Chloe had told Sophia about the elves she visited, and the blonde looked forward to meeting them once the group started traveling again. After that topic came up, Anna and Ari also made the tiger promise to take the two with them as a means of taking responsibility after messing with their magic and life expectancy.

Ari, being extra sneaky, also made Sophia promise that she’s going to be the one who will explain everything, the magic, and their travel plans, to their parents.

“Did I mention that I hate you already…?” The girls were still in Anna’s room when Sophia eventually glanced at Ari.

“I know. I love you, too.” The jaguar was in a good mood after having made the blonde promise that she would be the one to break the current events to their parents.

“Urgh… Menzor still owes me, and Kira likes me a lot, so as long as I promise her to show my face often enough while bringing the princess with me, I should be fine on that side…” Sophia was trying to find out how hard her job would be. "Ari, how much of a pain are your parents going to be? I already know Daria, and I'm a big fan of hers, so I might have a chance for it to be easy…?"

"Do you think it will be easy to tell my parents that you're going to take me with you for a journey around the continent and might even the whole world? Not to mention the part where you accidentally made me half-immortal…?” The jaguar just stared at her. “I didn’t push that to you for nothing.”

“Seriously now, I hate you.”

"Also," Anna also faced her. "I've whittled down father a lot the last two years because I want to travel the world! My chances were good because he allowed Nathen to do that. Still, if he finds out that I'm now like the most powerful tiger in the family, he will definitely raise a fuss on a whole different level.”

"Ellie has much more magic than you will have once we're done, though." The blonde shook her head. “Actually, she has more than the two of you together.”

“H-Huh?!” The princess’ eyes grew big. “How do you even know that? Her magic hasn’t even awakened yet, has it? I didn’t sense a thing when we were last together.”

“The way I sense magic is a little different from most. Well, I also know the instinctive way. Still, the detection magic I mentioned a few times already also lets me see the potential of others.

“You definitely have to teach me that as soon as you have the time!” Chloe sounded like she was very interested in it.

“Fennyfenny invented it.” She smiled at her. “He might be the better teacher for it.”

“Okay! I will ask the next time I see him!”

“Sure~.”

“W-Why has she so much magic, though…?” Anna looked confused. “You didn’t do the same to her, did you?!”

“I did not.” She shook her head. “Stuff like that just happens from time to time.”

“It does…?” The tall tiger seemed dubious.

“Maya has more than twice than Ellie, and she also had that much even before I met and or even knew she existed. Her parents don't have nearly as much as her, either. It apparently really just happens.”

“Okay, that’s fair.” Anna could accept this explanation. “If that is the case and Ellie really has that much power, it might actually help you. Although… Father then will probably raise quite the fuss about you leaving as you’re undoubtedly the most talented magic user, and Ellie could learn a lot from you. Catastrophes aside."

“And that’s where the portals come into play.” Sophia gave her a thumbs up. “Whenever it’s time to train, I’ll be able to visit her. In a way, using a portal from the other side of the continent is faster than walking to the castle from the mansion.”

"Does that mean you'll tell father about your portals…?" The princess tilted her head. "If so, we're back to the fuss that will be raised.”

“Ahh…” The blonde started to notice the problem. “Every solution brings a new problem, huh?"

"That’s what you get for even thinking about it might be easy.” Ari just gave her a smile.

“Someone’s extra sassy today, huh?”

“I need an outlet…”

“Why me?!” Sophia got loud. “You have your own tiger for that!”

"I need two for the amount I bottled up."

“Maya! Help!”

“Just make sure it’s just the sass where you need a second tiger for.” The cat-girl had other priorities than helping her girl. “I know how thirsty you can be, but you’re not getting her for anything else.”

"F-For that, I only need the one tiger!" The jaguar’s cheeks turned red in response.

“Good.” Maya was happy with her reply. “Have fun with Sophia for then.”

“Thank you!”

“Hey!” The blonde got even louder. “C-Chloe, can you help me…?”

“Sure!” She smiled at her in return. “You need to tell me how, though. This whole situation is a little outside my field of expertise…”

“That’s my problem, too!”

“Hmm…” The fox-girl gave it some thought. “Can’t you just come up with a cheap excuse about the portals? Like, you need to have at least as much magic au- power as I have?”

