Canir had finally left the group after a long night and day they spent together where they learned a lot. He didn’t go without a bang, though. After he received the letters Sophia wrote for her family, he finished filling up the crater with water, created a beach all around it, and restored the nature in the area to better than ever before. To make it even more impressive, the overseer did it basically in an instant.

“Tired...” The group was back in their mansion, and Sophia plopped down on one of the sofas in the living room with a long sigh.

“Yeah...” Maya felt similar as she sat down next to her while also leaning against the tiger’s body.

“You can say that again.” The wolves, too, agreed while they got comfortable on the white sheepskin rug. Everyone needed some rest.

“A visit of Canir is always an event...” Fen spoke out what everyone was thinking.

“That’s putting it lightly...”

"Seems like Canir also left a gift for you personally, my dear tiger." Aura looked at her.

"Hmm?" Sophia tilted her head.

"Your magic power, or authority, or whatever, feels the same as before the accident with your jaguar again. It might even be slightly higher."

"Seriously?!" She got loud. "He really wants me to play around with my full power for maximum entertainment, huh...?" After this revelation, everyone decided that they were too exhausted to deal with anything related to Canir right now.

----------------

“Tigers don’t hibernate, do they?” Sophia sounded exhausted, even after having lazed around on the sofa for quite a while. “I really would like to…”

“Ahaha… I wouldn’t say no to that, either.” Maya couldn’t blame her. “Let’s head to bed early today. It was a long and tiring day. Well, days.”

“Now that’s a plan.” The blonde sounded happy about the idea.

“We’ll have to visit the castle soon, though.”

“W-Why…?”

“Aura and I actually planned to teach Eluna some more, but other, more pressing matters stopped us from doing so.”

“Ahh…”

“Don’t worry, I have no intention to make you confess to the king about the lake or anything.”

“G-Good…”

“I mean, why should I? Despite that, you’ll accidentally spill the beans about it soon, anyway.”

“Urgh…” Sometimes, the blonde didn’t like how well Maya knew her.

“Hehe.” She let out a chuckle. “Why don’t you play with Ari while we’re there?”

“Oh, that sounds like fun! Wait, why are you suggesting that yourself?” She got a little dubious.

“Well, you like her in friend type of way, so there’s little I can or want to say. I want you to have friends, after all. A little bit less flirting would be nice, though.” The contents of the letters had a slight effect on the cat-girl.

“I’ll try my best!”

“Great! Also, it’s a good distraction from everything that has happened the last few days. I want to leave that behind us as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, me, too.” The tiger heartily agreed. “Well, I wanted to try and teach Ari some chantless magic, anyway. Might as well do that.”

“Don’t break her common sense too much, okay?”

“Sooo, I shouldn’t teach her…?” She tilted her head.

“The one doesn’t work without the other, does it?”

“Nope. Well, not with me, at least.” Sophia had no intention to even try denying it.

“Fair enough. Kind of, at least…” The cat-girl had mixed feelings about it. “Poor Ari, she was such a nice and grounded girl.”

“H-Hey! I’m not that much of a calamity.”

“Uhh...”

“Also, Ari’s strong. I bet she can handle me for a longer period of time before she breaks.”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“That sounds even worse compared to what I said…”

“A-Ah…” She paused for a moment. “No, I think her defense against my stupidity’s quite high.”

“That’s good to know.”

For the rest of the day, the group did nothing but laze around. The accident, the lake, Canir, and all the topics they talked about, had exhausted everyone quite a bit. Even dinner was taken care of by some takeout food that Fen had to get after he was chosen for it by majority vote. Afterward, once the couple had gotten their usual bath, the four chatted some more while relaxing in the living room before Sophia and Maya decided to head to bed. Fen and Aura then got comfy on their sheepskin rug, and the day came to an early end.

----------------

They took it easy on the following days, as well, but the group eventually made its way towards the castle to see everyone again. Except for Fen, that is. He decided to stay behind to work a little on the underground maze. Aura liked the idea and decided to join him once she was done with Eluna.

“Hey~.” Sophia had parted with the two and went to look for Ari. Thankfully, especially because of her boosted magic power now, the tiger had an easy time finding the jaguar with her detection magic.

“Oh, Sophia, welcome.” She lightly greeted her once she noticed the blonde’s arrival.

“Feeling fine again?” As it was the first time seeing each other after their little accident, Sophia was interested in how she was doing.

“Great! Better than new, even. It feels like the new magic really settled in now.”

“Happy to hear that.”

“What about you? I got a little worried because you didn’t visit the castle for a couple of days.”

“Ahh…” Sophia awkwardly scratched her cheek. “I was busy with some other, uhh… things. Nah, I’m also doing mighty fine." She naturally had no plans to tell her what exactly she had been busy with.

