Chapter 89 – Teaching Anna

After being persuaded by Sophia and the king, Maya agreed to teach the princess more magic. The couple was also provided a room in the castle and directly tested it out. As a result of their little make-out session, the two were covered in hickeys. Unfortunately, immediately after, the king requested for them to meet Anna. This ended up being incredibly awkward as it was clear what the couple was engaging in prior to the meetup.

"..."

"..." The silent staring continued for even longer.

"Soo... how's the room we've provided?" The king had no idea how to handle the situation. The interactions between teenage and/or young adult girls were way beyond his abilities.

"I-It's nice..."

"The bed's very... comfortable." Maya only made it worse.

"..."

"..."

"I want one, too!" Princess Anna finally snapped and got unreasonable while she pointed at her neck.

"How about no?" The embarrassment in the cat-girl's face vanished in an instant.

"Come on, don't be like that, Maya." Sophia's expression changed to a grin instead.

"Ehh?!" The other two girls had the same reaction.

"If she wants a hickey, give her one." She gave the cat-girl a slight push on the back.

"Not from her!" The retort of the princess echoed through the entire castle.

"Oh, you meant me?" Sophia pointed at herself. "Ah, no, that's not going to happen."

"Haa..." Maya seemed relieved.

"You're so mean! Bully!" She squirmed around a bit while loudly complaining.

"I've heard that a couple of times now... I don't think so, though..."

"No, she's right." It was a rare case of the cat-girl agreeing to Anna's claim, ignoring that she's pretty much the same, if not worse.

"Hmm... Anyway," As usual, Sophia couldn't be bothered to put any thoughts into it. It definitely didn't mean she silently agreed, though. After that, she touched Maya's neck, which then was wrapped in a pale-blue light. Once it disappeared, only her usual, spotless skin could be seen. "Technically speaking, they were an injury, right? Well, I healed them. Mine will probably heal in a couple of minutes on their own regardless because of my natural recovery."

"She actually can use healing magic..." Menzor didn't fully believe her when she first claimed to be able to do so.

"Sophia..." Maya suddenly glared at her.

"Y-Yes?"

"Why didn't you do this before we left the room?!"

"A-Ah." Her trademark reaction. "I-It's not like you like you had that idea, either."

"Urgh..." The cat-girl flinched before changing the topic. "O-Oh, yours are actually mostly healed already, too."

"I heal fast, after all~."

"T-That bite mark might need a little longer, though."

"Eh?!" Sophia touched her collarbone where Maya was pointing at. "W-When did you... d-don't do that during daytime!" She had only just noticed the bite.

"Sorry."

"A-Alright..." After witnessing his daughter's expression, the king also thought it was more than overdue to talk about something else. "I told Anna about the teaching in magic."

"Right." The couple regained their focus.

"Why does it have to be the cat-girl?! I want Sophia!"

"That's one of the reasons." Maya glared at the princess. She was doing that a lot today.

"Also, I wouldn't know how to teach you... I'm only able to use chantless magic, after all."

"Prodigies are scary!"

"How about you girls go to the garden? There shouldn't be any onlookers, and you can train all you want." Menzor wanted them to get going. "Also, Anna, behave yourself."

"W-Why me?"

"You know why. Maya's doing all of us a favor. So, keep your hormones in check!"

"F-Father!" Her face instantly turned red.

"W-Wow..."

"T-That's..." Even the couple, the sole reason for the mess in the first place, felt bad for the princess.

"Just go already!" Being a father of a teenage daughter only means suffering.

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

Fleeing as fast as possible, Anna grabbed the hands of Maya and Sophia and ran as quickly as she could. Sympathizing with her, the cat-girl didn't complain about her holding hands with Sophia in this situation. A short while later, the three arrived in the garden located behind the castle.

"Wow, it's so pretty!" Sophia was excitedly looking at the scenery. The lush, green grass, neatly aligned and trimmed hedges, and most importantly, an uncountable number of colorful flowers. "Those roses are beautiful and so huge!"

