Chapter 138 – The voice of reason

Sophia confronted Ari, the jaguar-girl with black hair, because she wanted to find out why she hated her. As it turned out, it was all just a big misunderstanding because she thought the blonde was the one who wanted to marry Anna, but in the end, she simply threw her away after being done playing around with the princess. Once everything had been cleared up, the mood between the two became much more relaxed

"Ah, I'm glad to see that Maya's properly holding back." Sophia looked at the two's training session with a relieved expression.

"Eh?!" Ari didn't share the sentiment and pointed at the cat-girl, who had just drenched the princess from head to toe with a bathtub worth of water magic. "That's what you call holding back?"

"Yep. It's not like she drowned her, right? It was also a pretty small amount of water."

"You work on an entirely different scale, don't you?" The jaguar didn't need long to figure her out.

"Ahaha. Again, it's nice to meet you. My name's Sophia."

"I'll be honest... Most of the time, when Anna mentioned anything about the two of you, I didn't listen because, well... you know," She awkwardly looked away for a moment before continuing. "Just how powerful is the magic of your cat? I'm not that good at sensing magic power, but even I noticed how much of an exception she is. You are, too, while we're at it."

"Well, Maya is the fourth most powerful individual in the capital right now." Only the two wolves and Sophia herself were above her. "She can use... uh, the four base ones and the light category, I think...? Yeah, she can use at least five categories or elements at the moment."

"..." Ari only stared at her. "It was a serious question, you know?"

"And I gave a serious answer?" She looked back at her. "The princess can use three elements. Why shouldn't my Maya be able to use five?" There was a hint of boasting in her voice.

"And Anna's known all over the capital for using two... wait a moment, did you say three just now? She can only use air and earth, though."

"And fire."

"No?"

"I saw her using it, though. Maya taught it to her, and Anna's definitely able to use the 'Fireball' magic or however you'd call it with activation magic."

"R-Really...?"

"Also, why do you think Maya's been bullying her with water magic for a while already?"

"Because she's enjoying it?" Ari glanced at the cat-girl. "That's what her expression's saying, at least."

"Uhh..." Sophia stopped for a moment. "N-No, that's not her... main motivation." She couldn't really deny it. "Maya's trying to, let's say, unlock the fourth element for the princess."

"Are you serious right now?" The jaguar couldn't believe it. "Anna never told me about any of this..."

"Of cours- Ah." She froze up. "Could it be that the king told her to keep it a secret for the time being? Well, I don't care about that. I'm not trying to, after all."

"What is going on?" Ari couldn't follow her.

"Err, how much do you know about magic?"

"I'm pretty confident about my knowledge. I'm amongst the top students in the academy."

"Well, everything you know is wrong." The blonde had no intention to beat around the bush.

"W-What?!" This naturally shocked her.

"Only using like one element is an artificial limitation that doesn't actually exist. Magic is magic. Grouping it into elements only helps with visualization. It's all a matter of imagination, after all. People are lazy by nature and focus on the one element they're good at and be done with it." Sophia remembered Fen's explanation about why you would limit yourself.

"T-That can't be true..."

"What sort of magic can you use, Ari? Your power seems to be at least on par with the princess."

"Yes... I have large reserves, but I can only use water magic. I don't really mind, though, because that's the most helpful type for maid-related work. You know, for cleaning and stuff."

"Ah." The tiger looked at her. "And there's your problem."

"What do you mean?"

"Have you ever tried other magic?"

"When Anna somehow managed to learn earth, I gave it a try, too, but quickly gave up again because it didn't seem to work, and I liked water more, anyway."

"See? You're having an easy time imagining water magic because it's useful for you. So, why bother about different things, right? Common belief told you it's normal, and so you never bothered putting any real effort into branching out, didn't you?"

"..." As she was spot on, Ari couldn't defend herself.

"Anna could use two elements even before meeting Maya, and the two of you have the same amount of power. Haven't you ever questioned yourself why?"

"Uhh." She had no answer.

"Personally, I think fire magic for cooking or air for cleaning like dusting off things would be pretty useful for a maid, too, wouldn't it?"

"It would…"

"Yet, you never tried to put some actual work into it?"

