When the four of them were sitting at the dining table, both of the girls were already chatting with their mom.
Meanwhile, Alex was just eating his bowl of noodles, sitting in silence with his backpack right next to him.
"Alex, what's wrong?" Sophia asked curiously, noticing that his eyes seemed a little zoned out.
"I... I'm just thinking about what we're going to learn in class today... What were you guys talking about again?"
"We were just talking about what we are going to do for the weekend. Where do you want to go?"
As Katherine answered back to Alex, her face looked completely normal. It was almost as if what had happened earlier in the morning was just a dream.
"I'm just going to stay at home and read the textbook... I want to catch up with everyone else first."
"Come on, Alex, other people had only been to school for a month. You're practically ahead of everyone now at this point."
Despite Sophia's argument, Alex still shook his head before resuming his bowls of noodles.
"I need to spend more effort than everyone else. I can't let this go to waste."
"Whatever... Mom, can we go to explore the capital again? I want to go to the west side of the capital this time!"
"No, I want to go to the east side! Camille just told me about an insanely good restaurant located there."
Seeing Sophia and Mary arguing back and forth, Katherine started tapping on the table, causing both of them to fall into silence.
"We'll decide when the weekend arrives. Now eat your breakfast before you're late for school."
---
The next few days of school quickly flew right past as all three of the kids quickly caught up to their peers.
At least in the textbook department. For the spell department, they were still catching up with their peers.
The three basic spells of fireball, water barrier, and wind blade were starting to be drilled into their mind.
However, just before the weekend could arrive, Amelia decided to do one last mana test for the entire class.
Everyone was taking turns right outside the school's empty field, casting the three basic spells until they ran out of mana.
Sophia and Mary were on par with the rest of the class, even slightly passing some of them despite most of them having a head start.
Unfortunately for Alex, he was placed dead last. Every single one of his classmates was a little shocked, especially after seeing his sister's result.
Amelia only patted him on the back, letting him sit back down as the class resumed until evening came.
As the three headed back home in silence, both girls could feel that Alex's emotions were completely different from usual.
It was almost a hidden shame, anger, and disappointment. Just frustrations that he kept to himself.
Still, they didn't really know how to comfort him, fearing that anything they said might hurt him even more.
"Alex, what's wrong?" Katherine asked, noticing Alex's grumpy face as she opened the door for the three of them.
"Nothing."
"Come on, don't lie to mommy——"
Before Katherine could reach Alex for a hug, he quickly ran towards the bedroom and locked the door.
"Sophia, what happened in class today?"
"Um, Mrs.Amelia did a mana test, and Alex, he... he didn't have a good score."
Seeing Sophia looking a little nervous, Katherine turned over to Mary, who couldn't even look back at her.
"Brother was placed last in front of the class..." Mary whispered as she started swirling her hair.
"How dare she do this to Alex... You two sit in the living room here for a second, okay? I'll go talk to Alex."
As the two girls sat down on the sofa with their backpacks, Katherine headed over to the kids' bedroom.
"Alex, can you open the door, please?"
After a short silence, the door slowly opened.
"Hey, Mom... Sorry for making you worried. I'm fine now." Alex replied, walking out of the bedroom looking completely fine.
The grumpy mood from earlier had completely disappeared from his face. It was almost as if nothing had happened.
"Are you sure, Alex?"
Katherine started circling Alex as if she was trying to find some sort of hidden emotion inside him.
"I'm fine, Mom... I was just a little upset earlier. But I had gotten over it now. You don't have to worry about me."
Seeing Alex heading over to the sofa and taking one of the books from the bookshelves to read, Katherine could tell he was lying.
However, she didn't poke through his bubble, opting to signal the two girls to head back to their bedroom to let him have some alone time.
---
When nighttime arrived, all three of the kids sat down at the table, waiting for Katherine to bring out the food.
"Alex, you feel better now?" Sophia quietly asked.
"I'm fine now... Sorry for the silence earlier. I shouldn't have put my emotions on you guys."
"Don't worry about it. We don't mind that at all." Sophia replied first.
