Sophia and Maya met up with the cat-girl’s parents and had a long chat with them. During that conversation, the blonde told them that she came from another world and that her parents were still there. Naturally, Eve and Theo had trouble believing her, but once they saw her portals, they became a little more open about the idea. Sophia also told them that she wants her parents to also be in the new world and how she'd love their help with that.

“Okay, can I continue with the complicated part now?” Putting away the cup of tea she was holding, Sophia then faced Maya’s parents.

“The complicated part?!”

“You just told us you’re from a different world, and that wasn't the difficult part?!" Unfortunately, the tea they just had didn't have much of a calming effect on Theo and Eve.

“Well, from a technical standpoint, the world thingy is more complicated.” The blonde scratched her cheek. “Something else has more of an impact, though.”

“More of an impact?!” The two synced up.

"Fine, maybe that isn't it, either." She had trouble finding the right words. “It’s more of a problem that comes with the world I used to live in.”

"A MASSIVE problem.” Maya reacted with a big nod.

“Canir gave me a new life in this world, and I used the chance to turn myself into a member of the tiger beastfolk without knowing they’re royalty. Steph did something similar. My parents are still humans, though. That's because there are only humans in the world where I came from before my life there literally ended, and I started a new one here."

“?!” Their expression had turned amazingly complicated.

“They have nothing in common with the humans in this world, though! Yes, their looks are the same, mainly the lack of beast bits, but their character traits are completely different!” As Sophia was specifically talking about her family, she technically was telling the truth.

“…” They had no idea what to say.

“The looks are still the issue.” The tiger kept going. “Even though they look like regular humans of this world, they are different. No one would care about that at first glance, though. They’ll only see the human part and understandably want nothing to do with them.”

“There are members of the beastfolk that have no visible animal traits and are called hidden.” Maya tilted her head. “The beast side is either in parts of the body that aren’t usually visible, inside, or they simply have a few character traits and nothing else. It’s a bit of a stretch, but if they really don’t act like our humans here and are friendly, people could believe it. Especially if you inject some magic into them.”

“You finally started being actually helpful!” Sophia was touched.

“Okay, I did that to myself.” She had nothing to defend herself with. “I still think that could work out, though. It's that, or you give them some very slight animal features that aren’t really noticeable unless you’re really looking at it if your parents don’t want to change too much.”

“Yeah, I have to talk about that with them, too.” Sophia wasn’t looking forward to that, either.

“W-What is going on?!” Eve had no nerve to deal with their conversation.

“Ah, sorry about that.” The blonde smiled at her. “The beastfolk doesn’t exist in the world I came from. Neither do demons, elves, and all the other races. Just humans and completely regular animals. It’s a sad world.”

“O-Only humans…?” Theo didn’t like the sound of that.

“Yeah, it’s a horrible place!” Maya nodded a couple of times. “It’s the worst part of going there. Though, to be fair, most of the individuals I met so far were at least decent or something like that. That world might be doomed, but it does house some nice people. Sophia also came from there, after all~.”

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“Trying to farm some points with me?” She just stared at her.

“And it’s working~.” The white-haired cat was quite proud of herself for that.

“Fair enough.” It was indeed working on her.

“Have you been there…?” Theo faced his daughter. “You made it sound like that.”

"A couple of times." She nodded. "The first time was by accident, but that place has some amazing places to go shopping, so we returned a couple of times to get all sorts of stuff!" She decided against going into detail, though. For obvious reasons.

“My daughter went to another world… Other worlds are a thing…” Her father was having a hard time.

“You forgot the part where I’m dating a girl from another world.” Maya showed him a cheeky grin.

“Not helping!” Sophia resorted to glaring again. “Also, shall I remind you how you reacted back when I told you?”

"A-Ah." The grin was immediately gone as she remembered how she had run away on the day she had learned about the blonde's past.

“Again, my parents are decent human beings.” She tried to convince them some more. “I mean, I get that that’s unbelievable for someone from this world, but it’s true. After all, they raised me. Okay, I have some flaws, but I think my behavior is pretty decent.”

