The next two days quickly passed as Katherine took the three of them outside of school.
As they explored around the capital, it was still an eye-opening experience as they saw a variety of different things.
Over a hundred different churches openly worshipped their god or goddess, all seemingly fighting for followers.
The biggest mind-shocking thing, however, was when they walked past churches of different species.
A group of people looking very similar to humans but with pointy ears and much more skinner.
Or, in other words, there were actual elves in this world.
Some of the species were also half-human. As the name implies, it is a hybrid of some animal species and humans.
When Alex saw the god each of them worshipped, he instantly reconganized them as just regular animals on Earth.
For example, a group of centaurs worshipped a literal horse as a god, while Minotaurs worshipped a cow.
Just as Alex asked Katherine more about it, she instantly covered his mouth as if he had asked something forbidden. Only when they went back home did she answer his question.
The reality was that all of those 'animals' being worshiped that he found similar back on Earth don't actually exist in this world.
The 'horse' that Alex's family used to drag their wagon was actually another animal that just looked like a horse.
The 'steak' he ate at his grandparents' house was also meat from an animal similar to a cow, not an actual cow.
In addition to visiting different churches around the capital, Katherine also took the three of them to the Grand Colosseum.
When they entered inside, hundreds and thousands of people were already in their seats. A giant spotlight in the middle showed an actual duel between a mage and a swordsman.
All three of the kids were instantly hooked on it, just like everyone else.
The battle was extremely one-sided, as the swordsman could never get close to the mage due to constant ice shards blocking him.
This was on top of dodging every single spell being thrown at him, with fireballs and ice spikes flying everywhere. Some were even flying directly into the crowd, only to be blocked by an invisible barrier.
Yet, despite the struggle, the swordsman came out on top in the end as the mage ran out of mana to stop the swordsman from stabbing him.
All three of the kids joined in the cheers as the swordsman went on to beat two mages in a row before Katherine dragged them out of the Colosseum.
---
"Wake up! It's time for your first day of school!"
As Katherien's voice appeared loudly in the room, Sophia and Alex slowly sat up from the bed as they rubbed their eyes.
"Already?" Sophia asked as she started yawning.
"Why are you guys so sleepy?" Katherine curiously asked as she shook Mary's shoulder to wake her up.
"All because of Alex's fault." Sophia blamed before running into the bathroom first.
"Alex?"
"I-I need to go brush my teeth."
As Alex quickly ran towards the bathroom, Mary finally woke up from bed from all the noises.
"Hm? Is it already the morning?" Mary asked as she stretched out her elbow.
"Yeah. Come on, it's time for you to get change... What happened last night?"
Katherine wondered as she didn't have a single clue why Alex and Sophia looked so sleepy while Mary looked perfectly fine.
---
The night before school starts...
As the three kids lay in bed silently in the dark, Alex couldn't fall asleep.
The duel in the Colosseum was making his heart too excited to sleep, his head filled with the imagination of being the swordsman fighting.
Despite his dream of being a mage, he knew what the swordsman was using to make himself so fast.
As Paul once told him, there was an ancient technique called' Qi' that people from the Far East used to strengthen themselves.
At first, Alex didn't think much of it until his memories told him it was stuff from those Eastern Cultivation novels his friends read back on Earth.
"Come on, Alex, you still have school tomorrow. Just go to sleep..."
Despite Alex's attempt to clear his mind, it was still filled with the duel, dodging the fireball while rolling to the side.
"Alex, you okay?"
Sophia's voice appeared, waking up from her sleep from Alex's constant movement on the bed.
"Sorry. I'm just too excited to sleep." Alex apologized.
"Still excited about the Colosseum duel?" Sophia asked as she turned around to face him directly.
Alex shyly nodded as the room fell back into silence, with neither side talking. But both of them were now wide awake, with their eyes staring at each other in the dark.
"Let's go do a duel." Alex suddenly suggested.
"A duel?" Sophia questioned with uncertainty.
"Yes, it's just a small duel. Me and you with the wooden sword. First to knock each other down wins."
