The couple had spent most of their day in the royal castle. Maya helped to teach Eluna the new magic with Aura and the princess while Sophia was busy baking cookies with Ari. After everyone had powered themselves out, the two went home again, but things took a weird turn. As it turned out, Sophia wasn't just exhausted but actually seemed to have somehow gotten sick. She was feeling weak, sluggish, and had a headache on top of being dizzy. Maya then also noticed that the tiger had a bit of a temperature that seemed to be rising, too. All in all, it looked like a cold, and the tiger was sent to bed under the order of Maya.

"Hmm..." It was the following day, and the cat-girl looked even more worried while being in their bedroom as she watched over Sophia. The blonde was still fast asleep and hadn't woken up once since yesterday. She seemed to be quite sweaty, though, and her temperature hadn't gone down at all while the girl had a somewhat pained expression. "Ah, I think I heard something!" Her ears perked up, and after taking another glance at Sophia, she left the room.

"Oh, good morning." Downstairs, she was greeted by Fen.

"Hmm? Is something wrong?" Aura stood next to the male wolf and noticed that Maya seemed to be a bit distressed. "You look worried."

"Y-Yes, something's wrong with Sophia..."

"We need a few more details here." Fen thought that this was the default description of their tiger.

"She's sick... Somehow like a cold, but it seems much worse..."

"Eh?" Aura tilted her head. "I thought she has a high self-healing ability?"

"It doesn't seem to be working on her cold."

"Weird..."

"That idiot should just use some healing magic directly on herself, and she'll be as good as new." Fen didn't see the problem.

"Err, she actually did that already..."

"Then, where's the problem? She should jump around in a few minutes again then."

"Well... that was yesterday... and it didn't help at all."

"What?!" The male wolf froze up. "Huh, wait a moment... I, uhh... just used my detection magic... W-Why is Sophia missing something like 10 to 15% of her magic power?! Also, it doesn't seem to be recovering, either?!"

"Eh?!" The two girls looked as shocked as Fen.

"What kind of magic did she use this time?!"

"I don't think she did anything." Maya looked at Fen. "She's spent most of the day with Ari, that jaguar who's able to handle her. The two baked cookies together."

"Oh, I see. Yeah, that explains it. A life-threatening case of food poisoning. That can sap away your magic power." He thought he solved the mystery.

"N-No, I've eaten them, too. Ari made them, and our girl only helped out by chopping some chocolade."

"I'm out of options, then."

"Could you take a look at her, Fen? I'm getting worried about her condition."

"Of course."

"Thank you." Afterward, Maya guided the wolves upstairs to their bedroom, where Sophia was still sleeping.

"Hmm..." Aura stared at the tiger for a moment and noticed how she was a bit sweaty while breathing slightly haggard. "I'm no expert on the matter, but it more or less looks like a common cold type of thing to me."

"From the looks of it, yes." Fen gave a slight nod. "But why has she lost so much of her magic power? Combined with how neither her self-healing nor healing magic are working, something's up here..."

"How much has she actually lost?" The cat-girl tilted her head. "I can only sense it, and she still feels incomparably more powerful than I am."

"It's a little fluctuating, but it's really around 10 to 15% less than yesterday. To put in perspective for you, it's around a third of your total magic, Maya."

"Seriously?! That really is a lot!" She was shocked.

"Could you tell me exactly how she was behaving yesterday?" Fen wanted to find out what was going on.

"Hrmn... She was in a pretty good mood. Sophia did mention feeling a bit tired and having a slight headache in the castle already, though. After we got home, we relaxed for a while, and she was steadily becoming worse. I noticed that her temperature was rising, too. In the end, she felt so weak that I had to carry her to bed..."

"Still sounds like a cold to me..."

"Yeah..." Fen once more agreed with Aura. "Something's weird..."

"Ah, I forgot, she also didn't want any dinner because she lost her appetite."

"What?!" The wolves were shocked.

"I'm kinda glad I wasn't the only one with that reaction..." Maya had mixed feelings about the situation.

"Could it be that something, err... sapped away her magic power and her body didn't take it well?" Aura tried to play out an idea. "It could explain why actively using magic like trying to heal herself didn't work. Maybe there's even a chance that it got worse because of that."

"Oh," The cat-girl remembered something. "Sophia actually mentioned feeling worse after trying healing magic on herself."

"There we have it." The female wolf was glad to have figured it out.

"Have what?" Fen stared at her. "It explains nothing, and we still have no idea what is going on. What's supposed to sapping her magic?"

"Ah." She had no reply to any of it.

"Could it be that she's unconsciously using her magic?" Maya also tried her luck.

"What do you mean?" The wolves seemed interested.

