Chapter 62 – Spotting a beastfolk village

To cross the massive canyon they came across, the group had to build their own bridge with earth magic. Logically, as Fen took care of it, it wasn't an issue whatsoever. Afterward, they kept walking alongside the coastline for around two days, but Sophia was bothered by something again.

"I'm boooored~!" As nothing interesting had happened for around half a day, she was getting tired of it.

"Well, while I tend to agree, there's nothing we can do about that. We have a long way to cover, so of course, not everything would be interesting." Maya urged her to be patient.

"Yeah... By the way, how much longer is it to the capital, anyway?"

"Hmm, we took a ton of detours, so it's hard to tell, but I guess the beach from before day would be around halfway there?"

"S-Seriously?! There's still so much left?! Wow, someone in this world needs to invent cars already!"

"Cars?" The other two had never heard this word before.

"Err, it's a vehicle from my old world. Something like a carriage here, I guess? Just incomparably faster, we could've reached the capital in like a day with it." Sophia missed traveling comfortably and fast.

"That's amazing!"

"Yeah, not that it has anything to do with us. I had a rough understanding of how they work, but not nearly enough to even think about recreating them." Her little theoretical knowledge would be of no use for the real thing.

"Just tough it out, girl." Fen wanted her to stop whining.

"Booored~!" It wasn't very effective, and Sophia raised her arms to indicate her displeasure.

"Yeah, yeah, we get it." Maya grabbed one of her arms, dragged it down, and interlocked their hands to calm down the girl and, more importantly, distract her.

"Not quite as bored anymore~." It helped a little. "Still, isn't there anything interesting? Let's see... Oh?" She stopped walking all of a sudden.

"What is it? A-Ah! D-Don't tell me the monster's back?!"

"No, I lowered my detection sensitivity and found a spot full of people a couple of kilometers in front of us. It feels like a village or something like that."

"T-That's great..." The cat-girl was relieved that the overpowered monster wasn't following them, after all.

"I just detected them, too." Fen nodded. "Around 150 people, I guess? Yep, they're beastpeople."

"Aaaand it's gotten interesting!" Sophia's boredom was washed away. "Let's go there!"

"Sure!" The other two had no complaints.

"Ah, but no flirting with the girls there, Sophia!"

"H-Huh?! Why would I do that?!" She didn't understand where Maya's implication was coming from.

"You're too charming!"

"Ehh... that again? I obviously won't! But if that's the case, the same goes for you, Maya! You're much more charming, after all!"

"Ehehe~. I wouldn't think about it."

"Get a room, you two." The wolf's teeth started to hurt from all the sugar.

"S-Sorry..."

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After the couple apologized, the group got going again and made their way towards the beastfolk village they found with detection magic. As they got closer, Fen also transformed into his smaller version to not confuse the villagers.

"Oho~." Sophia seemed excited as she spotted the couple dozen old-looking yet orderly-built redbrick houses and the central plaza of the place with a small fountain in the middle.

While they followed the nicely maintained cobblestone road, the group got spotted by a duo of lookouts at the edge of the village.

"Welcome to Alva!" One of the rather hairy and bear-like-looking guards greeted the group. "Now, that's a colorful group... A girl from the cat tribe, a full and even a hidden. You don't see such a combo often." He hadn't even assumed Sophia was a human after sensing her power.

"Hidden...?" Sophia leaned towards Maya and whispered the word that confused her.

"Beastpeople that have no apparently visible animal traits like a tail or ears. They usually have only animal character traits, or it's hidden by their clothes. They're quite rare, so people often forget to mention them, though."

"Oh! Wait, does he mean me?"

"Who else? Lucky misunderstanding, huh?"

"Yeah, I'm good at those." It wasn't the first time people had gotten confused with Sophia.

"You sure are." The cat-girl gave a heartfelt nod.

"I guess I'm a beast-girl now, huh?" She officially graduated from being an alleged demon.

"Could be worse, couldn't it?"

"Ahaha, sounds fun."

