Sophia completed her fast-travel magic by using her extra dimension as a shortcut, and everyone successfully tried it out. Afterward, the group began to make their way back to the beastfolk capital. The tiger-girl wants to use her new magic to further explore the world while also being able to help out in the capital when she's needed there.

As they could travel much faster than a carriage, the capital was already in view before noon of the following day, even with the four having taken their time.

"Wow, it feels like half an eternity since I've last been here even though it was just around a week..." Sophia overlooked the colossal city from a distance and felt a little nostalgic.

"Well, it was pretty eventful." Maya understood her feelings.

"That's true. V-Very eventful..." The tiger-girl stuttered for a second before continuing. "And I somehow feel it'll get even more lively..."

"For the better or worse."

"Yeah..." Sophia paused for a moment. "Well, let's get going. Straight to the castle, I say!" She was strangely motivated. Leading the gang, she entered the capital through the city gate and walked along the main road towards the castle. As usual, she caught a lot of curious glances, but no one tried to approach her. The rumors around her had already reached most people, so they weren't as surprised anymore.

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

Arriving at the royal castle, there was a bit of a commotion, though. The jaguar-girl maids, with yellowish hair and black spots, naturally recognized the group and got lively. Two of them disappeared inside while the last one walked up to them.

"Welcome! We're glad to see you again." The maid seemed cheerful.

"Were you waiting for us?" The tiger-girl tried to interpret her words.

"We were hopeful. Us maids naturally aren't in the know about many things, but we're aware that his Majesty is under a lot more stress ever since he came back without you."

"If anything, I would've been sure that he's having a lot less of it now."

"Oi! Well, true." The blonde couldn't say anything against Maya's jab.

"Please follow me." The maid guided them inside, but they only made it to the entrance hall, where someone else was waiting for them, too.

"So... phia!" A little tiger-girl in the arms of queen Kira seemed really happy about her arrival.

"Ellie!" So was the bigger, blonde one.

"Welcome." Kira greeted them and put her daughter on the ground.

"So... phia!" She immediately began running over to her.

"Ehehe~." She met the little girl halfway, lifted her up, and spun around in a circle with her a couple of times. "I missed you!"

"Yay! Ellie missed... you too!" She had a bright smile while they were playing around.

"Sooo..." Maya ignored her idiot and looked at the queen. "How's the current situation?"

"Well... Menzor's running in circles like a caged animal in his office ever since he came back. I hope it'll get better now that you're all here."

"I have my doubts about that..." Maya's future included a king with a massive migraine. "Sophia's plan probably isn't what he's hoping for."

"She isn't going to stay, is she?"

"It's, uhh... complicated." The cat-girl couldn't explain their plans. "Is he available at the moment?"

"Even if not, he would make time. Should I guide you to him?"

"This would be helpful. Sophia, enough playing around, we're going!"

"Ehhh?" Both tiger-girls, the small and the blonde one, didn't like the sound of that.

"You two can continue with that later."

"Yay!" Their expressions brightened up again.

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

Sophia reluctantly let go of Ellie and then followed the queen with the rest of her group after leaving the little princess to one of the maids. Kira guided them to the office of king Menzor and announced their arrival.

"Dear, you have guests."

"Yes, the maids already informed me. Welcome back, Sophia, Maya. It hasn't been that long, Aura, Fen, has it?"

"I'm sorry for the mess I caused around my return."

"No, I didn't handle it with enough care, either." Menzor now knew that Sophia felt too pressured by him.

"Yeah, I'm quite the handful."

"No kidding." Maya was proud of her self-assessment.

"How can I interpret your return to the capital?" He came straight to the point. "Is it good news?"

"Well," Knowing that this will be a long conversation, Sophia sat down on the sofa in his office, and the others followed her example. "It's good, bad, and complicated news if anything..."

"I didn't expect anything less from you."

"Ahaha... Where do I even start?"

"Make it quick and painless, please."

"That's a tall order..." Her plan was more of the long and painful type. "First off, I need a place to stay in the future. Somewhere that is not inside the castle."

"By that, you mean...?"

"Fen advised me that I should ask for a reward for my achievements in the war. All things considered, I think I did a good job which not even caused casualties."

"This is certainly the case."

"That's why, I think a house, like my own place to stay, would be a suitable reward for what I accomplished."

"I see... It certainly is not an unreasonable request. Though, I'm a bit surprised. I first need to check which places are free to offer." He apparently wasn't against such a reward.

"Wow, that was a lot easier than I imagined." The blonde tiger-girl didn't expect it to go this smoothly.

"But, does that mean you're going to stay in the capital, Sophia?"

"I'm... not?" It sounded more like a question.

"I don't understand." Naturally, Menzor was confused. "Why do you need a mansion, then?"

"Because, in a way, I'm also not leaving…?"

"..." He started to understand why quick and painless seemed to be a tough order. "As far as I know, people can't be at two places at the same time."

"That's true, but people can travel from one place to another almost instantly."

"No, they can't."

"Well, I can."

"..." Menzor stopped and held his head. Maya's predicted future, where the king developed a migraine, became true.

