Rose Guild

Looking at her teacher, Joan White, who was currently examining a red potion, the receptionist couldn't help but faintly smile, causing the latter to suddenly turn around.

"Alice, I presume everything has gone well once again?" asked Joan, hearing the footsteps of her apprentice coming up behind her.

"Yes, although the time for departure has not yet arrived, the occupation rate of the ship has already reached seventy-five percent, it may even be possible for it to reach eighty percent in a few days," said Alice, causing Joan to nod.

"It's the third time in a row, it seems as though the demand for travel over the western ocean is rising," mumbled Joan as she placed the potion in her hands back onto the workbench.

'If things continue this way, the time needed for us to accumulate the elemental stones required will be substantially decreased,' thought Joan as she tapped her fingers on the workbench.

"Yes it seems as though many mages are now interested in the islands in the western ocean," said Alice, causing Joan to slightly shake her head.

"Very well now, you can go back to the ship for now, don't disturb me unless something extremely critical has happened," said Joan, causing Alice to walk out of the room, leaving Joan silently standing there alone.

After seemingly thinking about something in silence, Joan shook her head, throwing out those thoughts of her and once again focusing on the potions themselves.

'I can worry about that once we return to Stoughlodge,' thought Alice, picking up the red potion from the workbench and beginning to examine it once again.

...

Staring at the relatively small room in front of her, which did not have any luxuries, Beatrice couldn't help but slightly shake her head.

After placing her luggage in a corner of the room, Beatrice sat down on her bed and began refining mana.

Although it might have seemed as though Beatrice refining mana didn't do anything, in only a relatively short amount of time, her mana rose from around 35 points to around 42 points when she last measured it before beginning her new journey, roughly an increase of 0.12 points per day.

This was someone faster than in her previous life, which allowed Beatrice to reach the High Ranking Mage Apprentice Level much sooner than before.

Underestimating this increase of seven points would be a huge mistake, as this could allow Beatrice to cast two, or perhaps three more spells than she could before, which could prove extremely deadly in a fight.

At the same time, this might allow Beatrice to cast the Rank 1 Dark Arrow spell and still have some ability to fight after that, making it a much more useful tool in combat.

...

Several hours later,

The first thing Beatrice did after entering the ship was refine as much mana as she could, after that, Beatrice began slowly but surely walking across the seemingly empty ship.

Out of a desire not to be disturbed, or perhaps out of fear, the vast majority of the mages present on the ship stayed in their rooms most of the time, only leaving when truly necessary.

Because of this, Beatrice was allowed to move on the ship without having to be disturbed by anyone, only occasionally walking past a mage or two who had the same idea as Beatrice.

After walking through nearly the entirety of the lower deck of the ship, where the rooms of the mages were situated, a somewhat grim look appeared on Beatrice's face.

'Other than the main doors, there isn't any way to escape this thing,' thought Beatrice as she was leisurely walking towards her room on the ship, somewhat eager to take off the mask and hood from her face.

It seemed as though the Rose Guild did not want any of the mages to be able to escape in case of a fight, leaving them trapped on the ship and with them.

Of course, as it was under the protection of seven powerful mages, the ship had never once been truly attacked, making Beatrice's thoughts somewhat useless.

'Hopefully, this was just my paranoia acting up,' thought Beatrice as she walked past the receptionist she met earlier that day.

...

As she silently moved her eyes towards the masked female mage in who was walking towards her, a small alarm couldn't help but ring in Alice's head, as a weird feeling of oppression emerged inside of her.

Even after the mage passed by her, not doing anything in the slightest, the weird feeling still persisted inside of Alice.

Although the common robe, hood and mask, which most female mages wore concealed the latter's identity, Alice still immediately recognized her.

'It's that mage from earlier today,' thought Alice as thoughts a slight frown appeared on her face.

'Even if she isn't an enemy, reporting her to the leader wouldn't hurt,' thought Alice as she suddenly changed her destination, no longer walking to her own room.

...

As she walked around the ship, Beatrice noticed that she would meet a mage walking on their way roughly once every two minutes, as after all, most mages wouldn't have enough time to dilly-dally.

But suddenly, thirty seconds after Beatrice met the receptionist just as she was about to arrive at her room, Beatrice suddenly saw a relatively short figure in the distance, now walking towards her.

The moment Beatrice saw the figure, which, unlike most other mages, did not conceal her face, she froze.

This was an old woman which Beatrice knew very well, after all, she had researched the owners of the flying ship she was traveling on.

As the old woman, Skye Higgins, an extremely old mage, as well as the leader and founder of the Rose Guild walk past her, Beatrice felt beads of sweat fall off her forehead.

...

It had only taken a few seconds for Alice to report the suspicious figure wandering the ship to the leader of the Rose Guild, who, being quite protective of the ship, then took action.

But looking at the little girl who was walking back to her room, as well as the thing attached to the notebook in her robe, some Skye Higgins couldn't help but feel some surprise.

Feeling a familiar gaze land on her, Skye froze for a moment before continuing on, thoughts swirling in her mind as she remembered a meeting from years ago.

'The Witch of Death'

The moment Skye realized who the person who this little girl was related to, she gave up her investigation.

'Selena wouldn't try to bypass the pact this way,' thought Skye as she walked past the little girl.