Ari woke up with a gasp. His heart raced, beads of sweat running down his seated form. After a while, he took a steadying breath to center himself.

Turning his head to observe his surroundings, he found himself in a hospital room. The room was familiar, its layout identical to the room where he stored his original body when he enrolled at the school a week prior.

Sitting on a bed of organic gel the color of glacial blue, Ari moved his feet off the bed. He sat on the edge of the bed, his feet dangling over the ground as he recalled his most recent memory.

'I lost,' Ari thought to himself as he screw his eyes shut, his head hung down. 'Well, it's no use moping over spilled milk, I guess,' Ari resigned. With a sigh, he scrubs his smooth scalp to wipe away his disappointment.

Coming to this school, he had dreamed of getting a physical body of his own. He had thought he'd do it by becoming the class leader and getting his hands on Charismata. He'd never thought that he would achieve it this way. Even though he wanted to secure his future by getting a body of his own, it didn't mean that he was ready to abandon his purpose just yet. Not even after he had failed Dom's expectations of him a year prior.

His deal with Udin was to swap bodies for only three years. Even if he failed to become a class leader, three years was long enough for him to get his hands on Charismata as a prize for graduating from the elite class of this academy. But it doesn't mean he would discard his ambition for the position of class leader just yet.

The first year after he was awakened by Dom to become Ares' substitute was the most enjoyable time of his life. All the written accounts of Ares day to day life that Dom inscribed into his previous form, a diary, were unable to capture the breadth and wealth of physical sensations that a human body can experience. A single sentence is unable to convey the impulse all five primary senses had sent for him to experience.

In that first year, Ari had tried to reenact various activities that Ares had done. Even with the memories he inherited completing the accounts of Ares' life that Dom had written inside of the diary, that first year Ari was filled with excitement, nostalgia clashed with a feeling of novelties as he experienced what Ares had experienced in the past. Moreover, he was being accompanied by Dom.

Before he was awakened, he was a mere immanent spirit of a diary that Dom used to record Ares' day-to-day activities. He was present, just like any other object with their own immanent spirit. Unthinking, unfeeling, and having no agency over their own life. They have no one to accompany them even if they are in contact with other object and their spirit, unaware of each other presence. Alone amid the crowd of similar existence.

He was glad to be given the opportunity to experience human life by Dom. And he even felt more so as Dom accompanied him throughout his first year of awareness. But it all came to an end after the first year.

It was the second anniversary of Ares' demise, the time of the year that was a painful reminder to Dom of what had happened. Just like last year, Dom was emotionally unstable. That day, Dom snapped at Ari. He said that had seen enough, and wanted to have nothing to do with him anymore before entering seclusion inside of their shared spiritual domain.

Dom had awakened him to become Ares' substitute. He had done his best, but he still made Dom snapped at him. While he had not failed his purpose per se, he couldn't help but feel lost without Dom accompanying him and guiding him.

The only thing that he could do to move forward was to follow in Ares' footsteps, becoming Ares' substitute without anyone to supervise him. To free himself from his aimlessness, he had found a goal that aligned with Ares' nature.

A new life purpose other than what he was created to do, and what kept him still having a physical body to experience the world. A life purpose that meant more than for his own survival as a human.

He still had a reason to become the class leader, and inhabiting another body didn't affect his reason for aiming for the position.

Rising to stand, Ari walked to the wardrobe to the side of the room. He was naked, his body sculpted from the organic gel that constituted the bed that he awoke on.

Phi, or eidos, is the physical component of the spiritual domain that describes the current state of the object that was the student's physical body. Using the student's Phi as a blueprint, the healing pavilion created a blob of undifferentiated stem cells generated from the magic of the pavilion and formed into clones.

Opening the wardrobe, Ari grabbed a simple t-shirt and pants, changing into the prepared clothes. This room inside the healing pavilion's cloning center was designated as his clone's spawn point. Everything inside was suited to his body proportion.

Just as he pulled his t-shirt over his head, he heard the door to the room hissed open. He expected Udin to appear, but he was surprised to see it was instructor Budi who entered.

A pair of dark brown eyes scanned the room, his thick unibrow lay flat. "How're you feeling, Ares?" his homeroom teacher addressed him.

