sort out how I ended up in this situation.

***

No matter how much I think, I can’t seem to remember anything special about my past life. I have no memory and don’t even remember how I might have died. I went to sleep after what was probably a normal day. And when I woke up and got up out of bed, I found myself in this body.

To be precise, I remember living until I was five years old as Alice, and then suddenly I remembered the memories of my previous life.

Maybe it’s because of the amount of information I have, but my awareness of my past life as me is quite strong. Or rather, Alice’s consciousness was clouded for various reasons, so I am almost completely myself.

The room I am in now is a large room of about 30 tatami mats at a glance. It is my private room.

The light shines through a large window on one wall, and the white walls reflect the light. The ceiling is a deep amber color and the woodwork is beautifully finished.

And there is a large bed with a pale pink canopy. Thick curtains and carpets in a uniform color to match the bed.

The claw-legged, luxurious-looking furniture was covered with delicate white lace. There is a flower arrangement with an overflowing amount of flowers.

That’s the kind of environment I am in now since waking up.

Incidentally, my maid Connie, who was waiting by the wall just a few minutes ago, was so surprised that she jumped up and down when I got out of bed and left the room, shouting about something.

“Doesn’t this feel too real to be lucid dreaming…?”

I asked myself as I plucked at my soft cheeks. I hadn’t spoken for so long that it was hard to speak. Since I hadn’t spoken much for a long time, my voice felt a bit scratchy coming out.

That’s right, I longed for it. Skin like white porcelain, exotic hair and eye color. And by the way, for a near 30-year-old otaku, reincarnation into another world is like a dream. It’s almost like new game button for life.

However, if it is a momentary dream, I can be happy with it, but if it suddenly becomes reality, that’s not so easy.

I pinched my cheek as hard as I could and it hurt very badly, and I tried toddling around on my little girl’s feet and making small movements, but it didn’t have the fluffy feeling of a dream. It’s just ‘me’ here, a combination of Alice’s and a 30-year old’s memories.

One other significant fact: I can’t remember my name before I was named Alice.

I have memories of my parents, siblings, and friends in Japan, memories of being loved, fights, and how I was raised, but only my face and name are blurred. What does that mean…Alzheimer’s?

It’s not really any consolation, but at least this body’s memory seems to work properly.

As mentioned before, my name is now Alice. I am five years old, almost six years old.

I had grown up with my parents watching over me, but one day when I was three years old, an incident caused me to have mental problems and I lost my voice to the point where I rarely ever even whispered.

After that, my parents were never the same. They no longer seemed capable of laughing or crying. It felt like a tumor had started growing on their relationship. They became constantly on edge, like a bow string ready to snap.　

Now that I have regained my memories, I would be able to communicate with them normally again. The previous Alice had almost no communication skill, but as a 30-year-old woman with years of experience in corporate slavedom, I would no have no problem in that department.

It also seems that the confidence gained from my newly returned memories made it possible to use my voice normally again. I start speaking aloud to test it out.

“Hmmm…Even if the rules of this world may be different, the fact that my personality has changed should not a be too much of problem as long as I am careful because I was crazy to begin with…”

It’s about time for that maid who just ran off to come back soon. If that’s the case, there is some planning that needs to be done as soon as possible.

“Maybe she’ll bring father and mother to me, though that might makes things a bit awkward…”

Yes, my father and mother.

I have no doubt that they love me, but they don’t seem to be getting along.

Or maybe it’s not that they are bad, it’s more that they keep making mistakes in how they treat each other.

There are times when they almost seem to ignore each other, and as a result of forcing themselves to have superficial conversations, they’re doing things that don’t make sense. But even so, they don’t seem to be a fake couple.

“More like a couple who have things they want to say to each other, but are holding back because they don’t want to fight. It’s not bad, but that lack of communication is preventing them from reconciling and causing them to drift further and further apart…”

To be honest, from an adult’s point of view, that’s how I felt. However, as I was a little kid with a communication problem, my family seemed to be on bad terms with each other.

The reason why I had to do something about this disagreement between my parents was because there was a possibility that they would get divorced in a few days if something was not done.

My mother’s brother (my uncle) came into the mansion a few days ago and shouted at my father quite furiously, telling him that he would force a divorce right away if he kept this up.

This is a dire situation. Single mothers always have a hard time. I don’t want to put the person who gave birth to me through that kind of hardship.

My father, in my vague memory until I was three years old, seemed to love me very much. I don’t want to leave, and the separation of my family would change my father’s life as well.

Also, I know from my memories as Alice that this world is a magical world full of fantasy magic.

I was such a fantasy nerd in my past life, that I absolutely adored reading stories about going off to school to learn magic. I seem to have been something of a otaku, seeing as how I invested thousands of dollars on novels and fantasy paraphernalia over the years. It’s a little embarrassing, but I even had liked collecting those weird occult books.

I wanted to know about the lives of the students at a certain magic school, so I even tried to study herbs and fortune telling.

In other words, Being reincarnated in a wonderful world as this was like a bonus…

…But I can’t really enjoy myself if my parents are unhappy!

That’s why I want to protect this family, for both pure and impure reasons.

Well, then. Who was it who thought to explain to a 5-year-old about her parents’ impending divorce?

The culprit of yet another problem. And, one other person.

I could see clearly now that both of them were the reason for my parents’ unhappiness.