GR 18 Talking 

 

#Unedited

 

The commotion with the mana awakening slowly calmed down and so did my wandering imagination. 

 

Yes, she might be one of the harem members in the future. Even a dog or cat in the neighborhood can be one considering that there are beastmen in this fantasy world. It's a bit far fetched but (Grimoire Knights) was exactly this kind of game. 

 

You have so much freedom as to choose your party members to train or grow stronger together. In the end, it all depends on the choices of that idiot Shelton.  

 

If you ask me if I would still teach her how to talk 

then my answer is yes. I can't always be avoiding things related to the original game. Moreover, the situation now is pressing enough. Even if it was not the case, I'd still decide the same thing. I just honestly want to help her. 

 

Anyways, the little girl opens her eyes and looks at her hands as she felt the mana flow in her body. I can tell that she is feeling extremely refreshed right now. The feeling akin to as if you have finally gotten better after a super persistent runny nose that lasted over ten years. 

 

Even the way her bare feet touches the ground must feel absolutely stunning especially since she was blessed with the spirits of nature.

 

The little girl ran towards me in fast-paced steps but then stopped about one or two steps in front of me. She then gave a ninety-degree bow as if showing her gratitude for me. I can feel her sincerity in her bow.

“It’s okay. Don’t thank me yet.” I said as I reached my hand to pet her soft-looking navy hair.

The girl looked up and I could see her eyes glimmering with hope. After all, it’s time to teach her to talk. I led the girl into sitting down as it seemed like this would take an extremely long time. I don’t think I could sleep early tonight as the sun had set already, but it’d still be worth it if we could communicate by tomorrow.

Actually, my way of having her talk is by no means original or anything. It was for her to ‘talk’ by using mana the same way I carve my runes in the air. By concentrating mana onto one’s fingertips and extreme focus, one can bring form to mana even if only briefly. That is how one writes runes or so I was taught.

“Listen well, I don’t know if this would work but try to focus and I mean really ‘focus’ mana into your index fingertips.”

“It’s okay to fail for the first few times. Everyone needs lots of try to be able to control mana so delicately. Not to mention, this is your first time using mana.”

“Hold on, you are using too much mana!” *spark*

“See if you focus too much mana and forcing it in your fingertips it would go berserk and hurt your finger, so be careful!”

*spark* *spark* *spark*

“Don’t force it! Your finger might get blown away you know!”

“…”

“…”

…

By the time I came to again, it’s already the morning of the next day. I think I barely got a wink of sleep last night. Fortunately, the pain in my rib is more bearable than yesterday.

I slowly sit up and ready to start my daily morning routine of washing up and re-applying the area with some monster-repelling grass, but my lower body is strangely heavy. As my eyes start to focus, I can see that the extra weight on my stomach was a blue head followed by a neck and small body curled to the side.

It seems like this girl took my tummy as a pillow all night. No wonder I dreamt about my guts being hit hard by Shelton’s basketball. It was not without precedence.

 The girl slowly wakes up as she felt movements from her nightly pillow. She probably saw my dead face as her face flushed and she quickly got up in a fluster.

 

Yes, yes. You are cute but I’m not ready to raise any flags. I let out a sigh as I got up to do my morning routine but this time with the little girl following along.

It’s a good habit to maintain hygiene even in a forest, you know. As a modern person with knowledge about germs and so on, it irks me not to be at least a little cleaner. *cough* But I’m not that excessive with my washing routine either since some smell is still unavoidable considering we’re in a situation where we haven’t taken a proper bath for days. Don’t remind me about it. I hadn’t imagined that I’d be leading a Ta*z*n life at this point in my life either.

I shivered as if I’d been hinted something about my future life. No, no, let’s stop thinking about such things.

 

*Growl* *Growl*

The sound came out from both of our stomachs reminding me that it was time for breakfast. I took out some dried food and also a pot from my space bag.

“Can you go and gather some firewood? I want to make herbal stew to help with digesting yesterday’s meat.” I said to the little girl as I start to make preparations taking out the ingredients. The mushrooms from yesterday and some Yuga grass should help enough as the main ingredients, but the taste would be lacking. Let’s use the bones from yesterday’s hunted deer to contribute to the taste.

I suddenly felt a sign of mana as I quickly turned my head to the source.

[Ok] Bright green letters were glowing in the air and so was the girl’s fingertips.

“You succeeded!?” I shouted in surprise. The little girl laughed and drew another line of symbols.

[Yes]

“That’s great!” I also laughed happily with the girl as I went to give her a pat on the head. With this, we can earnestly aim on getting out of this forest now.

After that little joyful interaction, the little girl went into the forest to gather firewood for our stew.

I too poor my summoned water into the pot and heated it a little with mana as I prepare the other ingredients. After that I stretched my body a little as I waited for the firewood to boil the water.

At that moment, I finally noticed the ground around where we sat down on yesterday. There were countless markings literally everywhere. It took me no time to recognize that they were the symbols I taught the girl last night. Symbols I came up with to establish a simple conversation with the girl.

You’d probably guessed but just now the girl didn’t write letters, but symbols that meant {Ok} and {yes}. Thinking that it’d be almost impossible for the girl to learn to read and write in a single night. I had taught her symbols instead. Those that would be needed for minimal communications of course such as [Yes], [No], [hungry], [be careful], [danger], [left], [right], [front], [back], [people], [monster], [town], [hurts], and [happy] or [sad]. Enough symbols for daily communication, really. Still, I can see how much practice she did from all the markings on the ground. She must have been practicing all night.

 

My heart grew warm thinking of how hard she’d practiced to be able to talk. Remembering her lively eyes when she wrote her first lines of words (symbols), I realized something.

Perhaps, I’d taken something for granted all this time. That something was the blessing of being able to talk, to convey my feelings and intentions. I was so used to being alone, and being understood by the people in my previous life that I’d never spent all my efforts to arguing and fighting for my feelings to be heard. 

Maybe, things wouldn’t have turned out this way with Enri and Shelton, had I tried harder to speak out my feelings instead of just bottling them up. I’d kept my habit of making light of my own feelings and prioritizing others’ over my own.

 

In a way, I was quite stubborn. I’d insisted on doing everything on my own not wanting Enri or Shelton to help me. Was it really because they are the original’s protagonist and rival character respectively that I’d gradually closed them off from me? Had I really tried to open myself up to them with all my walls down?

I continued reflecting all my actions ever since we were summoned to this world as I made the stew after the little girl brought back a bunch of firewood.

As we drank the soup in silence, the little girl suddenly ran to my side and starts to write something. 

Slowly, letters in the language of this world, ones I had not taught her formed.

[Miura]

“Miura…”  I slowly read it out loud as the girl gestured repeatedly between the line of letters and herself.

“Ah, I see, so your name is Miura.” The girl- no Miura nodded repeatedly as I called her name.

“okay, Miura. My name is Rika. Please take care of me.” I called her name as I remembered I had not told her my name even though we’d been travelling together for a while now.

Finishing breakfast, we got ready for the final journey out of this bitter forest. With renewed energy and a new friend, it feels like my journey would be okay once again.