If she were to describe it exactly...
Anna sketched on a piece of paper only to frown at it. She missed pencils, with charcoal the lines were too thick. She could sharpen it but she hated wasting the tiny bits.
Her role in this world was something like a side character.
"Sister Anna, look what Ting Yue fished out!"
Down below the older children were fishing in the river.
Ting Yue somehow managed to reel out a big red carp and was grinning proudly as the others gawked at him.
This child would be the new protagonist of her life.
Ever since she had been assigned to look after him she felt her existence had ended up something like this. She could already see it now, the kind and easy to get along with older sister being sacrificed along with many others turning this smiling child back into a hero driven by revenge.
Or something like that. It would make an entertaining novel.
She hoped it didn't happen.
She hoped the bad feeling she had was all in her head.
"Sister Anna!" A girl with purple twin buns Anna's age appeared out of nowhere, her expression sour. "Go to the office! Master Mo has something to talk to you about!"
And alas.
"A marriage?"
"You're already sixteen." Master Mo, an old man who was still disturbingly handsome despite his greyed age blinked at her from his desk. His aide, Grattaham, a bespectacled man with greenish blonde hair handed her letters.
"These are your offers."
"Mar-riages." Anna muttered to herself, the word itself felt alien, she nearly forgot how to read as she blankly stared at the letters.
This isn't the tragic end that had played out in her mind, she was thankful, thankful but...
"All these letters are...?"
"Your suitors Miss, why are you so surprised? The tales of Miss's beauty couldn't have been kept inside these walls." Grattaham adjusted his glasses at her, his lips curving a shimmer of a Dad's proudness leaking out for just a second.
B-beauty? All her life, her older sister was the one who got all the attention, because the reality was although she was a beauty with noble and delicate features her sister's bewitching allure was like a black hole, sucking in all the attention whenever they went out in public.
She had never minded it back then, even now she longed to go back to those days every time someone praised her for being pretty. She would find it odd. Like the protagonist of her life that was, her sister, no longer existed. And each and every time she would feel so lonely, she wanted to go somewhere and stare at the sky.
She looked the same as her original self the only difference was her eyes were a xanadu color. It was as if the eyes of her past self (green) combined with this body's(black eyes) DNA.
"Meanwhile, I don't even know anyone..." Anna muttered as she opened a letter.
"There's a letter from the second Prince of the Jianghu, the fourth Prince from the Neighboring Kingdom of Cho, the Merchant son of Zellant, and the Pharmacists son from the village..."
Anna hearing their names didn't bother opening them, she felt a headache coming on, all she had ever done was be polite to those guys and that was all it took for them to want to marry her? So many. When she first arrived she thought this world was "ancient" but that was only due to the fact that this world was so reliant on martial arts and magic that they barely placed much importance on technology. In other countries, things like fridges and trains had already been invented. Women had a lot more freedom than before as well, it was possible for them to be "heirs" princesses of empires and could rule solely as empresses, the wives of nobles could own businesses, but there were very few. And yet traditional beliefs like a girl needing to marry before she turns nineteen were still present.
Men still saw women as home makers. The few she met all sought her because she was "kind" which equated to "submissive." Someone easy to control and dominate. Her role would be to bear children and she'd be looked down on if she couldn't even do that since she's an orphan.
She looked up from the letters she had already opened with her mind but not with her fingers. "Is... it possible to decline them?"
Master Mo raised a brow. "Oho? Do you mean to stay at this orphanage forever Ms. Qing?"
"No! I just..." Blinking Anna tried to form an excuse in her head but nothing was there, after being saved and brought to this place she had lived and learned the way of this world, somewhat. Some part of her didn't actually want to leave, even though she told herself she must.
She had always pictured herself moving out by herself once she came of age, just
...not as a bride. Having this subject brought up by men felt even more awkward.
"That won't do. If Miss doesn't accept one that will put us in a pickle. The Kingdom of Cho already knows about our orphans, we need to find someone who can help prevent the- "
Master Mo's gaze was chilling, Grattaham clamped his mouth shut.
A question sign hung over her head.
"We're not so weak that a marriage determines our fate. Do you think I'm that old?"
"Of course not, but having multiple enemies may-
Master Mo raised a brow.
Grattaham adjusted his glasses once more and sighed.
"Such a waste."
"Then, if I can be of use somehow, I'll do it."