“Come on, let’s get going already!” Sophia, the blonde tiger-girl, Maya, the white-haired cat, and Chloe, the pink-haired fox, were all together when Steph, the violet-haired dog, excitedly addressed them in an impatient manner. "We wasted enough time already!"
“Calm down a bit.” The blonde smiled at her. “There’s no need to rush like that."
“We waited long enough already!” She had no intention of listening to her. “It’s been so long since you brought me with you to this world after you accidentally ended up here, sis, and I finally want to go on a real adventure! The winter was long enough! Let’s go! NOW!”
“Don’t worry, we are leaving today, just as I promised, but before that, there’s still a lot we have to do.”
“Let’s ignore all that and just go! Go, I say!” The dog-girl didn’t like the sound of that.
“Steph sure has become quite moody.” Maya smiled at the whiny girl.
“That’s the privilege of the younger sister!” Saying so, Steph hugged one of Sophia’s arms and started clinging to her. “I’ll definitely stop being such a pain once we’re on the go, sis~.” She showed her the biggest smile she could do.
“You using the magic you had been gifted when coming to this world to turn yourself into a dog hybrid of the beastfolk here really was the best decision you ever made." The tiger looked back at her while petting her head. "Your puppy eyes are way too powerful.”
“Ehehe~.” She liked her response. “It was only the second-best decision, though.” Steph then faced the pink fox-girl. “The best one was asking out Chloe!”
“Whiny and smooth.” The cat-girl sounded slightly impressed.
“Y-Yeah.” Chloe nodded a few times while a slight blush appeared on her cheeks.
“Come on already!” Steph squeezed the arm of her older sister she was clinging to. "If we aren't out of the capital here by the end of the day, I'll show everyone how whiny I can really be! I’m using but a fraction of my power right now!”
"And you called me insufferable when we went swimming in Mira's domain the other day." Sophia let out a small sigh in response.
“This and that are different!”
“Ah, I see.” She didn’t feel like arguing. “Well, I’m good to go, soo… Maya, Chloe, what about you two?”
“It wouldn’t matter even if we weren’t.” Their voices overlapped while they glanced at the overly excited and impatient puppy clinging to Sophia’s arm.
“I'm glad you understand!" Steph didn't feel bad about it in the slightest. “Let’s leave this place and go exploring!”
“You do know that we have to head over to the castle first, right?” The blonde immediately crushed her dreams again.
“WHY?!” She apparently didn’t know.
“We’re going to collect Anna and Ari. They’re coming with us to explore the world, after all.”
“Ah, right.” Steph hung her head. “You’re lucky I like them a lot because else I would've gotten even noisier now!"
“Chloe, do you have one of those squeaky balls on hand that makes our puppy calm down?”
“Hey!”
“Sorry, she destroyed the last one I had a few days ago.” She shook her head. “They never last long with her."
“That’s too bad.”
“I-I hate you all!” Slightly embarrassed-looking, Steph averted her face.
“Dating these sisters sure is an experience, huh?” Maya smiled at the pink fox after having stolen a glance at Sophia. “I would know from my tiger there, after all.”
“Ahaha…” Chloe could only react with a chuckle.
“Let’s get going already!” As the dog wasn’t able to play with her therapeutic ball, she only got more impatient.
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The four left their home in the capital of the beastfolk race and walked over to the castle of the royal family. After all, Anna, a tall, orange-haired tiger-girl, one of the girls they wanted to take with them on their journey, was a rather important one. Namely, the first princess of the nation. Ari, the girlfriend of said princess, a black-haired jaguar-girl, also lives in the castle, as the two were also childhood friends, on top of Ari’s parents being the head maids of the royal family.
Ever since Sophia had arrived in this world after having had an accident on Earth and turned herself into a tiger-girl without knowing that the tigers are the royals of the beastfolk race, she had gotten quite close with the ruling family of the nation. Having befriended the first princess, who was a big fan of exploration and being free in general, it quickly was decided that she and Ari would accompany them whenever the blonde and her friends left the capital again to return to their travel plans. It took a while, but it was finally time for Sophia to fulfill that promise to her as they were about to do just that.
“You’re late!” The moment the group entered the entrance hall, they were immediately greeted by a tall, orange-haired, and impatient-looking tiger-girl.
“I know, right?!” Steph immediately walked over to stand next to Anna so the two could glare at the other girls together. "We're finally about to go exploring, and they were just idling around! It took me forever to get them out of the house!”
“Thank you very much for your service!” The tall tiger smiled at the dog-girl before focusing on Sophia again. “I was about to get you, you know?! I’ve been waiting for this day for way too long already! Let’s go!” She was very excited.
“You and Ari were huddled up with us in front of the fireplace, not wanting to move a single muscle, just two days ago.” The blonde had no intention of dealing with this again.
“A-Ah.” The princess immediately turned silent.
“I told you to stay calm." Ari, the black-haired jaguar-girl, was beside her and lightly rolled her eyes in response.
