While walking towards the beastfolk city on the other side of the mountain range, Sophia had already gotten bored from walking through green plains that had no excitement in them whatsoever. Thinking about it for a while together with the group, they decided to use the blonde’s portals to skip boring parts of their travels by throwing an enchanted portal stone into the far distance and continuing from wherever it landed. To make it a little less random, they also decided to get a map of the kingdom, though.
“Could we start from the beginning again…?” The group arrived at the city, and after entering it, Anna, Ari, Sophia, and Maya immediately went to the mayor’s place to get over with it. Meeting up with the middle-aged cat-man with receding black hair, who was leading the city and going by the name of Teimo and explaining the situation, he could only react by folding his hands over his head while looking extremely confused. "A-Also, what is that, and HOW did the blonde tiger disappear through it?!" Teimo then pointed at a portal in the corner of the room.
“I think I actually hate Sophia.” Anna hung her head. “She has no intention of helping, but she sure knows how to make the situation even more complicated.”
“Ahaha…” Maya could only awkwardly scratch her cheek as there was no way she could defend her girlfriend there.
"To be fair, it is easier to explain things without her around.” Ari scratched her cheek. “That being said, she could’ve gone outside the room to use the portal for a less shocking effect, so Anna’s 100% correct there.”
“Anyway,” Anna rolled her eyes before facing the mayor again. “I, well, we are here under the direct order of father, King Menzor, to propose a one-of-a-kind opportunity to forever change and better the kingdom.” The tiger entered princess mode.
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“Menzor, my beloved and most-favorite king there is!” Back in the capital, Sophia had stormed the castle and barged into his office without any announcement whatsoever.
“I hate everything about that.” Being used to it already, Menzor only lifted his head while preparing himself to rub his temples in anticipation of the guaranteed headache he was going to get in the upcoming 23 seconds.
“I missed you, too!” The blonde started pouting. “What’s up with the uncalled-for hostility?”
“Really?” He stared right at her. “With an entrance like that, which usually means a lot of work on my end, it’s very called for.”
“It seems a lot more than usual!”
“That might be because of what you did to Ellie.” He let out a defeated sigh.
“I SHOWERED HER IN NOTHING BUT LOVE!” Sophia took offense to the way he worded his sentence.
“I’m talking about the part where you’re teaching her magic.” Menzor shook his head. “It’s not helping her rebellious phase.”
“Is our princess a little mischievous?” The blonde’s expression turned smug.
“Every single time I leave my office, she suddenly jumps out from behind a potted plant and hits me with a blast of air before immediately disappearing again. Afterward, I have to fix my hair and clothes while explaining to my retainers what happened and why Ellie can use chantless magic."
“To be fair, fixing your hair shouldn’t take that long, no?” She took a glance at the king’s ever-so-slightly receding hairline.
“Oi.” The aura around Menzor suddenly turned cold.
“Ah, okay, I admit, that was stepping over the line.” The blonde threw up her hands. “I apologize for that.”
“Any sort of hair loss is your fault in the first place! You've made me age at least 20 years already, and constantly rubbing my temples from coping with the things you do is far from helping." He still sounded quite upset.
“Ahaha, sorry about that.” Saying so, Sophia walked up to his desk, reached over it, and placed her hand on top of the king’s head. A moment later, it was briefly bathed in a pale blue light before the blonde let go of his head again and sat down on the chair at the opposite side of the desk.
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“What did you just do?” His anger turned into confusion.
“Don't worry about it!” She just smiled at him. “You’ll see tomorrow~.”
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
“You should have a better outlook in life!” The blonde was still smiling.
“You’re making it really hard for me to try!” He was not.
"By the way, it's your fault that Ellie is playing tricks on you, you know?" Sophia dropped the topic.
“How is that my fault?”
“She just wants attention.” She shook her head a couple of times. "She's upset that you don't spend enough time with her. Before, she gave you the cold shoulder in return and now, it's mischievous magic.”
“…” Menzor hung his head in return. “It’s not easy being a king, you know?”
“You have more than capable retainers." The blonde didn't accept that. "You don't have to be a king all day, every day. Be a dad for an hour or two a day and more on the weekends."
