NOVEL NEXT Chapter 372 – Hot spring preparations
The girls briefly returned to Earth again to collect everything inside Steph’s room because she wanted to place her furniture and all the other stuff from there into her new room in the mansion. It was a lot cozier than the default furniture of a guest room, after all. Afterward, things got a little hectic. Maya finally got permission to try out the adult toys she and Sophia had bought during their first trip. The cat-girl immediately dragged her tiger off to their bedroom, which was the last everyone had seen of them that day.
"Morning!" On the following day, unusually awake and very refreshed-looking, Sophia entered the living room and energetically greeted Chloe and Steph, who had been there already.
“Good morning…?” The two weren’t sure how to feel about this. Especially because both knew how little of a morning person the blonde usually was.
“Where’s Maya…?” After how the last day ended, Chloe was a little confused about why she wasn't with her.
“Uhh…” The tiger awkwardly scratched her cheek. “Maya… she… it’ll take a while before she can, err… feel her legs again…”
“What did you two do?!” Steph got loud.
“Yes.” Sophia just got more awkward.
“That’s not an answer!” She didn’t let her have it. “I would know because I invented that reply!”
“Look…” The blonde paused for a moment. "We spent like a whole month's salary worth of money, if not even more, in that sex shop we visited and… Save for some souvenirs we bought for everyone to have some fun with, Maya wanted to test everything. Everything.”
“Oh?” The fox-girl heard something interesting in there.
“E-Everything!?”
“Everything.” She repeated herself. “I tried to warn her that it would be too much, but… that kind of thing doesn’t work on Maya, and… she was very horny.”
“Uhh…”
“Anyway, she needs some more rest. I was very thorough with her. Everything was 100% consensual, I want to add.”
“That’s good…?” Steph still wasn’t sure what to say. She did look a little proud for some reason, though. “If anything, after hearing that, I’m surprised we didn’t hear you two.”
“Of course not!” Sophia showed her a cheeky smile. “All that happened while I stopped time for us. I’ve slept for ten hours already at this point. My tinnitus caused by Maya’s screaming is long gone, too.”
“Wow…” Chloe sounded impressed. “Wait! If you’ve slept for ten hours already now… D-Does that mean it has been at least that long since you two, err… finished?”
“More or less.”
“And she’s still done for?!”
“Not wanting to brag, but I’m pretty good at what I do~.” Her voice turned incredibly smug.
“Sure sounds like bragging to me.”
“Yup!” The couple didn’t buy it.
“Because I am! I have all the rights to!” After all, Sophia was quite proud of her achievement.
“Fair enough, I guess.”
"Anyway, as much as I love talking about my sex life with my sister and her girlfriend…"
“Ahaha…” The duo only scratched their cheeks in return.
“Steph, you didn’t bring your phone when we returned to Earth yesterday, did you?”
"I did, and no, no message from mom. She hasn't read ours yet, either." The dog-girl took a wild guess about her intent. “That was about to be expected, though. She told me that they want to go really offline for a good while, after all.”
“I see…”
“Hmm…?” Chloe looked a little confused. “What’s this about?”
“Our parents had a new child and decided to go on an extended vacation with our little sister away from phones, the internet, and all that.”
“Ohh! Congrats on the little sister!”
“Thanks! Anyway, they had just left a few days before Sophia’s little, uhh… return trip back to Earth. That’s why we had no chance to tell them in person about me having found her and also going with her. We could only send out mom a message about what was going on.”
“Is that how it is? Well, far from optimal, but it’s better than nothing, I guess?”
“Pretty much.” The sisters just nodded.
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The trio kept chatting for a good bit longer until the door to the living room eventually opened again, as Maya finally decided to join them.
“Good morning!” The cat-girl sounded quite energetic. Her looks were the complete opposite of that, though. She looked pretty tired and exhausted, and her legs even seemed a little wobbly while she made her way to the empty sofa. Her hair was completely disheveled and all over the place, as well. Not to mention that her clothes, a pair of black shorts and a blue, very short, crop top, were barely in the place they were supposed to be. It seemed more like luck rather than planning that they somehow, at least barely, covered the important bits. It also seemed like the shorts and the top was all she was wearing, judging by the parts that weren’t covered. “Haa…” Arriving at the sofa, she then fell face-first down on it while letting out a comfortable sigh.
