Chapter 400 – The last big secret [END]
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A week had passed since the sisters returned to their old world to meet up with their parents and tell them about everything that was happening lately, including the new world. The two had been invited to visit and maybe even stay, as well, but they naturally had to think about the possibility for a while first.

Back home, the blonde tiger and her little dog sister had a good time with their girlfriends and regular friends while taking it easy. Having come clean about everything with their parents, Sophia started thinking more and more about something else.

“Steph, Chloe, how would you feel about telling Ari and Anna that we’re from a different world?” The four, Maya included, were relaxing in the mansion’s living room together when the tiger suddenly addressed the other two otherworldler.

“Huh?” Maya, the native girl, was the first to react. "I thought you wanted to keep that a secret at all costs? Because it could turn out quite complicated if they find out that you haven’t been a tiger the entire time.”

“I don’t think I want and or need to address the part where I had been a human for a while in this world. I very much would be okay with them misunderstanding that I got a similar treatment as Chloe did… I think I want them to know about the other world thing in general. Especially now that we’re increasingly gathering more and more stuff here…” She looked around in the living room while focusing on the TV and various similar things they always hid up until now when the royal couple came to visit.

“Ah, I see.” The cat-girl nodded. “That might be an adequate middle ground.”

“So, what do you think?” Sophia looked at the other two again.

“Totally fine with me!” Steph saw no issues. “I didn’t understand why you’re keeping it a secret, anyway! It only made your life more complicated, after all.”

“I’m also fine with it.” Chloe also agreed. “I’m already the daughter of an overseer, so this is actually not that much of a big deal anymore, I guess.”

“Your protagonist power is way too high…” The blonde let out a small sigh.

“You’re the last one I want to hear that from!” Everyone had the same reaction.

"A-Ahaha…”

“Is there anything else you don’t want to tell them?” The pink fox wanted to make sure that nothing unnecessary gets mentioned.

“I don’t think I want to go into detail in general…” Sophia tilted her head. “I want to tell them about the general thing, like that I used to live in a different world, and that’s how I lost my family and stuff. Maybe also that my personality was a little different before, which is why I sometimes seem a little weird. My biggest motivation for telling them is that I don't want to think about what to say first when getting close to that territory. Well, they're also very good friends of mine, so I don’t want to keep lying to them. As we all know, nothing good will ever come out of that…”

“True.” Maya, Chloe, and Steph heartily agreed. They all had some level of experience with that, after all.

“If I give them a rough picture about our, well… origin, I think that’s enough for my consciousness to be happy, and it’s enough information for them to understand us better, too. A lot of some of the stuff we all went through is truly private, and there's no need to mention all that, in my opinion.

“Fair enough.” The others understood her reasoning.

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

Once they had decided on a course of action, the girls took the portal to Anna’s room in the castle. There, noticing that no one was in there, the four went to the place Sophia had detected them with her magic.

“So… phia!” When the group approached the entrance hall, where Sophia had detected them, Ellie immediately ran up to her favorite blonde girl.

“Ellie~!" The blonde in question was also happy to see her favorite tiger and happily caught the little one who had jumped into her arms. “It has been a while, huh?”

“Too long!” The little princess didn’t sound too happy about it. “Look!” She then pointed at Mira, who had also been there, together with Kira, Ari, and Anna. “It’s the god-ess of fluff!”

“Ahaha…” Said goddess of fluff scratched her cheek.

“She really is, huh?” The blonde had to agree. “She’s the overseer of fluff, though, you know? It’s different.”

“Really?” Ellie tilted her head. “Mira said she liked it, though…?” She looked honestly confused.

“Mhm?” Sophia looked at the many-tailed overseer.

“Look, if Ellie calls me a goddess of something, I am one.” Even Mira wasn’t immune to the bundle of adorableness. “There are exceptions to everything, after all.”

“Okay, I can get behind that.” The blonde couldn’t blame her. “By the way, what is everyone doing here? The grouping is a little unusual, I’d say.”

“Anna and I also just got here after we had a snack, so I'm not really sure, either," Ari replied her first.

“I had a small meeting with the king,” Mira continued. “And on the way out, Kira and the fluff-loving princess ran into me.”

“Ellie can sense fluff!” The little girl looked incredibly proud.

“What a skill!” Sophia sounded quite envious. “Wait, can you use magic?”

