Chapter 37 – Aftermath of the dungeon exploration
The group had finished exploring the Forgotten Maze dungeon. They also found out that the whole thing was just a joke, and Sophia got a little angry. She ended up blowing it up as a reaction. Unfortunately, she used way too much power and obliterated the entire area in a multiple-kilometer radius around it as well. Only a gigantic crater was left behind where once a tranquil plain was.
"So, that happened, huh?" Sophia was still looking at the chaos she created while trying to sound indifferent.
"Don't play it off like it was nothing!" Maya wasn't letting her any of that. "W-What are we going to do about that?!"
"Turn around and keep going? Which way was the beastfolk capital again?" She glanced around, trying to find the right direction.
"I believe it should be-" Fen was looking for the destination together with her.
"Y-You aren't going to fix that?!" She pointed at the crater.
"I didn't plan to. I mean, why would I?"
"I agree with Sophia here." The wolf nodded. "It's not like it has any impact on us, has it? I do feel bad for letting her go out of control, but not for destroying this land. I couldn't care less about it, even if I tried. It's not like anyone would make us responsible for any of that, or rather, could."
"Exactly." Sophia was influenced too much by the wolf already.
"Well, I could!" Maya was angry. "No, okay, I don't really care about the land either, but… I mean, if Fen hadn't noticed and evacuated us further, we could've been seriously hurt or even died… I'm sure that at least I likely wouldn't have survived that!" She was still pointing at the crater.
"Ah." Fen understood the actual problem she was having.
"…" Sophia just noticed this side of the story and looked utterly devastated all of a sudden. Immediately after the realization hit her, tears began to roll down her face out of nowhere. This revelation was too much to deal with for the already unstable girl.
"H-Huh?!" Seeing that, the cat-girl started panicking. "D-Don't cry, okay? I'm terrible with that!"
"I-, I'm… *sniff* sorry…" It was already too late for her to calm down. "I-I really, really didn't want that! It would've been the…worst…*sniff*!" The girl continued to sob while apologizing to Maya after her breakdown. She was unable to control her emotions, more than ever now.
"U-Uhhh," The cat-girl was hastily flailing her arms around in a panic, and so was her tail. "Y-You didn't do it on purpose, right?"
"O-Of course not!"
"I'll forgive you then. S-So… please stop crying!"
"T-Thank you very much *sniff*" Sophia tried to wipe away her tears, but new ones just kept flowing. "I'm sorry, I might, *sniff*… need a while…"
"You are so hopeless." Maya let out a soft giggle.
"I-I know." Some time passed before Sophia calmed down enough for her tears to finally stop. "Uuh, I haven't cried like that in a while… Not even when I was forced to leave my… home… to come here. I really have no control at all anymore, huh?" She was talking about her arrival in this world. Her emotions were all over the place, today especially, thanks to her boosts.
"…" The cat-girl didn't say anything regarding her mumblings but had a complicated look on her face.
"A-Anyway, again, I'm really sorry about what happened." She tried to regain her posture. "Hmm, alright, to make it for it even a tiny little bit… Regarding that s-super request, you mentioned earlier, Maya. You can have it, together with the two normal ones of top."
"Really?!" Maya sounded excited all of a sudden. "Great! That makes almost getting killed totally worth it!"
"E-Eh?! Why do I feel like I just made a terrible mistake?! W-What are you going to do to me?!"
"Who knows." She had no intention of telling her.
"W-Well, though I'm scared, I earned whatever you have planned for me…" Sophia had resigned herself to it.
"You make me sound like the bad person here."
"Ahaha," The mood between the girls slowly returned to normal. "Hmm, it's gotten late already." Sophia looked at the sun getting lower while changing the topic. "Is there a place nearby where we can camp?"
"I'm not sure where we even are…" Maya looked around, trying to find a familiar-looking landmark. "I sort of lost the orientation when we were running away."
"We're about ten to eleven-kilometer northwest of the entrance, err, former entrance of the dungeon. "
"Northwest, huh? Let's see, if I remember right, there's a huge lake not far from here then. That should be a nice place to camp, in my opinion."
"This continent sure has a lot of lakes." It wasn't the first time they camped at a lake, after all. "Sure, sounds good to me. Let's go there. Guide away~."
"Okay." Showing them the way, they arrived at their camping place soon enough and also gathered some food along the way.
----------------
"Right, now that's a lake." Sophia stared at the crystal-clear water that was so vast she couldn't even see the end of it. Together with the white sand beach, it made a lovely picture. "I kinda want to take a swim now."
