The shocking news on this already eventful day didn't seem to stop. While Sophia was spending time with Ari, she not only found out that the jaguar had two moms but also that she was simply playing to be a maid. The jaguar was, at best, an honorary one that exclusively takes care of Princess Anna. Afterward, to finally have a calm moment, the duo started to bake the cookies together that Ari planned to try out while the tiger wanted to help her out. That was the plan, at least.
"Ah, we don't have enough sugar here..." After the duo finished talking about who Ari's allowed to be flirty with or not, they finally focused on the cookies they wanted to bake, but the jaguar noticed a new problem.
"That's a disaster!" Sophia didn't like the sound of that because she's very fond of sweet things. "How can the royal castle run out of sugar?"
"Calm down. We just don't have any here in this kitchen. There should still be plenty in the storage rooms."
"I see... Don't scare me like that!"
"My suggestion here would be that you should think about not jumping to conclusions instead." Ari wasn't going to take any responsibility here.
"A-Ah." The tiger had lost the match in an instant. "E-Easier said than done."
"I'm sure it's pretty easy. Step one; think. Step two; speak." She gave Sophia no chance to talk back. "Depending on the situation, step two even is optional."
"Y-You're way too good at being reasonable!"
"You're just too unreasonable. The same goes for Anna."
"No." Sophia shook her head. "It's definitely not that."
"Are you sure about that?" The black-haired girl only stared at her. "Our princess said the exact same sentence on many occasions before."
"Uuh... 50:50."
"Well, whatever works for you."
"O-Once again, I'll try to think some more. "
"If that's what you want to do, you have my full support."
"Thanks, mom." Sophia just had to do it.
"..." The jaguar stared at her for a while. "It stings a lot less compared to when Anna does it, but I still don't like it."
"A-Ah, I'm sorry." It wasn't the reaction she had hoped for.
"No... I mean, I guess I can see where you're coming from." Ari was aware of how her ways of doing things could be interpreted. "It just feels weird being addressed like this. Especially when Anna does it..."
"Well, if you don't like it, I won't do it again." After all, teasing someone, and doing something one genuinely doesn't like, were very different things for Sophia.
"Thank you very much."
"Alrighty," Sophia felt like ending the topic and wanted to be helpful. "We need sugar, right? Where's this storage room? I'll go fetch it really quick."
"It's... basically on the other side of the castle."
"Well, then I'll see you in around a week again." The tiger was still unable to navigate through the castle. "I'll get lost a few times."
"How about we go together, instead?" Ari had a better plan.
"Hmm... Yeah, let's go with that."
"We'll probably still need around half an hour to be back here, though."
"Seriously?! This place is way too big!" Sophia didn't like the sound of it. "B-But the cookies..."
"It's not like we have another choice. It'll only take longer if you don't stop complaining, too."
"Fine... I, Ah!" The blonde suddenly stopped mid-sentence. "Will I get scolded if I do something kinda ridiculous that'll give us sugar in an instant?"
"Is it something dangerous?"
"Not at all. It's just a bit mind-blowing if anything,"
"I'm a little curious now."
"So, no scolding?"
"I promise nothing."
"So unfair!" She pouted for a second before continuing. "Whatever, Maya and I went grocery shopping the other day, and l, uhh... might've forgotten to unload it into our kitchen. Ah, please don't tell her, okay?"
"Sorry, I can't follow." The jaguar-girl was obviously confused.
"I'll show you." After saying this, Sophia pushed her arm into the purple portal she created and pulled a pack of sugar out of her extra space. "There we go. That's enough sugar, right?"
"Eh?" Naturally, Ari was beyond surprised and had no idea what to say.
"Pretty cool, isn't it?"
"What... What just happened?" The jaguar blinked a couple of times, but it didn't help her confusion. "What was that purple thing... and where did the sugar come from...?"
"It's some magic I came up with. It gives me basically unlimited storage that I can access wherever and whenever I want."
"I want that, too!" Her reaction was different from expected. "I've never heard of anything even remotely as useful as that!"
"Yep, it's amazing, but sorry... It's pretty complicated and uncategorized chantless magic. It's an original creation of mine, after all."
"According to you, elements or categories don't matter. You also claimed that activation words make no sense, and those who can use that also should be able to use chantless magic. That's why, gimme~!"