“Mmmh?” She only tilted her head in return.

“Let’s see… Come here for a moment~.” Saying so, the teal fox kneeled down and opened her arms while she looked at the little princess.

“Yay!” Liking that idea a lot, Ellie wasted no time and directly jumped at the overseer. At the very last moment, she made a slight course correction and dove right into Mira's many tails instead. "S-So fluffy!" She seemed to be in heaven.

“E-Ellie!” Kira couldn’t believe her daughter. “I’m very sorry about that…”

“SO ENVIOUS!” The sisters had the same reaction.

“…” Maya and Chloe just looked at them.

“Ahaha, it’s fine.” The overseer smiled at the queen. “Alright, let’s have a look…” Saying so, she put a hand on Ellie’s head, who was busy with her tails. “6 months, 17 days, 14 hours, 43 minutes, and 3 seconds. Not bad. She’s very loved by magic, as well.”

“Eh…?” Everyone looked extremely confused.

“That’s when her magic will awaken.”

“S-Seriously?!” Kira got loud. “Wait, how would you know… Ah, scratch that…” She remembered that she was talking with the overseer of magic.

“Really? That’s going to be sooo much fun!” Sophia liked the sound of that. “I’m going to teach you so many fun magic things when that happens, Ellie!”

“Yay!” The little princess smiled at her. “Ellie doesn’t really understand, but Ellie can’t wait!”

“Hehe~.” She smiled back at her. "Good timing. It's long after I finish my hibernation!”

“You aren’t going to hibernate!” Steph, Chloe, and Maya had the same reaction.

“But I want to!” Sophia started pouting. “It has gotten way too cold lately!”

“Ellie thinks so, too!” She felt the same. “What’s hypernation…?”

“Very roughly speaking, you eat a whole lot when it starts getting cold, so much that your belly gets all round because you’re going to sleep for as long as winter lasts, and the food needs to last very long. Once you wake up again, the cold is gone!”

“ELLIE WANTS TO HYPERNAP, TOO!” She was a big fan of that idea.

“Oh, I like that new name! Much more fitting, hypernap!”

“Did you really have to tell her about that…?” Kira had some mixed feelings about it.

“Every bit of knowledge is good knowledge!”

"Are you also going to teach her the bit of knowledge about where feline races do not hibernate?” Maya slowly shook her head while looking at her tiger.

"She's still small. You can't overload her brain with too many details!"

“Haa…” More than just one person in the room reacted with a prolonged sigh.

“Hehe~.” Sophia liked their reaction. “Anyway, Ari, Anna, do you have some time for me?” She changed her attention to the couple. "Like an hour or two. Or maybe seven.”

“No.” The jaguar’s reply was instantaneous. “Unfortunately, I’m quite busy today.”

“What are you talking about?” Anna looked at her. “We’ve been lazing around all day already and planned to continue just like that after our snack.”

“Shhh!” She put a finger on her lips to silence the princess. “Whenever Sophia starts a conversation like that, nothing good ever comes out of it! Only headaches!”

“You know me so well~.” The blonde was touched. “True, though.”

“I knew it!” Ari raised her voice. “Well, after everything that happened with and around you the last few weeks, there’s at least no way you can come up with something even more ridiculous, so I guess I can manage…” She gave up.

“Aha… Ahahaha… Ahahahaha…” Maya could only react with a broken laugh.

“Alright, I’m in my room if anyone needs me!” The black-haired girl decided she didn't want to deal with that.

“Nice try, my dear.” Sophia grabbed her shoulder when she actually tried to pass her to leave for her room.

“L-Let me go! I don’t want another headache!”

"Don't worry. I'll use as much healing magic on you as you want later on~."

“That’s not the issue and or point!”

“Give it up.” Maya showed the jaguar a wry smile. “We both know that struggling only motivates those tigers even more…”

“True.” Anna, Sophia, and Kira nodded.

“Haa…" Ari's shoulder slouched down. "I hate you…"

“I love you, too~.” The blonde’s mood was excellent.

“By the way, what’s all this about?” Kira started to get interested in the topic.

“Only for core members of the traveling group~.”

“Aww…”

“Anyway, let’s go!” Highly motivated to get over with it, Sophia grabbed Ari’s hand, as she still seemed ready to run away at any moment, and dragged her out of the entrance hall while Maya, Steph, Chloe, and Anna followed after them.

