NOVEL NEXT Chapter 332 – Old and new
Sophia had brought her sister over to her new world, and things got out of hand almost instantly. Soon after they arrived, Chloe also returned home and was relieved that the couple was back. Seeing the fox-girl for the first time, Steph immediately pounced on her because she liked everything fluffy, at least as much as her older sister. Even more, she loved foxes, so Chloe was a double kill for her. Afterward, once she found out that she had just considerably sexually harassed the poor girl, she apologized multiple times, and the two were able to put it past them.
The fox-girl obviously wasn’t any less confused about everything that was going on and had a lot of questions. First and foremost, why Sophia’s supposedly dead sister was here and how the couple had lost their animal ears and tails.
“So, what is going on here?” Chloe and Steph asked the same question while staring at the couple. As the little sister had entered interrogation mode, she opted against clinging to Sophia and sat down next to Chloe on the sofa opposite the duo. When the fox-girl asked her why she was so close to her tail, the short blonde decided not to answer, and they started questioning Sophia and Maya instead.
“Uhh…” The taller blonde had no idea where to start. “Chloe, can we continue with the topic we left off with before Maya and I disappeared? That will eventually lead to everything that is going on right now…”
“Before you disappeared…? Oh, that…” She needed a second to remember.
“Yeah, that.” Sophia nodded before continuing. "I still can't believe we're both from a different world.”
“S-So you are…?”
“Yup.”
“Wow… I am, too…”
“I know~.”
“You know?!”
“Well, the TV thing was a big giveaway… Also, Canir confirmed it to me when we met him after disappearing on you.”
“Ah, I see… Wait, what?!” Chloe got loud after the second part registered in her brain. “Canir?! As in the overseer?! You met him?! He actually exists?!”
"We, mostly I, meet him every month or so…"
“S-Seriously?!”
“Last time, he went drinking with us. It was great fun~.”
“Y-You’re kidding…”
“He’s actually the one who brought me to this world.”
“Wow!”
“Who's the one that brought you here? He mentioned that it wasn’t him.” Sophia was still curious about that part.
“I, uhh… I don’t actually know…” The fox-girl shook her head. “While growing up here, I regained the memories from my old life, but I have no idea how I ended up here…”
“Really? Woah, that must’ve been freaky, suddenly gaining the memories from another life.”
“It really was…” She scratched her cheek in response.
“Did it all hit you at once when you reached a certain age or how did it happen…?”
“Now, it almost was like living two lives at once… I don't really remember much of the first one or two years, but while I was growing up, the memories of my old self with the same age also flowed into me…”
“I’m not sure if that’s better or worse than suddenly remembering everything at once…”
“I think it’s better. If I suddenly learned about my past all at once one day, everything about myself would’ve felt pretty disconnected. That also means that I had a normal childhood here and didn’t have the memories of the future me or something like that.”
“I guess that would be true…” Sophia looked a little awkward.
“I could’ve done without the past 14-year-old me, though… Seeing and somewhat feeling myself dying over time and then that side of me going black freaked me out a LOT…”
“…” Everyone went silent.
“Y-You died when you were 14…?” Steph didn’t like the sound of that. Neither, judging from their expressions, did the other two. “How…?”
“I was very sick for a while and lost the fight against it in the end…”
“…” The trio went silent again.
"Stop with the long faces!" Chloe got loud! "It's literally a thing of the past! I'm feeling great! In fact, except for an occasional cold or an upset stomach may, I've never been seriously sick since being in this world!"
“T-That’s good…” Everyone seemed relieved again.
"Alrighty!" The fox-girl decided that her part of the story was over with that. "Wait, it sounds like the memories of your previous life were different, Sophia?"
“Ah, no… I didn’t start anew…” Sophia shook her head. “I had an… accident in my old world, but before it was game over, Canir let me continue my life here instead. I’m actually here for not even a year yet…”
“Really?” She looked surprised. “Wait… if you didn’t have a full restart… was you being a tiger just a fake?!”
“Not quite… I became an actual tiger to better fit in… You really don’t want to be a human in this world, after all… I didn’t know what being a tiger means when I went for that, though…” Sophia decided to leave out the part where she’s the one who turned herself into a tiger for the time being. “Right now, I just look like a human because Maya and I accidentally ended up visiting my old world… That’s why Maya’s ears and tail are gone, and I look like my old self. You can’t really run around with animal features on earth…”
“You’re a tiger?!” Steph immediately got loud.
“You went back to earth?!” So did Chloe.
“I want to see!” The eyes of the smaller blonde started sparkling.
“Later, Steph…”
“Yay!”
