Just over five years after reincarnating, I find myself ying on my back in the grass looking up at a bright blue sky. On this beautiful day, I can’t help but think to myself that I might be unlucky. Covered in shattered gss and splintered wood, my entire body hurt and my arm felt like it was broken. Turning to my left and yep. It’s broken. That part isn’t supposed to bend at all. That was the good news. All around me, I saw the ruins of the family carriage which had been driven off a cliff by roaming demons. From what I can see through what used to be a wooden grate to speak to the driver, the bodies of the two horses were broken into two across several rocks. The carriage driver looked to be in one piece, though not exactly living. As for my parents… I look back through the broken window to the sky above, trying not to think about the protective arms around me. On such a beautiful day, surrounded by my family, I am alone. No one will bme me if I cry, right?

  …

  Okay enough with the tears. What should I do? Let's focus on one problem at a time. Let’s start with my injuries. Calling my magic, I find that I don’t have much of it. I suppose it’s healing properties is why I’m alive at all. In any case, I'll need to conserve it until nightfall. For now, let’s just fix my arm. There is a pale glow from my left side, not that I dare to look, and the pain in my arm mostly vanishes. Raising it up, I move it in front of my face. Good, it’s working. Let’s go ahead and move Mom’s arm to free myself. Ah, I’m shaking…

  I crawl through the broken ceiling and escape the carriage. Once freed, I look up at the cliff high above me. I don’t hear the demons at all. I didn’t even get the chance to see them or even do anything to try and save us. As soon as we heard the roar, Mom covered me and I heard the guards tell us to run. No one came to check on us, so I can only guess their fate. Seeing some rocks fall, I can’t tell how stable the cliff is. Even if it is stable I have no clue if the demons will come back for me. I can’t stay here.

  What do I do now? I know I won’t be able to make it home on my own two feet. Not only do I not know where I am, but in a world full of magic, demons and demon lords, who would believe that a five year old managed to not only survive this accident, but made it home from the middle of the woods? One who also managed to avoid all of the wild animals and demons, and being uninjured during all of this with no training in magic or combat skills of any form? In all likelihood, people will think that I was killed and repced by a demon. From the stories read to me, I know that it is a common tactic of theirs. So, what now?

  I can’t just die. Mom… Mom and Dad wouldn’t want that… I don’t want that. Okay, think. What’s the pn? I need to get away from here. Despite it being day time, demons are still very active and aggressive as I recently found out. Without my powers, I wouldn’t stand a chance against them. If I can smell the blood in the air, they certainly can as well. Rising to my feet unsteadily, I look around me. Aside from the cliff face that I have just fallen from, there is a forest all around me.

  I should be facing north right now, not that that helps me. Let’s get away from the crash right now. Stumbling at first, I head to the north. The pain in my legs, though not growing better or worse, is becoming familiar, so I manage to walk a bit faster than I initially was able to. As I walked, I tried to pay attention to the sounds of the forests. I heard birds singing and some small things moving under leaves. If there was a demon following me, I likely wouldn’t hear it but hopefully the animals act like they do in movies and all go quiet when danger is near. If they do that, I’ll just start running and hope for the best.

  I’m not sure how long has passed, but the sun showed no sign of setting, so maybe an hour had gone by. Looking back for the first time, I couldn’t see the cliff, the trees were too dense. Part of me was relieved, but at the same time I knew that I could very easily get lost if I didn’t have a reference point. Though now that I was thinking about it, I didn’t know where I was in the first pce. Then again, I didn’t want to end up walking in a circle back to where I started. Maybe I could climb a tree? No, that's too risky when I’m already injured and can’t heal myself. Let’s just keep going forwards.

  …

  Finally the sun was moving towards the horizon. Soon, I can use the moonlight to heal myself. Taking a break under a tree, I sat down. As soon as I did, my stomach started to growl. The st time I ate was at breakfast and the accident was just before lunch, so I didn’t get to eat. I wonder if any food survived. Thinking back to the mess that was there, I don’t think I could handle eating anything there, even if I found anything. Wishing for something to drink, I close my eyes. The moment I did, I saw the wreckage of the carriage with Mom and Dad reaching out for me.

  My eyes shot open and my heart was beating like crazy. Putting my hand to my chest, I felt a familiar sharp pain. It hurt to breathe and my chest was burning. Involuntarily, my eyes closed and once again I saw Mom and Dad reaching for me.

  Moving as quickly as I could, I frosted the cinnamon buns even if they were slightly too warm.

  “Two dozen more cinnamon buns!” My Dad called out.

  Even as tears formed in my eyes, my hands kept moving. I hate this! I hate this! I hate this! I hate this! I hate this! In manga, whenever people bring things over from earth, it never turns out like this! Why did I think this was a good idea!?

  “Make it three dozen!” My Dad cruelly corrected.

  The moment I had finished, my brother immediately grabbed the tray and brought them to the front of the shop. I wiped off my hands and joined mom who was forming the buns.