"Well, she's undoubtedly sick, so maybe her body's using magic on its own to boost her healing ability? It's not working out, though."

"It does sound logical." Fen didn't disagree with her. "Sophia's a bit of an oddball. She's from a different world and turned herself from a human to a beastperson. Her old body probably wasn't accustomed to this world, and while becoming a tiger likely helped with that, it might also confused her natural healing abilities?"

"I see..." Maya gave him a slight nod, visibly being worried. "Is... Is there something we can do?"

"We first need to know how..."

"I have... an idea."

"Really?"

"Stop having a loud and prolonged conversation between three people in the room where a sick girl's trying to sleep and recover."

"A-Ah..." The three in question looked incredibly awkward after noticing that the voice was coming from Sophia.

"W-We're sorry..." Maya apologized on behalf of everyone. "We're all just worried and want to find out what's wrong with you..."

"T-Thanks..." There was little left for her to complain about now.

"How are you feeling?" The cat-girl got closer and felt her temperature again. "Not much of a change, but it didn't get worse, either, at least."

"Yeah, no, I've really been better..."

"Do you have an idea what happened to you?" Fen still wanted to find out what exactly was going on.

"Hmm...?" The sick tiger looked confused. "I'm an idiot who caught a summer cold?"

"While still warm, it's basically fall already, though."

"Yay, not an idiot~."

"..." No one answered her.

"Anyway, that wouldn't explain the issue with your magic." Fen simply continued with the topic instead.

"What's up with my magic?" She looked even more puzzled.

"You haven't noticed it yourself?"

"Sorry, I'm feeling kinda dazed and dizzy, so..."

"Well, you've lost around 10 to 15% of your total power."

"Really...? That's, uhh... pretty bad, isn't it?"

"It's not good, that's for sure."

"Is... Is it going down further? I don't want to lose my magic..."

"No, it's fluctuating a bit, but it seems to be stable around that number."

"G-Good..." Sophia looked relieved.

"It isn't recovering to your original power, either, though."

"That's weird..." Thanks to feeling under the weather, the tiger's reactions were a lot less loud, too. "What is going on? Is this normal for a cold in this world?"

"I've never seen anything like this before." All three answered her at the same time.

"Sooo... What's going on with me?"

"That's what I want to know, too." Fen had no answers for her. "I already asked Maya, but do you remember doing anything that could've led to this. "

"Not at all... I've barely used any magic yesterday besides the usual detection one. I've spent most of the time chatting with Ari..." She hadn't done anything outrageous for a full day for a rare chance. "Well, I was confused about magic for a long time... and I still don't get the whole activation words thing... Oh, maybe magic's angry at me for making fun of it by calling activation words stupid and useless?"

"Oh, great, she's recovering already." Aura was glad that she was still the good old goofy tiger.

"Hehe. I still feel like garbage, though... Also, I'm kinda hungry..."

"Well, it seems like you're on a good way." Everyone was relieved after hearing those words.

"Sleep another day or two, and you'll be better." Fen was confident that she'd recover soon now.

"Good. I'll go and cook something light for you. Just wait a bit, ok- Hmm?" Maya stopped talking when everyone suddenly heard a loud knocking on the front door of their mansion. "Has someone come to visit...? Not a good time."

"I'll shoo them away, don't worry." Saying so, Aura left the room.

"Thanks!"

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

Aura came back a few minutes later, but she wasn't able to send back their visitor as it was a very tenacious one.

"Haa... S-Sophia... haa..." Completely out of breath and slightly sweaty, Anna was standing next to her.

"What's wrong, princess." Maya tried to find out what was going on. "Why do you look so exhausted?"

"I... haa... ran all the way from the castle to here... "

"It's not even... you can see it from here!" She pointed at a window in the bedroom.

"I know!" Anna's endurance seemed to be nonexistent. "I'm fast, but not for long!"

"Wait, wasn't our gate closed?"

"I jumped over it!"

"Seriously!? It's over two-meter tall, though?"

"Don't care! It's urgent! Sophia, I need your help! Wait..." The princess only now noticed the blonde in the bed and how she looked. "D-Don't tell me you're sick, too?!"

"I am... Actually, I can't remember ever feeling this bad before... Hmm, too?"

"Y-Yes, it's Ari! She's gotten so weak that she can barely move, together with a strong headache and feeling super dizzy. Kinda like a hyper cold, but she also lost her entire magic power, and it doesn't seem to be recovering at all. We, including all the doctors and healers in the royal castle, have no idea what she has and trust me, I've gathered ALL of them!"

"Ehh?!" Though it seemed to be even worse, it was strangely familiar to whatever Sophia was dealing with right now, and her group became pretty confused.