Three years passed, and Czarynah grew up, now a six-year-old taking dancing and mathematics and etiquette lessons, steadily gaining knowledge about the world around her. She had begun writing in the different languages of Yifei Zhao's life again, and although she was a little rusty at first, she soon caught up to her previous levels.

The servant and tutors around her praised her endlessly, but Yifei Zhao was a bashful girl, so Czarynah turned out to be one too.

Slowly approaching seven, the age when all nobles are tested for their kind of magic, Czarynah's parent were starting to fuss about marriage and engagement. Since nobles are matched by their magic affinities, water to calm fire and earth to ground air, they needed to go through a particular testing first.

But because of some political stuff, she'd already been discussed as a potential fiance of prince Albertos of Yrlande, just like in the game.

Czarynah Nahmayhn was a plain girl - matted brown hair, black eyes, skin a muddled in-between shade unlike the fair shade destined for the heroine. Flat-chested and devoid of curves. Nothing special, much like her previous self. That's why the prince turned the aspect of engagement with her into a sour agreement, despite her pitiful later tries at seducing him, which did not work out.

Sure enough, one day, a letter rolled in, declaring that the engagement between Prince Albertos and Lady Czarynah has been decided. Ah, poop.

The otome game would only start when the youngest of the batch finally turned fifteen: and that was the heroine, naturally. She was also meant to possess, yes, light magic, the rarest magic of all and faff and blergh. Light magic heals, and since there was no proper counter for that, and the heroine was a commoner, so she wasn't to be bound by an engagement yet.

This was, obviously, to allow her as much freedom in her route choices as possible.

Then, there was a fore-planned event where the demon king asks for the heroine's hand in marriage in order to counter his dark magic and stuff, but of course, she refuses, so he curses all within the school to freeze in time, but the heroine countered that curse, and then all the characters' ages are frozen in time.

Yeah, you can see where this is going. This goes on until the MCs either team up to defeat the demon king or the heroine charms the demon king into letting her sidekicks out of the loop. But this all happens waaaaay after the group joins the school, of course, so no need to worry about that just yet.

In the game, Czarynah has very weak magic capabilities but thinking back, Yufei Zhao was never bothered about the fact that her element was not mentioned in the game. But now, since she had been reincarnated as Czarynah, this was a huge disadvantage.

Right now, it was the middle of the night, two days before the ceremony, and all the servants in the house were resting for the big day. Czarynah got out of bed and dressed in warmer pyjamas. There was a heavy atmosphere in the air as if something important was about to happen.

That's right! She walked up to her long mirror and concentrated. In the game, that night, Czarynah was curious about her magic, so she tried to conjure some of her power, but ... she'd ... burned the house down.

Czarynah suddenly snapped out of her reverie, and in doing so, she knocked over a dim lamp, which caught onto her curtains.

No.

The fire spread. It snapped at her heels as she ran, too cowardly to call for help, to wake the others, to save them from the quiet chaos as it devoured the Mansion, tearing it down. Then, there were screams. The maids suffocating in the attics, unable to flee from the smoke. The servants barely conscious, scattered along the stone hallways, Grynnwalfus' dead body in front of the house, almost alive, and Saryhn nowhere to be found.

Then the nightmare cracked.

Just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream. So that was why Czarynah had never practised her magic abilities. She was afraid of repeating that incident, of the gruesome memory buried deep in her mind, of her terrible magic that had destroyed her world.

But Czarynah now was not alone yet, still in her bed. Still staring at the ceiling, still soaking the sheets with her glistening tears. She closed her eyes and pinched her wet cheeks. 

Pain.

This pain faded quickly enough, but nothing could dampen the ache deep in her heart.

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The next morning, when Saryhn came to wake the unusually late Lady Czarynah, a scream rattled the Mansion. Overnight, the adopted heiress had changed dramatically. It was said that her hair had turned white and her dark eyes burned through, now holographic disks, ever-changing in the light.

And these rumours escalated when the adopted daughter of the famed Nahmayhn family refused to surface in public or social gatherings, causing her to miss her testing. And soon the royal family was threatening to cancel their engagement too. So Czarynah decided to put her knowledge of Yifei Zhao' life to use: she dyed her hair and made herself contacts lenses.

Of course, the rumours only started to settle when Lady Czarynah was seen again in public, brown-haired and black-eyed, completely, well, normal. However, it was not too late for her engagement, which was just short of being cancelled. But now Czarynah had to dye her hair every month, and her contacts limited her vision, but a glamour could easily be broken by trouble-maker illusionists trying to see if the rumours were true.

And so, at eight years old, Czarynah Nahmayhn never started practising her magic like all the other nobles her age, just improving her other-worldly knowledge.

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"Catch me if you can!"

"Hah, I could catch you any day!"

Three children, one nine, two ten, chasing each other around the back of the Nahmayhn Mansion. A year ago, Czarynah had found one of the ten-year-olds crying in the bushes, although she was eight and a half (the half is important) back then and the boy was nine. 