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

“So, what’s up?” The group went to Anna’s room, and the princess immediately wanted to know the reason for their gathering while everyone got comfortable.

“It’s a long and extremely complicated story…” Sophia scratched her cheek.

“I hate it here already!” It didn’t appear to be Ari’s day.

“I want to tell everyone here about my past… And Chloe’s, because they’re quite related to each other. To some extent, Steph’s story, as well, but she’s more of an addition to mine, I guess…?”

“Wow, are you really okay with telling us?!” Anna’s eyes grew big. “It’s not something easy to share, right?”

“Well, it’s mostly complicated…” The blonde was still scratching her cheek.

“Wait, I thought you and Chloe have no past together?" The jaguar tilted her head. "I still remember being curious about it because you two are so similar.”

“We do have no past together. We have the same origin, though. Same home, I guess?” She wasn’t sure how to word it. “We did, in fact, have never met before, though. A few months ago really was the first time.”

“Okay…?” The royal couple only got more confused.

“Chloe and I are… we come from the same planet…” Sophia made a slight pause. “Not this planet, I want to add. Both of our lives ended in our previous world, and that's how we ended up here…"

“E-Eh…?” The duo was unable to follow her.

“That’s how Mira became Chloe’s mother, as an overseer has the power to give someone a new life after it ended in another world… I met Canir because of the same reason. He saved me. Contrary to Chloe’s situation, he’s not my father, though. He simply gave me a new chance in this world…”

“…” Anna and Ari were utterly speechless.

“I died from an illness when I was little, about 20 years ago in that old world, and was gifted a second chance here.” Chloe decided to tell them about her part herself. “I didn’t even know that Mira had decided to become my mother here for the longest time, either, after she saved me.”

“I met a similar fate in that old world… only that I had a fatal accident that took me away.” As decided on before, Sophia let out a couple of non-crucial details in her recap. “Again, contrary to the situation of our beloved pink fox here, Canir is NOT my father.” She felt the need to make this very clear. “I am very thankful for him and get along with him quite well, too. Though, I have punched him a couple of times, as well, because he can be annoying at times… Anyway, he just saved me and let me restart in this world. Nothing parent-like.” This part was very important to the blonde. "A month or two ago, our dear Canir made a slight mistake and sent me, together with Maya, back to my old world by mistake. There, I reunited with Steph, and she decided to come with me. Once here, she changed her looks to better fit into this world while also making some more adjustments after Mira had gifted her magic because our overseer was already shipping her with Chloe before our many-tailed fox-friend even met her in person… Admittedly, quite a weird story in retrospect.”

“…” The royal couple needed a good minute to process what they had just heard. “EVERYTHING SUDDENLY MAKES SENSE!” They eventually finally had a reaction. A loud one.

“E-Eh…?” Sophia wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but it surely hadn’t been that.

“Wait a moment!” Ari suddenly stared right at the blonde. “D-Did you just say that you punched Canir?!”

“Yes.” She nodded. “Multiple times, actually.”

“S-Seriously?!”

“Is, uhh... Is that really the most important part here...?” Sophia still had no idea what to make out of their reaction. “We just told you that Chloe, Steph, and I originated from a different world, you know...?”

“I mean, yes...” Ari awkwardly scratched her cheek. “Hearing that from literally anyone else outside this group, I would've been beyond surprised..." She made a slight pause. "BUT! After having been with you for, I don’t know, half a year, it makes so much sense now! You being you, that is!" The jaguar intensified her stare at the blonde. "The other two, obviously, too!" She also stole a quick glance at Steph and Chloe. "After having met Mira a little while ago, finding out that Chloe's her daughter, and learning that you are, in one way or another, related to Canir, getting shocked has become kind of, uhh... hard. ALSO! Knowing that you came from a different world before starting your life here is actually kinda relieving...”

“How and why is that relieving...?” Sophia only got more confused.

“Look, I really love you, but...” The jaguar smiled at her before continuing. “You’re an absolute disaster. Your common sense and ways to utilize magic are literally not from this world!”

“Ahaha…” The blonde could follow her logic.

“Wait a moment…” Maya joined the conversation. “It making perfect sense or not, how can you accept them having originated from a different world just like that?!” After all, it had taken her a full day to accept Sophia’s background back when she had found out about it.