“Meh.” Maya just shrugged.

“Please go through that portal and wait in the cottage until I'm done here!" The blonde pointed at the portal she had created earlier while sounding rather angry.

“I’m sorry.” She apologized. “You make it sound so easy to lighten the mood by making stupid comments, but it’s an art, huh?”

“It’s one of my few talents, so of course it is!”

“Could we focus a little?” Eve tried to get them back on track. “I’m already completely overwhelmed, so this isn’t the slightest bit helpful.”

“I agree.” Theo just nodded.

“We’re sorry.”

“Have you really been a… human in the past…?” Eve’s expression turned complicated again.

"A long time ago.” A year can arguably be a long time, so she was technically telling the truth. “I’ve never identified with the humans of this world and almost went to war with them the moment I met a group of them. Then, I actually did go to war against them last year, so… Yeah, again, the only thing that’s similar to this world’s humans and my parents are their general looks. I don’t even have that in common with them anymore, and I have no attachment to the human inhabitants of this world. My past plays absolutely no role here.”

“I see.”

“If you two agree to meet my parents, you’ll immediately see that they have nothing in common with the humans of this world, as well.” Sophia smiled at them. “I might be biased because they're my parents, but I'm convinced they're nice people, and you'll immediately notice that they share nothing except the looks with the inhabitants of this world.”

“Is that so?” Eve looked at her daughter. “What do you think?”

“Well, I haven’t met them yet, but they’re the parents of Sophia and Steph, and they're, albeit quite hyperactive, lovely girls. It would be a big stretch to imagine them being bad people.”

“Exactly.” Sophia nodded. “They’re actually rather similar to you two, Theo and Eve. I don’t know Maya’s brother, but you also raised a mostly nice and occasionally bratty daughter, just like Steph.”

“Just think of them as hidden ones instead of humans when you see them.” Maya noticed how the two still didn’t seem too convinced about the idea. “It’ll make things way easier.”

“What she said!” The blonde liked the plan. “It will make me unbelievably happy if you agree to meet them!” She then faced Theo and Eve with a pleading expression.

“Your puppy eyes aren’t nearly as good as Steph’s.”

“That’s because she’s a dog!” Sophia glared at Maya. “I’m a mighty and proud tiger! I have other selling points!”

“See?” Maya smiled at her parents instead. “Do you think such a dork could've been raised by bad people?"

“That’s a compelling argument.” The two nodded.

“Why is that the thing that convinced you?!” The mighty tiger wasn’t happy about the change of heart, at least not in this situation and with that reasoning.

“Ehehe~.” All three of the cat family had to chuckle.

“Well, whatever!” She decided to stop caring about semantics and was just happy about the result. “After that chuckle, I won’t accept a no for an answer any longer! I’m so happy you agreed to meet my parents!”

“…” The two went silent.

“I’ll meet with them soon and tell them about my plan and do some convincing to have them come to my place for a visit. Once I've managed to do that, I'll get the two of you, and we'll have a loooong chat about a lot of things.”

“I’m still not entirely convinced about the circumstances, but I’m willing to give it a try.” Theo scratched his cheek. “I agree that Sophia’s parents are impossible to be bad, but just hearing the word human fills me with nothing but hesitation.”

“I agree.” Eve nodded.

“Trust me, I understand that.” Sophia also agreed with them. “I didn’t have any good experiences with humans in this world, either, so I really get it, but I promise that my parents are different.”

“Okay, we’ll meet them.” Theo finally caved in.

"I can't not meet the parents of my future daughter-in-law, so it's hard to be against it." Eve did so, too. "There's lots of planning I have to do with Sophia’s mother, after all!” She was already four steps ahead.

“Can I take the day off when that happens?” Maya had a bad feeling about the meeting.

“No.” Everyone shook their heads.

“It was worth a try.”

Afterward, the four put the topic aside and continued to leisurely chat about other things for a while. Sophia’s tea party with Eve aside, they hadn’t seen each other for a while, and they had a lot of stories to tell Theo and Eve about things that happened during their travels so far.