While Fen and Aura had traveled to the former elven village that was inhabited by a group of the fox beastfolk, the cats were still busy in the magic academy. Some were just busy catching up on sleep, though.

“Haa…” Sophia let out a yawn while her group was walking around in the backyard of the school building. “I’m tired…”

“How?!” Ari just had to retort. “You’ve been sleeping the entire time!”

“Have you ever slept so much that it made you tired?”

“I have not!”

“I hate when that happens.” Anna sided with her fellow tiger.

“Thank you very much for the backup, princess.”

“Gladly.”

“Haa…” The jaguar could only rub her temples in return.

“We sure have it rough with our girls, don’t we?” Maya sympathized with her.

“Seriously, why are tigers so easygoing…?”

“A good question…” Naturally, Maya had no answer for that. For various reasons.

“By the way, where are we headed to?” The most easygoing tiger of all, the blonde one, suddenly turned around while looking at the other three girls of her group while they were following some students in the schoolyard outside.

“We’re going to the training grounds adjacent to the academy. It’s time for the magic lessons.” Ari answered her. “Something you would’ve known if you had been awake earlier.”

“I see!” Sophia simply ignored the scolding tone in the jaguar’s voice. “Sounds fun!”

“Does it?” Maya eyed her. “Although without the constraints of elements, it’s still going to be regular magic.”

“Ah.” The blonde stopped walking for a second. “I already forgot about that…”

“More napping?” The cat-girl was still looking at her.

“Hmm…” She needed to give it some thought. “No, I think I actually slept enough today.”

“Wow, I never heard that one before.”

“Hehe.” Sophia had to chuckle at her reaction. “Ari, do you want to listen to Eluna’s lessons, or should we do some chantless magic training on our own?”

“Eh?” The jaguar hadn’t seen that one coming.

“Well, she’ll mostly explain how elements won’t matter for chants and activation words, maybe. No student except you can use chantless, so there’s no real need for you to learn what Eluna’s going to teach.”

“I-I see… It’s an interesting suggestion, but I’d first like to see how her lesson goes before taking you up on that offer.”

“Sure~.” Sophia didn’t mind her reply.

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

Once the class had arrived at the training grounds, it immediately became noisy once the first students spotted Eluna standing there. As everyone in the academy knew her, the excitement for her lessons was apparent because the horse-woman was a bit of a celebrity in the capital when it came to magic.

Sophia didn’t have any interest in any of that, but it had a positive side-effect for her, as well. Everyone had stopped stealing glances at her, and she could take it easy now because her hard-earned ice-queen wasn’t at risk right now.

The blonde walked away from the training grounds a couple of steps and quickly found a row of benches where she sat down. Watching the class for around an hour, she was slowly getting bored. Luckily, that seemed about to change, though.

“It looks like you’re getting used to wearing a skirt, huh?” Ari had appeared in front of the properly upright-sitting tiger, who had also neatly crossed her legs in a way that made any possible way of stealing a glance between her legs inside the skirt impossible. “Your skirt also isn’t askew or rolled up in the slightest, either. As expected of the ice-queen of the academy, nothing gets past your defenses.”

“Ahaha…” Sophia awkwardly scratched her cheek. “I have an image to uphold, you know?”

“Good job.” The jaguar only smiled at her.

“No… I’ve worn the uniform the entire time since you lent it to me, even at home, and I’ve gotten used to it now. Quite honestly, I really like it. I’ve always been wary of skirts because I like to move around. Still, if you combine them with opaque tights and adjust your way of walking a tiny bit, it’s actually the best. It feels so free and unrestricted~.”

“Good~.” Ari’s smile increased even more.

“What’s up with that grin?” She didn’t like her reaction.

“It’s nothing. I just don’t feel bad anymore that Maya, Anna, and I unanimously decided to put you in a skirt when we go shopping for winter clothes together. It fits you way too well for us not to use this chance. If you like it as well, I won’t feel bad that I had no plan for caring about your input on the matter.”

“Ahh…” Sophia scratched her cheek again. “Yeah, Maya already implied something similar the other day. “As long as you girls don’t overdo it, and I’m allowed to wear tights or leggings underneath, I’ll most likely play along with it.”

“Great~!” Ari was happy about it.

