v2 Chapter 1: Where Haru Fell

T/N New Book! Shou and Haru Arc

Once again, she couldn't go to the Star-Welcoming Festival this year.

Haru sighed.

If she included her past life, she had already lived for thirty years. Maybe it was strange to still look forward to a festival at this point. But all the students at the academy went. They carried lanterns and climbed the hill. It sounded beautiful.

Saying all the students was a lie. She wasn’t a child anymore. The students with high magical power, those burdened with heavy coursework, generally didn’t attend. For them, the Star-Welcoming Festival was a childish event. They had no need to go anymore.

But she had never been even once. Even though she had come to an entirely different world.

Haru had wished for the power to protect everyone from the goddess. That was why she had been placed in a country where she could study magic.

Haru didn’t think she was unintelligent. She simply took her time to think before acting, which made her seem slow to others. Not that she had ever been bullied for it—if anything, people around her had always been kind to her. At least, in Japan.

When she struggled to choose from a menu while eating out with friends, someone who knew her preferences would order for her. If she couldn’t finish her assignments in time, someone would help her.

Even when what was ordered wasn’t exactly what she wanted, she appreciated that it allowed her to keep pace with everyone else. And even when she wanted more time to think through an assignment—knowing she would be scolded for taking too long—she had no choice but to complete it because holding remedial lessons would inconvenience the teacher.

With everyone's help, she gradually learned how to adapt to those around her.

By the time she graduated from university and entered the workforce, she decided to give it her best. Office work was about meeting deadlines and ensuring smooth operations for everyone.

"Miharu, I think you'd be better suited as a researcher," her family had told her.

But Haru wasn’t good with science. Literature and storytelling didn’t suit her either—her sense of things was just too different.

How was a story about infidelity considered a classic? While her friends spoke passionately about emotions and forbidden love, she found it all too complicated to understand. Is love supposed to be that difficult? she wondered.

Since she wasn’t great with numbers, she pushed herself to get into an economics program and eventually became an office worker. Haru praised herself for her efforts.

And she really did give it her all.

As you might expect, she was scolded at first for being slow at work. But just like before, she found people—both peers and seniors—who helped her.

Unlike in school, though, just scraping by with help wouldn’t get her anywhere. She had to build the skills to handle the next task on her own.

She worked hard, enduring scoldings, pushing herself until she understood, and slowly but surely improved. By her fifth year as a working adult, she was even given the task of training new employees. She might have been slower than her peers, but she had made it.

At the same time—

"You don’t need my help anymore, do you?"

—that was the year she was dumped.

She had worked hard to avoid burdening her kind and dependable boyfriend, and this was the result.

"I liked Miharu when she had just joined."
"I miss the clumsy Miharu."

Her coworkers teased her, but she was still clumsy. As for whether she was still cute—she didn’t know.

Maybe I’m not cute because I never ask for help. Do I need to be protected?

On the way home from a depressing drinking party, she was in an accident.

Reincarnation? What? What happens to my family? How am I supposed to accept that I’m dead?

While she was panicking, another, more composed woman made her wish.

The power to heal.

If such magic existed, then—

"I… I've always been protected. I want magical power! A healthy and strong body! And someone to help me until I can stand on my own!"

That was what she had wished for.

And she did receive magic.

Haru sighed.

The power she had wished for was the ability to create barriers and shields. She had never been particularly interested in fantasy, but she had watched the games her younger brother played.

Super speed, healing abilities, power boosts—white mages were supposed to have abilities that protected others.

But when she told the academy that she wanted to study such magic, she was met with exasperated stares.

"Fire, water, wind, and light—mastering these and learning to wield them powerfully is what magic study is about. The kind of magic you’re talking about doesn’t exist. And healing is the job of a healer."

Even when she explained how she had been reincarnated, no one believed her.

After all, no one had ever met the Goddess of Creation before. When she hesitated, unable to recall the goddess's exact appearance, the teachers looked at her coldly.

At first, they had shown some curiosity when she spoke of trains and cell phones, but since she couldn’t explain their mechanisms, her stories were dismissed as fantasy.

Her appearance, too, wasn’t anything unusual. Straight black hair might have been rare, but not unheard of.

In the end, she had been dropped in front of the academy gates.

Since her name, Miharu, was difficult to pronounce, people started calling her Haru.

With her immense magical power and "delusions," the people of the Plains must have found her too much to handle and abandoned her.

At ten years old, she needed a guardian. But no one at the academy wanted to take on such a troublesome task. However, her magical potential was too great to send her to the church.

So, the academy headmaster took her in. As long as they provided her with food, clothing, and shelter in the dorms, she could be secured as a researcher after graduation. No problem.

And that was how Haru’s life as a ten-year-old began.