「Alー, I want to wash my face, make some hot water.」


  Sitting comfortably on the sofa in the living room, Eleonora-neesan called out to me.

  Looking back, a wooden tub is pushed on to me as if to urge me to make the hot water quickly.

  「……what is Eleonora-neesan’s magic attribute?」


  「It’s fire.」


  As if wondering what is this person saying, she brush her hair with one hand.

  She’s really doesn’t understand the meaning of my question. No, from the start, she just wanted to work me to the bone.

  When I become silent, Eleonora-neesan shrewdly raise her eyebrow and ask 「What’s the matter?」


  Not good. This is a serious matter. It will get increasingly colder this season, and I won’t know how many times I will make hot water for Eleonora-neesan everyday. No, since I am here, the luxury of taking a bath everyday has become popular among the people in the mansion.

  「Why don’t you do it yourself.」


  「It’s troublesome.」


  As if Eleonora-neesan can do it, of course she can not, the wind answer.

  Alfried know it. When Eleonora-neesan is playing with her hair, that gesture means that she is lying, or trying to mislead others. It’s not related to the fact that I am this person brother or anything,but I’ve seen through it all. Then, why not incite her a little.

  「Fuuーn, so you can’t do it?」


  「I can do it! 　And stop making that face, it makes me irritated.」


  「If you can do it, then it’s faster to do it yourself. The truth is that you can not do it yourself so you ask for my help right?」


  「Then, come here and I’ll show you! And stop making that face!」


  「I’m making a serious face right now you know!?」


  What a heartless thing to say. Anyway beside the first teasing expression, the second one should be expressionless. Is my face really that out of shape I wonder?

  「Well then, I’ll show you how, bring some water here.」


  「Please do it outside.」


  「Why!」


  No but, we’ll be in trouble if the mansion caught fire right?

  I left Eleonora-neesan whose shoulder is trembling alone, I walked outside with the tub in my hand.

  I can hear someone shouting, 「Hey!」or 「Waitt!」behind me, but in the end, she’s following me.

  Outside, the dry wind shakes the leaves and branches, and the leaves fell gently and whirled up. The air is cold, the season is approaching winter continually.

  The reason I took the tub with me is so that I can take Eleonora-neesan out, not to use it myself.

  I mean, since it’s impossible to warm up the water in such a small tub, there’s no way for Eleonora-neesan to be able to do such skillful thing.

  So I make a big water ball in the air.

  Should be about one meter in size. It makes a beautiful circle and keep floating in the air.

  It’s surprisingly difficult to maintain the shape, and it is also difficult to move the current of the water.

  Right now, I’m able to make it full circle without it wavering, but when it’s not properly controlled, it became bumpy and irregular in shape, and sometimes it collapsed and I got drenched in. I’m good at moving the water current , but when it came to removing the whole current, it’s difficult. In the Magic Book, it’s written that it is harder to move the water current, but it’s quite the opposite for me. And I’m especially good at tornadoes. But I don’t want to talk about the reason for it.

  Oh well, it’s something that couldn’t be separated from Japan’s daily life anyway. So it’s easy to imagine it.

  Looking at my water ball-technique, Eleonora-neesan only look at it with a strange expression.

  「Why did you create such water?」


  When one doesn’t realize the quality of this magic, one will say that magic are such thing. She didn’t even comment about the absence of the chanting.

  Nah, I guess it’s just because people became used to such thing.

  Maybe she will notice the difference between body strengthening magic with this.

  「No, it’s impossible to suddenly warm the water in the tub.」


  「I can do it!」


  「If you can do it, then adjust the temperature of this water ball to body’s temperature.」


  「How warm is the body temperature?」


  That’s why this muscle-brain.

