Turns out, to use mind magic, you have to kind of convert mana to 'mental power'. It's quite the strange feeling. Feels similar to using self-enhancement on your brain, but instead, directly on your mind.

By the way, using self-enhancement on your nervous system generally just results in being able to increase your reflexes by a certain margin. It's the kind of thing frequently used to get an edge on high level combat, but won't be of much help to a beginner like me.

As one 'charges up' mental power, they become able to feel the emotions of nearby individuals, as if a sixth sense (seventh if you include mana sense). Together with that, you also become able to control your own emotions better while one's mind and senses feel somewhat sharpened, although that might just be a consequence of the control. This is the rawest, simplest form of mind magic.

Then comes minor manipulations, you can kind of pull a certain emotion from a target or push down on another. For example, you can make a person fear you or minimize a fear they would otherwise have. But like the name implies, the effect is just minor, you can't make someone fall madly in love with you or force someone who caught you on a lie to not feel any distrust.

I can see how this can be useful for a spy. I have a feeling auntie might have used this on me to make me pay attention to her teachings.

After that i was taught a vague form of telepathy based on emotions, which allows you to kind of emit an emotion. This can be used for communication, like telling someone what you are feeling, and also for acting, like emitting fear when you're not really afraid or confidence to help sell out a bluff.

All of these techniques are very instinctual the moment you charge up on mental power and are also borderline impossible to notice by anyone that isn't a practitioner of mind magic and paying close attention. This includes emitting emotions, the target will feel as if he just naturally noticed.

Next up comes the more forceful stuff, if you charge up too much, you'll feel a headache and at this point you can cause greater effects on your targets. This includes more powerful manipulations, more detailed telepathy (only works with other mind mages) and other stuff i haven't learned yet. When using this much mental power, it becomes much easier for people to notice and even untrained people can notice something's up as long as they are perceptive, even if they don't quite understand what.

"Today i'll teach you the more disturbing part of mind magic." Says the king. Was the manipulation stuff not disturbing enough? "Our practice targets are some of the worst men one can find in this country, kept alive specifically for this, so there's no need to worry." That only makes me worry in a different way.

We enter a small room in the dungeon with a man tied to a chair and his head inside a bag. I bet his mouth is gagged and ears are covered inside that bag too.

"This is the most basic mental attack." Says the king before he pretty much just mentally punches the guy. "It's very good for stunning and interrupting, but doesn't leave lasting consequences, so it's good to capture enemies too. Try it."

Damn, this brutal stuff still makes me queasy. Good thing my emotions weaken when i charge up.

I successfully perform the punch. The feeling of having my mind come in contact with someone else's gives me goosebumps. "Well done. Next, this is what we call mind-cracking."

He puts his palm on the man's head and wields his mind to grab onto the man's. 'How can a mind grab another?' you ask? I don't know, man. I'm just telling you how i see it.

And then he punches a whole on the man's mind. Holy shit. I can hear the man's muffled grunts of pain. "This allows a more direct access to a target's mind, try to sense the insides of the hole." I do as he says and i get more detailed readings than just emotions. I can almost feel him shouting stuff like 'Fuck the queen's dogs, what the hell are they doing to me?! When i get out of here i'll skullfu-' okay, that's enough of that.

"Don't shy away yet, this is the more useful part. Come back and try to feel my mind inside his." I do as he says. "I'll send a thought inside him, try not to get distracted." I charge up and concentrate.

I can feel the thought he sent. It's something between 'Drink' and 'Alcohol', the thought echoes in there. The prisoner's mind pretty much halts when he receives this, and then he starts to think and remember about various things related to the king's thought.

Things like wondering whether he'll ever drink again and remembering about his favorite and most hated drinks. And we pick up on all of it. I can almost feel visual information, as if i'm trying to remember something, pretty freaky.

"This can mess up with the target's memory, so don't use it on anyone you wouldn't torture and kill." Mess up how? "A mind mage can open up his mind to allow for infiltration without lasting consequences, but it would be idiotic to teach someone just to check if they're guilty or not. Try to break into his mind yourself."

Oh boy, this is a grim day, isn't it?

~~

Turns out there are no runes for mind magic, you only use it on its raw form. I find that hard to believe, most likely we just don't know the right runes to use.

But thanks to that, i only need to do some mind equivalent of sparring to get my mind defenses in shape before i'm done with it.

During that i received a letter that said mom is pregnant again, so i'm getting a little brother or sister soon.

I write a letter back before i set out.