“Impossible!” She wasn’t able to stay silent for long. “I’ve been looking forward to this since forever, after all! It just was too cold before! There was nothing we could’ve done!”
“You could’ve simply dealt with it!” Steph’s union with Anna only held for a short while.
“Everyone sure is lively, huh?” Another tiger joined their conversation. She was a good bit older than the rest of the group, seemingly in her late forties. Other than that, she was the perfect copy of Anna. Quite tall and well-developed, together with the same orange hair, tiger tail, stripes, and ears. To be more precise, Anna was more of a copy of hers, though. It was Kira, the nation's queen, and mother of the princess in question.
“Some of us are, at least!” Steph was getting slightly pouty again. “Wait!” She got even louder. “D-Don’t tell me we still have to go through half a day of saying goodbye and stuff because Ari and Anna are leaving the nest!?”
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“Don’t worry, my dear overly excited puppy.” Kira smiled at her. “Ari’s parents, Menzor, and I had already had lots of that the last few days. We're as ready to let them go as we can be."
“Not at all, I presume?” Sophia took a wild guess.
“Not at all.” She nodded.
“Mom!” Anna looked at her mother.
“Don’t worry, we’re letting you and Ari go on your trip. Sophia’s magic and the ability to use it to return at any time was a great help for the decision.”
“I love you!” The princess immediately jumped at the blonde tiger and tightly hugged her. She was really glad to be able to go on this trip.
“Do you love me or my magic?” She raised an eyebrow in response.
“Yes!”
“I never should’ve made this reply popular around here…” Sophia had some regrets about having used that sort of non-reply so often before.
“Hehe~.” Giving the shorter tiger another quick squeeze, she let go of her again while showing the blonde a big smile.
“Well, whatever~.” It was impossible to be upset at her.
“Speaking of, though.” Kira changed her attention to the blonde. “The two are ready to go, but you are not.”
“Eh?” The shorter tiger tilted her head in confusion. “What did I do? We already decided not to tell Ellie about our plans because we'll be back many times, so not much would change when it comes to seeing her compared to how things are right now. After all, I don't want to make my favorite tiger needlessly sad." She paused for a moment. "Sorry about that, Kira and Anna, but the youngest princess wins in my book~." Ellie was Anna's 3-year-old sister and the youngest daughter of Kira, who was very loved by Sophia especially, but there was no one who didn't adore her. "She's the cutest, after all."
"No, it's not about that." The queen was okay with the clear preferential treatment. “Menzor wants to see you before you leave. He’s at the capital’s south gate right now. Together with the planning committee that got founded because of your plans.”
“Ahaha…” She scratched her cheek. “Aren’t you glad the royal headaches will become fewer once I’m gone?”
“I seriously doubt there'll be any fewer of them.” Kira just stared at her again.
“…” Sophia went silent for a moment. "A-Anyway, let’s go to the south gate!” She decided to ignore her reply.
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Wasting no time, especially because Steph was quickly becoming even more impatient and Anna wasn't helping with that issue, either, the group made their way toward where the king was currently.
“Oh, there they are!” Everyone had just exited the capital through the south gate when Steph pointed at some familiar faces. Mira, the nine-tailed white and teal-colored hybrid fox. Feyanis, the red and white full fox, and the two wolves, Fen and Aura, were waiting for them already.
“Finally! You sure took your sweet time." Noticing them, the male wolf immediately sent a complaint to the group.
“I know, right?!” The violet dog got loud again. “It’s great that at least some members of this group understand that we have no time to waste!”
“Of course!” Fen gave her a cheeky reply.
“Fen was still asleep on the sheepskin rug in the living room when we left for the castle, you remember?” Sophia still had no intention of dealing with this. "He only arrived here a few minutes before us, probably."
“…” He went silent.
“Idiot.” Fey slowly shook her head. “You should’ve seen that one coming.
"Cut him some slack." Aura looked at her. "He just woke up, and his brain isn’t fully working yet.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Oi!” Fen did not like their exchange.
“Oh, there is the guest of honor!” A somewhat dignified but also tired-looking hybrid tiger-man in his early fifties with orange-greyish hair walked over to the group and looked at Sophia.
“What can I do for you, my dear king?” She smiled at Menzor.
"The sass might be one of the things I won't miss when you're traveling." He let out a sigh. “That, and the hope that my hair continues to grey with the same speed as it does after meeting you.”
“Mhmm,” The blonde tilted her head. “I don’t know, I kinda like the look. It makes you look tougher.”
“Yes.” Some of the other girls joined in. “It looks great!”
“…” He paused for a moment. “That does not make me happy! Especially because none of you even like men!”
“That only adds more weight to our opinions!” Sophia smiled at him. “If we already like it, what do you think how women that like men would think of you!"
“…” He went silent again.
“My, don’t you look happy now?” Kira also was still with him and had now proceeded to stare daggers at her husband, the king.
"A-Ah.” Menzor’s expression immediately changed. “I forgot about the headaches you keep causing me!”
“I do have a talent for that~.” Her mood was great. “So, Kira said you wanted to see me. Do you need help with something before we leave?”
