As she slowly opened her eyes and looked at the room wall in front of her, Beatrice couldn't help but let out a faint breath, as a thoughtful look appeared on her face.
"This speed is... quite unexpected..." mumbled Beatrice, feeling the extreme speed at which her soul was transforming a few moments ago.
Whilst Beatrice was meditating, the speed of her soul transformation was far beyond her expectations.
Originally, though, Beatrice only expected her soul to be able to transform a little bit faster than other that of other mages at her rank.
Instead, Beatrice's soul was actually transforming several times faster than the examples she had read about in her teacher's notebook.
In fact, even is Beatrice did not do anything to increase her speed, Beatrice felt as though her soul should be able to reach perfection in just around one hundred years.
Although this speed would be unacceptable to normal people, the more Beatrice thought about it, the more satisfied with this speed she became.
Unlike normal humans, as long as Beatrice managed to reach the Archmage realm, her lifespan would increase exponentially, allowing her to easily make up for this lost time.
In fact, Beatrice even thought about just going into seclusion, and not coming out for over a hundred years.
"You know, this could be quite a good idea..." mumbled Beatrice as she touched her chin with her hand.
...
In the end, Beatrice decided against such a long seclusion, both fearing that the combat power advantage that she had against other mages would vanish after such a long time, and that she would not have enough time to complete her preparations for the Archmage Realm with the time she had left after that.
After a few more hours of thought, Beatrice then decided her next course of plans, whose beginning would be signaled by Diana going out of her home, and back into civilization.
At least relative civilization.
...
Looking at little Alexa, who was standing in front of her with an excited look on her face, Margaret couldn't help but feel somewhat touched, causing her to finally listen to the pleas of the girl.
"Fine, you're a big girl now Alexa, you can go play with the other kids, but I need to see you back here by dinner, otherwise you can forget about going out again," said Margaret as she looked at her granddaughter, causing the latter to quickly nod, having seemingly understood her grandmother's orders.
Although little Alexa had sneaked out just a few days ago, Margaret didn't know that the little girl was at her most energetic stage, and was not willing to restrict her too much.
Merely a few moments after that, Alexa begun happily jumping along, quickly getting out of the house and running to a rather secluded corner of the village in an experienced fashion not fit for a young girl like her.
What greeted Alexa at the edge of the village were three kids, two older boys who were sitting next to a young boy, who had a gag in his mouth.
"Alexa, we managed to get him," said one of the older boys as he pointed towards the young boy with an excited look on his face, seemingly awaiting Alexa to fulfill her end of the deal.
Seeing this, Alexa faintly smiled before grabbing something out of her pockets.
The moment the two boys say the six pieces of candy laying in Alexa's hands, their eyes suddenly lit up even more, causing the two to run up to the girl with excited looks on their faces.
"Are you two sure that nobody knows that you got him?" asked Alexa as she looked at the boys, causing the two to quickly nod.
Not too long ago, this little boy had made fun of Alexa for being shorter than him, with originally had nothing to do with the two boys, but then, surprisingly though, Alexa agreed to give the boys six pieces of candy if the two of them brought the boy to her so that she could teach him a lesson.
"Don't worry, we sneaked out without anyone noticing!" said the other boy with a naive smile on his face as he placed one of the candies into his mouth.
A moment later, the boy suddenly tripped, causing him to instantly fall over his comrade.
Originally, another kid falling on his shouldn't have been much for the oldest boy, but as soon his younger comrade fell on him, the legs of the oldest boy also gave up, as a small leg suddenly smashed against them.
Before the two boys could let out even a single scream, two swift kicks in the guts, followed by hands pinning them down by their necks, completely nipped their ability to shout in the bud.
Then, with brutality that one could never have expected from a young girl, Alexa's leg suddenly smashed into the head of the oldest boy, completely caving in his skull with Alexa's surprisingly high strength.
At that moment, the mind of everyone present, other than Alexa, suddenly blanked, not being able to comprehend the brutal death of their friend.
But before the other boy could even struggle, another one of Alexa's brutal attacks nipped that threat in the bud, causing her to faintly frown.
"My feet got dirty..." mumbled 'Alexa' as she looked stared at her bloody legs with a cold look that no seven-year-old could ever have on her face.
Even Beatrice, who had noticed the fact that two boys seemed to be kidnapping another boy, and had become interested in the scene, was sure of this.
That thing in front of her, was not a child, Beatrice was at least sure of that.
But even though Beatrice had already established this, she still continued staring at the scene that went on and on, for far too long.
In a swift and violent burst, Alexa's leg suddenly smashed into the head of the little boy, causing a large smile to appear on the face of Alexa, who soon bent down and began eating the brain out of the open head of the boy.