While the couple was relaxing in the bakery they found, Anna eventually arrived in the city and managed to find them. She also knew the owner because, as it turned out, she was a magic instructor at the royal castle before wanting to have a quieter life. Although, after hearing what stunts Sophia's pulling, Eluna wanted to know more about it and decided to return to the capital for the time being. A short while later, the king also arrived in the city, and Anna dragged off the blonde tiger-girl because he had tasked the princess to find the couple.
"I still don't wanna~!" While walking through the city, Sophia couldn't stop complaining because she didn't want to meet the king after going so crazy on the battlefield.
"Stop complaining already! If you don't want to deal with bothersome stuff, stop overdoing it whenever you do, well, anything."
"You know I can't do that, Maya! It's not like I'm doing it on purpose! It just kind of happens all the time..."
"That's not a very solid defense."
"I am well aware of it!"
"Well, you'll always have to face the consequences if you don't get it together."
"Then I'll forever have to deal with it!" Sophia had no intention to change or believe she even could.
"Sounds rough."
"Absolutely!"
"Are they... fighting...?" Anna wasn't sure how to interpret their conversation.
"I think they're just having fun." Eluna didn't see a problem in the couple's interaction. "If anything, they're flirting."
"Really...?"
"Yeah, teasing Sophia is fun~." Maya answered her with a playful tone in her voice.
"Yep, I'm just playing along~." The blonde sounded the same.
"Besides, if Sophia wouldn't want to deal with his Majesty for real, she could just literally disappear without even me being able to do anything to stop her. She just wants to complain because she really likes to do that and maybe get some more attention from us that way."
"I sure do! And so, I will! I reeeally don't wanna~! Can't we just go back to the capital? I miss Ellie!"
"Just get going." The playfulness in the cat-girl's voice wasn't as pronounced anymore.
"Fine, but I won't be overly cooperative nor particularly helpful in this meeting!"
"Sooo, business as usual...?" There was a lot of sass going on with her today.
"..." Sophia stopped talking.
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The group continued to walk through the city to meet the king. The blonde thought for a moment to go in a different direction because she didn't think anyone other than she herself would actually know where he is, but Menzor, unfortunately, had told his daughter beforehand that they should meet up in the mayor's mansion.
Arriving there, the group had no problems getting past the guards. Not only did the king and the mayor apparently inform them beforehand, but a group with two tiger-girls also didn't leave much to speculation, anyway. The group was immediately escorted to a big conference room that sounded extremely busy from the outside. Once the door of the room opened, all eyes immediately fell on the group.
"Alright, I showed my face. Okay, see you all tomorrow, bye-bye!"
"Stop right there, Sophia!" King Menzor didn't even give her enough time to turn around.
"Nice try." Anna had to give it to her.
"Alright... fine. I'll stay."
"You better be... hmm? Wait, Eluna?!" Menzor seemed angry but immediately became confused when he saw the castle's old magic instructor in the group. "What are you doing here... or rather, why are you with the girls? What did they do this time?!"
"I am 100% innocent!" Sophia noticed that he was staring at her and got defensive. "Maya and I just wanted to get some food and ended up in her bakery. Anna only later told us that she's someone important."
"It's somehow still your fault." The princess wasn't helpful. "Granny Eluna heard about Sophia's ridiculous magic and got really interested."
"Ahh... today's one of these days where I have no allies, I see..." The blonde girl finally looked like she gave up. On everything, that is.
"Excuse me, your Majesty, even though I didn't plan to come immediately, I somehow ended up going with the flow. I got very curious about this child's magic and how her presence has the chance to change a lot of things, including the very foundation of the magic we all use and thought to know."
"Ahh, right... with everything that's going on, I almost forgot about that part." One could actually see his migraine getting worse.
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"Well, I really want to see where this is leading to, and so I decided to return to the capital for the time being. I'll gladly assist with things related to magic research during that time."
"Seriously?!" Menzor's face lit up. "You have no idea how much this would help me out!"
"It's an honor."
"Finally, a ray of hope for my headache..." He only whispered those words. "Eluna, I know it's not your field of expertise, but would you mind joining the after briefing of the war between the humans and us? I would love to get the input of as many people I can trust as possible."
"I don't mind, but I didn't participate, so I don't know how valuable my opinion would be."
"Don't worry, we took part in it and still have no idea how to add any valuable input..." One of the commanders answered her, while all the others nodded in confirmation.
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Once these formalities were taken care of, the group got seated at the massive table in the conference room, as well, and everyone's eyes immediately fell on Sophia again.
"Err... even if you all look at me like that, I have no idea how any of these debriefing thingies works… So, please don't expect anything..."
"Sophia..." The king held in a sigh. "First and foremost, thank you very much. Thanks to your efforts, the war immediately ended without even as much as an injury on our side. We were as confident as possible be to win the war, but we were prepared for injuries and even casualties. This outcome was beyond our expectations."
