After a bit of back and forth, some bickering, and a healthy dose of overpowered magic, the group was finally able to enter the cottage Sophia had stolen in the capital before they left. Naturally, most of them were very interested in how it looked like inside, and they immediately wanted to explore it.

“Alright!” Once the whole group was in the entrance hall of the cottage, Sophia lightly clapped her hands while smiling at all of them. “First, the biggest, comfiest, and fanciest master bedroom belongs to Maya and me."

“I approve of this.” The cat-girl nodded a few times.

“Other than that,” The blonde continued. “I don’t particularly care what you do with the other rooms. Mira wanted the corner room upstairs, and as long as that isn't the master room, I don't care. If anyone else is also interested in that room, you have to fight our dear overseer of magic for it.”

"Come at me~." The teal fox in question made a cheeky hand gesture to everyone surrounding her.

“…” No one dared to.

“Okay!” Sophia clapped her hands again to get everyone’s attention once more. “I'm not exactly sure yet what we're going to do with this place in the long run, but it's definitely a great option to use when the weather to camp outside is no fun! Also, maybe for some, uhh… more private reasons!”

“Things we usually don’t do as a group, she means!” Maya added some details.

“We figured as much even without your help.” Ari rolled her eyes. “Also, what do you mean by usually?”

“You know exactly what I mean.” The cat-girl’s expression turned into a smirk.

“Ah.” Ari seemingly had nothing more to say. "Wait, we never went as far as your stupid smirk is trying to imply!"

“Anyway!” The shorter tiger rolled her eyes before continuing. "Especially while it's still spring and the evenings get cold, we might use this cottage several times, so make sure to choose a good room!"

“Okay!” Everyone reacted with a big nod and immediately wandered off to inspect the rooms.

----------------

Roughly an hour had passed since the group had started exploring the inside of the building before everyone eventually met up in the place’s living room again. There wasn't much going on in terms of decorations, the previous owner likely took those with them when they left, but it still came with two massive sofas, a big table between them, and a sizeable and fluffy rug in front of a fireplace.

“This is not over yet!” Anna, Ari, Chloe, and Steph, in that order, were sitting together on one of the sofas when the princess glared at Steph across the two girls in the middle of them.

“Try me!” Full of smug, the dog-girl looked back at her.

“Do you think I want to know?” Sophia, sitting between Maya and Mira on the sofa across the four, tilted her head while she glanced at her cat-girl.

“I definitely do not.” She shook her head in response.

“Steph stole the room I wanted to have!” Anna raised her voice even more.

“I beg to differ!” Steph disagreed. "Just because you entered it first doesn't mean you get first dibs! I said I want it first!”

“It does!”

“It does not!”

“Really…?” Ignoring the two bickering girls, Sophia looked at Chloe and Ari in the middle of them. “What do you two have to say about this?”

“I literally couldn’t care less.” The pink fox looked ever so slightly tired.

“They’re the exact same rooms!” The jaguar’s expression was even worse.

“They are not!” Even though they were fighting, the duo could still synchronize quite nicely.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Is it, or is it not?” The shorter tiger kept focusing on Ari because she was the best source of non-emotional information there.

“It has the exact same layout, just that it is mirrored because it’s on the opposite side of the hallway upstairs.”

“Nothing’s different whatsoever.” Chloe had the same opinion.

“You just said that it’s mirrored yourself!”

“That makes it something else entirely!”

“Haa…” The blonde hung her head.

“It’s your house, so you have to deal with it.” Maya showed her no sympathy.

“Why is it my house?!”

“Because you’re the one who stole it.”

“Ah.” She did not appreciate being confronted with logic. As much as someone could apply logic to the situation at hand, at least. “Does that mean my words are absolute?”

“It depends.”

“On what?” Sophia faced the cat-girl next to her.

“Whether I like your words or not.” She smiled at her. “Just me, though. The others have no right to go against your decisions regarding the cottage.”

“Oh, I like that!”

“I don’t!” Anna disagreed. “Steph’s your sister, so you’ll obviously give her preferential treatment!”

“She would never!” The dog-girl was deeply offended by this baseless accusation.

“Right, I would never!” Sophia nodded a few times.

“Eh?” Steph's expression changed. It seemed like she had hoped for something else here.

“Would you mind if I go for the chaos route here?” The blonde smiled at Maya.