"Roses...?" Anna tilted her head. "Ah, you mean rozes. What a funny way to pronounce them."

"..." She only rolled her eyes in response.

"Yes, they're currently in full bloom. That's why so much is going on in terms of colors here right now."

"What a time to visit~. It also smells so nice." The blonde tiger was enjoying the garden.

"Yeah, it's quite nice." The princess nodded. "So, Maya, are you really going to teach me magic…? I admit that you're powerful... regrettable so, but is there anything you can teach me the school or private teachers from the court magicians can't?"

"Well, the king and Sophia asked me to, so I'll at least try. The result will entirely be up to you." Maya still wasn't the most enthusiastic about the whole thing. "Though, I don't remember how to use spells, so you'll have to put in some effort because it'll be activation words only training."

"S-Such a high difficulty!"

"Sophia banned everything except chantless magic for me since day one of our training and threw me in a monster-filled dungeon before I learned a single attack the no-chant way." The cat-girl recalled their first weeks together. "So, don't complain here."

"W-Wow."

"Spartan training, best training." Sophia flashed them a victory sign with her hand.

"Spa... what?" Anna looked confused.

"Don't mind her." Maya didn't want to deal with this. "Alright, princess, you already understand air and... uhh, earth-related magic, right?"

"Yes, though I'm better at earth."

"Hmm... Other than that, I can show you water and fire-related magics. I recommend fire, though."

"That could be interesting."

"Fire, it is. Can we get any candles? "

"Candles? Sure, I'II have the maids bring some." At this exact moment, said maid appeared seemingly out of nowhere and walked towards the castle after a short nod. "But why do we need them?"

"That's how I learned fire magic. Okay, I was six back then, so I'm not sure how effective it'll be."

"Y-You learned magic when you were six?!"

"No?" Maya tilted her head. "I started with air magic when I was five."

"Ehhh?!"

"Hold on a moment!" Sophia interrupted her. "Didn't you mention that you hunted animals the old-fashioned way before you could blast them away with magic?! Just how old were you when you went hunting?!"

"Four?"

"W-What a rowdy girl..." Anna and Sophia's voices overlapped.

"Hehe."

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

A little while later, the maid returned with a couple of candles and handed them to the cat-girl. In the meanwhile, Sophia went to a nearby bench and got comfortable there while watching the duo from a slight distance.

"What are we going to do with them?" The princess suspiciously eyed the candles.

"We, well, you are going to use its flame to learn fire magic."

"Okay...?" She was rather dubious but still concentrated on the small flame after Maya lit one of the candles.

"Soo... back then, I was watching the candle for around an hour and got the strong urge to yell fireball while thrusting out my hands for extra effect. I... I, uhh, set the chair across the table on fire, and my mom yelled at me for a long while afterward..."

"The heck?!" Sophia instinctively retorted from her bench.

"No remarks from the peanut gallery!" The cat-girl was not amused by her reaction.

"That's so cool!" Anna's eyes were sparkling.

"Oho, you might not be such a nuisance, after all, princess." The cat-girl started to ever so slightly bond with her.

"Funny, I just thought the same."

"Aaand I'm out." Sophia was unable to understand those two. She was far from being reasonable most of the time, either, but she couldn't do anything with this conversation.

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

"Oh my, Sophia. What's up?" Queen Kira was walking through the garden at the same time and spotted the blonde.

"Trying to understand what's going on inside their heads, but... that's beyond my capabilities." She pointed at the two idiots.

"That's a tough nut." She nodded in understanding.

"Yeah... Hmm...?" Sophia finally looked at Kira and noticed that she was holding the hand of a small girl not even half her size with long, orange and black hair. Just like the queen and Princess Anna, she was another tiger-girl who looked really similar to the two, as far as one could tell from a small child. "Who's the little one in the adorable light-blue dress?"

"She's my youngest daughter. Come on, introduce yourself to Sophia." She gave the little kid a gentle push on the back.

