The Headmaster’s office smelled of expensive mahogany and the desperate sweat of a man who knew too much.
Headmaster Aris look over his spectacles, staring at the empty leather chair in front of his desk. He blinked twice. Then, he sighed and adjusted his glasses.
"I know you're in the chair, Luna. Please. I’m too old for hide-and-seek."
Slowly, like a smudge being erased from a drawing, a girl appeared. Luna Johnson didn’t "sparkle" into existence. She simply was there. She had messy black hair, eyes that looked like they hadn't seen a full night’s sleep in a decade, and an expression so flat it made a pancake look three-dimensional.
"I wasn't hiding," Luna said, her voice a low, bored monotone. "I was just sitting. Most people just forget to look at me."
"You have a Mana Index of 9,999," the Headmaster whispered, tapping a glowing crystal paperweight on his desk. "The Royal Prince—the supposed 'prodigy' of this generation—is a 450. You didn't just pass the entrance exam; you accidentally broke the testing golem into fine dust."
Luna shrugged. "It looked fragile. I barely poked it."
"The Kingdom needs a hero," Aris said, leaning forward. "The monsters at the border are growing stronger. If I announce your scores, you’ll be the most famous person in the history of the Academy. You’ll have a golden statue, a personal maid, and—"
"No."
The word hit the room like a heavy stone.
"No?" the Headmaster blinked. "Every girl in the kingdom dreams of the spotlight."
"Spotlight is hot," Luna said, staring at a fly on the wall. "People talk to you. You have to wear itchy dresses. I want a bed, a window that faces the shade, and for everyone to pretend I’m a piece of furniture. If you tell anyone about my power, I’ll leave. And I’ll take the school’s library with me."
The Headmaster shivered. He knew she wasn't joking. "Fine. A deal. I will magically suppress your official records. You will be 'Luna Johnson, Rank F.' No one will look twice at you. In exchange, when a threat enters this school that my teachers can’t handle... you fix it."
"Quietly?" Luna asked.
"Quietly," he agreed.
"Deal."
The hallway of the Royal Academy was a nightmare of gold leaf and loud teenagers. Luna walked through the crowd like a ghost. People literally stepped around her without even knowing why. She was the "blind spot" of the world.
She was heading toward the back of the orientation hall when a sudden, high-pitched wail pierced the air.
"My boots! My limited-edition Pegasus-hide boots! They’re... they're scuffed!"
The crowd parted. In the center of the hall stood Prince Alistair. He was undeniably handsome, with shimmering blonde hair and eyes like sapphires, but he was currently vibrating with rage while pointing at a microscopic speck of dirt on his toe.
"Someone!" the Prince cried, his lower lip trembling. "Get the Royal Cobbler! I cannot walk in such filth! It’s an insult to my lineage!"
A group of girls sighed dreamily, calling him "sensitive" and "refined."
Luna paused, staring at him. He was standing right in the middle of the path to the snack table. She tried to walk past him, but the Prince, in his dramatic flailing, accidentally stepped backward right into her.
Usually, people just slid off Luna's personal space. But because he was moving with the momentum of a toddler's tantrum, he bumped her shoulder.
"Oaf!" Alistair gasped, spinning around. He looked down at the girl who was currently staring at him with the intensity of a dead fish. "You! Commoner! You nearly knocked me over! Don't you know who I am?"
Luna blinked. She looked at his face, then down at his boots, then back at his face.
"You're the guy blocking the way," she said.
The entire hallway went silent.
"I... I am Prince Alistair!" he stammered, his eyes welling up with tears of pure shock. "I am the smartest, most talented student here! And you... you’re... who are you?"
"Nobody," Luna said, already beginning to fade back into the background. "And you have mustard on your chin."
The Prince shrieked, frantically grabbing for a silk handkerchief and sobbing about his "ruined complexion."
Luna didn't wait. She slipped into the shadows, grabbed a sandwich from the buffet, and disappeared before the Prince could even finish his first round of crying.
Being invisible was going to be harder than she thought if the local "hero" was this much of a loser.
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