Sophia had told Ellie a good-night story, and the two fell asleep together afterward. Unfortunately, the peace was eventually interrupted by Kira, who came to get the blonde tiger for a meeting on behalf of the king for some reason.

"Could we stop for Maya? I kinda need her to watch out that I don't say anything too stupid..." The cat-girl had become her speaker when it came to complicated and/or delicate matters. Sophia's not compatible with either of those things, after all.

"She's already there, and so is Anna. The two were training magic together when I wanted to pick up your girl."

"T-That's good... Were they behaving themselves?"

"Maya was bullying my daughter a little, but that might be for the best. Maybe she'll become a little more docile with that. We spoiled her a bit too much when she was a kid, and she got a little bratty."

"Ahaha... What a thing to say as a queen about her daughter, the first princess of the nation." She had to laugh at it. "Ah, but don't you expect me to stop spoiling Ellie now."

"Don't worry about that. I mean, neither will I, after all. It's simply impossible."

"Good." Sophia was relieved.

"And there we are." Kira stopped in front of a rather big wooden door and opened it, revealing a big room with a large round desk inside. Gathered around it were many middle-aged men exclusively of feline origin, or to be precise, either jaguar or tiger beastpeople. Their clothes resembled military attire, and they had a varying number of different medals on them. The tiger faction was considerably more decorated. King Menzor was seated in the middle of them and looked around with a stern gaze. All in all, not Sophia's favorite sort of company, so her face lit up all the more when she spotted Maya in the corner of the room. She was standing next to princess Anna and gently waved her hand upon seeing her.

----------------

"Thank you for coming, Sophia." The king addressed her. "Commanders, generals, this is the girl I mentioned, the rumored lost member of the tiger family. She has a bit of a backstory, so please don't ask her about the clan she originated from. Anything of her past, really."

"T-Thanks..." She was glad about not getting pressured. She still didn't like the situation itself, though.

"The cat-girl in the corner, next to my daughter, is her partner, Maya. They came together with the two wolves you all already are acquainted with." When he mentioned them, the entire group became flustered.

"H-Hello..." Sophia had no idea what to say and only wanted to go back to Ellie.

"You must be wondering why I asked you to come, right? It's a bit of a touchy subject, but word reached us that a city of our kingdom, Talaga, will soon be attacked."

"E-Eh?!" The girls, Maya, Anna, and especially Sophia, were surprised about the sudden and unexpected revelation.

"W-Why are you telling us that...? Princess Anna aside, Maya and I shouldn't be hearing this!" It was only partly because she didn't want to hear it.

"Yes!" The cat-girl vigorously nodded to Sophia's complaint.

"Normally, I would agree, but the two of you are in a special position. Sophia, I do know that you have your doubts about my offer to join the royal family. Actually, you're probably thinking about how to turn it down right now, aren't you?"

"T-That's..." He was spot on.

"But even so, official member or not, I want you to be treated like one, a fellow tiger, no matter your decision. Also, you like this country and its citizens, do you not?"

"I love it." Fen aside, the beastfolk was the first to accept Sophia in this world. They have a special place in her heart for this. Not even taking Maya into account. She has met many of them by now and still has yet to have an actual bad experience.

"And that's why you're here. You're one of us, regardless of the circumstances and your plans for the future."

"I-I see. So, who wants to attack us?" His words had worked on her.

"The humans."

"Ehhhh...?" After getting hyped up so much, Sophia felt cheated. "My peaceful nap with Ellie was interrupted for that?! Can I go back now?" She already turned around after hearing this lousy joke and almost reached the door again.

"P-Please wait!" The king tried to stop her.

"Why?" Her voice sounded a tiny bit cold. "I know exactly how strong every individual in this room is... No one here, not even Anna over there, who probably has no experience in fighting, should feel the slightest bit intimidated by those insects! Err, humans, is what I wanted to say."

"Does she have a history with them?" Anna leaned closer to Maya while she asked her. "It sounds like it."

"Yeah, don't ask... I don't want to remember what they tried. Well, the punishment Sophia delivered wasn't that bad, but..." The cat-girl clenched her fist and didn't want to think about how some humans tried to sell her or wanted to use her body in the past during Sophia's first contacts with them.

"Uhh?"

"You are not... wrong." Menzor nodded while sighing. "Individually speaking, or even in small to medium groups, humans are, well, harmless. But, just like actual insects, they like to attack in hordes. With enough of them, everything becomes a threat."

"Urgh, strength in numbers, huh? How many are we talking about here?"