"I-I'm Ellie! I'll be four really soon!" Saying so, she tried to hold up three and a half fingers while looking really giddy.

"Oh my goodness, she's adorable!" She instantly fell in love with her.

"She sure is!" Kira looked highly proud. "By the way, she turned three two months ago…"

"Nice to meet you." She got up from the bench and squatted down to be on Ellie's line of sight. "I'm Sophia, and I'm staying here for a while. The girl over there playing with your big sister is called Maya. We're here together."

"They are playing?"

"... Yeah." She didn't have any better words to explain. At least none that a 3-year-old would understand, let alone be appropriate for them.

"Ellie wants to play, too! Let's play, So... So... So-phia!" She needed a few extra tries to pronounce her name.

"Uuh... I love her!" The blonde couldn't keep her feelings to herself.

"Don't worry, it's the same for everyone." Kira was seemingly used to people fawning over her daughter.

"So... So-phia! Play!" The little one was getting impatient.

"Though she usually doesn't take that quick to others..."

"Can I?" Sophia gestured at Ellie.

"As long as you take care, sure."

"Of course! So, what do you want to play?" She faced the little tiger again.

"Piggyback! I want a piggyback ride!"

"Ehh? Well, sure, I don't mind." Agreeing to it, Sophia turned around and presented her back. "Jump on and hang on tight."

"Yay!" Wasting no second, Ellie climbed on her back and hugged the girl's neck for support.

"Let's go!" Sophia was also having fun. Supporting the legs of the small princess with her arms, she sprang up and ran around in the garden.

"Ahaha~!" She was flailing around. "Faster! Faster!"

"My, aren't you a wild one?"

"This way! This way!" Ellie wasn't listening and pointed to their right, leading deeper into the garden.

"Aye aye, captain!" Turning towards the direction the little tiger-girl on her back was pointing at, Sophia dashed away.

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

"They're both wild." Kira sent them off with a smile. She then sat down on the bench and watched the magic training session of the other two girls for a good while. "Oh, they're actually somehow getting along, huh?"

"Fireball!" While thrusting out her right arm, Princess Anna yelled at the candle the two were using as a catalyst for fire magic.

"Put more feeling into it!" Maya wasn't happy with her enthusiasm.

"Ehh...?"

"Try it like this." The cat-girl imitated something Sophia would call a superhero pose. "Imagine a nice and big fireball and then BAM!" She finished her stance, and a ball of fire shot out from the candle.

"Bam, she says." Anna rolled her eyes.

"Exactly."

"Imagine a fireball... and then, Bam! Fireball!" Imitating Maya's moves, the princess yelled at the candle again. "Oh my gosh, it moved!"

"That was just the wind generated by your hand, princess."

"Auu..." she looked deflated.

"Let's take a break and..." Maya glanced at the bench and suddenly stopped when she saw the wrong tiger-girl there. "Eh? Where's Sophia?"

"Mother?! Since when are you here?" Anna was also surprised.

"Quite a while already. It was rather enjoyable watching the two of you training together."

"I didn't notice at all..."

"So, where's Sophia?" Maya was still waiting for an answer.

"She dashed away with Ellie like two hours ago."

"So unfair!"

"Wait, who's this Ellie?" The cat-girl didn't like the sound of it.

"She's my little sister."

"There's another princess?! Alone with Sophia, on top?!"

"Calm down, Maya. Ellie's only three years old." Kira tried to reassure the panicking girl.

"Three, huh...? I guess that should be safe... probably. Yeah... Well, let's go take a look regardless..." The logical side of her brain was naturally okay with it. Still, the emotional part didn't trust Sophia's over-the-top boosted charm stats in her imagination, no matter how extremely unreasonable it was. Feeling nervous, she immediately went to look for her. While she wasn't as much of a nervous wreck as Sophia when it came to relationships, the blonde tiger's still her first girlfriend. She hasn't fully figured out how to deal with anything regarding to be in a relationship yet. Having not gathered much experience yet, and feeling slightly insecure can lead to some slight rash reactions.