"We need to review your portals a last time before you leave."
“Seriously?!” Steph immediately got loud again. “That’ll take forever!”
“Don’t worry, it won’t take that long.” Menzor briefly glanced at her before facing Sophia again. “It’s your last chance to change your mind. The ministers and I planned a lot these past months and are beyond happy with your absolutely generous offer to use your magic to connect various places of interest throughout our kingdom with the help of the portals you invented. We’re about to start the building phase of the place we intend to use as a sort of hub to deal with all the portals and the places they lead to. We need to make sure this is no wasted effort.”
“This again?” The blonde let out a short sigh. “How often do I have to reassure you about this? It sounds like so much fun! I’m, of course, going to do it! I want to return to the capital every now and then, anyway. Because of that, I might as well use my magic to create a permanent portal that links the places together. Don’t worry about it!”
“Thank you very much!” He sounded honestly relieved. "Once again, on behalf of pretty much everyone, you have no idea how much this will change the kingdom."
"Also, the payment we agreed on is amazing!"
“Ah.” The king almost stumbled over his own feet after hearing her real motivation.
“Anyway~,” Sounding extra smug, Sophia smiled at him. “I’m just kidding. Where are you going to build it? It’s all just fields around here. On one of them?” She started looking around while saying so.
“No.” Menzor shook his head. “We are looking to increase our area of arable land around the capital, not decreasing it.”
“Okay?”
“Do you see that farm cottage near that line of trees over there?” He pointed to a building a few hundred meters right of them.
“Yeah!” She looked right at it. “It’s super cute! I love that style!” It was a rather big building with greyish-brown brick walls, white window frames, and anthracite shingles for a roof.
“Well, we’re going to tear it down.”
“Ehhh?” The blonde didn’t like that. “Why? It looks perfectly fine!”
"Well, it's not needed anymore." The king shrugged. "The head farmer responsible for these fields around here actually married into the head family next to them, and they decided to combine farms and homes. We decided to buy the cottage and the land around it from them because the location is ideal for the hub. It even has a good road leading directly to the south gate here. Building a new road would've been more expensive than buying and tearing the cottage.”
“It’s so cute, though!”
“Do you have any better suggestions?”
“Hmm…” She paused for a moment. “Ah!” Her eyes suddenly started sparkling. “Can I have it instead?”
“Excuse me?” Naturally, Menzor was quite confused about her reply. “What part about tearing it down because we need the space did not reach you?”
“I understood everything. I don’t want to live in it here. I want to take it with us when we’re traveling!”
“The farm cottage…?”
“Yes!”
“…” The king's face was going through many emotions while trying to understand her before eventually looking at Maya. “Could you explain what she means?”
“How am I supposed to know?!” The cat-girl just shook her head.
“You’re her girlfriend, are you not?!”
“How’s this and that related? It only means that I get confused by her the most because I'm together with her all the time!"
“Haa…” He hung his head.
“She’s pretty easy to understand, actually.” Steph came to the rescue.
“No, she is not!” Many voices retorted the same.
“Everyone knows about her storage magic that’s somehow related to the portals, right?” The dog-girl continued.
“Indeed.” Menzor and the others nodded. "I still get surprised every single time she uses it to get something out of seemingly nothing.”
“Well, wouldn’t it be something to have a whole house inside that storage?! I think that would be amazing!” Steph was getting excited.
“Exactly!” Sophia felt the same. “It would be a portable home and rest stop!”
“Sometimes, I have trouble believing you two are sisters because you look so different." The king stared at the duo. "Then, the two of you start talking, and all doubts are immediately blown away."
“Ehehe~.”
“Is that even possible, though?”
“Sure it is!” Sophia gave him a thumbs up before she started walking along the road toward the cottage while everyone else followed.
“And now?”
“Let’s see~.” Arriving at the cottage, she took a better look at it. “It really looks cute and cozy! I want it!” She liked it. “How much of the area needs to be cleared for the planned hub?”
“Well, everything around the cottage. All the way from the edge of the fields to, and including, the range of trees in the back.”
“Ohh! That’s perfect! Are there plans for something like a basement area, too? I can also remove part of the soil if you want!”
“Well,” The king turned around to address some of the other people, some of them being tiger hybrids and his age, as well. “Do we?”
“It would certainly be useful for temporary storage and the like."
“Perfect!” Having gotten the permission, or at least not having been denied, Sophia immediately got to work. Soon after, purple sparkles and reflections began to appear in the air around the mentioned area before nothing else was visible there anymore. It was all that could be seen there for a moment before the purple sparkles started to subside again. Once the magic distortions were gone, everything else had disappeared, too. The cottage, the trees, the lawn, gone. Only a giant crater roughly 150 by 150 meters wide, long, and about 4 meters deep could be seen. “Cottage get!” The blonde was happy about the result.
“Eh?” Most people outside of Sophia's core group had the same reaction.
“Alright, time to go exploring!”
“Let’s go!” The sisters decided they didn't care about the shocked faces of Menzor and some of the others.