Self

The moment Beatrice emerged out of her cocoon, her eyes suddenly moved around the room, as if she was searching for something.

Only a moment later, Beatrice suddenly appeared in front of a mirror without any warning.

A moment after Beatrice did so, Guinevere nearly fell to the ground as a gust of wind suddenly pushed again her body, at the same time, two loud sonic booms rang in her ears.

At the moment, Beatrice did not pay attention to what was happening to Guinevere, rather, she was staring in the mirror at her naked body, more specifically, the new wings that had emerged from her back.

'This is... quite surprising...' thought Beatrice as one of the wings, the pure white one, suddenly stretched itself in front of her.

As she touched the fragile looking wing in front of her, an extremely weird feeling appeared from within Beatrice.

Beatrice felt as though she had these wings her entire life, but upon touching them, the unfamiliar feeling quickly disproved that theory.

Even though Beatrice should have felt quite happy for suddenly becoming an Official Mage, but as she stared at herself, a weird feeling couldn't help but emerge from within her mind.

It was as if something was missing from within Beatrice, but no matter how much Beatrice racked her brains, she couldn't figure out what was truly missing.

Suddenly, though, Beatrice, who had previously been focused on other, more important things, suddenly realized something.

That weird voice in the back of her head was missing.

Without any warning, Beatrice's eyes dilated, as her body suddenly froze.

...

The moment Beatrice opened her eyes, a cautious look appeared on her face as she stared at the endless darkness around her.

"You don't like this place, I thought you would have liked its simplicity," mumbled a female voice from behind Beatrice.

Suddenly, the voice suddenly snapped its fingers, causing the scenes around Beatrice to change.

Gone was the endless darkness, replaced by a warm and sunny plain full of grass.

A moment later, Beatrice suddenly looked behind herself, causing her to suddenly freeze with her mouth gaping open.

The being who stood in front of Beatrice looked like an older version of Beatrice, but compared to the current Beatrice, she still had a few differences.

First, and most obviously different, were the wings behind this version of Beatrice.

Unlike our Beatrice, who had one black and one white wing, this older Beatrice had two extremely pure white wings, which emanated a holy aura.

Secondly, was the way she was dressed.

Whilst Beatrice usually liked to dress in black, this Beatrice was currently wearing a loose white robe.

Lastly was her expression.

As she looked at the extremely warm smile present on the face of her older self, Beatrice couldn't help but feel a tinge of disgust emerge from within her.

"Who are you?" asked Beatrice as she looked at the woman in front of her, even though she already knew the answer.

"It's quite obvious that I'm you, isn't it?" said Beatrice before letting out a chuckle as she looked at her young self.

Hearing this, Beatrice shook her head with an annoyed look.

"Quit avoiding this topic, who are you and why do you exist?" asked Beatrice, causing the woman to faintly smile as she began approaching Beatrice.

Seeing this, Beatrice suddenly became tense, causing five Dark Arrows to suddenly appear in front of her.

"Don't come closer, answer the question!" said Beatrice as the five arrows moved around, clearly ready to be launched towards the woman at any time.

But even so, Beatrice did not seem to care about the spells that were pointed in her direction, as she simply continued walking towards her younger self without any care in the world.

Seeing this, Beatrice suddenly waved her hand, causing the five Dark Arrows to suddenly fly towards her other self from all directions.

A fraction of a moment later, the older Beatrice smiled whilst shaking her head before disappearing, causing the Dark Arrows to suddenly pass through her previous location.

Seeing this, an extremely wary look appeared on Beatrice's face, as she began searching for her other self.

Sadly, though, this could not help her avoid her other self, who then hugged her from behind.

"It's alright, I'm not here to hurt you," said Beatrice's older self as she embraced Beatrice.

...

For several minutes, Beatrice simply stood there in front of the mirror with her eyes closed, when suddenly, her eyes popped open and she regained her senses.

But as she now stared in the mirror and touched her white wing, a somewhat conflicted look appeared on the face of Beatrice.

"Guinevere, you can go out now, I will call you when I need your help," said Beatrice, causing Guinevere to quickly walk out of the room and left Beatrice alone.

Seeing this, Beatrice then touched her head, which was slightly hurting after being filled with all of these memories.

Dozens of years of memories from her past self, from before Beatrice's first life.

No, that was not Beatrice's first life, it was her third life.

...

As she floated in the sky and stared at the boundless Earth below her as well as the insignificant lives littering it, Beatrice couldn't help but shake her head.

"Foolish, idealistic and stupid," mumbled Beatrice as she went through the memories of her first life.

Not only did Beatrice's first life not spend all of her effort to become a more powerful mage, she also wasted years of her own life-saving, healing and caring for mortals.

Mortals who, no matter what Beatrice did, would be dead in just one hundred years.

And in the end, where did that leave Beatrice? Betrayed and taken advantage of.

As she thought about this, Beatrice couldn't help but feel a little bit angry.

Not angry at those that had betrayed her, but rather at her past self, who had wasted two chances at a new life.

A moment later, Beatrice suddenly retracted her wings right next to her body, causing her to suddenly begin falling from the sky.

As she gained speed and stared at the land below her, a faint smile appeared on the face of Beatrice, who then opened her wings and began flapping them.

In but an instant, five sonic booms suddenly appeared behind Beatrice, as she now sped into the distance with a smile on her face.