NOVEL NEXT Chapter 382 – A crafty ploy
While the group was chatting, Mira revealed that she was involved in Aura's teleportation incident and helped her survive it. Later, she also assisted in returning her memories. That wasn’t the only topic the overseer talked about, though. She also blurted out that Chloe and Steph had started dating. Naturally, Fey, who hadn’t heard about that yet, was more than a little bewildered about her daughter suddenly being in a relationship, and as any doting mother, she took the partner of her daughter for a ride. Luckily, Steph fared reasonably well, and there was little the full fox could complain about. And she tried.
“S-So…” After everything calmed down a little, Steph eventually looked at Fey again. “Did I, err… pass?”
“There is nothing for you to pass here!” Chloe immediately got loud again.
“Well…” The full fox paused for a moment. “I won't challenge you to a magic duel to the death, at least."
“T-That’s a start.”
“For now.”
“Not now and not ever!” Chloe raised her voice even more. “I’ll get angry if you don’t stop now, mom!”
“…” Fey went silent.
“Nownow…” Sophia smiled at the pink fox. “What would you do and say when your daughter, hypothetically speaking, enters a relationship without you knowing and with a person you never met before?”
“…” Chloe also went silent.
“I know what I would do.” The tiger’s voice changed a little. "A magic duel to the death with that person would only be my warm-up."
“Our possible future will keep being eventful…” Maya wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
“Come on,” The blonde glanced at her. “As if you would a, stop me and, secondly, would handle it any differently.”
“…” She went silent, as well. This sort of reaction seemed to be even more common than usual at the moment.
“See?” Pointing at her girlfriend, Sophia then looked at Chloe again. “It’s only natural to get protective. You’re her child, after all. She has yet to find out that Steph is the best.”
“You might have a point…” Chloe couldn’t find anything to argue with. “Will you give her a chance?” She then faced the full fox again.
“…” Her gaze alternated between the new couple a few times. “W-Well, your intuition and people skills have always been on point, so… She also seems to know what she wants and how to treat others. She’s cute, too…" Fey then stared hard at Steph. “If you hurt her, I will hurt you.”
“And I will finish you off afterward.” Sophia sided with her. She, too, liked the fluffy pink one a lot, after all. "Sisters or not. Well, the same is true for Chloe, though. I don’t discriminate here. She'd also be done for."
“Y-Yes!” A chill ran down the spine of the dog-girl. "I already vowed myself that I won't ever let that happen!"
“Alright…” Fey took a deep breath. “I still can’t say I’m happy, especially about the circumstances, but… not giving the person my daughter chose a chance would be incredibly rude in itself…”
“T-Thank you!” Steph relaxed a little again. “I won’t be a disappointment!”
“Mrmmnn…” She still was a little grumbly.
“Come on,” Mira also smiled at her. “You knew that this would happen someday, didn’t you?”
“Well, yes, but… You!” Fey suddenly intensified her stare on the overseer.
“Me?”
“Yes! You helped Steph getting settled in this world by giving her magic. Why did you do that? Chloe was a special case, but every other person you let reincarnate, in whatever way, you never did that before. Why her?”
“Uhh...” The overseer froze.
“Mira told me that she had taken a liking to me~.” The dog-girl sounded rather happy about it. “Because of how well along I instantly get with the others, especially with Chloe. Also, she wanted to one-up Canir and Sophia.”
“Y-Yes!” The teal fox seemed quite evasive for some reason.
“Hmm...” Fey kept staring at her. “Alright, I understand the Canir part. If you have the chance to one-up him, you use it, but... You gave her so much, in non-overseer terms, of your magic just because you took a liking to her? Because she got along with Chloe?”
“M-More or less... Canir told me a lot about Sophia and then her sister later on, and I got interested because our tiger here is having a lot of fun with my magic. I wanted to see what Steph would do with it.”
“Okay, fair enough.” She could follow her train of thought. “Still, why this much magic? Even after she gave half of it to our girl, she still has an overwhelming amount. So does Chloe now... Ah.”
“...” Mira turned her head away.
“I see now... You took a liking to Steph, even more so after you noticed how well she got along with our girl. Because of that, you gifted her way more than enough authority for two people. According to what Chloe said earlier, you even talked her into kissing the dog-girl, and ultimately was the final piece for them to become a couple..." She paused for a moment. "I don’t doubt all of it being true, but it also was a ploy to boost Chloe’s authority behind my back, wasn’t it? You had the feeling that Steph would share her new powers with her crush to make things even, right?”
