Keiron

After staring at the back of Henry, who was leaving the castle, Beatrice couldn't help but shake her head before turning her attention back to the prisoners that she had now obtained.

As she walked through the hallways of the castle, looking through the bandits, as well as the ten or so women, which had been presumably captured from a nearby village, Beatrice fell into thought for a brief moment.

"I need to use these women first, otherwise some of them might die before I can even do anything to them," mumbled Beatrice as she touched the forehead of a woman who had been carelessly covered with some cloth, shielding her body from the eyes of the outside world.

A moment later, a faint, nearly invisible mark appeared on the forehead of the woman, causing Beatrice to retract her hand and move to the next person in her path.

As it took only a few seconds to place a mark on a single person, in only took Beatrice thirty minutes to place them on every single one of the prisoners.

1 Grand Knight, 7 Official Knights, 23 Knight apprentices, 72 bandits as well as 10 women who had been captured, these were the experimental subjects that Beatrice had obtained.

'Firstly, the Grand Knight, as well as the Official Knights, can be ignored, as long as I give them some water, they will be able to survive,' thought Beatrice as she walked down to the basement of the castle, two of the women floating behind her.

Rather conveniently, the drug which Beatrice had decided to use to restrain these bandits, a rather normal mixture of medicinal plants, could easily be diluted into water and fed to the bandits, making it so that Beatrice did not have to spend any time doing things twice.

'These ten women can also be ignored, by the time they become hungry, they should already be dead,' thought Beatrice as she pushed open the door to the basement, revealing a rather tiny room with a long table in the middle.

Thankfully though, this was all that Beatrice needed, as one of the women suddenly began floating towards the table.

'As for the remaining one hundred men, that should work,' thought Beatrice as she suddenly delved into the already fragile mind of the woman in front of him.

...

One moment, Keiron was having fun with one of the women he had captured, another, he was now tied up with a rather unappealing bowl of soup in front of him.

This was the conundrum that Keiron Woodwarm was now facing.

'I should have listened to Mother, becoming a bandit was a horrible idea,' thought Kieron, already regretting the choice he had made.

Sadly though, no matter who one was, one had to live with the choices they had made throughout their life, good or bad.

Suddenly, Keiron's face froze, as he felt his stomach begin hurting without any warning.

Not paying attention to anything else, Keiron suddenly picked up the wooden spoon which had been placed next to his plate and began gorging himself on the soup.

Keiron did not know how much time he had spent asleep, but one thing was certain, he was starving, so much so that he didn't even pay attention to the taste, nor to the rather spongy texture of the meat that was thrown inside.

...

Looking at the young man, who was helplessly struggling against the restraints placed on the table, with tears, Beatrice couldn't help but shake her head.

"Mlthrr, mpgher davee!!" shouted the young man, although to no avail.

"Don't worry, you won't feel any more pain in a few moments," said Beatrice as she touched the face of the young man, an extremely rare look of gentleness appearing on her face.

A few moments later, Beatrice dove into the mind of the young man for a seventh time, fulfilling her promise and stopping his pain.

A few minutes after that, Beatrice finally emerged from the mind of the young man, and shook her head.

"Hopefully I won't ever have to do this again," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly released the restraints holding the young man to the table before picking up the body.

It was not that Beatrice had suddenly begun feeling bad about killing or even grown bored by it, the reason why Beatrice was feeling somewhat more emotional right now was very simple, memories.

Although this was not very pronounced at first, as Beatrice became more and more proficient in her mastery of the soul, she could read more and more, causing her to know her victims on a much more intimate level.

Usually, this did not pose any problem, as knowing what sorts of crimes these bandits did perhaps even increased her willingness to continue her training.

But as she read the minds of the likes of Keiron, who was merely sent down the wrong path by the death of his mother, Beatrice felt somewhat conflicted as she desecrated his corpse.

...

As she looked at the huge pot in front of her with a rather conflicted look on her face, Beatrice couldn't help but shake her head.

"What's got into me? Since when was I so emotional?" mumbled Beatrice as the diced remains of Keiron's body floated into the tub, being prepared to serve as food for his surviving compatriots.

Although the methods she used this time left even Beatrice a little conflicted, they also led to great results, seemingly accelerating her progress.

After only about five days, and after having gone through only about twenty of her experimental subjects, Beatrice was able to clearly feel her exaggerated progress.

Unlike her past self, who could only read some memories, right now Beatrice was able to read Keiron's memories seven times, thoroughly looking through his entire life.

Even though Beatrice still had lots of room for progress, as, after the memory reading, Keiron had become brain-dead, this was still incredibly impressive, and much better progress than she could have expected.

Perhaps by the end of her stay on the island, Beatrice will be able to do some things other than reading memories.