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Chapter 131
🕑 Added 2024-08-08 17:33:27 +0000 UTC---
Chapter 131
The group arrived in Egona, a beastfolk city near the mountain range they crossed, and met the mayor there to tell him about the portal connection plans. As Sophia had no intention of explaining anything, though, she went to get the king from the capital to have him do it instead.
“What a fun day!” The group was back in their cottage, where Sophia let out a comfortable sigh.
“I have the feeling that father would disagree with you there.” Anna awkwardly scratched her cheek in return. “He already looked tired when you brought him over, but even more so after he finished explaining the plan to the mayor.”
“He’ll be fine.” The blonde smiled at her. “Pay him a quick visit tomorrow, and you'll see the happiest man in existence~."
“What did you do?” The princess raised an eyebrow.
“I gave him a very nice gift that he’ll get to enjoy tomorrow.”
“Is it okay to have a bad feeling about this?” Anna looked at Ari next to her for confirmation.
“I’m glad that even you noticed.” The jaguar smiled at her. “Your track record with the king speaks a rather clear language, but let us hear what good you did for him.”
“Have you noticed how his hair is getting thinner?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “It began on the day he met you.”
“There’s just no way Anna hadn't caused him any hair loss before!” Sophia had no way of refuting her claim completely, but she didn’t believe her to be the root cause.
“Okay, you got me there.”
“I have been a bit of a menace before, yes." Anna sounded almost proud. “So, what did you do? Used some kind of magic to make it all fall out at once, so he gets over it?”
“I MAY BE FEISTY, BUT I’M NOT A MONSTER!” The blonde glared at him. “In fact, I did the exact opposite! I used a little bit of healing magic on his hair roots. They’ll be stronger than they’ve ever been. When he wakes up tomorrow, his hair will probably be twice as thick and grown all the way down to his waist.”
“Wow.” Ari seemed impressed. “Well, I think you should’ve asked him for consent beforehand, but it’s still a lovely gesture.”
“I definitely have to head home tomorrow!” Anna’s eyes were sparkling. “I need to see father with long and luscious hair!”
“Field trip tomorrow~.” The blonde smiled at her. “Speaking of, what are we going to do here?” She pointed at the pile of paper lying on the coffee table in front of the sofas in the living room. It seemed about 50 one-by-one-meter big sheets stacked on top of each other.
“Father really gave you a complete map of the kingdom, huh?” The princess looked at the topmost paper and noticed how a small part of her kingdom was drawn on it.
“It seems we have a puzzle on our hand, as well.” Ari joined her and glanced at the sheets below it, showing other landmarks while also lining up with the edges of some of the other sheets. “It will likely form a massive full map once we’ve laid out and arranged everything.”
“I’m glad we’ll get a detailed picture by it, though.” The blonde didn’t see an issue in it being so big. “I’d say it’s time for a map room! We have to hang it somewhere to get the best overview of it~.”
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“Well, it’s definitely no satellite map.” Sophia had created a small white room inside her domain where they put the map fragments on the wall after having puzzled them together. While looking at the whole picture, Steph only scratched her cheek while trying to understand what she was seeing.
“Quite true.” The blonde nodded with a questioning expression while tilting her head to the side. For the most part, the map was understandable enough, but the details were nowhere near as close as the sisters were used to. It looked a lot more artsy, as well. Rather than fully colored, it was primarily shades of brown as well as points of interest like cities, rivers, lakes, mountain ranges, and the like that had an actual drawing next to the rough shape of the landmarks.
“What’s a satellite?” Ari looked confused.
“Don't worry about it.” Sophia smiled at her. “It’s something from our old world.”
“Yeah.” Steph nodded. “It’s something humans created and sent into space. From there, it takes pictures of the entire planet and sends them back. That way, we know exactly how continents look and what’s on them in great detail.”
“Your humans sent something into SPACE?!” The jaguar got loud. “Your world is crazy!”
“True.” The sisters and Chloe agreed with her. They decided not to elaborate on the reason why they agreed, though.
