Chapter 135 – Playing in the garden

The couple chatted with Anna for a while about the magic academy. Somehow, one thing led to another, and the two might end up with a temporary teacher role there in the future. As the princess still had homework to take care of, the two left her alone afterward, but on the way back, the black-haired jaguar-girl Ari appeared and glared at the blonde tiger. Naturally, this confused her greatly because she had no recollection of having anything ever done to her. As she had no explanation for it, Sophia instead searched for Ellie as that seemed to be more fun.

"So... phia!" The little princess spotted her in the hallway and immediately ran up to her, leaving her mother, who was right next to her, behind.

"Ellie~." She kneeled down and welcomed her with a hug.

"Yay!" The small tiger jumped right into her arms.

"Up we go." With Ellie still in her arms, Sophia stood up again.

"Hey hey." Maya placed a hand on the little one's head and lightly ruffled her hair.

"Maya!" Her smile got even brighter. "Legs better?" It was the first time Ellie saw the two since the cat-girl was suffering from her severe muscle ache.

"Yep! Better than new." She gave her a big thumbs-up.

"Yay!"

"Where did the two of you come from?" Kira waited until Ellie was done before joining them. "The maids didn't inform me at all."

"Uhh... We wanted to surprise the little one?" Both patted Ellie's head while saying so.

"Ehehe." She enjoyed the treatment she was getting.

"Well, that worked out." The queen didn't ask any more questions.

"Anything new in the castle?" While putting Ellie down on the ground, Sophia faced Kira.

"Not much. Menzor's really looking forward to Eluna's arrival in a few days, and he hopes she can help with all the new magic revelations."

"Ah, Anna told us about that already. She actually wants Eluna and the two of us to visit the academy to showcase the new magic to everyone once there's a plan."

"My, that's a lovely idea." The queen liked it. "Would you actually do that?"

"Well, we kind of promised her, I guess?" Sophia couldn't fully follow the conversation with the princess earlier, but that was the resolution she got from it. "I would say that we're going to at least try?"

"That's great! That daughter of mine had a good idea there for once. The magic academy is the perfect place to introduce the new knowledge to the public. Menzor's going to like it, too. He's been working his head on the topic recently but didn't come up with a conclusion yet. Do you mind playing with Ellie for a bit? I'll go and tell him the idea right now."

"Yay!" The little princess only cared about the last part.

"I won't ever mind that." Sophia naturally liked the plan, too.

"Do you want to play anything specific?" Maya also was up for it.

"Ellie wanted to play in the garden! Let's go there!"

"Sure."

"Thanks, you two." Saying so, Kira left her daughter with the couple and went to visit the king.

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Holding the hands of both while walking in the middle of them, the little princess happily guided Maya and Sophia to the garden. There, the trio decided to play hide and seek. A little over an hour passed, and the blonde tiger was currently searching for the little one. Naturally, she had her detection magic altered to not see Ellie while playing.

"A-Ah." Sophia managed to get lost in the garden and ended up near the terrace where the couple had chatted with Anna earlier the day. Unfortunately, the princess was already gone, but her timing was even worse. A certain black-haired girl was currently cleaning up the table. It was Anna's childhood friend, the rare-colored jaguar-girl going by the name of Ari. Their eyes eventually met, and the mood became awkward in an instant. "H-Hello..." After the blonde caught Ari glaring at her earlier, she was unsure what to say.

"A good day to you. Do you need something?" The words she said were just like those of a professional maid, but her voice was ice-cold. The expression she had while looking at the tiger was the exact opposite of friendly, too.

"N-No, just a greeting..."

"Good. As you can see, I'm busy."

"O-Okay... Ah, have you seen Ellie? Anna's little sister?"

"I... I have not." The black-haired girl flinched once after hearing Anna's name but then ignored Sophia and turned around before entering the castle.

"T-Thanks..." She needed a moment. "She definitely... hates me. Why?! I am 87 % sure I never did anything to her!" As she is who she is, Sophia never could be absolutely certain of these kinds of things. "Ah, I need to find Ellie!" Because she was still playing with the little princess, she had to worry about this at a later point.