"Why not do it?" Maya looked at her.
"No swimsuit."
"There's no need for that, is there?"
"There is, t-there definitely is!"
"Ah, is that so?" She seemed ever so slightly disappointed. She had a lot of fun messing with the girl.
"Well," Sophia walked towards the water regardless and took off her shoes and socks. "That much should be fine, I- Ah, COLD!" She dipped her right foot into the water and immediately jumped back. "W-Why?! It's so warm out here!"
"Ehehe~." The cat-girl was laughing for some reason.
"Y-You knew about that, right?! And you still wanted me to go in?! N-Naked even?!"
"Your reactions really are the best." Maya was smiling broadly, and her ever so active tail seemed to be happy as well, swishing around from side to side as usual.
"Y-You!" Looking for a way to get back at the playful cat, Sophia glanced at the lake again. Then, a small orb of water emerged from it before speeding towards Maya, hitting her in the face before she could even react.
"Eeek!" She shrieked up in surprise. "S-So cold! Why did you do that?!"
"Do you really need to ask?"
"Urgh! A-Anyway, take thi-!" Maya ran up to her, planning to get revenge, but she tripped on the loose sand and crashed head-first into Sophia. Losing her balance from the impact, she stumbled backward and was about to fall into the lake.
"A-Ah!" Not wanting to suffer alone, Sophia barely managed to grab the cat-girl's arm, taking the girl with her for the fall into the water.
"COLD!" Drenched in ice-cold water, the shrieky cry of the two echoed through the area soon after.
"Y-You're the worst, Sophia!" Shivering, Maya vented her frustration.
"Y-You started it!" She was equally angry.
"Sorry… That wasn't the plan… Uuh, I really want to take a hot bath now!" Still shivering in her soaked clothes, the cat-girl wrapped her arms around herself to warm up even a bit.
"…" Sophia took a quick glance at her body while her clothes were tightly clinging to it. A lot of it became see-through because most of Maya's outfit was white. This didn't leave much to her imagination. "H-How about this for starters?" Looking away, she invoked some magic, and warm wind wrapped around the girls and quickly but gently dried their clothes. "Better now?"
"Thanks, I'm still cold on the inside, though. A bath would still be great."
"I'll build one later, okay?"
"Thank you very much!" For supposedly feeling chilly, the cat-girl was very energetic.
"Let's get dinner first, though."
"Yes!"
Having fooled around enough, the girls reunited with Fen, and the group prepared their dinner together as usual. Much to the delight of Sophia, with the arrival of Maya, who's a decent cook, the food selection and quality had grown considerably.
"Well then," After they finished eating, Sophia got up with a satisfied expression. "I'll get the bath ready."
"Okay!" Maya stood up as well for some reason. "Ah, I'll come with you."
"Eh? Why?"
"I want to see how you build it."
"Sure? It's quite boring, though."
"I don't mind."
Decided on going together, the two looked for a suitable place, and Sophia began preparing her magic to build it.
"Any wishes before I begin, Maya?"
"Hmm," She tilted her head. "I want a bigger bath!"
"That's no problem. What size do you want it to be?"
"Let's see…" The cat-girl paused. "Big enough for two people to get in without it feeling cramped, I guess?"
"I can do that- Eh? W-Why are you using such a… s-specific way for d-describing the size?" Sophia had a very bad premonition about this situation.
"Because it has to fit two people, of course."
"Y-You-, You don't mean what I t-think you mean, right…?" Cold sweat appeared all over her body.
"Yes, we're going to take a bath together." Maya spoke like it was a matter of course for her.
"No!" Sophia instantly refused. It was an impossible task for her.
"Yes."
"No!"
"Yes."
"No!"
"Yes."
"No!"
"Yes."
"Absol-." She was interrupted by the cat-girl in the middle.
"Remember the requests, no, rewards I earned?"
"A-Ah!" Sophia fell silent.
"I'm going to use one on that." She seemed determined.
"B-But, aren't there any b-better things for you to request… instead of b-bathing together?"
"None that I can think of, or want to."
"I-Is there really n-nothing else, like… anything? Is this r-really happening? S-Seriously…?" Sophia was panicking and negotiating at the same time.
"So, as I said, make it big enough to fit two people~." Maya answered her by completely ignoring the girl.
"Uuh…" With tears in her eyes, Sophia started working on the extra-large bath for the two of them. "So, this is how my life in a different world is going to end, huh?" Being sure she'll die of a severe case of cardiac arrest in the very near future because there's no way her heart's going to survive such a situation, she mumbled these last words to herself.