"Ahaha, so you can be unreasonable, huh?" Sophia let out a chuckle. "Not going to lie, spoilt Ari's kinda adorable."
"A-Ah." Her face turned red. "Stupid Anna... it's definitely from her influence."
"Hehe~. But remember, you were the one who told me that there most likely are more requirements for chantless magic other than being able to use activation words with ease. Something like a power requirement."
"R-Right..." Ari got even more flustered. "So embarrassing…"
"I know that feeling~." The tiger was happy to be on the other side for once.
"Still, I'm sooo envious about that magic! I wish I had more power..."
"Sorry."
"Well, though regrettable, there's nothing I can do." The black-haired decided to return to the original topic. "Now that we have all the ingredients, how about we get started on the cookies?"
"Cookies!" Sophia was very motivated.
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Taking the lead, Ari explained the contents of the recipe she found to the tiger. For a moment, Sophia wondered about how they were going to weigh the ingredients because modern scales couldn't possibly be a thing in this world. She hoped for something magical, but, as it turned out, they had simple balance-type scales where the ingredients go on one side while placing a variety of sample masses on the other side to balance it out.
"They're not going to be the super-sweet kind, huh?" The blonde was reading through the recipe and wasn't the biggest supporter of the amount of sugar noted on it.
"You think so? I don't bake that often because I usually enjoy making savory food more, but I thought it's fine?"
"Well, it's my first time baking cookies, so I might be wrong. Just compared to the amount of the other ingredients, it sounds a bit too little?"
"Hmm..." Ari eyed their recipe with a raised eyebrow.
"As I said, I don't know how to cook. There's a high chance I'm wrong."
"You shouldn't have said anything then... Now I'm conflicted..." Thanks to the tiger, she now was second-guessing it, too.
"Sorry." Sophia hung her head. "Oh, they might be the perfect base for choc... chocolade-chip cookies!" She needed a second to remember the correct pronunciation. "That would add some nice sweetness. Not to mention that they're amazing~."
"Chocolade... chip...?" The jaguar-girl tilted her head. "What's that?"
"Eh?" She stared at her with a blank expression. "Y-You don't know what chocolade-chip cookies are...?"
"I don't think I've ever heard of it."
"W-Wow... forget the whole magic thing, I've found something way worse that's wrong with the population." It was a way more significant issue for her compared to the underdeveloped magic of everyone. "How... How did no one ever think of adding chocolade to cookies?!" She looked crestfallen.
"No, chocolade cookies are a thing. Either by adding cocoa powder to the recipe or by melting chocolade and mixing it in. I don't understand the chip part."
"A-Ah, that's a relief..." Sophia let out a long sigh. "The chip part comes from adding chunks of chocolade to the cookies before baking. Those bits only partly melt and stay intact. When you bite into the cookies, you always get a mouthful of slightly gooey but still somewhat crunchy chocolade. It's amazing."
"Forget about my recipe. We're doing that!" Ari needed to have these kinds of cookies now. "Ah, but now we need to the storage room regardless to get some chocolade..."
"Coming right up~." Saying so, she opened the portal to her storage again and pulled out a whole assortment with all kinds of chocolade. "Maya literally ordered me to always have a stock of it. It's also really helpful when she needs it. She can get moody otherwise."
"Understandable. I have a big craving for chocolade, too, every now and then." The jaguar gave a slight nod.
"Like, I don't know, for a couple of days once a month?"
"It's a mystery, isn't it~?"
"Sure is. Well, I never not crave chocolade, but it's occasionally even stronger during that time, too, so I do understand."
"Anyway, I so badly want this storage magic!" Ari got envious of it again.
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Ignoring the black-haired girl, Sophia explained how they were supposed to look, and the girls started preparing the cookies. As the stakes had now become chocolade-chip cookies, the tiger didn't want to risk anything and let Ari do the base recipe. Instead, she only chopped the chocolade to the correct size before adding it to the finished dough and mixing it through with a spatula.
"Err... Before I actually start cutting and mixing... Do you have an apron for me?" Sophia glanced down at herself. "I am 106% certain that it's going to be messy~." The blonde was aware of her clumsiness, after all. "Maybe some slippers, too. I'm sure I'm able to manage to even get something on my shoes."
