Chapter 163 – A special visitor

The group was still busy turning the crater into a lake and teasing Sophia with her growing love to eat meat ever since becoming a tiger. Once the sun had set, and it was time for dinner, something unexpected happened, though. They were about to start eating when an unexpected visitor suddenly showed up.

"Looks delicious~." Someone had appeared behind Sophia and lightly glanced at their food.

"Ohhh~." The wolves looked at the male human with the slightly unkempt look to him with a surprised expression.

"Hmm...?" Sophia finally turned around, and their eyes met. "E-Eh...?"

"Long time no see, huh?" He smiled at her.

"Feels like an eternity, yeah. It was just a couple of weeks ago, though, wasn't it?"

"Uhh..." Maya looked extremely confused. "Do you know this sloppy-looking human? Sophia... Who is this weird guy? He looks extremely unreliable and sketchy, dangerous, even! I doubt he's anyone that should be around you!"

"Pfft!" Fen, Aura, and especially Sophia were trying their best to hold their laughter in. The three were failing hard, though.

"What...? She glanced at the group.

"Wow, what a rude cat. Is she really the one, Sophia?"

"Sure is."

"You know me...?" Maya stared at the visitor.

"Everything there is to know~."

"Creepy!" She looked grossed out. "S-Sophia, this guy is bad news! I think he's a stalker!"

"Ha... I-I know he is one." The tiger couldn't stop smiling.

"S-Seriously?! People always say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but there always are exceptions, huh? He's as bad, if not worse, as he looks, huh?! What a creep!"

"Ahaha!" The wolves couldn't hold it in anymore. "You're the best, Maya."

"P-Perfect... I love you even more now..." Sophia felt the same.

"Huh?" She didn't get their reaction. "I don't approve of you meeting him, Sophia! Who is he, anyway?!"

"This is going to be great~." Fen had a great time.

"I really don't think you want to know now, Maya..." She could already see what was about to happen.

"I absolutely do!"

"Fine. Well, I'm with Fenny, this is going to be a lot of fun! Well, Maya, though he really is a creep, he's also very important to me. He did a lot of great things to, and for me."

"Aww." The creep was touched.

"He also did a lot of messed-up stuff, too, though."

"A-Ah." He turned silent again.

"Anyway," The tiger ignored him. "Maya, this is Canir, or the overseer. Canir, Maya, but you know her already."

"Sure do. Nice to meet you in person, though." The overseer lightly greeted the already petrified cat.

"E-Eh?" It was all she could get out.

"Fen, Aura, nice to see you again, too."

"Absolutely." Fen looked at him. "It's been way too long. I missed having a drink with you every now and then."

"Sorry, I was pretty, let's say... busy."

"It's okay." He wasn't angry.

"What brings you here?" The female wolf was also surprised.

"Sophia asked me to visit everyone the last time we met, and I thought, why not? It could be fun, after all."

"Really?" The blonde was surprised it happened so soon.

"Partially." Canir's voice suddenly turned much more serious. "There are some things we need to talk about later."

"I don't like the sound of that." Sophia had a bad feeling. The wolves also looked concerned after hearing this. Maya was still the same, though. Completely petrified, that is.

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As the group was about to eat, though, Canir decided to join them for the time being and was almost punched into a different dimension by Sophia when he wanted to steal her grilled yackalope. He also loudly made a note not to get between a tiger and her meat again, which caused him to almost be punched again. Him trying to do a few wordplays and innuendos with the word meat and how much Sophia's into it, didn't help his case, either.

"E-Err..." Maya had finished restarting after a while and was currently hiding behind the big body of Fen. "l-l... I'm so very deeply sh-sorry about what I said!" She bit her tongue in the middle of her sentence.

"Your cat sure is adorable." The overseer faced Sophia instead.

"The cutest!" She sounded very proud. "Maya, there's no need to hide yourself, you know?" The tiger was trying not to laugh again.

"O-Of course there is! I deeply offended the highest g-god of this world!"

"I'm the overseer, not a god. People of this word chose to worship me on their own for some weird reason."

"Which effectively makes you, their god. Just give it up already." Fen retorted to his claim.

"Urgh..." Canir hung his head. "I just wanted to have some entertainment..."

"Don't worry," Sophia put a hand on his shoulder and showed him a great smile. "I don't worship you~."

"Me, neither." The wolves felt the same.

"I gave this stupid tiger way too much sass when bringing her here..."

"I would actually like to get some more of it!" She disagreed. "I got bullied a lot today!"

"Good." His expression brightened up again.

"Hey!" Sophia didn't like that reaction.