Chapter 37 – Aftermath of the dungeon exploration
The group had finished exploring the Forgotten Maze dungeon. They also found out that the whole thing was just a joke, and Sophia got a little angry. She ended up blowing it up as a reaction. Unfortunately, she used way too much power and obliterated the entire area in a multiple-kilometer radius around it as well. Only a gigantic crater was left behind where once a tranquil plain was.
"So, that happened, huh?" Sophia was still looking at the chaos she created while trying to sound indifferent.
"Don't play it off like it was nothing!" Maya wasn't letting her any of that. "W-What are we going to do about that?!"
"Turn around and keep going? Which way was the beastfolk capital again?" She glanced around, trying to find the right direction.
"I believe it should be-" Fen was looking for the destination together with her.
"Y-You aren't going to fix that?!" She pointed at the crater.
"I didn't plan to. I mean, why would I?"
"I agree with Sophia here." The wolf nodded. "It's not like it has any impact on us, has it? I do feel bad for letting her go out of control, but not for destroying this land. I couldn't care less about it, even if I tried. It's not like anyone would make us responsible for any of that, or rather, could."
"Exactly." Sophia was influenced too much by the wolf already.
"Well, I could!" Maya was angry. "No, okay, I don't really care about the land either, but… I mean, if Fen hadn't noticed and evacuated us further, we could've been seriously hurt or even died… I'm sure that at least I likely wouldn't have survived that!" She was still pointing at the crater.
"Ah." Fen understood the actual problem she was having.
"…" Sophia just noticed this side of the story and looked utterly devastated all of a sudden. Immediately after the realization hit her, tears began to roll down her face out of nowhere. This revelation was too much to deal with for the already unstable girl.
"H-Huh?!" Seeing that, the cat-girl started panicking. "D-Don't cry, okay? I'm terrible with that!"
"I-, I'm… *sniff* sorry…" It was already too late for her to calm down. "I-I really, really didn't want that! It would've been the…worst…*sniff*!" The girl continued to sob while apologizing to Maya after her breakdown. She was unable to control her emotions, more than ever now.
"U-Uhhh," The cat-girl was hastily flailing her arms around in a panic, and so was her tail. "Y-You didn't do it on purpose, right?"
"O-Of course not!"
"I'll forgive you then. S-So… please stop crying!"
"T-Thank you very much *sniff*" Sophia tried to wipe away her tears, but new ones just kept flowing. "I'm sorry, I might, *sniff*… need a while…"
"You are so hopeless." Maya let out a soft giggle.
"I-I know." Some time passed before Sophia calmed down enough for her tears to finally stop. "Uuh, I haven't cried like that in a while… Not even when I was forced to leave my… home… to come here. I really have no control at all anymore, huh?" She was talking about her arrival in this world. Her emotions were all over the place, today especially, thanks to her boosts.
"…" The cat-girl didn't say anything regarding her mumblings but had a complicated look on her face.
"A-Anyway, again, I'm really sorry about what happened." She tried to regain her posture. "Hmm, alright, to make it for it even a tiny little bit… Regarding that s-super request, you mentioned earlier, Maya. You can have it, together with the two normal ones of top."
"Really?!" Maya sounded excited all of a sudden. "Great! That makes almost getting killed totally worth it!"
"E-Eh?! Why do I feel like I just made a terrible mistake?! W-What are you going to do to me?!"
"Who knows." She had no intention of telling her.
"W-Well, though I'm scared, I earned whatever you have planned for me…" Sophia had resigned herself to it.
"You make me sound like the bad person here."
"Ahaha," The mood between the girls slowly returned to normal. "Hmm, it's gotten late already." Sophia looked at the sun getting lower while changing the topic. "Is there a place nearby where we can camp?"
"I'm not sure where we even are…" Maya looked around, trying to find a familiar-looking landmark. "I sort of lost the orientation when we were running away."
"We're about ten to eleven-kilometer northwest of the entrance, err, former entrance of the dungeon. "
"Northwest, huh? Let's see, if I remember right, there's a huge lake not far from here then. That should be a nice place to camp, in my opinion."
"This continent sure has a lot of lakes." It wasn't the first time they camped at a lake, after all. "Sure, sounds good to me. Let's go there. Guide away~."
"Okay." Showing them the way, they arrived at their camping place soon enough and also gathered some food along the way.
----------------
"Right, now that's a lake." Sophia stared at the crystal-clear water that was so vast she couldn't even see the end of it. Together with the white sand beach, it made a lovely picture. "I kinda want to take a swim now."
