New York's Julia Academy stood on York Avenue in the Upper East Side. It was a private aristocratic school, with not only beautiful and luxurious facilities but also an area around it that felt like it was right beside a park.
Although nearby Carl Schurz Park had less green space than Central Park, it offered a unique place for children to play. The school had a long history. Besides teaching full-time courses, it skillfully and dynamically integrated modern science and technology into the classroom atmosphere, while closely cooperating with local cultural organizations to offer numerous artistic and creative extracurricular activities. Its educational resources were therefore exceptionally outstanding.
Of course, the exorbitant admission sponsorship fee excluded children from most ordinary-income families! The children who attended this school were generally either rich or powerful. Everyone else should not even think about it.
And now, this was the school Annie would be attending. She was a transfer student. To forge a complete set of identification documents for Annie, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s records teams worked through the night, finally fabricating all her birth certificates, parental information, enrollment records, medical records, insurance records, and everything else!
With S.H.I.E.L.D.'s professional records team on the job, there was not a single flaw in Annie's file. Every record, whether paper or electronic, had been entered into the federal government's central database! Even the paper files had been artificially aged. No one would ever find the slightest clue. For S.H.I.E.L.D., which wielded immense authority, creating an identity for a little girl could not have been easier.
Although it was not enrollment season and the school normally no longer accepted new students, could the school dare say no under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s pressure? No matter how inconvenient it was or how improper the procedure might be, they could only grit their teeth and find a way to make a place for Annie.
"Good morning, class! Today, I'd like to introduce a new student. Please give her a warm welcome!"
Sally Carter, the female teacher responsible for English Language Arts, led Annie into the classroom by the hand and introduced her to the fourteen students inside. She then motioned for Annie to step up to the podium and introduce herself.
To improve teaching quality, Julia Academy generally kept each class below twenty students, sometimes even fewer! There were fourteen students in this class, and with Annie added, there would be exactly fifteen.
Annie held two books in her arms. She had changed out of her Little Red Riding Hood-style magical dress and into Julia Academy's long-skirted uniform. She wore a backpack on her back, though there were no books inside it—only her Little Bear, Tibbers.
At first, given Little Bear Tibbers's powerful deterrent effect, Coulson and Melinda had both opposed Annie bringing such a dangerously powerful pet toy into the school.
But then Annie said that if Tibbers got too far away from her, he might break free of the contract and revert to his Shadow Bear form as a Flame Giant Bear. That would be far too dangerous!
So after considering it, Coulson and Melinda ultimately agreed to let Annie take Tibbers to school. However, they required her to keep Tibbers inside her backpack and never take him out casually!
If Tibbers could speak, he would have wanted to protest at the time! Annie's words might fool Earth natives who knew nothing about magic, but could soul contracts really be broken that easily?
Just look at those warlocks who enslaved demons! Across countless planes, they summoned their contracted demons as easily as calling over a dog. Had anyone ever seen those demons dare to break their contracts? Tibbers's contract with Annie was far, far stronger than those demon-enslavement contracts!
Led by the teacher, Annie stood on the podium. Looking at the dozen or so pairs of curious eyes fixed on her, she felt a little happy. So this was school? It looked like fun!
"Hello, everyone! My name is Annie, Annie Hastur! It's nice to meet you all." Maybe this would be a pleasant day, Annie thought.
Annie behaved herself during the morning classes. Before she became familiar with this place, she did not do anything unnecessary! She was still observing this novel Earth human school. So they really did not teach magic. They taught nothing but simple, strange things.
That afternoon, in the school's music room. Calling it a classroom would be less accurate than calling it a small theater, complete with a stage and audience seating. At the moment, a teacher was playing a piece on the piano onstage with dramatic rises and falls, while Annie sat in a row below with a group of classmates.
This was the final music class before school ended. The music teacher was John Phillips, a male teacher with long hair. He was said to be a famous Hollywood music producer. Beside Annie sat a chubby classmate who admired him greatly, going on about how wonderful and impressive he was. Annie, however, had no idea who this old man was!
"Aha! I think I've spotted a new face! Let me check the roster first. Very good, you're Annie, right?" After finishing a piece, John Phillips picked up the class register and easily found the newly added name: Annie.
"Yes, teacher! It's nice to meet you." Annie stood and gave a slight bow.
"Oh! Good, I'm glad to meet you too, Annie. But..." John Phillips closed the register and thought for a moment. "According to our rules, newcomers must play a new piece for their classmates!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a chubby student immediately raised his hand. His name was Jack Harper, the son of an entrepreneur, and he was the fat boy who admired the music teacher. His hobby was eating, which was why he was particularly fat. Of course, perhaps he had put his talent points in the wrong place and invested them all in fat, leaving his brain a little slow. He was usually especially straightforward, honest, and stubborn!
"Teacher, I don't think we have that rule." After receiving the teacher's permission to speak, Jack Harper stood and said.
"Well, we do now! All right, sit down." The teacher impatiently told him to sit before turning to Annie.
"Annie? What instruments can you play? Piano? Or violin?"
Annie bit her finger and thought about it. She could play something, but piano? Violin? She did not know those! Still, she could play the moon harp. Her mother had taught her a few tricks!
"I can play that moon harp!" Annie pointed toward the instrument storage room on the right side of the stage. All kinds of instruments were stored there, including two exquisite harps, one large and one small. The large one was clearly for adults, presumably for the teachers, while the smaller one was just right for elementary school students with little arms and legs.
"Wow! That's surprising. Even I can't play that thing! It's actually called a harp, Annie, not a moon harp. Are you sure you can play it?"