“Err...” Mira awkwardly scratched her cheek.
“S-Seriously?!” Steph and Chloe got loud.
“Well, as long as it wasn’t your only motivation, I don’t mind, but that sure is crafty!” The violet dog wasn’t angry.
“Thank you!” The pink fox was quite happy about it.
“I thought we agreed that giving her a somewhat higher but still reasonable authority at birth was the way to go?" Fey sounded less happy. “It even was your suggestion, too! You said that her authority will already be worth at least double the normal folk and that she will also inherit your almost instant regeneration. I readily agreed because that meant she seemed more regular at first glance, but why did you change your mind now?”
“That’s Sophia’s fault.” She pointed at the tiger.
“Why is it always my fault?!” The girl in question immediately got loud.
“I know how much our girl loves playing with magic, and having seen just how much fun Sophia was having with the over-the-top amount she got from Canir, I wanted to do more for Chloe. It happened in a somewhat roundabout way because of the circumstances, but I wanted her to have even more fun!”
“Okay, I take responsibility for that.” The blonde could live with the accusation now.
“Also,” Mira faced the full fox again. “I tried my best to add all sorts of safeties that won’t hinder the fun aspects but should prevent actual catastrophes from happening.” She glanced at the blonde during the end.
"A-Ahaha...” She got a little awkward.
“Well, I guess you had the best intentions...” Fey let out a small sigh. “I also trust Chloe to not do anything bad with her new authority because while she loves to play with it, she is aware of the consequences it can have. Still, why didn't you talk about it with me first? I have the right to be a part of such big decisions."
“You definitely have! Much more than I, for that matter, but...” Mira scratched her cheek. “I didn’t have the time when I prepared the blessing for Steph because everything happened so quickly... Those sisters can’t sit still for 3 seconds, after all.”
“Kinda...” The duo in question had nothing to say in their defense.
“I was planning to speak about it with you soon, but even I was surprised when they suddenly showed up in my domain, started dating immediately, and Steph sharing her magic all in the first week, you know?”
"A-Ahh...” Steph and Chloe started blushing.
“That seems to be a fair excuse.” Fey seemed to be okay with that. “While we know that our girl is quite impulsive, that’s a record even for her.”
“Not going to apologize!” The pink fox had gotten a little shy about it, but she wasn’t regretting a single thing.
“You don’t have to, either.” It was quite a shock for her, but Fey couldn’t be angry at anyone for that. Especially not her daughter. “We’ll intensify your training again, though. Wielding that much authority is a different story altogether. It comes with a load of responsibilities!”
“Okay!” Chloe nodded a few times.
“It does?” Sophia tilted her head in return. “Isn’t it more or less the same, just... more?”
“It’s much more than that!” Fey stared at her.
“Really? From what I’ve learned, it just means that you can explode things harder and faster once you have enough magic to use chantless magic.”
“Who taught you magic...? Fen?”
“Yep!”
“N-No way?!” Her eyes shot open before she glared at the male wolf. “You actually went ahead and taught your whimsical methods to others?! Do you have any idea how much could’ve gone wrong with your approach to magic used by someone who has absolutely no idea how any of it works?!”
“...” He went silent.
“How much did go wrong.” Maya corrected her.
“C-Come on...” Fen tried to defend himself. “Admittedly, I like to take shortcuts and often enough don’t take consequences into account, but I did come up with some pretty interesting magics during my life. My control of it is decent, too. Also, Aura has pretty much the same mindset I have!”
"I know..." Fey quickly glanced at the female wolf before concentrating on the other one for a moment again. “I definitely do not fault your achievements and control... it’s your technique that’s concerning. Yours, too, miss I tried to teleport myself!”
“...” Both wolves had nothing to say anymore.
“You!” The full fox then focused on the tiger.
“Me?” She pointed at herself.
“I’m not exactly sure how different it is for you thanks to using Canir’s blank authority, but you will be joining Chloe in our training! You, more than anyone else, need to be aware of some rules!"
“Sounds fun!” Sophia liked the idea.
“Err...”
“Shut up!” Fey immediately glared at the male wolf again.
“...”
"Can I join the training, too?" Steph entered the conversation. “I really want to learn as much as I can about magic, too!”
“Of course!” Chloe answered her first.
“Yes. Yes, you can.” Fey had nothing against it, either.
“M-Might things actually get better from now on...?” Maya sounded strangely emotional for some reason.
