Chapter 292 – Nice, grounded, and reasonable girl

Sophia and Maya were still chatting with the cat-girl’s parents about how the two fell in love with each other and became a thing. While omitting several details, the tiger also told them a little of her past and how it was all but fun. As the two were somewhat shaken by that, including how she doesn’t seem to have any family anymore, they decided to have a bit of a break to process all of this. Afterward, to lighten the mood a little, they changed the topic to their travels leading to their arrival in the capital.

“Okay, let’s put all of that aside for the time being…” Theo smiled at everyone as he felt the need to change the topic while focusing his attention on his daughter. “I think it’s a bit of a miracle that we all ended up here, isn’t it? What happened between your leaving and our meeting here again? What kind of places did you visit?”

“Uhh…” The duo just scratched their heads. As their journey to the capital had been a little all over the place, explaining their entire trip was a little complicated. Even so, they eventually managed to give them a rough runup.

“Wait a moment…” The eyes of Maya’s father grew wide. “That huge crater… And the permanently frozen lake that has become a major tourist attraction… Your group did all that?”

“Sophia did all that.” The cat-girl just looked at her tiger. She didn't want to take any responsibility for any of this.

“Urgh…” The girl in question just looked down in response. “I get a little overexcited at times…”

“I loved that lake!” Eve suddenly sounded cheerful. “It looked amazing!”

“R-Really…?” Sophia wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

“Absolutely!” Her smile got bigger. “It was a little crowded because hundreds of people from all over the place visit it at the same, but it’s an impressive sight nonetheless!”

“M-Maya, now that we met your parents here, there’s no need to ever go back that way, right…?”

“Ahaha…”

“Ehh?” Eve didn’t seem to like that idea. “But I want to brag to everyone about how amazing my daughter's girlfriend is!"

“T-That would be super embarrassing, though…” The tiger started blushing harder just thinking about it. “I would rather not be the center of attention in those cases…”

“Really?” Theo tilted his head. “From what I’ve seen from you so far, I would’ve guessed that you love getting as much attention as possible.”

“Urgh…” The blonde took a lot of damage from that remark. “I-It’s not on purpose… I simply act before thinking about the consequences first…”

"You say that a lot, but…" Maya then looked right at her. "By now, I'm quite convinced that you actually enjoy it a lot when you’re the talk of everyone.”

“…” She paused for a moment. “S-Shut up.” Sophia had a hard time refuting it. Though she didn’t want to admit it, there obviously was some truth to it.

“Everyone I met really loved the lake, though.” Eve smiled at the tiger. “I’m sure you’d be praised a lot!”

“T-That is great, but… I’m a little concerned about the other thing, the huge crater I created… I doubt that’s just as well-liked.”

“Actually,” Theo took over. “I spoke with some of the guys I met there, and they apparently found some rare minerals and even a variety of magic ores in the lower levels of the crater. There’s a high chance the whole place will soon turn into a full-fledged mining town. The entire area there will prosper like nothing else.”

“Seriously?!”

“That’s what I heard, yes.”

“W-Wow…”

“I wonder if there’s a place you visited where you haven’t changed to lives of everyone around you.”

“Urgh…” Sophia took even more damage. “I-I might really have a talent for that…”

“Scratch that might.” Maya just shook her head.

“I think I liked you better when your mother was having the upper hand on you, which caused you to be less sassy.”

“Oh, we can continue with that!” Eve started smiling again. “There are still lots of ways to make her embarrassed!”

“H-How about no?!” She didn’t like the idea.

“That sounds like fun!” The tiger did, though.

“I think I’m going to borrow your girlfriend for a little while.” Eve faced her daughter with a big smile.

“E-Eh?!” She liked that even less.

“H-Huh?!” Sophia, too, didn’t know how to feel about that specific plan.

“You don’t want to spend time with me…?” Maya’s mother then changed her attention to the blonde.

“T-That’s not what I meant!” She started panicking. “Just thinking about being alone with my girlfriend's mother makes me nervous…"

“Alright!” Clapping her hands once, Eve then stood up with a smile. “Do you like to cook? Let’s have a nice long chat while we prepare something for everyone!”