“I think something along the lines of that was the plan I had a while back, but…” Sophia had thought about this explanation before already. “You would make that a lot more complicated, though…”

“W-Why me…?” Chloe looked confused.

"Because, on the surface, you seem to have do have a little more power than current Anna and the others, but not that much... In reality, your magic is much more potent, which is probably the reason you can use chantless stuff. Explaining that will be about as much of a pain…"

"A-Ah…” She paused for a moment. “Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place, huh…?”

“YES!”

“How about I just go home, and you never mention me during your talk with their parents?" Chloe tried to take the cheap way out.

“Nice try.” The blonde had no intention of letting her take the easy exit. "If I have to suffer, I will take everyone in my group with me!"

“What about the wolves?” Chloe played along.

“I will find something to ruin their day, too!”

“She’s having fun after all, isn’t she?” The fox-girl looked at Maya instead.

“Pretty much.” The cat-girl nodded in agreement.

“Am not!”

“Okay.” Chloe just nodded. "Well, I don't know why my magic is like it is. After all, I thought it was perfectly normal. That's why, there's not much to explain.... How about you just tell him that you need to be able to use chantless magic in one way or another? Once the magic boost of the princess is completed, everyone here can, and it's the perfect requirement for it.”

“I like that! Wait, wasn’t that the idea I had in the very beginning when I mentioned that I have a way to quickly travel between two places to the king…?”

“Yes.” Maya confirmed it.

“So, all of this worrying was for nothing?!”

“Business as usual, isn’t it?” The cat-girl was used to it already.

“S-Shut up…” Sophia got a little embarrassed.

“Also, Chloe, nice thinking.” Maya then smiled at her. “It’s great to see that you can come up with logically sound arguments on the fly.”

“Everything for the sake of having fun!”

“Ahh…” She had hoped for a more serious reasoning.

“Speaking of, I think it actually could be a lot of fun to make the portals public!” The fox-girl sounded rather giddy.

“How?!” The blonde didn’t seem to agree. "Please look up the difference between fun and a major pain in a dictionary!"

“I am well aware of their definitions!” Chloe looked a little pouty. "I just think that a publicly accessible travel hub could be pretty fun! It would be a great help to connect remote places with each other. When we made pizza together the other day, you mentioned that it was hard to get tuna this time of the year, right? If you have portals in the right places, seasonal products will be a thing of the past! Not just for you, but for everyone! I want some fruits you can't get here right now, too!”

“…” Sophia paused for a moment. “T-That does sound great… Very helpful, too…”

“It would be extremely beneficial for everyone!” Anna also agreed.

“I know that such an idea tickles your dutiful tiger bits, but…” Ari didn’t look like she was the biggest fan of the idea. “Something like that sounds like the biggest imaginable pain possible! Just think about how many people wouldn’t stop pestering you about it! Everyone would want to know how they work and all that…”

“Also true…” Both tigers hung their heads in response.

“Couldn’t you just push all that to a proxy?” Chloe didn’t want to let go of the idea.

“Proxy?” Sophia tilted her head.

“Someone who officially manages the portals and is responsible for everything around it. You just create them, and that's all the connection and responsibility you have with them."

“I see!”

“I bet father could appoint a minister just for that to make it an official noble duty. That way, no one would bother Sophia specifically!”

“That person would have to get paid very generously, though…” Maya looked concerned. “They would be under a ton of stress…”

“What do you think how much merchants and every other type of traveler would pay for an opportunity to be wherever they need to be instantly!?” The fox-girl was very confident about her idea.

“Okay, you do have a point there…”

“Maybe we should at least mention it when we tell the king and the others what is going on…?” The blonde was warming up to the idea. “If it turns into a pain, I can still say no?”

“When you are going to tell them about everything.” Ari corrected her. “Not we.”

“Ari, my dear~,” She smiled at her. “You never made me promise that I won’t drag you and Anna with me while you two will be sitting left and right of me.”

"A-Ah.” The smug smile on the jaguar’s lips had disappeared in an instant.

“Okay, whatever! Let’s strike it while it’s hot!” Sophia jumped off the sofa. “Let’s go and tell everyone right now. If it drags on for too long, I’ll probably try my best to skip this conversation. Also, the sooner it’s done, the sooner we can have fun again!”

Once the blonde had decided on that, she took everyone with them to tell Anna’s and Ari’s parents about everything that was, is, and will be going on.

 

 

 

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