NOVEL NEXT Chapter 083 – Making up for it
Sophia and the girls went to the capital to celebrate Ellie’s birthday. Unfortunately, while meeting the little princess, the blonde died after the small tiger told her how sad she was that she hadn’t visited her even once since leaving.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” Roughly an hour after the group went to the lounge room and chatted a ton with each other, Sophia revived again and jumped on her feet after Maya had thrown her corpse into an armchair when they arrived there.
“Ah, she’s back.” Everyone had the same reaction.
“Wait, where are we?” The blonde noticed that they were in a different room.
“We switched to a more comfortable place after you died.” Maya answered her.
“Ah, I see!” She nodded a few times. “Anyway, I AM SO SORRY!” Seemingly having gotten over her own death rather quickly, she faced Ellie, who was sitting on Anna’s lap on the sofa opposite of her while her head was being petted by Ari, who was sitting next to them. “The last two months were so all over the place that I didn’t find the right time to visit. Also, I wanted to show you something amazing, and it took a while to find something worthy!”
“Mmmhh…” Ellie wasn’t entirely convinced and just growled for a moment. “Amazing?” Something did catch her attention, though.
“Yes!” Noticing she got her, the blonde’s expression brightened. “Soon, I’ll show you the most amazing place in existence!”
“Ohh!” The eyes of the little princess started sparkling.
“You’re not going to take my daughter to some random place far away from the capital!" Kira wasn't a fan of where this was heading.
“Even if I guarantee you that it’s the safest place in existence?” As Sophia was talking about her domain, she was quite confident about her claim. “You can come with us to confirm its safety yourself.”
“It’s kind of hard for a queen to leave the capital with little to no notice, you know?”
“Using my portals, no one will even notice that you were gone for an hour~.” The blonde smiled at her. “They’re the only way to reach that place, anyway.”
“Enticing.” Kira seemed interested, to say the least. “What kind of place is it?”
“I’m not going to ruin the surprise!”
“Ah, I see.” She couldn’t blame her for that. “Ellie, do you want to go on an adventure with Sophia?”
“Y-E-S!” The little princess was able to hide it quite well, but it seemed like she was a little interested in the idea.
“Hehe~.” The blonde liked her subtle reaction. “Let’s do that later today!”
“Yes!”
“For now, let’s focus a little more on your birthday, though.” Ari smiled at the little tiger. “We have some presents for you, you know?”
“Presents?!” She seemed to be ever so slightly interested in that, too.
“Yes, we all have a little something for you~.”
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After the jaguar mentioned it, everyone gave the little princess their presents while congratulating her once more on her fourth birthday.
“Thank you so very much!” She smiled at all of them. “Ellie wants to wear Ari’s new clothes when it gets warm! Same for the crayon and paper mâché sets! Ellie can’t wait to play with them!” She looked at Anna and Maya, who gave those to her. “Let’s play together soon!”
“Of course!” The two nodded a couple of times.
“Ellie will also sleep with the teddy tonight!” She glanced at the massive light-brown teddy bear that was about her size she had gotten from Chloe and Steph. Initially, they wanted to get her some plushies that resembled the girls in their group in one way or another, but as they couldn't find any, they decided to get her a regular but massive one together.
“Ehehe~.” They were happy that she liked it.
“The bracelet is very cute, too!” The little princess looked at her left wrist with the bracelet that was decorated with many colorful gemstones before smiling at Sophia, the person she got it from. “Ellie especially loves the pink ones! They look like they have cherry blossoms inside! So cute!”
“They actually have.” Sophia smiled at her. “The pink gemstones were made by cherry blossoms crystallizing.”
“Ellie doesn’t get it, but Ellie loves it!” That sentence was too much for the little tiger, but she knew that it was amazing.
“Ahaha.” She had to chuckle at her reaction. “Here!” The blonde then showed her a couple more crystallized leaves, blossoms, and a bunch of petals.
“WHAO!” Ellie seemed to like them a lot, judging by her voice and sparkling eyes.
"Anna, Chloe, and I, with the help of someone else, actually made these ourselves!”
“Huh?!” The little princess got even more excited. “Is that true?!” She then looked up at her own sister as she was still sitting on her lap.
“Yes!” She smiled down at her. “We used magic to create them!”
“So cool!” Her eyes were sparkling. “Ellie wants to use magic, too! When is it time for Ellie?!”
“I’m sure it will be soon~.” Sophia encouraged her. “And once it happens, we’re going to have SOOO much fun!”
“Yay!”
“While it will undoubtedly be joyous even, I also fear the day it actually happens." Kira had mixed feelings about it, mainly because the blonde was going to teach her daughter.
“Alright, my beloved birthday girl, do you now want to see that special place I mentioned earlier?” Sophia paid no mind to the queen and her doubts.
“YES!” She jumped off Anna’s lap in anticipation.
“Aww.” The girl in question was sad that the sisterly bonding was over.
“Perfect!” Afterward, the blonde opened one of her usual portals in front of everyone.
“WOW!” The little princess was impressed a lot today.
