Later I realized that my parents also wanted to help and it wasn’t only because of my request, I mean, I knew that already, but I guess they wanted to mention it to me.

Since now that the three of us had decided that we’d take her in, we slowly started letting her in on our meals everyday, occasionally chatting with her. Though it was hard, as she was very conserved, eventually she started talking.

And today I was taking her out, since Vira wanted to introduce her to his friends.

For some reason she gets really cold outside, ... even though it’s spring. I don’t really understand why, but because of that mom had to sew a coat that could fit her using dad’s old clothes. I’d say she looks pretty cute in that. She looks like... my.. Daughter... I had a daughter..? I don’t remember...

Ah well, can’t do anything now can I?

“Vira... are you okay..?” she asked me.

“Ah.. yeah, I am, what’s up?”

“Nothing.. You just looked... a bit sad.”

“Ah no, it’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“Okay.”

I still had to hold her hands since she might not be up to walking too far, since she’s just started recovering well.

“Oy! Vira, over ‘ere!”

「Oh, that’s Jacy right, Vira?」

Jacy’s a short kid with a bowl cut, he has a very squeaky voice, but he’s a good kid nonetheless.

「Yep, uncle!」

「Oh yeah, you can take control now.」

「Okay!」

“Hey guys!”

“Ah, who’s the girl?” It was rocky who asked, he’s a kid who looks kind of intimidating but he’s well... I think he’s a good kid..? I’m not too sure actually.

“She’s a friend.” Vira said it with a smiling face, but the aggression in his voice could be audibly heard.

“I don’t think I’ve seen her around here...”

“Like I said, she’s a friend.”

I didn’t think Vira would be this aggressive... But that’s better for us, honestly she’s dealing with a lot already, I wouldn’t have brought her here, I only did it because Vira asked for it. But if he’s willing to take it this far, then it’s all good.

「You can stop now Vira, he’s getting uncomfortable.」

「Okay uncle!」

“Sheesh, I get it already, chill out man.”

“Okay then!”

“Stella, this is Jacy, and this is rocky. And guys, this is Stella, she’s a friend I made recently, and she’s living with us right now.”

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“Oh cool, I’m Rocky. I like playing catchy-catch.”

“My name’s Jacy, and I like playing tag!”

“A-ah... M-my name’s Stella, and I like to r-read books...”

“Ah damn... I really want to learn how to read books, but I probably won’t use it anytime.” It was Rocky who said that, he had an expression that showed regret.

“Well, you won’t ever need it either!” It was Jacy who said that.

“You!” Rocky pinched his cheeks.

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Let go!”

In the end though, Stella didn’t play much, but they all talked to each other and it was fun seeing her get along with the others.

----------------------------------------

Today, Stella was accompanying me to dad’s office. Mom said it was okay for her to come with, since she’s always staying cooped up in the house.

Like usual I sat down on the floor and picked up the magic book and continued to read it. But this time Stella sat next to me looking at what I was reading.

“This is a basic fire spell.” It then showed a circle with a symbol in the middle.

“Hak, how do I make this spell work?” I really wanted to at least try this out once, I’ve not seen magic activate up till now and I became really curious with how it would look.

“Hm... Usually you’d need mana, young master.”

“Oh...”

“But, we could also use mana stones, what do you say, do you want to try?” I’ve heard of mana stones from mom, but I haven’t seen them before. Apparently they are extremely cheap but since they are mostly used in higher society, most common people don’t know how to use them.

“Sure!”

Hak then went to his table and took out a tiny box from his drawer, he opened it with a key and took out a stone from within, it was blue in color and it was glowing.

“This, young master, is a mana stone.”

“I see...”

Hak also had a piece of paper and a pen.

“Young master, how about you try making the spell?”

“Really? Are you sure? It won’t-”

“It’s not a problem, I’ll check the spell to make sure it is correct.”

“Okay...”

Taking the pen, I copied the spell from the textbook, and it came out pretty well.

“I’m impressed.. Young master... You did it perfectly.”

“Thanks.” I was a bit embarrassed but I was also happy that he liked it.

“Now then, let’s use the mana stone shall we?”

“Okay!”

He took the paper, and drew a line coming out of the circle and connected it to another circle.

“Young master, this is a way to allow energy into the spell, usually we’d put in a way to control the energy output, but right now since we have a low energy mana stone, we can just directly put energy into it.”

“I see, so how do you determine whether a manastone is low energy or not?”

“Well, that’s... You’d need to feel mana for that...”

“Oh..” I said with regret. Hm..? Hak seems sad... Wait, is it because I can’t use magic?

“Ah, it’s fine Hak, just tell me what we’re gonna do now.”

“Understood, young master.”

“Now we’ll place the mana stone here... And there we go!”

As soon as he placed the mana stone within the circle, a flame was formed above the paper. It was small but it wasn’t exactly tiny, although it was blue in color... does this mean it’s a pure flame? Usually we’d have firewood and whatnot, but since only the mana is burning right now, I’m guessing the flame is pure.

“Akni...” It was Stella who said so while looking at the flame.

“What did you say?” It was Hak who said so.

“Akni..?”

“You can read that symbol?!”

She seemed a bit scared.

“Hak, what happened?”

“Ah! I’m sorry young master, it was just that she was able to read the symbol and so I wanted to ask...”

I went near Hak and whispered in his ears, “She seems a bit scared right now, so we’ll ask her about it later.”

“Understood young master.”

I then walked back home with her.