  “It never ends…” Mom said.

  “I’m sorry…” I couldn’t help but cry.

  “Don’t cry, it’ll make you work slower.” She said as if it was encouragement. “Cry when it’s over.”

  Right. I just need to get through this. I can’t let bread win! I brought cinnamon buns into this world and I need to take responsibility for it! Without even pausing to wipe away my tears, I worked as fast as I could.

  ...

  Eventually we closed up shop. There were people who were making orders for tomorrow… Looking out the window, I saw that it was already dark. Looking around the table, I saw my Dad and brother face down, and Mom was bnkly looking at the ceiling.

  “Let’s have leftovers tonight…” Mom said weakly.

  “Yeah…” Dad muttered.

  Me and my brother, Aiden, didn’t have the strength to respond. You know, when I reincarnated here, I didn’t think a bakery would be this tiring. This is the easy life, right? Things will stay this simple forever, right?

  No. Even if I didn’t want to believe it, I am still a saint, or at least will be. School should be easy since I’ve already done it before. The hard parts will be dealing with Evelyn and the demons in a few years. Maybe I should just stay here? No, that won’t work. After the news of a new saint appearing, every child between seven and ten will be called to the churches and tested for holy magic. I, unfortunately, am one of the people who can use it. Given the fact that I help my parents here at work, and how school isn’t readily avaible to most commoners, I can't even practice with magic.

  Much like everyone else, I’ll be starting from scratch and working my way up in the ranks. Thinking about the future, I wonder about Evelyn. Hopefully she hasn’t turned evil yet. I’m not sure when that event is supposed to happen, but after she and her parents are attacked, she turns evil. I wonder if I can even prevent it. The game never went into detail about when or where it happened. All I know is that it happens before the main game starts. There's also random events that can happen to me. Some of which are very bad.

  Hopefully the one’s I get aren’t any of the bad ones that scars you or kills your parents. I hope I get the one where I find magic seeds. Those can be sold for a lot of money at the academy. I’ll need that money. Even with all the sales we made today, it’s pocket change compared to what those seeds sell for. Whatever. I don’t want to think now. I want to eat and go to bed…

  Gasping for air, I opened my eyes. What happened? Where am I? What’s going on? Finding myself cold and in the dark on the forest floor, my memories returned. That’s right… Pushing myself up, I found that my body was in even more pain than before. My legs felt as if they had burning needles sticking in them. With what little light there was, I saw, and then felt hundreds of ants biting me.

  “AH!?!” I yelled and frantically started brushing the ants off of me.

  Standing up, I quickly fell over, but kept spping at the attacking ants. Resorting to crawling away, I got rid of as many as I could, though they were also in my clothes. As I started to undress in the moonlight, I realized what time it was.

  “B-by the Moon- Ow! By the Moonlight Blossom’s glow!” I stumbled over my words. “All evil surrender to the keeper of justice! Magical Girl Charming Melody, awaken!”

  My body shone in a pale light and the biting ceased. Immediately, the pain dulled, though I still needed a moment to catch my breath. Pushing myself to my feet, I took the opportunity to move away from the ants. Even as I stumbled away, my stomach growled.

  Okay. What now? I’m out in the woods, possibly days away from civilization with no food or water. It hasn’t even been a day, so I doubt they’ll send a rescue party. Even if they did, how many days would it take for them to get here? By the time they do, will there even be anything left to bury? Looking back, I regret that I couldn’t even bury my parents. If I go back now, will there bodies still be there? No. Don’t be tempted. Demons are probably swarming the area by now. I’ll only get myself killed. Even if I have my powers back right now, I’m still weak and I don’t even know if my magic works on demons. It probably does, but I’m not going to risk my life over “probably”.

  So, what now? On earth I could fly, but that takes a lot of power and who knows what passing demon might try and attack me. The wind blew and I shivered. Okay, I need to find shelter. My uniform obviously isn’t keeping me warm. If anything, I can use my magic to start a fire, but again that would let any demon out here know where I was. Wait. Wouldn’t a bright light fshing in the forest at night also do that? I looked at my uniform and wondered exactly how bright my transformation was. Shortly after, I heard the howl of a wolf. At least I hoped it was. Taking the risk, I flew above the trees and flew as fast as I could, away from here.

  ...

  After flying for so long, I lowered myself to the ground. I didn’t realize that forests were this big. Just tree after tree as far as the eye could see. In my magical girl form my eyesight was improved, so I can see even better than I normally could during the day. That being said, being in this form for so long was tiring, especially after all that’s happened.

  Landing on my feet, the pain of the past few hours came back to me. Hoping that the ground was softer than it looked, I fell to my knees and returned to Evelyn. Okay that hurts more than I thought, and I can still see the bite marks. My transformation, unfortunately, doesn’t clean me up. I would need to actively use magic for that. But, as exhausted as I was, I was unable to do anything about it. Before falling asleep, I looked for ants, but given that it was almost pitch bck under the forest canopy, I couldn’t see anything. Taking a risk, I closed my eyes. As soon as I did, they shot back open and I felt my heart rate rise.