She'd felt empathy towards the boy, as she used to be in a similar position when her sister was whisked off by her new popular friends at school and Yifei Zhao was left behind to gather the others of the area and turn them into a friendship group, only to have her popular sister steal them off too.

So she'd taken his hand, and told him the story of a little girl called Yifei Zhao, living a side gremlin's life and dying a hero's death. When he'd calmed down, she'd asked if he wanted to play with her. After a month or two, he'd brought along his cousin, apparently. The two looked like brothers - tawny reddish-brown hair streaked with gold, turquoise eyes, immaculate features, athletic and annoying as hell. They loved to prank her plenty, too.

The older boy, "Al" according to him, was pretty much good at everything and often boasted of "an education fit for a prince". And "Oryn", who had more gold streaks in his hair and a very pessimistic attitude, was insanely good at musical instruments and mechanics, even better than his all-powerful cousin, actually. 

Hold on, how do I know this? Oryn's never even told me that he likes gears or that he plays music.

Now that she thought about it, they did seem a little familiar, almost like ... nevermind. Czarynah was currently the chaser and quickly catching up to Al. Then, she suddenly changed direction and tackled Oryn instead, stopping him in his tracks with a firm hand on the shoulder.

 "Why did you do that?" Al turned back to Czarynah.

"The element of surprise." was all she gave as an answer. In truth, she wasn't ready to see if she was able to beat Al yet, as she didn't want to just hope that she was faster, but she didn't want to confirm it, instead leaving it a nagging parasite in the back of her mind. Like her unknown magic.

The trio walked over to a bench, and Czarynah took out a pouch from her trouser pocket. Oryn, noticing her attire (finally), shot her a sceptical look. But she just shrugged, earning herself a tired sigh.  

She was currently dressed in a light grey loose blouse, combined with slightly puffy deep brown trousers that drew in snugly at the ankles, giving it the look of an unsupported skirt from a distance, if the sun was in the right place and you squinted right. Her hair was held in a sloppy bun at her nape, disguised as a short ponytail, while her face was void of makeup and was cast with a slight glamour that she wore on a string around her neck, in order to give her just that little bit more resemblance to a boy.

She definitely looked like a young heir right now. 

In the pouch, she was holding a small mechanical bird, made of stainless steel and solar-powered. Czarynah had spent all night instructing Grynnwalfus, who had surprising metal and mineral capabilities, to shape all the gears and plates needed. Then, she'd hidden in her bedroom early morning, piecing together the wings, beak, head, body, even the solar panels, and the small generator. 

The wings were by far the most difficult. Who knew that bird wings were so complicated. She'd even given each feather a little joint so that the wings could change shape, suiting whatever environment the bird was in currently. It mostly resembles a nightingale though and has a pretty impressive range of notes hidden in its throat.

 Magic was officially awesome.

She'd finished just in time to hear Saryhn walking down the corridor to her room, quickly hiding it in the pouch.

Right now, the little nightingale was dormant and sleeping, but as she brought it into the sunlight, the mechanical avian opened its eyes, finally awake. Just before meeting with the boys, Czarynah had taken it back to Grynnwalfus to ask him to infuse a last little bit of his magic into the animal, to give it a personality, a soul of sorts. We'll see how he turns out.

The little bird stood on her hand, and as Czarynah presented it to Oryn, she declared with a flourish, "From this day on, this nightingale is your lifelong companion, Oryn - " She paused, waving her free hand around the air, "This is your last chance to decline. Do you accept?"

"Of course!" Was she just imagining the tears in his eyes?

"Then take this creature " she handed it to him, "and be free like this fellow on his wings!"

Oryn was staring at the bird with a glazed expression like he couldn't believe his eyes. Strange, how people here have such possibilities and potential with magic in their reach but never bother to explore it.

Czarynah explained, "Because you said that you were going to be lonely on your birthday this year, I decided to give you a little companion." The nightingale perked up, strangely, as if it was aware that they were talking about it. "Keep it in the sun though, it feeds off the light." She didn't bother explaining all the intricate battery storage and friction equals electricity stuff - that was for next year.

"Don't worry, " she turned to the fascinated Al, "I'll give you something nice for your birthday too!"

Oryn was just sitting there, head lowered, stroking the animal gently. Al laughed. 

"He doesn't often make friends, as he doesn't often meet good people that would appreciate him properly, " he explained, "so he gets a little emotional when this happens." He suddenly had a mischievous glint in his eyes that Czarynah knew too well on her mother. "In fact, you're the first -" But Oryn tackled him before he could finish.

"SHUT UP!" 

They were rolling on the grass, Al trying to escape from Oryn, who had his hands over Al's mouth, muffling his sentences. Czarynah burst out laughing, unable to do anything but lie wheezing on the bench.

It was moments like this that she lived for. Sadly, Al wasn't always here to witness these, so maybe she should give him a wristwatch to remind him.

But just then, the sweet moment shattered.

"Czarynah Rohany Nahmayhn." The trio froze in their difficult balances, silent, as Saryhn Sharette of house Nahmayhn thundered towards them with a dark smile, dead-focused on the girl disguised as a boy lying on the wooden bench.