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.