“You might have a point there.”
“I not might have a point. I do have one.” She stared right at him. "And if you disagree, I'll personally make sure you go fully bald before the month is over. I’ll teach Ellie more than just mischievous magic, too.”
“Yes, you are right.” He gave her a slight nod. "I'll make sure to find some time for her."
“Good.”
“Okay, I’ll do my best, but for now… Why are you here?” The king wanted to know the reason for her visit. “I’m sure it wasn't for reprimanding me. I hope.”
“I mean, that’s always a good reason, but you are right. That wasn’t the issue.” Sophia gave him a cheeky smile for a moment. “We’ve arrived at the next city for the portal project.”
“Ohh!” His mood improved significantly, and he leaned forward on the chair he was sitting in to show his interest. “Which city is it?”
“No idea.” The blonde shrugged. "I forgot the name the moment I heard it."
“Is your head okay?!” He got loud.
"I don't like how many people are asking that."
“Is there anything notable about the city that could help me?” He just continued.
"After we left the previous place where we placed a portal, whose name I also don't remember, we eventually found a massive mountain range.”
"You visited Sava, and there's a range a good bit north of it. From my knowledge, there shouldn’t be any city from my list in that area, though.”
“The city is on the other side of it.” Sophia shook her head. “We passed over the mountain range and continued our travels from there.”
“That one’s supposed to be impassable!” Menzor got loud. “That’s why there’s a terribly long road leading around it.”
“Are you really surprised that our group simply climbed over it?” She stared at him while shrugging again.
“Go on.” He noticed how stupid his reaction was. “Was there anything of interest up there? Your group is the first that ever passed it.”
“That’s not true.” She shook her head. “We found definite evidence that something or someone was up there before us. We found an artificially created tunnel through one of the mountains. No idea who or what, but it seemed like someone powerful was up there before.”
“I don’t like anything about that.” The king wasn’t a fan of how that sounded. “There are more of your kind?”
“How rude!” The blonde disliked his wording. “I mean, there’s Fey, Aura, and Fen in our group alone, who all could do that with ease. There surely are more like them out there.”
"A frightening thought." Menzor shuddered.
“Other than that, the mountain range was just cold and full of snow. I don’t really recommend it.” She hadn't been a fan of it, after all. “Oh, but in the middle of it, there was a stunning cherry blossom forest on a plateau. No idea how that worked out to be there, but I loved it a whole lot!”
“That is certainly interesting.” The king wasn't sure what to do with this information. “So, you crossed the mountain range and found a city nearby?”
“Yup.”
“If I assume you crossed the range in a straight line, it should be,-”
“I don’t do anything straight.” Sophia interrupted him while shaking her head.
“Haa… Well, even if not, the only option would still be Egona.” He just rolled his eyes while continuing. “Medium-sized city, relatively close to the foot of the range?”
“The name doesn’t ring a bell, but the place sounds like that, yeah.”
“Have you met the mayor already and told them about the project?”
“Anna and the others are currently with him.” She gave him a thumbs-up. “I came to get you so that you can explain the full plan to him. I simply can’t be bothered, after all.”
“You do know that you are the worst, right?” He slowly shook his head in return.
“I have heard that before, yes.” She shrugged. “I have to deny that claim, though. After all, it’s me who suggested the plan to better the entire kingdom. For that alone, I simply can’t be the worst. There might be some attitude issues that I have no plans of fixing, but I’m not the worst.”
“How are you that self-aware and still be the way you are?”
“Pure skill!”
“Haa…” He sounded more and more tired. “So, we have to head over there right now?”
“Exactly!” The blonde nodded. “Oh, before that, I need a full map of the entire kingdom.”
“What for?” Menzor looked confused.
“We’re trying to plan our route a little better and want to make sure not to miss any important places when we skip boring areas.”
“Ahh, that makes sense. Sure, that can be arranged. I’ll tell our head cartographer to have it prepared for you immediately.”
“Awesome!”
Once those topics were taken care of, Menzor informed some of his retainers about the situation before he left for Egona together with Sophia.