Once she collected herself again, she went to look for Ellie. While it didn't take long to find find her, Sophia naturally took her time to catch the little princess. She hadn't shown the same mercy to Maya, though. The cat-girl was taken out instantly. The trio played together for another hour while changing out the hunter ever so often. The couple couldn't explain it, but Ellie somehow won most rounds. After the little tiger had finally powered herself out, Kira arrived in the garden and picked her up. She also mentioned how much the king liked the idea of having Eluna and the couple visit the academy in the future. He wants to see the two once Eluna's back in the capital to plan it out.

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The couple finished their little chat with the queen and decided to leave the castle. It was slowly getting late, and after playing with Ellie, not to mention the whole maze exploration, the two had gotten pretty hungry. While walking towards their home, Sophia told Maya about her encounter with the jaguar.

"That's so like you to directly run into Arian... uhh, Ari afterward." She forgot her full name as Anna never used it again while talking about her. "So, she first glared at you and then treated you coldly and was snippy? Well, I guess she's straight, huh?" The cat-girl had only one explanation for all of this. Non-straight girls simply had to fall for her, after all. At least in her eyes and judging by experience so far.

"Please take this seriously."

"I do, though?" Maya only tilted her head. "Okay, you did nothing to her, so I'm pretty miffed that she treats you like that. Kinda makes me want to talk to her."

"Please don't." Sophia didn't like the cat's expression. She was sure this would only make things worse.

"Aww... Maybe it's just some kind of misunderstanding?"

"Well, I am good at those."

"We know." She collectively spoke for everyone.

"Urgh... Still, earlier was the first time I spoke to her... I haven't had the chance to create a misunderstanding yet."

"It's you we're talking about. I'm sure you've somehow found a way."

"I hate it that you're most likely right!" Sophia had nothing to defend herself.

"Ehehe." While the two continued to lightly bicker, they reached their mansion in no time.

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After greeting the wolves, or at least Aura because Fen was busy napping on the sheebskin rug in the living room, Maya started preparing dinner while Sophia stayed with Aura.

"Did you two finish the underground area?" The female wolf faced the tiger, who got comfortable on one of the sofas.

"Maybe?" She didn't know what the end was, after all. "Maya and I ended up under the castle and decided to pay everyone a visit there."

"Yep, that's where we stopped."

"Are there plans to continue?"

"Definitely. Fen wanted to expand it more tomorrow."

"Great. It's a lot of fun, and Maya, too, was enjoying it very much."

"Really?"

"Yep. I told you that Maya's actually super adventurous. She just prioritizes watching over us for the time being."

"I see. Kinda makes me want to play with her, too."

"Ahaha. We have to find someone who can take over that job in our group. You don't know anyone powerful with a serious personality, do you? Well, or at least fast enough to keep up with us while traveling?"

"Hmm... those two things rarely go together. We're all a really easygoing bunch. Fen actually used to be the most serious guy I've ever met with power."

"Ahh..." Sophia noticed that getting a new party member might be an even more hopeless task than she thought it would be.

"I think the demon folk would be our best bet here. Well, most of them aren't the stuck-up type, either, but there are many of them, and almost all of them could boost their speed with magic to keep up with us. We should find someone who could take over Maya's position of babysitting us."

"I want to go to their continent, but I doubt it'll happen anytime soon. There's still so much I want to see and explore here."

"That's fair.... If it's on this continent... Hmm, maybe we should try to find an elven village?"

"Eh?!" The tiger didn't see this turn coming.

"Most of them have a rather serious personality. Some are pretty hard to get along with because they're too stuck-up, but I met lots of friendly ones, too."

"Seriously? Fen briefly mentioned the elves, but if I remember right, he also said that they're incredibly hard to come across. I definitely would like to meet them, though." She got interested in the idea.

"That's true. Many of them migrated with the demons, but I did come across a village or two when searching for Fen on this continent. Totally forgot where that was, though..."

"Urgh..." Sophia got a little hopeful before the last sentence.

"Sorry about that. Well, you want to visit the human capital, don't you?"

"Nope, I really don't. I'll most likely have to, though..." She knew that there was no way she doesn't have to scare the people there eventually. "Wait, why are you asking?"

"It's pretty far, and we have to travel a lot to reach it. If the two of us focus on our detection magic and improve the range even further, we might be able to sniff out an elven village."

"Oh, I like the sound of that!"

The two chatted for a while longer, and Aura explained what kind of reaction elves give in their detection magic, so the tiger knows what to look out for. Afterward, Maya announced that dinner was ready. Waking up Fen, everyone then ate together, and the day soon came to an end.