6: Gender
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Lyllah and Czarynah ended up having climbed three flights of stairs, totally exhausted when they finally found themselves at the top. As they lined up, one familiar rose-locked lolita approached them, clearly meaning harm.

"Oh look who it is! Sarah and Layla, how're you doing?" she asked in a mocking voice. And then a strange wind picked up. Lyllah immediately tensed as another figure arrived at the scene. It was Martin Scargorsky, her brother and the top student in the plane Tömörbaatar. This is a difficult situation.

However, she seemed to be ignoring his person, choosing instead to stare around frantically. Wait, maybe he used a directed glamour? That would make more sense, making it seem as if she was stupid instead of being fully truthful. Those things only hid from a specific person or something like that.

Sure enough, he tore off the stuff and turned to the now bewildered Lyllah, smiling. He proceeded to sweetly advise her to look carefully before someone could harm her. Czarynah forgot to note his voice or words, too busy angrily searching through his background instead.

At this time, the teacher came out to greet them, and seeing the furious Lyllah glare at the sweetly smiling Martin, she immediately proceeded to give her a short tongue lashing about manners, disappearing inside again, while Courtney just stood there, watching gleefully.

 Then two boys flew by, clearly friends of Martin, whooping at their dire situation and joining more hooligans faffing around. How immature.

Suddenly, another boy rushed past, lightly tapping her on the shoulder. A swift shock emitted from the contact, and Czarynah was completely numb and frozen, unable to call for help from the emerald-haired girl next to her, still grumbling about the boys.

Then the world went silent. Not a sound from Lyllah, from the laughing boys, from the footsteps of the people, slowly closing in.

Darkness descended.

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She was cornered. The girls had caught her again, small blades in their hands and fists ready. Their words came first, undeniable and wicked truths, sneered comments, complete lies. Then the mass advanced, lashing in from all sides, always out of reach but still able to harm.

The yells, the blood, snickers, sickly sweet giggles. Mocking taunts, outrageous impressions, shocking accusations. Finally, the mob thinned out. But a new monster arrived.

A stronger mob, more relentless, their bodies suited better for violence. Kicking, punching, slapping, stabbing. At least no one tried to rape her or anything like that. 

This was the last string. 

And it snapped.

An unconscious body was suspicious as hell, and she might die there, but that was better than letting this go on. And as the two groups fled, cowards with their tails between their legs, the world flickered, each second the light losing strength.

Such a waste. There was only herself, lying by the road. 

Just her and the rain.

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When she woke up again, she noted the unfamiliar ceiling, the strange scent of a field. Oh right. This was her new room. No roommates. But how did I ... oh. She had probably passed out from that weird shock that dude gave off and then been transported by someone to her room. That bastard.

Sitting up in her bed, she looked out her window - or at least attempted to. Her small lookout to the world had been covered by those weird cerulean curtains, only letting in a tiny percentage of the light and leaving her in a muted darkness.

She tried to get up but ended up falling beside her bed, the long skirt catching on the bedpost and ripping a long slit down the cloth. And it all came rushing back in. Sneers, masked faces, bruises, cuts. Insults, toxic words, diverted glances, half-hidden eye-rolls. All of it.

Yifei Zhao's hands flailed, trying to defend herself against thin air, the real monsters always tricking her, luring her into deadly traps, false leads with poisonous rewards. If only I was stronger, like SiQi. If only I can finally stand up. If only I would ... change. 

Hold on. Her eyes snapped open. That's right. She wasn't Yifei Zhao anymore, wasn't the weakling always in the shadow of her perfect sister, always that little bit behind, almost enough. She was Czarynah Nahmayhn, the main villainess of her sister's first and favourite Otome game, the only one with death flags, the only one who has a particularly bad ending.

True, that wasn't very nice either, but she could finally do something. Make a difference. But first, something must be taken care of.

Her stress levels were insane, and she knew one good method to relieve it. Grabbing the nearest book, she swiftly bit down on it. Ow. 

It was a hardcover. Don't judge, she didn't like throwing stuff. But looking closer, she noticed that it was the book that was given to Saryhn to help her dress.

However, this was the gender-neutral section of the regulations. They had a lot in common. Maybe ... Tearing off the end of her skirt, Czarynah rushed to find the section for the boys, plopping back onto her bed to read through the information. This could work ... change is what I'm looking for, after all.

She went to stand in front of Saryhn's little part of their room, separated by a thin division, never minding that ripped piece of clothing. Knocking, she cleared her throat.

"Saryhn?" Thankfully, the door opened, revealing a wide awake and very anxious maid.

"Oh dear lord! I was so worried!" Saryhn quickly pulled Czarynah into a stifling bear hug. Laughing, the young noble patted her back reassuringly, as the maid yapped on about her stress. No one paid much attention to that stray tear trailing down the blonde woman's cheek.

