After a slip of his tongue, Fen accidentally revealed that he and Aura became a couple to Maya and Sophia. Naturally, the tiger was hugely interested and started questioning the wolves. Somewhat satisfied with the topic, though promising to get back to it again, the blonde eventually decided to head over to the elven village inhabited by a group of the fox beastfolk the wolves had told them about before.

“By the way, how far is the village?” The group had just left the capital behind when Sophia addressed the wolves.

“A good 150 kilometers.” Aura answered.

“Seeing how it’s only early afternoon, we’ll arrive right on time for the bar to open there.” Fen sounded slightly tired. “And I can need a drink or two after earlier… No, scratch that, a lot of drinks.”

“Hehe.” The blonde let out a small chuckle. “Good thing school ended so early today.”

“Oh, how is it going there?” The female wolf got a little interested.

“P-Perfectly well!” Sophia looked slightly shifty. “Quite, uhh… boring… yeah, boring, actually…”

“So, what did she do?” Aura looked at Maya instead.

“On the first day, Ari flooded the entire training fields, and on the second day, Sophia changed the seasons.”

“Err…” Both wolves stopped walking.

“I didn’t change any seasons!” The tiger got loud. “I only made it snow a little!”

“Okay, the force of nature aside…” Fen decided not to get a headache over Sophia.

“I am no force of nature! Hmm…” She suddenly stopped. “Though, I kinda like the sound of that.”

“Uhh…” He didn’t. “Anyway, Ari, your jaguar, flooded the training fields? Wasn’t she the timid one with common sense?”

“Well…” Maya scratched her cheek. “That was before she became besties with Sophia, had her magic boosted by her and took after her personality quirks.”

“Aww, that’s sad…” His voice got sorrowful. “I really liked that girl.”

“Yeah,” The cat-girl nodded. “It’s such a waste.”

“Hey!” Sophia started pouting. “I might have taken part in slightly destroying her common sense and helped make her more playful, but everyone likes the new Ari! I did nothing wrong!”

“If that helps you sleep at night, sure.” Fen smirked at her.

“I does!”

“Good for you. Still, flooding such a large area. Sure, the jaguar’s authority is more than enough for such a thing, but I thought she doesn’t know to use chantless magic yet?”

“I started teaching her…” The blonde answered him. “She learned chantless magic basically in an instant, and half an hour later, she got overexcited and flooded the place with a couple thousands of liters of water…”

“Oho, sounds like she’s a promising girl!” The wolf was done teasing the tiger and sounded genuinely interested. “Though, it’s almost too impressive that she learned to be so powerful this fast. Reminds me a bit of you when we met.”

“Yeah, I also was shocked!”

“Could it have something to do with Sophia having boosted her magic?” Aura, too, got interested in the topic. “It would make sense that the jaguar could use it as easily as our girl, right?”

“Hmm…” The blonde tilted her head. “I’m using Canir’s power or authority. Didn’t he say that I only used his to increase Ari’s power, but she can’t actually use it? I basically only increased her capacity or allowance or whatever. That shouldn’t be why she has as easy of a time with magic as I do. Right?”

“Ah, true…” The female wolf remembered their conversation. “Well, that is unless Canir also overlooked something, and our tiger is even more of a special case in some way or another. Well, then again, I doubt Canir would miss such an important detail or decide to keep it to himself. Wouldn’t it be something if something else entirely is going on with Sophia’s magic?”

“…” Everyone turned silent.

“I mean, what if…”

“Shut up, Aura!” The other three stopped her from talking.

“Ari’s just super talented, and that’s all there is!” The tiger sounded slightly panicky. “If you make any more stupid guesses that are 100% wrong, I might get upset!” Even the mere possibility of Aura being onto something made her shudder.

“Okay~.”

“L-Let’s keep going!” She wanted to change the topic.

“Sure!” Everyone agreed, and the group continued their travels.

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

“Oh, I almost forgot…” While they were getting closer to the village, Fen eventually addressed Sophia again. “Your human issues are dealt with.”

“My what now?” The blonde couldn’t follow him.

“The thing you went to war for?” He looked at her. “The humans being what they are and how they’re bothering the other races. Your plan to end all that.”

“Ahhh…” The tiger nodded. “I was having too much of a good time to waste any thought on that… them lately… Wait, what? It’s dealt with?” She naturally got only more confused. “How?”

“That Chloe girl, she’s the daughter… or foster daughter, I’m not sure about that yet, of an old friend of ours.”

“Wow, what a small world.”

