Dawn was creeping in on the Royal Academy of Irlande, a blanket of snow on the grounds. But sadly, only one noble, aside from maybe a teacher or two, was there to witness the last snowflakes falling to the ground, finally stopping. 

Under the whitening sky, Czarynah Nahmayhn was balancing her way around the rather large school pond on amateur (but well made) ice-skates strapped tightly to her feet. She used to take classic slalom classes, and ballet too in her younger years as Yifei Zhao, but dropped the ballet and struck up watching youtube tutorials instead on how to pirouette, how to spin an axel on the ice, how to master more complicated moves in her inliner skates.

Soon the ice would be thick enough to start her jumps and flips, but for now, she had to settle with simple laps across the ice, as the middle was precariously thin still.

"Hey!" The voice that called out was masculine but young, with a hint of scratchiness. Czarynah lifted her head in the direction of the sound, but kept her eyes on the ice, as you wouldn't risk a chance on your bike without a helmet. The voice sounded again, this time louder, clearly annoyed. "HEY!"

Sighing, the girl on the pond cut her last lap short, instead heading towards the bridge, collecting the blades in her hand.

"Yes?" The figure standing on the elegant bamboo bridge was none other than Charon, third prince of Xardestan and fellow classmate of her two childhood friends. Standing on the other side of the wooden structure, Charon matched the weather perfectly, white against white, with only two scarlet lights flourishing the scene. 

The heroine was to be graced by this beautiful view, being lost, and Charon by the sight of her in that same position, falling in love with her at first sight. Of course, the heroine is just oblivious of his attractiveness and asks him for directions. Cliche.

"What could you possibly be doing here at this time, miss Nahmayhn?" This dude was cold, man.

"Ice skating." She pointed back at the pond. "You just saw me. Too bad the ice is still too thin, I'd be doing flips otherwise." The pale boy just looked at her disbelievingly. Sighing, she remembered that figure skating did not exist in this world, much like her well-loved jiaozi.

Then she'd introduce it, starting with this sceptical ten-year-old right in front of her.

Grabbing his arm, she walked back stubbornly to the pond, with the bewildered Charon stumbling behind her. 

Arriving at the bank, she ordered him to sit down and snapped the ice blades onto the soles of his feet, taking out her other protocol ones out for herself.  There was still a good hour until he'd even had to worry about getting to lessons, and nothing could stop her once she was in 'teacher mode'.

She guided Charon to the thicker part of the ice, leading him along and letting him get accustomed to the foreign feeling. After a while, she started to reduce the support, just holding his forearm. He was actually getting on pretty well, able to stand and push himself forward, but he still had trouble stopping. Czarynah just skated circles around him, always present where his balance was a little off.

Halfway through the hour, Charon came to realise something: Czarynah was not a bad teacher. In fact, she was possibly the best that he had known, able to guide but not hinder. Probably a good learner as well, seeing as how much Rynfus had improved over that suspicious period of time. No one knew what she had taught Albert and Rynfus, or what she was teaching him now, what she called 'ice skating'.

Meanwhile, Czarynah was starting to regret her decision to force him onto the ice; she was just trying to distract him.

But time waits for nobody, piercing through that little frozen moment. Czarynah helped Charon back off the ice, taking the blades for further inspection and improvement. Maybe I should make them for Lyllah and Al and Oryn. Standing on the bridge again, Charon's cheeks were flushed from the cold and his first ice skating lesson, contemplating if he should thank her or not, Czarynah noticed. That tsundere was going to join the heroine's harem for sure.

"Sorry for dragging you onto the ice, now go on, the bell's probably about to ring." She sent him off like a mother to her child. As Charon walked towards his first lesson with a flushed face and stunned expression, he gained his second addition of admirers. And he forgot what he wanted to tell Czarynah in the first place, but oh well, she'd find out soon enough.

