The group decided to take a break from walking as it had started to get dark and cold, so everyone entered Sophia's domain, where she had also put the cottage, she stole from the capital earlier in the day. While they were at it, Mira also gave them a quick explanation of how overseer and their magic work. In a very abridged way, at least.

“By the way, did you also borrow the key to the cottage?” Maya glanced at the big entrance door of the building they were walking towards after climbing on top of the layer of dirt.

“Ah.” Judging by Sophia’s reaction, she did not. “Do you have any lockpicking skills, Anna?”

“Why me?!” The orange tiger raised her voice.

“I thought a princess is being taught in just about everything to show how skilled the royal family is?”

“Lockpicking isn’t a part of that!” She got even louder.

“Ah, I see.” The blonde nodded a few times. “What about you, Ari? I’m sure it’s an essential skill for every maid and maid-to-be!”

“Why would it be!?” The black-haired jaguar, whose parents were the head maids in the castle, stared at her with the same expression. “It’s not!”

“How boring!” Sophia looked genuinely disappointed.

“What about you, then?!” Ari snapped a little.

“Why would I know how to pick a lock…?” She tilted her head while looking at her.

“I hate you.”

“I thought you love me?” The short tiger smiled at her.

“Those are two sides of the same coin with you.” Maya was the one who answered her. “Tigers, huh? You can’t love them without hating them.” She glanced at Anna during the last part. “I hate you~.”

“Hey!” She immediately got loud. “Wait!”

“Hehe~.” The cat-girl liked her reaction.

“Where were we again?” It was enough for Ari to have lost track.

“You were confessing your love to me.” Sophia had to use the chance.

“Right!” The jaguar nodded. “I mentioned how much I hate you.”

“Exactly!” She nodded. “Hmm…” The blonde then looked a little confused, especially after Maya's tangent. “Anyway! Has anyone else here had some shady side hustle in the past? Fennyfenny?” Sophia faced the male wolf.

“None that involved lockpicking.” He shook his head. “I mean,” He then lifted one of his paws.

“Fair enough.” She could understand his reasoning. “Wait, what?” His wording had caught her interest.

“I have other ways to get inside, though. Should I give it a try?”

“How many of those keep the door intact?" Sophia had a bad feeling about it.

“Four.”

“And how many of those keep the rest of the cottage in one piece, as well?”

“…” Fen went silent.

“I figured as much.” The short tiger shook her head. “Mainly because I, too, can think of about 28 ways to get in there. None of them are of the reversible kind, though.”

"I could dig a tunnel!" Aura sounded strangely excited when she tried to suggest a plan. "I'm good at that!"

“I wanna help!” Steph, the dog-girl, seemed to be a big fan of the idea.

“Hmm,” Sophia gave it some thought. “I mean, we could dig right through the elevated dirt and then hope it maybe comes with a basement we could break into?”

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“Let’s go!” The little sister got really motivated.

“You all sure are hopeless, huh?” Sounding extra playful, Mira smiled at the group before she started walking towards the entrance door. A few moments after arriving there, the lightly audible clicking sound of a door being unlocked could be heard. “Open~!”

"Eh?" Most had the same reaction.

“Mira was the one with the sketchy past?!” The blonde sounded surprised. “I didn’t see that one coming!”

“Here, you dork.” Saying so, the teal fox threw a small object toward Sophia.

“Hmm?” Catching it, she noticed the key she was now holding. “Huh? Where did that come from? Did Menzor give you the key when I wasn’t paying attention?”

“I made my own key just now.”

“Seriously?!” The short tiger was impressed. “How? A skill you learned during your shady past?”

“Would you stop it with the shady past already? Nothing shady ever happened.”

“Well,” Fey joined the conversation.

“D-Don’t you dare to say whatever you plan to say!” Mira’s expression suddenly changed, and her cheeks turned a bit red.

“Oh?” Steph, Sophia, and Chloe got quite interested in her reaction. “We’re all ears!”

“You are not!” The many-tailed fox thought otherwise. “Anyway, I used magic to open the lock and recreate a key.”

“Magic can do that?!” The blonde’s attention was quite easy to divert.

“Of course~.”

“Details!” Sophia, Steph, Chloe, and Anna, too, wanted to know more about it.

