Chapter 76 – A sad memory

Sophia had shown Fen the world where time had stopped, and he was very grateful for it because he always wanted to see it. Afterward, the group covered some more ground towards the capital of the beastfolk and ended the day after making camp in the evening.

On the following day, the three kept going just like that. Thanks to the continuous moving around, the tiger-girl had finally become at least as fast as Maya again. That meant the group had reached their old travel speed again. Before Sophia had accidentally transformed herself into a tiger, the cat-girl was the slowest of them.

"A-Ah." Just before noon, Sophia suddenly stopped walking and looked behind her with a worried expression.

"What's wrong?" Maya turned to look at her. "I hate it when you do that."

"Err," She needed a moment. "There-, There's something I've been hiding from you two..."

"Don't you think your backstory is long enough already, girl?!" The wolf instinctively retorted.

"No, that's not what I meant. Remember the strong monster I detected at that beach, the one on the island?'

"Y-Yes...?" The cat-girl suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Well, it's back... and it's following us... For some days already, too."

"W-What?!" Maya didn't like this revelation at all.

"That's impossible!" Fen, too, had gotten a little loud.

"Uhh, that's what I'm seeing, though? Well, sensing..."

"But detection magic's mine. Nobody should be able to follow us. Especially not from such a range!"

"My range's bigger than yours, too? Maybe because that thing's so powerful?"

"Yeah, but I taught you my magic."

"Ah, that's true..." Sophia finally understood his problem. "You haven't shown it to anyone besides me?"

"There was one in the past... She was also really talented in it, but..."

"Maybe it's her then? That acquaintance?"

"There-, There's no way she'd ever look for me again..." Fen's expression changed.

"Oh~? Ex-girlfriend?" Sophia's eyes lit up.

"She's not."

"Really now? Sure sounds like it, though. Come on, tell us what happened for her to never approach you again?" The tiger-girl was really curious. "I bet if you earnestly apologize, she'll forgive you."

"I don't think that will happen..."

"Just how much did you mess up?!"

"I didn't. She... She's dead. That's why there's no chance she would ever look for me again..."

"Ohh..." Sophia went silent while her face turned blue. As it turned out, she was the one who messed up. Big time, at that.

"Sophia..." Maya sighed. "I love you, but you're an absolute ass."

"That... Yes, I am..." Feeling incredibly guilty, she eventually faced the wolf again. "I-I'm really sorry... That's not where I wanted this to go! Not at all!"

"Well, it's been a long time since it happened, so... Still, you should learn to think before you speak already, girl."

"I really should..." She had no excuse.

"Yeah..." No matter how much time had passed since then, it apparently still affected the wolf.

"What, uhh, happened? If you don't mind telling us?"

"It was an accident. She was a bit like you, Sophia, always trying out all kinds of interesting magics she came up with. One day, she wanted to teleport herself... It failed. As a test, she only tried to teleport like ten meters or so. I've never seen her again after that..."

"A-Ah... Is that why you reacted so strongly when I mentioned teleporting the other day?"

"Yes. I don't want it to happen again."

"I can understand why now."

"Uhh," Maya had a question. "How do you know that she actually... died?"

"Yes, I had thought about the possibility that she's just lost. But then she could-, should've just teleported back."

"That's true..."

"Also, the reaction of her magic power also vanished and hasn't shown up ever again since. I was living in the area where it happened for a while, but there was nothing. Even in the years after, there were no signs of her. None of my acquaintances from back then had seen her ever since then, either."

"I-I see... I'm sorry for your loss." Maya hung her head after it seemed like her idea had no chance of being true.

"Thank you."

"A-Ah..."

"What is it now?!" The two looked at Sophia.

"No, I just had an idea, but I'll keep it to myself because I don't want to be called an idiot again. Not to mention the mood would turn even weirder."

"Just tell us, idiot."

"So unfair!" She had no means of winning against those two. "W-Well, maybe we're just too paranoid?"

"What do you mean?" Maya tilted her head.

"Ignoring their mysterious power, maybe it's just someone heading to the capital, as well? Not following us at all, just going in the same direction?"

"A-Ah." The other two had the same reaction.

Because this explanation was so anticlimactically reasonable, the group dropped the gloomy topic of Fen's lost comrade and resumed their travels again. The mood didn't feel right to talk about it anymore.

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While Fen was preparing the meat he had collected during the evening, Maya chatted with Sophia while she was getting their dinner ready.

"Say..." The cat-girl was glancing at the wolf.

"Hmm?"

"Do you think Fen and this dead girl were together?"

"I don't know... I don't even know what she was. For example, a wolf like ours here? A beast girl, demon? Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if he was hanging out with an elf."

"That's true."

"All I know is that she wasn't a human." There was at least one race Sophia could exclude.

"Haha."

"I do think he is, well, was quite fond of her, though..."

"Well, he did tell me he was in love with someone in the past. Maybe it really was her."

"Possibly- Wait, what?!" The tiger-girl heard something she couldn't ignore. "When did that happen?! Where was I?!"

"You were asleep."

"Ehhh?!" She has shocked to have missed such an important event again. "Alright, I need to find some energy drinks in this world!"

"Some what now?"

"Something that, uhh, works like coffee? Anyway, don't mind me, go on."