"There are some things this world is kind of a step-down, huh?” Steph wasn’t sure how to feel about that. “The quality of living here is surreal, but modern quality of life has some things left to desire.”
“The issue is that one of them can negatively influence the other, though.” Sophia also had mixed feelings. “Makes you lazy, too.”
“That is a very fair point.”
“Also, we have magic here. It’s just a matter of creativity to create or recreate all kinds of comfort features. Once more people get these stupid artificial elements limitations of just being able to use one or two of them, like just fire or just water, out of their heads, things will become interesting! I'm sure there's a way to create super detailed maps with magic in one way or another!”
“Magic is the bestest!” The dog-girl agreed with her bottom line. “Well, anyway, it’s still understandable, so it’s no issue.” She looked at the map again. “So, where should we go first?”
“Hmm, to answer that, I first need to know where we're in relation to things." Sophia scanned every inch of the map while she was getting increasingly confused.
“We’re about here.” Ari walked over next to her and roughly pointed at the middle of the map. “You can see Egona, the city we just left, and the mountain range right next to that, too.”
“Thank you very much~.” The blonde smiled at her before continuing to orient herself on the map. "How wrong would I be if I said that is the capital?” She pointed a bit to the left of the area the jaguar showed her.
“That is indeed the capital.” She nodded. “It even says Tirago above it, you know?”
“Yeah, that’s why I wasn't sure.” Sophia scratched her cheek. "It doesn't say capital, after all. What's a Tirago in the first place?"
“Tirago is the name of our capital.”
“Oh.” Her expression got only more awkward. “G-Good to know.”
“Girl, you lived there for half a year!” Ari got loud.
“Maya, where’s your place?” Sophia completely ignored her and glanced at her girlfriend instead.
“You remember that it was close to the monster country, right?”
“Yup.” She nodded.
“Try to find that, then. It’s pretty clearly marked, so even you should find it.”
“You overestimate my capabilities here.” The blonde had a bad feeling about it.
“Just give it a try.”
“Mhmm…” Sophia studied the map for a few minutes. “It’s been described as a dead zone by the beastfolk, so I get the distinct feeling that the big area on the far left, the one littered with crosses and skulls, might be it.”
“Good job!” The cat-girl reacted by clapping her hands. “The name of my hometown won’t do anything for you, but I’m sure you can still find it regardless. I believe in you!”
“I like the teacher roleplay you do during the night every now and then a lot more.”
“Me, too!” Maya enthusiastically nodded.
“Aaaand now I know what we're going to do tonight!” Hearing that, Steph’s eyes started sparkling as she looked at Chloe.
“Sounds fun~.” The fox-girl liked the plan.
“Ari?!”
“Sure.” The jaguar smiled at her enthusiastic-look girlfriend.
“It’s rare that you start the horny, but I approve!” Maya gave the blonde a thumbs-up before pointing at the map again. “So, where is it?”
“Let's see… The capital is that way, so it should be on this side of the monster country.” She tried her best to narrow it down. “There are a couple of places marked with Humans, so that probably indicates their settlements? I distinctly remember those being relatively close to your home.” Her expression turned a little twitchy for a moment. “There’s a place called Remote Outpost Raumont close to them.” Sophia paused for a moment. “That does sound kind of familiar.
“Yay!” The cat-girl was clapping again. “It sounds familiar because that is my home!”
“I’m the best!” The blonde was quite proud of herself.
"I wouldn't go that far." Ari wasn't entirely convinced. "Still, it's good that you remembered the name of your girlfriend’s hometown. Or at least recognized it when you read it.”
“Cut me some slack!” She started pouting.
Afterward, the group continued to give Sophia some more geography lessons in the hope something would stick in the end. They had little hope of it succeeding, as they knew that it wasn't one of her talents, but they were still willing to try.
While doing so, the blonde also found an interesting-looking area with many lakes and rivers that weren't too far away from their current location. The other also got curious and decided to go there next.