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It was the engagement. Czarynah Nahmayhn finally found out that Albertos Irlande, the person she was involved with a political marriage in, was Al. So it went like this.

During the morning, Czarynah didn't see the guys or Lyllah because it was a magic session and Czarynah had missed her testing and was instead preparing for her delayed one. The school was going to provide the basin and crystal ball needed. She already knew that her abilities were probably going to be useless, as Czarynah in the game had never used her own magic to bully the heroine, only her lackeys or actual physics.

But when the rest of the guys found out they didn't go too overboard on pity. But Lyllah kind of wailed in tragedy, clutching her chest and demanding the heavens for an answer to why her sweet best friend had to miss her testing, resulting in Czarynah never having experienced the 'thrill' of magic. Instead, she was stuck with the paperwork.

It was literally two hours of sitting in an office, copying down scriptures on magic and its basics. She couldn't wait to start her testing. To spice it up a bit, Czarynah had copied them down in German, Chinese and English too, finishing just as the bell rang. 

Break time had begun.

First, she had to meet up with Lyllah, so she started off in the direction of their usual cluster of trees, arriving at the green area three minutes later. Spotting Namida and Jasmine walking off from that direction, Czarynah nodded a brief greeting, receiving a smile and a wave.

Lyllah was deep in thought when Czarynah approached her, a slightly dazed expression of her immaculate features.

"You alright, Lyllah?" Czarynah couldn't help but ask. After starting from Czarynah's unexpected greeting, Lyllah just smiled.

"Sure, I'm fine." She patted some dust off her skirt. "Shall we proceed?" She grinned cheekily.

Laughing randomly, the two girls climbed nimbly up into a leafy oak, trusting it's stability more than that of their previous birch tree. The poor thing had three branches missing from when Lyllah had started climbing.

Once at the crown, the girls whipped out pencils and notebooks from their spatial rings, scribbling furiously. Both were considered prodigies in art, regularly participating in short drawing competitions with each other during stolen moments like right now.

The time was up. Swapping their sketches, the two friends quickly wrote their feedback on improvement. While Czarynah had crafted a ferocious snow leopard, slate grey mountains spotted with ice, Lyllah had drawn a tranquil river scene filled with turquoise ripples and white herons.

Both their speed and accuracy in the sketches had improved since their last little round, and Czarynah and Lyllah seemed thoroughly satisfied with the results.

Below them, two ten-year-olds, one dressed in red, the other in deep purple-blue, called up at the two.

"Hey! Lyllah! Czarynah!" That was Oryn, Czarynah's childhood friend, waving his arm up to them. Xeb was staring upwards curiously, still trying to spot them. Lyllah climbed down first, followed closely by the crossdresser. Czarynah couldn't wait until she turned eleven, as that would be when their year group swapped from their current uniform to a dress code.

Landing gracefully with a thud, Czarynah dusted off her trousers and greeted the guys. Lyllah had to fix her skirt, poor girl. 

"Prince Xeb, hi there Oryn."

"Well, don't you have unusual ways of greeting royalty?" Xeb asked in a rather strangely teasing tone. Nooooooo, you're too innocent to start on your destined fuccboi personality at ten! In the game, he was that kind of smexy playboy character that actually falls for the heroine.

"Yeah Czarynah, if I didn't know better I'd think you didn't who prince Thorynfus was!" At those words of hers, Czarynah's world pretty much shattered.  Drawing her companions' curious gazes, she walked over to that birch tree with its missing branches and lay down, straight as a pole, flat on her back and with her hands folded over her stomach.

"Czarynah?" All three of the children left behind had the same question on their mind.

"You were right, Lyllah," Czarynah answered in a monotone voice, eyes fixed above her head.

"I didn't know."

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Lyllah had ended up dragging Czarynah by one arm towards their next lesson, art again, while a bemused Oryn had to support a rare version of Xeb that was laughing freely (his head off) and couldn't seem to stop.

