“Okie dokie~” The Commissioner said cheerfully, glancing through Aurelius’s form and casually sliding the mind magic charm over to him.

  Clutching the charm in his hand, Aurelius became rather fascinated by it.

  It was made from a thin shell of gray material, which was likely an alloy made with ignivite powder, and had patterns engraved densely on its surface.

  What was more interesting was the fact that this small container likely held around the same amount of mana as the mana bomb that had killed him.

  Even considering the simplification that the particular spell would have gone through to fit within the surface, mind magic was in the domain of sages and therefore had a large amount of mana required to activate.

  And this meant that despite the single use nature of the charm, it definitely cost at least a gold coin…

  Well, that’s what the taxes are for anyway. Aurelius thought, brushing aside his concern for the purses of the Commission.

  “I want you to crush this charm in your hand when I count down all the way from 3.” The commissioner instructed, summoning a small droplet of water into her hands.

  With deft movements, she connected thin strings of water out of her fingers to Aurelius’s forehead in a rather comical display of the magic.

  She would be supervising the mind magic to ensure that the charm worked properly, as was the standard protocol for situations like this.

  Aurelius almost smirked at the situation. Things were going according to plan for once!

  With an excited look on her face, the woman started to count down, closing her eyes and concentrating on the thin strings of water attached cooly on Aurelius’s poor forehead.

  “3… 2… 1…”

  And with that, Aurelius picked out a single, useful dinner scene.

  ???

  As part of the Commission’s educational efforts to prevent magical incidents, most mages and many non-mages had an understanding of the basic workings of mind magic.

  And Aurelius took advantage of his limited knowledge as a basis for his plan.

  For the mind magic administered to him currently, the commissioner would have guided his mind into picturing a generic dinner scene, then coaxed out additional information about his life into the scene to craft a more and more solid recollection of his memories.

  However, Aurelius, given that he had not lost his memories in the first place, could surrender his own details slowly and allow the commissioner to construct on her own accord the dinner scene that he had chosen in his mind.

  As the magic took effect with more and more clarity, a familiar and relatively recent scene opened up in front of his eyes, creating vivid, and strangely hazy visions of people, tables, and chairs.

  It was the Academy dining hall, and seated with himself were Mr. Tona, Sage Yeltz and the annoying couple that he called friends.

  The magic would certainly not be perfect, and be unable to create the scene with words said verbatim. However, the level of detail that Aurelius was going to show this woman was certainly going to be… enough to cause some confusion.

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  “...the reason that we’re here in the first place, since he introduced us to your lich faculty!” Mr. Tona said hazily, laughing heartily in the process.

  “...What was I supposed to do then? I…” Aurelius responded through the fog of his mouth, causing a weird sensation to run through his brain from the mismatch in what his mouth was actually doing.

  And the conversation continued, continuing the scene until the part that Aurelius had chosen the scene for.

  “What’s that thing on his soul?” Sylven asked innocently.

  Ms. Yeltz and Mr. Tona immediately shot to their feet, and pointed their wands at him.

  Still completely unfair and almost certainly annoying to relive.

  And the scene came to an end.

  ???

  Aurelius opened his eyes groggily and stared dazedly at the Commissioner. Mind magic certainly had ‘recoil’.

  “...” She stared.

  “...” Aurelius stared back.

  “...So… Get your boss?” Aurelius jabbed, looking as innocent as possible.

  The commissioner looked even more confused now, with her mouth making a strange, ‘O’ shape, and her eyes darting around in calculation.

  “...Wait here.” She instructed, slipping off the chair clumsily and running along out of the room in a hurry.

  “What was that?” Tiberius asked curiously, poking Aurelius’s head cautiously.

  “Are you back yet?” He asked.

  Aurelius sighed in annoyance, swatting Tiberius’s hand away and glaring intently through his friend’s thick, dense, almost certainly uneven skull.

  “Yes. Just as a reminder, that is not how you should be treating an amnesiac patient that YOU almost killed.” Aurelius spat, giving Tiberius a knock on his head.

  “...I-Er… What do you remember exactly?” Tiberius asked nervously.

  “You really should apply for an acting gig, Tiberius! I’m sure you can act wonderfully for the Royals in the Aethernalian Capital!” Aurelius said sarcastically, imbuing every ounce of ‘genuine sincerity’ that he could muster

  “Haha… Ah yes…” Tiberius chuckled nervously.

  “You owe me dinner. And it will be at the bloody Spoon.” Aurelius said simply, taking a small packet of crackers from the table in front of him, chowing down like a hungry dog.

  It had certainly been quite many hours since he had eaten. Even though the void didn’t quite allow for the bodily functions to happen, it seemed that hunger had a psychological root in his brain as well, creating an intense craving for actual food to satisfy his stomach.

  Tiberius paled slightly at his comment, and hurriedly checked his purse.

  Then, the door opened and along it followed another familiar acquaintance.

  “Mr. Vennor, this here is Secretary White” Said the commissioner.

  He was Warden White, the commission bureaucrat, and the division secretary for magical crimes in Tlacualtzin.

  “Hello Mr. Vennor.” The man said cheerfully, taking a seat across Aurelius and Tiberius with a nervous demeanour.

  The commissioner took her seat beside the man, pulling out a few folders to hand over to the man with a still shocked face.

  “How are you acquainted with Mr. Tona and Sage Yeltz exactly…” He asked carefully, adjusting his hair and clicking his pen slowly.

  “Sage Yeltz?” Tiberius blurted out, doing a double take as he looked at Aurelius curiously.

  This caused the commissioner to look even more confused, as she squinted to look at Tiberius once more.

  She was reasonably sure that the student in front of her had been at the dinner that had been inside of Aurelius’s memories…

  Aurelius smiled at this, feeling increasingly confident that his little strange scheme would work out now.

  “Ah, you see, I have a confidentiality contract with the Commission about the relationship between those two individuals.” Aurelius stated, leaning forward and clasping his hands together.

  “Hmm… I see… Well, Mr. Vennor, the thing is that Ms. Lisa here says that she heard something about a lich in the Academy within that particular memory?” Secretary White asked, clicking his pen with increasing intensity.

  Aurelius thought about the response carefully.

  “That is something that I must discuss with the two sages. You see, I’m under a rather strict contract…” Aurelius said plainly, stroking his chin slowly and menacingly at the poor bureaucrat seated across him.

  “Hmm… May I ask who the signatories are? And if possible, do you know who the notary was?” Secretary White asked with worry.

  Aurelius was smiling now. The pieces had come together perfectly!

  “The signatory was… I believe it was the Commission.” Aurelius responded.

  Secretary White frowned at this statement, as he flipped through the folder in front of him in confusion.

  “I don’t see the record of any contract involving you and the Commission…” He muttered slowly, flipping through its contents.

  “Who was the representative for the Commission?” He asked.

  “Secretary General Adam Unclass.” Aurelius responded kindly.