Astral Odyssey: Dying Ember

"You still aren't performing well enough for a member of this family. Is this really your best?"

This was the umpteenth time Luna has heard this sentence in her life, and the fourth time she has heard it today.

It was another normal Sunday at home for Luna. Back to back tuitions for different subjects. Now that she was 18 years old, this was something she has long grown used. Her parents believed that she would one day find her talent as long as they kept trying. Once they found that talent, they would hone it without neglecting her other skills. It was exactly what her siblings went through, only that their talents showed themselves from much earlier on as compared to her.

Her older brother, Desmond, was smart but his strength laid in his physical abilities. He was well-built and strong, but agile and flexible. He basically took after their father.

Her younger sister, Erica, was overall intelligent and began excelling in subjects related to business, finance, and economics. She basically took after their mother.

As such, their end goals were to end up where their parents were now working at. Her father was the Sergeant Major of the army and her mother was the finance director of a big company. They were not the most powerful positions respectively, but they were still significant positions of power.

Luna shrugged. Even if she said that it was her best, it would not change a thing. So, what did her opinion matter?

"That's it for today.” The tutor said with a drawn-out sigh. “We'll go through the rest the next time I come."

After the tutor left the room, Luna cleared her black study table and put things back where they belonged. She then headed out to the kitchen to join their cook in making dinner. It was yet another way of trying to discover her talent.

On her way down the stairs, she could hear the tutor talking to her parents by the main door. "She's still performing the same as any average person out on the streets. Is it still the same in other areas?"

Luna could already guess that her parents nodded. She knew her own results.

"Perhaps she's the type to do better with less work? You know, work smart, not hard?" Her mother sounded concerned.

"We're already trying that. Any lesser work and you might as well stop calling me over." The tutor said. "I don't mean to sound offensive but perhaps you should really start considering how she may be the dud in your family. She has completely no talent."

"Excuse you. Even if she has no talent at all, she's never a dud. You don't have to return any longer. Perhaps the issue is your expectations of her." Her mother was definitely ticked off.

She heard the door open and close, signaling the departure of the tutor.

"Should we give her a break from everything?"

"We could try. It's all trial and error now, my love."

Luna looked at the mirror installed on the wall near her. Her expression was as flat as ever. She only felt sorry for her parents and for letting them down, nothing else. She understood her parents' purpose of pushing them. Why they wanted her siblings and her to do well and above the others in at least one area of their life. However, she was anything but impressive. Even her looks were mediocre with her thin wispy black hair, grey round eyes, button nose, downward-turned lips, slightly chubby round face, and short stature. Nobody would give a girl like her a glance, not to mention a second glance.

She waited for a while before she went down and walked past the living room to reach the kitchen. She did not want her parents to feel guilty for having her overhear what the tutor had to say about her.

At the dining table, the results of Luna's research, planning, and cooking was laid bare for everyone to see. The food definitely looked appetising enough, but the taste was… Ordinary. Sometimes, it would be the other way around.

Nonetheless, everyone showed joyful and proud expressions, praising her for the effort she had put into the dishes. Luna received it all with a polite smile and asked for critiques and suggestions. Her attitude then earned her even more praises from her parents and admiration from her siblings.

After they were done with the small discussion, their talk carried on to more casual topics. Luna was not much of a conversationalist, so she spent more time listening and staring than taking part in the conversation.

Occasionally, she would see herself and the people around her from another person's point of view. It was during those moments that feelings of being the odd one out of the family were the strongest.

Her entire family was made of attractive people by society's standards.

Her father has rich and bountiful black hair, big grey eyes that carried a sharp gaze, thin lips, strong features, and a well-toned muscular body.

Her mother has long wavy black hair, hazel phoenix eyes, a dainty nose, perfectly bow-shaped lips, a sharp chin, and a tall and slender figure.

Her siblings received the best features of their parents, thus looked equally good. Luna was somehow the only one to inherit the plainer features of their bloodline and only that.

The next morning, the siblings headed out to the driveway in front of their four-level terrace house where their chauffeur was waiting to drive them to school. After everyone hopped in, the chauffeur continued to hold the door open.

"What's wrong?" Erica asked.

"Is Miss Lu-" The chauffeur's voice got stuck in his throat as he caught sight of how Luna was already in the car. She had gotten in from the other side by herself. "My apologies." He closed the door right after.

Erica could guess what had happened and she looked very displeased.

Luna smiled a little to comfort her. "That's a normal occurrence. You should be used to it by now."

"It shouldn't be something you should get used to! I don't like how people always fail to see you."

Desmond chimed in from the seat at the front at this moment. "I really can't understand how people fail to see this brilliant sister of ours! I mean, she practically shines, doesn't she?"

Erica beamed proudly at that comment. "That's right! Everyone should know of how great she is!"

"I'm really sorry." The driver spoke up in a soft and timid voice while he started up the car.

Luna sighed helplessly and smiled. "Will you both stop teasing the poor man already?"

It was as they said, Luna was someone who was easily overlooked. She simply lacked that much of a presence anywhere she went. Whenever her family went for social events, people neglected her existence. Sometimes, they would mistakenly think that her parents had only two children. They would only notice her after she was pointed out. Whenever that happened, her family made sure to comfort her.