“M-Morning…”
“Woah, your girlfriend is hot!” Steph voiced the first thing that flew through her mind while staring at her attire and overall look before glancing at her sister. “A-Ah, is that okay to say…?” She then sheepishly faced Chloe.
“When you’re right, you’re right.” The fox-girl couldn’t blame her.
“Thanks~.” Maya loved to hear it.
“Ehehe~.” Sophia did, too.
“I heard you had a… fun night?” The dog-girl was a little curious to hear her side of the story, even though the picture was speaking for itself already.
“Oh. My. Goodness!” The cat-girl lifted her face to look at Steph. “Your world is insane! How can anyone be productive over there when stuff like that exists?!”
“Ahaha…” She scratched her cheek. “You need money to buy them, and a home to use them in, which you have to pay for, too. To get money, you need a job, and so on. Food every now and then is nice, too.”
"Ahh, I see." Okay with that explanation, Maya again placed her head on the pillow on the sofa. “Good thing we have money~.”
“Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this, uhh… useless since meeting her.” In a way, Chloe sounded a little impressed.
“Can you blame me?!” The cat-girl lifted her head once more. “You are from that world, too, aren’t you?! You should know how amazing those things are!”
“I am, but do you remember the part where I left that world when I was 14? Even before that, I spent most of my time being sick…”
“R-Right…” The cat-girl had suppressed this part of her backstory. “Well, worry not! We bought many spares for everyone! Unused, of course!”
“T-Thanks…?” While Chloe couldn’t hide her smile caused by that, it was still a rather awkward topic. “Anyway, are you coming with us to the fox village…?" She increased her stare at Maya. "Walking, err… seems like a challenge…?”
"Give me an hour, and I'll be as good as new!"
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Precisely two hours and 48 minutes later, perfectly on time, the group took the portal to the village and directly made their way towards the hot springs to get inspiration for their plan to modify the forest. Maya, who was as good as new, definitely did not lag behind and still didn't seem a little unsteady on her feet. Not at all.
“Oho, what are you all doing here?” In front of the hot spring building, Alex, the fox-man and leader of the village, was standing while holding some sort of papers when he spotted the group. "Wait, what happened to our dear cat? She looks like she has run all the way from the capital to here in one go…”
“Don’t mind her. She’s just a little tired.” Sophia smiled at him.
"Okay? Speaking of, how do you all come and go all the time, anyway…? The wolves are constantly doing the same, as well…”
“Don’t worry about that, either.” She then scratched her cheek. "Kinda complicated to explain. Long story short. Magic. It will probably be announced from the capital soon. Well, soon-ish…" After all, the tiger was planning to tell the king about her portals.
“Okay…?” He only got even more confused. “Sooo… What brings you here?”
“Are the hot springs done yet?!” Sophia cut right to the point.
"Hmm…" Alex tilted his head. "We just finished one of the artificial wooden baths today. The second and the natural, stone-themed ones will take a while longer.”
“Good enough!”
"The protective fence still needs to be done, though. It might be a little too open-air for you all.”
“That’s even better!”
“Ehh…?" He hadn't expected that. "I mean, all the power to you, but I hadn't thought you'd be the type who's into exhibitionism…"
“I-I didn’t mean it like that, idiot!” Sophia raised her voice. “We found the cause for the, uhh… magic forest with the gigantic trees. It happened because they somehow were subjected to an enormous amount of ambient magic during their growth.”
“Really? That’s fascinating!”
“We’re thinking about recreating that here on a much smaller scale. Not overgrown like over there at all, but we're hoping to create a themed hot spring. We have the theory that we could even control the season of the plants with the right amount of ambient magic. We could make the backdrop of the bath like a permanent autumn theme with the trees having their colorful fall foliage all year round."
"Is it okay if I don't even pretend to have understood what you just said…?" Alex tilted his head.
“Long story short, I think we can make the forest around the hot springs look fancy without it causing any harm.”
“I like the sound of that!” That was all he needed to hear. “Sure, feel free to get creative!”
“Alright!”
Afterward, Alex guided them to the finished outdoor bath, a big wooden tub-style hot spring with a roof on top right next to, and reaching into, the forest surrounding the village. As it had become winter by now, though, it was devoid of any leaves, and the plants no longer provided privacy protection. Once he gave them a quick rundown, the fox-man left the girls on their own.
