A few days ago, the girls went shopping together to get a new wardrobe for the ongoing fall season. It was also a fine distraction from all the chaos that was going on lately. One of those chaotic events was about to catch up to them, though. It was the day of Kira's birthday, so Anna and Ari finally had to return to the castle after having run away a week ago when everyone had heard their loud first night as a couple.

“I SOOOO don’t want to go home!” The girls, in their new clothes, were together in the living room while listening to Anna’s loud complaining. “It’s going to be WAAAY too embarrassing!”

“I have to agree.” While not quite as loud, Ari’s expression looked even worse. “How about we have a nice day in peace here…?”

“No.” Sophia, the voice of reason she always is, shook her head. “You two promised to show up at Kira's birthday, and that will happen. Why? Because I promised her.” She was a little scared of the queen.

“M-Mother is one thing, but all the others in the castle… C-Can’t she come here instead…?”

“The queen?” The blonde tilted her head. “To celebrate her birthday?”

“YES!” Anna just nodded a few times.

“How about no?” She didn’t like the plan.

“How about yes?!” The princess had no intention of backing down.

“Shut up already…” Maya also had enough. “You know perfectly well that we’ll bring you to the castle today.”

“Urgh…” She just hung her head. “I don’t wanna!”

“If I can guarantee that I’ll bring the two of you into the castle and your room without anyone noticing, will you stop complaining?”

“As that is completely impossible, sure… I’d feel a lot better…” Anna didn’t believe her claim.

“Alrighty, let’s go!” Sophia raised her fist and jumped off the sofa she was sitting on. “We wasted enough time already!”

“And just how do you want to get us inside the castle without anyone noticing?” The princess stared right at her fellow tiger.

“Have you forgotten about my portals already?”

"A-Ah…” She had.

“Also, I think I forgot to mention it, but I already placed a portal in your dressing room in the castle when we visited Ellie the other day."

“E-Eh?!” Anna and Ari hadn't expected that.

“That’s why, I can guarantee to bring you to your room completely unnoticed~.”

“Y-You tricked us!”

“I sure did~.” Sophia didn’t feel the least bit guilty.

“Sounds like today’s going to be quite interesting.” Chloe was enjoying their conversation.

“I BEG TO DIFFER!” Anna had a different opinion on the matter.

“Sophia, I want to hear about everything tonight when you get back!” The fox-girl simply ignored her.

“Eh?” The blonde tilted her head. “What do you mean? You’re coming with us!”

“H-Huh?!” Chloe looked extremely confused. “I-I can’t go to the birthday of the queen!”

“I am pretty sure Kira won’t mind. You don’t have to worry about it, right?” Sophia glanced at the still panicking princess.

“N-No, highly unlikely… Mother likes to meet new people… WAIT!” She suddenly got louder again. “Actually, PLEASE come with us, Chloe!”

“W-Why…?”

“You’re easily as exciting and distracting as Sophia, so you might be able to pull some attention away from Ari and me!" She had very selfish intentions.

“I’m not sure how I should feel about this…”

“See it as an opportunity to visit the castle and meet many new and kinda interesting people.” Maya smiled at her. “Who knows, maybe you’ll meet your future partner there.”

“You think so…?” The fox-girl looked right at her.

“It still sounds fun even besides that, doesn’t it…?”

“…” She stared at the cat-girl for a few moments. “Yes, you might be right.”

“I’m sorry…” After the stare, Maya felt the need to apologize. "The weather is quite nice today, and the castle gardens are amazing with the fall foliage. It's worth it for that alone!"

"Fennyfenny and Aura are also in the garden there right now, judging by my detection magic. We could join them and have a picnic once everything else calms down a little.” Sophia also tried to sell her on the idea.

“Okay, that does sound like a fun time!” Chloe’s mood became cheery again.

“Alrighty for real now!” The blonde raised her fist again. “Let’s finally head out!”

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Anna and Ari kept protesting for a good while longer, but the other three had enough of them soon enough, grabbed their hands, and dragged the couple downstairs to the portal. Stepping through it and another one inside Sophia’s extra dimension, they ended up in the princess’ dressing room before long.

