During her date with Maya, Sophia had decided on the conditions for the cat-girl being allowed to accompany Fen and her on their travels. If Maya managed to learn water-related magic before they chose to leave, she could tag along. Sophia did fail to mention that this condition was a little rigged. If she wanted the white-haired cat-girl to accompany them, she could stay as long as it took, maybe even months, and if she didn't, she could leave that day.

After leaving the café, the two split up for the moment to make some preparations for their next training session.

"Oh, hey there, Fen." Sophia had gone back to the inn, where she met the wolf.

"Ah, Sophia, I haven't seen you all day."

"Yeah, I was out… with Maya."

"Training?"

"More or less, I guess."

"That's good."

"…"

"Hmm?"

"That's all?" Sophia thought he had some more to comment on. "After all you said yesterday, I was sure you would tease me about it."

"Did I say something about the cat yesterday?" Fen seemed confused.

"Yes? The whole thing about Chiyo being… jealous, me being c-compatible with Maya, or how I was supposedly… f-flirting with her."

"…" The wolf looked even more confused. "Did I really say something like that? It doesn't sound like me, at least."

"It sure doesn't, but that's what happened."

"Hmm, I can't seem to remember…"

"You were surprisingly talkative... Ah!" Sophia thought about the conversation. "Could it be… Fen, were you still drunk back then?"

"…" He didn't answer.

"Ehehe~, Fen gets talkative when he's drunk, huh? That's interesting to know."

"Why?"

"Anyway, back to Maya." She changed the topic. "She wants to travel together with us and learn my magic. I haven't fully decided yet, but what do you think about it?"

"Hmm? Why would I mind? I leave that decision entirely to you as I'm simply accompanying you as well."

"Thought as much. By the way, she told me that she's pretty special because she can use two different types of magic, while most can only use one at best… What's up with that?"

"Ah, I never understood why they limit themselves with elements in that regard… In the first place, those elements are simply supposed to be categories, making it easier for you to imagine. It makes no sense to be able to use just one specific type if you can use magic at all… People probably simply use their favorite type because they were having trouble imagining magic as a whole. That's also why activation words are a thing. Even strong people often struggle with their imagination. For example, saying Fireball makes it easier for you to clearly see it inside your head and use it. At the same time, this obviously hinders your creativity, making it less powerful than real, chantless magic."

"It's like that, huh?" While Sophia's theory of the blurry boundaries of magic elements was a bit off, her claim that everyone should be able to use any magic was still correct.

"Well, you still need to have enough magic power to use that much magic in the first place, though."

"Soo… let's imagine I promised Maya that she could come with us if she's able to learn water magic before we leave the city."

"We'll continue traveling as a group of three." Fen had no doubt that the cat-girl would be able to do it.

"I see… Well then, I planned to meet up with her again, so I better get going."

"Sure, have fun. I think I'll go back to sleep…" The wolf didn't seem very fit at the moment for some reason.

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The two girls got together at the entrance of the city, where Maya was already waiting. From there, she guided her to a nearby lake for their training. As she seemed to have taken a liking to Sophia's arm, the cat-girl had linked theirs once more while going to the place.

"Okay then, I'll be in your care from now on, Sophia!"

"S-Sure…" She was still weak towards Maya's ambiguous wording.

"What do we start with?"

"That's a good question." It all happened so suddenly that Sophia had yet to think of a plan for her teachings.

"You mentioned earlier that water and air are similar. What did you mean by that?" Maya remembered the topic from the café.

"Let's see… Do you know that air's actually made up of various things?" As even Fen wasn't aware of that, she had little hope.

"Hmm… Like when we breathe in, the air that comes out is slightly different…? It doesn't feel like the air gets, uh, used up? Rather, it changes to something we can't use… hmm…?" Maya touched her chin as she struggled to explain it with proper words. "I think the same happens with fire. A part of the air changes…?"

"Wow, that's unexpected." Sophia was surprised that the cat-girl actually had some sort of grasp on it. "Yeah, what actually gets used up by breathing or fire is something called oxygen. As we take in oxygen, our body, let's say, converts it to something different and releases it back to the air. Fire, again, does something very similar. Simply speaking, at least."

"That's how it works? Wait, how do you even know that, Sophia?"

"Ahh… It's widely known where I come from." She had gotten rather good at weaseling her way around without actually lying to her.

"Wow!" In response to that, Maya's admiration of the demons had grown even more. "So, how does all that relate to me learning water magic…?" She couldn't see the connection.

"Right, just like oxygen is a big part of the air, it's also abundant in water, though in a different form as it's obviously liquid… among a couple of other things."

"Ah, is that what fishes, uh, breathe then?" She was quick on the uptake.

"Uh, it might be?" She wasn't sure. "Either that or some sort of oxygen gas that got trapped together with air and… dissolved in the water…? Sorry, I have to admit that I haven't paid much attention to the details. Anyway, what I wanted to say… if you're able to control the oxygen in the air, water shouldn't be a problem, either. That's also the reason why fixed magic elements make no real sense."

"Is that… even possible? Controlling only a part of something?"

"Sure is. That's what I do for my blue flame, after all.

"Wow… Ah!" Maya suddenly stopped. "So, I have to master chantless magic first, huh? You said that for that blue flame thingy, I need to get better control of my magic power, right?"

"Of course. More like, before I can even teach you, you need to be able to do at least that..." Sophia only knew how to use chantless magic. "And thus, do your best~."

"Ehh…? Just like that?!"

"Sure." The girl shrugged her shoulders. "You already know how to use chantless magic. You just need to get, well, better at it. There's not much I can help with there, right? Just concentrate on the image for your magic and give it a go."

"You sure make it sound easy..."