John Phillips immediately felt that this new little girl was no ordinary child! The harp was a relatively uncommon instrument, a large plucked string instrument and one of the oldest plucked instruments in the world, originating in ancient Persia.
The modern harp had been designed by the French piano maker S. Erard in 1810. It had forty-seven strings of different lengths and seven pedals that could change the pitch of the strings, allowing it to play in every key. Harps were exquisite and beautiful in appearance, filled with artistic elegance, graceful and pure as glittering pearls and jade, with a tone as clear as morning dew.
Of course, harps had one most important feature: they were expensive! Extremely expensive! Especially a harp made by a renowned master—it was absolutely beyond the reach of ordinary families! If Julia Academy were not an aristocratic private school, it probably could not afford these two splendid-looking harps.
John Phillips walked over and pretentiously plucked the large harp twice. Then he awkwardly stopped, not daring to continue and make a fool of himself.
"All right! Annie, you may come up and perform." He moved the smaller harp to the front of the stage, set down a small square stool, and motioned for Annie to come onstage.
"Then I'll play everyone a little piece called Embrace of the Moon Goddess."
Annie skipped onto the stage, stood before the harp, and gracefully gave her classmates and teacher a Valoran Continent princess's curtsy. Then she sat on the small stool, plucked a few strings to test the sound, pressed the pedals, and got used to this harp, which was slightly different from a Valoran moon harp. Finally, her little hands stopped, and she took a deep breath.
Teacher John Phillips and the students immediately quieted down, because they knew Annie was about to begin her official performance. They had never heard a performance on this instrument before, and every face was filled with either curiosity or anticipation.
Just as Annie was about to begin playing, her crafty eyes shifted. She suddenly remembered a little trick her mother had taught her, and the corners of her mouth curled smugly, like a little fox that had stolen some grapes.
Threads of magic flowed to her fingertips. As her fingers plucked the strings, invisible ripples of magic began to vibrate along with the sound waves...
One note, two notes, three notes. As the beautiful melody continued without end, it was as if a gentle beam of moonlight had passed through the window and fallen upon Annie on the stage. The moonlight was like moon spirits dancing upon the strings, flying from the harp one by one. At times they flowed as softly as clouds and water, at times they leaped with passion, at times they sang with sorrow, and at times they shook the soul and stunned the heart.
One by one, the listeners in the classroom felt as if they had dissolved from the world and cast themselves into the boundless universe. Everything around them vanished, leaving only the vast white moon before their eyes and the notes drifting by their ears...
The piece, less than five minutes long, ended! The audience remained sitting there blankly, their gazes unfocused, as if they were still staring into the void.
Music teacher John Phillips was the first to recover. He stared at Annie in shock and cried out, "My God, what did I just hear? I just embraced the moon!"
That was right! He had just immersed himself in the music, drifting along with the notes, and when the piece reached its ending, he had actually embraced the moon in the void!
"Genius-level performance, oh! No! Annie, you must be an angel sent down by God! I was actually fortunate enough to hear the sound of heaven! You will definitely get an A+ in my class!"
"Wow! Waaaah!" The little listeners finally came back to their senses, but a blond little girl suddenly burst into tears. Teacher John hurried over to comfort her.
"What's wrong, Angelina?"
"Waaah! I... I saw Mommy... Sob!" It turned out the little girl was crying from happiness. John remembered that according to her student information, the girl was Angelina Roberts. She came from a single-parent family. Her father was a company president, while her mother had reportedly died of cancer two years ago.
Annie stuck out her tongue in embarrassment and made a face before hopping off the stage. She would never tell them that she had not actually played very well. She had secretly used magic to add a little charm trick to the music. This spell guided people into becoming hopelessly immersed in the melody, and sometimes triggered the strongest memories in their hearts or let them see the relatives they missed most.
Master, is it really appropriate for you to do that? Using heart-charming magic in a musical piece doesn't seem right, does it? If I remember correctly, Valoran's performance convention explicitly forbids it! I think you should seriously learn how to play properly. Even if you can't play as well as Sona, you shouldn't play so badly, right? Honestly, if the magic's charm effect were removed, your performance just now was really terrible! You missed several notes, played several parts wrong, and the rhythm seemed off too...
"Shut up! Tibbers, you know too much!"
After stepping off the stage and returning to her seat, Annie viciously punched her backpack twice! He actually dared to say she played badly? She decided that when she went home tonight, bath time would be doubled. Little Bear seemed a little too dirty lately and needed a good soak in the water!
Coulson and Melinda had a very relaxing day. After taking Annie to school that morning, they sat in a coffee shop beside the school, drinking coffee and chatting about life until they saw Annie walk out of the school gates after classes ended.
They had taken a considerable risk in sending Annie to school this time. Although they had repeatedly warned her not to use magic at school and not to let Little Bear out casually, and Annie had made promises, they were still worried! They were afraid Annie might lose her temper and burn some unlucky person to ashes, making the situation difficult to resolve.
Now, it seemed everything was still fine. Annie had kept to the rules they agreed upon, and Coulson and Melinda quietly breathed a sigh of relief!
"Annie, how was your day?"
Coulson drove the car over beside Annie and stopped, then opened the door. Julia Academy had school buses for picking up and dropping off students, but Annie lived by the sea in the suburbs, outside the school bus route. They could only drive her themselves.
"It was great! I had several classes today. Some were a little boring, but I played a piece this afternoon, and the teacher said I could get an A+ in music!" Annie climbed into the back seat and casually shut the door. She took Tibbers from her backpack and grinned proudly at the two people in the front seats.
"Really? That's wonderful!"
Before you continue