Out of good intentions, they had tried to change matters by placing her right beside her parents while the other two would stand behind her. However, they quickly realised that it had the opposite effect from what they wanted. Not wanting to hurt her any further, they let her decide what she wanted to do during parties. She could choose to follow them around or wander around by herself.

They reached the prestigious school that looked elite even in just its appearance. It was recognised for having honed talented individuals who now held high positions in society.

It functioned very differently from normal schools. The real mission of the children who attended this school was to establish connections and to survive the power struggle. Everything that happened in this school was to stay in the school. Good performance in grades was merely part of the requirements to enter the school.

Only Luna and a boy named Lucas were the exceptions to these requirements.

Luna got in purely because of her family's background and her parents' connections with the principal of the school. Her siblings had been especially worried if Luna would get picked on. However, her quiet nature, meek presence, and average looks led everyone to miss her existence as usual.

Lucas Wu was a scholarship student and he was the only one in school with a humble background. However, nobody looked down on him.

He was blessed with bountiful jet black hair that was kept at medium-length and styled fashionably, a distinct set of bright black eyes with eyebrows of the right thickness just above it, an elegant nose, rosy thin lips, defined jawline, and a strong build. He made the midnight blue uniform for the males look like it was tailor made for him.

Besides his attractiveness and charm, he was also very intelligent, constantly ranking second in the whole level for overall performance, just below a guy named Victor Koo who was the famed son of the principal of the school.

As luck or fate would have it, these two students gathered in the same place. However, they ignored each other's presence. One by choice, the other without intention.

Luna spent all her free time at the grand library to study there of her own accord. Although her parents had stopped giving her tuition, she never stopped studying on her own. It already became a routine for her, possibly even part of her identity.

She chose a spot in the quietest corner of the library. The plum blossom tree outside the tall window was a bonus feature. The window was so tall that she could easily admire the flowers that were currently in full bloom. From that moment on, that seat was made her favourite spot in the school.

Coincidentally, Lucas had chosen the same spot in the library as his favourite spot too. However, he sat on the other end of the table, furthest away from the window. Although they have been studying together in the same place for two years, they have not interacted with each other even once.

She witnessed for herself his charm and allure. Whenever he studied, he would loosen his tie and unbutton the first button of his white shirt, which only increased his attractiveness.

She peeked at the books he was studying and guessed that there was something going on behind the scenes between him and Principal Koo. From the books he was reading, she could tell that he was already studying things that were far beyond their level. How was it possible that someone like him would be ranked below Victor whom she viewed as some egoistical show-off?

/An outstanding guy but with a fate of being suppressed by someone else… Sounds just like some second male lead to me./ Luna thought to herself.

Luna was not sure when it started to happen, but she no longer found joy in the fictional stories that she used to binge on by sacrificing her sleep. She started feeling more cynical. Plot holes, plot conveniences, overly simplified plot, flat characters, and more, became increasingly glaring to her.

Perhaps, it started around the time when she started to have dissociation-like experiences. Perhaps, it was when she started to view her life in the same way she viewed those fictional stories.

Some people are like the main characters of a story. They are blessed with talents and well-loved by all, sometimes even having a bonus tragic backstory. Some people are clearly cannon fodder with nothing much to their name or character, whose purpose are only to spice up the main plot.

In this manner, Luna began to predict relationships between people and their progressions. Now, her life just seemed like another crappy story where she was but an inconsequential insignificant character.

Just then, an attractive boy and girl came into the library looking for Lucas.

The boy looked as charming and handsome as Lucas, even sharing a similar build, but he has short black hair and a loud sunny personality that contrasted Lucas's personality. This personality of his won him the hearts of many and made him more popular than Lucas. He was none other than Victor Koo.

The girl looked as gentle as a dove and as soft as a cloud. She has long black hair with large gentle curls, big doe-like eyes, a small pert nose, and lips full enough to look soft and inviting. Her build was small and frail even in comparison to an average girl. This girl was commonly seen with Victor and everyone knew her as his childhood friend, Rina Yang.

"Lucas, you done yet?" Victor asked. "We're heading out now."

"Again?" Lucas asked flatly.

"We're the normal ones and YOU'RE the odd one." Victor defended themselves, sensing some judgement in Lucas' tone. "You should chill out, dude. Come hang with us."

"Well, he is attractive in that way, so there's nothing wrong..." Rina spoke up for Lucas in a soft voice.

Lucas looked at Rina and his tone softened with his gaze, "You guys go ahead first. I'll catch up with you after I'm done."

Rina's smile shone brilliantly. "You're going?"

"Of course, he is. What else could he mean?" Victor ruffled her hair and directed her away from the table. "See ya later, Lucas." He then turned his attention back on to Rina. "You're always speaking up for him. Like, how do you see the best in everyone? I thought that I'm already pretty darn good, but you, you're always showing me how you're on another level." His voice got softer and softer, until he could not be heard anymore. Only then did Lucas' cold and hard gaze return to his books and laptop. His hands flew across the keyboard faster than it did before the little interruption.

Meanwhile, Luna studied without breaking her tempo. She had often witnessed their interactions, so she already knew how everything would go down. Victor got pegged as the male lead, while Rina was the female lead, of this school drama. Luna was sure that Rina would overlook Lucas for the current big shot in this school that shone bright like a diamond. /How short-sighted./

However, the next attractive person who stepped into the library caught Luna's attention. /Why's she here? She never comes here./ The oddness of the situation made Luna frown ever so slightly.