The Fat Pumpkin Unfit for Magic Academy

Round pumpkin girl Nancy walks three days to apply to Saint Lantern Magic Academy, only to be publicly mocked and rejected by Student President Viola: thick rind, fat flesh, unfit to be a lantern. Nancy doesn't cry. She memorizes every laughing face, slips through the barrier as an unregistered auditor, and survives ambushes, cages, and frame-ups. Every plot pushes her closer to the truth: she is the last heir of the Golden-Rind line. On All-Hallows Eve, as the Mist Lord breaks through, Nancy rises, golden fire runes across her rind, and becomes the shield that purifies a century of darkness.