041: Making Hot Water

October 11, 2020 - 9 minutes read - 1810 words

“Bro, I want to wash my face, make me some hot water.” Eleanora

While I was relaxing on the living room sofa, Eleanora came up to me. She sticks an empty tub out for me to put the hot water in.

“What’s your magic attribute Eleanora?” Al

“Fire” Eleanora

She swishes her hair with one hand, as if my question didn’t matter. When I didn’t get to making the water, Eleanora cocks her head to the side.

This could turn into a serious issue. In the winter season, where it’s always cold, I’ll be called to make hot water every day for Eleanora. I’m already making bath water every day, this would be on top of that.

“If you want it, do it yourself” Al

“It’s too annoying for me” Eleanora

So Eleanora could do it, but doesn’t want to, really? But I’ve picked up on some of her habits, when she messes with her hair, she’s trying to mislead. Because I’m her younger brother, I have to learn these things.

“Hmm, have you tried?” Al

“I can do it, don’t make that face, I can actually do it.” Eleanora

“If you can, wouldn’t it be faster to do it yourself. You’re asking because you can’t do it, aren’t you?” Al

“Then I’ll show you! Don’t look so surprised!” Eleanora

“Fine, let’s see it.” Al

What’s she on about with my face. The first time was exaggerated, but the second should have been expressionless?

“Ok, I’ll show you. Add some water to the tub” Eleanora

“Let’s go outside” Al

“Why?!” Eleanora

We’re not doing it inside, I don’t want to catch the mansion on fire. I walked out the nearest door while a trailing Eleanora was saying things like “Hey!” or “Wait!”.

Outside, the dry wind shakes the trees, dropping brown leaves. The air is getting cold as winter comes closer and closer. I put the tub down on the ground. I don’t want to be holding it when Eleanora has a critical failure trying to heat the water.

I created a large water ball in the air of around a meter in diameter. I force it to a beautiful sphere and keep it floating. It’s unexpectedly difficult to persist a water ball in a spherical shape and force the water to circulate. For now, it’s a spherical shape, but if I couldn’t keep control it would turn bumpy, distort, or even collapse and flood whatever is under it. I’m good at inner motion using magic, but the tradeoff for that talent is that I can’t stop it from flowing. According to the magic book, flowing water is considered an advanced technique, but I’m the reverse. I seem to be especially good at making Tornadoes using Wind Magic, guess why?

Well, maybe I was affected by the hustle and bustle of my Japanese life. I could see that being the reason.

Once I made the water ball, Eleanora gave me a weird look.

“How did you just make the water ball?” Eleanora

So you’re ignoring the quality of the water ball and have fixated on the fact that I didn’t chant anything. I’ve done this plenty of times and don’t need to chant anymore. Don’t you do the same with body strengthening?

“So, can you start warming the water now?” Al

“Ok, I’ll prove I can do it” Eleanora

“Sounds good, warm the water ball up to skin temperature.” Al

“How warm is that?” Eleanora

Huh? How can you not know what skin temperature is?

“…” Al

“If you keep making that face, I’ll hit you.” Eleanora

“Sorry, I won’t make it anymore. Skin temperature is a little lower than the normal bath temperature, but bath temperature would work also.” Al

I’d like her to aim for a lower temperature as I’ve seen her have issues with overshooting the goal temperature previously.

“Let’s get going then, I’ll do it.” Eleanora

At that point Eleanora closes her eyes and starts to concentrate. That’s not good, you shouldn’t concentrate that much for this, we’re not doing Grand Magic here. Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and say it’s her method of fine control.

She raises her arms and points at the water ball.

“I seek a small flame that burns anything” Eleanora

A spell born from the wish of a pure person. As she recites the words, her magical energy is concentrated as her ponytail sways. When she opens her eyes, flames burst into existence. The flames hit the water ball with a roar. The water ball starts to boil, making it much harder to keep under control.

“No, No!” Al

If I can’t keep this under control, the water will splash onto us and scald us. I increase my magic power to stabilize the water ball, it’s still boiling, but not about to collapse.

“Check the temperature” Eleanora demands as she puts her hand on her waist.

“I’ll get burned, it’s bubbling!” Al

I couldn’t drop the temperature of this water ball, so I had to discard it.

“What were you trying with that flame spell?” Al

“It got out of hand, just a mistake” Eleanora

You didn’t want to accept you can’t make hot water, so you concentrated too much and went way too far? Fine, let’s go for something simpler and less dangerous instead. Yup, let’s try again and if she can’t do it I’ll just make the hot water.

“Ok, let’s try something else” Al

I pointed at a large amount of firewood piled up.

“Let’s grab some firewood, can you light a fire?” Al

“Sure” Eleanora

Oh, good. Eleanora understands the task.

