When the three of them sat separately on the sofa, they began meditating right before Katherine, letting her watch over them.
With them in their meditation state, Katherine suddenly snapped her finger, causing a crystal ball to appear.
Looking inside the crystal ball, she saw the shape of Sophia's body, which was made up of abnormally bright stars.
Her mana flow was absurd for a beginner, as the stars located towards her outer limbs were taking in mana at a rapid pace.
The connection only got stronger every time mana was pushed from the top stars to the bottom, expanding the mana tunnels bigger every time she pushed with ease.
"Amelia really was right... Sophia really is a naturally talented light mage. But how did she inherit the opposite of me?"
Katherine wondered as she thought back to the test conducted by Amelia when Sophia was eight.
Unable to get an answer, she hovered her hand on the crystal ball for a bit, causing it to change into a different person as Mary's body showed up.
Similar to Sophia, Mary's mana capability was almost the same thing, with a rapid amount of mana being taken at once to push downward.
However, her star wasn't as bright white as Sophia's. Instead, it had an extremely dark core that looked even darker than the surroundings.
"Mary is so much closer to me... But how is Sophia the opposite of both of us?"
Katherine wondered as she still couldn't get over the fact that her own daughter had somehow inherited the opposite magical affinity.
Just as Katherine was about to change the crystal ball over to Alex, she could feel the mana in the air getting a little disrupted.
Without any hesitation, she chanted under her breath, causing the entire room to fall into pitch black as an invisible barrier separated the three.
"Alex is already burning out that fast?" Katherine murmured as she could feel the heat coming from his direction.
Not wasting any more time, she quickly hovered over the crystal ball to check on Alex, only to see the light in his stars flickering.
It was almost on the verge of dying out, with the outer stars absorbing rapidly every few seconds before stopping.
There was clearly not enough mana to expand or even maintain the small bit of gain that he made between the star connections.
"Alex..."
Katherine quickly realized he was trying to forcefully absorb more mana to expand his mana tunnels between the stars.
"I can't help him with this... He has to overcome this himself," Katherine thought to herself as she held in the urge to wake him up.
As she continues to watch Alex banging his head against the brick wall on repeat, her heart aches more and more.
"God... Why did you have to do this to my son?"
Alex's face was visibly in pain as he started pushing himself beyond what he could do.
Unable to bear watching Alex endure so much pain, Katherine suddenly pulled out a cup from her dimension pocket.
With all three kids still meditating, she began unbuttoning her shirt until her bra became completely visible.
Detaching her bra, Katherine put the cup right below her nipples and began massaging the outer edge.
Slowly, she began moving towards the areola, gently massaging the surrounding area before a small bit of milk began leaking out.
After massaging it for a while, more and more milk began squirting out with every gentle squeeze.
"I don't need to use that spell today..." Katherine thought to herself as the cup quickly began to fill up.
As the entire cup became full, Katherine put it onto the coffee table before taking out more cups to fill them.
With all three cups filled, she could feel her body still having more inside.
"When did my body produce so much? Is it because I have been doing this too much recently?"
Katherine murmured as she remembered her breast milk never stopped even after she stopped breastfeeding Mary.
Just as she reattached her bra, she forgot to wipe away the little bit of milk that remained on the tip, causing a little wet spot to form.
"Crap... Whatever, I'm going to take a shower later anyway."
After putting her shirt back on, she quickly casts a freezing spell on the milk, hiding its freshness and warmth.
With time ticking by faster and faster, she puts the cups onto the coffee table before turning her attention back to the crystal ball.
To her surprise, Alex's body was finally once again steadily absorbing mana, albeit at a very slow pace compared to her sister.
---
Alex was the first one out, meditating for fifteen minutes this time rather than ten minutes.
"Have a drink. Your sister isn't finishing yet, okay?" Katherine whispered as she handed him a cup of milk.
Alex quickly drank the entire cup of milk. But rather than just tasting a little sweet, he could feel the milk cooling down the burning sensation within his body.
With Katherine headed over to the kitchen to wash the empty cup, Alex took out his textbook and started reading it.
Thirty minutes later...
Just as Alex was about to finish the second chapter of the textbook, Mary finally finished her mediation, with Sophia finishing a minute later.
"Here's your guy's milk... How do you guys feel?"
"Good," Sophia replied as she started drinking the milk.
"My body feels a little hot——Ooh, the milk feels so refreshing," Mary murmured as she drank the cold milk.
"That's good to hear... Alex, how do you feel?"
"I feel a lot better than last time. Thank you, mom..."
Alex replied as he could feel something that reduced the burning sensation halfway through while he was meditating.
"No problem. If you ever need to meditate, just tell me, okay?"
As Katherine gently brushed her hand through Alex's hair, her two daughters had already finished the milk as they put the empty cup onto the coffee table.
"Mom, does this milk have mana in it?" Sophia curiously asked as she could feel her body recharging mana much faster.
"Yep. That's why it's super expensive. I have to buy more tomorrow from Emily."
With Katherine heading inside the kitchen to wash the other two cups, Sophia and Mary turned to Alex with curiosity on their face.
"Hey Alex, what is your meditation like?" Mary curiously asked.
"Just a dim star barely lighting up in the middle. How about you guys?"
"Mine is a black star that glows when mana goes through it!"
"Mine is just a bright light."
Hearing both of their answer, Alex felt a little relief for a second. In his mind, he thought Mary was somehow worse than him.
But after a few seconds, he fell into jealousy as the knowledge in the textbook hit him right like a truck.
The darkness wasn't because Mary was slow with mana growth. It just meant she had a dark magic affinity.
Meanwhile, Sophia's bright light implied a strong light affinity, leading Alex to conclude that he was truly the only one in the family who was bad with magic.
Both of his sisters managed to have something amazing, while he had gotten almost absolutely nothing.
"Alex. I'm sure life will pave a way out." Sophia murmured, trying to comfort him as she quickly realized the change on his face.
"I know my limit. I'm just happy I'm allowed to be a mage... I can always be a swordsman like Dad. Mage isn't the only thing in the world——"
"What are you guys talking about?"
Katherine finally came back from cleaning the cup, putting it into her dimension pocket as she sat back down.
"We were just talking about our meditation stars——"
"Who told you to tell each other that?"
The sudden outburst caused all three of them to move back in their seat, looking a little scared as they didn't expect Katherine to be mad.
"Mom... Did we say something bad?" Mary asked nervously.
"No, it's not bad. But don't tell other people what your stars are, okay? Only your teachers and your parents can know that."
Katherine paused for a second, then added another warning.
"It's fine for you three to share it now... But I just don't want to see you guys comparing to each other, okay?"
"Mom, we are never going to get jealous or fight each other because of it. It's not like we are some sort of royalty fighting for a crown."
Alex argued, as he was the only one who realized what she was trying to imply, causing Katherine's face to blush a little out of embarrassment.
"It doesn't matter. I had seen enough sibling rivalry go wrong. Just avoid talking about your own mage progress with each other, okay?"
"Mom! I'm never going to hurt my little brother or sister. Alex is right. You're way too paranoid."
Sophia looked back at Katherine with disappointment on her face, along with Mary, who looked disappointed as well.