"So, what brings you here?" Noticing that the girls finished talking about whatever, the guard continued. "Wait, the direction you came from... How did you guys cross the canyon?! The bridge there broke down a while ago, and we weren't able to repair it yet."

"Ah, uhh-" Maya, the only actual beast person in the group, decided to take over. "When we tried to cross there, we, err, built a new bridge for it."

"Oh, jokesters, I like you lot already." The bear-like guard naturally didn't believe her.

"No... We're pretty good at magic, so that actually happened." Showing off the fruits of her training, the cat-girl let a small earthen wall rise from the ground.

"C-Chantless magic?!" The guard was shocked.

"Y-Yeah, the other two are much, much, MUCH better at magic than I am. So, we really crossed the canyon with a bridge we made ourselves."

"S-Seriously?!"

"Actually, the bridge's still there. Feel free to check it yourself."

"Melv! "The guard addressed his co-worker. "Get a harse ready and check their story."

"Yes, sir!" He immediately left.

"A-Anyway, again... Welcome to Alva. There's a small inn at the plaza. As there are currently no other travelers, there should be plenty of free rooms available. Feel free to rest there a bit. I can really recommend the attached bar there. Good food and even better alcohol. Once my colleague returns and confirms your story, we'll come back at you guys to discuss the reward."

"Reward?" Maya tilted her head. "We just made a bridge to cross the canyon, though?"

"Yeah, and you saved us a ton of gold and time if that's really the case. The village would obviously reward you for that. Assuming the bridge is usable, of course."

"I see. Yeah, it makes sense if you put it that way. It's a pretty sturdy all-stone bridge made by Fen over there, so-" Maya pointed at the wolf.

"I wanted to prove a point when I built it... That bridge should last a couple of centuries."

"R-Really? So not only the cat-girl is abnormal?!" The guard could barely believe them. "A-Anyway, just follow the road, and you'll end up right in front of the inn."

"A-Abnormal?!" Maya was shocked.

"Thanks." Waving after him, the group finally entered the village. "Poor guard..." Sophia felt sorry for him for some reason.

"Eh? Why?"

"Maya completely destroyed his common sense."

"W-What?!"

"Talking about a bridge being made in an instant, using chantless magic, something incredibly rare, like it's nothing. You totally broke him~." Sophia was clearly getting back at the cat-girl who criticized her about the same thing countless times already.

"For someone who constantly retorts at us for exactly that, you sure aren't any better." Fen, too, had to use this chance.

"A-Ah-" She just noticed it. "Uuh, I actually became one of them... So embarrassing!"

"Ahaha!" Sophia was having a good time.

"l-I'm sorry for making fun of you... As it turns out, common sense is indeed a very perspective matter."

"Y-You don't have to apologize so earnestly..." She had gotten flustered about the cat-girl's honesty. "I mean, I really have none of that... this common-sense thingy, for various reasons."

"As long as you understand. Though, I'll try not to tease you about it in the future."

"T-Thanks... Okay, let's head to the inn!"

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Once Sophia finished rolling her eyes after learning that harses are indeed just simple horses, the group continued walking along the main road for a bit. Eventually, they ran into a group of children, probably around grade-school age—two boys with dog ears and a bushy tail, together with three girls. One of them was a cat-girl like Maya; one resembled a deer with her big ears sticking out of her brown hair while also having a small tail. The last girl was similar to the boys, but together with the dog's ears and tail, she also had actual paws for hand and feet, and a part of her arms was covered in fur.

"Eh, a human...?" One of the boys spotted Sophia and walked up to the group.

"You're right!" The rest of his gang followed after him.

"What is a human doing here?"

"I've never seen one up so close!"

"How did she not die before coming here? I heard humans can't even fight a kow... I knew daddy was lying! No one can be that weak, after all!"

"You're beautiful, miss!" The little cat-girl of the group had a slightly different reaction. "Are you really human...?"

"T-Thank you..." While being slightly bashful about the sudden compliment, Sophia squatted down in front of her to get on the same line of sight while giving her head a quick pat. "You're quite cute, as well."