"Hehe." The wolves and Canir had a good chuckle.

"Idiots..." The blonde hadn't.

"H-How... How can you all talk with him so c-casually?!" Maya was still hiding behind the wolf with her tail all puffed-up because she couldn't deal with the situation. "I-I don't worship anyone, either... b-but he's still the Canir, you know?!"

"So...?" Sophia, Fen, and Aura only tilled their heads. For extra effect, it was even in the same direction and angle.

"Y-You!"

"You don't have to worry about this, my dear cat." He looked straight at her. "I enjoy this kind of unhinged conversation much more. Being all stiff is super tiring. I actually went as far as taking this into consideration when boosting Sophia to make sure she's casual with me. I, uhh... might've overdone it a bit, though..."

"One of the things I don't mind you having overdone~."

"I can see that."

"Ehehe." Sophia let out a chuckle before facing Maya. "See? You're currently the only one bothering the g-great Canir because you're treating him as something special." She was unable to say that with a serious face.

"A-Ah!" She froze up again.

"Why do you want to have your sass boosted again...?" The overseer really couldn't see the need.

"You can never have enough of that~."

"B-But even so... I-I still heavily insulted you earlier..." Maya couldn't get over it so quickly.

"You only said the truth, though?" Sophia didn't see the problem.

"Yep, I'm definitely taking some sass away from you, blondie."

"A-Ah..."

"You and the idiot are quite similar." He looked at the cat-girl again. "She had almost the same reactions when we first met. I don't really mind. I mean, I do look a bit like a slob. It's much more comfortable, after all." While saying so, he suddenly transformed into his older, more dignified persona, who was also wearing a fancy suit. You can't really relax like this, can you?" Afterward, Canir immediately transformed back.

"Uhh..." Maya had seen Sophia transforming into a different person before, but it took her a lot of effort. It seemingly being as easy as breathing for Canir was something else. "I-I see... S-Still, I'm sorry. I shouldn't insult someone without knowing them..."

"He is a creepy stalker, though?" The tiger still didn't see a problem.

"Everyone needs a hobby." He didn't correct her.

"Then stop making my Maya apologize!"

"I never did, though?!" He found her to be unreasonable. "She's the one who can't calm down."

"True enough." The blonde couldn't say anything here. "Maya, stop that."

"E-Easier said than done!" The cat-girl got loud. She needed a few minutes to calm herself and finally left her hiding place behind Fen. "Err... C-Canir, thank you very much for saving Sophia's life in her old world and bringing her here... I'm really grateful and happy that I was able to meet her."

"The pleasure's all mine. Watching her adventures here is incredibly entertaining."

"And that's why you're a creepy slacker." The tiger couldn't stay still.

"H-How much of Sophia's... a-adventures are you watching...?" Maya's face suddenly turned red.

"Don't worry, my dear cat, any intimate scenes, especially those including you, are of no interest for me."

"G-Good..." Her face still got redder.

"I do catch a lot of your flirting, though. You two are constantly at it, after all."

"I'm sorry about that..." She hung her head.

"It's alright. I'm quite happy to see someone getting along with Sophia this well."

"Wait, why am I apologizing!?" Maya noticed that she wasn't at fault here.

"That idiot made me apologize for the same reason. It's one of his creepy talents." The tiger remembered her last time visiting him, where exactly the same happened.

"Hey, that's just mean." Canir started pouting. "Both of you did that on your own. I just chose to graciously accept them~."

"Do you think that's any better?" Sophia stared at him with a disapproving expression.

"Absolutely."

"Why am I not surprised...?" The blonde gave up with a sigh.

"You haven't changed at all, huh?" Fen addressed him.

"Why would I?"

"Fair point."

"You've softened up quite a bit, though, my dear Fenny~."

"A-Ah..." He turned his head away. "Stupid Sophia..."

"What did I do this time?!"

"A-Anyway," The softie wanted to change the topic. "You mentioned that there are some things you need to talk about earlier, Canir. What is this about?"

"Why would you remember him about that?!" The tiger's bad feeling was back.

"Oh, right, I actually almost forgot about that... I came to scold the two of you a bit." He looked at Fen and Sophia.

"Eh? What did I do?!" The blonde looked confused. She was asking the same question a lot lately.

"Err..." Maya grabbed her head and turned it towards the gigantic crater they were currently turning into a lake.

"A-Ah, right..."

"Yes, it's about how that little hole came to existence, or rather... how the two of you almost erased, at least, this whole continent."

"H-Huh?!" The chaos duo in question was beyond shocked by his claim, and everyone went silent for a while.