"Why not do it?" Maya looked at her.
"No swimsuit."
"There's no need for that, is there?"
"There is, t-there definitely is!"
"Ah, is that so?" She seemed ever so slightly disappointed. She had a lot of fun messing with the girl.
"Well," Sophia walked towards the water regardless and took off her shoes and socks. "That much should be fine, I- Ah, COLD!" She dipped her right foot into the water and immediately jumped back. "W-Why?! It's so warm out here!"
"Ehehe~." The cat-girl was laughing for some reason.
"Y-You knew about that, right?! And you still wanted me to go in?! N-Naked even?!"
"Your reactions really are the best." Maya was smiling broadly, and her ever so active tail seemed to be happy as well, swishing around from side to side as usual.
"Y-You!" Looking for a way to get back at the playful cat, Sophia glanced at the lake again. Then, a small orb of water emerged from it before speeding towards Maya, hitting her in the face before she could even react.
"Eeek!" She shrieked up in surprise. "S-So cold! Why did you do that?!"
"Do you really need to ask?"
"Urgh! A-Anyway, take thi-!" Maya ran up to her, planning to get revenge, but she tripped on the loose sand and crashed head-first into Sophia. Losing her balance from the impact, she stumbled backward and was about to fall into the lake.
"A-Ah!" Not wanting to suffer alone, Sophia barely managed to grab the cat-girl's arm, taking the girl with her for the fall into the water.
"COLD!" Drenched in ice-cold water, the shrieky cry of the two echoed through the area soon after.
"Y-You're the worst, Sophia!" Shivering, Maya vented her frustration.
"Y-You started it!" She was equally angry.
"Sorry… That wasn't the plan… Uuh, I really want to take a hot bath now!" Still shivering in her soaked clothes, the cat-girl wrapped her arms around herself to warm up even a bit.
"…" Sophia took a quick glance at her body while her clothes were tightly clinging to it. A lot of it became see-through because most of Maya's outfit was white. This didn't leave much to her imagination. "H-How about this for starters?" Looking away, she invoked some magic, and warm wind wrapped around the girls and quickly but gently dried their clothes. "Better now?"
"Thanks, I'm still cold on the inside, though. A bath would still be great."
"I'll build one later, okay?"
"Thank you very much!" For supposedly feeling chilly, the cat-girl was very energetic.
"Let's get dinner first, though."
"Yes!"
Having fooled around enough, the girls reunited with Fen, and the group prepared their dinner together as usual. Much to the delight of Sophia, with the arrival of Maya, who's a decent cook, the food selection and quality had grown considerably.
"Well then," After they finished eating, Sophia got up with a satisfied expression. "I'll get the bath ready."
"Okay!" Maya stood up as well for some reason. "Ah, I'll come with you."
"Eh? Why?"
"I want to see how you build it."
"Sure? It's quite boring, though."
"I don't mind."
Decided on going together, the two looked for a suitable place, and Sophia began preparing her magic to build it.
"Any wishes before I begin, Maya?"
"Hmm," She tilted her head. "I want a bigger bath!"
"That's no problem. What size do you want it to be?"
"Let's see…" The cat-girl paused. "Big enough for two people to get in without it feeling cramped, I guess?"
"I can do that- Eh? W-Why are you using such a… s-specific way for d-describing the size?" Sophia had a very bad premonition about this situation.
"Because it has to fit two people, of course."
"Y-You-, You don't mean what I t-think you mean, right…?" Cold sweat appeared all over her body.
"Yes, we're going to take a bath together." Maya spoke like it was a matter of course for her.
"No!" Sophia instantly refused. It was an impossible task for her.
"Yes."
"No!"
"Yes."
"No!"
"Yes."
"No!"
"Yes."
"Absol-." She was interrupted by the cat-girl in the middle.
"Remember the requests, no, rewards I earned?"
"A-Ah!" Sophia fell silent.
"I'm going to use one on that." She seemed determined.
"B-But, aren't there any b-better things for you to request… instead of b-bathing together?"
"None that I can think of, or want to."
"I-Is there really n-nothing else, like… anything? Is this r-really happening? S-Seriously…?" Sophia was panicking and negotiating at the same time.
"So, as I said, make it big enough to fit two people~." Maya answered her by completely ignoring the girl.
"Uuh…" With tears in her eyes, Sophia started working on the extra-large bath for the two of them. "So, this is how my life in a different world is going to end, huh?" Being sure she'll die of a severe case of cardiac arrest in the very near future because there's no way her heart's going to survive such a situation, she mumbled these last words to herself.