"N-No..." The jaguar shook her head. "I, more or less, ended up accepting what's written down in the books. Magic is an everyday occurrence. For most, including me, it just exists, and you don't put much thought into it. Anna's always been a bit of an odd one, so I really never did question it..."

"That's the problem everyone seems to be having. If you can use magic at all, there's no reason to only use a part of it."

"That goes against everything I've ever learned about magic... Wait, if that's true, are you okay with talking about it so lightly?"

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

"It's a very grand revelation, which sounds like it should be handled with the utmost care. Telling this to someone you barely know doesn't seem like the best idea."

"Why? I don't really care. If anything, it should spread so more people come to know it."

"That's a very noble way of thinking. Even so, it feels like it could make your life needlessly complicated if you blurt out such things like it's nothing."

"A-Ah." The tiger-girl froze up, and she took a lot of damage from this. "I often get too excited and or don't care enough to filter my words..."

"Wow, wouldn't that lead to inconvenient situations all the time? It would definitely tire me out to stumble from one incident to another."

"Urgh..." Sophia's health plummeted to critical levels. "A-Anyway, that's why Maya's teaching the princess right now. To prove that the magic elements are only guidelines and no hard limitations."

"Impressive... Oh, is that why Anna seemed so bored whenever we're getting taught magic in the academy lately?"

"Can you blame her?"

"No, not really." Ari saw her point. "What about you, then? If the cat-girl's already so proficient at magic?"

"Want to get taught, too?"

"I am a little interested now..."

"I already struggle a lot while teaching Maya. She's a much better teacher. I will ask her later to include you in the training."

"Thank you... So, if Maya learned from you, then-."

"Well," As Sophia was more a girl of actions rather than words, she opened her palm and demonstrated a miniature magic of every category there is. Except for the dark-related one because that often ends in a catastrophe.

"Unbelievable." Ari's eyes grew wide.

"Ehehe."

"Still..." She then looked at the tiger. "Do you mind if I give you another little tip?"

"Hmm?"

"Just say you're good at magic. No need to make such a grand demonstration that could make some people lose their minds. You seem to be pretty easy going and that's a lovely trait to have, but I think it would make your life a whole lot easier if you hold back a little."

"A-Ari?" Her expression suddenly changed.

"Yes?"

"How good are you at running around?" Sophia wanted to keep her. It seemed like the jaguar-girl was the voice of reason her group needs.

"Where does that come from?" She was naturally confused. "Well, my stamina's pretty good, but I'm not overly fast."

"Argh, too bad." The blonde's dreams were shattered in an instant.

"Why are you asking?"

"Well, I know that I'm a little stupid when it comes to these kinds of things. Except maybe Maya at times, the others in my group are also like me. It would be amazing to have someone with an actual voice of reason to watch out what I'm doing during our travels."

"Ahaha, even putting my running aside, I have no plans to leave the capital for the time being ... or Anna. So, sorry, I can't go with you." Ari earnestly turned her down. "Not to mention that I'm still attending the academy for another half a year."

"If Anna's the problem, I would totally take the princess with us, too. Not sure how the king would feel about that, though."

"You could actually have a chance with that. She's been bugging his Majesty ever since her older brother left to take a look at the country to do the same. Anna can be pretty good at annoying people, so he most likely will cave in soon."

"That's true..." Sophia could only agree to Ari's assessment of the princess. "Well, unfortunately, we need someone fast to accompany us because we travel long distances in a short amount of time."

"Yeah, neither of us would be useful there." The jaguar shook her head. "Anna's the exact opposite of me. She's actually quite sporty, but she's all sprint, no endurance. She runs out of steam after like a single kilometer, so she mostly does exercise that's based on short and bursty types of action. It always makes for an amusing picture if we do any sorts of sports together."

"Heh, I can imagine that. Too bad... I guess I have to find an elf to take over the job of watching over me, after all..."

"Sophia."

"Yes?"

"Too much information." Naturally, Ari was missing the whole picture, and it looked like she didn't want to know, either, but it was easy to discern that the tiger had some sort of outrageous plan again.

"Y-Yes." She hung her head.

After the topic was over, the duo continued to watch the other two girls, who were still training their magic in the distance, while chatting some more.