On the way back from grocery shopping, while Ari was hiding, Sophia had run into queen Kira. The two chatted for a while, and the blonde found out about just how much the fresh couple had messed up when they failed to notice how far their voice had traveled through the castle during their first night. Once the two parted again, and the jaguar reunited with the tiger again, they continued the walk back to the mansion in complete silence because Ari was too embarrassed to say even a single word.

“You’re late!” Back home, the duo was immediately greeted by a very loud and pouty-looking princess once they entered the living room after having deposited the groceries in the kitchen. “That took forever!”

“Trust me, if you know what we went through, you’d be shocked that we’re back this early…” Sophia sounded a little tired.

“Y-Yes…” Ari still looked terribly embarrassed after having listened to the blonde's conversation with the queen earlier.

“W-Why is Ari blushing so hard?!” Anna raised her voice even more while she glared at Sophia.

“What happened?” Maya also faced the duo.

“Well…” Sophia scratched her cheek. “First, we went to at least five stores to get everything for the pizza. That took a while. Then, we ran into a lovely older couple that had gotten lost in the capital while exploring it, and we helped them find their inn again. We had to walk to the other side of the capital for it. It was worth it, though. I loved those two! Once we were done with that, we also ran into our dear queen.”

“E-Eh?!” Anna’s eyes grew wide. “Y-You met mother?!”

“Yup.” The blonde nodded. “I did, at least. Our dear jaguar hid in the next best store.”

“…”

“Not that she did a good job at hiding…”

“Urgh…” This remark didn’t help her calm down in the slightest.

“W-What did you talk about with her…?”

“Girl, I’m still amazed by how much the two of you messed up…”

“H-Huh?!”

“…” Ari simply covered her face with her hands.

“Oh?” The cat-girl’s interest was piqued. “Did our couple here skip on telling us something?”

“We did not!” The princess raised her voice once again.

“Except the part where you had your loud first time in the early evening where the castle was super busy as everyone had just finished up their work. You know, when the corridors and hallways are packed with people going home. The loud corridors were sound travels really far.”

“Ouch…” Chloe’s face grimaced a little.

“O-Oh no…” Anna's face instantly turned pale.

"Not to mention that you went at it in morning hours again. You know, during the time when everyone comes back to the castle and gets ready for work.

“Ouch…” Maya had the same reaction as the fox-girl.

“Uuh…” Tears had appeared in the corners of Anna’s eyes while her entire face had turned red.

"Even the queen got embarrassed because she met so many people the next day that refused to make eye contact with her and only reacted with a slight blush when they ran into her…"

“Ouch…” Chloe and the cat-girl were unable to say much else at the moment.

“I-I want to die…” The princess hung her head in despair.

“Not so fast, my dear.” While Sophia did feel incredibly sorry for her, there unfortunately were even more bad news. “Kira wants to talk with the two of you about the events and what kind of obligations are now waiting for you.”

“Again, k-kill me…” Anna didn’t take the news overly well.

“Y-Yes…” Ari, too, hadn't stopped suffering yet.

“Obligations?” Once again, the fox-girl got curious.

"At the end of the day, Anna's still the first princess of this nation.”

"Ohh!" Chloe clapped her hand. "Because of that, the public will notice her being in a relationship, right? Ari probably has to accompany her to all important events and things like that, right? Standing right by her side at all times.”

“Yup.”

“Aww!” She liked that a lot.

“Uuh…” The couple in question did not.

"There are also the general obligations expected from noble and royal couples after they’re officially together for a while.”

“Hmm?” The fox-girl tilted her head. “Wait, are we back to the marriage topic from before? Just without the eloping part this time?”

“Pretty much.” Sophia just nodded. “Well, it’s not mandatory, but…”

“…” Anna and Ari continued to quietly suffer.

"Being a noble, or royalty even, can be difficult, huh?" Chloe looked at the two with sympathetic eyes before eventually glancing at Sophia. “Wait, aren’t you technically royalty, too…?”

“…” The blonde instantly turned her face away.

“H-Huh?!” Maya didn’t like her reaction.

“Ohh!” Chloe, on the other hand, liked it very much. “Is there something you want to tell us?”

“Y-Yes, is there…?” The cat-girl also started to ever so slightly blush.

“Ask me again in a year or two. That’s what I told the queen, too.”

“Boo!” The fox-girl wasn’t a fan of her reply.

“Thank you…” Maya was, though.

“Things are happening way too fast lately, anyway. I want some peace in that regard… I love what we have right now, after all.”

"I love you." The cat-girl was glad that Sophia was so capable when it came to these kinds of things.

“Ehehe~.”

“Get a room, you two.” Chloe seemed slightly envious and/or jealous.