~~

Hey mom, dad and Athena. Lance here.

I'll be setting out soon for the assignment.

I managed to make a few friends while wearing my disguise. It was fun while it lasted.

Someone called Eleanor taught me stealth and combat. She looks scary but is really nice. I even hunted a few monsters and infiltrated a few places as practice. Stealth is really cool and i recommend you guys to learn it as well. It's good for practicing mana control as well.

I helped decorate the throne room too, i'm sending a couple pictures with this letter so you guys can see my work. The crown princess is a real slave driver, but don't tell her i said that.

Mind magic isn't all that it's cracked up to be. I was told i'm not allowed to tell you much about it, but it's okay to say that its range is really short and the more forceful usages aren't easy to hide. Honestly, i think i like stealth better than mind magic, but it should be useful.

Together with this letter i'm sending a few accessories i enchanted to protect against mind magic and a gift for Athena's fifteenth birthday.

Please don't give my future sibling a silly name like Archimedes. And put him in a room with enchanted stuff to see if he learns how to sense magic early like i did.

Wish me luck!

-Lance Chevalier.

~~

By the way, Athena's gift is a set of two sabers, one long and one short. I made them with the best alloy i could come up with (for this use) and enchanted them to the best of my abilities. They should cut through enchanted armor and strengthened muscle relatively easily.

Oh well, time to leave. From tomorrow onwards Lance will disappear for a while and in a couple weeks Leonardo will be escorted to the orphanage that has been targeted the most often. Here's hoping for no evil gods being awoken from their slumber or anything silly like that.

~Time skip~

*knock knock* "Miss Marie, open up!" The guard calls out at the door to the orphanage.

Right now i'm Leo, i'm wearing cheap clothes and i also made my camouflage cloak look cheap.

"I'm going! i'm going!" Comes a voice from behind the door, before it opens. "What is it- Oh?" She looks at me. "Is he staying?" The guard nods. "Hello, little friend. My name is Marie and i'll be taking care of you from now on. What's your name?" She smiles, but i also sense some worry from her.

Miss Marie is in her thirties, her looks are normal but her warm attitude is charming. She has brown hair in a braid and wears an apron over her dress without showing much skin. From what i've been told earlier, she started an orphanage after her husband died, she has no children of her own.

"My name is Leo." I answer shortly. I'm supposed to act like i feel out of place.

"Is that your full name or just a nickname?" She asks.

But the guard interrupts. "The boy is called Leonardo, he's from some town up north. Here's this month's donation from the crown, it already takes the boy in consideration. Good afternoon." The somewhat rude guard leaves.

"Well, Leo, come in." I do as she says all the while looking around the place. The place is somewhat big for a commoner's home, but the furniture is humble. "Are you hungry?" Actually, yes i am. So i nod. She brings me to the kitchen/dinning room and sits me down on a big table while she goes to work. After a short time she gives me wheat porridge and a piece of toasted bread. Bland but filling.

"The other kids are outside right now, but they'll come back soon. How about washing up?" I accept again. She tries to clean me herself but i stop her.

"I can clean myself." I'd rather not go back to the baby days of being unable to take care of myself. Besides, i'm embarrassed.

"Oh? That won't do. What if you forget a spot? Just leave it to aunt Marie." What? No! I move to run away. "No, no, no, Leo. You have to be obedient or else you don't get dinner." Why would you do that? Are you a pervert?

"Why?!" I ask, betrayed.

She sighs. "I need to see if you have any diseases or wounds, Leo. Sometimes children keep it hidden. So stay put." Oh, the humiliation. "So, the guard says you're from the north, where from?" I'll take any distraction at this moment.

"Turin." It's the place i know the best.

"That's pretty far away, why did you come so far south?"

"A man from the navy said i might have family here, but they wouldn't have me..." I emit some sadness to better sell my disguise. Now that i think about it, isn't what i'm doing pretty heartless?

"Well, their loss. You're a perfectly healthy young boy." She says as she finishes torturing me. "Here are your new clothes, i'll wash your old ones later." Oh wait.

"Wait! My cloak! It's still clean!"

She looks at me, then at the cloak, then she searches the cloak for stains and smells it. "Well, i suppose it's fine." She gives it back to me.

Thank goodness.

After i'm dressed we hear a "Auntie! We're home!" from the front door.

"Well, let's go meet your new siblings." Says Marie.

When we go downstairs, i see three boys and three girls. "Kids, meet Leo, he's your new sibling."

The six of seem surprised for a moment before they say "Hello, Leo." Some later than others.