“I had asked Canir to send my mother and sister a letter I wrote because I couldn't say goodbye to them…” Sophia looked at the fox-girl again. “He had summoned Maya and me to his place because he wanted to tell me how that turned out…”
“Ohh… So, when you talked about your sister before, you hadn’t lost her because she died but because she stayed behind in your old world…?”
“Pretty much… Sorry for that…”
"Well, you never said she was actually dead. That's just how I interpreted it…”
“I’m kinda good at that… Anyway, after we were done, Canir made a mistake while sending us home.”
“Ahh…” Chloe didn’t need much more of an explanation.
“Once we were there, after we made sure that my portals were still working, Maya and I changed our looks to match the humans and went shopping~.”
“Your magic still worked? There should be none on earth, right?”
“Our magic was much weaker, and it took way longer to recover. It felt like the magic inside our bodies came with us, and that’s what we were able to use.”
“Ohh, that almost makes sense!”
“I thought the same.” Maya nodded in agreement.
“Shopping there sounds like a lot of fun! Wait, how did you have any money for that?”
“Did you know that the gold coins from this world are made from actual gold? We exchanged some of them and then went on a serious shopping spree!”
“Ohh! How handy!”
“I know! We got all sorts of fun stuff!”
“VERY fun stuff!” Maya also got excited.
"While we were shopping, another little mistake happened…" Sophia glanced at her sister during the last part.
“I am no mistake!” The mistake in question got louder again before she faced Chloe to explain herself. “I managed to find them, and after Sophia told me what happened after she disappeared and where she ended up as a result, I decided to come with them! I won’t ever let her run away again!”
"That's beautiful!" The fox-girl was touched. "Wait, so you just decided to go to another world on the spot…?”
"Of course! An adventure in a different world?! How could I have said no to that? I love exploring, and I can't wait to see everything this place has to offer! If possible, I want to go traveling with everyone right now!” She was very motivated.
"We're keeping her, right?" Chloe liked everything she just heard while looking at the taller blonde with pleading eyes.
“Steph is about as thickheaded as all of us combined… If she decided so, there’s little we can do…” Sophia sounded a little tired while she hung her head. Deep down, she was the happiest about her being here, but the how was far from ideal, after all.
“Yay!” Steph and the fox-girl sounded the exact opposite of tired.
“You two sure are getting along fast.” Maya looked a little surprised while watching the two on the other sofa being so in sync already.
“Well…” Chloe scratched her cheek. “The first moments were a little awkward, but…”
“I-I’m still sorry about that!” The shorter blonde apologized again. “Y-You were just so fluffy, and I love foxes, so… so… I couldn’t help it! I didn't know it was something bad…”
“That’s the reason.” She smiled at Steph before looking at Maya again. “You can’t really be mad at her for that, can you? It was extremely embarrassing because I wasn’t expecting it, but if I start disliking someone for loving fluffy things, I would hate myself, and I wouldn’t be friends with Sophia, either…”
“We would be mortal enemies!” The girl in question had a very clear opinion about it.
“If anything, I’m surprised that Sophia’s the calm, well… calmer sister here…”
“I-I’m just overexcited because everything is new for me… I-I mean, a girl with fox features?! How could I stay calm there?!”
"I'm not sure if that's helping your point." Maya rolled her eyes.
“In any case, a friend of exploration, traveling, and general adventuring is a friend of mine!” Chloe added another point of why she seems to be getting along with Steph already.
“Ehehe.” The little sister liked the sound of that. “Speaking of, when can we go on an adventure? Tomorrow? Tomorrow sounds great!”
“I mean, I’m all in for that, but…” The fox-girl glanced at the couple. “All the other girls in our group are cats in one way or another… They don't like to go outside when it's cold."
“They hate it!” Sophia corrected her slightly.
“Why? The weather seems perfect! As long as it doesn’t rain, all is well! If anything, it’s way better than being too warm! I hate being sweaty!”
“…” Chloe stopped for a moment while she stared at Steph. “Y-You like the cold…?”
“Absolutely!” She nodded a few times. “It’s not like I hate the summer, but I always end up getting super sluggish because I tend to overheat quickly… This room is already close to being too warm… I don't know how many more qualities you have of an arctic fox, but it should be similar to you, right?"
“YES!” She had a strong reaction to this. "S-Sophia, your sister is the best!"
“I do agree with that a lot.” The taller blonde felt the same. "I do disagree with you on this particular reason, though…”
As Chloe was getting excited over Steph liking cold weather, and the little sister not having stopped being excited since her arrival, the couple decided to take a small break while the other two continued to chat about the topic while seemingly bonding incredibly fast.
