Mana, First Kiss, and Moving

"Miss Amelia! Welcome!"

Sophia excitedly opened the door, with Mary standing right behind her, still recovering from jumping down from someone's back.

"Hey, kids. Do you know where Katherine is at?" Amelia asked as she gently patted both of their heads.

"She's in the bedroom right now," Mary excitedly replied, already knowing what Amelia was here for.

"You two play here, okay? Katherine and I will be back to test your magical capability later."

The two watched Amelia enter the bedroom before closing it shut, which made them curious about what was happening inside.

"Man, where's Alex when we needed him?" Sophia complained as she hadn't seen him all morning.

"I don't know..." Mary murmured as she looked down at the doll in her hand.

"Whatever, let's just play."

---

Meanwhile, inside Katherine's bedroom.

Alex was peacefully sleeping on the bed, with Amelia and Katherine both standing at the bedside.

"You said you found a way to give my son mana?" Katherine asked calmly, trying to hide her excitement.

"Do I look like someone who gives out false hope?"

Amelia started digging inside her bag before taking out a purple vial containing a mysterious purple liquid and several blank scrolls.

"When are you going back to the capital?" Amelia suddenly asked as lights in the shape of words began appearing on the scroll.

Seeing Katherine's reluctance to respond, Amelia puts the scroll back down on the table, causing the light to disappear.

"Come on, Kate, just give me an answer." Amelia pleaded.

"Don't call me Kate. I'll head back when it's time."

"You say that every time I come here... Mom and Dad miss you. They don't blame you for what happened."

"Shut up."

Amelia finally gave up trying to pressure Katherine, turning her attention back to the task at hand as the light reappeared on the scrolls.

Soon, the scroll began flying into the air, causing everything in the room to elevate as the lights on the scroll got even stronger.

With a snap of a finger, the room was quickly covered by a black void, making everything beside the bed disappear from the view.

"Just as a warning, this procedure is very expensive," Amelia stated as the word on the scroll began to fade.

"I can always go back to being an adventure. Just tell me how much I need it," Katherine impatiently asked.

"Being an adventure is nowhere near enough... He needs an edible mana source."

As soon as Amelia finished talking, Katherine fell into silence. She knew exactly what Amelia was talking about.

There was only one edible mana source in this world that even money couldn't buy.

"Is there no other way? Does he really need to have holy water?" Katherine asked, despite knowing the answer.

"What do you think? Anyway, can you leave the room for a second? I need to perform the ritual to rebuild his mana connection."

With Katherine gone from the room, Amelia quickly turned her attention to Alex, who had been asleep on the bed the whole time.

After chanting a few words with the rest of the scroll in hand, the room suddenly started having hurricane-level wind surrounding them.

However, it quickly died down as soon as she opened the vial, seemingly to have absorbed all of the wind energy.

"May the goddess of water cleanse you..."

As Amelia murmured the sentence, Alex's eyes began to move rapidly underneath the eyelid until he finally opened his eyes.

"How was the dream?" Amelia asked as she examined the vials.

"I... I just dreamt I was back home." Alex replied, his head still a little sleepy from what he went through.

"Home? It must have been a good dream, then," Amelia murmured as she spun the vial around.

"N-No... I don't want to have that dream again." 

As Alex thought back to the dream, a shiver traveled down his spine.

It was a bunch of memory fragments of him walking around talking to other people.

Everyone's faces and voices blurred to the point that he could not recognize them, allowing him only to understand the purpose and content of the conversation.

It was practically torture as some of the memories were reliving regrets about things that he couldn't change in the past with a bunch of blurred people.

"Huh, really... Ahem, anyway, can you drink this down? This will finally give you the ability to cast magic."

Looking at the purple vial before him, Alex didn't hesitate as he drank the whole thing in one swoop before handing the empty vial back to her.

"Do you feel anything?" Amelia asked as she put the vial into her bag.

Alex shook his head, looking down at his hand as he couldn't feel anything different about his body. But after waiting for a whole minute, he finally started to feel something.

"Why does my body feel so hot?"

