Before Clarisse could ask her to elaborate, Cagliostro had already hopped off the box and aimed the wand at it. One zap was all it took to shrink it down once again, only much smaller than before. If Clarisse had to make a guess, she'd estimate roughly 1:20 scale instead of the previous 1:10. Small enough to be held easily by a pincer grip, as dutifully demonstrated by her master as she picked it up.

"If you really had the carefulness required to use this wand then you would have realized that you have already caused a mess."

The short alchemist brought her two fingers together. She was not a strong person; there was plenty enough power in her alchemy to never entertain the idea of deviating from her ideals of cuteness to acquire physical power. Nevertheless, a single squeeze was all it took for the sturdy box to completely fall apart. What remained in her hold was a... bug? Clarisse didn't understand what she was looking at until Cagliostro brought the wriggling thing up to her face and spoke to it. It was a person.

"Alistair, was it? I don't know what you were hoping to accomplish by spying on my apprentice like this, but I hope that your predicament will be a good learning experience for you."

Whatever the Harvin scholar's response was, it was too faint for Clarisse to hear properly. All she could make out was his hasty and panicked tone. It did help to break her out of the stupor this whole situation had put her in, closing up the distance to see him up close herself.

"H-hey, wait, time out! Where on earth did he come from?!"

The tiny man's own attempt to answer was shut down by light squeezes from Cagliostro's part, who was treating her current source of annoyance like it was a stress toy.

"He said that he hid in your room out of curiosity towards your project, meaning that he's either a lousy liar or a moron."

Letting her hold stay for a moment, she brought the man higher still, right below her judging eyes that rivaled him in size.

"And you wouldn't lie to me, would you, Mr. Moron~?"

There was obviously no answer. She was still withholding his ability to speak, reveling in the full-blown condescension that her cutesy act was in a situation like this. It was enough to make the normally carefree Clarisse worried over what this scenario was bringing out in her master, and to step in.

"Haha, yeah, he sure is a dummy~! Aaanyway, since he's learned his lesson, lemme test out that restoration function too so that we can put this behind us."

Cagliostro shot her apprentice a sideways glance. It was crystal clear from her impish stare that she was unwilling to entertain her suggestion in the slightest.

"No. It takes more than that to teach foolhardy idiots. You should know that by now..."