Maya and Sophia were back in their home after having spent the entire day in the magic academy. While the couple chatted about the minor incident the troublemaker duo had caused with chantless water magic there, the two accidentally confirmed that Ari and Anna are mutually in love with each other. They immediately decided to push the duo even further now to ensure that the two finally get something done. Afterward, the couple got slightly busy with each other.

“Phew~.” It had gotten slightly late by now, and Sophia plopped down on one of the sofas in the living room again. “Thanks for the food~.” Once they had finished their chat after coming home from the academy together with some other things, the couple first had a bath together before eating dinner.

“Thanks for the help, too.” Maya also sat down next to her again.

“I only helped with peeling and preparing some potatoes, though…”

“Baby steps, girl!” The cat-girl smiled at her. “A little while ago, I had still banned you from entering my kitchen altogether.”

“Still…”

“Don’t worry, it won’t be long before we can cook our entire meals together!”

“Yay!” It was relatively easy to make Sophia happy. “By the way, I was expecting Fen and Aura to join us for dinner… Do you know where they are?”

“Hmm?” Maya tilted her head. “They went back to the elven village with the foxes again.”

“So unfair! I want to go there, too!” The tiger got loud. “Wait, how do you know?”

“Haven’t you seen the note they left on the table in the entrance hall?”

“Nope, I missed that…”

“Well, now you know.”

“Wait!” She got even louder. “They wrote a note…? Fen and Aura did?”

“Yep?”

“How…?” Sophia looked quite confused. “They have paws and all…”

“Uhh…” The cat-girl paused for a moment. “Probably magic.”

“Magic isn’t the answer to everything!”

“I’m just going to ignore that now.” Maya stared at her. “I can’t take those words seriously when they come from you.”

“…” The blonde had nothing to defend herself with. “W-Well, I guess creating a note with magic wouldn’t be too hard, yes…”

“Hehe.”

“Still… So unfair!” Sophia repeated herself. “I really wanted to see that place!”

“And the cute fox-girls?”

“Sure, if you want to take a look at them, I’ll accompany you.”

“Idiot.”

“What? You brought it up~.” She let out a small chuckle before continuing. “Let’s go meet up with them right now! Fenny said it’s north from here, right? If we walk in that direction for a while, I should soon spot the two with my detection magic!”

“It’s already dark outside, though.”

“And?” Sophia tilted her head. “We’re able to see really well in the dark, after all.” She pointed at her cat-like eyes while saying so.

“I wasn’t talking about not being able to see.”

“What’s the problem?”

“No sun… Cold.”

“Ahh…” Any enthusiasm in the tiger’s voice was gone in an instant. “Let’s go tomorrow, then!”

“We’re back in the academy again tomorrow, though.”

“Urgh…” The blonde didn’t like the sound of that. “How about we skip? I used to be really good at skipping school, you know?”

“Is that something you boast with?”

“S-Shut up…”

“Also, on our second day? Rally?”

“B-But the elven village…?”

“Let’s go on the weekend, okay?”

“That’s still so long, though!”

“It’s already Wednesday…”

“That’s exactly what I just said!”

“Is that so?” Maya stared at her. “You also just don’t want to go to the academy because you gathered so much attention today, right?”

“I bet Ari’s going to skip tomorrow, too!”

“Ari? You think that Ari is going to skip the academy?”

“Urgh…”

“You don’t want her to be all on her own tomorrow when everyone wants to get an explanation, right?”

“I hate you…” Sophia didn’t like the current guilt trip.

“I love you, too.”

“Fine, I’ll go… But! Not as early as today! There’s no need for us to attend normal classes, and I was completely useless until lunch break, anyway!”

“Tomorrow’s reserved for all magic all day, though.”

“S-Seriously?!” She wasn’t a fan of this revelation.

“Yep.” Maya nodded. “Anna told me about it while Eluna was holding her speech. Right before the troublemaker duo flooded the place.”

“Haa…” Sophia let out a long sigh. “Just whose stupid idea was it to go along with visiting the stupid academy?”

“Yours.” The cat-girl simply pointed at her tiger.

“R-Right… I said something like that, didn’t I? Stupid past me…”

“Yeah, past Sophia’s always been a bit of an idiot.”

“I can’t argue with that.” She didn’t even try to defend herself.

“But current Sophia’s amazing.”

“T-Thanks…” The blonde got bashful. “Every Maya’s amazing, though.”

“Unfair!” The cat-girl started pouting. “Stop trying to one-up me all the time!”

“Tehe~.” She stuck out her tongue.

“For that alone, I’m going to wake you up at least half an hour earlier than needed tomorrow!”

“Because I complimented you?!”

“Yep~.” Maya also stuck out her tongue in return.

“Why are you so unreasonable?!”

“Because I’m dating you, and I had to adjust myself.”

“Hey!” Sophia got loud. “Good argument, though…”

“Wanna head to bed?” Feeling happy about having won the argument, Maya decided to end the topic. “We have to get up early, after all.”

“I don’t like the sound of that! Also, I slept till noon… Even I am not sleepy yet…”

“Who said anything about sleeping? I asked if we should go to bed.”

“Again?”

“We have to power you out somehow, right?” Maya smirked at her again.

“That’s a good reason!”

“Just that?”