"Well, it's not unheard of," Anna replied to her. "I have not personally met anyone myself, or know anyone who did, but I’ve heard and read about it. It apparently has been a long time since the last one from a different world has lived around here.”

“Same here.” Ari nodded a few times. “Personally, I’ve always been rather skeptical about it and was not sure if I should believe the stories, but there were many of them, so I guess I’m not that shocked to finally meet someone, or multiple, individuals that have lived in a different world before.”

“I’m not sure if I should be happy or disappointed that it went so swimmingly…” Sophia had some mixed feelings still.

“Because you do love attention, after all. How this went just now, you definitely didn’t get enough for your liking.”

“Shut up, Mira!” Sophia glared at the many-tailed fox.

“Ehehe~.” She just smiled back at her.

“M-MIRA?!” This time, Ari and Anna had quite the reaction.

“Oh, now you are shocked, huh…?” The blonde actually started pouting. It seems like she really did want to get more attention from them. “Mira appears out of nowhere all the time! It’s nothing special!”

“You really are cute~.” The overseer was still smiling at her. “I’m sorry my little trick stole your show.”

“It’s not even a good trick! It’s pretty easy to do! Well, not exactly easy… but I could do it, too!”

“You can do it, too…?” Maya looked at her tiger. “I thought we agreed that teleporting is bad?”

“It is bad!” Sophia looked back at her. “She isn’t teleporting. She’s using the thing I’m not affected by! It’s actually quite boring if you can see it happening!”

“Hey, no need to downplay it!” Mira wasn’t a fan of her reply.

“The thing you’re not affected by…?” The cat-girl needed a moment. “Ohhh!” She pieced together that Sophia was talking about her ability to stop time. “So that’s how you do it, huh?”

“Yep!” The overseer gave Maya a thumbs up.

“Anyway!” The blonde gave up. “Maya!”

“Yes…?” She didn’t like how Sophia had changed her attention to her in such a way.

“Why do you know as little as I do about this world?!” She slowly shook her head. “Are you secretly from another world, too?!”

“Oh, that would also explain a lot!” Anna and Ari seemed to could get behind that explanation.

“WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?” She glared at the royal couple before facing her tiger. “What do you mean?! I’m not!”

“Then why had you no idea who or what tigers were when we met? Or how it completely shattered your understanding of everything when I told you about having lived in a different world before when it seems to be somewhat common knowledge?”

“…” Maya went silent rather quickly.

“See?!”

“W-Well…” She looked quite awkward for a little while longer. “I, uhh… I grew up in a small, remote village with little contact with the outside world…"

“Even your parents roasted you about the tiger thing when I told them about it.” Sophia didn’t let her use that excuse.

"A-Ah… I also cared very little about stuff like that! As long as I could play with magic, that was all that mattered!”

“Seems like something an otherworldler would say.” Chloe smiled at her. "I would know because I am one and have that same mindset~."

“Urgh, to be compared to you… It wasn’t on that level for me! Also, I’m the one who’s keeping this group from accidentally blowing up everything with magic! From my experience with all you crazies, that’s not an otherworldler trait!”

“True.” Sophia, Chloe, and Steph nodded a couple of times.

“M-Mira, some help, please!” The cat-girl looked at the overseer with a pleading expression.

“Mhmm~.” Her expression turned mischievous.

“Oi!” Maya immediately stopped her before she could make the situation worse. “I know that expression! I invented that expression! Not the right situation!”

“Dear, I was already doing this very expression long before your entire bloodline was even close to existing. It would only work if you've reincarnated many times already.”

“Not helping!” She kept getting louder.

"I think you might be the most fun and rewarding to tease in this group~."

“I disagree.” Maya disagreed.

“Hehe~.” Mira let out another chuckle before continuing. “No, our dear white cat here has never been to another… Wait, that's wrong. She has visited Chloe's worlds many times by now. Anyway, no, she has been natively born into this world. I can guarantee you that."

“Thank you very much!” Maya was happy the overseer finally got serious.

“Our dear princess brought up a valid point, too. Reincarnators are relatively rare around here. There’s the occasional... let’s call them fluff-enthusiast, but the mast majority prefers other traits, races, and surroundings.”

