The group finally arrived at Sava, one of the cities in the beastfolk kingdom that Menzor had asked the blonde to build a portal to connect various places with each other as she had offered prior to their departure. Naturally, upon their arrival, Anna and Sophia immediately became the center of attention, thanks to them being tigers.
“I am aware that tigers are rare outside the immediate area of the capital, but we still aren’t that far away, are we?” Anna let out a tired sigh when she looked at the group. “The guard shouldn’t have been that surprised, right?”
“People got surprised over me even in the capital.” Sophia slowly shook her head.
“Because no one ever saw you before! Ah…” The princess paused for a moment. “I guess I just answered my own question, huh?”
“Kinda.” Aura nodded. “It’s also the fact that tigers are basically celebrities. Absolutely everyone knows who they are and what they stand for." She took a quick glance at Fen and Maya during the second part.
"…" The duo turned their heads away, feeling reminded of the time when Sophia turned herself into a tiger, and neither of them realized just how big of a deal that was because they forgot that tigers were the royals of the beastfolk.
“I guess you have a point there.” Anna didn't question her explanation. “This is actually the furthest away from the capital I ever was already, so this is very surprising to me.”
“It will only get worse the farther we travel.”
“Ahh…” She awkwardly scratched her cheek. “Ari, I’ll be counting on you once my princess etiquette reaches its limit.” Anna smiled at her. “You were much better at those lessons, after all.”
“As long as you try, I’ll gladly help you out.” The jaguar didn’t mind helping her out.
“Thank you!”
“Why is she better than you at it? You are the princess here!” Maya had to make a comment on that. “In the first place, why had Ari taken those lessons at all?”
“Because Ari is Ari! She’s the best at everything!” The tall tiger sounded super smug about it. "Also, Mother said that we should take those lessons together because she will be with me all the time, anyway. Not to mention that she knew that Ari was more the type for it even though I was born the princess.”
"I love how absolutely everyone was treating you as a couple for ages already, and you two dense idiots only managed to accept your feelings last year.” The cat-girl rolled her eyes in response.
“…” The dense couple in question awkwardly turned their heads away as they could say nothing in their defense.
“Should we get going?” Sophia pointed at the entrance of the city. “I want to get over with it and explore the place! There might be some interesting food here!”
“Let’s go!” Maya, the fellow food enthusiast and main cook of the group, liked the plan.
“Just so you know, I’ll make you partake in those princess and or tiger explanations in the future, as well.” Ari lightly glared at her. “It’s not just related to Anna, after all.”
“Why do you want to make your life even harder?” The blonde tilted her head. “You know that I’m useless for those kinds of things and only create more chaos when I’m part of such conversations.”
“I hate those self-aware tigers…” The jaguar gave up on the plan for the time being.
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The group finally entered the city and continued to follow the cobbled main road for a while, taking in the sights. However, as it was a perfectly normal place, not much different from a district in the capital they'd been in for the longest time, there didn't seem to be much to explore. The only difference was the curious onlookers. Fortunately, everyone was taking their distance as the group was a little difficult to approach with so many high-ranking people.
“By the way, does anyone know where we need to go to meet the mayor or whatever to talk about the things we need to talk about…?” Sophia, the usual voice of reason, discovered a slight flaw in the plan.
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“Ah.” They all had the same reaction and stopped walking.
“Well, it probably should be a bigger estate that shouldn’t be too hard to find.” Ari looked around for a little bit. “We could also just ask someone.”
Fortunately, after walking along the main street for a few minutes longer, the problem solved itself as the group ended up in front of a mansion with two guards in front of the entrance. Upon asking, they confirmed that this was indeed the place of the city’s mayor. Thanks to the two tigers, they also didn't even need to ask for an audience and were guided right inside the mansion.
“I guess you two being tigers does have its perks.” Maya looked at the duo while they were waiting in the entrance area of the mansion. “It makes getting audiences way easier.”
“Not that we’d need any sort of audiences without them in the first place.” It wasn’t an immediate positive thing for Chloe.
“True!” The cat-girl nodded. “It would be much less complicated without them.”
“Much more boring, too!” The tigers in question did not appreciate their exchange.
