Sophia's dream of owning an elven treehouse finally became a reality. She never knew she had such a dream, but she definitely was happy about it. While the group was taking a look at the place, Chloe also mentioned that there was a hot spring nearby. Unfortunately, it was currently closed, but they decided to visit it with everyone, Anna and Ari included, once it opened again. This way, they’d have more to look at, as well. As they were all perverts to varying degrees, this detail was not not important to them.

"Alright, what do we need to make this treehouse livable?" Sophia focused on her new place again once she put the whole hot springs topic behind her. "We haven't tested the bed here yet, but I doubt it's comparable to the one we have in the capital… I’d say we have to get one from the same manufacturer for here!”

“Agreed!” Maya liked the plan. And their bed. “Also, we absolutely have to do something against the cold!”

“Naturally!” She only stared at her. “There’s no need to even mention that!”

“Good.”

“Cats be cats…” Chloe could only roll her eyes.

"Yeah, it's bizarre that you like the cold so much."

“H-Hey!” The fox-girl raised her voice. “Just because I have some cat-related traits, it doesn’t mean that everything applies to me!” It was still a touchy subject for her.

“Ahaha, sorry about that.” Sophia scratched her cheek. "I was just joking, but the one who teases gets teased back, though."

“I understand…”

“How are we going to heat the treehouse, though?” Sophia got down on her knees and patted down the wooden floor. “Heated floors aren’t going to work here because under the wooden planks here, there’s nothing as we’re in the air…”

“Eh?!” The cat-girl didn’t like the sound of that. “B-But the comfy warmth…”

"I really spoilt you too much, didn't I?" She rolled her eyes after seeing how disappointed her cat looked.

“Yep~.” Maya only nodded.

“Heated floors…?” Chloe tilted her head instead.

“Hmm…” The blonde wondered how to explain it. “I mentioned before that space heaters are a thing, right?”

“Ah, right.” She nodded. “I never had a use for them, but I did experience them in stores, though. Wait, so underfloor heating is an actual thing here…?”

“Just recently, yeah.” Sophia patted the floor of the place another time before getting up again. “I’m actually the one who came up with it.”

“Really…?” She stared at the tiger.

"Never doubt the ingenuity of a cat feeling cold and seeking warmth." Sophia actually sounded proud of it. “I’m allowed to say that because I am a cat! Foxes aren’t!”

“Thank you.” Chloe smiled at her. “I thought you’re a tiger, though?”

"A-Ah.” She paused for a moment. “That’s just a striped cat, anyway. And I’m allowed to say that because I’m a tiger.”

“…” The fox-girl paused for a moment before eventually glancing at Maya. “Do you have an instruction manual for this girl? I share many things with her when it comes to the things we love, but I seriously don't get her…."

“If you ever come across one, please give it to me immediately!” The cat-girl was just as at a loss as the fox. "From what I've seen from you so far, I need one for you as well, though, because you're extremely similar to my idiot."

"A-Ahaha…” Chloe wasn’t sure how to react and only replied with an awkward laugh. “Still, heated floors, huh…?” She decided to change the topic. “My thighs and upper body are warm all the time because of my fluffy tail, and I'm generally okay with colder temperatures thanks to me being an arctic fox, but I do get cold feet every now and then…"

“Who doesn’t?!” Sophia got loud.

“True enough.” Maya also nodded in agreement. "The heated floors are most amazing in that regard~. Ever since we got those, I started running around barefoot in our house because it feels so nice~.”

“That sounds great!” The fox-girl’s eyes were sparkling. "I want that! It kinda works here in the treehouse because the floor’s wood, but most buildings have stone floors, and as soon as it gets cold, even I don't like that anymore…"

“I don’t even like running around barefoot on a stone floor in summer!” The tiger found even something to complain about there. “Well, okay… Unless it’s really hot and I need to cool down…”

“Exactly!” Chloe nodded. “Only that the temperature where I want to cool down is much lower than yours!”

“That’s fair.” She nodded.

“Those heated floors… How finely can you regulate them? Can you make it that the floor only gets a little lukewarm so that you can run around barefoot, but it doesn’t really heat the whole room?”

“My, you have quite the specific demands here.” The blonde looked at her. “I like how you know what you want, though~.”

“As I said before, the two of you are extremely similar.”

“Ahaha…” The duo could only react with a laugh.

“Anyway,” Sophia focused her attention on the pink-haired girl again. “The floors are directly powered by your au-, magic power through the heating ore that’s used in it. If you’re good at controlling your magic, it should be possible to use only a bare minimum on the floor, so it barely heats up.”