Alex thought to himself, resisting the urge to take his clothes off in front of Amelia as sweat began to appear on his forehead.

"Your body feels a little hot right now, right?" Amelia asked.

Alex immediately nodded, as he could feel his blood seeming to be boiling through his skin.

"It's okay. Your body is just making space to contain mana later. Just hold on."

Despite his best attempts to hold back, he just couldn't endure it any longer, taking his clothes off right in front of Amelia's eyes.

"It's so hot! I-I'm going to die!" Alex groaned. His body begins to shake uncontrollably as a headache begins to set in.

Suddenly, Amelia leaned forward, kissing him on the lips, sending a cool sensation down onto his body.

His face was full of gratitude as the burning feeling began to die down, but before he could say thanks, he was pushed down onto the bed.

With barely any strength to fight back, Amelia easily pried open Alex's defense as she started aggressively mixing her tongue with his.

Despite the burning sensation lingering in his body, it was becoming irrelevant, as the only thing on his mind was Amelia.

Soon, she was a little surprised as Alex started going on the offensive, using his much smaller tongue to chase after hers instead.

"Hm! Stop! Ahem, You should be able to cast your spell now... Try to think about a little flame on your finger."

Amelia stated, wiping her lips as they separated. Her face blushed red as she couldn't believe a little kid almost bullied her.

Meanwhile, Alex's attention to Amelia was thrown out the window as his attention was all on his index finger.

After almost waiting for five whole seconds, a small flame finally appeared on his fingertip.

"I did it! I can cast magic!"

Seeing Alex's face filled with joy, Amelia gently brushed his hair with her hand.

"Good job. Now you can finally be a mage... But remember, don't overuse it, okay? Your mana is still severely limited."

Alex quickly nodded in agreement before the flame disappeared on its own from his fingertip.

"Ahem. Alex, what happened earlier is a secret. Only between me and you. Don't tell your mom about this, okay?"

Alex nodded several times in a row again as if his brain was starting to reflect what they had just done earlier.

"Okay, you can leave the room now. Go call your mom and Mary to come in."

As Alex headed towards the door, Amelia took out the crystal ball that he and Sophia had once tested with.

---

After Mary's test, Amelia stayed all the way until it was about to be nighttime.

She whispered a few things to Katherine before leaving, which made her face blush red.

"You sure that is the right substitute for holy water?" Katherine quietly questioned."

"Trust me, it should work in theory. You're the only one I know who has produced that stuff before besides Mom...

You know the spell for how to resume it again, right? I don't need to teach you——"

"Yeah, yeah, I know..."

As the two finished talking, the three kids quickly surrounded Amelia in the middle.

"Miss Amelia! Can you at least stay for dinner?" Sophia and Mary both pleaded as they had just recently learned how to cook.

"Sorry, kids. But we'll meet again very soon."

After hugging both girls, Amelia looked over to Alex, who was standing there silently, his mind zoning off to some wonderland.

"Hey Alex, you aren't going to say goodbye to Miss Amelia?" Sophia curiously asked, waving her hand in front of his face.

Alex quickly snapped back to the moment as he nervously ran over to Amelia before the two hugged.

"Remember our secrets, okay?" Amelia's voice suddenly appeared in his head.

"I-I will..." Alex whispered.

"Good boy." Amelia's voice appeared inside his head again as she gently patted his head.

After Amelia finally lets go of Alex and turns her attention to Katherine, Sophia, and Mary, both wonder why he is talking to himself.

"Katherine, remember your promise, okay? I better see you in the capital next year."

"Yeah, yeah."

The four of them waved as Amelia walked off into the darkness before Katherine pushed the three kids back inside and closed the door.

"Mom! Are we really moving to the capital?" Sophia curiously asked.

"Yes, sweetie. We're going to visit your grandparents. You all are excited, right?"

"Yay!"

All three of the kids jumped into the air in excitement. They were tired of wandering around the town in the morning with nothing much to do.

They had already heard countless stories of thrills and crazy events in the capital, especially from several of the neighborhood kids they played with.

"If you three can't learn proper manner within this year, then I'm canceling the trip," Katherine warned.

"Yes, ma'am!"