"Well," She scratched her chin. "I'm, of course, very happy about this, but it honestly wasn't the reason I took care of everything." She naturally was glad that no one on her side got hurt. "The thought-process of humans, or rather the distinct lack of it, tends to agitate me to no end. I had some confrontations with them in the past, and none of them ended well. From them wanting to sell me to certain establishments, to simply trying to use me, or rather my body on sight, all the way to outright killing me." Sophia obviously didn't mention that all this happened even before she became a part of the beastfolk, which probably would've made things with the humans ten times worse.
"..." The entire room fell silent. Aside from Maya, no one knew about it after all, and they didn't know how to react. Everyone looked really concerned, and especially Princess Anna had turned pale.
"Why are you all looking like that?" The girl in question tilted her head. "After you saw what I did on the battlefield, do you really think any of them actually had success in their tries? The one human who got a little too close and tried to touch me, I basically crushed every bone his entire arm."
"Haa..." Even though it was obvious in hindsight, everyone still let out a relieved sigh.
"Afterward, I almost killed a bunch of them and barely stopped myself from destroying an entire city of theirs, buuut..."
"..." Silence again, now for a different reason, though.
"I don't think anyone could blame me, right?" Her innocent smile while she cutely tilted her head didn't make the situation any less extreme. "So, then I found out that those very humans actually try to kidnap the members of the beastfolk, people who are dear to me and treated me well. It made me upset. The same guys who declared war on us. They wanted to kill us, enslave the children, do inexplicable things to them just because they think they have the right to do so based on the twisted audacity the human race has about their imagined superiority. All of this led to what happened on the battlefield. I went from being upset to actually angry. If anyone wants to blame me for anything in that regard, please speak up now."
"..." No one dared to say even a single word, and that was not just because of the pressure she was radiating.
"Alright, I know that my methods are far from perfect, I'm sure there would've been more elegant methods to deal with them, and I hate how my emotions can get the better of me... Once I calm down, I feel disgusted with myself for a while, but I still regret nothing, absolutely zero. If anything, now I think I let them off too easy." There were a lot of different emotions in her voice.
"..." Even though she said not to expect anything, everyone was holding their breath during the speech of the blonde tiger-girl.
"I honestly think this world would be a better place without humans around because I have yet to see a redeeming feature of them. I thought of getting rid of them more than once, and I even think I threatened the human commanders I would do it if they don't listen to me..." She made a slight pause. "I know how all that sounds. I also know what most people in this room are thinking because, while I'm dense, I'm not stupid. Can we trust this girl? or She's dangerous."
"Err..." The king and his commander awkwardly looked at each other.
"I don't blame any of you. I am dangerous. Very. Okay, I can be." Sophia had no intentions to deny it. "Let me ask you something, though. If any of you would have the power to protect everyone dear to them, their family, friends, nation. Their entire race. You have the power to effortlessly repel any foe without having to fear any sort of consequences because they can't even scratch you. Would you have done anything else from what I did? I know it's hard to imagine because I see how my power is far from normal to most of you, but be honest here."
"No..." One of the commanders spoke up after a while. "If I had such powers, I would've done exactly the same..."
"I'm... actually unsure if I would've spared them." Another one joined. "Though, the state the soldiers were in afterward… Maybe death would be sparing them…?"
"I am sorry, Sophia." The king suddenly apologized. "You are right. Many called you dangerous, and quite honestly, I agree."
"It's fine." She took no offense. "As I said, I thought as much. If anything, I, uhm, I'm sorry, but I would've doubted your competence as a king if you didn't."
"No, it's alright. But! Personally, I never doubted that I can trust your intentions. My men just have to ask this question, no matter the circumstances. I can feel how you genuinely care about people dear to you, including our folk and my very family. My wife's very fond of you, and both my daughters, well..." He stopped midsentence. "I'm confident in saying that something like that wouldn't be possible for any shady people. I instinctively knew that, as long as we don't anger you, you're our best friend."
"Yep, most of the time, I'm the most easygoing person you'll ever meet. Unless you do something to warrant it, I won't ever do anything to you."
"I think we can all agree on that now."
"Yes." The commanders nodded. "We have to be cautious, and quite honestly, after meeting your two wolf companions and saw you getting angry, most of us were terrified. After listening to your speech and thinking about it, though, you are without a doubt an ally of us. Thank you very much!" One of the jaguar commanders took it onto him to speak for everyone.
"As I said, I did what I did to satisfy my own sense of justice, not to do anyone a favor, but you're welcome."
"Alright!" King Menzor clapped his hands once. "This debriefing got slightly emotional... I think it's best to stop for the day. Everyone here needs some good rest and recover... mentally."
"Okay!" Sophia immediately sprang up. "Bye!"
"See you tomorrow." The King looked at her. "There are still a lot of things we need to discuss, and we want you to be present for that."
"Fine..."
Once she was finally good to leave, the blonde tiger-girl immediately fled the scene while Maya followed her.
"This girl..." Watching her with a sigh, Menzor eventually turned around to face Eluna, who seemed more than a little lost. Unfortunately, his day was far from over.