Chapter 132 – Mazes are confusing

After getting lost in the underground maze Sophia and Maya were currently exploring, the couple decided to take a break. Using the tiger's new transportation magic to go back to their mansion. After having eaten something and taken a bath, the two chatted with the wolves. Unfortunately, Aura and Fen, the makers of the place, confessed that they weren't even sure that there was a way out. Hearing that, the couple decided to go to bed because it was too much to deal with.

On the following day, once they finished breakfast, the couple was freshly motivated again and decided to explore the maze some more. As Sophia's portal was still active, they could jump right into it again.

"Alright!" Energetically raising her fist, the tiger looked around in the huge corridor while guessing which of the ten paths connected to it the two should follow. "What do you think, leader?"

"I'm still the leader, huh?"

"Sure are~."

"Okay." She didn't mind. "Let's see..." Maya, too, inspected their options. "Where did we come from again?"

"Uhh..." She had no idea.

"We're off to a good start, huh?"

"Ahaha." Sophia let out a chuckle. "It really doesn't matter if the wolves maybe never connected the halves of this maze, does it?"

"Nope, not at all. We would be trapped in here for weeks either way." She, too, had no faith in them. "Whatever, Sophia, give me a number between one and ten."

"Hrmm... Four?"

"One... two... three... Alright, we'll go this way!" The cat-girl pointed at the fourth path leading out of the corridor.

"H-Have I ever told you that I love you?" She was a massive fan of the easygoing side of Maya.

"Occasionally, but I'll never not like it when you say it~."

"Ehehe."

"Let's go!" Also sounding motivated, the cat-girl grabbed Sophia's hand before guiding her into the path.

The two kept going like this for a while. Randomly deciding on a way whenever they had to choose, except going straight, of course, the couple made great progress.

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"Err..." Roughly two hours passed since they started their exploration, and even Sophia noticed the problem they were having now. "Welcome back?"

"Seriously?" The two had returned to the corridor they started in the morning.

"Aren't we the best?"

"Sure... in some way, we definitely are..." Maya didn't specify in which way, though.

"Haha. Do you want to guess a number now? I'll start counting on a random path, then."

"One!"

"Oka- Wait a moment! If I choose the path to start and the number's one, doesn't that mean that simply I decide which way we go?"

"Yep~."

"You cheeky... Well, in a way, I would've chosen either way... It's just even more obvious like this..." Sophia noticed that her plan was pretty flawed from the beginning because Maya knew why she should guess a number. "Whatever... This one!" She simply pointed in a random direction without looking.

Following the new path for around an hour, the couple got a little confused. While the two didn't return to the original corridor again, every single turn they took eventually ended up in a dead-end.

"Weird..." Maya tilted her head. "Dead ends are nothing new, but one of the paths should connect to somewhere, right? Especially because it feels like we're in the dead middle of the maze..."

"Hmm... Ah!"

"Stop that!"

"W-What...? I didn't do anything?" The tiger got confused by her sudden yell.

"S-Sorry. Whenever you say 'Ah', my body reacts on instinct."

"How rude!"

"You conditioned me to do that. You say that whenever something catastrophically did-, or is about to happen." Maya had heard it way too often to not become wary of it.

"F-Fair point..." She had nothing to say in her defense.

"So, how's the world going to end now?" The cat-girl was prepared for the worst.

"No, it's an innocent Ah. If we're in the middle of the maze and somehow everything ends up in a dead-end... Maybe it's because the connection between Fenny and Aura's side is missing? That would-, should be in the middle, right?"

"Ah." She had to make the same reaction. "You might have a point."

"So, what now?"

"Hmm..." Maya looked around before pointing up the three-meter-tall walls of the maze. "Let's have a look?"

"Sounds like a plan." The tiger created a couple of steps with earth magic on the wall, and the two reached the top of it in no time. As the maze was so gigantic, their new point of view wasn't actually all that helpful, though. Because of that, Sophia let the wall below them rise even further. She created a platform from where the two could overlook a good part of the maze.

"Really?" Maya was not amused by the sight. Upon closer inspection, the gigantic maze was actually two separate ones divided by a perfectly straight wall right in the middle. Unfortunately, that wall had no opening to cross from one side to another.

"Wow... all they needed to do was to get rid of 5 meters to finish the maze. So close, yet so far." She wasn't sure whether to be disappointed or impressed.

"What now? Jump over it and continue on the other side?"

"How about we connect the two parts by taking down a bit of the wall. That would complete the maze."

"Oh, I like that idea."

Saying so, the couple got rid of the platform again. Afterward, they destroyed the wall on which Sophia put on the steps before. Now that the exit should be reachable, the two resumed their exploration.

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They continued to navigate through the maze by randomly guessing their direction, and another hour quickly went by.

"Alright, this way!" The two stopped at another fork, and Sophia pointed to her right.

"Nope, we definitely have to go left." As it had become customs in the maze, the only thing the two agreed on was to disagree on everything else.

"The usual?"

"The usual!"

"Alright, we'll meet here again after three corners to see which path looks more promising."

Afterward, the two split up to see which is the best way.

"Mine looks really great!" They were back together, and the cat-girl was sure that she had found the right direction. "After two corners, there's a really long path that definitely leads to somewhere!"

"Really?"

"Yep, I'm 100% sure it's better than yours!"

"Is that so?" Sophia seemed to be trying to hold back a smile for some reason.

"No, 200 %!" The cat-girl was very confident.

"Hmm... Still, would you do me a favor and go around the first corner of my path? Just to make sure."

"I don't know why because there's just no way, but as we're in no hurry, I can do that much for yo- Ah." Maya stopped talking once she went around the corner and saw what was going on.

"What do you think? I haven't seen your path yet, but I have a pretty good feeling about this one." Sophia stood next to the cat-girl as both were currently looking at the exit of the maze that was right behind the first corner.

"Uhh... I don't know. I still think my path looks better, but... I think we can try yours for now."

"Just go already, idiot." The tiger got behind her and pushed Maya out of the maze.

"Ehehe." Despite having lost, the cat-girl still had a good time. "Wow, all things considered, that was pretty fun~."

"Sure was!" She shared her opinion. "Wanna continue?"

"Of course! It's probably only around noon, and I have no other plans."

"I still can't believe I got up so early..." As they were in the maze for over three hours already, it was actually true.

"Kicking you out of the bed helps a lot of the time."

"What?"

"Nothing~." She wasn't actually trying to hide it.

"Well, I don't particularly mind." As it was far from the first time, Sophia was used to it already.

"I wonder what else our wolves built down here."

"Wow, remembering how angry you were about the whole underground maze thingy makes your current bright smile's all the better."

"Shut up and let me have some fun." She didn't want to think about it.

"I surely won't be stopping you. I enjoy it-, you way too much for that. I hope I see more of that side in the future." Not that she disliked any part of Maya, but her fun side was an especially sweet treat for the tiger.

"So, can we continue?"

"Of course!" Sophia gave her cat a big nod. "I wanna see that groundwater lake cave thingy or whatever Fen and Aura mentioned yesterday!"

"Oh, I almost forgot about that. I want to see that, too!"

"I bet it looks cool. Alright, lead the way!" The tiger looked forward to it and raised her hand in anticipation.

"Okay!" Maya, too, energetically put an arm in the air before grabbing Sophia's hand once more. Afterward, the couple followed the path that got them away from the maze and eventually led them into a new tunnel. The exploration of the underground area seemed to be far from over.