The couple was currently exploring the underground maze the wolves had built. Their progress was relatively moderate, though. They activated a few traps and got lost a couple of times by running in circles or reaching dead ends. The two were currently in a hallway that was connected to a jumbled mess of corridors that led up and down, made all kinds of weird zigzag turns, or simply made no sense at all and looked very confusing.

"Now that's the type of straight I can get behind." Sophia initially didn't want to take the straight path just because it isn't her style but this confusing mess resonated strongly with her for some reason.

"Ahaha."

"You don't think the wolves planned this, right?"

"What do you mean?" Maya tilted her head.

"Well, I'm pretty simple, right?"

"Yes."

"Hey... Hesitate at least a little!" She made a short pout before continuing. "Anyway, me making that straight joke wasn't that unexpected, was it? Aura was also there when I mentioned the dark side of homosexuality in my old world. Seeing how now the straight path was the only right one and everything else was just trolling us..."

"Hmm... I think you're reading a little too much into it. Well, then again, I wouldn't be surprised if she did it on purpose, though. She is a playful one." The cat-girl couldn't rule out the possibility.

"Alright, it was fun, so whatever~." Even though the topic was heavy in theory, there was no malice behind it, and they had a good laugh while playing around. "So, where should we go next?"

"Uhh..." She looked around, but there were so many paths that making a decision was impossible. "I'm not even going to try." Saying so, Maya closed her eyes and spun around a couple of times before eventually pointing to her right without looking. "That way!"

"God, why are you so perfect?" Sophia really liked the way her cat decided and how cute she was while doing so.

"Hehe." Maya, too, enjoyed being playful.

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Afterward, the two entered the corridor she had chosen on a whim. Unfortunately, it ended up being a dead-end right after the first corner.

"..."

"..." They went back to the hallway with an awkward expression.

"Let's, uhh... Let's try this one!" This time, Sophia chose a path by pointing at a random one, and they tried their luck again.

The two followed that way for a while. It twisted and turned a lot and was generally all over the place. It went up and down before leveling out again to continue in a zigzag way instead.

"You know, more than any of them doing a playful job at our straightness..." Maya looked around in the confusing corridor. "I more and more get the feeling Fen was just drunk when he made this area."

"That's, uhh... That's not an unlikely explanation, either." There was nothing she could say here.

"So, anyway, what do we do about this?" The cat-girl pointed at the slight problem the two were currently having.

"That's a good question." Sophia then, too, looked at the big hole at the end of the path they were following. It was so deep that with Maya's current illumination, they couldn't even see the bottom. It seemed just like a black void. "Jump?"

"How about no?"

"That's probably a better idea." Even the tiger wouldn't do something like that.

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"I guess we're heading back?"

"Hmm..." Sophia got closer to the hole and looked down.

"If you're actually going to jump now, I'll kill you if you survive."

"What?" There were all kinds of things she wanted to retort to in this sentence. "No, I just think there's something odd about this hole. It actually feels darker than it should be?"

"Isn't that just because it's really deep?"

"I don't know. Is it?" Sophia stared at it for another moment before snapping her fingers. Immediately after, the hole was bathed in a bright light.

"Eh?" The cat-girl was confused about what she saw. The hole actually wasn't even 15m deep, but its walls and ground were made with pitch black and smooth rock. Thanks to that, it only looked bottomless with little light.

"Our wolves sure are having fun with this maze." She was impressed. "Oh?" The tiger then noticed a small exit at the wall near the bottom of the hole.

"That's pretty clever."

"Yeah!" Sophia liked these kinds of things. "Seems like we have to jump after all, huh?"

"How about some stairs with earth magic instead?" She didn't feel like jumping down a 15m deep hole.

"Sure, knock yourself out."

"In other words, I have to make the stairs myself?"

"You think it, you do it."

"Alright." Maya got closer to the hole, closed her eyes, and concentrated for a few moments. A little while later, a couple of pedestal-like footrests around one meter apart from each other spiraled around the walls towards the bottom of the hole.

"Good work. Not really stairs, but it does the job nonetheless."

"Yeah, stairs seemed like too much work."

"A valid reason." Sophia's favorite one, actually.

Afterward, the two jumped on Maya's makeshift steps and reached the bottom of the hole in no time. There, the couple looked around to see what was going on.

"It looks a little like the basement Fen made." Maya touched the black walls. "No, they're actually way darker. Very interesting."

"I think this here is closer to obsidian or other volcanic rocks." She, too, touched the smooth and perfectly black surface. "Is the capital built on a volcano?"

"Not that I know. Though, we're quite deep... I think? Nobody would probably know about it."

"That's true. I hope it's inactive." Sophia casually said something worrisome.

"Scarry!"

"Well, if it's active, the capital would've noticed by now. There should be some frequent earthquakes if it is the case."

"Y-You're right..."

"Okay!" The tiger faced the dark tunnel inside the wall of the pitfall. "Wanna find out where this leads to?"

"Of course!" Maya was having a good time during their exploration. As there wasn't anything extraordinary happening, Sophia was relatively behaving herself, and the cat could let loose.

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It was a perfectly straight tunnel around 500 meters long and led to a gigantic cave. The path's exit was slightly elevated, so the two could perfectly overlook the dimly lit area.

"Seriously?" The cave had several supportive pillars, but it was easily 1km by 1 km wide. That wasn't the surprising part, though. Looking down, Sophia noticed that the entire floor was a gigantic actual maze made with roughly three-meter-tall walls. All of them were arranged at perfect 90° angles.

"Wait, didn't the two start building this maze once we moved in? How?" Maya was amazed by just how much the wolves did.

"Well, now we know why we've barely seen them lately."

"Fair point. Though, I thought they went on dates or something like that. There's a nice mood between them lately."

"Like when Aura and I immediately sold him out to save our skin earlier in the day?" The tiger let out a small chuckle.

"Idiot. You know what I mean."

"Yeah, they do feel closer. Maybe building a maze together is just their type of date? I mean, I'm exploring one with you right now, and I'm having a great time!"

"I don't think I can call exploring a dungeon a date... I'm still a girl, after all."

"I am one, too, though?"

"Yeah, I've noticed." The cat-girl looked at her from head to toe. "I'm very well aware of that~."

"Haha, no, I get your point. Even for me, that's a little eccentric. Well, it's fun and enjoyable, so I don't care what we call it."

"Yep~." She gave a big nod. "Let's have a date date in a café or something like that soon."

"Sounds great. Oh, how about we see if that bakery Kira told us about has a café attached to it?"

"That! Let's do that!" Maya was a big fan of the cake the queen brought with her the other day.

"Ehehe." Chuckling at how adorable Maya was for a moment, Sophia then looked at the maze beneath them again. "Wanna clear it?"

"Absolutely!"

"Good answer."

"Do you think the tunnel exit ended up being elevated on purpose? Maybe we're supposed to memorize the pathing of the maze?"

"Uhh..." The tiger took another glance at the gigantic 1 by 1km large thing. "You don't expect me to remember that, do you?"

"Well, it should help if we even memorize a little, right?"

"Sure."

The couple looked at the maze from above for around 15 minutes before eventually making their way down to it by ascending some stairs next to the exit of the tunnel they arrived from.

The entrance was a three-meter-tall gate, and the couple was immediately greeted by the choice of turning left or right after stepping through it.

"Alright, this way!" As the couple paid good attention and memorized a good part of it, they were confident with their decision as the two exclaimed the correct direction at the same time.

"Eh?" Unfortunately, the couple was pointing at the exact opposite paths. Clearing this maze might involve a bit more work than Sophia and Maya had previously anticipated.