Time for practice

 
 “Wait a minute. You said practice, but what kind of practice are we doing?”
 
 After my sudden declaration to 『practice』, Theo asked so with a bewildered expression.
 
 I pointed at his chest.
 
 “It’s practice to remove that spider. I thought of various things last night, but I’ll be needing your help after all. ——— in order to increase the chances of success even slightly.”
 
 “That’s fine, but… what exactly are you talking about?”
 
 “You’ll do training to control the magic power within your body yourself. ——— last night, we spoke about how the spider sucks up your magic power, and returns it, right?”
 
 “Yeah. So every time, you used those teddybears to suppress the rampaging magic power.”
 
 Theo looked down, glancing at Coco and Mel who were at my waist.
 I nodded at his words.
 
 “Right. However, even though the magic power I suppress is huge, the magic power you yourself possess is quite a lot, so I can’t always suppress the waves completely. In fact, you’re still in quite a bit of pain when having those seizures, right?”
 
 “… I guess so.”
 
 Theo looked down at his hands.
 
 “I’ll explain the detailed procedure properly later, but in order to detach the spider, I’d like to reduce the disturbance of magic power even more than what we’re doing now.”
 
 “In other words, you want me to do the stuff you’re doing now myself, is what you’re saying?”
 
 “Well… that’s difficult, so I want you to try to 『reduce the magic power the spider sucks up』. If the magic power sucked up becomes small, the returning magic power will also become small, and the waves will also be restrained lower, right?”
 
 Hearing my explanation, the young boy went 『Oh, I see!』, clapping his hands.
 
 
 
 “But, what does that have to do with detaching the spider? It doesn’t seem directly related though.”
 
 “To detach the spider, I’ll need to remove it from the abdominal section without activating the trap. However, I’ll have to do that without detaching the leg parts first. Well then, what to do, is what I was thinking, but…”
 
 “What’ll you do?”
 
 “Extend the leg parts, and make them longer.”
 
 I thrust forth a single finger with a flick, and Theo doubtfully tilted his head.
 
 “Extend the legs, you say… Can you do something like that?”
 
 “You can”, I replied.
 
 “I know it looks like this, but this spider is rightfully a magic tool. Even the legs, if you peel off their covering, they’re just Mistreel wires.”
 
 I continued my explanation with a smug face.
 
 “The leg sensors are structured such that, twice a day, their sensitivity drops only during the time when the spider is operating. Aiming for that, I’ll attach and extend the Mistreel wire to the leg. If I do that, I can detach the abdominal part first without activating the trap.”
 
 “… I see. I somehow understand.”
 
 “When I attach the Mistreel wire, I’ll need to regulate the magic power amount and wavelength while working, but right now the best I can do is suppress Theo’s magic power disturbances. I definitely can’t do two tasks at the same time. And so———”
 
 “I need to control my magic power myself, to reduce your burden, right?”
 
 “Exactly!”
 
 I grinned at Theo, who then began scratching his cheek.
 
 “… I understand. I’ll practise. Because it’s my problem, I can’t just put all the burden on you.”
 
 “Yeah.”
 
 And so, that’s how I began training Theo how to be able to control his own magic power.
 
 
 ☆
 
 
 Magic power manipulation is an indispensable skill, as far as magic tool specialists and magicians are concerned.
 
 However, the method of training for that has many differences between each Family and school, and it’s hard to say that they’ve been generalised.
 Amongst them, there are even Families that have gone as far as to make it a family secret.
 
 Of course, our Ainsworth also has their own original method of acquiring magic power manipulation in a short period of time ———
 
 “Hey, Letty?”
 
 “What?”
 
 “This, is it really necessary?”
 
 As I was right in his bright-red face, Theo said this to me.
 
 “Of course. Now, this time try collecting magic power in your left hand.”
 
 “G-, got it.”
 
 Theo began collecting magic power in his left hand.
 From the palms of our joined hands, I could feel it in his hand.
 
 Right.
 Right now, we were standing facing each other in the guest house’s courtyard, with both our palms pressed against one another.
 
 Like this, the teacher (myself) was making the pupil (Theo) clearly aware of where in the body and how much of magic power remained.

TL Notes:

 [1]I myself got a bit confused here when translating. This here is Letty speaking. ↩