Chapter 400 – The last big secret [END]

Chapter 400 – The last big secret [END]

A week had passed since the sisters returned to their old world to meet up with their parents and tell them about everything that was happening lately, including the new world. The two had been invited to visit and maybe even stay, as well, but they naturally had to think about the possibility for a while first.

Back home, the blonde tiger and her little dog sister had a good time with their girlfriends and regular friends while taking it easy. Having come clean about everything with their parents, Sophia started thinking more and more about something else.

“Steph, Chloe, how would you feel about telling Ari and Anna that we’re from a different world?” The four, Maya included, were relaxing in the mansion’s living room together when the tiger suddenly addressed the other two otherworldler.

“Huh?” Maya, the native girl, was the first to react. "I thought you wanted to keep that a secret at all costs? Because it could turn out quite complicated if they find out that you haven’t been a tiger the entire time.”

“I don’t think I want and or need to address the part where I had been a human for a while in this world. I very much would be okay with them misunderstanding that I got a similar treatment as Chloe did... I think I want them to know about the other world thing in general. Especially now that we’re increasingly gathering more and more stuff here...” She looked around in the living room while focusing on the TV and various similar things they always hid up until now when the royal couple came to visit.

“Ah, I see.” The cat-girl nodded. “That might be an adequate middle ground.”

“So, what do you think?” Sophia looked at the other two again.

“Totally fine with me!” Steph saw no issues. “I didn’t understand why you’re keeping it a secret, anyway! It only made your life more complicated, after all.”

“I’m also fine with it.” Chloe also agreed. “I’m already the daughter of an overseer, so this is actually not that much of a big deal anymore, I guess.”

“Your protagonist power is way too high...” The blonde let out a small sigh.

“You’re the last one I want to hear that from!” Everyone had the same reaction.

"A-Ahaha...”

“Is there anything else you don’t want to tell them?” The pink fox wanted to make sure that nothing unnecessary gets mentioned.

“I don’t think I want to go into detail in general...” Sophia tilted her head. “I want to tell them about the general thing, like that I used to live in a different world, and that’s how I lost my family and stuff. Maybe also that my personality was a little different before, which is why I sometimes seem a little weird. My biggest motivation for telling them is that I don't want to think about what to say first when getting close to that territory. Well, they're also very good friends of mine, so I don’t want to keep lying to them. As we all know, nothing good will ever come out of that...”

“True.” Maya, Chloe, and Steph heartily agreed. They all had some level of experience with that, after all.

“If I give them a rough picture about our, well... origin, I think that’s enough for my consciousness to be happy, and it’s enough information for them to understand us better, too. A lot of some of the stuff we all went through is truly private, and there's no need to mention all that, in my opinion.

“Fair enough.” The others understood her reasoning.

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Once they had decided on a course of action, the girls took the portal to Anna’s room in the castle. There, noticing that no one was in there, the four went to the place Sophia had detected them with her magic.

“So... phia!” When the group approached the entrance hall, where Sophia had detected them, Ellie immediately ran up to her favorite blonde girl.

“Ellie~!" The blonde in question was also happy to see her favorite tiger and happily caught the little one who had jumped into her arms. “It has been a while, huh?”

“Too long!” The little princess didn’t sound too happy about it. “Look!” She then pointed at Mira, who had also been there, together with Kira, Ari, and Anna. “It’s the god-ess of fluff!”

“Ahaha...” Said goddess of fluff scratched her cheek.

“She really is, huh?” The blonde had to agree. “She’s the overseer of fluff, though, you know? It’s different.”

“Really?” Ellie tilted her head. “Mira said she liked it, though...?” She looked honestly confused.

“Mhm?” Sophia looked at the many-tailed overseer.

“Look, if Ellie calls me a goddess of something, I am one.” Even Mira wasn’t immune to the bundle of adorableness. “There are exceptions to everything, after all.”

“Okay, I can get behind that.” The blonde couldn’t blame her. “By the way, what is everyone doing here? The grouping is a little unusual, I’d say.”

“Anna and I also just got here after we had a snack, so I'm not really sure, either," Ari replied her first.

