Sophia, Anna, and Ari went to meet the mayor of Agola to ask him about Nathan, as well as telling him about the portals to connect his city with the capital. Unfortunately, Noah thought that Nathan's group was the unhinged and headache-inducing ones, so his future well-being looked rather grim.

"So, before I let Sophia loose on you, can we talk about Nathan, Nina, and their group for a little longer, as long as you still can?" Ari wanted to prioritize this topic as she knew his headache would be too intense afterward.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The mayor looked at the blonde while raising one of his eyebrows.

"Don't worry about it~." She just smiled at him in return.

"I suddenly worry a lot!" It naturally had the opposite effect on him.

"Ari has a point." Anna nodded a few times. "We're trying to catch up with Nathan and his group, so it would be amazing if you knew where they were headed to after leaving Agola."

"They mentioned wanting to continue travelling alongside the coast for as long as they could. Nathan wanted to learn more about the natural borders of the country or something like that. They didn't go into detail, but that could mean they could walk all the way up to the monster country before turning land inward again." He paused for a moment. "I mean, no one would be stupid enough to actually enter that place, after all."

"R-Right…" Knowing how their itinerary was already set to go there, Ari could only scratch her cheek. "Do you also happen to know more about the relationship between my sister Nina and the puma-girl who's in their group? We've met a merchant on the way here who saw them, and he was fairly sure they were dating, so I want to, no, I need to know more."

"Dating might be putting it lightly, but yes." Noah shrugged while replying.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Hearing that ambiguity, Ari instantly got loud.

"I don't want to say anything wrong, so you'll have to ask them yourself."

"Urgh!" She didn't like that at all.

"You don't, by any chance, also know if my brother has found anyone?" Anna just had to ask because she was also curious about that topic.

"No idea." The mayor shook his head. "We didn't talk a single word about romance, after all. It really didn't match the agenda we worked with. I also know about the puma and the jaguar because they were incredibly obvious about it."

"Ah, okay, fair enough." The princess couldn't really blame him for that. "Well, we've also come with business, so I guess it's time we get to that." Now that they knew about Nathan's route and Ari had gotten more confirmation about Nina's relationship with the mysterious puma-girl, Anna thought it was time to break the mayor's common sense and looked at Sophia. "Do you want to start?"

"Yup!" The blonde nodded. "In fact, I'd like to try a different approach, too. After all, I think it worked quite well with the merchant yesterday, too."

"Oh no." Ari suddenly felt even worse for the mayor.

"How much do you know about magic?" Sophia then looked at Noah.

"A lot less than I thought I did a year ago." He paused for a moment. "The cat-boy and the puma were already noticeably stronger than basically everyone I met so far, but why do you two feel twice as strong as them?!" The mayor glanced at Ari and Anna for a moment before staring at Sophia. "And why can't I even begin to grasp how strong you are? Seriously, what are you?"

"Again, I'm just your friendly neighborhood tiger~." This quickly had become one of her favorite phrases. "Anyway, power wasn't exactly what I meant, but it doesn't matter. Your city is kind of in the middle of nowhere, is it not?"

"That very much depends on what you compare it with." Noah tilted his head. "Of course, compared to the royal capital, every place is in the middle of nowhere. However, in this region? No, I wouldn't describe Agola like that. We have direct access to the ocean, allowing us to transport wares to every place alongside the coast with ease. We also have fully developed roads in each major direction, too. We're the trade hub of the area for a reason."

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"I guess that's a good point." Sophia hadn't thought that hard about it. "How would you think about your city not being remote from any spot in the kingdom? Like, what would you say if there's a way to go to the capital in an instant while transporting an unlimited amount of goods, as well?"

"I'd say many words that would be unbecoming to utter in front of a group of well-behaved ladies such as you." His stare got a little intense.

"I'm starting to like people in the trade business." Sophia briefly looked at Anna next to her. "The profit-first mindset apparently makes them able to look past a lot of things that regular people get hung up on."

"It helps a lot, yes."

"I'm not going to say anything about the well-behaved part, nope." Ari was itching to make a comment there, but she managed to hold back.

"What are we even talking about?" Noah tried to get them to focus again. "While it's an… exciting thought to reach the capital in an instant, but that's just too absurd."

"Is it, though~?" Sophia smirked at him.

"Yes."

"King Menzor and I are currently working on a project to revolutionize the entire capital. Well, two of them, actually, but let's put the redesign of magic on the side for the time being because I'm not actively working on that anymore." The blonde paused for a second. "My magic is a little peculiar, and I've sold the usage of a very specific type of my skills to the kingdom to change how traveling works forever."

"I'm no expert at magic, far from it, but I don't think there's any magic that would make this even remotely work. The best example I can think of is ships propelled by wind magic. That already exists, but it's far from an instant transport, and it's even less usable to reach the landlocked capital like that."

"As I said, my magic is a bit peculiar because my control over it is quite good while having a lot of it at my disposal. I've come up with a way to connect whatever two places with each other so that you can instantly go from one to another."

"That sounds like an entirely different plane of magic if you ask me." Noah looked a little dumbfounded. "Like, not something regular people would be capable of. Are friendly neighborhood tigers a special breed?"

"YES!" Ari and Anna violently nodded their heads.

"Aren't they the best companions?" Sophia rolled her eyes while looking at the mayor.

"Well, it seems like they went through a lot with you already." Noah looked a little sympathetic toward them.

"This and that are unrelated!" She smiled at him again. "Do you want to know or not? Are you ready to bring your city to the next level and forever change the way trade and travel work? Or, are you okay with falling behind when more places receive the same offer?"

"You're not giving me a choice there, are you?" The mayor raised an eyebrow in return.

"Just because one of the choices is the correct one and the other one is obviously wrong, doesn't mean you can't choose."

"Wow." He needed a moment. "Okay, I'm all ears." His wolf-ears actually perked up while saying so.

"Great!" Clapping her hands, Sophia then opened a portal in front of them. It was roughly two-by-two meters wide, and the insides were completely see-through. It once more led to the small hill a few kilometers away from the beastfolk capital that she had shown the merchant before. "Do you recognize this place?" She then pointed into the portal.

"Is that… Is that the royal capital?" He stared at it for a full minute. "It's been a couple of years since I have last been there, but there's no mistaking it. I'm confused, though. What exactly am I looking at here? What is all this sparkly stuff? Why am I able to see the capital through it?"

"This is one of my special types of magic." The blonde looked rather proud of herself. "I call it a portal. With the use of that, I can connect two places with each other in complete disregard of the distance between them."

"The friendly neighborhood tigers definitely are a special breed." Noah was too perplexed to freak out.

"Alright, let's go!" Sophia stepped through the portal and looked at the mayor from the other side while standing on the little hill there. "We've already informed Kinge Menzor that you'd be meeting him today to discuss the details of linking your city with the capital."

"Is this safe…?" He turned to look at Anna and Ari with a concerned expression. "It does not look safe, after all."

"So far, it's one of the few safe magics she came up with." The jaguar could only shrug.

"It's perfectly fine." The princess smiled at her. "We're using it multiple times a day to go to various places, after all." Afterward, the two also stepped through the portal to ease his worries a little more.

"I-I see." Naturally, he was still rather hesitant, but seeing the girls waiting for him on the other side, the mayor eventually jumped over his shadow and stepped through the portal.

Once everyone was on the hill near the capital, Noah needed another minute, or ten, to let everything sink in and realize he actually traveled to a different place in an instant. Once he was ready, the group took another portal right into the castle to meet Menzor because Sophia didn't feel like escorting the mayor to the capital on foot.

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