A/N: A couple more chapters to go. Fighting me!! 

GR 17: Meeting the Girl with no Voice (4) 

#Unedited

I finished quickly making the potions and then impatiently turned to stare at the little girl. My inner scale was working quickly. Should I really help her to ‘talk’?

It is quite inconvenient to not be able to communicate properly with the girl. It is more than difficult to keep calling her little girl (It makes me feel so old). I desperately want to know her name so as to save some worry for my mental health. I could have her write her name on the ground but she doesn’t seem to know how to write either. *sigh* Ignorance is really a pain wherever you go. 

I doubt whether there is sign language here. Well, not that I know how to do that either. My way of ‘talking’ for the little girl is different though. 

Would my way of ‘talking’ work for her? 

Getting nervous from my silent stare, the little girl starts to fidget, and her eyes are starting to get wet. Is she perhaps thinking something strange? 

Anyways, after weighing, my scales tells me the issue of proper communication should be a priority, so here goes nothing.   

“Little girl, from now on, answer me with only a nod or shake your head okay?” Noticing the seriousness to my voice, the girl too tensed her body and nodded. 

“You should know that I’m injured right?” The girl nodded again as her eyes turned to look at the bandages I have wrapped around my body.

“We have to make it to town by the latest the day after tomorrow as we have no more food and potions.” The girl’s eyes firmed. 

“And after we make it to town, we have to find someone who can help you send you back to your family too.” This time the girl’s eyes shone a little as she heard the word family.

As I thought, she was kidnapped from her family. ‘Well, not everyone is an orphan like you’ my inner devil sarcastically quipped.  

“However, with my current condition, doing that is going to be very difficult.” My words seemed to have snapped her out of her reverie. 

“That is why I need your help, little girl.” The girl’s usually downwards sight looked up to me in surprise as if she didn’t expect me to say that. I can finally see her beautiful navy eyes start to get some energy in them. 

Seriously, her eyes had looked dead for some time now, and I can pretty much guess the reason. 

“Little girl, do you want to learn to talk?” Just as her eyes starts to lose light again, I dropped the final bomb.

As expected, the girl’s eyes opened wide regaining their liveliness a little. Soon; however, they were filled with confusion after she stared at me, realizing that I was serious. 

“I am not sure if you would be able to do it but at this stage…” 

“You and I have no choice but to do it.” I looked at the changes in her expressions. She is probably thinking and doubting whether it was possible for someone like her, someone as useless as her, would be able to really ‘talk’ or do anything to help. 

Although I can relate to her struggle, I don’t want to force her. This is something she must deal with herself.

Slowly the light in her eyes firmed as she looked into my eyes. She finally gave a powerful nod. 

“Good girl.” I gave a heart-felt smile. She passed. 

“Now that you have decided. I will teach you how you can ‘talk’.” I reached out to hold her hands.

“But first we have to check something out first.” I slowly start to inject my mana into her body starting from her hands. To which she slowly closed her eyes as she felt the warmth it brought to her body. 

I closed my eyes as I focused on regulating my mana inside her body. What I am doing now is called the mana awakening process. Each living creature has inherent mana inside their body from the time they are born.The only difference is the amount of the innate mana. There are two types of innate mana: core mana and inner mana. 

The body would seal some amount of innate mana that it needs to maintain itself. This sealed place of innate mana is called innate core (the mana inside is the core mana). Core mana should never be used because it is the very essence of a living being similar to a soul’s power. It is sometimes believed to be the origin of each person’s mana sea (by the way, mana sea is like the storage facility of mana inside each person, and they are usually somewhere near the heart). 

One has to find both the core mana and mana sea inside their own body in order to start the process of using mana. Finding any one of these places would lead to finding the other as they are connected. 

After the discovery of the innate core and the mana sea, one can finally start to refine inner mana (the normally used mana to make all magical phenomenon) inside the mana sea. 

So this is exactly what I am doing for the girl. I am now using my mana to stimulate her body and helping her discover her innate core and mana sea. 

As my mana moved its round to one of the major arteries near her heart, I found the existence of a blockade. I can feel the girl’s muffled groan of pain. I haven’t even touched it, yet the girl was already experiencing a lot of pain. This is very strange. 

Usually the path to a person’s mana sea or innate core can be narrow but never blocked. Just think about it like this, if the arteries or veins to your heart is blocked then how can your heart be alive? Wouldn’t it and subsequently your whole body rot and die without your blood circulating?

The fact that this little girl is alive and kicking is really a mystery. I would love the doctors back on earth to examine her and tell me how this is possible. 

Anyway, this is a big problem. My way of having her talk requires the use of mana. If she can’t use mana then she would not be able to talk. Then we would have even less chance of making it out of this forest alive. 

At this point, my only choice is to try to break through this blockade. However, one mistake can totally ruin this little girl’s chances of ever using mana again, and judging from her frown and sweat, the pain it will cause is nothing but a terrible nightmare. 

I opened my eyes only to meet the little girl's eyes. As if she knew I was hesitating whether to continue, her eyes were telling me to continue despite it being incredibly dangerous as well as the side effects this might have on her. I guess she really is not as naive as I originally thought.  

Making up my mind to continue, I used my mana to form a small needle of sorts. (Without me noticing, some of my mana split from the mainstream and seeped through the blockade). Then I controlled it to poke one side of the blockade to see what happens. Despite a gruff of pain, nothing much happened but a very small hole was felt and I can feel a bit of dense mana coming from it. It seemed like I found her innate core. 

Very slowly, I repeated the process of poking and slowly the path was cleared. At that moment, the core mana exploded out of her inner core expelling my mana completely out of her body. 

The girl’s body glowed and slowly floated in the air. This is…

The wind blew heavily and I took a step back in response. I can feel the grass and trees all around turning lively. As if they were overjoyed, the leaves and trees rustled to no end. 

This is definitely the phenomenon that happens when a person blessed by spirits awakens their mana. I only heard it from one of my teachers back in the castle. To think I would see it with my own two eyes so soon. 

Damn, this world is full of cheats. It seems this girl is well-liked by the wind spirits and plant spirits. 

Wait a minute, this little girl is beautiful + cheat + tragic backstory, don’t tell me? A (potential) harem member!? 

#1400+ words