  「…………」


  「I’ll hit you the next time you make that face again.」


  「Sorry, I won’t do it again. Humans’ body temperature is generally lower than the temperature of a bath, the temperature of the bath is good enough.」


  Since her expression turn into a somewhat dubious look when I said the temperature is approximately lower than the temperature of a bath, so I tell her that using bath temperature is good enough. I mean, there’s no way that Eleonora-neesan would not be able to adjust the temperature by herself.

  「……your real thoughts is leaking out. Fine. I’ll silence that mouth of yours!」


  Eleonora-neesan’s vein is bulging for a moment, but then after that she starts to close her eyes to concentrate.

  Hey, we’re not casting a big magic or something. Oh well, everyone has their own way to concentrate.

  Raising her graceful arm, she point her palm toward the water ball.

  「I ask thee. A small flame that can burn anything.」


  It’s an incantation filled with human’s genuine desire. And as she chant, the magic power is increasing, and her ponytail sways.

  And then, at the same time as she vigorously opened her eyes, a flame appear.

  The howling flame rush out to hit the water ball directly.

  And then, with a burble (bokoboko2), the water ball heated up in the blink of an eye.

  「Da, dangerous!」


  At this rate, the high-temperature water will scatter around, and it will fall onto us. I thoroughly diffuse my magic power to the water ball immediately to stabilize it. I wrapped Eleonora-neesan’s magic power with mine, with more than her amount of magic power, gently.

  After that, the water ball became stable without any whirlpool. But the water is still boiling since the temperature is not lowered yet.

  I broke out in a cold sweat because of the abrupt, emergency situation. I hold my hand against my chest involuntarily and breathe out. However, Eleonora-neesan simply put her hands on her waist and declare.

  「Please confirm the temperature.」


  「I’ll get scalded!」


  After all, this water ball’s temperature is not like the normal hot water bath temperature, so I’ll just throw it away.

  ×　　　　　　×　　　　　　×

  「And? What do you want to say?」


  「Just have a bad day today.」


  Till the end, can you really not accept being unable to make a hot water.

  Very well. We’ll try something more basic the next one. Yeah. If you can’t do even that, the you should just admit it.

  「Then next is that.」


  I said while pointing at the thing at the corner of the field.

  At the direction my finger points, are a large number or firewood piled up.

  「……firewood? Should I light it up? 」


  Oya, it’s good that Eleonora-neesan understand.

  「That’s right. The basic of the basic thing to do is to light fire to it. Even the villager’s uncle Roland can do it three times a day!」


  「If that pervert can do it, there’s no way I can not do such thing.」


  So pitiful, Ossan. Though it’s unexpected that Eleonora-neesan knew him. Even so, a pervert she says…


  While I laughed at Ossan, Eleonora-neesan came while bringing with her firewood that has been cut into a neat size. And while I lined them up, I also gather some fallen leaves and grass suitable for burning and place them on top of the firewood.

  I can’t say for sure if the firewood will be moist later.

  After the firewood has been arranged, Eleonora-neesan closes her eyes again.

  「Just set fire to it. It’s okay even if you lit a small spark of it.」


  「I understand.」


  You don’t have to answer that loud.

  Since she will probably point her magic at me if I say anymore than this, so I decided to keep quiet.

  Likewise, her chant also came out from her mouth. Slowly, and even more carefully than before.The movement of her magic power is also somewhat slower than before. Can she do it this time?

  「A small flame.」


  「……ah.」


  The magic is controlled quite satisfactory, no, the magic swelled out in the end. As a result, the moment the fire headed to the firewood burst with extreme heat, it disappeared immediately.

  It was an extremely dangerous flames reminding one of that Flambe’s for cooking.

  At the last moment, Eleonora-neesan fail to discharge the magic in time.

  There is something carbonized lying down in front of us.

  「Even less than that pervert.」


  That phrase seems effective for Eleonora-neesan, and she should accept the fact that she can’t handle fire magic well.

  ×　　　　　×　　　　　×

  「That’s why I said it’s good enough like this.」


  In order to show an example for Eleonora-neesan who become a bit obedient, I lit a small fire on the firewood.