“I had a small meeting with the king,” Mira continued. “And on the way out, Kira and the fluff-loving princess ran into me.”

“Ellie can sense fluff!” The little girl looked incredibly proud.

“What a skill!” Sophia sounded quite envious. “Wait, can you use magic?”

“Mmmh?” She only tilted her head in return.

“Let’s see... Come here for a moment~.” Saying so, the teal fox kneeled down and opened her arms while she looked at the little princess.

“Yay!” Liking that idea a lot, Ellie wasted no time and directly jumped at the overseer. At the very last moment, she made a slight course correction and dove right into Mira's many tails instead. "S-So fluffy!" She seemed to be in heaven.

“E-Ellie!” Kira couldn’t believe her daughter. “I’m very sorry about that...”

“SO ENVIOUS!” The sisters had the same reaction.

“...” Maya and Chloe just looked at them.

“Ahaha, it’s fine.” The overseer smiled at the queen. “Alright, let’s have a look...” Saying so, she put a hand on Ellie’s head, who was busy with her tails. “6 months, 17 days, 14 hours, 43 minutes, and 3 seconds. Not bad. She’s very loved by magic, as well.”

“Eh...?” Everyone looked extremely confused.

“That’s when her magic will awaken.”

“S-Seriously?!” Kira got loud. “Wait, how would you know... Ah, scratch that...” She remembered that she was talking with the overseer of magic.

“Really? That’s going to be sooo much fun!” Sophia liked the sound of that. “I’m going to teach you so many fun magic things when that happens, Ellie!”

“Yay!” The little princess smiled at her. “Ellie doesn’t really understand, but Ellie can’t wait!”

“Hehe~.” She smiled back at her. "Good timing. It's long after I finish my hibernation!”

“You aren’t going to hibernate!” Steph, Chloe, and Maya had the same reaction.

“But I want to!” Sophia started pouting. “It has gotten way too cold lately!”

“Ellie thinks so, too!” She felt the same. “What’s hypernation...?”

“Very roughly speaking, you eat a whole lot when it starts getting cold, so much that your belly gets all round because you’re going to sleep for as long as winter lasts, and the food needs to last very long. Once you wake up again, the cold is gone!”

“ELLIE WANTS TO HYPERNAP, TOO!” She was a big fan of that idea.

“Oh, I like that new name! Much more fitting, hypernap!”

“Did you really have to tell her about that...?” Kira had some mixed feelings about it.

“Every bit of knowledge is good knowledge!”

"Are you also going to teach her the bit of knowledge about where feline races do not hibernate?” Maya slowly shook her head while looking at her tiger.

"She's still small. You can't overload her brain with too many details!"

“Haa...” More than just one person in the room reacted with a prolonged sigh.

“Hehe~.” Sophia liked their reaction. “Anyway, Ari, Anna, do you have some time for me?” She changed her attention to the couple. "Like an hour or two. Or maybe seven.”

“No.” The jaguar’s reply was instantaneous. “Unfortunately, I’m quite busy today.”

“What are you talking about?” Anna looked at her. “We’ve been lazing around all day already and planned to continue just like that after our snack.”

“Shhh!” She put a finger on her lips to silence the princess. “Whenever Sophia starts a conversation like that, nothing good ever comes out of it! Only headaches!”

“You know me so well~.” The blonde was touched. “True, though.”

“I knew it!” Ari raised her voice. “Well, after everything that happened with and around you the last few weeks, there’s at least no way you can come up with something even more ridiculous, so I guess I can manage...” She gave up.

“Aha... Ahahaha... Ahahahaha...” Maya could only react with a broken laugh.

“Alright, I’m in my room if anyone needs me!” The black-haired girl decided she didn't want to deal with that.

“Nice try, my dear.” Sophia grabbed her shoulder when she actually tried to pass her to leave for her room.

“L-Let me go! I don’t want another headache!”

"Don't worry. I'll use as much healing magic on you as you want later on~."

“That’s not the issue and or point!”

“Give it up.” Maya showed the jaguar a wry smile. “We both know that struggling only motivates those tigers even more...”

“True.” Anna, Sophia, and Kira nodded.

“Haa..." Ari's shoulder slouched down. "I hate you..."

