Recreating the magic Chloe had come up with, Maya had successfully used her raw magic to grow a tree sapling to an unbelievable size. She had planned for the fir sapling to roughly reach 100 meters in height. It would've been a very tall tree but not entirely impossible for a fir. Something went wrong, though.

As it turned out, because Sophia had mixed her magic with that of Maya after she got jealous of Ari, the cat-girl's effective powers had increased, and her magic became much more potent. Thanks to that, the tree she grew ended up being way over 200 meters tall.

"Wow!" Chloe's eyes were sparkling while she was straining her neck more than ever to see the top of the tree Sophia had grown with her raw magic. Not only was its trunk multiple tens of meters wide, the tiger actually managed to make it way over 500 meters tall. It was a tree unlike anything any of them had ever seen. “Fir doesn’t really work for it, but it actually has some world-tree vibes!”

"A-Ah…” Sophia didn’t like the sound of that. She should’ve seen it coming, but she still didn’t want to be responsible for creating something that could be linked to that. “I-It’s just a little overgrown!”

“What’s a… I wonder if you can see that thing from the capital.” Maya seemed to have changed what she wanted to ask mid-sentence and looked at the three again.

“Oh no…” The tiger could already see herself being questioned by the king in the future.

“Pretty unlikely.” Fen shook his head. “Even though it is this tall, the capital’s quite a bit away from here, so it should still be below the horizon.”

“Phew…” She looked visibly relieved.

“Then again, the castle is elevated quite a bit. The chance to see it from there would be quite high, actually.”

“Alright, does anyone have an axe at hand?” Sophia really didn’t want to deal with that.

“Ehhh?!” Chloe had something against this plan. “It looks so cool, though!”

“That is true…” The blonde had to agree with her. “Still, it will be such a pain once the king finds out… There's also still the lake thing…” She started mumbling towards the end.

“Who cares!” The fox-girl stared right at her. “Just have fun! Life should be as interesting as possible!”

“Is that what having a bad influence means?” Sophia glanced over to Maya.

“Do you now know why others complained about you?”

“Not at all!” The tiger started smiling. “Someone having a bad influence on you is amazing!”

“I’m a bad influence…?” Judging by her complicated expression, the fox-girl had some mixed feelings about this revelation.

“Well, that depends a little on the definition of bad.” Maya tilted her head. “Sophia’s breaking the common sense of everyone around her on a daily base and caused the king a ton of headaches already. You are not helping with making the lives of those people, myself included, any easier.”

“I see…”

“We really will get along great~!” Sophia naturally enjoyed her infectious happy-go-lucky nature. She wasn’t any different, after all.

“Ehehe~.” She cheered up in an instant again. “I think so, too!”

“So fear I…” The cat-girl’s wording was slightly different for some reason.

“Okay, the tree can stay!” The tiger had changed her mind. “It’s way too cool to get rid of!” She looked at it with sparkling eyes again. “Just for the record, though… It’s been here for ages already, okay? For hundreds of years, to be more specific. Thousands! I have no relation with it whatsoever.”

“With what?” As usual, when it came to feigning innocence, Maya was immediately onboard.

“Exactly!”

“Don’t you think anyone in the castle would notice the change on the horizon?” Fen didn’t want to let her off the look so soon. “Not to mention with all the closer villages, not even included the foxes right at the other side of the forest?"

“…”

“Don’t make Sophia feel bad, Fenfen!”

“Why am I the bad guy now?!” He didn’t like the pouting expression Chloe had while she was looking at him. “I’m just teasing her a little. I’m all in for giving the beastfolk king a headache. It means that something interesting has happened.”

“That’s better.” The fox-girl started smiling again.

“Is it…?” Maya scratched her cheek. “So you’re fine with giving the king of this nation a headache?”

“W-Well…” She paused for a moment. “I mean… not really, but… While he might be the ruler of this country, Sophia’s my friend, and her having fun is more important than the mental health of someone I don't personally know…"

“Wow…”

“Oh my gosh, you’re the best!” Sophia almost wanted to hug her in response.

“Ehehe~.”

“Soo…” Aura also finally spoke up while looking at the two trees the couple had grown. “I can give it a try, too, right?” She had no intention of keeping the current topic going. "It looks like a lot of fun!”

“That’s the spirit!” Chloe smiled at her.

“I’m not going to stop you.” Maya just threw up her hands in resignation.

“I’m in!” Fen liked the idea.

“Make it bigger than mine so I can blame you if anyone mentions something!” The tiger had her very own plan with this.

"Sure~." After all, Aura had no problems with being in the center of attention.

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

“Well, if that wasn’t something~.” After having finished playing with the trees, the group was walking back to the elven village, and Sophia seemed to be in a good mood while smiling at the wolves. "Compared to what the two of you did, my tree’s still just a sapling.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but you two sure know how to not hold back.” Maya was also looking at them.

“It’s amazing!” Chloe’s mood was just as good as that of the blonde. "It's hard to guess, but the two trees you two made definitely look like they exceeded a whole kilometer in height. Too bad they’re fir trees… The size's totally worthy of a world tree, but the feeling's off…"

“Yeah…” Sophia nodded. “For that, something a little more jungle-like would’ve been better, huh?” Now that her tree wasn’t the tallest anymore, she was much more into the idea.

“Exactly!”

“Do you have any idea what they’re talking about?” Fen glanced over at Maya walking next to him.

“Not even in the slightest…” She only shook her head. “I’m also not sure if I want to know.”

“Good point.”

“By the way, I’m hungry!” The tiger raised her voice. "Can we hurry?" She didn't care about their conversation because there were some more pressing matters for her.

“Me, too!” Chloe shared her feelings.

“I think that’s the first time I wholeheartedly support anything you two said today." It seems like the cat-girl could eat something, as well.

“Good idea!” So were the wolves.

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

"Oh, welcome back~." Arriving in the village, the group promptly ran into Alex.

“H-Hey…” Sophia awkwardly waved at him. As they went on quite the rampage, she was getting ready for a questioning.

“What’s wrong. My dear tiger?” He only looked at her. “What, are you feeling guilty now that you destroyed my wallet? A bit late for that.” The fox frowned for a moment before starting to smile again. “Just kidding, it’s fine~. I did that to myself, after all.”

"Hmm…?" The blonde was confused as it seemed like he hadn't noticed the new and gigantic trees in very close proximity. "A-Ah…" Only then did she see the issue. Looking up, Sophia noticed that the entire village was encircled by giant trees, so one could barely see anything besides the very sky right above the place. “Uhh… No, it’s nothing. Just getting a little hungry is all.”

“Oh, if that’s all, you should head over to the bar again! Mark opened it half an hour ago, and I bet he'll happily cook something for everyone.”

“That sounds perfect!” Sophia liked the sound of that. “Are you joining us? Don’t worry, I’ll pay for myself this time~.”

“That is very reassuring to hear. I’ll probably do that later, but I might be busy for the next hour or two. I’ve planned to check on some things a little away from here in the forest. There’s a small clearing not too far from here where we planned to cut down some trees to get materials for a couple of renovations in the village.”

"A-Ah…” The blonde’s expression suddenly got awkward again.

“There are a lot of materials now…” Maya, too, awkwardly scratched her cheek while she mumbled those words.

"Well, get some food, everyone." Alex smiled at the group. "I'll come later and join you for some drinks. After all, it shouldn't take long because it's just a quick survey."

“O-Okay…” Everyone, including Chloe and the wolves, couldn't look him in the eyes anymore.

While feeling slightly sorry for the poor fox-man, the group made their way towards the bar to get some food while getting ready for another entertaining evening as it already was late afternoon when they had come back to the village.