The new couple had left the restaurant where they got together and were back on the capital's streets. At first, the mood between them was a little awkward as the events had been rather unexpected, but Steph and Chloe got over it fairly fast and had a good time chatting immediately again. They also came up with a plan to tell Sophia and the others. It wasn’t an overly elaborate plan, but they had thought of something. Once the dog-girl had recovered from the knowledge that Fey, Chloe’s mother, would be a much tougher nut to crack, the couple headed back home to get over with everything.

“H-Hello!”

“W-We’re back!” The couple had returned to the mansion and entered the living room, where they had heard Maya and Sophia all the way back from the entrance hall.

“You really aren’t sorry at all, are you?!”

“I-It was just a tree!” Maya and Sophia had yet to notice the arrival of the two because the cat-girl was too busy yelling at the tiger.

"Just a tree?! It was older than the school, and it’s even on the academy crest! It was important!”

“B-But it was Anna who burned down the tree!”

“And it has nothing to do with the two of you playing around with chantless fire magic right before it went up in flames?!”

“T-Totally unrelated!”

“Really?”

“I just showed the princess how to properly concentrate so that you can put some real power into your magic…”

“And 30 seconds later, the tree had turned into ashes…” Maya stared right at her. “That’s unrelated to you?”

“I can’t be made responsible for Anna having lost control!”

“Is that so? Does that mean it also would’ve happened without your influence?”

“Knowing Anna, probably, yes!”

“…” The cat-girl suddenly went silent. “I can’t believe you actually made your excuse work…”

"Hah!" Sophia's expression turned smug.

“BUT!” She wasn’t done yet. “Why did you teach her how to make plants grow with your raw magic like we did in that forest?!”

“B-Because we felt bad and wanted to replace the destroyed tree…”

“With one that is about as tall as the castle and can be seen from everywhere in the capital?!”

“T-That was an accident…” Sophia hung her head. “Once again, Anna’s fault!”

"You can't blame her alone this time, though! There's no way she would've been able to do that on her own because she didn't know this magic even existed!"

“Uhh…" The tiger didn't have an excuse for this ready.

“Just apologize already!”

“Okay!” She gave up. “I’m sorry that Anna has no self-control!”

“Haa… I feel sorry for Ari… I bet the king has also already noticed what happened…”

“He should be used to headaches by now.”

“Is that really your justification?!"

"A-Ah…”

“Someone had an eventful day, huh?”

“You didn’t burn down a tree, sis? How did that not happen?” Steph and Chloe tried to join the conversation again after being ignored while sounding extra sarcastic.

“S-Steph!” Finally noticing them, Sophia immediately jumped at her sister and hid behind her. “Please help me with her!”

“Meh, kinda sounded like you weren’t entirely innocent on that, though.”

"Thank you very much!" The cat-girl was happy that she didn't blindly side with her sister.

“Traitor!” The tiger had a different opinion on the matter. “Wait, why are you holding hands with Chloe…?” Even though she was upset, Sophia, as usual, got distracted fairly quickly.

"A-Ah!” The couple hadn’t even realized they were doing that and quickly let go of each other. “I, uhh… I kept getting distracted by everything and got lost way too often because of that until Chloe had enough and grabbed my hand to keep me at bay…”

“S-Something like that!” The fox-girl hastily agreed with her excuse.

“They are sisters, after all…” Maya actually bought it.

“You… getting lost…?” The blonde didn’t, though. “You have like a perfect directional sense… You're somehow even able to navigate cities you've never been to before!" She just stared at her sister. "Abroad cities, where you didn't speak the language, too!"

“Wait, there’s just no way that’s possible!” The cat-girl got loud. “Are you actually not sisters, after all?! Sophia, you’re the exact opposite of that! Your directional sense is in the negatives!”

“H-Hey, that’s a bit much…”

“You got lost in a village with only three roads!”

“T-To be fair, they were very confusing roads…” The tiger tried to defend herself.

“They were perfectly straight!”

“Exactly!” She raised her voice. “Being straight confuses me!”

“I hate you so much…” Even though she sounded a little tired, Maya still had to smile at her dork of a girlfriend.

“Ehehe~.”

“Wow, I love this improved Sophia way too much!” The dog-girl was a big fan of the change.