“I love you, too~.” The blonde’s mood was excellent.

“By the way, what’s all this about?” Kira started to get interested in the topic.

“Only for core members of the traveling group~.”

“Aww...”

“Anyway, let’s go!” Highly motivated to get over with it, Sophia grabbed Ari’s hand, as she still seemed ready to run away at any moment, and dragged her out of the entrance hall while Maya, Steph, Chloe, and Anna followed after them.

“I knew I could count on you!” Anna smiled at her. “Tigers have to hold together!”

“Exactly!”

"I hate you." Ari and Maya also sounded way more serious than they should be when looking at their partners. "Tigers are insufferable."

“It’s not like you’ve become any less useless lately, my dear.” Steph looked at the cat with an equally disapproving expression.

"A-Ah...” She simply turned her head away.

"Ari's the same!" The princess raised her voice again. "In fact, I think she got even lazier than I did!"

“Now that’s just going too far!” The jaguar didn’t like that. "You've been much worse! I must admit that I'm not that much more enthusiastic about the weather, though...”

“You’re all insufferable...” The cold-loving dog and pink fox had enough of every cat in the room.

"A-Ah..." None of them could say anything against this duo.

“This group sure is fun~.” Mira was having a great time, though.

“Anyway,” Sophia, the voice of reason, tried to get the group, who loves to go on long tangents, back to the topic. "Maya is right in saying that you need preparation to visit our old world. It's not a place to visit on a whim... That said, we have many gadgets to show from that world in our mansion. We could go and all play with them together.”

“Their toys are the best!” The cat-girl sounded excited. "I'm still having trouble getting out of bed the day after because my legs are still numb hours later! That world is in a league of its own when it comes to being horny and perverted!”

“...” Anna paused for a moment. “Wait... you want us all to play with sex toys...? Together...? As in... together? All at once...?” Her face turned red. “I-I’m not sure if I’m ready for that just yet...”

“J-Just what are you imagining?!” Ari glared at her.

“Probably the same as you do~.” Maya’s expression turned into a smirk. “Your cheeks are even redder than hers.

"A-Ah.”

"This group is amazing~." Steph loved her friends.

“Oi!” Chloe also started glaring at her partner.

“You do know that your face is the reddest out of everyone here, right...?” The cat-girl already found her next target to tease.

"A-Ah.”

“Girls...” The blonde let out a small sigh. “I am aware that everyone in our group is pretty horny all day long, myself maybe even included at times, and we are quite tight and everything, but... Could we stop lusting after each other for like five minutes? I was talking about actual games and stuff, you know? Suited for all ages.”

“...” Everyone went silent while stealing some glances at each other.

Afterward, once the girls calmed down again, Sophia decided to bring everyone to the mansion to show the royal couple the stuff she had brought over from the different world.

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“Woah, what is all this?!”

“So many things I’ve never seen before!” Entering the living room, Anna and even Ari quickly became quite excited.

"Welcome back~." Noticing the group, Aura lazily greeted them. With Fen next to her and Fey to the side, they looked rather comfortable on the sheepskin rug in front of the running and lightly crackling fireplace.

“Fey~.” Looking at her favorite full, Mira smiled at the fox.

“Good to see you back.”

“I’m so envious that Fennyfenny is actually allowed to hibernate...” Sophia was staring at the wolf, who hadn’t said a single word yet because he was fast asleep.

“Ahaha, there really isn’t much missing for that.” Aura let out a small chuckle before facing her favorite tiger. “Why are these two here? I thought you always wanted to hide the otherworld stuff when they’re here.”

“Ahh...” She scratched her cheek. “We just told them about Steph, Chloe, and me having lived in a different world before, so it’s okay now.”

“Ohh, I see!” She nodded. “That makes it much easier when we’re traveling together! I could already see the day when someone says something that made it obvious, anyway."

“Yeah, that was one of the main reasons... That, and not wanting to have any big secrets in our group so that we can be at ease around each other."

“That’s nice!” The female wolf liked her reasoning.

“Sophia! Sophia!” Sounding extremely excited, Anna grabbed her fellow tiger’s hands and looked at her with sparkling eyes.