“Well, there’s really not much to explain here.” Mira smiled at the girls. “I simply flooded the insides of the lock with unattributed, raw magic and had it solidify in the shape of a key that matches the coding of the cylinders inside.”

“Magic can do that?!” Ari was the one with the strongest reaction.

“Magic can do almost anything if your control over it is good enough.” The teal fox smiled at her. “Ah, but maybe not tell anyone about being able to pick locks with magic. Or that the overseer of magic told you about it.”

“As if anyone would believe me in the first place!” The jaguar raised her voice a little. “Not to mention that no one in this world, except maybe half of this group, would be able to do this!”

“Everyone in this group could do it with ease after training for about 15 minutes.” Mira’s smile turned slightly cheeky.

“TEACH ME!” Sophia, Chloe, Steph, and Anna directly jumped on the opportunity.

"I thought a princess isn't supposed to have these kinds of skills?" Maya looked at her.

“This and that are different!”

“Ah, I see.” She didn’t feel like playing, after all. Anna looked too happy to be teased by her.

“By the way,” Mira faced Sophia again. “I want the lovely corner room on the right on the upstairs floor.”

"How do you know that there's such a room?" The blonde tilted her head. "And that it's lovely?"

“Magic~?”

“Is that your answer to everything?” The short tiger stared at her.

“You’re the last one who’s allowed to complain about that!” Multiple people glared at her.

“What do you mean?!” She raised her voice. “Obviously, I’m the second-to-last now!”

“…” The group went silent. The blonde had a point, after all.

“You’re the best, Mira! Thanks to you, I'm officially no longer the one with the worst common sense!"

“I’m not entirely convinced that this is the message you were supposed to get here. Though, I’m always happy to be of help~.” The many-tailed fox had some mixed feelings about it, though far from enough to be upset about it. “Also, when it comes to the common sense of magic… well… Common sense does not always equal the truth behind things. It absolutely does not in this case, in fact. So, having no common sense in that area is a good thing. The overseer of magic approves!”

“I love you!” Sophia was a big fan of her assessment. “Did you hear that, Maya?”

“Yeah, yeah…” The cat-girl rolled her eyes. “Next time we’re in a city, I’ll have you a t-shirt with the slogan ‘Approved by the overseer of magic’ on it made.” She sounded quite sarcastic.

“I’D LOVE THAT!”

“I want one, too!” Chloe also was a fan of the idea.

“Shouldn’t yours say ‘Made by the overseer of magic’?” Steph looked at the pink fox-girl with a confused expression. “She’s your mother, after all.”

“That’s good, too!”

“Let’s head to the next city immediately!” Delighted that her daughter would like to wear something like that, said mother, Mira, got really motivated about the idea.

“…” It looked like Fey wanted to say something, she seemed a bit twitch for a moment, but she never mentioned anything.

“Should we get her a ‘Made by Fey and Mira’, too?” The teal fox smiled at the full one.

“T-That would be a be a bit much!” Chloe got embarrassed. “The other one already was, but this tops it! BUT!” She then raised her voice. “Speaking of that, Feyfey, you still owe me to show me your hybrid form! Mira shows us her full form all the time, but I only saw this you when I grew up!” She gestured all over the four-legged fox. “You promised to show me! After I got so angry that you hid the fact that Mira is my mother, just as you are! I wanna see the Feyfey that made me!”

“Urgh,” The full fox hung her head. “I hoped you had forgotten about that.”

“I would never!”

“Fine… I have actually been training with Mira for it lately. As I mentioned before, it's quite difficult for me to do because I haven't used that form in a long while. I’ll show you eventually, unless you forget about it, but I need more time.” She really did not sound enthusiastic about the plan in the slightest.

“That won’t happen!” Chloe started pouting. "Steph! Remind me to remind her about remembering her promise!"

“I’ll remember reminding you reminding her!” The dog-girl nodded a few times.

“Thank you!”

“Those two dorks are really made for each other.” Ari had nothing else to add to their exchange.

“And I dislike this.” Fey wasn’t a fan.

Afterward, the full fox decided that the topic was over for the time being and walked past Mira to enter the now-unlocked cottage. Chuckling once, the teal fox then followed after her before everyone else did the same.