Thanks to Mira explaining many things, Sophia learned a few new details about her powers and how close she was to being called an overseer already. She didn't like that very much. She also found out a few more things about her domain and what exactly she could do with it.

Once they finished chatting about their overseer features, the group finally returned to the capital by using Sophia’s portals. Before getting comfy in the mansion’s living room there, Mira changed back to her hybrid form, rather than the full she showed off before. As it turned out, the sheepskin rug there only had place for three fulls, and if she couldn’t sit there with Fey and the two wolves, what would even be the point, after all.

“I am quite impressed by the warmth of your floors here." Mira looked towards the ground with a very pleased expression while moving her legs a little. "That's such a clever use of the heating ore!”

“I can imagine that you like it!” Sophia looked at her bare legs and feet. “Aren’t you cold?! It’s winter! You even went barefoot outside when we met! I’m getting chills just watching you!”

“My dear, I’m not the overseer of magic for nothing, you know?” She smiled at her. “I’m constantly using it to perfectly regulate the temperature around me all year round. I even warm up the floor right before my feet touch it.”

“Wow.”

“See?!” Hearing that, Steph got loud and stared at her sister. “You and your cat friends do that, too, and we can go on our journey to explore the world tomorrow!”

“Shush!” The tiger glared back at her. “It’s not just about the temperature! My cat-brain feels cold just seeing the wintery scenery!”

“Haa…” The dog hung her head.

“Feel free to explore my domain some more in the meanwhile.” Mira faced the violet-haired girl. “The jungle you and Chloe visited is just a small portion of it. Not to mention that you only saw a tiny part of that, too.”

“Ohh!” Her mood instantly improved. “Let’s go!”

"A jungle definitely tickles my tiger bits, too!” Sophia also warmed up to the idea.

"I thought you were a cat!" Steph had to retort.

“That is deeply offensive!” The blonde started pouting. “I’m a proud and majestic tiger!”

“I hate you so much…” The dog couldn’t believe her.

“To further tickle your feline bits,” The overseer kept it neutral. “While I don’t really care about the temperature because I regulate it to my tastes, I like the look of summer more. I enjoy looking at lush greenery. Because of that, most of my domain has a rather warm climate. High concentrations of magic also cause a higher overall temperature.”

“Let’s go!” Sophia really liked the idea now.

“Stupid cats…” Steph rolled her eyes.

“It does sound like a lot of fun.” Maya, the actual cat, also liked the sound of it.

“See, it’s okay for her to say!” The dog-girl glared at her sister while pointing at the cat-girl.

“If Maya’s allowed to do it, so am I!”

“Sure…” She couldn’t believe the proud tiger.

“It really sounds like a bunch of fun!” Chloe ignored the bickering sisters and joined in on Maya’s opinion on the matter. “I first want to learn more about that temperature-regulation magic, though!” She looked at the teal fox. “The jungle in your place was still mostly okay, but it was borderline uncomfortable already…”

“Sure thing~.” Mira smiled at her. “It’s not a type of magic I feel the need to stay out of its discovery, so I’ll happily teach you!”

“Yay!”

“Me, too!” Steph joined the conversation. “I want portable and invisible climate control!”

“Do you want to learn it, too?” The teal fox glanced at the blonde. “Your feline bits would love that, wouldn’t they?”

“Why do I feel like I’m being teased by an overseer?”

“Because you are.” Mira’s smile got more playful.

“Another one… It's good that your personality is a lot less punch-able than Canir’s.”

“I also am very happy about that.”

“Anyway, thanks for the offer, but I’m good. I learned that the moment the first leaves started changing colors. My main issue is the mood, after all! No matter how warm I am, I still feel cold when I look at cold weather or see others in warm jackets!”

"You are suuuch a massive pain…" The dog-girl wasn’t the biggest fan of her sister today.

“You should be used to that already.” Sophia didn’t see the issue.

“…” She just glared at her.

“Hehe~.” The blonde looked a little smug. “Alright,” She then looked at Maya. “How about we go and give Anna and Ari a small headache while they learn the temperature thing?”

“Hmm?” The cat-girl tilted her head.

“Well, we have two rather interesting new members of our group. They should get to know them, too, don’t you think?”

“A-Ah…” The cat-girl got a little awkward. “They need to know, huh?”

“Yep, and I want to get over with it quick.”

“That might be for the best…” Maya seemed to be looking just as forward to it.

“Yeah.”

Going forward with that plan, the couple decided to leave for the castle to break the news to the two missing girls of their group. Before that, Sophia asked Mira and Fey to try not to mention the different world topic to avoid even more chaos because she wasn’t sure when or rather how she wanted to tell Anna and Ari about that.

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

“They aren’t here?” After having taken the portal to Anna’s wardrobe, Maya noticed that no one was there.