“Why would you stop now?”

“Good point!” After all, it would be alarming for her not to choose the chaos route. “Alright, just to make sure. Anna, Steph, you two want to be in the same room?”

“YES!”

“Okay, Ari, Chloe, you are okay with the other room?”

"Pretty much." They nodded.

“Well, I’d say the solution’s pretty easy~.” Sophia's smile turned cheeky. "Anna, Steph, you’re going to share the room you’re fighting over. I’m sure you’ll be able to reconcile after spending the night with each other. Ari, Chloe, you two can have the other room.”

“Eh?” All four had the same reaction.

“What’s that eh for?” Sophia tilted her head. “That’s the most sensible decision here.”

“I agree!” Maya was a big fan of her tiger’s idea.

“How’s that arrangement going to solve anything?!” Anna and Steph continued to show great combability when it came to matching up their words.

“How’s your fighting going to solve anything?” Sophia threw the ball right back at them.

“...”

“I’ll give you three options. One; You decide right now who’ll get the room. Two; You two duke it out during the night. Three; No one gets the room, and I'll use it for whatever I want!”

“None of these are viable options!” All things considered, the two got along splendidly.

“If you disagree with my way of doing things, feel free to steal your own cottage!”

“That’s so unfair!”

“Chloe, Ari, how do you feel about my suggestion?” Sophia faced the other two. “Your opinions are the ones I actually care about right now.”

“Hey!” Her sister and the princess didn’t like that.

“Mhmm…” The pink fox tilted her head before glancing at the black-haired girl. “Sounds fun!”

"Well," The jaguar scratched her cheek and eventually smiled at the fox. “I would prefer to sleep with Anna for reasons, but sharing a room with Chloe doesn’t sound bad at all. Especially because that would mean I won't have to listen to Anna's complaints about the room all night! Alright, sure, I’m in with the idea!”

“Perfect!”

“Not perfect at all!” Steph and Anna, once again, did not like this development.

“Alright, with this topic taken care of, have you two found a nice room, as well?” Ignoring the complaining duo once more, the blonde faced the wolves.

“Yes!” Aura answered her. “There’s a small lounge-like room upstairs filled with many cushions and a big sofa in the middle! It’s great!”

“It is quite comfortable.” Fen tried to sound unimpressed, but his wagging tail exposed him.

“That sounds amazing!” Steph’s tail was wagging even stronger.

“Don’t you dare try to unrightfully claim that room, too!” The female wolf growled at her.

“Yeah, you have to watch out for that!” Anna nodded a couple of times. “She likes to do that!”

“Oi!”

“Hehe.” Sophia let out a small chuckle. “Happy you two found a comfy place. What about the fox faction?” She then looked at Mira next to her.

“Ah, about that!” The teal fox clapped her hands. “Would it be alright to convert a broom closet upstairs into a room where I put a portal to my domain? Like, instead of entering a room, you open the door and end up in my home at my place. I can’t teleport out of your domain on my own, so it would be great to have an easy way to come and go. Don’t worry, we can set up the portal so that I can only return here when you allow it and not whenever I please."

“Ohh! A portal closet sounds like a fun idea!” The shorter tiger liked the idea. “In return, I want some help with decorating my domain, though!”

“I’d say that can be arranged.” Mira smiled at her. "Is there anything in specific you want? A certain biome? Maybe a nice plain around the cottage or a dense forest behind it?"

“That sounds lovely!” Sophia was getting excited. “I was thinking about something more elemental, though.”

“Hmm?”

“Well,” She pointed at one of the windows in the living room they were in. "I don't know how everyone else feels about it, but I think the bright all-white nothingness is a little hard on the eyes. I want a blue sky! Clouds! Wind! A day and night cycle! Just like it happens in your domain.”

“Quite ambitious, aren’t we?

“Always!”

“Some of those requests are actually a little complicated.” The many-tailed fox scratched her cheek. “I’ll happily show you, but I guess that would need some demonstrations in my domain for you to understand.”

“Let’s go!” She was very motivated.

“Right now? To be perfectly honest, I’d first like to eat something. I’ve gotten a little hungry.”

“That’s an even better suggestion.” The tiger was always hungry, after all. “Food first!”

Afterward, they focused their attention on acquiring dinner before eventually returning to the topic of decorating Sophia’s domain to make it more hospitable.