*****

"I see now," Syr said in a compassionate tone, having just been informed of Abhi's circumstances. She gazed at the child with a look of pity.

Upon noticing Syr's gaze, Abhi simply smiled, then returned her attention to the coins she had been given, trying to determine their worth as May used her fingers to teach her.

Taking advantage of the opportunity earlier, Anya, being her usual self, shouted at Mia, "Get back to work!" and destroyed the special moment the two had been sharing to give Mia a taste of her own medicine.

Currently, she is tasked to wash the dishes. For. The. Rest. Of. The. Month. Which isn't that long considering there's only a week left, but the message was surely conveyed.

On the side were Mia and Syr thinking up a new recipe to maybe lure in more customers because now that they're having a new member, they need to earn more to be able to feed her until she's able to work. From the looks of her, she's around seven to eight years old, that is unless she is a pallum which is unlikely, considering the fact that she had features belonging to the cat people.

"Say, why not have her stand in front of the store with a sign to attract customers? She's cute enough to bring in a lot of business. Or mayhaps have her work as a waitress like us?" May suggested as she stacked coins for Abhi to count. "Or maybe she could do simple tasks like bringing used utensils back to the kitchen to be cleaned? We could let her do any of those instead of coming up with another recipe."

"Don't talk as if we didn't think of that. We're just trying to come up with a fail-safe in case she doesn't meet expectations. Plus, we'll be able to prepare for the future as well," Mia explained, looking at May and Abhi before continuing her conversation with Syr. After a moment of thought, Syr said, "I think we could try May's suggestion. Little Abhi could hold a sign and sit outside, using her cuteness to attract customers without having to speak. Doesn't it sound good enough?"

"But what if some bastards bother her? She won't be able to understand what they're saying! Then those people might also take her silence as consent or think that she's ignoring them. I don't want my child to encounter any of those bunch!" Mia said firmly.

Syr and May sweated at Mia's statement, noticing that she had quickly become attached to Abhi despite only adopting her no more than an hour ago. However, it was no surprise, as Mia was known as "Mama Mia" for a good reason.

They spent the rest of the night discussing what Abhi could do to contribute to the restaurant. At one point, Anya, who had finished with the dirty dishes, even suggested that Abhi should not be given any tasks. Mia seriously considered this idea before it was interrupted by Abhi, who held out a handful of coins and happily declared, "Ten thousand Valis!" With that, it was decided that Abhi would be responsible for the cashier duties and would be taught about the menu items and their prices.

The next morning, when Mia went to wake up Abhi, she noticed something strange and rushed into her room. The inside was a breathtaking sight, with magic filling the room in high amounts and density. However, that was not the most impressive aspect of the room.

Inside the room, rocks covered in ice crystals shone with different colors and were swirling around in circles, driven by the wind. Water flowed and floated in a spherical shape, and fire ignited and extinguished in the air. The floor had turned dark as if it absorbed light, and in the middle of it all, Abhi was floating, staring at her hands and the spectacle she had created.

Mia didn't know what was happening with Abhi, but she knew she needed to get her out of that phenomenon. Using her strength and speed, she quickly picked up Abhi and carried her out of the room. It became apparent that the phenomenon was caused by Abhi, as the crystals and water followed them and continued their previous movements even as they left the room.

Mia didn't know what to do, but then the phenomenon stopped. She had a good idea of what had happened and immediately looked at Abhi, who was now peacefully sleeping in her arms with a slightly pale face. "Mind down…," she murmured.

Mia took Abhi to her own room and laid her down, then went to talk to the others about what had just happened. Abhi woke up shortly after, feeling confused but also amazing. It was as if she had been standing her whole life and had just sat in a premium massage chair. She had never actually used one, but she thought the feeling was similar.

Abhi's first thought was that what she experienced was magic. After all, she was in a different world, so something like magic wasn't so far-fetched. She sat up and held her hands in front of her, trying to remember the feeling she had earlier when something seemed to flow out of her heart, through her arms, and out of her hands. She also felt the same sensation in the rest of her body but on a smaller scale. She wanted to try and replicate the feeling, but only for her hands unlike earlier, not her whole body.

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Before long, water swirled around her right hand, leaving behind shiny ice particles, while a blazing rock covered in blue flames and leaving a beautiful black trail hovered over her left hand. Abhi's eyes shone with excitement as she realized that she was not just witnessing this phenomenon, but also using it – something that everyone in her previous world had probably dreamed of at least once in their life!