“Wow, the room of a princess sure is something else!” The moment they came out of the dressing room, Chloe looked at everything with sparkling eyes. “It’s the same size as my entire treehouse in the elven village!”

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“Okay! Maya, let’s go and visit Ellie! You three have fun, too~!” Sophia grabbed her hand and wanted to have a good time with her!

“W-Wait!” Ari immediately grabbed the blonde's other free hand and stopped her from moving. “If you leave now, I’ll never forgive you!”

“So needy…” She let out a small sigh. “Okay, what do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know!”

“Maya, any suggestions?” Sophia faced her again.

“I quite liked the Ellie idea you had.”

“So did I, but Ari is too selfish to let us go…”

“H-Hey!” The selfish jaguar raised her voice. “We would really appreciate the help…”

“Fine… Your pleading gaze is quite powerful…” She gave up. "It still involves me leaving, though. Chloe, any interest in having a tour through the castle?"

“Sounds fun!” The fox-girl seemed to like the idea. “Who’s the tour guide?”

“Me!” Sophia pointed at herself.

“On second thought, I think I rather stay here and try to mentally support Ari and the princess.”

“That’s so rude!” She started pouting.

“W-Well… you got lost multiple times in a village that is much smaller than the castle and which only has three streets…”

“…” Sophia went silent for a moment. “I-I already know where I want to go with you!”

“Hmm…” Chloe looked at her for a moment longer but was eventually convinced by her determined expression. “Okay, let’s go exploring!”

“Great!” The blonde was smiling again. “Maya, you stay with the runaway couple. I don’t trust them being unsupervised.”

“And I don’t trust the two of YOU being unsupervised!” The cat-girl had some reservations about the plan.

“That’s exactly what I’m going for, though. We need to be a little unrestrained this time~.”

“And my feelings about the idea just went from bad to worse.”

“I like it!” Anna was a fan of whatever her fellow tiger had in mind.

"Perfect!" That was enough of a confirmation for Sophia. "Let's go!" Afterward, she grabbed Chloe's hand, and the two disappeared before Maya could protest any more.

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“By the way, what’s the plan?” While Chloe and Sophia were walking through the castle, the fox-girl eventually wanted to find out what was even going on.

“No idea.”

“Ehh…?”

“I was hoping to come up with something on the fly. I mean, I don’t know why, but I’m naturally drawn to chaos for some reason, and you being similar to me, there's a chance this condition will become even stronger.”

“I see…” She just nodded while pretending to understand.

“Oh, that looks promising!” Saying so, the tiger increased her pace again while dragging the fox-girl with her. A little while later, the blonde accidentally ran into another, quite high-ranking tiger.

“Sophia?” Menzor tilted his head while looking at the duo. “I didn’t know you’re in the castle?”

“I have my ways to get in here undetected~.”

“I’m not sure if I approve of that…” He let out a small sigh. “I am sure that there’s nothing I can do about it, though…”

“Exactly!” She just gave him a big smile.

“By the way,” He decided to give up. “Who is this fox-girl? Even for me, that’s a rather rare encounter.”

“Ah, right!” She had almost forgotten about that part. “Chloe, the dear king of this nation, Menzor. Menzor, the newest friend of mine and the fluffiest fox-girl you’ll ever see, Chloe.”

“H-Huh?!” Chloe’s eyes grew wide. “T-The king?!”

“Pleased to meet you.” Menzor just showed her a slight but dignified smile. “Well, meeting me, even inside the castle, must’ve been a surprise, huh? Then again, you’re friends with Sophia, so you should already be more than used to surprises, no?"

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” The girl in question raised her voice.

“It means exactly what I just said.”

“You win this round…”

“Ah, uhh… I’m honored to meet you, sir!” Chloe needed a moment to process the situation.

“Oh my, a formal and respectful greeting. That’s unusual lately.” He glanced at the blonde during the last part.

“Hey!” She got loud again. “I was very formal in the beginning!”

“It didn’t last overly long, though.”

“Do you wish for me to address you formally and with the due respect again, my eminence?”

“…” He just stared at her for a moment. “Please… Please continue as usual…” Menzor didn’t like it.

