Sophia and the group returned to the capital and talked with the king. She told him about her plan to travel while also being in the capital by using a magic that lets her change places quickly whenever she's needed. He naturally needed time to think about it and, most importantly, understand it, but he wasn't against it. Sophia also accidentally told them about Ellie's vast magical powers. Her parents weren't aware of it because their daughter wasn't able to use magic yet. This caused quite a bit of a shock, and everyone decided to take a break.
The group was currently relaxing in the garden of the castle. The maids had served the couple some tea while the two wolves lay sprawled out on the freshly cut lawn while bathing in the rays of the sun.
"Not going to lie, if I wouldn't care about traveling and exploring the world, this life wouldn't be so bad." Sophia took a sip from her tea with a relaxed expression as she overlooked the beautiful garden with its many colorful flowers.
"While I find myself agreeing at the moment, I would probably get bored in about three days."
"True." She shared Maya's opinion. "Not sure if I would even last that long."
"Yeah, I can't imagine you sitting still for three days."
"Impossible." There was no reason for her to deny it. "Although, it's about to get even livelier, so..."
"What do you mean?"
"Huh?! Sophia, Maya!? You came back!?" Another tiger-girl, this time with more orangy hair, had entered the garden. It seemed like princess Anna just came back from school because she was still wearing her uniform.
"Hey there, Anna~." Sophia had already known that she would arrive at this moment. "Yeah, we came back a few hours ago. Already back to school? Didn't you guys arrive yourselves not too long ago, either?"
"Yes, but Father immediately sent me back to the academy because I was gone for so many days. It's sooo unfair!"
"Tough luck."
"Absolutely! Wait, that's not important!" She suddenly raised her voice even more.
"I see what you mean now..." Maya sighed as she looked at Sophia, understanding what she meant by livelier earlier. "Want to sit down, princess?" She offered Anna the free seat at the table the couple was sitting at.
"Ah, thank you." Doing as told, she sat down next to the couple." I... wasn't sure if I would see any of you ever again..." She sounded both relieved and sad when thinking about it.
"The royal family sure likes to overreact. I just needed a little time to clear my head and think. That's why I had Maya excuse me for the time being. Though, that might've been a mistake..." She remembered how the cat-girl told the king about it. "She sucks at it."
"I-I already told you I'm sorry! I just panicked..."
"So, it really was just a feeble excuse, huh?"
"Of course! I'm still around a week away from it even now. More importantly, I would never tell the king of all people that I'm on my period! Not to mention that I'm rarely affected by it to such a degree. Actually, my cat here probably used that excuse because two weeks prior to her excuse, she felt like dying because of the very same reason." Sophia was still a little upset about the pretext she used.
"H-Hey!"
"I see... You should think a little more next time, Maya."
"Urgh..." She had no allies. "I don't like when you two bond... Especially when it's over something like that..." Because what happened during the war was so over the top, the awkwardness between the tigers wasn't as apparent anymore. It helped Anna getting somewhat over it for the time being.
"Hehe." Sophia let out a small chuckle.
"…" Bonding, now that it was over between them, still hurt a bit, though. "A-Are you two... well, you four going to stay?" The princess glanced at the wolves napping side by side on the lawn.
"Err, that's a little complicated. I'm still discussing the details with your father. We'll definitely be around a lot, though."
"Really?! That's great!" Anna seemed really happy. "A-Ah, I'm glad about both of you, okay? I would've missed you, too, Maya. N-No matter what happened between Sophia and me, or rather, not happened... I still consider both of you my friends."
"I wasn't going to say anything." The cat-girl looked perfectly calm as she took a sip from her tea.
"That's unexpected..." She remembered her to be more jealous.
"Well, Sophia told you how she feels, and I unconditionally trust her. Other than that, you're a nice girl, princess, so I'm glad you want to get along with us."
"Okay, what happened?" Anna immediately became suspicious.
"W-What do you mean?"
"You two seem different... Somehow calmer... more at peace... Especially that uber-jealous cat."
"Y-You're imagining things..." Maya naturally had no intention to tell her what happened, what made them like this.
"Really now?" She glanced at the two for a moment. "Well, whatever, it's a good thing."
"Sure is." The couple answered at the same time.