“What weirdos.” Sophia, Steph, and Chloe had the same reaction. “Why even bother then?”

“Well, the demons were quite a popular choice. Cool-looking with a sleek tail and wings if you want to. Most of them are tall and handsome, too. It comes with the race. Girls often were a fan of being able to go on without any add-ons." Mira tried to come up with a reason. "Funnily enough, what sealed the thing for most was the revelation that succubi exist in that race.”

“...” The sisters paused for a moment. “F-Fair.”

“Oi!” Chloe and Maya didn’t like their reaction.

“Hold up! Wait a moment there...” The princess seemed to have gotten interested in something. “Maya had visited their world?!” She looked at the cat-girl for confirmation.

“Yeah...” She nodded. “The first time was because of Canir’s little accident, but Sophia's been able to use her portals to go there whenever she wants ever since. Going shopping there is quite, uhh... interesting.”

“S-Seriously?!” Anna’s eyes started sparkling. “I WANT TO GO! I WANT TO SEE A DIFFERENT WORLD!”

"Oh no…" Ari didn't like any of what she was hearing.

“You’re not ready for that world.” Maya slowly shook her head while looking at the tall tiger. “You’ll need months of training to deal with that kind of shock you’d get from that world… Trust me.”

“I have time!” She had no issues with that. “Have you been outside lately?! It’s gotten so cold that I’m seriously considering hibernation! There’s nothing else you can do right now! Unfortunately, Ari doesn’t allow me to because felines aren’t supposed to do that! What do I care? Let’s make it a thing for felines!”

“I love you.” Sophia sounded way more serious than she should do when saying this sentence.

“I knew I could count on you!” Anna smiled at her. “Tigers have to hold together!”

“Exactly!”

"I hate you." Ari and Maya also sounded way more serious than they should be when looking at their partners. "Tigers are insufferable."

“It’s not like you’ve become any less useless lately, my dear.” Steph looked at the cat with an equally disapproving expression.

"A-Ah…” She simply turned her head away.

"Ari's the same!" The princess raised her voice again. "In fact, I think she got even lazier than I did!"

“Now that’s just going too far!” The jaguar didn’t like that. "You've been much worse! I must admit that I'm not that much more enthusiastic about the weather, though…”

“You’re all insufferable…” The cold-loving dog and pink fox had enough of every cat in the room.

"A-Ah…" None of them could say anything against this duo.

“This group sure is fun~.” Mira was having a great time, though.

“Anyway,” Sophia, the voice of reason, tried to get the group, who loves to go on long tangents, back to the topic. "Maya is right in saying that you need preparation to visit our old world. It's not a place to visit on a whim… That said, we have many gadgets to show from that world in our mansion. We could go and all play with them together.”

“Their toys are the best!” The cat-girl sounded excited. "I'm still having trouble getting out of bed the day after because my legs are still numb hours later! That world is in a league of its own when it comes to being horny and perverted!”

“…” Anna paused for a moment. “Wait… you want us all to play with sex toys…? Together…? As in… together? All at once…?” Her face turned red. “I-I’m not sure if I’m ready for that just yet…”

“J-Just what are you imagining?!” Ari glared at her.

“Probably the same as you do~.” Maya’s expression turned into a smirk. “Your cheeks are even redder than hers.

"A-Ah.”

"This group is amazing~." Steph loved her friends.

“Oi!” Chloe also started glaring at her partner.

“You do know that your face is the reddest out of everyone here, right…?” The cat-girl already found her next target to tease.

"A-Ah.”

“Girls…” The blonde let out a small sigh. “I am aware that everyone in our group is pretty horny all day long, myself maybe even included at times, and we are quite tight and everything, but… Could we stop lusting after each other for like five minutes? I was talking about actual games and stuff, you know? Suited for all ages.”

“…” Everyone went silent while stealing some glances at each other.

Afterward, once the girls calmed down again, Sophia decided to bring everyone to the mansion to show the royal couple the stuff she had brought over from the different world.

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

“Woah, what is all this?!”

“So many things I’ve never seen before!” Entering the living room, Anna and even Ari quickly became quite excited.

"Welcome back~." Noticing the group, Aura lazily greeted them. With Fen next to her and Fey to the side, they looked rather comfortable on the sheepskin rug in front of the running and lightly crackling fireplace.