“Great!” Chloe’s face lit up. “I’m actually quite proud of my magical abilities!”

“I can imagine!” The blonde nodded a few times. “You can use chantless magic, after all. I still don’t get why you can, but that has to speak for magical abilities!”

“Ehehe~.” She liked the praise. “Feyfey really excels at that, and she’s been teaching me since before I could even walk… Or that’s at least what she’s been telling me… No one remembers what you did when you were like one year old or younger…”

“Wait!” Maya raised her voice. “At which age were you able to use magic?! I was like three when I fully awakened to it, and that’s supposed to be really early!”

“Ah, nonono…” Chloe shook her head. “I think I also was around three if I remember right… Feyfey just started teaching me the moment I was somewhat able to interact with my surroundings to a degree.”

“Wow, that’s some dedication!” Sophia sounded amazed. “I bet it was amazing to have such a motivated teacher!”

“It definitely helped me learn to use it fast and effectively, but Feyfey tends to be quite serious… She always stops me if I want to try something dangerous or want to experiment with anything, in her words, weird…”

“Oh…” The tiger paused for a moment. “I prefer having learned from Fennyfenny, then… While he was severely lacking in the explanation department, he’s more of the show, don’t tell type, but he actually enabled me when it came to experimenting!”

“That sounds like fun!”

“Fun… Disaster… Same difference.” Maya had mixed feelings about that.

“Hey!” Sophia glared at her.

“What?” The cat-girl only looked back at the blonde. “Feel free to correct and prove me wrong.”

“Anyway,” She looked at Chloe again. “Want to do some fun magic experiments with me as long as Feyfey’s gone?”

“That sounds like a ton of fun!” The fox-girl liked the sound of that.

“Oh no…” Maya didn’t.

“Do you have anything you want to experiment on? I’ve been into quality-of-life things lately, so I don’t have anything large scale going on right now.”

"And I'm incredibly thankful for your current calm phase!” The cat-girl looked at her with pleading eyes. “Please don’t go exploding anything now again…”

“I-I don’t explode things tha-, okay, fine…” The blonde didn’t finish her sentence after she saw Maya’s expression. “Even though you are the one who blew up our garden… Repeatedly, I want to add…” She still started pouting.

“E-Everyone has a bad day, okay?!”

“What happened?”

“We got a ton of the heating ore that is used in the magic ovens and space heaters. That material is kinda unstable when not handled carefully. My cat here, the clumsy idiot she is, ignored all those warnings and poured all of her magic into the ore, causing one catastrophic explosion after another because she just wouldn’t learn~.”

“Really…?” The fox-girl glanced at Maya. “I can feel the teasing and sass in you, but I’m surprised that you’re actually like that.”

“I AM NOT!” She got loud. "I do like to play and mess around with magic, but those explosions were an accident!”

“Is that so…?” Chloe actually sounded a little disappointed.

“Don’t be disappointed here!” Maya got even louder. "Sophia's more of a walking catastrophe the world can handle on its own already. I'm okay with having a reasonable amount of fun time with magic, and that already is an unreasonable amount of fun because I have quite a lot of magic at my disposal."

"Hey!” The tiger didn’t like being addressed like that. “It’s true, but hey!”

"A walking catastrophe sounds like fun, though.” The fox-girl’s eyes were sparkling again. “I want to be one, too!”

“Ohh~!”

“Oh.” While sounding similar, Sophia's and Maya's reactions were entirely different in their intention.

“You know, after all this talking about it, I’ve never done a good explosion in my life… I’d like to change that.” Chloe looked at the blonde again.

“You’ve found the right girl, then!” She showed her a big smile. “Whatever explosion you desire, be it exploding a pebble, the whole continent, or everything in between, I can offer you everything.”

“The continent…?”

“Okay, that one’s currently sold out… Sorry.” Sophia had no plans to do that again, after all.

"No, I mean… Whatever…" The fox-girl decided that she didn't want to know. "A small crater, maybe the size of a house, is all I want for now!"

"That's a good and reasonable start. I like it!" The tiger gave her a thumbs up. "Let's do it!"

“Yay!”

“You two wait right here!” Maya raised her voice once again. “I’m going to get Fen and Aura! I can’t deal with you two on my own!” Saying so, she immediately left to get backup.

“Have fun~.” Sophia just waved after her.

“She sure has it hard with you from time to time, huh?”

“Us, you mean?” The blonde smiled at her again.

"A-Ah.”

While the two were waiting for Maya to return with the wolves, the chaos duo tried to come up with some more magic experiments for the time being.

 

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