“Whoever gets the highest average scores in the upcoming middle terms gets Iris!” the guy shouted. He was a sophomore called Mathews. Alec could swear that he had seen him somewhere else before, but couldn’t pinpoint where.

They were standing face to face with approximately three meters of distance between each other. They were on one of the paths connecting the training hall and the lecture hall building. There were a few passersby, most of which didn’t even bat an eye at the guy’s shenanigans. Fortunately, the pathway was decorated with four to five-meter-long trees that blocked vision from both sides, giving them a slightly isolated experience.

Alec’s hand tightened into a fist as he tried to read the blue-haired sophomore. The guy was obviously furious. From that, Alec deduced that he had been in love with Iris for a long time.

“There is no need to blow this thing out of proportion,” Alec said calmly. He had crossed his arms defensively, also showcasing the disciplinary committee armband in the process. This gesture of his caused Mathews to flinch, but make a noise similar to that of a growl afterward.

Alec felt baffled.

‘Why is this person growling like a rabid dog?’ he thought. One thing Alec had been surprised about after transmigrating was the fact that most of the student body was really easy to get along with. He had initially prepared himself to fight back against cocky geniuses, hateful commoners, and elitist nobles. However, no one turned out to be like that. So far, at least. ‘Lately, those types of people have started becoming more and more frequent. It’s either that I’m noticing them more because I have started the disciplinary committee work, or their numbers have actually increased.’

“Look…” Alec said. He sighed and pinched his glabella before continuing. “Sure, let’s do it like that. Are you satisfied?”

“Yes!” Mathews answered. He turned around with a humph and left quickly.

‘On one hand, I could have gone on a long rant about how Iris isn’t an object,’ Alec thought. ‘On the other hand, I doubt he would have cared…’

***

Alec and his mana brain hacked away at question after question. When he glanced at a certain part of the paper, his eyes could see at least two questions at the same time. As they shared the same vision, they would pick and distribute questions between each other, solving at twice the speed. The topics he had forgotten would be aided by the mana brain and vice versa. Although they were a bit tired as this was the last exam, they could definitely pull through.

‘Another magical matrix question. Weren’t there three other such questions in the same exam?’ Alec asked himself. The mana brain jolted in confirmation, which made Alec even more confused. ‘It’s as if they forgot the questions they had prepared and placed similar ones. There is no way these questions are this easy…’

Putting aside the problem with the exam, Alec hacked away at another question with lightning speed, both his hands writing nonstop. Although he could feel the envious gazes from the other students, the mana brain was a rightfully gained booster.

He flipped another page. Took a fast look at the two questions on the page and chose the one on the left. However, when he read it, he noticed that he didn’t know anything about the topic. His heart jumped nervously. He thought about losing the first place for a second, then calmed down.

‘One question is not a problem,’ he thought. ‘Hey, mana brain, any thoughts on this?’ he asked mentally. When the mana brain returned a negative signal, he nodded to himself and skipped the question.

The rest of the exam was very simple. With the help of the low focus potion he had taken, and the mana brain, he managed to complete it in one go. After redoing the questions a couple of times, Alec focused once more on the one that he couldn’t solve no matter how hard he tried.

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‘But… Didn’t I study this topic last week? Or a bit earlier than that?’ Alec asked himself. ‘There was the library… The dorms… And before that, I was at the… Wait. When I crossed over… Where did I crossover? Why is there a fucking hole in my memories?’

As Alec kept scouring his head for answers, his throat tightened. His nostrils flared in anxiety as his face lit up. Getting up from his seat, he placed the exam papers on the overseeing Professor’s desk and left the classroom.

He ran. He ran where his body took him. He had a clear map of the academy. At least the parts where he frequented before. But for some reason, there was a gargantuan hole in that map. Finally, he found himself in front of the infirmary building. Inspecting its walls, its décor, and the empty rooms he could see from the windows, he felt confused.

‘What is this building..?’ he asked. The mana brain returned a confused signal as a response, which Alec ignored. He took out the pen after looking around to confirm that nobody could see him.

‘Let’s be a bit frugal. I can start conservatively.’

[Very Low Mental Cleansing Potion]

As the vial appeared in his hand, Alec didn’t waste any time and downed it. The cool liquid washed his mouth and throat. It was refreshing for a moment, then agonizing the next. Alec’s eyes started straining, his head ringing. He could hear murmurs in the distance, but they sounded like they were coming from deep inside a well, echoey and muffled.

Then, he felt an itch on his arm. When he looked down to see, his eyes started tearing. His blurry vision could barely catch some weird marks on his arm. Then he turned to his side as he felt something touch him. A silhouette brushed past him.

‘I can’t…’ Alec mentally muttered. He could barely breathe. Through his blurred sight, he managed to notice blue electricity sparkling around his head. As if something was fighting off a wave of energy. Then, his mana brain sent over a message bundle. This was weird, as Alec had thought that he had a pretty good grasp of the mana brain’s knowledge.

When the message bundle unfurled, Alec’s brows rose.

It was a memory, something that he was sure he hadn’t experienced before.

It was him and Iris, standing somewhere, talking to each other.

Iris told him something interesting in the memory.

“Some memories kind of… faded away,” she said. Alec’s mind churned to understand what the mana brain was trying to say but failed. He felt like his mind was being zapped from every direction, a relentless assault crashing against his cranium. However, he could feel the mental cleansing potion fighting back alongside his not-insignificant mana pool, acting as a moat for whatever was attacking him.

“It failed to delete the memories of your struggle,” the Alec in the memory answered. He seemed to have noticed something, which made the current Alec annoyed.

‘What did you understand! Tell me—’ He was about to shout in his head. However, the next moment, he noticed something. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to have much time left. The cleansing potion flowing in his veins was about to be depleted. Next, his mental defenses would crumble, and he would be taken over.

“Mana brain! How do you have those memories!?” Alec shouted. No answer came. Alec’s legs had already given up, and the memory package had already ended. The mana brain seemed to be disconnecting from him as fast as it could. ‘Where are you runn— I see…’

Finally, Alec realized what was going on.

‘This is going to be really bad. Bastard, take this!’ he sent a message as he formulated a bundle of memories in his head and passed it over to the mana brain. From the narrowing door of the last few neurons connected to the mana brain, it received the memories and deactivated itself on its own.

The cleansing potion ran out shortly after. Alec toppled over like a lifeless body. He instinctively noticed that it wouldn’t help him in any way, so he retracted his mana reserves from around his head. Whatever the thing was, it made its way into Alec’s mind.

At this point, Alec found his mind to be completely lifeless. As if he didn’t care what the being did in his head. The thing first started by reading his memories one by one, at an incredible speed. As far as Alec knew, this wasn’t the speed a human mage could read memories.

When it finally breezed through Alec’s memories, the thing started wreaking havoc in his head. Bombing memory after memory. First, Alec forgot about some people he barely knew, such as Professor Isabel, Alyssa, or a few student council members. Then, his memories of magic alongside his close friends started getting wiped.

‘You won’t get to my past self you fucking bastard,’ Alec thought. ‘This is as far as you go.’

He instinctively knew that the memories of his past life weren’t contained in his head, but somewhere else.

However, suddenly, Alec’s blurry vision cleared up as blue sparkles started flashing around his head once more. It was a brief moment of respite, but it was enough for him to gather himself. Taking a few labored breaths, Alec managed to squeeze a memory package into the smallest bundle of neurons he could. He then pulled on his entire mana pool at once and wrapped those neurons in an unimaginably thick shell.

When the thing finally came back in, Alec lost control for good.

As the memories of his transmigration started disappearing, his consciousness faded away.