“Speaking of boring,” A new female voice joined their conversation. “I was not expecting to welcome the nation’s first princess and the blonde newcomer today. How do I come to this unexpected honor?” In front of them stood a black-haired dog-girl with floppy ears who seemed to be around her forties. “My name is Vess, and I’m the mayor of this lovely little city. How can I be of help to those prominent guests?"
“Newcomer?” Sophia pointed at herself. “I’m already known around here?”
“Everyone who’s even the slightest bit informed in an area of at least three months of traveling from there knows about the new eccentric blonde tiger that is turning the capital upside down.” The mayor smiled at her.
“She called me eccentric, Maya!” She immediately started pouting.
“What do you want me to do here?” The cat-girl tilted her head. “Applaud her for the impressive display of professionalism by downplaying it by so much?”
“Grr!” She just growled at her.
“Anyway,” Anna decided to ignore them and turned on her princess mode again. “I’m pleased to meet you, Mayor Vess, and happy to be welcomed so warmly. While you already know who I am, I’d still like to introduce myself. I am Anna, daughter of the royal family and the first princess of this nation. Father, King Menzor, sent us on a mission, and your city is on the list of places he tasked us to visit.”
“I-I see.”
“There’s no need to be worried, Mayor Vess.” The tall tiger smiled at her after noticing how her expression changed for the worse. "I have never heard anything negative about how Sava is ruled. Father hasn’t sent me for this reason, either. It’s a complicated matter, so I would like to ask for a more private area to continue our conversation.”
“Of course!” Hearing that she didn’t seem to be in trouble, the black-haired dog-girl seemed a lot more relaxed again and pointed to her right. “Please follow me to a meeting room where we can talk without interruption."
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While following the mayor to the meeting room, Sophia, Maya, Steph, and Chloe kept staring at Anna with massive smiles on their faces.
“W-What?” The tall tiger didn't like that.
“Princess mode Anna is amazing~.” Steph was the first to reply.
“Exactly~.” Maya agreed. “The contrast between that and the regular Anna is something else entirely!”
“Super hot, too!” Steph gave her a thumbs up. “Such a gap is a massive turn-on!"
“Absolutely!” The cat-girl nodded along.
“T-Thanks…?” Anna wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
“Could you two stop being horny for even a single day?!” Sophia, Ari, and Chloe all shook their heads in unison.
“No.” They had no intention of complying with that. "Impossible!"
“We noticed.”
“I don’t want to interrupt the conversation, but we have arrived.” While awkwardly scratching her cheek, Vess pointed at an open door leading into a meeting room with a massive table surrounded by around 15 chairs.
"Ah." Everyone but the wolves, who couldn't care less about the topic, got embarrassed and silently entered the room before sitting on an empty chair while Aura and Fen got comfortable in the corner.
“Soo…” Waiting for a little moment longer after everyone found a chair, the mayor faced Anna. “Again, what can I do for you all today?”
“And with that, it’s your turn, Sophia.” The princess pointed at her fellow tiger. “It’s the project of the eccentric blonde, after all.”
“Mrrr!” The eccentric one did not appreciate that. “Anyway!” She got over it soon enough, though. “It’s more of a side-project, but we’re currently trying to improve the infrastructure in the kingdom and how cities are connected with the capital.”
“Ohh! Are there plans to build new roads? Maybe a straighter route to improve traveling time?”
“Sorry, I don’t do straight things.” Sophia shook her head a few times.
“I don’t quite understand.” Obviously, the mayor got confused over that. “Regardless of that, while I do like the idea of improving travel times, I can't see how we could afford to rebuild the road network. Sava is doing well, but I can't see a way to budget that in without putting a major strain on our finances.”
“The network itself won’t be financed by the connected cities. We're planning to run it on a per-use basis. Basically, the network will be tolled. Each city only needs to accommodate for that part, with a building to process the tolling, for example.”
“…” Vess needed a moment to process it. "Okay, I understand the concept, but how can the capital finance that upfront if the cities aren't made to pay? How do you make sure people don’t simply use the more convenient route once they’re outside the cities? The idea has so many flaws that I don't even know where to start."
“Give me ten minutes, please!” Not wanting to deal with any more of the tedious explanation part, she simply opened a portal behind her chair, stood up, and disappeared through it.
“E-EH?!”
Afterward, the remaining group, mostly Anna and Ari, were busy calming down the mayor before Sophia returned.