"Normal, sir," Ares replied. After being disintegrated by tactical bombardment, his body doesn't feel any difference. Only the memories of the duel remained. He could recall every detail of the duel, every pain and every impact his body absorbed. But thanks to the deacon class' Rehabilitation magic, there was no mental scar.

"That's good," his homeroom teacher said with a little nod. "Follow me, then."

Ari scrambled to catch up to match instructor Budi's brisk walk. The soft sound of the healing pavilion's slipper that he used echoed throughout the vacant hall accompanying the heavy thump of his teacher's leather shoes.

Lines of magic circuitry running along the ceiling glowing a magical white, illuminating the sterile pavilion hall as they walked through it. "Where to, sir?"

"My office," he replied without looking back at Ari's direction.

"Umm. Am I in trouble?" Ari asked with unease. In a duel between students, it was to be expected for one side to be killed off in the aftermath. Ari knew that the school should have no problem with that. But even so, Ari can't help but be worried. For his homeroom teacher to visit him the moment he was put back together, was outside the norm.

"Syafruddin had told me about your duel and bet," his teacher informed him. Ari's mind was about to imagine a dozen scenarios about how screwed he was before his teacher continued. "I'm bringing you there to officiate your deal with Syafruddin."

Ari sighed. "So, I'm not in trouble, then?"

"Why would you?" his teacher asked as he looked over his shoulder into Ari's direction, the right side of his unibrow raised in askance.

"Umm. I mean, for students to bet their body in a duel. It's a bit questionable, isn't it?" Ari probed. While he was relieved that the school had no problem with their bet, he couldn't help but be dissatisfied at the school's apparent disinterest in his well-being for losing a bet and losing his body.

"It is questionable, yes. If the two of you had gone and done the swap before informing the school, then there would have been an investigation into your duel. But your roommate notified me of your bet last night just after your duel, so I have had some time to question him further to understand the situation."

Ari was silent after he heard his teacher's answer. The two of them walk in silence across the healing pavilion. The moment they left the building, Ari found the sky was clear blue, the morning arriving after he had been incapacitated for twelve hours.

The two are walking along the paved path toward the school compound when Ari opens his mouth. "How much do you know of the situation, guru?"

His teacher wasted no time answering his question. "Syafruddin had told me about the reasons behind your duel."

"Even the fate part?" Ari probed.

"Even the fate part, yes," his teacher confirmed as if there was nothing wrong with that.

"And you believe him just like that?" Ari questioned. "He said that my body was going to be taken over by the ghost that haunted the first-year dorm, and now he tried to make me swap body with him. Don't you think this was some kind of a roundabout way for him to take over my body? I know that the school has done a background check on every student that enrolls here, but isn't his action suspicious?" Ari had meant to ask his teacher because he was curious, but the more he talked the more upset he was at the situation without he noticed.

"Then why do you take the bet, Ares?" his teacher asked back without looking in his direction.

Ari was silent, unable to answer him. After having his request for Ren's help with the ghost situation rejected, he tried to ask Udin's help with his fruit's power. Not only was Udin knowledgeable about the situation due to his prior knowledge from the books that he had read, but he also had the means to go against the ghost.

When Udin proposed the idea for them to swap bodies, Ari rejected him out of hand. But he knows that Udin's reasoning was right, no matter how repulsed he was at the idea of abandoning Ares' body, and his life purpose.

"I'll be honest with you, Ares. Syafruddin, was special. You know he consumed a Kairos fruit, yeah?"

Ari nodded. Even without looking back at Ari's direction, his teacher continued after sensing his confirmation with his mana sense.

"Kairos fruit. Such an existence is nothing to be ignored. The moment Syafruddin exposed his existence to enroll here, the higher up among the Sorcier society rushed to look into his background. Elite psychometrists are sent into the past to look into his background, and no one can find when he was able to get his hands on it. The only possible explanation is that he was born with it.

"All of you that enroll here have been background checked by the elite sorcier of this school, but no one has been more scrutinized than Syafruddin. You can rest assured that the boys are trustworthy."

Ari walked in silence behind his teacher as they arrived at the school's main compound. While he had considered the fact that Udin's background was checked like any other student, he had not expected it to be so extensive that they even scoured his entire life history since he was born. While he was still apprehensive about the situation, Ari felt relieved after his teacher's reassurance.

