The group had gotten their new mansion ready and spent the first night in it. As a sort of housewarming, Maya had cooked a lavish dinner for everyone, which caused Sophia to grossly overeat. The carnivorous side of the tiger-girl was at full blast, and she ate almost as much meat as the wolves. As a result, she felt horribly bloated and was on cloud nine when she finally got to sleep.

On the following day, once she finally got out of bed, Sophia decided to go on an extended morning run to burn some extra calories to make up for her feast. This was easier said than done because the couple's bed in the mansion was far too comfortable for her, which almost made it impossible for the girl to leave it. After Maya heard about her plan, she decided to tag along. She wanted to train her running speed and stamina for a while already, and a still bloated- and sluggish-feeling tiger girl seemed to be the perfect partner. On a normal condition, the cat-girl was no match for Sophia when it comes to pure speed and endurance, after all. Sadly, this was a colossal miscalculation on her part. Feeling not on top of things and actually wanting to burn calories for a change, Sophia was extra motivated.

"I'm back~!" Around three hours passed since the couple left for their run before Sophia's cheerful voice full of energy echoed through the entrance hall of their home.

"I-, I'm dead..." Maya didn't sound nearly as cheery. In fact, there wasn't the slightest shred of life left in her voice. Actually, that wasn't the only part of Maya that had no power anymore.

"Think you can stand on your own again?" Sophia slightly turned her head while trying to look at the cat-girl who she was currently giving a piggyback ride.

"M-Maybe..." Slightly unsteady, Maya got off from her back and stood on her own shaky legs. "I'm going to be so sore tomorrow." She lightly massaged her thighs with a pained expression while saying so.

"That's why I offered you multiple times to slow down. But, no, you wanted me to run at a decent speed."

"Urgh..."

"That's what you get for being needlessly competitive. Well, I'm not one to talk when it comes to that..." There was little Sophia actually could blame her for. "By the way, I was running to burn calories. If I run to train, I don't do it nearly as leisurely as earlier."

"N-No need to rub it in!"

"Ah, but carrying you on my back for the last 10 kilometers was a nice workout. Thanks for that."

"Is today the second day in a row I'm going to hate you?" Yesterday, Maya disliked the girl when she mentioned she couldn't gain weight and had already found a new reason.

"Ahaha." Sophia scratched her cheek. "Well, you are quite fit. Just compared to me, who's running for a long time already, and got her strength boosted, it's not a fair comparison."

"I need a shower..." The cat-girl didn't reply to her claim. "I'm all sweaty, and I feel gross!"

"Have fun."

"You're not taking one?"

"Not yet. I'm good for now. The only type of sweat I'm covered in is yours that stuck to my back while carrying you."

"..." Without saying another word, the cat-girl disappeared into the bath on the ground floor. Upstairs was currently too much for her sore legs.

"A-Ah-" Sophia only now noticed her insensitiveness, realizing that today might actually become the second day in a row where she's disliked by Maya.

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To divert her attention, she checked up on the wolves to see what they were doing. Using her detection magic, Sophia quickly noticed that the two were underground and went downstairs to their new basement.

"Ah, good, you're alone." Aura was waiting there for her.

"What do you mean?"

"We sensed the two of you coming back and hastily stopped."

"Uhh… did we, well… interrupt you on something? Sorry!" The tiger-girl looked awkward.

"Eh? What do you- Ah!" She noticed her ambiguity. "N-No! Nothing like that... Fen and I were working on the maze!"

"Ohh!" Sophia hit the palm of her hand with her fist in understanding. "Because of Maya. Good thinking. She's already angry with me, and I don't want to die just yet."

"What did you do?"

"I opened my mouth without thinking."

"Ah, the usual, I see." Even though the two don't know each other for that long yet, Aura didn't need more information.

"More or less. So, how's the maze coming along?"

"Pretty well. We obviously can't add any monsters in there because we're in a city, but if you're going to be lost in there, you'll be lost."

"Sounds awesome!"

"I bet it'll be a good training ground on how to navigate in a dungeon."

"Are dungeons normally mazes?" Sophia only explored one before, and it really wasn't a good example.

"Not all of them, but it's pretty common. I also really like the maze parts. If you don't cheat your way out with magic, it doesn't matter how much power you have. It's a lot of fun. Normally, unless the dungeon's guarded by a dragon, the monsters inside aren't anything worth mentioning, after all."

"Strength-wise, sure, but they still can be nightmare fuel." The blonde remembered the oversized spyders from Canir's dungeon and shuddered. "God, I hate insects!"

"Really?"

"Yep~." Even though she was smiling broadly, her response didn't seem cheerful.

"So, let's say, scorpions the size of a house, gigantic centipedes or sandworms some hundreds of meters long would be no good?" Technically, they weren't all insects, but just like spyders, people usually don't care about the distinction. As soon as many legs and/or any form of a creepy wiggling is involved, it's all the same.

"Ahaha~. No." Her expression completely changed while her voice turned to pure ice. "If those things were to actually exists, I would set the entire continent they live in on fire. I would take no chance and burn absolutely everything to the ground."

"I-I see..."

"Why are you asking? It's not like they're a thing, right? Right~?"

"I-I was just curious! About how you would think about such creatures." Aura retreated a bit, increasing the distance between her and the tiger. She fights dragons without batting an eye, but the wolf's instincts were currently screaming at her. They knew the girl in front of them was dangerous.