“That’s right, it’s a rudimentary task to light a fire. Even farmer Roland, a villager, can light a small file three times in a day.” Al

“It’s not like I’m that bad, right?” Eleanora

Poor Roland, even Eleanora looks down on him. While I was laughing, Eleanora split some firewood to a smaller size. While she was arranging the firewood, I grabbed some leaves and sticks to make the firewood easier to light. I won’t have her make the excuse that the wood was too damp to light. Once the firewood is setup, Eleanora closes her eyes to concentrate, again.

“You don’t need much magic to light the fire, the flame can be the size of a pinky.” Al

“I know” Eleanora

Don’t speak as if you’re under duress, but I shouldn’t antagonize Eleanora too much. I don’t want to be the recipient of a wayward spell.

“I seek a small flame” Eleanora

“… Ah” Al

It started out being smoothly controlled, but the magic power increased exponentially at the end. As a result, the small flame suddenly burned the firewood in a instant so it all turned to ash. It was an extremely dangerous flame reminiscent of a volcano.

We’re left with ash and carbonized remains where there was previously firewood.

“I’m worse than a pervert” Eleanora

It seems Eleanora has accepted she has poor control of Fire Magic.

“That’s why you need to practice” Al

I created a small flame on some new firewood as an example for Eleanora. She seems more receptive now.

“You’re so nimble, why do I never hear you chanting?” Al

“I’ve practiced over and over” Eleanora

“Really, that’s how you do it?” Al

I’m not sure how to explain how much I practice magic. I’ve wondered if I could use magic all day long someday, maybe in a few years?

“Then, you try to control your magic power.” Al

When I say that, she closes her eyes. Eleanora doesn’t do much magic practice, so she closes her eyes to concentrate more. I haven’t done that in a long time, but she’ll need more practice before she can drop it.

“What about this?” Eleanora

“It’s a bit big, try to make it smaller”

“How about now?” Eleanora

“It’s too small now” Al

“Ok, now?” Eleanora

“A bit too big again, try to slowly reduce it and I’ll tell you when to stop” Al

“…” Eleanora

“Yes, stop! Keep it at this size for a minute” Al

“A whole minute?!” Eleanora

“Eh? Isn’t it easier than swinging a sword for a minute? You don’t have to move around?” Al

“It’s easier to swing a sword that this delicate work! Ugh” Eleanora

“Oh, the magical power is distorting” Al

Eleanora is desperately trying to maintain the magic power. Despite having her eyes closed, I can tell she’s focusing on the task. I can’t believe it’s easier to swing a sword than to maintain this magic. I could lie down while reading a book and maintain it.

Since I’m just watching Eleanora, I make a fireball and start bouncing it around like a beanbag. Controlling magic is about the correct feeling, so it’s a hard skill to teach. It’s strange Eleanora can’t control rudimentary Fire Magic when she can use Body Strengthening and using Magic Edge on her sword.

“I wonder if Al is really talented in magic” Eleanora

“Hmm? It’s not been a minute yet” Al

“I know!” Eleanora

What are you thinking about? Well, keep working. A minute after she made the fireball, she fired it off into the sky.

“Ok, finished” Al

“Ah…” Eleanora

“What are you thinking? You’ll need to keep practicing if you want to get good control? Otherwise, you’d just forget the feeling.” Al

“Grrrr… I’ll do it again” Eleanora

Why is she grinding her teeth? Well, let’s go again. It’s not a wild animal, don’t get so caught up.

Eleanora takes a deep breath and slowly focuses her magic energy. As expected, she does have some magic control from her body strengthening activities. Before, she had problems with the control, but it’s more stable now.

“I beseech, burn anything…” Eleanora

Even while chanting, she’s got the right power this time. Can she keep control until it is released this time?

“A small little flame” Eleanora

The moment she finished the chant, the firewood made a popping sound and a small fire started.

“Yeah! I did it!” Eleanora

Eleanora acts more childish than usual while celebrating her success. I was happy too, I hugged her. Instead of her normal refined expression, I got to see a happy 12-year-old girl.

“Yeah! I finally did it right! Ah” Eleanora

Eleanora stopped moving when she realized what her expression was.

“Well, congratulations” Al

“Well, it’s easy if you ask me…” Eleanora

Eleanora releases me, that said, my cheeks are red and I’m smiling. I’ll keep it a secret, but happy Eleanora is cute.

Well, it true that it’s not that hard to get a feel for this kind of Fire Magic.

“Now that you have better control of your Fire Magic, you can try making hot water.” Al

“Yeah, I’ll try later” Eleanora

Is seems Silvio got a slight burn from washing his face later that day.