The two of them walked through the school building main lobby to the left wing where teachers' offices are located. Compared to the main lobby which is more deserted, the left wing is busy with numerous teachers and school staff walking along the hallway, preparing for the class an hour or so away.

After passing through several shared office spaces, the foot traffic lessened as they reached the area for teachers' personal office rooms. This part of the school building was reserved for the elite sorcier who acted as the student's homeroom teacher and magical advisor. Passing through several solid teak doors carved and inscribed with intricate details, they reached the door to Instructor Budi's office.

Instructor Budi opened the door, letting Ari see the interior of the room. The room looks like a personal library, with the entire wall to the left covered in shelves full of books. Across the room, a mighty wooden partner's desk stood, covered in stacks of documents.

To the right side of the room are a leather couch and armchair surrounding a coffee table, their backrest framed by intricate wooden engraving. Udin seated on the couch, looking over several sheets of paper.

Following his teacher inside, Ari took a seat beside Udin, with instructor Budi taking a seat on an armchair across the coffee table in front of them.

Instructor Budi took no delay afterward to address them. "The two of you had anything to say before we proceeded with your bet?"

Ari watched Udin shake his head from the corner of his eyes, before asking a question at his roommate. "What's with the formalities?" Ari asked as he faced Udin. "With your fruit power, no amount of magical contract can prevent you from breaking them and going back on them."

Ari expected Udin to answer, but it was their teacher who responded first. "That's true. But that is not the reason Syafruddin had asked me to do to officiate your bet."

"What do you mean, guru?"

"He asked me to make a mundane contract to legitimize your deal. While a magical contract has no power over him, a mundane paper and ink contract is enough to legally bind the two of you to the deal."

Hearing his teacher's answer, Ari couldn't help but look at his roommate's direction. "You asked for this?" Ari asked in disbelief even after hearing his teacher's words.

"Yeah," Udin replied as he rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"I see." While their relationship started on the wrong foot, seeing Udin trying his best to assure Ari of their deal, even going as far as asking their homeroom teacher as a witness to officiate their deal, Ari couldn't help but feel relieved.

Turning his head to look at their teacher, he saw that their teacher had placed the prepared contract in front of them. Picking it up, Ari found their deal last night written in legalese, waiting for them to sign on it.

While he was apprehensive of their deal before, seeing his roommates doing their hardest to accommodate him and assure him, Ari resolved himself. While the future looks uncertain for him, at least he has his friends who are trying to change his fate for the better.

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"So, how do you feel?" Udin asked as they walked along the hallway in the teacher's wing of the building.

Ari felt weird hearing the voice that he had heard so much from himself talking to him. While the sound of Udin's voice using Ares' body was familiar, it sounded different now that he heard it from another body. It's like he was hearing a recording of his own voice.

"A bit weird, but nothing unusual I guess," Ari responded as he tried to familiarize himself with his new body.

"A bit short for my taste, though," Ari smirked while looking in Udin's direction.

"Ungrateful bastard," grumbled Udin under his breath.

Ari chuckled at Udin's response. Seeing a bald guy with a severe look and nary a hair on his tan skin pouted and grumbled tickled his sides. It looks ridiculous, even if the bald guy was what he used to look like.

"Though, I guess I should thank you," Ari continued as they exited the school building. "Thanks, for going out of your way to help me."

"Glad it helps," Udin replied as they walked in silence. Now that the body swap issues were dealt with, the two of them are heading toward their dormitory building to have breakfast in the dining hall.

Walking through the paved path connecting the school compound and the dormitory complex, Ari was careful in taking his steps. "Gotta say, moving a different body like this. It's a bit awkward isn't it?" Ari asked. Looking in Udin's direction, he saw that his roommates were not having it any easier than him.

Navigating the paved path with tender care, Udin chose his step as he moved along with his now taller body. "Yeah. I think could do a session of physical exercise to better familiarize myself with this new body."

"I thought that too. But it was almost seven in the morning. Considering we haven't had breakfast yet, we only have less than an hour for it."

"Hmm. That's true," Udin agreed as they continued their journey to their dorm. While it was still about an hour before the first period started, they passed through numerous students that were on their way to the school building in their uniform, a pair of gray blazers and white trousers or skirts of the high school of the sorcier academy. "Maybe we should skip the first period then?"

Ari couldn't help but whip his head in Udin's direction. "Are you kidding me? It's only the second day of school and you're already thinking of skipping class?" Ari asked in disbelief.