“Any reason would be good!” Sophia changed her mind. “Not having a reason at all would be good enough, too, though~.”

“That was a good answer.”

After having decided on a plan for the rest of the night, the two got up from the sofa in the living room and made their way upstairs to spend their time there.

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“Tireeeeeed…” The couple had just left their mansion and made their way towards the castle the following morning when Sophia let out a prolonged yawn. “Even though we headed to bed so early yesterday…”

“Well, it took a long time before we actually got to sleep, after all.”

“Fair point… I might have to think about a ban for such activities if we have to get up early on the next day.”

“S-Seriously?!” Maya didn’t like the sound of that.

“Nah, not happening.” The tiger shook her head. “It’s way too much fun. We need to talk about the whole sleeping while time’s stopped again, though.”

“I thought we agreed on not doing that already?”

“We surely didn’t.” Sophia glared at her. “It’s either that or today’s the last day I’m visiting the academy before lunch.”

“Or less nightly activities…?”

“No, I just said that that’s out of the question.”

“Wait!” Maya stopped walking. “We stopped doing that lately because the wolves are doing their own thing most of the days, but if we have our fun when time’s stopped, we have enough time to sleep in the real world!”

“True!” Sophia had forgotten about that part, as well.

“Gosh, why are we such idiots?”

“Horny idiots, I want to add.”

“That might be the cause…” Maya thought about it for a second. “Our brains aren’t doing their best during those times. We’re busy with other things, after all.”

“Fair…” The tiger nodded. “Though, whether we have fun while time’s stopped or sleep, where’s the difference?”

“Uhh…” The cat-girl had no answer for that. “Let me think about it for a while, okay?”

“Sure~.” Sophia took it as a win. “Anyway, back to the wolves for a moment. They didn’t come home, did they?”

“Looks like they stayed with the foxes.”

“They’re on tour quite often, aren’t they?”

“Maybe they’re giving us some privacy?” Maya tilted her head.

“I love those two~.” The tiger liked this interpretation. “Still, is that really all there is with them?”

“Well, they probably trying to profit from the same thing. Having some privacy themselves by giving us some. Going to a faraway elven village to have a few drinks in a bar run by foxes sounds like a great date, doesn’t it?”

“True.” Sophia nodded in agreement.

“Judging by how often they’re out at night and what the two, mostly Aura, told us, they’re having quite a lot of dates lately.”

“Are the two actually… together now? I mean, for real?”

“Weren’t they for quite a while already?”

“Well, yeah…” The blonde paused for a moment. “Not officially, though, right? The two, first and foremost, Fen, were super wishy-washy about it.”

“Now that you mention it… After the accident you and Fen had, the two had gotten so close that I forgot that they never said anything about the actual type of their relationship…”

“I think it’s time for a questioning once they’re back!”

“Definitely!” Maya felt the same.

“That’s going to be fun~.”

“Hehe.”

The couple kept chatting about the wolves for a little longer and eventually reached the royal castle, where they swiftly ran into Anna and Ari.

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“Good morning!” The princess noticed them first and greeted the two.

“’Morning.” They returned her greeting.

“See!” Anna suddenly faced her jaguar. “Sophia isn’t going to skip!”

“Yes…” Ari sounded fairly disappointed over this fact. “I thought you’re going to sleep in today…”

“I wish!” The blonde got loud. “Maya didn’t let me!”

“You seem a lot more awake compared to yesterday, though.” The princess looked at the fellow tiger.

“We’ve been chatting a lot on the way here. That kinda woke me up a bit for the time being. I’m actually even more exhausted than yesterday, though… Maya kept me up all night.”

“Hey!” The cat-girl didn’t like this accusation. “You were just as much at fault as I was.”

“Okay, we kept each other awake…”

“Better.”

“…” The duo didn’t know what to say and only reacted with a slight blush that had appeared on their cheeks.

“Anyway,” Noticing that, Sophia decided to change the topic. The couple had some plans for the duo, but not to such a degree. “What’s this about?” She looked at Ari. “Why does it sound like you were hoping for me to skip?”

“Because Ari wanted to skip, too!” Anna took over. “She was hoping for you to stay home so she could use that excuse to do the same.”

“Urgh…” The jaguar turned her head away.

“Alright, I’m going home, then.” The blonde simply turned around and started walking.

“Stop right there.” Maya didn’t let her have that and grabbed her by the collar of the academy blazer she was wearing.

“What?! You told me that there’s no way Ari will skip, and I shouldn’t let her go to school alone today after what happened. I agreed to that and decided to go. Turns out, Ari doesn’t want to go, either! That’s why, I’m going home!”

“I like that plan!” The jaguar also turned around, but Anna did the same as the cat-girl and stopped her, as well.

“You stupid troublemaker duo! You got yourself into that mess, and you’re going to face it!” Maya raised her voice.

“Exactly!” The princess was on her side.

“B-But…” Said duo tried to protest.

“No buts!” The other two didn’t let them have any of that.

“That’s so unfair!” Ari and Sophia got loud.

“The ice-queen and the shy wallflower of the academy sure are worthy of their titles, aren’t they?”

“…” They had nothing to retort to Anna’s claim.

Afterward, while still visibly pouting, the duo followed after their girls without saying another word all the way to the school.