Above the skies

Even though she was quite curious about how the two of them had reached the Magic Continent in such a short amount of time, Beatrice knew better than to inquire about the method, aware of the fact that Selena seemed to want to keep it secret.

A moment after that, Beatrice then rose from the ground and began surveying her surroundings.

Right now, both Beatrice and Selena were standing at the entrance of an inconspicuous case, which was obviously the way Selena had gotten her here.

"This is where we part ways for now, little Beatrice, you can come here after you complete your mission and I will take you back to the Island, or you can go back on your own, if you so desire," said Selena as she looked at Beatrice, causing the latter to nod.

A few moments later, with a flap of her wings, Beatrice suddenly rose from the ground before beginning to fly away without responding to Selena's words, causing the older Witch to let out a chuckle.

"Still a little bit wary of me, how cute..." mumbled Selena as she stared at the back of the flying witch with a smile on her face.

A moment later, Selena walked back into the cave, seemingly in a very good mood.

...

As she flew through the air and felt the wind blow against her face, Beatrice couldn't help but breathe a faint sigh of relief before falling into thought.

Right now, at least temporarily, Beatrice was safe, as she was careful to not let Selena place any sort of mark on her.

What troubles Beatrice right now was a certain question.

Should she go through with her task?

If she did go through with it, and killed that mage, Beatrice knew that any chance at reconciliation with the Magic Academies that she had in the past would be gone, causing her to become hunted by them.

Although Selena would most likely help her hide herself a bit, this was not certain, as the Witch of Death could simply abandon her at will.

But even so, at first glance, going through with this assassination seemed to be Beatrice's best bet at the moment, as if she did not do it, she would have to abandon all the things she had accumulated for the past ten years.

Furthermore, Beatrice would both be hunted down by Selena for tricking her, at least probably, and not have the best relationship with the Magic Academies, causing her situation to become quite bad.

Lastly, although it was faint, Beatrice did have a tiny bit of goodwill towards Selena, as the witch treated her quite well in her previous life.

After thinking through all of these details in just a few moments, Beatrice decided on what to do, causing her to turn her attention on the piece of paper in front of her.

As she stared at the familiar face on the piece of paper, which she had not seen in over a decade, Beatrice couldn't help but let out a faint sigh.

"Susan became an Official Mage, how impressive..." mumbled Beatrice with a faint smile on her face.

Susan was of course one of the children that had come to the Magic Continent from Lyon Kingdom.

Back then, as Susan was one of the few children who was not of noble origin, Beatrice tried to take the girl in as her minion.

Sadly though, things didn't pan out, and Susan, with her A Grade Water Affinity, seemed to have gone to the Wizard's Hand Academy.

Although Beatrice was unsure about how Susan had interfered with Selena's plans, she knew that the commoner girl probably made Selena pretty angry, since the witch went as far as to send someone to hunt her down.

Based on the information in front of her, Susan had just become an Official Mage a year ago, and was much weaker than Beatrice, with the only issue that could Accor being her teacher, who was an experienced Official Mage.

"This should be quite easy..."

...

In the end, after some investigation, Beatrice discovered her current location, which was in a corner of the Dyon Kingdom, actually not very far away from Selena's hideout.

As for Beatrice's target? Based on the information provided to her by Selena, Susan and her teacher had just gone out on a mission in the Slumor Kingdom.

To get to the Slumor Kingdom, Beatrice would have to travel through both the Dyon Kingdom, and the Maeniel Kingdom, before arriving in Slumor.

By then, Beatrice would have left the sphere of influence of the Shadow Monestary and entered that of the Wizard's Hand.

After finding out her current location, as well as the direction she needed to go into, Beatrice rose above the clouds and began flying there, using her wings to fly far above most Official Mages.

Unlike back in her youth, when it took her along about of time to go from place to place, with her current speed, Beatrice was able to arrive in the Maeniel Kingdom in just under half a day.

After that, Beatrice then had to fly another day to get out of the Maeniel Kingdom and reach her destination.

Halfway through that journey, though, Beatrice finally encountered someone else.

...

As she stared at the winged mage that was currently flying in her direction, Venus, who had two wings of wind stretching out of her back, couldn't help but frown.

As a Wind Mage, Venus liked to travel quite a bit, knew nearly every single mage in the area that liked to fly at such heights, as such, as soon as Venus saw that unfamiliar figure, she immediately put her guard up and began slightly changing her direction.

Although Venus was not afraid of trouble, the aura of the mage in front of her, as well as her wings, which oozed darkness, made Venus not want to bring too much trouble to herself.

A few moments later, Venus and the Dark Mage passed by each other, causing both of them to silently breathe sighs of relief.