"I mean, what's the problem? It's only a history class," Udin shrugged his shoulder.

"Yeah. But even if it was just a general study class, it still wouldn't look on us if we skipped class just like that," Ari reasoned with Udin.

Yesterday, he almost made Opet skip class if he were to continue on his quest to get Opet to help him in his endeavor. He really wants to have his help, but killing someone who was friends with half the class that is already wary of him would only make his situation worse, not to mention that he also must endure the whole day on his own.

"But do you really want to continue just like this?" Udin asked as he spread his arms. "We have a Psychopomp training in the second period and Modification magic training after lunch. While moving our new body was not that difficult to control besides some awkwardness, I think channeling magic is going to be more challenging, isn't it? A less than an hour practice session is nowhere near enough to prepare us for the rest of the day. Well, unless you want to flail around in class, I guess."

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While he was still apprehensive about skipping class, Ari couldn't help but agree with Udin's reasoning. Circulating mana through his new body, he felt his mana flowing through unfamiliar paths of meridians and nadi.

Just like arteries and veins channel blood throughout the body, meridians and nadis channel mana through the body and spirit. The spiritual domain was the counterpart of the human body in the spiritual realm, and the meridian are the paths that channel mana from the physical body to the spirit, while the nadi do the opposite.

When the two of them are swapping bodies, only their soul are the ones that swap places, not their entire spirit. The mind stored knowledge, the soul contained experiences, and the body engraved the muscle memories. The moment the two of them swapped bodies, the muscle memories of their new body assisted them in controlling it, and the subconscious took over. It was trivial for Ari to walk in Udin's body, for the body remembered how to do it. But for him to channel magic in this new body, it was a new issue altogether.

The memories and experience of channeling mana through the meridians and nadis of this new body are stored in the mind and soul each. Because the soul is Udin's consciousness that now inhabited Ares's body, Ari had no way to access Udin's experience.

On the other hand, the mind is a fickle thing. It was the accumulation of Udin's memories, the records of his life history. It contains all the things that he treasures, the moral and personal values that he holds. And the only thing that can access it is Udin's soul alone, not unless Ari was able to use an advanced mind magic to gain access to it, that is.

"So, you wanted to skip class and familiarize yourself with your new body then, regardless of whether I join you or not?" Ari asked his roommates.

Udin nodded in confirmation. "Yeah. Unlike you, I don't really care about my reputation," Udin replied with a smirk.

Seeing his roommates smirk with those hairless heads of his, Ari couldn't help but stop in his tracks. "We swapped bodies, don't we?" Ari thought aloud as the situation dawned on him.

Now that Ari was controlling Udin's body, he didn't have to worry about his classmates trying to avoid him in wary because of the rumor. It was a new start, and he could continue his quest for the class leader position without the baggage of starting on the wrong foot with his relationship with the other classmates.

"Hmm. I guess you're thinking that you hadn't had to worry about being avoided by the other classmates, then?"

"Yeah," Ari replied as his shoulder relaxed. "A new start, huh?"

"A new start," Udin echoed. "So, are you gonna accompany me, or are you too scared to destroy your new reputation?" Udin asked as they resumed their walk.

Ari walked along with him as he mulled Udin's question. "What would you think the others would have thought if we skipped the class?"

If the two of them skipped class, their reputation with their history teacher was guaranteed to worsen, so Ari wouldn't worry much about it. Instead, what he worried more was how their classmates gonna react to them skipping class. While he doesn't know much about their classmates, Udin had read about them in his prophetic book so he at least was able to predict how they would react.

"I mean, the two of us are a bit of a social outcast, aren't we? I bet they won't have any particular reaction about it," Udin replied after a while.

"Really? Not even Himawari will react?" Ari asked with a raised eyebrow.

Hearing Sunny's name being brought up, Udin can't help but wince. "Well, yeah. I guess she will react. She is a bit stuck up about rules and discipline like that."

"What about Opet, then? Will he get in trouble with the history teacher if we leave him alone?"

"So, what do you suggest then?" Udin asked Ari with a slumped shoulder. Hearing the consequences of his action being laid out, he couldn't help but resign. "Should we ask the other classmates to inform the teacher that we gonna skip class because we swapped bodies? Because the only way for the teacher to not be pissed off about it is if we tell the truth. Are you willing to tell everyone that the two of us have swapped bodies, thus making your new nonnegative reputation moot, and reset it back?"