Once the cat-girl managed to divert her attention, the trio chatted for a while longer. Unfortunately, Anna had to leave at some point because she had a couple of school-related duties to take care of.
Luckily, nothing else happened anymore, and the group leisurely spent the rest of the day doing nothing. On the following day, Sophia was a little busier, but in a way she didn't mind.
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"So... phia, let's play!" The little princess, who has slight problems with pronouncing the blonde tiger-girl's name, had missed her and wanted to spend some time with her.
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"Of course!" Being really attached to Ellie as well, she directly agreed. As everyone was in the garden again, the two opted to play tag. As she naturally couldn't go all out as she did in the game of tag with Maya not too long ago, Sophia obviously severely handicapped herself.
"Yay!" The princess immediately began to chase the taller tiger, and both disappeared somewhere in the garden before long.
"Those two..." Maya sighed as she watched them while sitting on the same terrace as yesterday while enjoying yet another cup of tea.
"It's adorable, isn't it?" Queen Kira was sitting at the same table and looked in the same direction.
"It might be... It's a c-complicated feeling, watching them..."
"Seeing your future?"
"E-Eh?!" She almost spat out her tea. "N-No... I think I already told you we're not at that point..."
"Really? You two definitely have changed compared to a week ago, though."
"Urgh..." She got a little embarrassed over how absolutely everyone had already noticed that something between the couple had changed.
"Not one wasted thought? About a kid, that is."
"Not really... We're both too young in my eyes, and while I admit that it doesn't seem like it, the two of us haven't even been dating for that long. Also, Sophia and I want to freely explore the world right now."
"I see."
"Although..." Maya glanced at Sophia playing with the little princess in the distance. They had switched places at some point, and Ellie was running away while being chased by the blonde tiger, who was, for some reason, unable to catch the girl.
"Although?"
"It's, uhh... reassuring to know that she'll be a good... m-mother..."
"You're right. That's always good knowledge to have." Kira agreed. "She definitely will be. Though, I have the feeling she would be very overprotective."
"Yep." She didn't even need to think about that possibility. "A-Anyway, did sleeping over Ellie's magic power help? You and His Majesty were both quite shocked about it, after all." She desperately wanted to change the topic.
"Yes... it's as you said. It has no real downsides, so we're actually really happy for her. Still... don't get me wrong, Maya, but I hope she doesn't get quite as... eccentric as your Sophia..."
"Oh no, don't be sorry! I'll pray for you that it doesn't happen!" The cat-girl wasn't the least bit offended. "Well, while I admit I have my moments, I still think I'm somewhat normal. Ellie should be alright."
"We also don't understand where it comes from. Menzor and I have relatively large magic powers but even combined, it's nowhere close to it."
"I don't think that's always how it works. While I don't know about Fen's or Aura's family and Sophia... Well, she doesn't have any family she could tell me about the magic power they had... My parents are completely normal. My father actually has barely enough power for everyday magic."
"I-, I see..." The queen was a little affected by Sophia's part of the story, unable to know why Maya worded it like that.
"Though, there might be some drastic change in Ellie's life with so much magic, after all..."
"E-Eh?!" Naturally, Kira didn't like this turn.
"It's about the correlation between magic power and your age..."
"Ahh..." She looked relieved. "The royal family knows about it, don't worry."
"Do you also know to what extent it affects someone?"
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know how it really works myself because I haven't known about it for so long either, but all of us, Fen, Aura, Sophia, and I, we're at a point with our power where we stopped aging at all. I mean, I'm five years older than Anna, and yet I still look younger. Sophia's even a year older on top... We grew up with normal speed, but we basically stopped at our current age."
"W-What...?"
"I doubt it's the exact same for Ellie because she still has a lot less power than I have, but... I wouldn't be surprised if she gets to the age of Anna and stays with those looks for a looong while. I would imagine that she'll be quite similar to what we know about elves in that regard. Someone with a youthful look and who's very long-lived."
"R-Really...?" The queen seemed overwhelmed.
"Yeah, sorry... It's kinda hard to wrap your head around, I know..." Maya had gone through the same, after all.
"Y-Yes... I guess it's a good thing...? Staying young, that is."