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

Afterward, as the couple had somehow managed to divert their attention, for the time being, everyone sat down on the sofas. Sophia and Maya on one, Chloe and Steph opposite of them, as it had already become customs.

“I hope your day wasn’t as eventful as ours…” The cat-girl let out a sigh before she smiled at the duo. "Did you two do anything interesting while I failed at babysitting two idiots?"

“Uhh…” The couple immediately started looking incredibly awkward. “W-Well…”

“Oh?” Sophia leaned forward on the sofa. “I smell adventure! Did you run into anything interesting?! I want to know!”

“Err…” They only got more awkward.

“What happened…?” Maya’s curiosity was also piqued.

“…” The two went silent and looked at each other. “S-Should we…?”

“T-The other plan isn’t going to work, isn’t it…?”

“Doesn’t look like it…” Chloe scratched her cheek. “M-Maybe you should just rapid-fire everything…?”

“W-Why me?!”

“Because I just said you.”

“T-That’s unfair!” Steph didn’t like the sound of that.

"Well, you could've said it first."

“Urgh…” She hung her head. “E-Everything…?”

“Might as well, I guess…? Getting it over will make it much easier in the long run."

“What happened?!” The tiger couldn’t bear it any longer. “I want to know everything!”

“Haa…” Steph took a deep breath before continuing because there was quite a lot to tell. "Chloe and I went on a date. We had an amazing brunch together in a fancy restaurant. We found a shrine dedicated to Mira. There was also a statue of Fey. We got teleported to another dimension. We explored an enchanted tropical forest. We ran into Mira herself. She’s amazing! We chatted a ton about all kinds of stuff and found out that she and Fey know each other. That’s why she knows so much about magic and taught it to Chloe. I learned a lot about the magic she gifted me, as well. If I train really hard, I might be able to turn into a full animal at will! I could become an overseer, too! What else…”

She had to take a small break the recover her breath.

“I also learned that my magic has some limitations, and it's probably pretty hard for me to destroy the world. Kinda happy about that. Sharing my magic is harder because of that, too. I tried to kiss Chloe. I failed. Chloe kissed me, though. Surprisingly, Mira is quite playful and likes to tease. Mixed feelings there. She also helped Chloe in finding out whether Fey is her real mom. That was quite nice of her! The two of us went back to this world and continued our date. We had dinner together and then became a couple. Afterward, we headed back and found out that my sister and the princess had burned down the landmark of the academy. That was quite surprising!"

“Yeah, I hadn’t seen that one coming, either! The tree totally caught me off-guard!” Chloe nodded a few times.

“…” Sophia and Maya first looked at each other before focusing on the couple again while blinking a few times. “What?”

“Which part is the issue?” Steph tilted her head. “It should be pretty self-explanatory, no?”

“I think so, too.” The fox-girl didn’t actually feel that way, but that wasn’t important right now.

“You found a shrine of Mira, and there was a statue of Chloe's mother…?" Maya looked more than confused.

“You got teleported?!” So was Sophia. “You explored an enchanted forest?!” She also sounded envious. “Tropical, too?! As in warm?!” That was especially important.

“Y-You met Mira?!”

“What kind of things did you learn about magic from her?! There’s sooo much I want to know!”

“WAIT!” The two eventually unionized. “YOU BECAME A COUPLE?!” It had taken a little while before that part had registered.

“Is it really that surprising?" The dog-girl didn't understand their extreme reaction.

“YES?!” Maya and Sophia just became louder.

“Really?” Chloe joined Steph’s side. “I think we were rather obvious about being attracted to each other the moment we met, though?”

“?!” The other couple looked like they were about to explode for a moment. “WELL, DUH?!”

“Why are you so loud, then…?” The dog-girl was having way too much fun.

“I think I’ll bring her back home and leave her there.” Sophia had enough and glanced at Maya. “This place might not be right for her, after all.”

“That might be for the best.” The cat-girl nodded a few times.

“Good luck with that!” Steph disagreed. “You’ll never be able to make me leave paradise!”

“…” The two paused again. “Seriously, what is going on…?” They looked slightly tired. “Could you please start over and add some details this time…?”

“That will take a while, though… It wasn’t quite as eventful as not burning down a tree, but Chloe and I were really busy today!”

“Shut up about the tree already!”

Following that exchange, the new couple finally explained what happened in great detail. Obviously, they had to repeat themselves many times as more than just one hard-to-explain thing happened.