And no, Lyllah wasn't incredibly strong or anything, Czarynah was just very, very light. It's the truth. Lyllah wondered what to do with this information, but oh well, there was still time.

After Czarynah had finally processed the fact, she couldn't wait to continue on her painting. However, for the better or the worse, that bastard was still nowhere to be recognised. Strange indeed.

The lesson went quite peacefully, and Lyllah had started on gathering the materials and mediums needed, while Czarynah had just finished her outline, finally satisfied. Stepping back, she felt a sense of nostalgia. This was the scenery she woke up to back in her early days in Germany, before the year in England. 

"Czarynah?"

Shaking her head ruefully, she turned to the waiting impatiently Lyllah.

"Yeah?"

"Can you help me with this tray?"

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After art had finished, Lyllah had to part with Czarynah for their next lesson, PE in one of those magically reinforced warmth bubbles. The students weren't separated by gender, but rather ability despite having separate changing rooms. 

Lyllah had spent more of her time perfecting her water magic and therefore didn't have as much practice or training in physical activities, unlike Czarynah who had spent her last five and a half years running, swimming, climbing outside, looking for new animal species in the rather varied terrain of the Nahmayhns, even before she met Al and Oryn.

The girl's sports uniform included a pair of bell trousers, a puffy blouse of the same style and a wide waistband of their plane colour, and moving around, it was surprisingly flexible.

The girls were herded out onto the field and told to line up alphabetically to their house or surnames. After that, they mingled with the boys, but most were reluctant to mix. Czarynah stood amongst the chaos, observing the unusual behaviour; the girls either turned away to their own groups to ignore the other gender or approached them directly, and the boys showed similar patterns.

Opal, however, noticing Czarynah's distance from everyone else, walked up to the shorter girl with her usual lackeys following behind. Getting brave there, are we?

"Miss Nahmayhn, greetings." She curtsied, somehow still graceful in trousers.

"Greetings to you too, miss Wynthair." Czarynah didn't return the curtsy, but she did bow properly.

"I see you've decided to stick to school regulations after all." Her words dripped with disdain, and she raised her head slightly to look down on Czarynah.

"You make it sound like I had broken a rule, miss Wynthair. I assure you, you needn't worry - I have not." Opal's eyes darkened, not expecting her comeback.

"Well, I'm sure we'll see you later. Farewell." Opal finally retreated, and Czarynah could feel her face starting to ache from that forced genteel smile.

"I'm sure." was all she returned, turning her eyes away from the gaggle of girls and onto a curious Al, patiently waiting beside her. Needless to say, she jumped in shock.

"Holy- !!!" She schooled her expression again while Al chuckled rather shamelessly. Oh hell nope! ... Wait.

"Hold on Al. There's something I need to ask you."

"Yes?"

Clearing her throat, she readied herself for his answer, whatever that would be.

"Are you actually Albertos of Irlande?" she almost hoped he wasn't. It'd be kind of awkward if he was.

"Yes, I am, my fiance. Did you want anything else?" 

Silence from Czarynah.

Ah. poop.

Thinking furiously, Czarynah tried to remember again what she had searched for Al to settle. Something to do with that engagement ... oh!

"Are you alright with being engaged to me?" She had expected a polite and strained positive, but Al smiled strangely instead.

"Sure." 

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Reeeaaaaaally?"

He sighed. Finally, he's going to admit it! See, even the most perfect people ca-

Gripping her shoulders tightly, his usually smiling eyes held a dead-serious stare.

"Yes. As an oath, I swear." 

The brunette, surprised, wore a forced double chin, but it didn't quite work due to those perfect anime bodies with barely an ounce of fat.

Oh, okay then.

"Well, " Czarynah mentally set up more wards against the heroine's otome protagonist charm. That opinion of Al's was going to change in the next years. "I'll hold you to that promise." She held out a hand to shake.