“Uhh…” The blonde’s expression got even more awkward. “I, well… I like to cook in one way or another, but I’m still pretty hopeless at it… I used to be a complete catastrophe, but as I didn’t want Maya to do all the work on her own, I started learning it bit by bit from her to help out, but… I have gotten a lot better, but everything besides the basics is still a bit hard for me…”

“My, aren’t you the sweetest girl there is?” She liked her motivation to get better at cooking a lot.

“T-Thanks… Well, it would’ve been even better to have had some skills that went a little further than bare survival in the first place… That was all that mattered to me before meeting Maya, after all.”

“…” Eve wasn’t sure what to reply to that. She had no idea that Sophia had no intention to make it sound like it, but it felt like a pretty heavy confession of her past life to her. “H-How about baking…?”

“I love sweets!” Her reply didn’t quite match the question. “I baked some cookies with Ari, the jaguar that was with me yesterday, a little while ago, and that was a ton of fun! I’m good at coming up with stuff, but I need some help with the execution… I get carried away rather easily, and following instructions isn't exactly my specialty."

“Those cookies you came up with were amazing, though!” Maya had to compliment her for it. “I think those were easily the best cookies I ever had!”

“Oho? Even better than mine?” Eve faced her daughter. “Mom’s quite proud of her own cookie recipe, though.”

“Absolutely!”

"A-Ah.” Sophia had a bad feeling about this.

“Interesting. Okay, how about you teach me how to bake cookies properly?” She changed her attention to the tiger again.

“E-Eh?!” Her eyes grew wide. “I-I just said that I need help for that… I have great ideas to improve existing recipes, but my execution of things is flawed at the very best!”

“Well, we can use my recipe as the basis. I don’t know if that’s enough because my daughter apparently never liked them, but I guess they should improve a lot if we add your twist to them.”

“I-I never said that!” Maya sounded a little flustered. “It’s just that the idea Sophia came up with for cookies is amazing! I love your cookies, too!”

“I-If I try to teach you my style of cookies… Can I get a lesson on how to get such reactions out of Maya while we’re at it in return…?”

“Absolutely~.” Eve’s voice sounded really cheerful. "I'll teach you everything you have to know to make her flustered.” She was smiling broadly. “And then some more.”

“I look forward to it!”

“C-Can I veto this…?”

“Nope!” Sophia and Eve were bonding fast.

“D-Dad, do something about this...” She only panicked even more.

“Yeah, sure…” Theo sounded slightly defeated. “Because the girls in our family are the type that easily back down… Sophia, can you bring some fresh wind into the family when it comes to that…?”

“Pfft!” Maya didn’t even try to hold back her laughter.

“H-Hey…” The blonde didn't like this completely uncalled-for reaction of hers.

“Should I tell them just how obstinate you can be?”

“E-Eve, the kitchen’s that way!” Sophia didn’t want her to tell them.

“I’m kinda interested in that now, though.”

"T-There's enough time for that later…" She was hoping that the topic would be forgotten if some time passed.

“That’s true. Okay, let’s start with the cookies. Just the two of us. There’s lots I want to ask you in private, as well.”

“Ohh… So, that’s what people mean when they say they’re trapped between a rock and a hard place…” The tiger looked slightly defeated. “W-Well, that aside… I still want to do it because getting closer to Maya’s parents is something I definitely want! No matter how embarrassing it might get…”

“You are such a good girl!” Eve’s smile got incredibly soft while she looked at Sophia. “Maya, learn a thing or seven from her!”

Afterward, the duo left the living room together to bake some cookies in the kitchen together while also chatting a lot.

“I have a bad feeling about this…” Maya, who stayed behind with her father, wasn’t the biggest fan of the situation.

“Seriously, how did you manage to get such a nice, grounded, and reasonable girl? You, out of everyone…?” Theo was just staring at her.

"…" She needed a moment to process those words. "You… You do remember that Sophia, just a few minutes ago, admitted that she permanently froze up an entire lake and blew up a plain so hard that some guys found rare minerals in it…?” After that, Maya decided that she didn't want to talk to her father for a while.