“Fey~.” Looking at her favorite full, Mira smiled at the fox.

“Good to see you back.”

“I’m so envious that Fennyfenny is actually allowed to hibernate…” Sophia was staring at the wolf, who hadn’t said a single word yet because he was fast asleep.

“Ahaha, there really isn’t much missing for that.” Aura let out a small chuckle before facing her favorite tiger. “Why are these two here? I thought you always wanted to hide the otherworld stuff when they’re here.”

“Ahh…” She scratched her cheek. “We just told them about Steph, Chloe, and me having lived in a different world before, so it’s okay now.”

“Ohh, I see!” She nodded. “That makes it much easier when we’re traveling together! I could already see the day when someone says something that made it obvious, anyway."

“Yeah, that was one of the main reasons… That, and not wanting to have any big secrets in our group so that we can be at ease around each other."

“That’s nice!” The female wolf liked her reasoning.

“Sophia! Sophia!” Sounding extremely excited, Anna grabbed her fellow tiger’s hands and looked at her with sparkling eyes.

“How can I be of help?” The blonde smiled at her.

“W-What is all that shiny stuff here?!” She gestured around in the living room. “So many things! Are those from that other world? WHAT IS THAT HUGE BLACK AND MIRROR-LIKE THING?!”

"Calm down a little, and I might tell you…" Sophia was a little overwhelmed by the overly excited huge, and striped puppy.

“IMPOSSIBLE!”

“Ahh…” She let out a small sigh. “Well, it’s hard to be upset at you… You’re quite cute when you’re excited.”

“She definitely is.” Ari agreed. “No matter how much of a headache it can be.”

“So?! Tell me!” The princess didn’t care about their exchange.

“Yeah, it’s all stuff we brought with us from the other world a little while ago when we went there. Do you want a little presentation?”

“YES!” She indeed did.

“How about we all watch a movie together?”

“I love that idea!” Anna got even more excited. “What’s a moviee?!”

“Ari…” Looking slightly tired already, the blonde glanced at the jaguar. “Could you calm her down a little…? I’m already getting exhausted.”

“I hate you.” Ari got a little upset because Sophia had absolutely no right to complain about that. Especially not to her. "Also, no, you… You, as a fellow permanently overexcited tiger, you know that this is an impossible task."

“Fair… Well, let’s just get started.” Sophia didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of leaning more into it. Afterward, she started rummaging through all the movies they had gotten to find a suitable one.

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

Funnily enough, the blonde found the perfect movie for the situation. It was a fantasy one featuring many non-human races, including elves and a similar-looking beastfolk. It made everything much easier for the time being because it wasn’t that off compared to their current world.

And so, roughly an hour later, as Anna had gotten way too hyper after the TV got turned on, not that Ari and Fey weren’t quite fascinated, as well, even Mira was very interested, they finally managed to start the movie while Sophia continued to briefly explain things whenever a question came up. Luckily, back when Canir secretly blessed the wolves with the language of the other world, he had done the same with Anna and Ari, as he knew this would happen sooner or later.

“That was amazing! I don’t get how it works at all, but the magic of your old world is amazing!" One and a half hours later, after the movie was done, Anna was just as excited. Also, just like the wolves before, technology clearly was the same as magic for her.

"Not this again…" Sophia, Steph, and Chloe sighed after that topic resurfaced.

"More! I want to see more like that!" The princess was hooked already.

“I, uhh… I would like to see more, too.” Ari, too, had enjoyed it a lot. “It was very nice.”

“Mhmm, I have a lot of different movies, but I think this was the only one with those characters.”

“Eh?” Anna tilted her head. “But, in the end, they said their story had just begun! That means there has to be more, right? More adventure!”

“Ahh…” Sophia awkwardly scratched her cheek. “That sentence, unfortunately, is just a lame way to have an open ending for a story. Whenever anyone says that end the end of anything, there rarely is more afterward. It’s more of a 'create-your-own continuation in your head', kind of thing."

“That’s the worst!”

“I hate that!”

"What bad writing…" Anna, Ari, and even Fey weren't fans of that trope.

“Yeah, it’s pretty cheap…” The blonde agreed. “Well, on the bright side, we have so many movies and similar things to keep us busy for literal months!”

“Yay!” The princess liked that.