“Where exactly does this lead to?” Kira gestured at it while tilting her head.
“The place we’ve been staying in for the last two months when we’re not traveling. An awesome place, I want to add!”
“That doesn’t really help that much, you know?” The queen slowly shook her head.
“Fair point, but you have to see it for yourself.” She pointed at the portal. “All I’ll guarantee you is that it’s 100% perfectly safe!”
“Well, I know that you’d never endanger Ellie, so…”
“You haven’t used my portals yet, have you?” Sophia ignored the queen again and faced the little princess instead. “You can actually go through it like a door! On the other side is a completely different world you've never seen before!" Obviously, she was talking about her domain and not the world she came from.
“Really?!”
“Yes!” She just nodded.
“Ellie wants to see!” Immediately after, the little tiger walked right into the portal and disappeared.
“W-Wait!” Kira instantly ran after her.
“Kids sure are fearless.” Ari was impressed with how fast Ellie used the portal.
With those words, everyone else also followed after the queen and the little princess to enter Sophia’s domain.
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“WOAH!” The portal led to the group's cottage, surrounded by the massively overgrown jungle inside the blonde's domain, and Ellie was busy taking everything in.
“What is this place? Where are we?” Kira was mostly confused, though. "Wait, isn't that the cottage you removed for the portal hub outside the capital?” She thought that the building felt familiar.
“The very one.” Sophia nodded. “I told everyone that it’s cute and that I want to keep it, so I did. We’re using it as our base while traveling. We always take a portal here once we’re done exploring for the day.”
“I see.” She nodded a few times while pretending she understood what was going on. “By the way, where is here?”
“Uhh,” Sophia scratched her cheek. She only now noticed that explaining her domain to outsiders was slightly difficult. “This is the place where all my portals lead to.”
“Mhhm?” The queen tilted her head. “I am fairly sure the last time I used one of your portals, I didn’t see this place.”
“The explanation about my portals I gave the king and the others was a little, err… abridged. Like I said, all my portals lead to the same destination, which is this area.” She gestured all around her. “In here, I can connect two portals, though. That way, they won't lead to this place anymore but to the source of the other portal instead."
“It’s okay if I don’t understand that, right?”
“Don’t worry, I don’t really understand it myself.” Sophia simply smiled at her. “It just works™.”
“Okay, but I’m still confused over where we are.” Kira decided to brush past the portal topic. “You’ve been in Sava a month ago, and traveling another month still gets you nowhere near close to a jungle in our kingdom.”
“Ah, that might be because we’re not in the beastfolk kingdom right now.” The blonde understood her confusion. “This place is somewhere else entirely.”
“Huh?” The queen got loud. “Seriously, where are we?!”
“It’s my place.” She still wasn’t sure how to explain it. “The portals are connected to a place that isn’t part of the regular world. I absolutely don’t understand it, either, but everything you can see around here is basically my own little world? In fact, the jungle around here was actually made by Ari and Maya by using their magic on a few saplings we got from Mira.”
“…” Kira stared at her for a little while in absolute silence. “What?”
“Exactly!” Everyone except Sophia and Ellie agreed with her confusion.
“Well, if you want a clearer explanation, you have to ask our dear overseer of magic.” The blonde ignored the girls and kept focusing on the queen. “She knows how this place works because she has something similar and actually knows how it works.”
“Is that so?”
“Yup!” Sophia nodded. “All I know is that I have a perfect overview of the entire place and can see and intervene in any and all possible danger. There are no dangerous animals or even monsters anywhere. It’s the safest place in existence. Even if there would be anything potentially harmful in here, I could sense it and stop it from hurting anyone before it would ever happen.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes!” She smiled at the queen. “Because of that, it’s much more likely for Ellie to hurt herself in the castle than it is here! Honestly, she should live here for her own safety!”
“YES!” The little princess seemed to like the idea. “Ellie wants to live here!”
“The only way for you to have a child live here will involve Maya because it has to be your own!” Kira wasn’t a fan of the suggestion, though. “My baby isn’t going to live here!”
“Aww.” Sophia looked honestly disappointed. “That will take a few years, then… I’ll still take Ellie on a birthday exploration, though! There are many amazing things I want to show her!”
“Ellie wants to explore, too!” She reacted with a couple of big nods.
“I promise that she won’t even get a single scratch when I return her to you once we’re done playing!” The blonde looked at the queen with pleading eyes.
“Please!” Ellie did the same.
“…” Kira looked at the duo for a few moments. “Fine.” She eventually caved in. “Still, as much as a bruise, and I'll send the entire beastfolk army after you! I know that they won’t be able to hurt you, but your afternoon will be ruined!”
“Not my afternoon!” Sophia played along. “If anything, I won’t be able to forgive myself, so it will be my utmost priority!”
“Okay… Ellie, have fun.” She reluctantly gave her okay.
“YAY!” Both tigers had the same reaction.
Afterward, Sophia immediately began planning on what to show Ellie and in which order. Kira and the others then went inside for the time being because the blonde wanted some alone time with the princess because she wanted to make up for the long time she hadn’t visited her.