“Gladly!”

“So, what are you two doing…?” The king tried to get back to the initial question.

“I wanted to show Chloe the castle~.”

“I see…?”

“Anyway, how’s the mood? On the Anna and Ari topic, I mean. Do I need to kick someone out of the castle? You, for example?” She locked eyes with Menzor.

“N-No, there will be no need for that…”

“Really?”

“R-Really!” He nodded a few times. “I more than warned all of my ministers and aides about what will happen if they do anything to make them feel uncomfortable. Kira and Ari's mothers, including all the maids below them, have been doing the same with the remaining castle staff.”

“Sounds great!” Sophia smiled at him. “What about our dear king himself? How are his feelings on the matter?”

“He will do his best to not do anything inappropriate, either.” Menzor awkwardly scratched his cheeks. “I cannot guarantee that there will be absolutely zero awkward moments, though.”

“Are we okay with this?” The blonde then faced Chloe.

“Eh?” She wasn’t expecting to be involved here. “Well… it sounds like his majesty is trying his best, so… I mean, it’s kind of understandable that he just can’t completely ignore everything when he sees his daughter. It was quite the event, after all…"

"Alright, you got approved by Chloe. That means I'm okay with it, too!” Sophia gave him a thumbs-up.

“Thank you…?” The king looked a little confused again. “Wait, she knows about all this?”

“Chloe’s also staying in our mansion right now after we visited an elven village where we met her. She became friends with the two loud ones during their stay."

“Ah, I see. Wait, what…?” He noticed a very peculiar detail in her reply.

“Anyway, Anna and Ari are also in the castle right now.”

“Huh?!” This was enough to make him forget about the elven village for the time being.

“They’re with Maya in the princess’ room.”

“H-How…? Nobody ever mentioned anything about that!”

"As I said before, I have my ways to get people in and out of the castle unnoticed."

“Scary!” The king got loud.

"Go and visit them to get any awkwardness out before you and Kira see them together. You don’t want to say anything awkward when she’s with them, right?”

“T-That would be very bad!” Menzor’s expression visibly changed.

“Speaking of her, what is our dear queen up to right now?”

“Well, it is her birthday, so she’s constantly meeting people who want to congratulate her. We had a little reception in the morning where the brunt of people met her, but she is quite popular. She’ll probably be doing that all day. Kira decided against a party this year because it's always such a stressful event, but that backfired a little bit."

“Meeting all kinds of people all day long sounds like a major pain.”

“Well, as the king, I’m pretty much used to that.”

“Still sounds like a pain.” It didn’t make it any better for Sophia.

“I don’t disagree.” Menzor just gave her a slight nod. “Most of the time, I do like my job a lot, though. It did get a lot harder lately, though…” He glanced at the blonde during the last part.

"What's that supposed to mean?! What are you trying to imply here?!""

“Exactly what you think I’m implying!” He got louder again.

"Fair." She shrugged her shoulder and piped down. "That does mean she won’t notice if I borrow the royal bedroom or whatever it is called for half an hour, right?”

“Why…?” The king tilted his head while looking somewhat confused.

“I want to give her a little present! I plan to fit the room with the underfloor heating.”

"Oh, she'll be pleased about that!"

“Great!”

“Though… Could you go a little easy on the intensity? I do like being warm, but Ellie’s room is WAY too much…”

“Would Kira be happy about that, though?” Sophia had something against his suggestion.

“Urgh…” He hung his head. “The right side of the bed… That’s my side… At least under there, please don’t make it too warm…”

"I'll see what I can do~." She looked pretty cheeky while answering him. “Let’s go, Chloe!” Sophia grabbed her hand again and dragged her off.

“Eh? Ah, sure!”

“Our bedroom is that way…” Menzor pointed in the exact opposite direction of the corridor.

“…” The blonde went silent, turned around, and started walking in the opposite direction with the fox-girl.

“Take a left at the second turn and then a right after the third, and you'll be right in front of it."

“Thank you very much!” Chloe was the one who answered him.

“M-Make sure to visit Anna’s room…” Sophia looked a lot less smug now.

Afterward, the duo parted ways with the king for good and went in their own directions.