“That’s good to know.” The jaguar looked relieved.

“Yep." She nodded. "Are you free right now, Ari? Maya’s with Anna and the others to teach Eluna, and I want to play, too!”

“Well, you just said that Anna’s with them, too.” With the princess being busy, she had few other plans at the moment. “That should be answer enough, no?”

“Ahaha.”

“Do you have anything planned for us?”

“Not really, no.” That’s a foreign concept for the tiger, after all. “There are many options, though. We can chat for a bit, I’m still looking forward to getting taught the basics of cooking, or I could give you an introduction in chantless magic to test out your new powers.”

“I… I like all those options.” The jaguar couldn’t decide. “I really want to learn some chantless magic, but I want to chat a little first. There’s s-something up with Anna I’d like to get a second opinion on.”

“Did something happen?”

“She’s behaving a bit w-weird ever since our accident…” Her cheeks turned a bit red for some reason as she said that.

“Okay, we can absolutely do that. Should we head over to the garden? I really like the terrace there, after all.”

“Yes, that sounds lovely.” Ari gave her a slight nod. “Fall’s right around the corner, and it’s still unusually warm… We should enjoy the terrace as much as we still can.”

“Fall, huh…?” Sophia had learned some very interesting facts about that season she felt like addressing later, too, but the two went to the terrace first. There, the duo got comfortable and started chatting.

----------------

“Is there something up with it becoming fall?” Ari had noticed her reaction when the two changed location.

“A few things… First, I’m new to the region here, but I’ve heard a few times already that it gets quite cold around here… Is that really true?”

“No, quite is a very wrong description. Freezing fits waaay better..." She paused a moment while it seemed like she was shuddering. "Anna wanted to hibernate through fall and winter multiple times already, and I didn’t blame her for it once. The fireplace is my best friend during the cold seasons.”

“I hate the cold…” Sophia almost looked depressed. This explanation sounding rather familiar to her conversation with Maya not long ago didn’t make it any better, either.

“Who doesn’t?” Both were cats, after all.

“True. I already look forward to getting our fireplace in the mansion ready. I never had one of those before, and I can’t wait for it~.” They weren’t the most common things in her old world anymore.

“You’ll love it.”

“I’m sure about that. Anna was quite excited about it, too. Feel free to come over to our place whenever you feel like it. Unless you want to cuddle alone with the princess, that is~.”

“…” She paused for a moment, waited for her blush to ease, and then proceeded to ignore the blonde. “Thank you. We have a lot of them in the castle, but I’m sure it’s more fun to relax in front of it with you and Maya.”

“Yes.” Sophia agreed.

“I look forward to it.”

“Me, too.”

“Anything else wrong with fall?” Ari came back to the topic.

“Not really wrong, no. Far from it, actually. Maya’s birthday is in two weeks.”

“Oh, that’s nice!”

“It’s her first birthday after we met and became a couple… I’m a little nervous about it…”

“Oh, do you have anything planned?”

“I’m currently planning a plan.”

“Ahh…” The jaguar shared her awkward expression. “That sure sounds like you.”

“Ahaha…” She let out a dry laugh. “A gift shouldn’t be a problem. I have a couple of ideas for that already. Still… I want to do something special for her!”

“You sure are good with romance, huh? You’re adorable.” Ari was touched by her motivation.

“Y-You think so…? Thanks…” Sophia got bashful. “It’s all still relatively new for me, but I try my best, and I occasionally don’t mess up…”

“Well, it’s working. I’d like to be around half as smooth as you when it comes to Anna… Oh, how about you cook Maya a fancy dinner on her birthday?”

“I can cook pasta, at best, and you suggest that I should do something fancy…?” The tiger thought the difficulty was way too high for her. “I love the idea, though.”

“We still have two weeks, right?” Ari suddenly sounded motivated. “If you really want it, we could make it until then. It might be hard, but I’m sure I could teach you enough for a great meal.”

“Really?! Would you do that for me?!” Sophia got excited.

“If you help me with Anna, too, I’m more than happy to give you a hand.”

“Thank you very much! I’ll do my best to make something special for Maya!” She sounded really happy. “Alright, so, what’s up with the princess?” As she got even more than she wanted, the blonde wanted to take care of Ari now.

“She’s gotten super clingy lately!”

“Lately…?” Sophia tilted her head.

“Well… Even more. Way more!”

“That sounds like a win to me, though.”

“It’s embarrassing, though… And it’s hard to stay unaffected by her, well… affection…”

“Just embrace and enjoy it~.”

“I-I’m trying… It’s n-nice, after all, but… I’d like to know what happened to her…”

“Okay, that’s fair.”

Afterward, their little chat turned into full-blown girls-talk where the two tried to find out what was going on with the princess, which might take a while.