The news of the transfer student spread quietly on the second afternoon after Luna arrived at the academy.
Elite Academy rarely accepted mid-term transfers, especially when the semester was already well underway. Even more unusual was how abnormally fast the process had been—no public introduction, no background briefing, not even a proper announcement. The notice posted on the internal system amounted to no more than a single, curt line.
International Exchange Student · Lucien ValeEffective immediately.
The name was calm and unfamiliar.
Yet before anyone truly saw him, the campus had already begun to feel… different. This year, Elite Academy seemed unusually eventful: first an enigmatic visiting researcher with an unknown background, and now a transfer student whose origins were equally unclear. Speculation spread rapidly, and inevitably, all eyes turned in the same direction.
It was an instinctive sense of alertness.
Not born of status, background, or rumor, but of something more primal—like a top-tier predator stepping into a meticulously ordered human territory. Even if he did nothing at all, the air itself had already changed.
Lucien Vale appeared oblivious to the curious gazes surrounding him as he walked beneath the teaching buildings. He was strikingly handsome, with closely cropped golden hair and sharp green eyes. His clothes were exquisite and costly, perfectly tailored, lending him the air of someone born to rule.
Luna sensed his presence almost instantly.
Not through sight, nor through sound.
But through a resonance that rose from deep within her bones.
She had been discussing experimental parameters with Ethan. The conversation was halfway through when her chest suddenly tightened, as if something had cut cleanly through the crowd and locked precisely onto her.
She looked up.
At the center of the crowd stood a man at the boundary between sunlight and shadow.
He was tall—taller than most. His build was lean and rigid, a long black coat hanging from his frame with barely any movement in the wind, as though his weight and center of gravity were perfectly controlled. His features were not ostentatious, yet they were sharp enough to make people instinctively look away—like a blade still sheathed.
The students around him unconsciously kept their distance.
Not because he had done anything.
But because their bodies had reached a verdict before their minds did.
Danger.
Adrian stood on the second-floor corridor.
He had been on a call with a member of the academy's board when his gaze swept across the courtyard—and froze.
His eyes settled on Lucien and lingered far too long.
It was not scrutiny.
It was confirmation.
The confirmation of a variable that should not exist here.
At the same time, Ethan sensed something was wrong as well.
Following Luna's line of sight, he looked over. After a single glance, he frowned instinctively.
"…This person," he said slowly, "doesn't belong to this world."
Luna did not answer.
Because Lucien had already seen her.
In that instant, his gaze finally tore itself away from everyone else and fixed on her alone.
There was no surprise. No hesitation.
Only certainty.
As if he had finally found something he had lost long ago.
Their reunion came without any dramatic prelude.
After school, behind the research building, in the old greenhouse area.
The place had long since been abandoned by the academy; hardly anyone came here anymore. When Luna pushed the door open, she already knew someone was waiting inside.
"You still don't like using the front entrance."
The man's voice was low and familiar.
It carried with it the coldest nights of her earliest memories, the most ancient oaths, and the past she had never truly bid farewell to before she fled.
"Lucien."
She spoke his name without emotion.
Lucien Vale turned around.
Away from prying eyes, his "human disguise" loosened slightly. The power he had deliberately restrained was no longer fully contained, and the pressure in the air rose sharply.
He looked at her, his gaze calm, yet edged with lethal sharpness.
"You shouldn't be here, Luna," he said.
It was not an accusation. It was a statement of fact.
"And you shouldn't have let me find you."
Luna let out a quiet breath.
"I know."
She stepped closer and stopped in front of him—close enough for any member of the wolf clan to sense the true state of her bloodline.
Lucien's pupils contracted instantly.
The next second, almost on instinct, he dropped to one knee.
The movement was clean and restrained, yet carried an inerasable, ancient reverence.
"Royal Heir," he said. "Your presence is no longer concealed."
Luna's voice lowered at once.
"Lucien. Look at me."
He raised his head.
In that moment, the warden's habitual coldness and sharpness were disrupted by something older, more personal, and far more dangerous.
"I didn't come back to claim the throne," she said. "At least, not now."
Lucien fell silent.
As a wolf clan warden, his duty was singular—to ensure that royal authority was never tainted, never evaded, and never delayed.
And she was doing precisely the third.
"The Wolf King has already sensed an anomaly," he said. "My mission here is to track down a traitor within the clan. You… were not part of the plan."
"But you found me," Luna replied calmly.
Lucien did not deny it.
His gaze lingered on her for a long time, as if confirming something—or struggling to suppress it.
"You must come back with me."
"Not now."
"This is an order."
"This is a request."
Luna lifted her head and met his eyes directly. "Lucien. I'm asking you."
For a split second, the air seemed to tear.
Wardens did not accept requests.
They obeyed only bloodline and law.
Yet the person before him—
Was the girl he had personally escorted beyond the borders of the wolf clan.Was the royal heir he had sworn to protect beneath the moon, only to let her leave in the end.
"…How long?"He finally asked.
Luna knew she had won.
"I'll return on my own," she said. "When I'm ready."
"You're asking me to conceal your whereabouts from the Wolf King," Lucien said coolly, his tone more dangerous than any threat. "You understand what that means."
"I do," she nodded. "That's why I can only beg you."
A long silence followed.
Then Lucien stood.
He reined in every trace of wolf clan aura, once again becoming the flawless, aloof, and formidable "human transfer student."
"I will conceal it—for now," he said. "Not because you are the royal heir."
He paused.
"But because you are Luna."
That was the greatest compromise he could offer.
That night, Adrian received an encrypted briefing from a trusted family contact.
It contained only one line:
Unknown high-threat target confirmed.Threat level: Uncontrollable.
Meanwhile, as Ethan organized his research materials, a powerful unease settled over him for the first time.
He realized that something had crossed beyond the boundaries of human institutions and emotion.
This was not a rival.
It was a judge.
And at this moment, that judge was standing on Luna's side.
"Luna… who are you, really?" Ethan murmured—only then realizing he had spoken the words aloud.