When the four separated, the three began meditating right before Katherine, letting her watch over them.
With all three of the kids inside the meditation state, Katherine suddenly snapped her finger, causing a crystal ball to appear.
As she looked 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 transported from the bottom to the top.
"Amelia really was right... Sophia really is a naturally talented light mage. How did she inherit the opposite of me?"
Katherine thought to herself about the test conducted by Amelia when Sophia was eight.
Next, Katherine hovered her hand on the crystal ball for a bit, causing it to change from Sophia to Mary.
Mary's capability was almost the same thing as Sophia's, with a rapid amount of mana being taken in and transported towards the head.
But unlike Sophia, Mary's star wasn't bright white. Instead, it was with an extremely dark core that was 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 it.
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 tell he caused the mana disruption.
Not wasting any more time, she quickly hovered over the crystal ball to check on Alex, only to see his stars flickering.
It was almost on the verge of dying out, with the outer stars absorbing rapidly for a millisecond 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 finally realized Alex was trying to forcefully absorb more mana, which caused it to burn out faster than usual.
Seeing him trying so hard yet making almost zero gains, Katherine felt bad for him, especially after seeing his two other siblings.
"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 running its head over the wall on repeat, her heart aches more and more.
"God... Why did you have to do this to my son?"
Alex's face could be seen visibly in pain as he started to push himself beyond what he could do.
Unable to bear watching Alex endure so much pain, Katherine suddenly brought 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 aside, 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.
"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 over to Alex with curiosity on their face.
"Hey Alex, what is your meditation like?" Mary curiously asked.
"Just a dim star barely lighting up... How about you guys?" Alex asked back, as he got a little intrigued by the other two's meditation.
"Mine is a black star that glows when mana goes through it!" Mary excitedly replied, feeling a little special.
"Mine is just a bright light."
Hearing their answer, Alex felt a little relief, thinking that Mary was somehow worse than him.
But after thinking for a second, he fell into jealousy as the memories of the textbook hit him.
It wasn't because Mary was slow with mana growth. It just meant she had a dark magic affinity.
Sophia's bright light, implying a strong light affinity, led Alex to conclude that he was truly the only one in the family who was bad with magic.
"Alex. I'm sure life will pave a way out." Sophia tried to comfort him after noticing the change on his face.
"I know my limit. I'm just happy that I'm your guy's brother... Besides, maybe I'm not born to be a mage.
Maybe I should just 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?"
Seeing Katherine's angry face, Sophia instantly shuts her mouth, and all three of them look a little scared.
"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 teacher and your parents can know that."
Katherine paused for a second, then added.
"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?"
Alex immediately realized what Katherine was trying to imply, and the other two girls nodded, still confused.
"Mom, we are never going to fight each other. It's not like we are some sort of royalty fighting for a crown or something."
Katherine blushed a little, embarrassed that Alex had exposed what she was trying to imply.
Still, she wasn't going just to back down.
"It doesn't matter... I had seen enough sibling rivalry go wrong. Just avoid talking about each other's progress, okay?"
"Mom! I'm never going to hurt my brother or sister. Alex is right. You're way too paranoid." Sophia argued, feeling distrusted by Katherine's demand.
Mary looked back at Katherine with disappointment on her face, fully agreeing with Sophia's point.