Seeing Alex panicking and willing to admit something so embarrassing, Amelia felt something was off.
"Alex, stop bullshiting me. When did this start happening? Is it because of my past experiments?"
Amelia looked a little worried as she moved closer to check on Alex, only to have him push her back a little.
"No. I-I had this before the experiment... I mean, it didn't exist when I was younger——Can I please not say it?"
As the two stared back at each other, Amelia eventually let out a sigh before getting off the bed.
"If it is a tumor or something bad, I can help you remove it, " Amelia said as she started gathering her work in the cabinet.
"It's not a tumor... At least, I don't think it is."
"And how would you know about that? Alex, when did you become a doctor?"
Alex fell into silence again as he didn't want to tell her the truth, at least not now.
"Does Katherine know about this?" Amelia asked as she sat back down in her chair.
"Yes... M-Mom has known about this since I was born."
As soon as Alex answered back, Amelia let out a sigh of relief as she turned over to her toolboxes.
"If it is not a tumor or anything... Then why don't you just let me remove it for you?"
After a short thought, Alex quickly shook his head, as he had never seen Amelia's 'surgery' skill.
"You sure? Other people are going to start noticing it sooner or later when you grow older."
"It's fine... I'd rather leave it be."
"Very well then... Hey, Alex, catch."
A green ball flew out of Amelia's hand, triggering his reflex as he caught it before it could hit his face.
"Huh?"
Alex looked down with curiosity as the ball suddenly changed into blue and pink while he was holding it.
"Nothing. Don't worry about it."
As Amelia took the ball back from Alex's hand, the ball turned completely pink before she put it away.
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"If you ever changed your mind, just tell me... Anyway, it's time for you to go back home."
With a shroud of dark mist covering Alex, Amelia waved goodbye as she faded out of sight.
---
When Alex could see again, he was back on the front porch at home, with the sun still high up in the sky.
After knocking on the door and waiting for a bit, it was finally opened.
"Welcome back... Alex, are you okay?" Katherine worriedly asked, noticing the pale face on him.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
Alex's face quickly changed back to normal, with all traces of nervousness from earlier disappearing.
"How did the experiment go? Did it help you?" Katherine asked as the two of them sat down on the sofa.
"My mana regenerates faster now... I think it's up to Sophia's level now."
"That's good to hear——"
"Really? Then let's test it later."
"I want to be brother's first test!" Mary demanded before Alex could say yes to Sophia.
"Fine, you can be his first test." Sophia backed down as she didn't seem to mind it at all.
"Yay!"
"Hey, I never said yes to that. I'm not going to fight the two of you back to back."
"Too bad——"
"I said no! Which part of no do you not understand?" Alex suddenly yelled out loud.
"Okay, geez... You're on your period or something?" Sophia commented as she and Mary both looked a little scared by his loud voice.
"Sorry. I'm just not in a good mood today."
Seeing Alex looked a little down, the two of them didn't pressure him to apologize any further.
"You guys can go test. I can set this up myself." Luqing murmured, noticing the awkward mood in the room.
Mary immediately handed the work back to Luqing, not hesitating a single bit as she grabbed onto Alex's hand and ran out.
"Sorry, I know we promised to help——"
"It's fine. I really don't mind it. You should watch them fight instead of being here.
They need someone to watch over them... In case they go overboard."
"You're right."
Sophia handed the cloth and hanger back, leaving the room and heading straight to the storage room.
"Sophia, where are you guys going?" Katherine curiously asked as she and Meiya both sat on the sofa.
"We're just practicing magic."
As Sophia opened the backdoor, the two were already fighting, with Alex on the offense and Maryin on the defense.
Within seconds, Sophia could feel the change in Alex's way of using spells, with various kinds of spells flying all over the place.
But none of them were breaking through Mary's defense, at least not yet with the current rate.
After Alex had thrown over ten spells nonstop, Sophia realized he really meant it when he said he had caught up with mana regens.
Even as Mary was starting to break a sweat, Alex showed no signs of slowing down as spells continued to fly towards her.
The standoff ended in Alex's victory as Mary eventually surrendered when she ran out of mana to hold up the shield.
"That was so much... What kind of experiment did Auntie Amelia put you through?"
Mary curiously asked, wanting to try it out herself as she could already if she had that level of mana regeneration boost.
"It's just the potion she gave me... But she said she only has enough resources for one."
Alex quickly added the last part after noticing the two of them seemingly wanted to ask Amelia for it.
His mind was still a little fearful of her experiment, almost losing his ability to cast spells permanently.
"Lucky... Whatever, I'm going back to help Luqing." Sophia murmured as she turned around, getting ready to head back to the living room
"Wait for me! I want to help, too!"
As Mary ran off with Sophia, Alex remained outside, sitting on the curb and looking up at the sunny sky.
Thinking back, he couldn't help but feel a little relief that he had actually overtaken them as a mage.
"Stop celebrating so early... You're only caught up with their mana regens." Alex thought to himself as he headed back inside the house.