"Well, I could also just not skip the class at all," Ari countered, though his mind knows that the only way for him to perform normally in the magic class of the second and third period is by skipping the first period and familiarizing himself with his new body.

"Well, good luck with the magic class then," Udin taunted, making Ari sigh at this conundrum.

When Udin offered to swap bodies with him, it was so that Ari wouldn't have to worry about being taken over by the ghost. While he was reluctant, he still resigned himself to just continuing his life as Ares' substitute even in his new body. Though he was capable of acting as Ares' substitute with no problem, he had no idea how he could fake being Udin's replacement. The only thing left to do is to just continue as before but with a new body.

While the clean slate on his reputation was a pleasant surprise, it wouldn't matter unless he tried his best 24/7 to act like Udin to make sure he didn't get found out. And that also means that Udin would do the same, acting as Ari. It was just not feasible.

"Well, a man can hope." In the end, Ari resigned himself. The two of them are headed to the dorm's dining hall, so they can ask one of their classmates to inform them of their absence.

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"So, who do you think we should ask to inform the teacher?" Udin asked as the two of them arrived at the dining hall.

The moment that they passed through the magenta barrier of the one-way portal, they saw the dining hall filled with students here and there.

Unlike Monday when they had to get to school at seven o'clock to attend the weekly homeroom period, the students were not that hurried to take their breakfast. This late in the morning, only a handful of the student are still occupying the cavernous room, the others have already finished with their breakfast and return to their room to prepare for school.

The two walked across the hall to their apartment. "Who else but Opet?" Ari replied.

"Well, I thought you may want to think of the alternative," Udin said as he followed behind Ari. "I haven't seen Opet since last night."

"Wait, wait. What do you mean?" Ari asked as he stopped and turned to look in Udin's direction. "He hadn't returned to the apartment at all?"

Udin nodded in confirmation. "Yeah. He went with Ren and Evelyn to help them out right? Well, I haven't seen him ever since."

Ari doesn't know how to react to that. Opet has volunteered to help Ren and Evelyn with the ghost problem, the same ghost that Udin had said is going to take over his body should the future repeat itself. Ari couldn't help but pray that nothing happened to them besides being killed by the ghost and sent to the healing pavilion.

Turning back around, Ari resumed his walk to their apartment. "Well, at least we can check whether he has returned or not."

Channeling his mana into the magical lock of their apartment door, Ari couldn't help but release a relieved sigh as the door opened with a click. While he hadn't thought much about it, he couldn't help but be worried that the lock would not recognize their mana signature now that they swapped bodies.

Sorcier absorbed mana from the environment and stored it as their own. By circulating the absorbed mana throughout their body and spirit, the spiritual domain inducted the environmental mana and branded it with their signature.

While it was taught that the spirit was the one responsible for branding the mana into each sorcerer's personal signature, it would be more precise to say that the soul is the one that branded the mana with its history, and the life experience that it accumulated.

Now that their two souls had occupied each other's bodies, it was a possibility that the lock would not recognize their signature. Though it seems Ari worried for no reason.

Walking through the open door, Ari found the chatter of the dining hall vanished, replacing it with silence. There was no one, inside, that's for sure.

Turning around to face Udin, Ari found his bald roommate folding his hands in front of his chest.

"So, what's the plan?" Udin asked.

"Checking on the other boys," Ari replied as he walked back through the door to the dining hall. When the two of them met with Ren last night to ask for his help, Ren said that Opet was to guard over Ren's vacant body in his room. If there was somewhere that their roommates would be besides their own apartment, it would be Ren's room.

Turning right to the other three boys' apartment door, Ari saw two girls descending the stairs from the upper floor of their strata. Both girls have their uniforms on, their gray blazer paired up with the white skirt of the girl's uniform.

The two of them have matching jet-black hair. The girl in the front has her shoulder-length straight hair down, her front bang cut above her brows framing her sky-blue eyes. The moment the two left the stairs, Sunny walked forward with purpose, her expression as stern as always as she glided through the dining hall with elegance.

Unlike her companion's serious demeanor, the other girl was more lively. Fajrianti held her hands behind her back as she walked with a spring on her steps, her long ponytail swinging back and forth behind her. A pleasant smile adorned her face as her eyes scanned the hall.

