When the three kids sat before Katherine at the dining table, both of the girls were chatting with Katherine.
Meanwhile, Alex was just eating his bowl of noodles with his backpack next to him.
"Alex, what's wrong?" Sophia curiously asked, noticing his silence the whole time.
"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?"
Katherine casually asked, looking back at Alex with a smile despite what had just happened early in the morning.
"I'm just going to stay at home... 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.
"I need to spend more effort. I can't let this go to waste."
"Whatever... Mom, can we go to explore the capital again? I want 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 snapped her finger, 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 four days of school flew right past as all three of the kids quickly caught up to their peers in terms of mage knowledge.
However, just before the weekend could arrive, Amelia decided to do a mana test in class.
Sophia and Mary were on par with the rest of the class, even slightly passing some of them.
Meanwhile, Alex was placed dead last, the lowest possible, right in front of all twenty students in the class.
Almost all of his classmates were a little shocked, especially after seeing his sister's result before he went.
Amelia only patted him on the back, letting him sit back down as the class resumed until the evening came.
As the three headed back home in silence, both of the girls could feel Alex's hidden frustration.
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.
"Nothing."
"Come on, don't lie to mommy——"
Before Katherine could reach Alex for a hug, he quickly ran towards the storage room before locking it.
"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 stuttering, Katherine turned over to Mary, who looked even more nervous.
"Brother was placed last in front of the class..." Mary whispered.
"God damn it, Amelia... You guys, go back to your room for a second, okay? I'll talk to Alex."
As the two girls ran back into their room with their backpacks, Katherine headed over to the storage room's door.
"Alex, can you open the door, please?"
After a short silence, the slowly opened.
"Hey, Mom... Sorry for making you worried," Alex replied as he walked out of the storage room as if nothing had happened.
The grumpy mood from earlier had completely disappeared from his face as he looked back to be his normal self.
"You sure, Alex?"
Katherine started circling Alex as if she was trying to find some sort of crack inside him.
"I'm fine, Mom... I was just unhappy earlier. But I had gotten over it now."
Alex calmly headed over to the sofa before grabbing one of the books and reading it in silence.
Katherine could tell Alex was hiding something, but she didn't pressure him to say it out loud.
Instead, she gave him some alone time, leaving him alone in the living room to sort out his emotions.
---
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 emotion on you guys."
"Don't worry about it. We don't mind that at all." Mary replied first.
"Yeah, the silence was nice when we were walking back home... It felt so peaceful and calming."
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."
As Katherine put the plate before them one by one, they were a little stunned by how good they looked.
"Come on, try it. I spent the past few days on this."
All three of the kids hesitated for a second as bad memories of Katherine's cooking flooded inside their heads.
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 ate some of the rice.
"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 just cooked.
"Told you!"
All three of them replied at the same time as the atmosphere had finally changed back to normal.
---
After eating dinner, the four of them took a shower before the three kids meditated in the living room together.
As 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 to their bedroom together.
Meanwhile, Katherine headed back to her room, lying down in the bed all alone as she looked up at the ceiling.
"Why does Alex feel so mature?" Katherine thought to herself as she thought back to Alex's face in the storage room.
He recovered his attitude completely, even though she expected him to be lashing out in frustration like a normal child.
At least that's how she imagined if Sophia or Mary faced the same problem as him, being publicly humiliated in class as the worst student.
"I need to get back at Amelia for this... How dare she put my son through this when she knows Alex's mana issue?
Why would she show everyone's progress in front of each other? Is she trying to motivate Alex to try even harder?"
As Katherine turned to the side several times, her mind became increasingly fixated on getting payback for Alex.
But she couldn't bring herself to it, espeically when Amelia was the one who helped Alex to even have any 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 sat back up from the bed before heading over to the door and kept it open.
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 was still alive? Would he approve of me just letting him get over it himself?"
Memories of the past flooded inside her mind, and her face suddenly started to blush a little.
"I haven't done it for so long, hasn't it?"
Feeling the urge, Katherine's hands slowly reached underneath her clothes, moaning a little from 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 still awake, with his eyes closed.
"When did I become so expressive? Is it because of my hormones? And why did I put my frustration onto other people?"
Alex wondered as he thought of all the possible reasons that could explain his behavior after class.
He knew how childish it looked to give someone the silent treatment when they did nothing wrong.
Still, he just couldn't control his emotions like in the past, calmly reflecting and accepting whatever was thrown at him.