"I wouldn't enjoy it~." Sophia's cheerful yet eerie-sounding voice had a very distressing feel to it. "It would make me very scared, followed by really disgusted, and finally extremely angry." Her voice turned dark before she returned to normal in an instant. "Anyway, about the maze,"

"S-Scary!" Aura mumbled the only thing that went through her head. "W-What about it?"

"When have you last seen Fen? From what my detection magic is telling me, he isn't even near us."

"Ah." Aura stopped for a moment. "We split up a good while ago but actually wanted to take a break around, uhh, an hour ago..."

"Is he lost?" Sophia glanced at the enhance of the maze.

"Nah, I don't think so."

"Good."

"Probably." The wolf corrected herself.

"Hey!"

"He can always use magic to find the way out."

"Right." Sophia looked relieved.

"If he remembers about that."

"Oi!"

"Uhh... How about I go look for him?" Aura looked a little awkward.

"Sounds like an idea to me. I'll keep Maya in check in the meanwhile. We don't want her to find out, do we?"

"Great thinking!" The wolf liked her idea. "Alright, we'll come upstairs once I find our resident idiot. Make up with the cat in the meanwhile, okay?"

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After rolling her eyes, Sophia parted with Aura and went back upstairs. Looking around for a second, she then found Maya in the living room. Leaning her upper body against a huge pillow, she had occupied a whole sofa for herself by stretching out her legs on it

"How was the shower?" The tiger-girl noticed that she hadn't even bothered fully drying her hair as I still seemed a little damp.

"Grrm..." Maya decided to communicate in groaning noises.

"Tired? Legs are hurting?"

"Hrrrmn." She didn't even feel like using words.

"Imagine how it's going to feel tomorrow. Sore muscles need around a day for their full effect."

"Urgh..." Maya finally looked at the tiger. "It sounds like that will also be the third day, then."

"A-Ah." She stopped for a moment. Not wanting a future where she's going to be disliked by her cat for three whole days, Sophia walked up to her. There, she gently lifted up the girl's legs with the utmost care before sitting down on that place on the sofa. Afterward, she carefully placed them on her lap. "Want a massage?" While saying so, she lightly touched Maya's calves.

"I want some healing magic!" Maya sounded more than a little spoilt.

"Nope. No pain, no gain."

"Ehh?" She didn't like the sound of that.

"If I heal your muscles now, all that running would've been for nothing."

"Seriously?!

"Yep, that's part of gaining muscles. Well... mainly if you overdo it. So, still want some healing magic?"

"Massage, please..." Maya didn't want to lose her progress and having suffered for nothing.

"Good choice." As her hands were already on the cat-girl's calves, she began to massage them first.

"Hrrn..." She let out another groan but started to relax after a while. As Sophia has a lot of experience with running around and, as a result of that, how to deal with muscle pain, the tiger knew precisely which parts of Maya's legs she had to focus on.

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Sophia continued to massage her for a good while, and the cat's expression had considerably softened up. The tiger's expression turned a little more complicated, though, while she worked on every inch of the other's legs. Not only her calves but also Maya's thighs had gotten a lot of attention while the cat-girl decided to play with Sophia's tail as a form of thanking her.

"Hmm..." The blonde stopped massaging the girl and stared at Maya's legs, of which she got an excellent close-up view in her lap right now while feeling their sublime soft- and smoothness.

"What?" There was more than a hint of disappointment in the cat's voice. She really didn't want the tiger to stop moving her hands.

"I mean, it's not really news to me, I always had the feeling, but I'm reeeaally into legs." She couldn't peel her eyes away. "Your thighs are amazing!"

"Thanks. Also, no kidding." Maya rolled her eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You look at my legs more than at my face."

"Eh?!" The tiger was shocked. "T-There's no way that's true."

"Yeah, I exaggerated a little. Still, it's pretty obvious that you're staring at my legs. A lot."

"S-Sorry..." Sophia got a little embarrassed about being so obvious.

"Why? I don't mind at all. If anything, I'm happy that you enjoy looking at my body."

"I-I see."

"Well, I would be even happier if I don't occasionally catch you glancing at those of the princess, but..."

"A-Ah." The tiger-girl instantly turned her head away. "I-I was just looking, okay?! Just admiring the view! No impure thoughts were involved!"

"It's alright. I can't exactly blame you. That princess is extremely attractive. That was a big part of the reason why I was so wary of her when she was going after you with such vigor."

"Is that so? Wait, that sounds like you were also looking at her?"

"Sure was. There's nothing wrong with enjoying the view as long as you know where you belong to and don't do anything stupid."

"That's good to know. Oh, was there anything specific you enjoyed?"

"N-No... just generally." It almost looked like Maya glanced at Sophia's chest for a second before she immediately changed the topic. "B-By the way, where are our wolves...?"

"Hmm?" Sophia's expression changed for a second after she noticed Maya's gaze but managed to swallow it as she didn't want to ruin the mood between them yet again. She managed to learn. It's also not like she doesn't like that part of the princess, far from it. "That's a good question." Because it had been almost two hours since she last saw Aura, she had the feeling that both wolves were lost in the maze by now. That, or they found something better to do.

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Almost three more hours, which the couple spent flirting, including Sophia massaging her cat-girl some more passed before the other two finally showed up again. Maya was pretty suspicious of them for a while because it seemed like they came from the supposedly empty basement, but the tiger barely managed to divert her attention. As the cat-girl was too exhausted to cook, she immediately sent Fen and Aura to organize take-out food. They naturally complied because neither of them wanted Maya to find out about their little project.