The moment her eyes met Ari, she stopped in her tracks, her hand reaching out to Sunny's to hold her in place.

"Hey, you two," Fajrianti greeted them, her other hand waving in their direction.

"Hi," Ari raised his hand in reply.

In his peripheral vision, Ari saw that Udin also raised his hands in greeting, though his gaze was traveling elsewhere as he tried to not be involved with the two girls. Now that he had no hair anymore, he was unable to avert his gaze by looking down and hiding it behind his front bangs.

"What are you two up to?" Fajrianti asked them as the two girls reached them. While Fajrianti was looking at the two of them with curiosity, the looks that Sunny gave were cold, and she directed them solely on Udin.

Ari didn't know whether it was Ares' body that made Sunny so focused on him that much or something else, but the fact that Udin are trying his best to be ignored doesn't help his situation at all. In fact, his action only made Sunny even more focused on him, and Ari was glad that he was now in Udin's body.

"Breakfast?" Ari replied.

"Really?" Her eyebrow was raised as she looked at Ari before looking behind her in the direction where Ari and Udin were going. It was clear what she meant that the direction of the food vendor in the dining hall was not where they were headed.

"Well," Ari started as he scrubbed the back of his neck. "We are about to have breakfast afterward, though we have something to do first."

"Are you about to visit Ren and the others?" Fajrianti asks, deducing their plan.

Ari nodded in confirmation. "Yeah," Ari replied. Ari was about to leave it at that, but seeing the two girls' reaction to his answer, Ari couldn't help but ask. "What's the matter?"

While she was still smiling, Ari couldn't help but feel her smile was a bit forced. Sunny, on the other hand, was still as serious as ever, though she now looking straight at Ari's direction instead.

The silence between the four of them was awkward, and it was Sunny who answered Ari's question after a while, releasing them from the awkwardness. "Ren and the other is dead," Sunny told Ari straight to his face. "The ghost got to them last night."

Hearing Sunny's answer, Udin returned his gaze to look at Sunny's direction. While the two of them had expected something like this to happen, hearing that it actually happened are different thing altogether.

"By 'others', who else do you mean?" Ari asked Sunny to elaborate. While Ari knew in his mind the answer, he couldn't help but hope.

"Eva and Opet," she delivered the dreaded news.

His shoulder slumped, Ari hung his head back and cupped his face in frustration. "Argh! Damned ghost," he growled.

"They are going to be okay, right?" Fajrianti asked, bringing Ari's attention back to their conversation. Unlike before, her hands are held together in front of her, her right hand holding her forearm in worry.

"I hope so," Udin replied, joining their conversation at last.

"I know that this ghost are haunting this building and killing the student frequently, but I never heard of the ghost hunting the same target repeatedly."

Ari had no answer to offer them. While he knew that this ghost was capable of worse things than just killing them, he was afraid that saying that out loud would only jinx them and become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"Well, if there's nothing more, then we'll leave first, then. See you at class," Fajrianti said after a while.

While her companion was already leaving them behind, Sunny was still standing in place, watching the two of them with impassive gaze.

Just as Sunny was about to turn around and follow her roommate, Ari stopped her. "Wait." While his voice was drowned by the noise of the dining hall, the two girls stopped in place, their enhanced hearing letting them hear Ari's words.

"What is it?" Sunny asked curtly.

While Ari was choosing his words, Fajrianti approached them back. "Well, the two of us are about to ask for Opet or Ren to forward a message for us. But with the situation as it is, I hope the two of you would help us with it instead."

"What message?" Sunny responded, her sky-blue eyes looking straight at Ari's face.

"Well. We hope you two can inform the history teacher that two of us will be unable to attend the class this morning. For health-related reasons."

Hearing his answer, Sunny's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You two seem healthy enough to me."

Looking at his roommates for help, Ari saw that Udin had continued his effort at making himself uninvolved and as ignorable as possible. Finding no other choice, Ari decided to tell them an honest answer. "We swapped bodies."

The moment Sunny heard Ari's answer, Ari saw a new expression on their uptight classmates other than a stern expression. Surprise and confusion. "What do you mean?" Sunny asked as she schooled her face back to a serious look.

"Yeah, what does that mean?" Fajrianti joined, her eyes widened in surprise.

