Sophia showed Dago, the merchant they met during their travels, how her portals work and transported everyone to the capital. There, the girls used the chance to catch up with people in the castle. Ari told her mother about her sister Nina and the possibility of her having a girlfriend, while Anna and Sophia prepared Menzor for a meeting with another mayor soon, as they were about to reach the next major city.

"Wow, this sure is a big city!" After everyone returned from the capital, the group, including the merchant and his adventurer escorts, finally arrived near Agola and were able to see it in all its glory. Just as Sophia had mentioned, it was a massive city with a gigantic port area, where easily at least a hundred boats and ships in all sorts of sizes, from small two-person ones to vessels way over 150 meters long with massive sails, could be seen reaching into the ocean. The city itself was also larger than they could oversee from their small hill, but they could make out at least three gigantic marketplaces with hundreds of stalls and tents in all sorts of sizes.

"Yeah, it's a good place?" After the trip to the capital out of nowhere, Dago was still a little confused about a lot of things. His carriage was filled to the very brim and above with goods from there, though. There was no way any good merchant would've had such a chance slip through, after all.

"Let's go!" Steph energetically clapped her hands.

Following the coastal road for a little longer, they eventually entered the city through one of its main entrances, where the girls then split up with the merchant and the adventurers.

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Naturally, Anna and Sophia had gathered quite the attention from everyone around. Still, once they greeted most of them and had a chat here and there, things eventually calmed down beside the occasional stare here and there, so they could explore the city in peace.

"I'm so glad I move around so much or else I'd be in a lot of trouble!" As per Dago's recommendation, the girls first went to the docks, where Sophia got rather excited when she saw all the food stalls selling all sorts of primarily fish-based meals and fast food. "I'm going to try everything!"

"Same!" Maya was also looking forward to trying all the food.

"We should've come to the ocean much sooner!"

"Exactly!" All the cats, Anna and Ari included, were big fans of the fish-focused diet in the area.

"You cats are way too obsessed with fish- wait, hold!" Steph was about to tease them for being so stereotypical, but she suddenly stopped when she noticed a particular stall that caught her interest. "I take everything back, that place over there is selling battered fish, so your excitement is more than valid!"

"Do you like battered fish?" Chloe was a little surprised by how excited she got over her discovery.

"Very much so!" The dog-girl nodded. "In fact, every type of food gets at least twice as good if it's battered and deep-fried!"

"Hmm, you know what, fair enough." The fox-girl could get behind her taste there.

"Battered anything is a good type of food to satisfy all sorts of cravings, and it's a nice treat every now and then, but it's definitely not an everyday type of food."

"Not if you're weak, no." The dog-girl smirked at her.

"No, I'm not weak. I just have self-discipline." The cat-girl shook her head. "Though, I guess that's a foreign concept for you sisters."

"True!" Sophia and Steph simply embraced it.

Having agreed to disagree, the girls went to the stalls and tried out all kinds of food, but the place Steph found, with the battered fish, ended up becoming the favorite of everyone.

"There sure are a lot of boats around here." While walking around, Chloe kept being fascinated by the piers and the ships of all sizes tied to them.

"The big transport ships look fun." Sophia gazed at the roughly 150-meter-long ships, which had completely empty decks designed to store as many goods as possible. "Almost makes me feel bad just how easy we have it with storing and transporting things. Only almost, though."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Your humbleness keeps impressing me." The jaguar could only roll her eyes.

"Hehe." She had to chuckle at that. "It's not like all of you love my storage just as much."

"Well, you are not wrong with that." Ari couldn't really say anything there.

"You know, I'm still sad about how fast our river adventure ended." Steph looked at all the ships while letting out a small sigh.

"I'm still sad about how our river adventure ended." Ari slightly corrected her as she shuddered while remembering how they had fallen down the massive waterfall in their little boat.

"I'd love to do more boating, though!" The dog-girl gestured at the docks. "Maybe a bigger one that's more stable!" She then pointed at a range of roughly 10-15-meter-long sailing boats that came with their own cabins to live and spend time in. "We may be able to use it to get to the demons, too! Instead of riding Kel, we might be able to tell him into towing this for us!"