“How can I be of help?” The blonde smiled at her.

“W-What is all that shiny stuff here?!” She gestured around in the living room. “So many things! Are those from that other world? WHAT IS THAT HUGE BLACK AND MIRROR-LIKE THING?!”

"Calm down a little, and I might tell you..." Sophia was a little overwhelmed by the overly excited huge, and striped puppy.

“IMPOSSIBLE!”

“Ahh...” She let out a small sigh. “Well, it’s hard to be upset at you... You’re quite cute when you’re excited.”

“She definitely is.” Ari agreed. “No matter how much of a headache it can be.”

“So?! Tell me!” The princess didn’t care about their exchange.

“Yeah, it’s all stuff we brought with us from the other world a little while ago when we went there. Do you want a little presentation?”

“YES!” She indeed did.

“How about we all watch a movie together?”

“I love that idea!” Anna got even more excited. “What’s a moviee?!”

“Ari...” Looking slightly tired already, the blonde glanced at the jaguar. “Could you calm her down a little...? I’m already getting exhausted.”

“I hate you.” Ari got a little upset because Sophia had absolutely no right to complain about that. Especially not to her. "Also, no, you... You, as a fellow permanently overexcited tiger, you know that this is an impossible task."

“Fair... Well, let’s just get started.” Sophia didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of leaning more into it. Afterward, she started rummaging through all the movies they had gotten to find a suitable one.

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Funnily enough, the blonde found the perfect movie for the situation. It was a fantasy one featuring many non-human races, including elves and a similar-looking beastfolk. It made everything much easier for the time being because it wasn’t that off compared to their current world.

And so, roughly an hour later, as Anna had gotten way too hyper after the TV got turned on, not that Ari and Fey weren’t quite fascinated, as well, even Mira was very interested, they finally managed to start the movie while Sophia continued to briefly explain things whenever a question came up. Luckily, back when Canir secretly blessed the wolves with the language of the other world, he had done the same with Anna and Ari, as he knew this would happen sooner or later.

“That was amazing! I don’t get how it works at all, but the magic of your old world is amazing!" One and a half hours later, after the movie was done, Anna was just as excited. Also, just like the wolves before, technology clearly was the same as magic for her.

"Not this again..." Sophia, Steph, and Chloe sighed after that topic resurfaced.

"More! I want to see more like that!" The princess was hooked already.

“I, uhh... I would like to see more, too.” Ari, too, had enjoyed it a lot. “It was very nice.”

“Mhmm, I have a lot of different movies, but I think this was the only one with those characters.”

“Eh?” Anna tilted her head. “But, in the end, they said their story had just begun! That means there has to be more, right? More adventure!”

“Ahh...” Sophia awkwardly scratched her cheek. “That sentence, unfortunately, is just a lame way to have an open ending for a story. Whenever anyone says that end the end of anything, there rarely is more afterward. It’s more of a 'create-your-own continuation in your head', kind of thing."

“That’s the worst!”

“I hate that!”

"What bad writing..." Anna, Ari, and even Fey weren't fans of that trope.

“Yeah, it’s pretty cheap...” The blonde agreed. “Well, on the bright side, we have so many movies and similar things to keep us busy for literal months!”

“Yay!” The princess liked that.

"Which is perfect because we have to kill a few months before it gets warm again!" Watching movies while being comfy and cuddling was a perfect winter activity. “We don’t have anything better to do before that because, as mentioned many times before, that’s when we finally return to exploring the world! Our story, too, has just begun, after all!”

“OI!” Everyone hated that and glared at the blonde.

“Hehe~.” Sophia liked their reaction.

“Don’t say that after you just gave us the explanation of what it actually means!” Anna raised her voice. “That’s horrible!”

“Don’t worry~.” The blonde smiled at her. “Every rule comes with exceptions.”

“Really...?”

“Of course!” She gave the princess a thumbs up. “I promised to take you, Ari, and everyone else on an adventure, and I never back down from a promise!”

“Yay!” Anna looked genuinely happy again.

Afterward, once that topic was taken care of, the group continued to watch some more movies.

Their movie marathon, too, had just begun, as there was lots of time that needed to be killed until spring arrived.

The End