"Depends on who you ask, I guess... Sophia would've loved to age another year or two."
"A-Ah..." Kira wasn't sure what to say.
"Well, if she really wants to, I'm sure she could invent some magic to mature at least parts of her body." Maya was well aware that Sophia can do that already, very well, but she didn't feel like telling her that much.
"She's quite the outrageous one, isn't she?"
"Always has been."
"Still, Ellie will become significantly older than anyone in her family, huh...? In a way, that's pretty sad... Though, as a mother, I'm also happy that she most definitely won't go before me... Stay with her in that future, okay?"
"Do you really think Sophia would ever leave her on her own? And I mean ever."
"Glad to hear." She sounded ever so slightly relieved. "I wonder what that means for our country, too. They know that the tigers get older than most, but this is something else entirely."
"Imagine her taking over the throne in the future to become the Eternal Queen."
"A-Ah..." Kira's expression turned very awkward.
"W-Well, enough of that..." Maya felt like changing the topic. "Are there any news around Sophia's... project?"
"M-Menzor met the Minister of Housing this morning to discuss which kind of property we can offer."
"Minister... property...? Isn't that a little over the top?"
"Not at all. She won a war on her own, and above all, she's more or less part of the royal family as a fellow tiger. Anything less than a mansion doesn't work for publicity reasons alone."
"S-Seriously?! For my girlfriend to be treated like that..."
"Not just Sophia. You, as her partner, have basically the same standing as her."
"Ehh...? My parents will have a heart attack the next time I see them..."
"They don't know her?"
"Indirectly... I told them about going on an adventure to train my magic with an interesting girl, but I omitted a couple of... details." Details that didn't exist yet because she thought Sophia was a demon back then. Obviously, Maya couldn't tell her that, though.
"Oh my, good luck with that."
"T-Thanks..."
"The minister wanted to get back to Menzor soon. You might get to visit a few options in the afternoon."
"I doubt that..." Maya glanced at the two tiger-girls who were still chasing each other through the garden. "I think today's Ellie Day for her."
"You... might have a point."
----------------
They chatted for a while longer while watching the two playing in the garden, but those tiger-girls eventually came back to the terrace for some reason.
"Maya!" Ellie seemed to be excited for some reason.
"Y-Yes?!" Not expecting this, her voice cracked. The cat-girl hadn't had much interaction with the little princess yet, so she was surprised about the turn of events.
"So... phia told Ellie you are reeaaally good at tag!"
"Am I?"
"Queen of tag, So... phia said!"
"Really?"
"You sure are." The bigger tiger chimed in. "You definitely earned the title when we played the other day."
"I see... Well, I did go all out back there..."
"Maya, play with Ellie and So... phia!"
"Ehh...?"
"Come on, it's fun!" Sophia also wanted her to join.
"Hrmn..."
"Please~." Both tigers looked at her with pleading eyes.
"... Fine." She couldn't say no to them. "Give me a minute to finish my tea, and I'll join, okay?"
"Yay!" The two seemed happy and went back to playing.
"Bad with kids?" Kira noticed her slight reluctance.
"I, uhh, wouldn't say that... I just never interacted with them much before, and I'm not really sure how to act around them..."
"Just look at Sophia, be friendly, and let her win after a bit of struggling."
"I guess..."
"Why don't you take it as a test?"
"Test?"
"Well, we saw that Sophia has the potential to be a good parent. How about you try to find out what your chances are?"
"Y-You... really like this topic, don't you?"
"Very much!"
"..." Maya needed a moment and gulped down her tea. "A-Anyway, I promised them, and I'm bored, so I'll play with them." She stood up and walked towards the other two before turning around again. "And that's the only reason!"
"Have fun~." Kira just waved at her.
The cat-girl joined the two tigers and played together with them. In the beginning, Maya was a little awkward and reserved around Ellie, but it didn't last long. They got along unsurprisingly well because they love the same thing, Sophia. She also discovered that the little princess is just a bundle of joy one simply has to spoil. Maya finally understood why Sophia was so taken by her. The three played together for a long while, and Ellie was crowned as the new queen of tag at the end of the day. The only regret the cat-girl had was when she looked at Kira and saw the warm expression in her eyes while she watched the couple as they played with her daughter.