"Ehehe~." The little cat-girl giggled happily.

"Grrr..." The bigger, white-haired cat was not so happy, though.

"S-Seriously now, Maya?"

"..." She didn't answer and turned her head away, somewhat embarrassed by her own action.

"Anyway," Sophia faced the children again. "No, I'm not one of the humans you know. I've been called a hidden, you know?" Her way of weaseling herself out while not actually lying had become even more skilled.

"A hidden?" A few of them tilted their heads.

"Oh, daddy told me about them!" The deer-girl seemed to know about it. "Those are beastpeople where you can't see that they are one at first glance. That makes sense because you don’t seem like you want to do bad things to us!"

"Hmm…? That's right. You're really smart." Sophia smiled at her. She was curious about the bad things the girl mentioned but thinking about the humans again, she didn’t want to know, after all.

"T-Thank you..." She had gotten shy all of a sudden.

"..." Maya was still not amused.

"What are you doing here, miss?" The girls of the group had gotten very interested in Sophia.

"I'm traveling with my companions. We came across this village on the way to the capital."

"The capital?"

"So cool!"

"How long are you staying?"

"We're just passing through, so, not that long. Probably just the night."

"Aww..." The little girls were disappointed.

"Do you have a lover, miss?" The small cat of the group was an aggressive one.

"E-Eh...?"

"She does, in fact!" The big cat-girl was, too, and got really close to Sophia and linked their arms. "I'm her girlfriend!" She sounded really competitive for some reason before giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"M-Maya?!" She got embarrassed in an instant. Doing something like that in public was too much for her.

"Ehehe." She liked her reaction.

"Too bad..." The little one seemed disappointed. "I would've waited! Then again, you two are a good match, so it's okay! Ah, guys, we're going to be late! Bye-bye, miss!"

"Bye-bye!" The small gang left while waving at the group.

"Bye...?" Sophia awkwardly waved back. "Wow, they were like a storm. Still, they were so adorable!" She had taken a liking to the little ones.

"My, aren't you popular?" A cold voice came from her side.

"Eh?! Ma-, Maya.?" She awkwardly turned around to face her. "Wait, I have no idea how any of this works, but don't tell me-, Are you... jealous?"

"Am not!" She puffed up her cheeks.

"W-Why are you so adorable?!" It had a very different effect on Sophia.

"S-Shut up!" Her puffed-up cheeks turned red.

"Come on~. Those were just some little kids! Adorable as they might be, they're OBVIOUSLY no rivals to you, idiot."

"Uuh... I'm sorry..." The cat-girl felt embarrassed and stupid for losing her cool over something like that without thinking.

"Seriously."

"L-Let's just go to the inn, okay...?" She wanted to run away.

"Sure~." No matter the idiotic circumstances, Sophia was still happy that Maya got jealous.

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Once the group found the inn and entered, Fen got a room specifically for full beastpeople, but getting a room for the girls involved a bit of work.

"Do you two want rooms next to each other?" The receptionist with some floppy dog ears asked the two.

"No, we'll be sharing one."

"Eh?" Sophia hadn't heard about that before.

"I'm sorry, but we only have rooms with one bed."

"That's perfectly fine."

"Eh?" She was only getting more surprised.

"While our beds are on the bigger side, it could be a bit cramped with two people..." The receptionist tried to change her mind.

"Perfect, that's just what I hoped them to be!" It had the opposite effect on Maya.

"Eh?" Sophia felt left out.

"But..."

"Don't worry. We'll pay extra if that's the problem." The cat-girl was dead-set on sharing a room, or rather, a bed.

"Well, it's your choice..." The dog-girl stopped objecting.

"Great!"

Once the room situation was solved, the group got the keys and walked towards their rooms to get a bit of rest. Well, most of them.

"Eh?" Sophia was still confused about what just happened, or rather, what's going to happen. The mention of sharing an actual bed wasn't good for her imagination.