"I mean exactly what I said. Me, Ari," Ari said with his hands pointing at his chest. "My soul is in Udin's body, and Udin's soul is in my body."

"Why would you do that?" Sunny asked with a cold voice, her gaze shifted towards Udin's direction, demanding his answer.

On the other hand, Fajrianti kept moving her gaze back and forth between Ari and Udin, trying to ensure whether they were joking or not. After a while, she focused her gaze on Ari's direction, her eyes transforming.

Looking eyes to eyes with Fajriant's mesmerizing eyes, he watched in fascination as her jet-black iris turned white. For a moment, the entirety of her eyes lost all the color it contained, a cloudy white that reflected no light at all, losing its shine.

In the next instant, her eyes regained its luster. Her pupil appeared as well, but instead of being surrounded by her iris, it was surrounded by her white sclera instead. Encircling the lone black dot of her pupil is a ring of blackness, a black radiance adorning its apex like the diamond ring effect of an eclipse.

The eye of Heru, the ancestral ability of the Anwar clan. Dubbed as the eye of the moon, the members of the Anwar clan are able to see mana with their own eyes, synesthesia between the mundane sight and mana sense as their eyes absorb the ambient mana to see the immaterial world of pure mana.

Ari couldn't help but squirm a bit as he watched Fajrianti scrutinizing him with her inherited ability. "What did you see?"

"Atrocious mana circulation," Fajrianti said after scanning Ari's body up and down. "Like a kid that circulates their mana without having any familiarity with their own meridian and nadi yet."

"Why did you do this?" Sunny repeated as she shifted her gaze back in Ari's direction, her piercing blue eyes looking straight into his eyes.

"It's because of the ghost," Ari replied. Seeing that Udin was unwilling to help him out with the situation, Ari wracked his brain for an answer that would satisfy the girls, even if the answer would throw Udin under the bus.

"What do you mean? What did the fact that you two swapping bodies have anything to do with the ghost?" Fajrianti asked, her eyebrows scrunched in confusion at Ari's answer.

"You see," Ari started as his hands reached to grasp Udin's shoulder. "Udin here has a Kairos fruit." With his hands grasping Udin's shoulder in a side hug, Ari shook Udin's body to redirect the girls' focus on Udin.

""Wha-"" the two girls started, but Ari didn't let them finish their words.

"One of Udin's Kairos fruit's abilities is to allow nothing to be able to enter his spiritual domain without his consent. So he helps me out by letting me be safe in his body by swapping bodies with me."

"Yeah," Udin agreed with a weak voice.

"I thought that the two of you were fighting or something," Fajrianti responded as she watched the two of them. "The whole school is talking about you two fighting during lunch break yesterday. I didn't expect Udin would do such a thing."

"Nah. We just had a misunderstanding, is all," Ari replied. "We'd resolved it afterward. Having a talk and all."

"I see," said Fajrianti in a small voice.

"So, Kairos fruit, huh?" Sunny interjected. While her face was as serious as ever, there was a small smile adorning her face. "That's unexpected."

Seeing her childhood friend's growing interest, Fajrianti couldn't but be excited as well. A cheerful smile bloomed on her face as she looked in Udin's direction. "Care to tell us about your power?"

"Err... It's a surprise," Udin replied, his gaze averted, uncomfortable at being the center of attention.

Seeing that the two girls' attention was diverted from the reason for their body swap, Ari sighed in relief, though only in his mind. He wouldn't bring their attention back to him with such a reaction.

"That's a shame," Fajrianti replied, though her gaze was still pleasant as always, not soured by Udin's rejection. "Though, it was reassuring to know that you have a Kairos fruit. With this, our journey to become the number one class is a tad bit easier."

Hearing the two talking about inter-class league, Ari can't help but feel uneasy. He can't help but worry about how they would react if they knew that he was aiming to become the class leader as well, competing against Sunny.

"So, it's like that," Ari started, bringing the other's attention back to him. "We swapped bodies, and now we needed to familiarize ourselves with the system of meridian and nadi of our new bodies. Considering that today we would attend two periods of magical training, it would be bad if we were to be unfamiliar with our new bodies and unable to use magic properly."

"I see," Sunny said after hearing Ari's explanation. "I'm glad that you want to inform the teacher about your reason. While we are allowed to skip each class at most three times before we are banned from taking the final exam, it is better to still inform the teacher of your reason for absence."

