For the first time, Clara smiled.
— So… did I pass?
Julian looked at the golden crown between them.
Then he smiled too.
— You are the first person in three years who even understood the test.
And that afternoon, the royal selection ended.
Not because Clara had the “perfect” body everyone expected.
But because when the entire room laughed at her and the ground literally shifted beneath her feet…
she was the only one who never lost herself.