Boosted Continuation

Sophia and Maya spent even more time catching up with Chiyo and Dannie. The blonde also told them more about her portals, how they'll be placed throughout the kingdom, and how people can use them to stay in touch wherever they are. Naturally, the two were happy to be able to stay connected with them and also looked forward to traveling through the kingdom.

“Let’s go!” Steph energetically raised her arm high in the air as the group walked alongside a small path leading away from Raumont after they said goodbye to Chiyo and Dannie.

“Speaking of, what’s the best path to get into the monster country from here?” Sophia looked at Maya and the two wolves. “Also, I don’t want to take the same path we took to get here.” She glanced at Fen during the last bit.

“Why not?” The dog-girl got interested in that.

“There are some human settlements I’d like to not see again…”

“Ohh, I haven’t seen any humans in this world yet!” It had the opposite effect on her. “Only heard stories.”

“They wanted to do some very not nice things to me, and I’m not going to go into detail on what that was, so I definitely am not going to go that way."

“Now I REALLY want to go there.” Steph’s expression changed as she cracked her knuckles. Even her tail stopped wagging.

“Same.” Maya's expression looked just like hers, especially because she knew the details, as she remembered what Sophia had told her a long time ago.

“How about we just enjoy our trip to the demon continent instead?” Sophia shook her head. “Fen and I already took care of it.”

“Yep.” The wolf in question nodded. “Those two guards won’t ever be able to work as guards again. Or use their arms.”

“Fine.” Steph respected her sister's desire to concentrate on having fun instead and gave up on it.

“I kind of want to see the human capital at some point, because I’m sure they can turn around, but let’s wait another year or so where the army and the group of beastmen have time to undo the damage their rulers have done to the people and their way of thinking by letting them make their own experiences and form their own views on things.”

“Fair.” The dog-girl could accept that.

“Thanks.”

“I wonder if that’s actually possible.” Anna scratched her cheek. “It certainly would be nice to overcome the past and enter normal relations with the humans.”

“Yes.” Ari and Chloe felt the same.

“Anyway, the st… most direct way is in that direction.” Fen then gestured slightly to the left of the path they were following. He changed his wording because he knew the girls wouldn't take the straightest route to the monster country.

“Thank you for correcting yourself~.” Sophia smiled at him.

“I just didn’t want to deal with the usual exchange again.” The wolf rolled his eyes.

“Can’t blame you there.”

“Let’s go!” Just like earlier, Steph raised her arm high in the air once more and started walking in the direction Fen had gestured in.

----------------

The group walked for a few hours without anything too interesting happening, but eventually noticed that the environment had changed noticeably. Things had gotten much drier, and the greenery had turned to various shades of brown from the lack of moisture around.

“Not a fan.” Chloe slowly shook her head as she looked around.

“Same!” Steph felt the same.

“Ohh!” Anna had a different opinion, though. “It’s still more lush, but it’s starting to remind me of our savanna biome! I can’t wait to get more inspiration from it to make our place even better!”

“Good idea!” Sophia liked her way of thinking.

“By the way, are we in the monster country already?” Ari cautiously looked around with a concerned expression while saying so.

“Not yet, no.” Maya shook her head. “We’re in the in-between zone right now. There eventually will be signs starting to appear as a warning at the full crossing to the monster country."

“Signs?” Anna wanted to know more about them. “Are they marking the border of the kingdom?”

“Kind of, but not quite.” The cat-girl scratched her cheek. “It’s just a row of signs roughly ten to 20 meters apart from each other, and all having a bunch of skulls drawn on them."

"A-Ah.”

“Great…” The royal couple didn’t like the sound of that.

“Did we see any of those signs when we left the monster place?” Sophia tilted her head while looking at Fen.

“Not that I remember.” He shook his head in return.

“If you came across a human settlement first, you probably exited it in an area where there aren't any." Maya tried to come up with a reason. “Like, they’re placed by the beastfolk, so they're only in areas in the vicinity. I mean, it's almost impossible to plaster an entire border with signs.”

“Fair enough.” The blonde could follow that way of thinking. “Okay, let’s keep going~.”

“Let’s find the skull signs!” Steph was even more motivated. “By the way, how big is the monster country?”

"It spans over around one fourth of the continent. The entire side of it is basically occupied by it.” Anna, knowing her kingdom, answered her.

