If the An of the past was a blazing sun, generously radiating her dazzling light to everyone around her, then the An of the present was a moon that belonged solely to Lucas—a bright, clear moon hanging in the night sky.
Ever since that incident, An no longer easily bared her heart to others.
To those who kept their distance, An was silent, mysterious, and unpredictable.
But Lucas was different. He was lucky.
He was the one closest to that moon.
The girl’s hobbies, ideals, and weaknesses were all revealed to him without reservation.
He was allowed a glimpse behind that mysterious veil.
…
Lucas and An became friends, though it was a secret friendship.
He never dared to be open about it in front of others, nor did he ever mention it to his parents—but An understood him, and she cherished their hard-won friendship even more.
Neither An nor Lucas informed anyone else, and by unspoken agreement, neither of them chose to take things further.
This stable, secret relationship lasted for three years.
Until three years later, in the final year of middle school, the school’s career guidance arrived.
As students of Novalis, middle school graduates faced two paths: continue their studies to a higher level, or graduate and enter the workforce.
Career guidance was an official event to assess the students’ abilities and provide them with reference opinions.
On that day, the school invited experts from various industries to conduct many practical skill tests.
Based on the students’ usual academic performance in each subject, their behavior at school, and the on-site tests that day, the teachers would make suitable career plans for each student.
Lucas’s school held its career guidance at the beginning of the semester.
The usually quiet campus was broken that day by a bustling, surging crowd.
Lucas had a clear goal.
As his father had demonstrated in their pre-planned schedule at home, he went through the tests for basic industrial technical skills—schematic design, drafting, welding, and assembly—in order that day.
He had just walked out of the drafting test room, holding a long report sheet in his hands.
Lucas’s tests went very smoothly, and his teacher gave him high praise.
Without a doubt, the teacher agreed to give him a letter of recommendation—a recommendation to enter a local university in Novalis to continue his studies in the engineering field.
A qualification that countless people dreamed of.
If nothing unexpected happened, he would likely become a remarkable inventor, or at the very least, follow in his father’s footsteps and inherit his factory.
Lucas carefully tucked the report sheet away, ready to leave.
Just as he was about to go, he stopped in his tracks.
He spotted a familiar figure with brown hair at the door diagonally across. It was An.
After confirming there were no acquaintances nearby, Lucas hurried over.
“An? You’re here too—”
“Shh—”
The girl made a silencing gesture and pointed at the sign on the door.
“Magic Test.”
The four words were very prominent.
But the number of people queuing at the door was far fewer than elsewhere.
In Novalis, people generally didn’t value magic, let alone have the opportunity to take professional magic courses like the children in the Holy Capital.
Only a few elective courses touched on it briefly.
Even then, it was just the basics, and most of the time, it served as a vehicle for industrial technology.
“It’s almost my turn… Do you want to come in?”
With the mindset of already being there, Lucas nodded and followed the girl into the room.
He wanted to know what kind of magical talent the girl had, and he was also curious about his own magical aptitude.
The room was empty, save for an old man in a magical hat looking drowsy, squinting as he sat at a table with a magic crystal ball placed before him.
“Professor…?”
An tested the waters uncertainly.
“What… what!?”
The old man’s squinting eyes snapped open.
“My apologies! I wasn’t slacking off during work—”
He looked around in panic, only to find two students staring at him.
“Professor… we’d like to take the magic test.”
“Ah! Right… right! The test! I was just… a little distracted… a bit scared!”
The old man straightened his hat brim and pushed the crystal ball toward them.
“Alright… let me see…”
“Which of you two young ones goes first?”
The two looked at each other.
Seeing hesitation in An’s eyes, Lucas decided to take the lead.
“I’ll go first—”
He volunteered, placing both hands on the ball’s surface.
A golden light immediately shone from within the ball.
An unmistakable surprise flickered in the girl’s eyes.
She stared at Lucas with envy—an emotion he had never seen in her before.
Lucas was startled himself.
Him… he had… in magic… quite a talent as well?
“What astonishing talent in Light Magic…”
The old man let out an exclamation of amazement.
“Although I know it’s not quite appropriate to recruit in Novalis… well—”
The old man nudged Lucas with his elbow.
“Are you interested in furthering your studies and learning magic?”
“Haha… sorry, Professor—”
Lucas let out an awkward laugh as he removed his hands from the magic crystal ball.
“I don’t have that intention for now…”
“An? Are you ready?”
Lucas looked at An with an encouraging gaze.
The latter nodded and placed her hands on the crystal ball as well.
“…”
There was no change in color.
Ten seconds passed.
Half a minute passed.
The girl’s eyes shifted from determination to unease, then to fear.
She pressed her hands even tighter against the ball’s surface, as if she could awaken the mana within it.
Yet the crystal ball remained utterly unchanged.
Having been An’s companion for three years, Lucas genuinely wished for this girl to become the future Saint—the first Saint from Novalis.
But it seemed like a cruel joke of fate.
The person he believed would surely become the Saint—that gentle, kind girl—couldn’t even pass this first hurdle.
How… how could this be?
No… it couldn’t be…
An had no mana.
For her not to become a Saint… even An… she couldn’t accept that…
“An… An?”
Lucas couldn’t see An’s lowered face or the expression beneath it.
He could only try calling out to the girl.
“It seems… this young lady has a body without magic…”
The old man shook his head, his summary falling like a death sentence.
“With… with no magic…”
The girl’s voice was reduced to trembling, with a faint sob audible within.
She might have envisioned many scenarios, but she never imagined she would be a rare No-Magic Body.
“But it’s fine, you know… after all, this is Novalis… mana doesn’t mean everything—”
“Wah—”
A brief sob suddenly burst from the girl’s throat.
Without waiting for the old man to finish, and not wanting Lucas to see the tears about to gush from her eyes, An rushed out the door and fled in a panic.
All that was left for Lucas was a desperate, fleeing figure.
“Wait… wait!”
Lucas had never seen the girl so distraught.
In all their interactions, she had always been the epitome of grace and composure.
The girl didn’t wait.
She merged into the crowd, fleeing toward the other end of the hallway.
The boy rushed out the door, spellbound, searching for that figure that had vanished into the crowd.
He didn’t know why he was doing this either…
“An! You… where are you going?”
At this moment, Lucas finally lost control and shouted at the top of his lungs.
What greeted him were the curious stares of other students in the hallway.
As a rather shy, introverted child, Lucas had always found it hard to endure so many people staring at him.
Being a show-off in public was, for him, no different from making a fool of himself, from public humiliation.
But he no longer cared whether others knew or minded.
Lucas struggled to push through the crowded stream of people.
He began to run at full speed.
Ever since becoming friends with An, he had found that his life was becoming more and more dependent on her.
Now, his moon was about to flee.
He knew An was hurting again.
This time, it seemed even worse than before.
Right now, there was only one thing on the boy’s mind.
He just wanted to catch up with that disheartened figure and give that girl the care she had always deserved, the care that was long overdue.
……