“Sure is.” Aura agreed with her.

“So?” Sophia returned her attention to Fen. “What has that to do with the human issue?”

“It seems like the humans tried to do something to Chloe.”

“Oh~?” The blonde stopped walking.

“That was right before your battle with them.” Fen didn’t like the sound of her voice and quickly added some more information to his claim.

“Oh.” She returned to walking beside him.

“So, anyway… Feyanis, the one who’s her mother, or at least raised her, she’s usually a friendly and reasonable individual. She changes a little when she’s upset, though…”

“Sounds familiar.” Maya glanced at her tiger while saying so.

“A little.” The wolves nodded before Aura took over. “Only that Feyanis being upset is on the same level as Sophia being fully angry. Chloe told us that Feyanis got angry this time.”

“Ah.” Maya had a bad feeling about this.

“I mean, the humans tried to do something to her daughter.”

“Err…” Sophia stopped walking yet again, and her expression changed completely. “Compared with such a scenario, I also was only mildly upset when I faced the humans that time. With my daughter being threatened…” She paused for a moment. “The accident that happened to Fen and me, which almost destroyed the continent… It might would happen again… Only with it starting in the middle of the human capital this time.” Her voice got ice cold during her speech. Sophia hadn’t been upset in a while, but the humans consistently had the talent to bring out her bad side.

“Yep.” The wolves nodded.

“Oh no…” The cat-girl’s bad feeling got stronger.

“That’s why,” Fen took over again. “Your human problem is solved. Chloe told us that the angry Feyanis went to visit the human capital, so…”

“It’s probably gone already.” Aura finished his sentence.

“Mhmm…” Sophia’s expression became warmer again, but it also turned more complicated. “I’m… I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that…” Tilting her head, she thought about it for a little while. “I’m happy that someone took over for me, but… While I’m no human anymore, looking at it from an outsider’s angle now… I would’ve preferred my way…”

“Darkness magic, brainwashing, and or torture?” Fen looked at her.

“Yep~.”

“Wow…” Maya didn’t like anything about Sophia’s cheerful reply. “Is it certain that this… Feyanis? That she destroyed the human capital…?”

“The last time she got upset with me, she… she…” Fen suddenly stopped talking while his entire body started shaking. “I-I don’t want to talk about it…”

“She has some very creative magic, that fox.” Aura added some details.

“She’s a fox? Like this Chloe girl?”

“Chloe’s a hybrid like the two of you. Feyanis is the same as Fen, and I are, only, well… a fox instead of wolves.”

“Ohhh!” Sophia liked the sound of that. “How fluffy is she on the scale?”

“If she hasn’t changed, and Chloe’s being a 17, I’d say around 21 out of 10.”

“Ohhhhhh!” She got excited. “Does that Fox also come in adjustable sizes?”

“Her original size is a little smaller than I am, but changing sizes is an easy feat for us, so she absolutely can.” Aura answered her.

“Yes!” The blonde got even louder. “Lap size, for ideal petting, included?”

“Should be.”

“Hey!” Maya interrupted the duo. “We just found out that she can get angry enough to make Fen shudder, and you want to know whether you can use her as a pet?!”

“Yep.” The tiger didn’t see an issue.

“Well…” The cat-girl thought about it again while tilting her head. “It might not be such a bad idea for someone to get angry at you once.”

“Yes.” The wolves agreed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“Nothing.”

“I bet it’ll be fine if I ask really nice!” She had no intention to let go of her idea. “You made it sound like this Chloe is really nice, too! I bet she’ll help me out.”

“So selfish…”

“By the way,” Ignoring their remark, Sophia continued. “How strong are they?”

“Feyanis was a little below me the last time I saw her,” Fen answered her. “Chloe seems to be rather normal. Maybe around your jaguar before you messed her up.”

“Hey!” The tiger got loud. “Wording!”

“You’re the last one who’s allowed to complain about any of that!”

“You win this round.” Knowing about her own ambiguity from time to time, she retracted her complaint. “Hmm… Even if she hasn’t enough on her own, she could ride on the fox when we travel to keep up with us, right?”

“You want them to accompany us in the future?” Aura tried to guess her intentions.

“Well, I’m always looking for new friends and companions~.” Sophia’s voice turned a little more cheerful while saying so. “They seem fun, so it might be worth considering.”

“Fun or fluffy?” The wolf stared at her.

“Yes.”

Once the topic was over, mainly because no one felt like talking with her about it anymore, the group continued their travels and arrived at the dense forest surrounding the former elven village before long.