“We have. It’s upstairs.” Maya smirked at her in response.

“…” The fox-girl had no idea what to reply to that. “I admit defeat.”

“Heh.”

"A-Ari…” While the trio was having a good time, the princess slowly faced her jaguar. “Can we talk about running away again…? I don’t think I’m physically able to deal with all of that…”

“Gladly…” She had given up, as well. “I-I already destroyed two displays in the store I was hiding in because I had to hold onto something while listening to Kira… Facing her or my parents in person… I might actually die…” Ari already looked near death right now.

“Great, we leave at dawn tomorrow!”

“Sounds good!”

“Oi!” The blonde faced them. “I absolutely get you, and I would’ve run away already while carrying Maya under my arm, but… Does that actually solve anything?”

"Not at all." Anna shook her head. "It's not like I care about that part, though!"

“Yes!” The jaguar nodded a couple of times.

“Maya, I need some help with that…” She just pointed at the couple.

"Nah, I'm kinda interested in how you're going to be the voice of reason here."

“Y-You’re horrible!” She pouted for a moment before eventually facing the couple again. “Uhh…” Sophia had no idea what to say. “Would running away even work? I know from experience that a tiger tends to stick out quite a bit. At least in areas that are inhabited by the beastfolk. So, with that, to run away from everything, you’d need to go to a place without them. Else, the scouts of the royal family would easily find you. That doesn’t sound like fun, does it…?”

“Urgh…” The princess grimaced in response. “Wait, didn’t you all want to visit the demon continent?! That sounds like fun! How about you and Chloe finish the portal thingy and give one to Ari and me? The two of us will then head over to the demon continent first! Once we get there, we will bring you over with the portals!"

“I’d love to see you try!” The blonde just had to make a retort to their idea while she rolled her eyes.

“I’ll help!” Chloe suddenly sounded really cheerful as she smiled at the couple. “That sounds like a lot of fun!”

“Shut up, you stupid fox!” Sophia got loud. “We’re definitely going there in the future, but I won’t let anyone willingly run away from their family to never come back! Even more so if it’s for such a petty reason! I get it, and I would be complaining at least three times as much, but it won’t happen!”

“…” The princess didn’t dare to utter even a single more complaint after this. Having Sophia mention family-related matters made her feel incredibly awkward, thanks to her alleged backstory. "I-I'm sorry…"

“Y-Yes…” Ari also nodded a couple of times.

“Good.” Sophia started smiling again. “I know I’m the queen of hasty decisions, but we don’t have to make any here. The queen. Full stop. She's okay with the two of you staying here until her birthday next week. I’m sure that things will have calmed down a bit until then. I can also use my portals to get you right inside the castle without you having to walk around there for everyone on display.”

“T-Thank you…” The couple was grateful for that.

“Also, while Ari will suffer a little in the future because she has to accompany Anna everywhere and will appear a lot more in public… Kira promised that the other thing expected of noble and royal couples won’t be relevant to you for the next one or two years, either. Unless you two have earlier plans, of course. Judging by how you jumped right into your relationship, it might actually be…”

“S-Shut up!” The couple in question got loud.

“Maya and I will also be going to the castle tomorrow. I’ll try to get a feeling for the mood while we’re there.”

“We’re going to the castle…?” The cat-girl hadn’t heard about that yet.

“Kira said that Ellie wants to see us for something.”

“We will be going to the castle!” Her mood brightened up in an instant. “It feels like so long since I’ve last seen her!”

“I know, right?!” Sophia felt the same. “Though, it hasn’t even been two weeks, I think.”

“Yeah, because way too much is going on lately!” Maya needed to complain again.

“I agree! Well, it’s fun, so I’m okay with that~.”

“Fair point.”

“T-Thank you…” Anna was happy that she was doing so much for them.

“Y-Yes…” So was Ari. “Could we ask you to fetch some more clothes for us when you're there…? We brought some spares but left in a hurry and forgot some things…”

“Sure~.”

“Thank you.”

“Anyway, enough of all that for the time being!” Sophia felt like it was time to stop. “This day was long enough already! Let’s do something more fun for the time being and push the issue to another day or whatever!”

“You ran out of steam being the voice of reason already, didn’t you?” Maya showed her a slight smirk.

“Be glad I lasted for this long! That got to be a new record for me!” She wanted some praise.

“Good job. I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you very much!” That was all she wanted. "Let's get started on the pizza already!"

“That does sound like more fun.” Anna wasn’t against the idea.

“Yes.” Neither was Ari.

“Yay!” Chloe even was a big fan of it.

Afterward, the girls went to the kitchen to look at the ingredients Ari and Sophia had bought earlier to prepare everything.