"I'm not sure if it's more or less safe being on a ship instead of a dragon when crossing an ocean, but it definitely sounds a lot more comfortable." The jaguar wasn't against the idea.

"That sounds fun!" Anna liked it, too.

"I wonder if any of those ships are for sale." Sophia looked at the boats her sister was pointing at.

"Everything is for sale if the price is right!" Steph gave her a thumbs-up.

"That sounds so incredibly wrong." The blonde had some mixed feelings about that claim.

"Within legal and reasonable parameters, okay?!" The dog-girl just wanted to be funny.

"It certainly sounds like an interesting plan." Sophia was warming up to the plan. "I'd imagine that boats like those are rather expensive, but…" She paused for a moment. "That's like one of our least concerns, so it could be fun!"

"It's already rather late, though, so I'm not sure if that's going to work out today." Maya looked around and noticed how the pier area of the docks was rather empty and devoid of people already, as the sun had started setting.

"Yeah, true." The blonde nodded. "How about we call it a day for now? Today was long enough, and Menzor also plans to meet the mayor tomorrow, so let's do all that stuff then."

"Sounds like a plan!" The others agreed with her plan.

Afterward, the group left the city again for the time being to get to a secluded spot in order to use Sophia's portal so they could return to the cottage and have a fresh start on the following day.

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On the following day, the girls returned to the city to do everything they wanted before getting on the go again.

"Should we split up?" Walking through the streets, Sophia looked at the others. "I mean, we don't have to meet the mayor as an entire group, after all. While Anna and I do that, everyone else could look for a nice boat, I guess?"

"Sounds good!" Steph and Chloe immediately liked the plan.

"I'll watch out that those two get something that works and not just looks cool." Maya smiled at the blonde before facing the energetic duo. She also didn't feel like visiting the mayor.

"I'll come with you." Ari faced the tigers instead. "I want to hear what they know about the group, especially about Nina and the puma-girl!"

"Sure~." The striped girls smiled at her.

Having agreed on that, the girls split up, and the tigers grabbed the first guard they saw walking around to ask them for directions to the mayor's place. Seeing who they were, the guard even happily escorted them right to the place in question.

"Oh, I see, so that's why my advisors told me last evening to keep myself free today." The trio met a wolf-man in his late fifties, who nodded a few times when seeing the two tigers and Ari in front of them. "I did not expect to see more tigers, as well as the obligatory jaguar, so soon again."

"Ahaha." Anna let out a small chuckle. "My brother was here a little while ago, wasn't he?"

"Yes, up until half a year ago, for a couple of months." He nodded. "Nathan's your brother, huh? That means you're Princess Anna, right? He talked a lot about you. My name's Noah, by the way."

"Yes, I'm indeed Princess Anna." The tall tiger smiled at him before raising an eyebrow. "Do I want to know why my brother talked so much about me?"

"You really don't." The mayor slowly shook her head before looking at Sophia. "Who might you be? Nathan mentioned nothing about someone who would match your description."

"I'm Sophia!" She also smiled at him. "I'm just your friendly neighborhood tiger!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hearing her standard introduction, Noah quickly got confused. "Well, then again, there are many tigers, not just the core royal family, so I guess that makes sense." He decided not to worry about it.

"She's a close and invaluable friend of the ruling family and something like an honorary princess." The jaguar tried to explain it a little more to them. "My name is Ari, the sister of Nina, who's travelling with Nathan."

"Ohh, I see!" The mayor nodded. "Does that mean that you, just like Nina, are the levelheaded one of the group, and I should let you do the talking to keep the headaches at a minimum?"

"Yes." It was Anna and Sophia who answered him instead.

"This is way more vital for this group." Ari scratched her cheek. "My girls here are way more unhinged than whatever you experienced with Prince Nathan."

"Ahaha~!" The mayor reacted with a deep and hearty laugh. "Yeah, no, that's not possible."

"Oh no…" The jaguar had a bad feeling about this and what was to come.

Afterward, Anna and especially Sophia got ready to show him what being unhinged really means because the blonde's portals and the plan around it were unlike anything else, after all.

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