"'Cause, it is?" She didn't let Maya have any room to complain. While saying so, Sophia walked towards the lake and sat down on the grass while looking at the water. "I'll train my water-related magic as well, so let's both do our best."

"O-Okay!" Maya accepted the challenge and started to think about how she could improve herself.

"Good luck."

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Doing as told, the cat-girl worked on her imagination to use magic instantly, without any activation words and the like. She continued to train for a couple of hours, but her progress wasn't any good. Still, Maya had become exhausted and wanted to take a break. Looking in the direction of Sophia, she didn't know how to react.

"Really now?" The girl had told her that she would train her own magic, but it seemed like she had gotten tired of it. Sprawled out on the grass, Sophia was fast asleep. It also looked like she was for a while already. "Haa…" With a sigh, the cat-girl walked up to her and sat down beside the sleeping girl. "How can one be so free?" Maya's eyes shined with admiration as she looked at her peacefully lying there. "Going to a different continent just because she was bored… Just how bored can you get for that? In the first place, is it even possible to change continents? It's all water in between. Well, it's Sophia we're speaking off, so…" She had no doubts that she had pulled off some sort of ridiculous stunt. "It really doesn't seem like she's lying, either. Her common sense, assuming she even has some, doesn't match the one on this continent at all. A demon, huh?" Maya took an even closer look at her. "Isn't this girl just simply a cute airhead?" While hovering above her, the cat-girl playfully squished her cheek.

"Enemy!" Sophia suddenly opened her eyes and bolted up. "O-Ouch!" Her forehead violently crashed into Maya's head because she was in the way above her.

"O-Ouch!" She, too, yelped in pain. "W-Wait… I'm no enemy! It's me, Maya!"

"Maya…?" She was rubbing the sore spot on her forehead. "W-What are you doing?" Sophia only then noticed how close the cat-girl was to her.

"N-Nothing! Anyway, I'm no enemy, okay?!"

"Enemy…? Ah, right… No, I wasn't talking about you. I noticed a pretty powerful monster that is coming our way."

"S-Seriously? Wait, what? How do you even know? I can't see anything… More importantly, you were asleep in the first place!"

"Of course you can't see it, it's still some kilometers away behind that little forest over there." She pointed to her right at a range of trees.

"Ehh… How's that even possible?"

"Magic, of course."

"Of course, she says."

"Déjà vu?" Sophia felt she had had a similar conversation with a certain wolf before. "Anyway, it's called detection magic. A non-attribute, or rather uncategorized, original magic."

"W-Wha-?!"

"As the name suggests, it lets me detect every living creature around me and even roughly tells me how strong it is."

"…" The cat-girl had no words.

"Well, that's how I noticed that a monster is coming for us. I don't know what it is, but it's a rather strong one."

"Who's the monster here, really?" Maya couldn't keep up with her ridiculous magic. "H-How strong are we talking about?"

"I'm not sure, but it's multiple times stronger than the group of rock golems that Chiyo and the others encountered the other day."

"S-Seriously?! I fought against a rock golem before, but… that wasn't any fun! And that thing is multiple times stronger?!" She didn't like the sound of it.

"I can imagine that it wasn't any fun with only air and fire magic." Sophia remembered Fen telling her that these don't deal much damage to golems. "Oh, I think that monster can fly. It's coming in a perfectly straight line at us without caring for the terrain. We should see it any moment now." She concentrated on the sky without a shred of tension in her voice.

"Really?" Maya was still a little dubious, but looked in the same direction and turned pale just a moment later. Her ears started to lay down flat to her head, and her tail tightly clung to her leg while her entire body began to shake for some reason. "T-That-, That's a g-griphon!"

"Griphon…?" Sophia tilted her head, feeling she heard about a very similar-sounding monster somewhere before. "Also, you have good eyes."

"W-We have to run, Sophia!" Her voice was shaky.

"Is that guy really so strong?"

"It's one of the rulers of the monster country!"

"Monster country?"

"A-A huge wasteland a good bit south from here. It's a place filled with powerful monsters, and even all of the fauna there want to kill you! Basically, every plant and fruit are poisonous in that area…"

"I-I see…" Sophia knew about a place with a shockingly similar description.

"W-Why is something like that here?"

"Hmm...?" She could finally see the monster as well and remembered something. "That thing… it really looks like the bird I accidentally turned to ash before, just bigger…" Sophia realized she had seen this lion-like bird before when she was looking for Fen but followed the wrong reaction of her detection magic.

"Y-You're saying you fought a griphon before?!"

"Yeah. Well, I wouldn't call it a fight. I came past it by mistake, got surprised, and accidentally burned it into nothingness in an instant. Ah, maybe it's its parent looking for revenge?" Sophia looked like she had solved some kind of mystery as she slapped her fist on her other hand's open palm.

"That's not funny!" Maya was panicking.

"I was serious, though…" She had no sense of urgency.

"E-Eh?! Wait! You actually were in the monster country?!"

"Yes, Fen and I crossed it to get here. If you ask me, it was pretty boring, though… Especially the food situation was way too monotonous."

"…" The cat-girl had her confirmation now; Sophia had no common sense whatsoever.

"Well, whatever it is, I'll go and defeat it really quick~." Sophia began walking towards the approaching griphon, but Maya immediately stopped her by grabbing the girl's arm.

"A-Are you sure…?" Her entire body was still trembling. "It's really a very strong monster!"

"Of course! Besides, if I didn't go, there'd be a risk that it harmed you. I can't let that happen."

"Sophia…" Maya's trembling eased down ever so slightly, and she let go of her arm. "Okay… P-Please be safe!"

"Thanks." Turning towards the griphon, Sophia picked up her pace and instantly closed the distance between them. "So embarrassing! What was that?! Where did that super corny line come from, me?!" Still without any sense of urgency, she was talking to herself after already having taken some significant damage before even engaging the monster.