“By the way, how much do you like wearing tops with spaghetti straps? While we’re at it, what about midriff?”

“E-Eh?!” The black-haired jaguar turned white.

“Hehe.” Sophia liked her reaction. “I was just joking.”

“T-Thank goodness…”

“It’s becoming winter, after all.”

“H-Huh?!” That wasn’t Ari’s main gripe with this sort of clothing. “I-I have nothing against looking at those, maybe even wearing at home to some degree… b-but it’s really not my style, okay…?”

“I know, don’t worry~.” The tiger showed her an innocent smile and patted the place next to her on the bench she was sitting on. “Here, have a seat.”

“T-Thank you…” She sounded relieved but still ever so slightly wary of her.

“Got bored of Eluna’s speech?” She waited for the jaguar to sit down before facing her.

“A little… You keep mentioning that I’m able to use chantless magic wasn’t that compatible with her dissolute speech regarding the revolutionary new way of using chants and activation words…”

“I can imagine…” Sophia got bored just listening to Eluna from a distance, after all. “Wanna chat a bit instead?”

“That sounds lovely. Any suggestions?”

“Anna~.”

“N-Not here!” Ari’s face turned crimson in an instant.

“Oh?” The tiger’s ears perked up. “That reaction means something good~.”

“M-My reaction doesn’t matter!” The jaguar raised her voice before she immediately placed her hands on her mouth after noticing how loud she’d gotten. “I-I mean, even though they are a bit away from us, there are way too many people here. I really don’t want anyone in the school to find out what is going on…”

“Aww…” Sophia started pouting. “Fine… You’ll be coming over to my house and tell me all about it soon, though!”

“Y-Yes…” She just resigned to her unavoidable fate. “Well, I could use some help, so…”

“Yay!” The tiger sounded the happiest yet today.

“Alright, change of topic, please!”

“Sure~.” Knowing she’ll get her sought-after girls-talk soon, the blonde happily complied. “Oh, how about we have some magic lessons on our own?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we are in the prestigious, or whatever, magic academy, so how about I teach you some chantless magic in the perfect environment for it?”

“Really?” Ari wasn’t sure how to feel about it yet.

“Sure, why not?"

"In theory, gladly, but... won’t that be way too flashy here?”

“When did I ever do anything flashy?”

“…” Ari didn’t feel like answering this question.

“Fair point.” Sophia also didn’t need to hear what she wanted to imply. “So, that’s a no?”

“Hmm…” She paused for a moment. “What do you plan to teach me.” The curiosity got the better of the cat.

“You already know how to use, uhh… water magic, was it?”

“Yes.”

“How about I show you how to do it chantless?”

“Okay… I want to see already whether I really can use chantless magic after you gave me some of your power. You also can’t really cause any catastrophes with water because it’s a gentle element.”

“It’s refreshing how little you know me.”

“What was that?” Ari stared right into the eyes of the tiger.

“W-What do you mean? I didn’t say a word just now?” She turned her head away in response.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Well, even I know that flooding a school would be bad…” Sophia sounded oddly serious while saying so.

“Do you think I could get Maya to teach me instead? I’m getting slight doubts here.”

“Sure, I can ask her. She also finished restoring our garden to its former beauty after she blew it up the other day. She used too much power on the magic ore, and it was glorious, so she is also free.” Sophia wasn’t sure how that would be relevant in this conversation, but she wanted to be the one to teach Ari.

“You two are such a weird but also sooo fitting couple!”

“Thank you very much!”

“Fine…” The jaguar gave up. “One chantless water magic lesson, please.”

“Yay!” She sounded happy about it. “Have you tried anything yourself in that regard ever since the accident happened already?”

“No.” Ari shook her head. “I have no idea what I’m doing, after all. That’s way too risky for me… Who knows what could happen if I were to simply start experimenting while everything is an unknown variable to me?”

“How did we become friends again?” The whole explanation was an insult to Sophia's entire way of living, after all.

“I’ve asked myself the same question, too, bestie.”

“Ehehe~.” Sophia really liked the very last part of her statement. “Alright, let’s get to it!” She energetically raised her arm while saying so.

“Y-Yeah…” While Ari still had some slight doubts, she was also looking forward to it a little. Afterward, the two started preparing for their own demonstration and training session.