"I won't go into detail because it's original magic I developed and don't want to share it. Long story short, I can go from one place to another, no matter the distance, in a couple of seconds."

"..." He could still only massage his head.

"With this, I can still live my dream to travel and explore the world while I also can help out in the capital... and play with Ellie." Chances are, this was her actual, true motive for all of this.

"Err..." It obviously was too much for him. "I want to say it's impossible and that you're crazy, but..."

"You're right with one of those things." Maya partially agreed with the king.

"Hey! It might be true, but it still hurts!"

"I assume this magic requires special requirements to be used? If it actually exists, it would be extremely useful."

"Yes, it requires multiple uncategorized types of original magic that I came up with myself. Nobody besides me can use it."

"I see..."

"That's how it is."

"Too bad... Okay, let me try to understand the situation." King Menzor took a deep breath before continuing. "While you're not going to permanently stay in our capital, you'll be around from time to time, and when you're needed, you'll be available."

"Well, not for every little thing, except Ellie's the one asking, but I'm happy to help out the beastfolk when I feel like it, or my powers are needed."

"Of course. I think I need a night to sleep over it, though. My brain's having a hard time keeping up with everything."

"Sure, I'm not in a rush. Although," Sophia, unfortunately, wasn't done yet. "There's more."

"M-More?"

"Indeed. You said before that you want to introduce me to the public. I'm... not going to take part in that. I know how I come off as, and my flashy actions speak a different language, but I don't like getting too much attention. I believe Fen already gave you an alternative. You can announce my existence and all that, but I won't appear in front of a crowd. That's only something I can do when I'm angry and don't care about the other side. This is clearly not the case here."

"Yes. I gave it a lot of thought after Fen told me about this option. "We can do it like this. Our people already know about your existence, so just announcing it to the public is enough."

"Thank you."

"No, I thank you. Still," He stared at the blonde tiger-girl. "Did something happen after you stayed behind? You seem different."

"W-What do you mean?" Many things happened, none of which Sophia had any intention to share.

"You seem more mature or serious... No, confident."

"Ahh... Well, I have my moments. Some stuff also happened, and I did a lot of thinking because it was important to me. I'm really grateful to beastfolk because they took me in when I had no one else anymore, aside from Fen, of course, and I somehow feel a deep connection to them. Helping them out seems like a matter of course for me."

"The blood of the tiger family runs deep in you." He was impressed by her devotion to the beastfolk.

"Y-Yeah..." Sophia looked a little awkward. While it's correct that she's a true tiger-girl, it was more of an accident that she became one. "But there's also my personal dream of exploring the world. With the magic I came up with, I'm able to do both, and that made me extremely happy."

"I understand. I'm also glad we won't lose you. Well, I would say that we end it here for today. I need to talk to some ministers to see which kind of housing is currently free that we can offer you, and also how I can sell our arrangement here to everyone."

"Alright, sounds good to me."

"But still... Magic that lets you go from one place to another..." Menzor couldn't let go of it. "It would be so incredibly useful for ruling the nation."

"Even if I would share how I do it, your Majesty, only these three have enough power to actually be able to use it." Sophia looked at her comrades.

"I see... Yes, that makes sense."

"Well, there's another one in the castle, but she's way too young for it."

"Huh? Who do you mean?" The king seemed confused.

"Eh?" Sophia also tilted her head. "Ellie, of course. She doesn't come close to Maya, but she has around half to maybe two-thirds of her magic power."

"What?!" Both, Menzor and queen Kira, who was in the background until now, cried out.

"Hmm? I thought you knew...?" The blonde didn't understand their reaction.

"She isn't able to use magic yet, so it's impossible to sense her powers!"

"Huh? Fen, did I make a mistake?" She faced the inventor of the detection magic she used to notice the power of the little tiger-girl.

"No, you are correct. It's a little under half of Maya's power. After our cat, it was the second time I was surprised about the magic of an individual from the beastfolk. S-Sophia, Aura, and I excluded because I've known them for longer already..." He quickly added the last part to not raise any suspicion.

"Nonono, as I said, she can't use magic yet."

"We use a different approach than instinctively sensing power. We're using a magic that lets us gauge the magic power of an individual. It also includes the potential of said being."

"S-Seriously?!"

"Our Ellie... She will have this much power?" Her parents were naturally shocked.

"Did I say something I wasn't supposed to be?

"N-No... We're just surprised. Neither of us even thought about such a possibility..."

"Are there... Are there any downsides to having that much power? Especially when you're still little like our Ellie?" Kira was a little concerned.

"Not really." Maya, the only actual beastperson who grew up with extreme magic powers, answered her. "You should watch her a little more closely when she starts using magic, though. I had the tendencies to experiment with magics that were slightly too dangerous for my age because I couldn't stop my curiosity. I was a very healthy kid otherwise."

"That's reassuring. Thank you very much for this information." The queen sounded relieved.

After the royal couple learned the news about her youngest daughter, together with everything Sophia said before, they really needed a break. The group around the blonde tiger-girl left them alone and tried to find something interesting to spend the rest of the day on.