"That's no, uhh... not much of a problem..." Ari looked around, and her eyes stopped at a clothes hanger next to the door. "H-How do you feel about a slightly frilly apron in a cute pink?" She tried her best not to smile while imagining the tiger wearing it.
"I might not look like it, but I like cute clothes, okay?!" The blonde started pouting.
"Perfect!" The jaguar grabbed the apron and handed it over to her.
"S-Stop grinning already!" Sophia glared at the other girl, who kept looking at her after she started wearing the pink dress-like apron together with the similarly colored slippers.
"I-I'm sorry... You look adorable." Ari didn't even try to stop.
"Uuh..." She squirmed around a bit. The tiger seemed kind of happy to hear it, but the situation also was rather embarrassing for her.
"A-Alright!" The black-haired girl needed another minute to be serious again. "Let's continue." Saying so, the two continued their work. While Ari finished the dough, Sophia cut the chocolade into chunks and added it before mixing everything together. Afterward, the duo formed it into actual cookies.
"So, what now?" They went a little overboard, and the tiger was currently staring at five packed cookie sheets.
"Thankfully, the ovens here are pretty big. We're going to use the one on the right." She pointed at one of the two in the kitchen they were in. "Normally, I use the one powered by wood because it tastes better, but that's no good for sweet stuff, so we'll have to take the one that operates with magic. Smokey cookies are kinda..."
"That makes sense. Wait, how does an oven powered by magic work? Maya also always uses the wood ones because of the taste."
"You use your magic power for it to heat up."
"Like with a chant or an activation thingy like 'Heat up'?" Sophia tried to guess how it worked.
"No, you simply pour your magic into it by touching the respective controls for the oven while thinking about the temperature you want, and it does just that."
"What...?" She needed a moment after hearing this. "Ari...?"
"Yes?"
"That's literally what chantless magic is."
"It's not?"
"No, it absolutely is. In a way, it's quite similar to some type of magic I use. For that, I also use my own power to generate heat. Okay, flames in my case."
"Really...? Well, I can't do that without the oven."
"So... Ovens are able to use chantless magic, but people can't...? Who even invented those kitchen appliances...?"
"They've been around forever. I don't think it's actually known who invented them, only that you need a special type of material to build them."
"Something's seriously wrong with magic... There's definitely something missing in the explanation everyone has for it." Sophia looked extremely confused.
"l, uhh... I have no idea what to say." Ari couldn't help her. "If you find out what's going on, please use it to teach me the storage thing, okay?" She really fell in love with the magic.
"Oi, magic!" The tiger suddenly started yelling. "I don't know what's going on, but do me a favor, okay?! Let Ari use chantless magic, alright? I'll even help out if you need anything from me! I know that we're missing some crucial elements, but be cool, okay? Thank you very much! Love you~."
"What... What was that...?" The jaguar looked even more confused than the blonde now.
"Don't mind me. I'm just frustrated and needed to get it out of my system."
"I-I see."
"Alright, let's get to baking the cookies!" With a refreshed look on her face, Sophia got motivated again and pushed the topic aside.
"Sure…"
Afterward, once the oven was heated up, the duo watched the cookies bake and chatted about everything except magic while waiting.
I hope I'm not the only one who likes this artist so much because there are at least 4 more illustrations coming from them~. I'll be using a different artist every now and then because of timing issues, but I hope I can continue to get even more from them.
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Imagine having to live in a world that didn't have chocola(t/d)e chip cookies until now.
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Sophia just can't let go of the magic issue, and even Ari's starting to break more and more. It surely won't end up with our tiger causing some headaches again, right?
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Speaking of Sophia, we're only a few thousand clicks away from being the #1 Story with the tag "Lack of Common Sense"~.
I do like this art, yes.
The fangs are absolutely essential.
But... for a feline, Ari has a seriously thicc tail. Don't know how I feel about that part - a feline tail thicker than her legs just feels a bit wrong.
@Nyaa Jaguar tails are fairly thick in real life, it looks so fluffy and soft. i feel jealous of Anna for having free access
@Nyaa
The fangs are absolutely essential.
Great! I was thinking about it last time already, but now I actually remembered having them added.
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For the tail, part of the reason is just as @Jessy said, the tails of jaguars are on the thicker side. Also, FLUFF!
It also really depends on how thick/long her fur actually is. I mean, the persian cat of my mom or our two marine coons would feel sorry for Ari for having such a thin tail. Especially the tail of that persian is thicker/wider than his actual body. Unless he gets wet. He looks quite sorry, then.