  「So skilful. It’s always on my mind, but what happened with the chanting?」


  「You’ll get used to it.」


  「Is, is that so?」


  That’s something that can’t be conveyed with words anymore. In any case, if you use magic all day long, you would be able to do it somehow. And after that, you just need to continue doing it for a few years.

  「Well then, I’ll try to refine the magic power once so look carefully.」


  After saying that, I close my eyes. As Eleonora-neesan is not accustomed to the use magic, so she concentrate like this. She wouldn’t need to do this eventually, but it’s still a long time in the future.

  「Mmh, like this?」


  「Too big. It’s fine to make it smaller.」


  「How about this much?」


  「That’s too small.」


  「Then, how about this??」


  「Too big. Yes, reduce it slowly from that much. Till I said otherwise.」


  「…………」


  「That’s it Stop!　Maintain that for a minute!」


  「Eee!　One minute like this!?」


  「Eh?　It’s easier to maintain it than practice-swinging for a minute right?　I mean you just stand there and all.」


  「Rather than doing such a elaborate work, it’s easier to practice with a sword!　――uwaaaa.」


  「Horahora 5, your magic power become unstable.」


  Eleonora-neesan is desperate to only maintain the magic power. In spite of only standing there with her eyes closed, her expression is grim.

  I can’t believe that it’s easier to do practice swinging, rather than maintaining magic power.

  I can do this while lying down and reading a book.

  Since I got some spare time on my hand while watching Eleonora-neesan, I throw a fireball to the air and turn it round and round like Otedama.6

  Well, controlling magic power is all about the feeling, it’s not something that can be told to others.

  To begin with, it’s strange that you can’t even use basic fire magic, when you can use body strengthening magic and cladding your sword with magic.

  「……to be honest, Al’s magic is truly amazing.」


  「Nn? 　It’s still not a minute yet is it?」


  「I know!」


  What are you being irritable about. Oh well, guess it’s fine.

  At the same time as one minute has passed, the fireball is launched to the sky.

  「That’s it, you can stop.」


  「Haa……」


  「What are you being exhausted for? C’mon, if you don’t apply it right away, you’ll forget the feeling you know?」


  「……gununu, I’ll do it right now.」


  Feeling frustrated, Eleonora-neesan grit her teeth and went to concentrate again.

  You’re not a wild animal, so don’t show that kind of intimidating pose.

  Eleonora-neesan took a deep breath to relax, then shaping the magic power slowly.

  As expected, thanks to the sword practice, her ability to concentration is amazing. Her expression can be said to be the personification of seriousness.

  At the beginning, the shape of her magic power is a bit unsteady, but now it’s stable.

  「I ask thee. A small flame tha――」


  There is no wavering in her magic as she chants, and is kept at a fixed size. Next is whether she can keep holding it until she release the magic.

  「A small, tiny flame.」The moment she finished chanting the last word, a small popping sound was heard and a small fire started on the firewood.

  「I did it! 　I can do it!」


  Looking childish than her usual self, Eleonora-neesan is pleased with a big smile on her face.

  She was so happy that she hug me vigorously.

  And instead of her usual dignified look, there’s a smile of a twelve years old on her face.

  「I did it!　This is the first time I can do it!　……ah.」


  Seeing my face in front of her, Eleonora-neesan began to calm down and stop moving.

  「Well, congratulations.」


  「A, ah, this is something simple for someone like me.」


  Eleonora-neesan lowered me down slowly while talking quickly. Although she said that, her cheeks are dyed red, and her mouth is loose.

  Seeing such Eleonora-neesan, I thought secretly that she’s cute.

  Well, I should say that to be able to grasp that feeling that fast would be too quick for her. If it’s like this, then she should be able to do the next step.

  「Now that you can make such a weak fire, you can try making hot water for bath water.」


  「Ok. I’ll try again later.」


  That day, Sylvio-niisan got a slight burn when he washes his face.