  Pcing my hand on my chest, I took deep and slow breaths. That sharp pain echoed through my body, but the burning from before didn’t follow. I’m not sure how long it took, but eventually my heart rate settled down. Looks like I’m not going to be able to sleep. Even so I rested, careful not to close my eyes for too long.

  How dare she! Her and her rules! Why can’t she just let people be free!? Standing at the base of the radio tower, I couldn’t help but clench my fist in rage. I’m just trying to commit some insurance fraud, and my uptight moon goddess of a sister sent magical girls after me! At first I didn’t take them seriously since they are like ten or whatever, but they are strong! Why are they so strong!? It doesn’t help that I cringe whenever they reference my dark history with the whole “Madam Corvis Rue” thing. Why did she tell them about that? Better yet, why did I think that was a cool name? Anyway Celistia, my sister, has sent a group of magical girls after me.

  ...

  They beat me up again… Why are they so strong? Parking my car, I climbed up the well worn stairs to our apartment. Unlocking the door, I pushed it open and saw my sister acting like normal, making us dinner. Looking up from the stove, she smiled at me.

  “Welcome back.” Celistia greeted me.

  “Why are they so strong?” I couldn’t help but ask.

  Once more, she simply smiled. Ignoring her, I went to take a shower. Not long after, the two of us were eating dinner and talking about our days. In reality, it was mostly me compining about the magical girls.

  “The yellow one has been getting into wrestling recently.” I said. “She shouted ‘From the top rope!’ and body smmed me.”

  “Did she have good form?” Celistia asked.

  “It was okay.” I shrugged. “Their team work has gotten better since the first time.”

  “I’m gd to hear that.” She smiled.

  “Though now that I say that, I think the green one is sick.” I said.

  “Oh, why do you say that?” She asked.

  “She wasn’t really doing much this time.” I said. “Mostly just hanging back.”

  “Maybe she had a bad night's sleep?” She suggested.

  “No… It seemed different than that…” I muttered, thinking back to our fight.

  “Do you have the recording?” She asked.

  At first that seems like an odd question to ask. After all, who would record themselves fighting a bunch of children? And even if someone did, why would they show themselves getting beaten up by that bunch of children? Then again, we are both moon goddesses posing as mortals, and admittedly I’m weak to cute things and those girls, very much are cute. Though I do wish that they stopped saying my old, cringy name.

  Waving my hand, I created a projection on our tv. The fight started with the usual introductions with me in my disguise and the girls posing with a background of stars and a crescent moon. Right as I was about to rewind to watch it again, my hand was spped away. The fight continued as normal with many spectacur moves, but our focus was on the green one. Charming Melody she calls herself.

  “So I was right.” I nodded.

  “It seems you are.” She agreed.

  Unlike all other times, Charming Melody kept near the rear only offering support and cheering them on. That was unlike her. Well, it shouldn’t be that much of a concern. If she was feeling too bad, she would have simply stayed home.

  “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now.” I said.

  “Although I know you won’t stop your criminal activities, please try and keep them to a minimum for the time.” Celistia said.

  “It is a victimless crime!” I said.

  “Just today, you destroyed seven cars.” She said.

  “I was thrown at seven cars!” I argued. “If anything I was the victim!”

  “Yes, and for all we know, a single mother now has to take the city bus to drop off and pick her child up from school.” She said.

  “Bme the school district, not me!” I said. “They should have more school buses!”

  Our antics continued for the rest of dinner as they usually do. Expecting nothing to come of this, I continued with my normal activities, trying to keep to schooldays to lessen my chances of being jumped by the magical girls. It sometimes works.

  Today, a Thursday, was one like my past few encounters with the magical girls. During school days they took turns trying to stop me. No, that’s too kind for me. They didn’t try, they did stop me. Again, why are they so strong?

  Anyway, today one of my emissaries, which I use to keep an eye out for the cops, alerted me of movement nearby. Looking at my phone, I saw Charming Melody chasing what looked to be a purse snatcher. Hmn? That’s a bit odd. Normally she and the others would fly, why is she running? Ah, she got him. Good for her. Now, how can I bme this dent in my car on the bank? Huh? Where’s she going? Wait, that’s towards me! How does she know already!? I’ve got to hide!

  Quickly moving away from my car, I ducked into an alley and hid behind a dumpster. Yes, a goddess of the moon is hiding behind some trash from a thirteen year old. You ugh, but this girl is strong! She threw a freight train at a giant that was attacking the city a month ago! I can do that too, but she’s a mortal! Mortals can’t do that! As if sensing me, Melody turned into the alley. Oh my me! I’m not even disguised! If she sees me like this I’m going to have to drive an extra forty minutes to buy groceries at another store! Gas is already too damn expensive! Alright I might just have to cheat and wipe her memories of me. Getting the spell ready, I saw something unexpected. Melody just… colpsed?

  Grayburne