"Yeah, the silence was nice once in a while. It's just a little scary if brother overdoes it," Mary replied next.
Alex didn't say anything back, except for a smile, as Katherine finally brought out the dinner for the night.
"Ta-da, freshly made rice and steak. Here's yours, and here's yours... Careful, it's still a little hot."
As Katherine put the plate before them one by one, all three of the kids were a little stunned by how good they looked.
"Come on, try it. I spent the past few days learning how to cook this to perfection."
All three of the kids hesitated for a second as bad memories of Katherine's cooking flooded their minds.
They knew the better the food looked, the worse it tasted.
Still, they couldn't hurt their mom's feelings as they slowly picked up their knife to cut a small piece before picking it up with their fork.
"Hm... It's so good!"
Mary's eyes were wide open as she barely needed to chew the steak before swallowing it down.
"Mom, you really cooked this to perfection." Alex complimented, as he couldn't believe how good it tasted either.
"Even the rice is on point..." Sophia murmured as she started chugging down as much as possible.
"Thank you, thank you. If you guys like it, I'll cook it again tomorrow."
Katherine thanked the three before sitting down in her seat and began eating the food she had cooked.
"Wow... It really does taste a lot better than before." Katherine murmured as she looked down at the food she had just cooked.
"Told you!"
All three of them replied at the same time as the atmosphere seemingly had finally changed back to normal.
---
After eating dinner, the four of them took a shower together before the three kids started meditating in the living room.
As per usual, Alex was the first one out, with Mary and Sophia coming out much later than him.
But still, he could feel he was slowly catching up as Katherine handed each of them a cup of milk.
With their homework out of the way, the three kids headed back to their bedroom together as Alex was sent back to sleep with his sisters.
Katherine was back to sleeping in her bedroom all alone, lying in her bed as she thought back to what had happened today.
"Why does Alex feel so mature?" Katherine thought to herself as she thought back to Alex's face earlier.
He had recovered his attitude completely, even though she expected him to be lashing out in frustration.
At least, that's how she imagined Sophia or Mary would have reacted if they were publicly humiliated in front of the entire class.
"I need to get back at Amelia for this... How dare she put my son through this when she knows Alex's mana issue?"
As Katherine turned to the side several times in a row, her mind became increasingly fixated on getting payback for Alex.
"Why would she show everyone's progress in front of each other? Is she trying to motivate Alex to try even harder?"
Despite her mind trying to excuse Amelia's behavior, she quickly remembered that Amelia was the one who had helped Alex gain the ability to have mana in the first place.
"Whatever, I need to stop thinking about this... Alex himself had already gotten over this."
Feeling a little hot, Katherine headed out of bed to open the door, leaving it open to let the cold breeze in.
"Much better..." Katherine murmured as the cold breeze blew into the room.
As she lay back on the bed, she only lifted the blanket slightly, just enough to cover her belly.
But before she closed her eyes, the sword that was hanging on the wall caught her attention.
"What would Paul do if he were still alive? Would he approve of me just letting Alex get over his emotion by himself?"
Memories of the past flooded her mind as her face suddenly started to blush a little. The urge to satisfy herself was popping all over her brain.
"I haven't done it for so long, have I?"
Feeling the urge, Katherine's hands slowly reached underneath her clothes, moaning a little with every gesture.
---
"Hey, Sophia, are you asleep?" Mary suddenly whispered, just as all three of them had been in bed for a while.
"No... What's wrong?"
As Sophia sat back up from the bed and looked over, Mary made a cup with her hand and pointed it to her mouth.
"Let's go."
As the two got up from bed and headed out of the room to get some water, Alex was now all alone in the bedroom.
His eyes were closed, but his mind was still active as he thought back to the way he had acted today.
"When did I become so expressive? Is it because of my hormones? And why did I put my frustration onto mom and my sister?"
Alex wondered as he considered all the possible reasons for his behavior. He just couldn't come up with an answer that made him agree to.
He knew exactly what Amelia was trying to do. She was trying to make him feel angry to boost his determination to work even harder.
Yet, he couldn't control his emotions. He couldn't calmly reflect on and accept whatever was thrown at him.