@Teanam Any puffy fluff creature looks sad when it’s wet. I found feel horrible if someone purposely got Ari’s tail wet when it wasn’t a bath time or something, it would look depressing and sad.
@Jessy True.
Now, I'll just sit back and wait for the jokes about making Ari wet.
@Teanam I don't think Ari's starting to lose her common sense, it's just that Sophia's got a really good point about the ovens being a conduit for chantless magic (which we should really be calling "silent" since activation words are already chantless by technicality). So, it's more of an understanding point for Sophia's perspective on magic and how it should work, in theory if not in practice.
@miyoga Sophia's been eroding everyone's common sense for a long time already and Ari's currently getting the full brunt of it because the two got so close. It's just a good thing that Ari is starting to question things because of her because the common sense around magic seems to be flawed af at best. Maybe even just plain wrong.
Sophia's doing everyone a favor by destryoing their wrong *common* sense. Ari and the others outside her immediate group are only starting to understand that, though. Sophia establishing her *common* sense would change a lot. Although, we can only hope that they learn from her theories and how she question things that make no sense. If they learn from her way of *doing* things, the world will explode in about 5 days tops...
@giroxo I know that too, but what I was trying to say is that Ari's the first "normal" person that Sophia's had to explain this to. Maya's overpowered, based on conventional knowledge that the beast-people have, as is Anna. Menzor, and the rest of the tiger family for that matter, is also above average in terms of power and would most likely not think twice about something involving magic because "it's just that way", kinda like he didn't do anything about the attempted kidnappings until Sophia enlightened him. Eluna, as a magic instructor would be more open-minded about this as she's above-average but still way below Maya in terms of power, but she's got the background to at least try to wrap her head around it.
That leaves Ari as the oddball of this entire thing. She's only been exposed to the "old" ways of learning magic and hasn't seen/experienced anything like Sophia until Sophia arrived. And, while her logic and explanations may be unconventional, the oven and how it works is something that Ari could take to heart and start to change her own understanding of how magic works. In a way, it's not much different than if we were learning a new language/skill based on one we already know that has some similarity (like when Maya learned how to use water magic by Sophia telling her to think of using air magic).
@miyoga
(which we should really be calling "silent" since activation words are already chantless by technicality)
You're not wrong...
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Ari's the first "normal" person that Sophia's had to explain this to. Maya's overpowered, based on conventional knowledge that the beast-people have, as is Anna. Menzor, and the rest of the tiger family for that matter
Not going to comment on the theory/comment itself to stay out of spoilers, but Anna and Ari have roughly the same power (see ch. 138). Anna's just a little more open to experiments.
@Teanam I kinda figured there might be something that we haven't been told yet. But other than back at the very beginning when Maya was first introduced, we haven't really seen any "normal" magic users as even the jaguars are on near even levels with the tigers. While I might be using the term rather subjectively, Ari is currently (and for all intents and purposes) "normal" when compared to everyone else.
With the spoiler comment itself, I'm guessing it'll come up in the school arc, so I'll patiently wait and maybe make my own chocolade chip cookies (maybe a mix of white, semi-sweet and milk...pro tip: add a package of instant pudding (I usually do french vanilla, but chocolate would be a cheater chocolate cookie) to keep them softer, longer).
Art is good. Fangs are good. White tights are good (I might have a thing for them ) but if someone is gonna wear white, we know who's colour that is...
Thicc tail means more tail to play with
@miyoga Strictly speaking, the term would be non-verbal, to differentiate from saying the verbal component in your mind / via telepathy / in a sound nullifying area, when those things are possible. Saying a chant in your head is silent, using an image alone is non-verbal. I do love the "verbal, somatic, material" component style, even if they don't quite make sense.
@Teanam we've definitely seen that Anna is more "experimental" while Ari is, uh, "single-minded". If you catch my drift
@kaithar
White tights are good (**I might have a thing for them**) but if someone is gonna wear white, we know who's colour that is...
You're going to like the (far) future chapters~
we've definitely seen that Anna is more "experimental" while Ari is, uh, "single-minded". If you catch my drift
I hate you~
With that, I mean that I hate that you managed to come up with that. With that, I mean that I'm jealous.
@Teanam oh my, flattery