"Hello." I say as my eyes are going from one to another while i try to keep their appearances to memory.

One of the boys starts speaking. "I'm Dave, i'm 10 years old!" He has short black hair and eyes. He then elbows a younger boy to the side. "Now you!"

"H-hello, i'm Archie, i'm 8 years old." He has medium length (for a boy) blond hair and green eyes. Now they both look at the third boy who just looks back at them.

"Carl! Tell him your name and age!" Dave says.

"Oh, ok. I'm Carl and i'm 9." He has messy brown hair and eyes. After speaking he just stands there with a relaxed expression while the other two look at the girls.

The girls share a look before the oldest one steps forward. "H-hey Leo, my name is Olivia and i'm 11. Don't worry, i'm sure you'll fit right in with the rest of us." She has long brown hair and green eyes.

"My name is Emma and i'm 9 years old!" says the next one. She has short black hair and brown eyes.

"Mia, 7." Says the youngest one, shortly. She has Long blond hair and blue eyes.

"What about you? How old are you?" Asks Dave.

"I'm 6." I became six recently.

"6? You look like 8." Says Emma. Well, it's just the truth so i just shrug.

"That means you're the youngest among us!" States Dave, outstanding deduction abilities, buddy. I nod.

"Leo isn't from around here so show him around later. But for now, get yourselves cleaned up while i get started on dinner." Says Marie. "I'll add some dried fish to the soup today." Do they not have meat often? That's no good. I'll have to put my fishing skills to the test then.

The children go wash themselves in separate places. Marie gestures me to follow her, so i do. She works as i watch. "Can i help?" I ask.

"Oh? Do you know how to cook?" She asks in return.

"A little bit." I'm not sure if i can make anything fancy though. I should try making stuff from modern earth when i'm done with this spy(bait) stuff.

"Okay, then cut those in small pieces for me."

The rest of the evening was peaceful. Everyone sleeps in the same room, including Marie, and she doesn't allow anyone to stay up late.

The next morning, everyone starts doing chores after a bland breakfast of bread and yesterday's leftovers. Olivia was the one who taught me what to do, although i already knew most of it aside from the 'what goes where' kind of thing.

After the chores are over, we're allowed to go outside to play.

"Now, Leo, we'll show you around town." Says Dave. Not today, buddy.

"Where is the closest place with plants, rocks and no houses?" I ask.

They stay silent and then look among each other and then back at me. "Why?" Asks Emma.

"I want to make something." I answer and look at Archie. "Do you know a place?"

"Y-yeah, there's a spot near the river that floods often so barely anyone builds anything there." Oh, i think i saw it on my way here.

I start running in the river's direction. "Hey, wait!" "What are you doing?!" I hear some shouts behind me but i just keep running, when i look back they are all following me.

I arrive at an area near the river that has what i'm looking for and start looking for rocks. I find good enough ones by the time the others arrive. I start hitting one rock on the other.

"Boy, you sure are fast, Leo." Says Dave between breaths.

"What are you doing?" Asks Emma also breathing heavily.

"I'm sharpening a rock." I use a little magic in secret to speed up the process.

"What for?" Asks Dave.

"To get some wood."

"And you'll use the wood for...?" Asks Archie.

"A fishing spear!" I answer proudly.

After that they just watch in silence as i sharpen the rock and use that to cut a thin three down that i turn into a spear with three prongs, i also make some string and a small pointy rock.

Then i run with those towards the beach and use lure animal secretly to fish until i'm out of time.

When i'm done i have 10 fish on two strings (i used the pointy rock to pierce the fish and run the string through it.), most of them are slightly smaller than a palm. It's a little heavy so i give one of the strings to Dave. He accepts them with a confused face.

"It's late, let's go home." I say before i start jogging back to the orphanage. They start following me after a moment.

We arrive as the sky starts to get the colors of twilight. "Kids? Is that you?" Asks Marie before she comes to the entrance of the house. "What...?" She seems a little stunned. Well, we are pretty sweaty.

"I got some fish. I'll leave them in the kitchen while i wash up." I say and i do just that.

~PoV switch~

After 'Leo' leaves the room, Marie speaks. "What happened today?"

Dave and Emma are the ones that explain.

"Good, i was worried he stole something." Says Marie with a sigh. "Well, it looks like we're having soup with plenty of fish today. Go wash up."

~Back to Mc~

When done washing up i prepare the fish for cooking. Most of them are going in the soup and some will be roasted.

Today's dinner was much more filling.