"Yeah. I hope you two can inform the history teacher of our absence," Ari requested as he released himself from Udin's side.

"I will. Good luck, you two," Sunny promised as she turned her back towards them.

"See you at the second period," Fajrianti waved at them, walking backward following Sunny. Her smile was radiant as she wished them good luck before turning around to chase after Sunny in a brisk walk.

The two of them held their place as they watched the two girls crossing the magenta portal towards the dorm's lobby. "See? She isn't that bad," Udin opened his mouth.

"Now you're talking," Ari rolled his eyes. Now that they had informed a classmate to inform the teacher of their absence, Ari walked towards the food vendor to order their breakfast. It was time to fill his empty stomach.

"Where would you eat?" Udin asked as he caught up to Ari.

"The apartment."

"I see."

The two of them ordered their food in silence before taking it to their room. The moment they crossed the threshold and left the noise of the dining hall behind, Udin opened his mouth. "So, what would you do?" Udin asked as the two placed their tray on the small dining table in their pantry.

Ari took his seat before answering Udin. "What do you mean?"

"The ghost," Udin clarified. "Now that you no longer have to worry about the ghost taking over your body, what are you gonna do about it?"

Ari was about to say that he would do nothing, but he stopped himself. After they swapped bodies, Ari was secure against any attempt of possession by the ghost. Nothing can enter Udin's spiritual domain aside from Udin himself.

He could help Ren and the others, and the only thing he had to worry about was being killed by the ghost. And compared to being taken over by the ghost for the rest of his life, being killed is only temporary. He can try again the next day, going straight at the ghost.

"I mean, sure I can help Ren and the others out. But for what? The ghost is going to come back the next day, the pavilion healing it back up to undeath."

"You have no clue what to do about the ghost?" Udin asked as he looked at his food.

"You are the one that has prophetic knowledge, Udin. You tell me how to deal with it," Ari replied in exasperation.

Udin scrubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "The thing is, the ghost is only able to be killed after three years of taking over your body and then graduating from school. No one was able to detect his presence in those three years, and he was able to be killed because he left the protection of the healing pavilion."

"So you are saying that we should bring the ghost outside of the school?"

"No, of course not. How do you think we could ever do that?" Udin asked, incredulous at Ari's suggestion.

"Yeah."

Unlike normal school, all thirteen of the state-owned Sorcier Academy was located outside of Earth. Secret realm, dungeon, pocket dimension, there are many ways to call the location of their school, though the fact remains that their school is not located on Earth.

A dolmen. A megalithic formation of a flat rock atop two upright rocks like a table. The moment someone passes through the formation, they are transported into this alternate space.

In the past, the founder of the country, the first holder of the Ophiuchus Kairos fruit, Sir Pandji Sosrodihardjo, used his fruit's power to form the thirteen secret realms to be the place where Sorcier Academy is going to be founded. He believed that the youth are the key to bringing the nation into prosperity, to ensure the future of the country.

In this isolated space, the future generation of Sorcier was nurtured. No outside interference was allowed. Any new students and staff were background-checked to ensure the safety of the students. No magic was able to infiltrate this space through brute forces, only the power of other Kairos fruit are able to do it. But after the calamity and civil war that the world has just gone through, no holder of Kairos fruit was willing to start another world war just to infiltrate into the school of other nations.

And just like the entrance to this place was restricted, so was the exit. Only those who are hired or enrolled at the school are allowed entry, and only those who were fired or graduated are allowed exits. 'And expulsion,' Ari thought. 'And phasing through the dimensional gap and teleporting out with a Kairos fruit.'

Looking in Udin's direction, Ari saw his roommate shoving his breakfast into his mouth. Now that the two of them are swapping bodies, the only way for Udin to bring the ghost outside of the pavilion's influence is to trap the ghost inside of his spiritual domain and bring it outside of this sub-space.

'Could I do it?' Ari asked himself. If he were to relinquish the body that he occupied right now, could he return to Ares' body like nothing had happened and continue to be Ares' substitute? Or would Dom woke up from his seclusion and boot him out for real? Ari doesn't know, and he doesn't want to know what would happen if he returned back.

Picking up his utensil, Ari took his breakfast, keeping his thoughts to himself.