Reborn in another world as a Hermaphrodite

Suddenly, Alex could feel a foreign object entering his body directly, making his head hurt severely.

"Don't move. I'm going to help you put your mana back in place."

Amelia's calming voice helped Alex calm back down, but the headache was only becoming worse.

Slowly, he could feel his mana being pulled upward as he could see a body made up of bright, dark stars standing above him.

As it continued to be pulled up, a shocking pain struck Alex right in the head as his mana went too far up.

Only after Amelia's stars moved away did the mana slowly gravitate toward his stars again.

Feeling the foreign object disappearing, his headache was finally subdued as he quickly gathered as much mana towards all of his stars.

After what felt like forever to him, the tunnels had retracted to a reasonable size.

The man had also returned to normal, flowing from his outer body towards the central star inside his head.

"How do you feel?" Amelia asked as Alex exited meditation.

"I... I feel a lot better."

"How about your mana? Does it feel any different? Like stronger or weaker?"

"I can feel it moving slightly faster than before... And I can feel the nearby elements a lot easier."

As an open flame instantly appeared on Alex's fingertip, he could feel his elemental affinity had improved just slightly.

It was no longer blank. Still, there was a long way to go for him actually to gain a real affinity.

"Huh. That's interesting... I don't remember any of the ingredients that have any effect on affinity."

After Amelia finished taking her notes, she turned back to Alex, who was still sitting in bed.

"Okay, I think the potion's effect had mostly worn off. You can go back to eating breakfast now."

"Thank you..."

Alex bowed in gratitude as he could feel his mage talent improve slightly, which was almost impossible according to the textbook.

"Don't worry about it. I'm only doing this so I can make a higher-tier version for myself."

With everything done, Amelia led Alex to the door before suddenly turning him around as she squatted down.

As she stared right into Alex's eye, he started to feel a little uncomfortable as she remained silent.

"W-What's wrong?"

"You like Katherine, don't you?"

Alex froze for a millisecond before regaining his composure back as he nodded.

"Of course I love Mom. She's taken care of me for my entire life. If I don't love her, then I have no one to love."

"You know what I mean."

As he tilted his head slightly out of curiosity, Amelia quickly stood back up before facepalming herself.

"Why am I asking this? Sorry, Alex, I'm just overthinking something... Why am I asking a kid about this?"

Amelia murmured to herself as she quickly shoved Alex out of the room, closing the door before locking it.

---

Walking about to the dining table, Alex's heart was racing like crazy as he couldn't believe what Amelia had just asked.

The act on his face disappeared as he sat back down in his seat, slowly using the fork to eat the breakfast.

When she stared right into his eyes, he almost flinched, which would have made it impossible for him to excuse himself.

Even though he knew it was wrong mentally, his body just couldn't stop reacting to Katherine's body ever since he hit puberty.

"Hey Alex, you there?"

As a hand appeared before his face, Alex finally snapped out of his thoughts.

He had been digging an empty plate over and over again, confusing the nearby maids.

"Sorry. I was just thinking something..."

As Alex picked up a piece of bread to eat, Katherine moved back to her seat before Sophia and Mary both entered the room.

"Mom! What are we doing today?" Sophia excitedly asked as the two of them began eating the breakfast.

"We're going to have more meditation training——"

"Boo!"

Mary and Sophia both complained at the same time, as they had been bored out of their mind meditating for the past few weeks.

"Hey! Don't complain. You guys aren't going to meditate in the castle again."

"Where are we meditating then?" Alex curiously asked.

"We're going on a hike to one of the tallest mountains in the world. Aren't you all excited?"

"Huh? What does that have to do with meditation?" Sophia raised her question.

"Well, that place is one of the most well-known natural mana springs to meditate.

You guys are going to be amazed when you get there. Trust me. It's going to be better than the one you had in school."

The three kids had no choice but to believe Katherine's word, as they all quickly finished breakfast before going back to their rooms.

After getting fully dressed to head outside, the snowing outside had finally stopped, at least for now.

"Perfect. We're going to take the portal this time. Just follow me."

As Katherine leads the three out of the castle and into the city, they quickly notice the town's atmosphere has drastically died down.

Even though many people were still walking in the streets, it wasn't as chaotic or lively as in the past.

Of course, it was expected, as they already knew that some of the people who came to the town were purely to participate in the competition.

After following Katherine for a few minutes, they finally arrived at what appeared to be a very fancy building.

With the silver and gold decorated and the word bank at the top, it was clear what kind of place this was.

"Come on, don't stand here."

As the three kids catch back up to Katherine, they are a little stunned by how spacious and luxurious the inside is.

They could see various statues and paintings, including one that looked to be made of complete gold and reached almost to the ceiling.

"Hello, I would like to order four tickets to Thalorim."

"That would be ten silver coins."

After Katherine paid and got the ticket, she brought the three of them to one of the nearby rooms.

As she lay the three tickets on the table, the room suddenly started changing color.

They could feel mana being sucked up below them, making the entire room nullify until it stopped.

"Mom, what was that?" Mary curiously asked.

"A teleportation spell. Anyway, we better get moving. I don't want to be teleported back and pay again."

The three quickly followed Katherine out of the room before walking out, only to see the room outside was now completely different.

Unlike the previous one, the lobby they stood in was a lot simpler, with only a few rooms lying up compared to the hundreds in Regina.

As soon as they exited the building, they found themselves in the middle of a small city.

More importantly, they could feel a piercing coldness through their clothes despite the coats they had on.

It was even colder than Regina despite barely any snow on the ground, with the sky fully clear.

"M-Mom, t-this place is s-so cold," Sophia complained, with the other two kids agreeing to it as well.

"Oh my, I forgot this place is colder in the winter... Let's buy some clothes at that shop."

The four of them quickly walked over to a nearby shop, feeling much warmer inside as they began checking out the clothes.

To the kid's surprise, the clothes were much thinner than the ones they were wearing.

"Mom, are these really that warm?" Mary curiously asked as she picked up one of them.

"These clothes are not warm themselves... But inside, it is where the magic happens."

As a store worker walked by, he took three seemingly super thin cloaks and handed them to them.

"Is this your kids' first time coming to Thalorim?" the store worker asked as he looked over to Katherine.

"Yeah. They had only been in Regina..." Katherine answered before grabbing one for herself.

"Come on, try them on. I promise you three won't regret it, " the store worker suggested with a smile.

After taking off their coats and putting the clothes on, all three of the kids felt even colder.

"Put some mana into the clothes."

As soon as the three of them released some of their mana to the cloths, it instantly started becoming warm.

"Wow, it feels so much warmer than before."

Mary murmured as she decided to put a little more mana in, making it start to feel a little hot.

"Of course, it's warmer. It's the new technology we recently developed for Thalorim specifically.

Do you all want to buy one? You won't regret it. I'm even using one myself here."

Seeing the three kids seemingly enjoying playing with their new clothes without needing to wear a giant coat, Katherine took out her wallet.

"Just tell me, how much is it?"

"Twenty silver coins each."

Katherine reluctantly took out her card, scanning it through a detector before walking out with their new clothes.

"Have a safe journey!"

As the four of them walked down the street, the coldness was barely affecting them any longer.

All three of the kids immediately handed their coats back to Katherine, letting her store them in her pocket dimensions.