"Can you help me with something?" Czarynah started explaining her idea, showing her the uniform regulations book and trying to win Saryhn over. Fortunately, she was far too shaken to shoot the young noble down then.

This could work.

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Rushing into the queue for their first lesson of the day, history, just as the bell rang, Czarynah was exhausted and out of breath by the time she had spotted Lyllah and joined her. As she calmed down, Lyllah was busy gaping at the change of attire.

"Czarynah! What are you wearing!?" Last night, Czarynah had wanted to change, to leave Yifei Zhao behind once and for all. So rather than cutting her hair or something cliche like that, she just changed her uniform to the boy's version. But she didn't keep her bun either, just glamoured it. There wasn't anything in the regulations or rules that forbade it or even mentioned it, but it did state that the girls must keep their shawls and the boys their cloaks. So unfair.

"I decided to change something." She winked.

"Obviously." Lyllah just sighed sarcastically. Only two days - scratch that, half a day - in, and she's already challenging the Academy's authority.

"Let's just pay attention, eh?" They turned back to walk into their classroom, slightly relieved when most people didn't notice Czarynah's crossdress, as she'd kept her huge shawl draped in a slit tunic kind of style to imitate a dress - at least it worked, with a little bit of magic.

Turning back to their teacher Sir Tromwell, a stable elderly man with the aura of welcoming earth to him, the class fell silent. He hastily checked his documents one last time before he faced the nine- and ten-year-olds in front of him.

"So today we'll be reviewing~" this and that and blah blah bleh. While he started explaining, Czarynah taped an 'alert' mask onto her expression, all the while spacing out. A pretty useful little trick, it was.

She knew this world's history inside out, despite not having played the game. It was all in her research since she combed through every website for the information she needed instead of spending her time actually playing the game like Yukei was always doing. While Yukei Zhao was binging otome on the phone that she had 'earned' by winning their school's top student award, Yifei Zhao was busy hogging the computer, typing away.

There were many countries in this world, but the ones that have special mention are Irlande, the heroine's home, Lyge, the heroine's birthplace, and Xardestan, where the heroine had lived shortly during her childhood and where some of her old friends were located. Yep.

Lyge was at war with the equivalent of the Roman empire, the demonic realm of Zimkafiien when the heroine's mother, Lyge's queen, placed her into a basket, letting her daughter flee with the wind as she fought against the demon king one last time. Very tragic and dramatic beginning.

The heroine ended up on the doorstep of a milkmaid, growing up as a simple country girl with exceptional beauty and unusually good manners. Yifei Zhao had lived part of her life in rural China like that, so she understood the bittersweet nostalgia the heroine was experiencing in the game.

The heroine was called to Irlande's Royal Academy after healing one of her "siblings" with light magic, the typical. 

There was a lot more detail and all that, but Czarynah had to concentrate on the worksheet they were given and was busy thanking the lord that she'd studied so hard on her history, getting bored and reading the history books in the Nahmayhn house's library.

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Later that day, during her first lunch at the Academy, Czarynha learnt that Lyllah hid out between the trees to avoid her bullies. How sad. Well, now she was here to keep poor Lyllah company, so that was nice.

Now walking along the rows of trees, they settled down after finding Lyllah's usual spot in the half-shade. While pulling their prepared lunches out of their spatial rings, Czarynah was slightly spazzing out. She'd even personally taught Saryhn to make jiaozi last night after her 'transition' because she didn't have time this morning, just so that she could share the Chinese delicacy with Lyllah.

"Hey Czarynah, what's that?" The girl in question froze. She'd forgotten about that little detail. The creator of this world was too cruel - they'd never heard of jiaozi - dumplings - before!?

Staring at Lyllah with a dead look in her eyes, she grabbed one and stuffed it into the poor girl's face, watching her reaction while eating one herself. As soon as Lyllah had gotten over the shock, her eyes gleamed at Czarynah. The brunette couldn't help but laugh. However, as they quieted down, they could hear fast approaching footsteps. Lyllah's smile fell off immediately, confirming who the group was. No time to think, just like Yifei Zhao's last decisions.

Acting on impulse, Czarynah packed their lunches back in lightning speed, scooping Lyllah herself up and jumping up into the crown one of the thicker oak trees by five leaps or so. Silently setting the bewildered girl down again, Czarynah thanked the lord again that she had changed her uniform and maintained physical training while playing with Al and Oryn.

Hold on. She hadn't even told Lyllah about her childhood friends yet.

Nevermind, they neede to concentrate on the enemy first. After signing to Lyllah to keep silent, she peered down through the heavy foliage. It wasn't just Courtney and Opal, there were also four guys with - wait.

Was that Al and Oryn!?

A/N Cliffhanger number two ...?

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