"Which is perfect because we have to kill a few months before it gets warm again!" Watching movies while being comfy and cuddling was a perfect winter activity. “We don’t have anything better to do before that because, as mentioned many times before, that’s when we finally return to exploring the world! Our story, too, has just begun, after all!”

“OI!” Everyone hated that and glared at the blonde.

“Hehe~.” Sophia liked their reaction.

“Don’t say that after you just gave us the explanation of what it actually means!” Anna raised her voice. “That’s horrible!”

“Don’t worry~.” The blonde smiled at her. “Every rule comes with exceptions.”

“Really…?”

“Of course!” She gave the princess a thumbs up. “I promised to take you, Ari, and everyone else on an adventure, and I never back down from a promise!”

“Yay!” Anna looked genuinely happy again.

Afterward, once that topic was taken care of, the group continued to watch some more movies.

Their movie marathon, too, had just begun, as there was lots of time that needed to be killed until spring arrived.

 

 

The End

 

 

 



 

 

 

And here we are, at the end~

Well, sort of, I guess. In one way or another, at least.

 

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It's more like the end of act one, if I had to name it.

I had not planned to be in the capital for over 300 chapters xDD

It’s easy to get sidetracked, okay?

I decided that we'll start fresh rather than ending the capital arc.

400 chapters are enough for a single story, as well, I’d say~

While we’re at it, I’d also like to depart with some of the "experiments" from the first 100 chapters that don't quite fit the story's tone. Some will be back in changed and improved ways, and others will never be mentioned again.

 

---

 

That being said, the sequel will be the same as the last few hundred of chapters: Fluff~

After all, it’s less of a sequel and more of a second act to the same story.

This time, we’ll have an overarching goal, though! And maybe some exploring, too xDD

Fluff and personal relationships/interactions will continue to be the main focus, though!

 

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All that being said, it’s still somewhat of an end.

Because of that, I want to thank everyone who has gone on this journey with me so far!

It’s still absolutely unbelievable just how many people have given this a try and stuck with it, too!

I seriously had not expected anything even remotely like this when I started posting this story. I mean, there’s still a note from me in the first chapter where I mentioned that it would be amazing if a handful of people would enjoy this, and I still think so!

I'm in complete awe over this, and I'm over the moon about having been able to create a story with some level of entertainment that made so many people read it!

To everyone who reads this note in the final chapter here, THANK YOU! I hope you enjoyed the ride!

I also hope to see everyone in the sequel, as well!

 

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Another mention needs to go to all the illustrations we managed to get for this story. I had not seen those coming at all in the beginning. It wasn’t just a few, either. The amount of art was unbelievable! I hope everyone else enjoyed them just as much as I did!

If anyone’s interested, I put all of the (public) illustrations in one massive folder you can check out here:

 

Click me!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1r46pKL4-kpj_i_xzeLgskLNS_gbzem40?usp=sharing

 

I really hope I got all of them! Please cut me some slack if I missed one or two, though. That can happen with ~200 illustrations and animations (counting the variants)!

I hope those helped to make the story come alive just a little bit more~

 

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Speaking of illustrations, I need to mention Patreon here, too! It is the reason every single piece of art we’ve gotten was possible in the first place.

All the support the story has gotten there made me able to commission artists so that everyone got something nice to look at. In fact, basically all the support went into illustrations and animations (and a bit to Grammarly to make this mess just a little bit easier to read xDD).

It was the only reason I started a Patreon, and it hasn’t changed since.

THANK YOU! A massive thank you to every single supporter that is, or ever has been, a patron there!

I sincerely hope everyone there has gotten some value out of it.

Be it my stupid polls to shape some parts of the story, even if it just was their clothes, OR THE TON OF NSFW ART! (Probably that, right? I respect that.) There really was/is a lot of that~

 

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Anyway, here we are, 400 chapters later!

Many more to come in the sequel!

 

There will be a bit of a break, though. I need a bit of "me" time. Also, there’s an animation of a massive illustration in the works that needs to be finished first.

The story will continue in July, though. I’m just not exactly sure when there yet.

I will post a new "chapter" here once the new story is up so that no one accidentally misses it!

 

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For those who don’t want to wait, there’s Patreon. The sequel is already ongoing there!

(Lots of NSFW art is happening, too~)

 

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THANK YOU!

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