Excitedly, Abhi jumped off the bed and stood up, twirling and jogging around as she played with the fascinating trail of magic her hands were producing. This was probably the happiest she had been in three and a half decades! She couldn't imagine anything better than this!

As she played, a thought occurred to her: maybe she could create a flaming sword using fire? After all, it didn't seem to hurt her when she accidentally touched it while playing. It was every boy's dream! To wield a sword made out of fire!

With a thought, the effects on her right hand disappeared as she focused on her left hand. She made the rock float between her hands and, using what she had just learned, imagined the fire extending and the rock shaping into a sword hilt. Within a second, she succeeded! The fire perfectly took the shape of a sword while she held onto the now-turned-hilt rock.

Abhi was fascinated and wanted to do more, but as she was about to create another sword to dual wield, the door opened and Mia appeared with an angry expression. Abhi immediately became terrified and the fire sword in her hands disappeared, the stone hilt crumbling. She had a hard time deciding where to look, trying to avoid Mia's gaze as tears formed in her eyes. She was afraid that Mia might kick her out of the house now. It was only fair – who would want a child who could casually make fire inside their house, especially in a business building?

Abhi didn't know what to do. She thought the easiest thing would be to apologize, so she slowly tried to lower her head to the ground as she struggled to say "Sorry," stuttering heavily and forgetting that they wouldn't understand. But before she could even put her hands on the ground, Mia kneeled in front of her and held her shoulders, preventing her from bowing further. Abhi looked at Mia's kind eyes and resolved to do better. She had made a mistake and wouldn't do it again. She understood that Mia trusted her to do so, and she will.

After seeing the look in Abhi's eyes, Mia nodded and lifted her up. Abhi felt relieved, as it seemed she wasn't going to be kicked out of the house just yet.

They walked downstairs, where everyone was gathered. The doors were still closed, even though it was already time for work to start. Abhi was confused but soon realized that they might be discussing what had happened earlier and now went to get her.

Abhi felt bad that she was delaying their work and causing them to miss out on making money. Not knowing what else to do, she tried to impress them by recreating the phenomenon she had produced earlier. She was sure they would find it beautiful. After being put down, she produced the same thing with her right hand and showed it to them, earning surprised expressions and a satisfied feeling. However, she was immediately met with a bonk on the head from Mia. She didn't show them the fire one – it was dangerous and she didn't want to end up burning anything. It was a miracle she didn't do so earlier when it accidentally happened or when she was playing around.

Unknown to Abhi, everyone in the room was more surprised than they appeared. This girl had just used magic without saying any words or incantations, and without having a falna or any visible grimoires. As far as Mia knew, this was something that had never happened before – at least, not that anyone was aware of.

However, looking at Abhi's happy and smug expression, it seemed like she didn't realize the gravity of what she had just done. It was a good thing they had decided not to open yet for business today because if anyone saw this, the already thick rumors about her would only get more intense and would certainly bring unwanted attention from a certain group of troublesome people.

They tried to convey to Abhi that she should not perform magic in front of anyone other than them, using gestures and broken language. In the end, Abhi understood and nodded with a solemn expression. She understood that her actions were unusual and could cause trouble, so she would only use her magic in an emergency.

Mia and the others were happy with this and opened the door to find a large number of people calmly and neatly lined up beside the road. Mia was pleased to see this, as it seemed her constant nagging and punching had paid off. They were able to serve all the customers who came their way. Abhi struggled a lot to do her part, but she was fine with Mia by her side at the counter.

The people also forgave her, as she was doing her best, many of them realized her situation and told others who didn't know to help out the little girl as well. They were happiest that she didn't make any mistakes in taking orders, even though it was a bit delayed. Overall, her performance for the day was not bad, especially for someone who didn't know the language and was doing the job for the first time.

The day and night work had concluded, and they were all now sitting at a table discussing what to do with Abhi. The girl in question was playing around with her ice, making uncannily detailed figures of everyone in the room, unknowingly showcasing a masterful control of her ability. First, there was her inability to speak the language, and now this ability to use magic that defies all common sense.

This girl seemed to keep causing trouble. What would happen tomorrow? They even joked that she might start flying. Mia had even forgotten that Abhi was floating a meter off the ground when she first witnessed her using magic.

Noticing everyone's strange looks, Abhi looked up and saw everyone staring at her curiously. She lowered the figures floating in the air under the table and gave them an embarrassed smile. Seeing this, everyone just sighed. This girl is such a mystery, seriously.

*****