“???” was the only way to describe the expression on both Sage Yeltz and Tiberius’s face, with the Sage’s stoic face becoming almost comical with the advent of excessive blinking.

  “You heard me.” Aurelius said confidently, feigning composure, taking a sip of the complimentary iced water shakily.

  Sage Yeltz and her eyes threatened to grind into a plane from the way that she was blinking now, as she carefully observed Aurelius.

  “...Clarif-” Sage Yeltz finally started, just to be cut off by the arrival of their meal.

  “Hi guys~ Food’s here~” The waitress announced cheerfully, completely oblivious to the intensity of the glare that the sage had now redirected in her direction.

  Aurelius coughed lightly, receiving his meal and proceeding to brandish his spoon and fork gracefully.

  “...We’re going back to the Commission.” Sage Yeltz said, dragging her chair on the floor as she made her way up from her seat.

  Aurelius immediately panicked, with the taste of dissection almost tangibly running down his spine…

  And also because his meal was finally in his sight.

  “NO!” Aurelius nearly shouted, startling the cheerful waitress and the few patrons seated all around the restaurant.

  “I mean, no, Sage Yeltz. I am also… p-protected under the wings of a deity.” Aurelius explained hurriedly, ignoring the feeling of repulsion that came up his throat when he thought of Quetzalcoatl as his ‘protector’.

  This sent Tiberius’s fork dropping onto the table, its messy noodly contents spilling all over its lovely veneer, and Sage Yeltz’s eyelids to work overtime once more.

  In fact, Aurelius could also see her face twitch, her tics apparently activated with his ‘magical’ announcement.

  After a small amount of deliberation, Sage Yeltz finally sat back down, rubbing her face and massaging her tics back in order as she set aside her meal in fatigue.

  “...Explain.” She repeated, having apparently aged like 20 years with her conversation with Aurelius in the past 5 minutes.

  “Ah… Could you… Perhaps cast some anti-divination?” Aurelius asked politely, gesturing uncomfortably at his surroundings vaguely.

  This seemed to earn him further ire as Sage Yeltz made a strange grunting noise together with the twitching that rattled her face.

  “Aygh” Sage Yeltz grunted, proceeding to whisper a chant into the air apparently to cast some anti-divination magic.

  “Now, talk.” She growled.

  ???

  “...” Tiberius stared, not quite sure why he even was here.

  He should definitely have asked to be let off earlier.

  The sage had brought him along to this restaurant in the middle of nowhere simply because he had been with Aurelius when they visited the commission.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  But he could have certainly been let off to go back to his dorm earlier if he had requested for it.

  He had become seduced by the allure of a meal that he was now involved in what was probably at the scale of state secrets.

  He could feel his bladder dry up and his tear ducts working erroneously as they continued to leak tears out of the corner of his eyes.

  “Ok, to sum up, you are a blessed of Quetzalcoatl, who has been trapped in a global scale magic that ‘loops’ the world after your death.” Sage Yeltz said unhappily, her face now a mess of strange emotions.

  From some people’s perspective, they might even say that she was ‘smiling’. But the current expression was much too hostile for such an interpretation to even be fair.

  “Yes.” Aurelius answered meekly, taking a sneaky bite of his meal, and avoiding eye contact with this scary woman.

  “...How many loops so far?” Sage Yeltz asked.

  “Five?” Aurelius said.

  The first loop had been the one where he had discovered the true identity of Dr. Varian, the second the loop that had chained him to the commission.

  The third was the loop where he discovered the limits of the contract that had been placed on him, the fourth was that embarrassing 10 minute loop, where he had died to the power of said contract.

  Aurelius had not gone into detail about the loops and what Quetzalcoatl had shown him yet, given that those details were where he had value to the Commission.

  “Alright, so what is the goal of Quetzalcoatl to place you in this loop?” Sage Yeltz asked, her eyes narrowing as she glared at Aurelius with the intensity of a thousand wyverns.

  Aurelius paused.

  “Ah… So…” Aurelius started.

  Should he confess that he was supposed to kill the immortal god? It sounded really silly!

  “I think that Quetzalcoatl wants me to find a way to kill Him.” Aurelius said simply, noticing the unwelcome glare from the sage once more.

  From his point of view, Aurelius didn’t have much to lose from revealing this information. In fact, he could spill everything he knew anyway. He was in a loop after all, and he would have to eventually try this method if he was dying so incessantly.

  He might as well approach from a point of honesty and see if that would do him any good.

  Tiberius stared blankly at Aurelius, his jaws slack.

  “...Oh, haha, so that’s a joke. That’s hilarious Aurelius!” Tiberius laughed, slapping Aurelius on his back as he sneakily rose from his seat to escape his predicament.

  “No, you don’t.” Sage Yeltz said, immediately conjuring a collar of ice to appear around Tiberius’s neck and pulling him back onto this seat.

  “Did he say that Himself?” Sage Yeltz asked, taking Aurelius’s absurd statement in stride for now.

  “Ah… Yes.” Aurelius replied.

  “Ok. Setting aside the Lost God, how long is each loop?” Sage Yeltz asked sharply.

  “I don’t think there’s a real termination point for the loop.” Aurelius replied, taking another sneaky bite of rice.

  Sage Yeltz stared blankly at Aurelius, frowning deep in thought.

  “How long was your longest loop?” Sage Yeltz asked.

  “Around 4 weeks.” Aurelius replied.

  “You’re seriously telling me that you only managed to last 4 weeks before dying for 5 loops?” Sage Yeltz replied, aghast by his statement.

  Aurelius almost blushed from embarrassment.

  It wasn’t his fault that he died in these 5 loops! In fact, the Commission has been responsible for 2, no, 3 of his deaths! It was the Commission who didn’t protect him from the Fae Queen in the third loop anyway!

  “Koff, koff. How do you expect me to last when the Commission put this kind of a chain on my neck?” Aurelius responded defensively, crossing his arms and pouting off into the distance.

  Sage Yeltz just continued to stare at Aurelius in pity.

  “...Plus the Fae Queen’s after my ass too! How can I avoid a deity as an 18 year old?” Aurelius finally said, breaking down at the terrifying eyes of judgement digging holes into his skull.

  “Continue.” Sage Yeltz said, perking up at the mention of the Fae Queen.

  …Shit. I’ve said too much. Aurelius thought.

  “No.” Aurelius replied defiantly, staring for like 1 second up into the horrifying eyes of the sage before averting his eyes once again.

  For Aurelius, he knew his full worth in both information and ‘power’ that he held in terms of the soul blueprint within him.

  The contract he had would compel him to support the Commission, but it didn’t quite state that he had to give them ‘everything’!

  He had to leverage that worth in ways that would benefit him as much as possible!

  Sage Yeltz glared at him with his defiant statement, looking increasingly irritable.

  “...Look, kid. I can help you.” She said after a long while, sighing deeply as she picked up her nearly flat soda and massaged her face in fatigue.

  “I know how you can escape your contract with the Commission.”