Claire François has it all: beauty, brains, and the blood of nobility. As the daughter of the kingdom's Minister of Finance, she takes her status and the according responsibilities with utmost seriousness-even as the king threatens to undermine his realm's stability with his visions of 'meritocracy.' Claire is nevertheless prepared to take this societal change in stride, at least until one of the new commoner students at her elite academy, Rae Taylor, throws everything Claire knows to be true into question. Everything about Rae confounds Claire, from her behavior to her intellect to her bizarre fixation on Claire herself. Little does she realize just how much Rae will change her world, and how much she'll change Rae in turn. (W) Inori (A) Hanagata