"It was when we were talking about you and me, shortly before or after my confession? I don't know the exact time anymore. Whatever, okay, he didn't explicitly state he was in love, but his words made it seem like it..."

"Fenny's girlfriend, huh? I would've loved to meet her." Sophia was really interested. "It's too bad..." She hung her head a little.

"Yeah... By the way," She glanced at the wolf again because she wanted to talk about something else.

"Yes?"

"Aren't you going to tell him about- Wait, are those new flowers in his hair?" The cat-girl was talking about his pigtails decorated with flowers that Sophia made when the time was stopped.

"It's super cute, isn't it? I planned to keep it~."

"I see."

"Last night, I woke up because I was thirsty. While I was at it, I also exchanged the flowers for fresh ones."

"You really are motivated about the strangest things..."

"Ehehe."

"Oh, so this was why my lap felt lonely for around ten or so minutes in the middle of the night, huh? I knew I didn't just dream that."

"There's just no way you'd notice that while being asleep."

"I even noticed you kissing me while I was frozen in time." She had a pretty smug expression for some reason.

"Y-You know, in a way, I think you're the most overpowered member of our group."

"It's the power of love!"

"Wow..." Sophia's face became red just having heard that line.

After this, because Maya was too embarrassed to talk for a while, thanks to unconsciously having said a way too corny line, the group's dinner was much more peaceful than usual. A while later, the couple took their regular bath, and following that, they got comfortable before their day finally came to an end.

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"Fuah, I can't get enough of this~." Just having woken up, Maya was happily wiggling her head in Sophia's lap. "These pajamas, plus your warm thighs, are as heavenly as always!"

"T-Thanks..." The tiger-girl was still sleepy. "Well, I had the pleasure last night, and I have to agree." The two decided to change positions each night, so no one gets too pouty.

"Sooo good!"

"Hmm... Fen?" Sophia changed the topic.

"Yes?"

"Your detection range's still around five kilometers, right?"

"Roughly. My focus is more on details, rather than range, after all."

"Too bad."

"Why are you asking, Sophia?"

"That strong one. They slowed down during the night, but it got a good bit nearer to us. Around 25 to 30 Kilometers, I would guess."

"Sorry, too far for me."

"A-Are you really sure it's merely heading to the capital, not us?" Maya still had a bad feeling about this.

"Okay, I have an idea. How far is the capital?"

"A week? Maybe ten days, give or take."

"We reach it if we keep going west, right? How about we travel north for a while? It's going to be a detour, but we'll find out if that thing's following us or not."

"Right... if it turns north, as well, we're screwed. If not, we really were just too paranoid..."

"Exactly."

"Let's do it!" The cat-girl liked the idea.

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Having decided on it, the group changed their route to find out whether they're being followed or not.

They kept going in the wrong direction for most of the day, and they strayed way more than a marathon's length away from the path to the beastfolk capital. They wanted to make sure whether the powerful being was actually after them or if all of it was just an unlucky coincidence.

"Is there really no one else that you taught your detection magic, Fen?" Sophia glanced at the wolf while the group was currently resting near a shore of a river they found, grilling some meat and fish over their usual fire.

"I-Is it-, is it really following us, after all?!" Maya was panicking again.

"I'm not sure yet. The strong one isn't strictly heading for the capital anymore, either... but it's also not exactly our direction... somewhere in between."

"I-I see..."

"No, you and my late... companion are the only ones who learned my detection magic." Fen answered Sophia's question.

"Hmm, just because it's your original magic, that doesn't mean it has to be exclusive to you, does it? Someone else, completely unrelated, could've come up with the same idea, right?" The tiger-girl was looking for a suitable explanation.

"Unlikely... but not entirely impossible, either."

"Do you have a better explanation?"

"No, I have not." The wolf couldn't think of anything else.

"If it's actually following us... Why? I can safely assume I angered no one. After all, no one knows me here."

"Ahem." Maya coughed into her hand.

"No one with mentionable power." Sophia had excluded the humans in her claim.

"That's fair. You're also by far the strongest one I ever picked a fight with, Sophia. I'm sure I'm not the reason, either." The cat-girl, too, doesn't know anyone with so much power she could've offended.

"What about you, big guy?" The girls stared at the most likely reason they would be followed for.

"Ahh, let me think..." He seemed to have an entire list to go through. "Well, no, as I said before, no one with such vast powers should even exist. At least not to my knowledge."

"So mysterious~."

"Sure is." Tiger and wolf were on the same wavelength.

"It's scary!" The cat wasn't.

The group stayed at the river for a while, waiting for something to happen. A little over an hour passed, and they were about to decide to head back, but Sophia's face suddenly tensed up.

"A-Ah..."

"Don't say Ah! It never means anything good when you say that!" Maya's bad feeling was on an all-time high now.

"There are some occasional exceptions."

"T-Then-"

"This-, This is not one of them..." The tiger-girl smashed her faint hope.

"N-No way..."

"Unfortunately, that thing changed directions. It's heading straight for us now..."

"W-W-What should we do now?!"

"There's nothing we can do."

"W-We could run, r-right?!"

"It's a gooood bit faster than Fen and I at top speed. It'll reach us in half an hour at best."

"Oh." Maya's entire body turned full-white, and she fell down on her knees in despair, devoid of all hope. Just like Sophia, she can be pretty dramatic when the situation calls for it.