After a few more moments, Beatrice turned her attention away from this colony of ants, which she had named Gneognoid 5, and onto the person lying on a nearby table.
"Antonia, has everything gone smoothly?" asked Beatrice as she walked up to the unconscious Guinevere.
'Yes mistress, lady Guinevere was extremely cooperative, which removed any difficulties,' said Antonia as she raised her large head and looked at Beatrice.
Hearing this, Beatrice couldn't help but faintly nod.
"Very good," mumbled Beatrice before picking up Guinevere's hand and making sure that the latter's pulse was stable.
A few moments later, Beatrice placed the hand back down onto the table, before beginning to stare at Guinevere's soul and search for something.
...
"Completely and utterly fascinating, I never knew that the Dark Manipulation spell actually worked like this, but now that I know it, this makes perfect sense," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at Guinevere, who was lying down on a table.
'What is it mistress, did something happen?' asked Antonia as she looked at Beatrice with a curious look on her face.
Hearing this, Beatrice couldn't help but nod.
"I have just discovered a rather neat little fact about the Dark Manipulation spell," said Beatrice as she took out the information cube and began typing into it.
Hearing this, an extremely curious look appeared on Antonia's little face, causing Beatrice to shake her head.
"The Dark Manipulation spell, as its name implies, manipulates and controls the targeted person by suppressing their personality and replacing it, but who would have guessed that there was even more to it than that?" asked Beatrice as she continued writing something into the information cube.
"It's obviously much more complicated than what I'm about to describe right now, but to sum things up neatly, the Dark Manipulation Spell allows those that show loyalty more control over themselves than those who resist," said Beatrice, causing Antonia to turn her head sideways, confused.
"Let's say we have two people, one who absolutely despises the person controlling them, and another one who is already loyal to that person, but is being controlled for safety."
"For the first person, the Dark Manipulation spell would take full control of them, but for the second person, it would lurk in the background, saving a lot of Mana in the process," said Beatrice, causing Antonia to finally understand what had happened.
"So Guinevere became more loyal to you whilst you were gone, that's weird," said Antonia as she looked at her mistress with a rather puzzled look on her face.
"Although that's true, even though it could not compare to what it is right now, even before my trip, now that I think of it, Guinevere was a little bit different from my past servants," mumbled Beatrice as she touched her chin.
Hearing this, the little ant cheerfully nodded and did not say anything, even though it also felt a bit curious about those past servants of her mistress.
"Since the reason for the change has been figured out, we can let her wake up now," said Beatrice as she took one final look at Guinevere before once again moving her attention somewhere else.
...
Looking at the doorway in front of her, which was filled up with dirt, as well as hundreds of holes, through which ants moved in and out of a room, Beatrice couldn't help but feel quite happy.
At this moment, Guinevere, who had woken up not long after Beatrice had finished her investigations, was placing a huge bowl filled with food, on the ground.
"Say, do Earth Ants require these sorts of magical materials to survive, or can you guys also survive in the outside world right now?" asked Beatrice as she looked at Antonia, who was standing next to some ants, who looked much smaller than the usual Earth Ant.
"Yes, even though magical materials do greatly speed up the growth of an earth ant colony, we can survive in the outside world, but I don't recommend that right now, as the colony still has a huge amount of potential it can develop in a very short amount of time, "said Antonia as she let one of the young ants climb onto her.
"Take me for example, although I look huge compared to normal Earth Ants, but I can feel it, I have huge room for growth left in me, I feel as though I can grow in size at least ten times," said Antonia, causing Beatrice to faintly frown.
"Very well then, It looks as though we'll have to leech off my teacher for a few more months at least," mumbled Beatrice as she walked up to the dirt wall and touched it.
As she felt the vibrant life-force from behind this wall, a faint smile couldn't help but appear on Beatrice's face.
Even though it was as Antonia said, and the Earth Ant colony was not truly grown up, Beatrice was really quite satisfied with their progress in these past few months.
Looking at this scene, Antonia, who had a tiny ant on her forehead, couldn't help but faintly smile.
Sadly though, as she was a giant ant, Antonia's smile look rather horrific to a normal human, and would probably scare one to death.
After feeling the life-force inside the room, Beatrice couldn't help but go even further, and try to send her mind inside, feeling the tiny minds of the fifty thousand or so ants.
Just as Beatrice, and Antonia had expected, as soon as Beatrice had sent her mind inside the ant colony, she was welcomed by the ants with open arms.
...
As she felt this hugely powerful mind suddenly enter the colony, Antonia couldn't help but shiver for a moment before regaining her senses.
'That's really rather powerful,' thought Antonia, even though she knew that her Mistress's mind was extremely powerful for a Mage Apprentice, Antonia still felt as though something was somewhat weird with it.
'It's just my imagination,' thought Antonia before turning away from this train of thought and began enjoying the presence of this warm mind inside the colony.