After becoming certain that the Academy Mages were not yet on the Island, Beatrice immediately made her way out of her underground hideout, and rose right into the sky.
As she overlooked the world below her, as well as all the living being that were contained within it, who once again, like always, seemed tiny to her, Beatrice shook her head.
A few moments later, Beatrice took out a blue-ish stone from her robes, and let out a faint sigh.
"Selena's really treating me like her coolie, working me to death..." mumbled Beatrice, who had received her second mission not too long ago.
Although a few years had passed since Selena had sent out her first mission, Beatrice was still a bit annoyed.
But even so, in the face of a powerful Archmage, the little Official Mage could only grit her teeth and obey, lest her accumulation of almost 2 decades be destroyed.
As for Beatrice's task? Use the stone given to her to search for children with Space Affinity.
A few moments later, Beatrice suddenly flapped her wings, and began flying westward.
...
As she looked at the relatively large city in front of her, Beatrice couldn't help but slightly nod.
"This should be the smallest city that I will visit, I won't visit cities any smaller than this, Selena shouldn't mind this..." mumbled Beatrice as she once again took out the blue-ish stone.
A few moments later, Beatrice began flying over the city a few times, but even so, the stone remained completely unchanged, causing her to stop and shake her head.
"It's as I expected, this will be like finding a needle in a haystack..." mumbled Beatrice as touch her forehead, resisting the desire to ignore the mission and go back home to continue her research.
Never mind children with Space Affinity, in a group of one thousand people it would be considered lucky for a single one to have any kind of Elemental Affinity, most of them extremely weak F Rank, otherwise mages wouldn't be so rare and respected.
Even the Mage Academies, who were starving for talent knew better than to try to search for potential mages amongst the masses, otherwise they might have to spend all of their manpower combing through them.
As such, in remote places like Golwall Island, the mage Academies would test noble children, who were likely descendants of mages, as these kids were much more likely to have some sort of mage affinity.
In just under half a day, Beatrice had combed over all the major cities within the Kingdom of Lyon without having any kind of luck.
'I'll at most waste a week...' thought Beatrice as she looked at the last city below her, which also did not have any suitable people within, creating her phycological bottom line.
If Beatrice did that, Selena would at least have to admit that her coolie had spent some effort, and wouldn't be harsh on her.
...
After finishing up with the Kingdom of Lyon, Beatrice, who had become much calmer after accepting the fact that she would waste a week, continued with the other Kingdoms on the continent.
After the Lyon came the Kingdoms of Aepheovia and Nawen.
Interestingly though, although the Kingdom of Aepheovia did not have any Space Affinities, after going through half of the Kingdom of Nawen, Beatrice finally encountered what she was searching for.
...
As she looked at the stone in her hands, which was currently glowing a faint blue color, Beatrice, who had already written off this week as a short vacation, couldn't help but suddenly become serious.
That very instant, Beatrice lowered herself towards the city, causing the stone, which shone brighter the closer to its target it was, to brighten up.
In the end, it took Beatrice just under thirty seconds to land in front of a little boy, around 8 years of age.
As soon as Beatrice appeared right in front of his window, the little boy, who was staring at the sky up until that moment, couldn't help but freeze.
A moment later, the window suddenly opened on its own, allowing Beatrice to easily kidnap the little boy who had just fallen unconscious a moment later without any sort of care in the world.
As for what reaction the boy's parents would have, or what his own opinion on the matter was? Beatrice did not particularly care.
As she flew into the air once again and examined the boy, Beatrice couldn't help but shake her head.
"Entirely ordinary from the outside, if not for this, I wouldn't have been able to notice his abnormality even if he stood in front of my face..." mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the stone in her hands, which was currently shining brightly.
...
Several days later,
"Really unexpected, with how thin the Elemental Energy if here, I really didn't expect Golwall Island to be full of so many talented little guys..." mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the five floating children in front of her, causing Selena to slightly nod her head.
"You've done well this time, as for your reward, you can either tell me now if you want something, or contact me in the future, but you shouldn't expect much with the difficulty of this mission," said Selena as she waved her hand, causing the five children to fly towards her.
Hearing Selena's words, Beatrice slightly rolled her eyes.
' 'Shouldn't expect much', don't worry I understand you old hag...' thought as she looked at Selena, causing the latter's eyes to suddenly move.
"Were you thinking of something disrespectful just now?"
"No."
Hearing the response of her little subordinate, Selena couldn't help but shake her head.
"It's very good that you didn't, otherwise your reward might be gone..." said Selena with a a sly smile on her face, causing Beatrice to suddenly freeze.
Seeing this, the smile on Selena's face intensified.
"It really looks like you were thinking of something disrespectful..." mumbled Selena before suddenly flicking Beatrice, who was quite a bit taller than her, on her forehead.
A moment after that, Selena alongside the five children disappeared.