Slapping his hand around her slightly smaller one (how is his hand so large already!? We're only nine/ten for God's sake!), he shook it professionally like he was a businessman settling a finance deal instead of a ten-year-old boy rattling off around an engagement he wasn't likely to hold. 

"Boys, girls, separate for stretches and warming up!" A booming voice interrupted that very tense moment, and with a last "You do that." the first prince of Irlande walked off towards his gendered group, fully aware of the sceptical gaze directed at his back from Czarynah.

Despite having a joint gender group, they had different warm-ups, as the girls' one was mainly focused on their flexibility, while the boys were more about their natural strength. 

Having done plenty of gymnastics as Yifei Zhao, it only took Czarynah a few minutes of faffing around to remember what she was taught before. She was finishing off her standing splits when she suddenly dropped her leg and looked around. Luckily, no one was currently watching her, all of them caught up in their own stretches. 

She was going to have to be more careful with Yifei Zhao's knowledge if she wanted to keep her head on her neck.

Subconsciously, her wandering gaze caught on Opal and her little troupe. They were pretty much the most advanced group right now, excluding herself, and all they were doing were some simple flexibility stretches like a bridge or an Aerobesk balance.

"What, too complicated and difficult for you, Sarah?" Ah, Courtney was here too?

Stopping her high-knee stretches, Czarynah approached the lolita and bowed.

"It's Czarynah. I understand if my name is difficult to pronounce." Now Courtney looked furious. But of course, 'Opal to the rescue!'

"It's fine, we were not able to memorise when we first met you, coming to this dispute about your name." Smiling sweetly, her voice suddenly dripped with hidden contempt. "Now, can you please answer Miss Skagorsky's question?"

Returning that same smile, just hiding her annoyance better, Czarynah answered in a flash. 

"Sure, miss Wynthair. And the answer is no, they are not too complicated or difficult for me." Courtney took about three seconds to regain her shameless confidence.

"W-well, prove it, then!" An evil glint lighted her eyes. "Handstand, on the spot!" She ordered without regard to all the onlookers. It'd be covered by Czarynah's fail anyway. But that did not happen.

The boyish brunette complied without fuss, leaning into a perfect handstand. During her days at the Nahmayhn's mansion, she had spent days in total hanging from tree branches, and as a result, her head wouldn't go red whenever she tilted the other way, only allowing the slightest blush.

"Er, cartwheel!"

Czarynah landed perfectly, stealing certain hearts while doing so. Courtney, on the other hand, was getting more and more frustrated.

"Double backflip!"

The brunette executed that too, and now even the boys joined the crowd around the clown and master, seemingly just performing.

"Backwards round-off!" That's called a round-on.

Czarynah's glamour was now in slight danger of being dropped, but she still carried out the order. The teachers started showing interest too.

"Triple spin-"

"I think that's enough ridiculing Czarynah here." Al had finally, finally arrived! As the students dispersed again under the orders of hesitant instructors, Al brought Czarynah over to the boy's section of the protective bubble, since Czarynah seemed to have already mastered pretty much all of what the girls were preparing to learn.

The boys did sit-ups, planks, push-ups and all those things that Czarynah thought she'd never see again after Yifei Zhao's ultimate end.  She actually did pretty well, always just that little bit less capable than Al.

 It was pretty sad that Oryn wasn't here since Czarynah had jumped a year due to complications with enrolling and Al was technically one year above her. Instead, he was one year below, at his music lesson or something.

Or something, she thought, remembering Oryn leading the laughing Xeb towards the history block earlier that morning.

And as Czarynah was thoroughly occupied with balancing out her inner monologue with the exercise tasks going on, she failed to notice that unfamiliar dark glint in the eyes of prince Albertos of Irlande.

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That night, falling into bed exhausted, Czarynah sighed again.

"I guess I'm ten now ... ?" Yeah, I'm definitely ten.

And she closed her eyes.

A/N Someone's turning into a Yandere ;)