“Woah!” The dog-girl clapped her hands. “So much to explore!”

“There’s not.” Chloe, Sophia, Fen, and Aura shook their heads. “It’s boring.”

“Boo!” She didn’t like that.

"In fact, I chose to live there for a long while, especially because nothing is going on there." Fen nodded a few times. “It was nice and relaxing before a certain someone showed up.” He then glanced at the blonde.

“And you’re happy that we met there~.” Sophia reacted with a cheeky grin.

“I’m not unhappy.” That was the most he could admit to.

“Hehe.” Aura and the blonde had the same reaction.

“Shush!” He glared at them before facing Steph. “The monster country only has its reputation from the beastfolk because they’re a lot weaker than many monsters there. With all of us around, we probably won’t see a single one because they can sense our strength and wouldn’t dare to come close.”

“Alright!” Steph started sounding excited again. “Okay, everyone, let’s learn how to hide our powers so that the monsters come close to us!”

“LET’S NOT!” Ari, for some reason, didn’t like her suggestion.

“You’re such a scaredy-cat.”

“I AM!” The jaguar had no issues admitting it.

“There aren’t many interesting individuals in there.” Aura shook her head while looking at the dog-girl. “None of them really put up a fight, either.”

“Not interesting and strong for you or me?” Steph stared back at her. “You’re a lot stronger than I am, so I have to start somewhere!”

“Nothing around here would be much of a challenge for you, but I can see where you’re coming from.” The female wolf could follow her reasoning. “If you limit yourself on the offensive magic, you could train your reaction and other things.”

“That sounds like a plan to me!”

“I also want to pet a griffin!” Chloe then joined the conversation. “I’m still upset that Feyfey didn’t let me back then!”

“Absolutely!” Steph smiled at her. “Besides fighting some monsters, we’ll also tame and ride on a griffin!”

“I said petting, though?” The fox looked confused.

“Why would you not want to fly on them?!” The dog-girl couldn't follow her. "Griffins are the half-lion, half-bird things, right? They can fly! Thus, we can ride them!”

“Ha… I mean, I'll let you go first, and we'll continue from there." While she was interested, Chloe decided to let Steph try it first.

“I also would love to see a griffin again.” Sophia also got interested in the topic. “Or, to be more precise, I want to see a griffin and not kill it for a change like the other times.”

“If possible, I also could do without seeing you drenched in blood from playing with one again, too.” Maya stared at her tiger while slowly shaking her head.

“I’ll try my best not to.” The blonde gave her a thumbs-up in return. "My reaction time and ability to dodge have improved a lot since then!"

“Good.”

"I'd appreciate it if you also don't end up all covered in blood when fighting monsters, okay?” Chloe looked at her dog-girl, whose tail had been wagging at full blast ever since the topic first came up.

“Mine or the monster’s blood?”

“Most importantly yours, but preferably neither.”

“Just like Sophia, I’ll try my best on the former, but I can’t make any promises on the latter.”

“Yeah, monster blood always gets everywhere.” Aura was on Steph’s side.

“Well, I guess that’s good enough.”

"Anyone else want to try and ride them~?" The dog-girl was looking for more like-minded people.

“We’re good!” Ari and Maya shook their head.

“Unexpected.” She rolled her eyes in return.

“We just don’t have a death wish!” They glared back.

“I’m intrigued, but I’m rather hesitant because griffins are supposed to be an army-level threat.” Anna scratched her cheek. “I’ll wait and see first.”

“Your father will kill you if he finds out that you even think about riding a griffin!” The jaguar didn’t like that she considered it.

"I mean, we're also friends with a 300-meter-long dragon, so I don’t think it makes sense to decide on things before we know what’s up.” The princess had a surprisingly sound argument.

“…” There was nothing Ari could say there. “I don’t appreciate that you’re more and more pulling her to the dark side.” Instead, she just stared at the sisters with a disapproving expression.

“We’re not pulling her to the dark side.” Steph shook her head. “We’re pulling her to the fun side~.” She absolutely had to correct her on that blatant lie.

“Sure.” The jaguar decided against engaging with that.

Once that topic was taken care of, the group continued walking towards the monster country with the new goal of finding a griffin, with the optional goal of taming and riding said monster.