"We don't have exact numbers yet, but we're guessing around 10,000 to 20,000 humans. They seem to be really trying it this time. That's the reason I, the king, and our higher military commanders are involved. Normally, humans are dealt with by the local troops."

"Y-Yeah, uhh... I think I heard Ellie calling for me just now... I better go and take a look." Sophia didn't want to deal with this.

"She did not." Kira stopped her.

"I have pretty good ears, you know?"

"I could hear Ellie calling for someone across the continent."

"Uuh..." Sophia had no chance of winning against a doting mother. "But 20,000 of these pesky, narcissistic, idiotic, self-centered, egoistic, nasty, gross, stupid pricks of a sorry excuse for a living being... I don't wanna!" She threw a tantrum. Some of these adjectives were somewhat redundant, but that was no accident.

"While I can't blame you..." The King was amazed by her extreme reaction. "We have to repel them. For our citizens."

"Alright, I get it..." There was nothing the blonde could say. "Fine... Can I quickly get over with it? I want to go back to Ellie and continue my nap."

"Were you even listening, girl?!" Menzor got angry.

"Yes?"

"It might be close to 20,000 humans!"

"Yes?" Sophia failed to see the problem.

"Also, Talaga is around 200 km away. Our army will need at least-"

"200 kilometers?! Ehh... going there, beating them... and back to the capital... That would be easily five hours, you know?! It'll be way too late for a nap by the time I come back! Ellie might be already awake by then!" She'd need to ride on Fen to even be that fast.

"Sophia," Maya glared at her. "Neither your nap nor princess Ellie is of any importance right now."

"I beg to differ!" She thought otherwise but gave up after seeing her glare getting stronger. "Fine..." She needed to yield a lot today.

"G-Girl..." The King and every single member of the military was staring daggers at the already irritated girl. "Did you say five hours just now?!"

"I did? Covering 200 Kilometers, well, 400 for a round trip, takes a while. Also, I don't want to kill them, so I'd need to considerably hold back." There was still a little bit of attachment left for them. For now, at least. "Oh, never mind, for the way, I could just stop-"She couldn't finish her thought.

"Are you being serious right now?!"

"I always am!" Sophia's determined expression only caused Maya to roll her eyes.

"Travel aside... How would you beat 20,000 humans in such a short amount of time?!"

"Uhh... blinding them, stealing their sight completely, flooding, a couple of tornados... Squashing them with earth magic or setting everyone on fire. Trapping them with nature magic's vines or roots... Oh, letting them faint by getting rid of the air around the army could be entertaining. There's also-" Sophia had so many means to eradicate an army that she had a hard time deciding.

"..." The room fell silent.

"Err," Anna leaned over to Maya again. "T-The sadistic thing we talked about not too long ago... I believe you now. You two might be a good match, after all…"

"Y-Yeah."

"I-, I can't let you go alone... But I hope you'll accompany us, regardless. Half of the generals here and I will depart tomorrow at noon, together with a couple of retainers. We'll meet up with an around 3,000-member strong army of ours that's currently stationed not too far away from Talaga."

"The king is going too?" Sophia was surprised about that.

"Of course. It's my job to oversee such a large battlefield."

"Oh, I see."

"Father!" Anna suddenly spoke up. "I want to go, too. I think I'm old enough to accompany you now. It's about time. I promise you that I won't leave the backlines and stay away from danger!"

"Why do you think you're attending this meeting?" The king apparently had already planned so.

"Thank you very much, father!"

"Maya," Kira addressed the cat-girl. "It seems like Sophia will be busy, so can I ask you to protect her? As far as you're willing to go, of course." She didn't question her husband, but as a mother, she was naturally concerned about her daughter.

"You can leave it to me. But with Sophia around, you don't have to worry that much. There's no way she'd let any of us get hurt."

"Thank you."

"By the way... this, uhh, Talaga, was it? Is there anything interesting over there?" Sophia got a little curious.

"Are you wondering why the humans attack there?"

"Err, no... I was more interested in sightseeing. This whole ordeal should be good for something, after all..." As usual, her situational awareness was non-existent. To others, that is.

"It's... It's one of our major trade hubs..." Dealing with Sophia wasn't good for his mental health.

"Oh, sounds good for some shopping. Ah, but now that it got mentioned, why are they attacking?"

"To display their superiority."

"I see. Wait, the what now?!" She almost tripped over those words.

"Their words, not mine." King Menzor also disagreed with their claim for apparent reasons. "There's also their strive to enslave us-"

"I'm sorry?" The temperature in the room dropped a couple of degrees when Sophia's ice-cold voice leaked out. "Could you please repeat that? I'm sure you didn't say what you just did, right?"