"What if mom catches us up at night?"
"Come on, Mom's already asleep. You know she's a deep sleeper. She's not going wake up."
After a short consideration, Sophia accepted Alex's offer. Her heart was starting to beat faster as well as she thought back to the Colosseum duel.
"Fine, just a small duel."
The two slowly got up from the bed, sneaking past Mary, who was already deep asleep.
After getting out of bed, they walked out into the hallway with their tip-toe, making barely any noise as they made it into the living room.
With the door closed, they slowly walked past Katherine's room before arriving in the living room.
The two could finally return to normal as they walked over to the end of the house or the storage room.
They immediately walked over to the wooden crate, which contained two wooden swords inside.
As soon as they got the sword in hand, they both took five steps back from each other before drawing out their wooden sword.
Despite the room being dead silent, their duel had already begun as they both waited for their opponent to move first.
Eventually, Alex's patient ran out as he lunged forward with the sword, aiming it right at Sophia's chest.
She easily parried his sword to the side before realizing it was Alex's feint attack as he shifted it into a cut towards her elbow.
At the last second, she quickly leans to the left, dodging the cut as she ripostes forward with her sword stab.
Alex quickly found himself at a disadvantage as he was forced to take two steps back to reposition his sword.
However, Sophia didn't give him any room as she advanced rapidly, striking where his chest was just a millisecond ago.
With less and less space, Alex's mind started to panic as he was constantly forced to be in a defensive position. His arm was starting to get a little tired from constantly parrying.
Suddenly, Alex finds a small opening in Sophia's attack. He immediately assumed she was getting tired just like him, so he riposted forward.
A weird feeling began to develop as she didn't even try to block it with her sword.
But it was far too late.
Sophia chose to dodge it by turning her body to the side, making his stab miss completely as he exposed himself with an extremely wide angle.
A smirk appeared on her face as she slashed her sword downward for the win, but Alex made his last desperate move that shocked her.
He didn't even try to retract his sword, opting to tackle her stomach to force both of them to fall onto the floor.
"Look like it's a tie."
Alex smiled as he accidentally moved his sword onto Sophia's elbow, with Sophia's sword also hitting his elbow.
"Y-You cheated!"
Sophia angrily yelled, unable to believe the match ended in a tie despite her advantages.
"Did I say there were any rules? All I said was that whoever knocks each other down wins. Technically, I would be the one who won since I'm directly on top of you right——"
Before Alex could finish, Sophia suddenly pushed him over to the floor and sat directly on top of him.
"I'm the one who won, not you," Sophia threatened as she began to tickle Alex on the side.
"Okay, okay. You won." Alex surrendered, dropping his sword and raising both hands into the air.
"Hmph! You should have said that from the beginning..."
As the room fell into silence, Sophia's face started blushing red as she felt something hard bumping against her thighs.
"Ahem, let's go back to sleep. We still have school tomorrow." Sophia murmured as she quickly got up from Alex.
"Okay."
---
"Alex?"
Katherine's voice made Alex snap back into reality. He had been instinctively brushing his teeth the whole time.
"Y-Yes, mom?"
"Aren't you going to say what you did yesterday?" Katherine questioned again as she helped Mary rinse her mouth.
"I was rolling on the bed, too excited to sleep last night," Alex replied, not flinching a single bit.
"Really?"
Katherine looked over to Sophia, who nodded in agreement as she washed her face.
"Mom!"
"Sorry!" Katherine apologized, having accidentally forgotten to let go of the cup.
Just as she helped Mary finish rinsing her mouth, Sophia walked over to the side to use the toilet.
With Alex still washing his face in front of the sink, Katherine suddenly felt the urge to separate them and tell them to wait in line.
None of them had any sense of privacy towards each other, especially considering Alex considered himself a boy.
Still, she remained silent, not wanting to exclude Alex from the family just for the sake of 'privacy' that only she felt.
Deep inside, her mind also started to categorize Alex as a daughter rather than a son. Especially after the change in his body, he looked more and more feminine like his sisters.