“They’re in Ari’s room.” As usual, Sophia’s detection magic was rather handy.

“Are they…?”

“Can you hear them?”

“Good point.”

“Hehe.” The blonde let out a small chuckle. “No, from what I can tell with my magic, their dots aren’t over each other, and they are also slightly apart.”

“Ah, that’s good.”

“Though, with these two perverts, who knows. Maybe they came up with a new position?”

“Well, even more of a reason to visit them!” Maya suddenly got excited.

“Eh…?”

“If that's the case, I need to learn and try it on you!"

“Ahh…”

“Let’s go!”

--

"Oh?" On the way toward the jaguar's room, the couple ran into Kira. “You really need to tell me how you’re getting in and out of the castle without anyone noticing.”

“Soon.” Sophia smiled at her. “Also, nice to meet you.”

“Of course. It’s good to see you two, too.”

“Speaking of, it’s also handy that you’re here!” The blonde faced the queen.

“Do I like the direction this is going?” She looked at Maya instead.

“Absolutely positively not.” The cat-girl shook her head.

“I’m listening?” Kira still was curious.

“Can you cancel all of Menzor’s appointments, meetings, and whatnot for tomorrow?”

“Err…?”

“I need a few hours with him, and afterward, he'll need to lie down with a massive headache for the rest of the day."

“What did you do?!” The queen didn’t like any of that.

“It’s mostly good things!” She started pouting again. “I want to tell them about some of the magics I came up with that will change the lives of basically everyone! The thing that's related to our travels I mentioned before, among other things…”

“Ahh, I see the reason for the headache warning. Still, I'm sure he will be okay with that if it's something to better the lives of everyone.”

“Also, I met someone who did something that made everything I did so far make look like child's play. She'll also be with us tomorrow and explain the massive consequences it will have for the entire continent."

“Uhh…” Unable to comprehend it, Kira looked at Maya for help again.

“She’s heavily downplaying it, by the way.” She only shook her head in return.

“By the way, I also need some generals, the minister of war, of territorial planning, transport, commerce, diplomacy, and…”

“Now you’re just coming up with names of ministers, aren't you?" Maya looked at her.

“How am I supposed to know if there are ministers for that? I need the people responsible for that… Just get the most important ones for running the country or whatever.”

“I… I’ll cancel his plans for the rest of the week.” The queen had a bad feeling about this but also didn't want to know any more details for many reasons.

“Might not be a bad idea.” Sophia agreed that this sounded like a better plan. “Anyway, we leave you to prepare for that. Maya and I are heading over to the loud couple. We have some, uhh… news for them, as well.”

“What happened in the few days we haven’t seen each other?!”

“Stuff.” The blonde shrugged her shoulders.

“Lots of stuff.” The cat-girl reacted the same.

“…” Kira wasn’t sure what to say anymore.

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

“Alright, who wants to go on a trip?!” After having parted ways with the queen, the couple made their way to Ari's room, where they found the other two.

“I’m in!”

“Again?!” Anna and the jaguar reacted slightly differently from each other. “What happened this time?”

“Chloe’s mother has returned.”

“Oh, that’s nice!” So far, Ari was liking the news.

“We also met Chloe’s other mother and had a whole family reunion and all that. It was the first time our dear pink fox found out about her, too."

"That's sooo nice!" The princess also liked the story a lot. "So, what's the trip about, then…?" She failed to see the connection.

"Both will stay with us and join the group for our planned traveling activities." Sophia looked at the couple. “I thought you might want to meet them, too, because we’ll be together a lot in the future.”

“Oh, that makes sense!” They could follow her logic.

“Alright, let’s go!” She raised her arm. “Everyone’s currently in our mansion, so it won’t take long, either!”

“Okay!”

“You really don’t want to prepare them any more than that…?” Maya just looked at her.

“Mind telling me how I would explain that?!” She stared back.

“…” The cat-girl paused for a moment. “Fair.”

“W-What is this about?!” Ari’s mood about the whole thing had considerably changed.

“Don’t worry too much about it!” Sophia was still smiling. “Everything will be alright~.”

“Y-You know, I’m actually not feeling that well today… I’m fighting some really nasty cramps all day already, and I think I'm going to lie down… Any other week of the month would've been fine, but now is really too much..."

“Your weak period excuse is not going to help you here!” The blonde didn't give her any of that, opened one of her portals in front of the group, grabbed Ari's hand, and dragged her through it before she could come up with anything better.

“Is it really that bad…?” Anna looked a little concerned and glanced at Maya next to her after the two had stayed behind.

“Mhmm…” She tilted her head. “It’s not bad at all. Just very, very, very… surprising.”

“Okay…?”

A few moments later, the duo also followed the other two through the portal.