On a weekend morning, Krista woke up early. Rarely seen sitting in front of the mirror, she carefully groomed and dressed herself.
"What do you think is going on here?" Peeking together from outside the dormitory door, Lost and Aoyao seemed to catch the sour scent of romance in the air.
Lost asked in confusion, "I don't remember the academy having any special arrangements this weekend. Why is Krista secretly dressing up?"
"And she looks so happy," Aoyao guessed. "Could it be that she has a date with someone?"
"A lover?!"
Despite being a delinquent girl, Lost—surprisingly afflicted with a romantic brain—immediately jumped to that conclusion.
"Damn it, did that woman start dating behind our backs? I haven't even found a partner yet!"
Lost had once seriously confided in Krista that her dream was to find a man stronger than herself in Duels and marry him.
So had Krista taken the lead not only on the path of Duelists, but also on the path of life?
"I don't believe it!" The delinquent girl refused to accept reality.
"It is pretty strange," Aoyao analyzed. "Aisha Carlos and the others only went back a week ago, right? Even if she fell for someone else, that would be way too fast."
After all, during the exchange study period, everyone had seen the special relationship between those two with their own eyes. Saying there was nothing between them would be hard to believe.
"Instead of hiding here and overthinking it, why don't we just go ask her directly?!"
"Wait, Lost—!"
In the end, Aoyao couldn't stop the impulsive Lost.
But when Lost stood beside Krista, who was radiant with springtime cheer, she suddenly felt too embarrassed to ask outright.
"Um, Krista… want to go hang out on the streets together today?"
So Lost could only beat around the bush, trying to invite Krista out to see whether there really was someone else in her life.
"Sorry, I don't have time today," Krista said with a smile, still fiddling with her gradient-colored bangs.
"No time? But it's the weekend!"
"Because I've already made plans with someone else."
"Plans with… someone else…"
That was ironclad evidence.
"Who is it? Who did you make plans with?!" Lost pressed urgently.
"Hmm~" Krista thought for a moment, then refused to answer. "It's a secret. I can't tell you."
Still, Lost could tell—when Krista said the word "secret," her eyes were sparkling with happiness.
"You getting taken before me is unacceptable!"
"Also, Lost… if you dare follow me, I'll rip your legs off, okay?"
"Could you please not say such terrifying threats with such a bright smile?"
It was only natural that Krista would keep this matter secret from the people of Synchron Academy. After all, not only was it extremely important, it also involved the taboo of human transmutation.
When Krista received a message from a Beaconbug yesterday and learned that Miles had successfully gathered two million gold coins and would return this weekend to Viel's magic workshop to alchemize a body, she was so excited she couldn't sleep all night.
He really did it!
Even though she had little sense of money and only had one coin and a few coppers to her name, Krista still knew that two million gold coins was no small sum.
In Krista's eyes, Miles must have rushed back as fast as possible just to keep his promise.
"This time, it has to succeed!"
With everything prepared, Krista mounted her D-Wheel and headed for the magitek landing pad closest to the city.
At the same time, at that very magitek landing pad, Miles and Aisha—who had arrived aboard a Seth family–arranged private airship, with their D-Wheel transported along with them—had just landed as well.
Although Kaima herself hadn't come along due to busy family affairs, she had perfectly fulfilled her promise, sparing no expense of the Seth family's wealth to help Miles.
"I really didn't expect this, Ai-san. We only left for a week, and we're already back," Miles said.
Flying back to Axet to 'escort' them as well was Ren, who also knew the secret of Viel's body alchemy.
A rare outing for the best-friend duo.
"If you ask me, Mr. Miles almost couldn't even wait a full week," Ren said with a smile.
After all, this concerned body alchemy—something extremely important. The fact that Miles had waited until Fusion Academy's weekend break to leave already showed remarkable patience.
"Hey…!"
Just as Aisha and Ren jumped down from the Seth family's private airship, they heard Krista's excited shout approaching from afar.
"Miles, Miles! You're finally back! That's great! I missed you so much!"
Without caring whether the one currently controlling the body was Miles or Aisha, Krista—still wearing her D-Wheel helmet—threw her slender body straight into an embrace.
"It's the same familiar scent. Miles, do you know how unbearably long this past week has been for me?"
"Um, Krista…"
Aisha scratched her cheek awkwardly. Feeling Krista's excitement at such close range, she found it hard to interrupt.
This was a huge misunderstanding.
"I didn't expect you to be this enthusiastic, Krista," Miles said.
Appearing a moment later, Miles—acting in guardian-spirit form—had manifested independently the moment the airship landed and gone to retrieve the transported D-Wheel.
So the person Krista was hugging so tightly right now was, in theory, a 100% genuine Aisha Carlos.
"Huh?"
Blinking her innocent eyes, Krista's blue-violet gaze shifted from Miles on the D-Wheel to Aisha in her arms.
"What's going on here? Miles, do you already have a body? Did I miss something really important?"
So shocked that she forgot to let go—and instead hugged Aisha even tighter—Krista fired off three soul-searching questions.
"How should I explain this concept to you… If I had to put it simply, I'm kind of in a ghost state right now~"
After Miles gave Krista a brief explanation of guardian-spirit manifestation, the girl—despite once being a Millennium Item holder herself—was still left dumbfounded by this obscure knowledge.
"So the current Miles is a ghost. Ugh, that's hard to say!"
"Anyway, this tongue-twisting state is about to end soon!"
Miles clenched his fist excitedly and tapped it into his palm.
Now it all depended on how that scummy loli Viel performed: what kind of brand-new body she would create for him.
Miles wasn't asking for anything as inhuman as Luca's form back in the royal capital. As long as it reached the level of an ordinary anime Duelist, that would be enough.
"Let's go! A bright future awaits me!"
Returning to Aisha's body, Miles rode a D-Wheel with Ren on the back, speeding together with Krista toward the slum district streets—toward Viel's dilapidated magic workshop.
However, what awaited them wasn't a run-down magic workshop.
It was a pile of ruins.
"What in the world happened here?!"
The shock was so great that Miles grabbed a passing middle-aged man to interrogate him.
"Sir, wasn't there a magic workshop here before? Where did it go?!"
"Oh, you mean that shop with absolutely no business? It seems it went bankrupt a few days ago. The owner ran off with her sister-in-law—uh, no—with that cute blonde maid."
"B-bankrupt?!"
...
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