"W-Well..." Everyone was taken aback. "They try it every so often, but the humans only ever get themselves killed in the process. I don't know why they-"

"And stop right there." Sophia interrupted the king, and her expression was unlike anything anyone, even Maya, ever saw on her, and the cat-girl had seen her angry before. "So, this happened more than once, huh? Why are they still alive? Their race as a whole, that is."

"They, uhh, aren't successful, so we normally-"

"Oh, just because they aren't any good at it, it's okay?" There was no emotion left in her voice. The others felt only cold- and darkness radiating from her. "Don't you think, no matter the result, the emotional trauma of someone trying to take-, or kidnap you, force you to do something you don't want, or even sell you, is reason enough? To end them, I mean?" She got oddly specific, probably remembering the times she met humans before.

"W-Well..." The commanders didn't dare to answer.

"N-None of the humans that tried it made it out alive…" Menzor tried to de-escalate the situation.

"How... How would they even try to enslave a beastperson? It's not like they have enough strength to forcefully take one."

"They occasionally try to go for the kids playing outside the cities... There never anything happens because we can sense an ambush, so-"

"Ohhhh, so they're trying to kidnap the little ones? I see~." Her voice wasn't cold or emotionless anymore, but everyone sure wished it still was. The military commanders and even the king were feeling physically uncomfortable now. "My, aren't they a funny bunch~."

"Oh no..." Maya finally noticed that Sophia had lost it again.

"Your Majesty, how about you give the army a day off? There are one or two things I would like to try on these humans, and I want to avoid friendly fire." While it was still the blonde tiger-girl who was talking, the personality behind it was completely unlike the usual happy-go-lucky girl.

"W-While I want to trust your words, that's not something I can do." The king couldn't grant her request.

"That wasn't a question, your Majesty." Sophia paused for a moment. "Fine. Just keep them in the background until I'm done with them. We leave tomorrow at noon, was it?"

"Y-Yes."

"Alright." Sophia simply turned around and left. The topic was over for her.

"I'm, err... sorry..." Maya wasn't sure what to say and simply apologized to the group. "Sophia has-, she has a bit of a history with the humans, to put it lightly. Also, after spending most of the day with your daughter, Princess Ellie, the information about the attempted kidnappings was a bit much, your Majesty. She can get a... little angry when something bothers her too much... I'll be able to calm Sophia down a bit later. Still, you might want to think about her request to put the army on standby in the beginning, at least." As Maya knows her strength, she had no doubts about them not being needed. "Again, I'm sorry about her, your Majesty. I'll go after her now, so I'll take my leave, as well." Doing as told, the cat-girl also turned around and ran after the upset girl.

----------------

"..." After the couple left, the room fell silent again while everyone just looked at each other with baffled expressions.

"S-Sophia's scary..." Princess Anna spoke out what everyone was thinking.

"Y-Your Majesty, just who is this girl?!" One of the commanders was close to freaking out. "I never was subjected to such an intense pressure before!"

"Who is she, indeed..." The king wasn't sure, either. "All I do know is that she's strong, ridiculously strong. The two wolves you met are her companions, after all."

"..." The room fell silent again, with the commanders hanging their heads in shame now.

"She also has a strong sense of justice, as you just witnessed."

"We could see that, yes... But can we trust her? She seems a little bit... unstable?"

"I do believe we can. Her common sense might be a bit… different, but she has the same ideals as I have. Also, my daughter Ellie adores her. You know, the girl who cried after meeting half of you guys and is wary of the other half. That has to speak for Sophia in one way or another. Actually, both of my daughters love this girl, but that's another story..." Menzor glanced toward Anna while saying so.

"Urgh..." She didn't meet his gaze and only looked away.

"She definitely is an ally. Likely the most important one we have ever come across. We'll naturally rally the corps near Talaga. It would be foolish to decide on anything else. That being said, I'm willing to give Sophia the chance she asked for. If her claims of being able to deal with their army on her own are true, we won't have to put our men in danger. I think that is a worthwhile option to consider. We shouldn't waste any lives, especially if there might be an alternative."

"Yes!" The commanders agreed with the king.

"Alright, but we still need to strategize our plan B." Menzor mostly trusted Sophia, but betting everything on a single card was stupid at best. "My men, it's going to be a long night."

"Yes!"

Their meeting went on for many hours after the couple had left. It would most likely end up being wasted time, but they couldn't count on it as they hadn't seen Sophia in action yet.

 

---

---