Boosted Continuation

Ari, Chloe, and Steph had stayed behind to watch the boat while everyone else was playing around with magic. The jaguar hadn’t been too happy about playing the babysitter because the dog-girl kept trying to jump into the open ocean because she thought she saw something, but other than that, things were going smoothly.

“I am NOT looking forward to this.” Ari, Anna, and Sophia were together in the cottage, and the jaguar was awkwardly scratching her cheek.

“Father will probably age ten years in an instant when he sees us.” The princess nodded a few times.

“He’ll be fine~.” Sophia smiled at her. “I now have more than enough magic to easily heal the collective headache of the entire capital. If I focus all of that on Menzor, I’m relatively sure I can reduce the feeling to a somewhat medium-strong throbbing sensation in his temples.”

“How confident.” Ari rolled her eyes. “Is it even necessary to go to the capital and tell everyone? I mean, it already happened, and it’s not like we can stop being a lot stronger than before, so telling them won’t change anything.”

"I just think that yours and Anna's parents deserve to know that I messed around with their daughters again.” The blonde shrugged in return.

“Phrasing!” The jaguar glared at her.

“You are not allowed to reprimand her in that regard.” The tall tiger stared at her. “She does have a point, though.” She then glanced at Sophia.

“I could’ve worded it a lot worse and or suggestive.”

“…” The couple paused for a second. “Fair.”

"We're currently quite free because the boat ride will take a while, and before something else big happens, I think it's better to tell them now. Like, they'll find out eventually anyway, and if we keep stockpiling stuff, it'll eventually definitely become too much for them to deal with. I mean, there’s simply no way even more weird stuff is going to happen in the future.”

“True.” While both said the same, the couple’s expressions were very different.

"Let's go!" Sophia had had enough of idling around. The girls then went to the portal room to go to the castle, but right when they were about to leave, Fey suddenly arrived through a different portal.

“You.” She instantly locked eyes with the blonde and glared at her. “You two go ahead and go wherever you planned. I need Sophia for a bit." The fox-girl briefly mustered the couple, who were way too intimidated to say anything and simply took the portal.

“It’s been a week or two, huh?” Sophia smiled at her. “What can I do for you?”

“Earlier today, Mira told me about your little mishap, and I immediately had a bad feeling about it.”

“Well, I’m fairly sure you weren’t worried about me, though.” The tiger already had a hunch about where this was heading.

“I went to Chloe right after I heard about it, but it was too late already!” The fox-girl intensified her glare. “Steph already having given her so much extra magic last year pushed her way out of the realm of normality, but you completely took the cake! What made you think that giving her more magic than is regularly possible in the normal world was a good idea?!”

“Bold of you to assume I thought about anything.” She let out a small chuckle. “I just doubled Aura’s authority and then matched everyone with her.”

“…” Fey went silent for a moment. “And you didn’t think a group of overpowered beings far above the regular limits of magic maybe could be a bad idea?”

“Not really, no.” The tiger shook her head. “Mira told me that she has rules set for magic that even irregulars could not use more of their authority than the natural limit at once. All they can do is use magic for longer. There’s no significant additional danger for the world or the users.”

“I do not like the fact that you and Mira get along so well when it comes to certain parts of magic. Especially because she’s the overseer of magic.”

“You probably also don’t like that Mira visited me after I increased my authority but before I shared it with the others, including Chloe, and didn’t give me a single warning about not doing it.”

“…” The fox simply stared at her again. “I indeed do not like that.”

“You’re just upset that your baby changed without you being there, aren’t you?”

“…” Fey wasn’t liking the conversation they were having. “I’m upset because I had hoped for my baby to have a normal life, but you and your sister made that impossible.”

“Your baby from a different world? Your baby who wanted to pet a griffin when she was a kid? Your baby, who is the daughter of Mira? Your baby who-.”

“I get it!” She stopped the tiger.

“Not to mention that you wanting her to live a normal life almost made her hate you because Chloe VERY obviously is not interested in having a normal life.” Sophia had no intention of letting her go just yet.

“…”

“You can’t in good conscience tell me that Chloe isn’t incredibly happy with her life right now, can you? She’s a fluffy bundle of pink joy.” The tiger looked right at her with narrowed eyes and a disapproving expression. “How am I, and especially Steph, a detriment to Chloe’s life and how she’s enjoying her new forever chance? I’m all ears.”

“…” She averted her eyes for a moment while thinking about what to say. “Look, I’m just a grumpy old mother who is way too overprotective of her only baby, okay?” Fey didn't come up with the most convincing defense. "This world isn't all fun and games. There are dangerous places and people who do not want your best. If anything would happen to Chloe because she stood out and caught the interest of the wrong individuals, I’d literally end the world in a fit of rage. That’s why I hoped she’d enjoy an uneventful life.”

“That’s fair and valid. I’d do the same in your place, too.” After all, the tiger was also quite overprotective and prone to enter some rather intense fits of rage. “Chloe’s a strong girl now, though. From what I understand, there’s almost nothing in this world that would pose a serious threat to her at this point. I think it's better for her to be able to protect herself in unforeseen circumstances, no? She also has many friends now, including me, who would also protect her at any cost. She has no need to live a boring, I mean normal life.”

“…” The fox-girl suddenly hung her head. “Now I’m upset because it sounds like she doesn’t need me anymore.” She had sustained way too much damage.

“You’re a special kind of stupid, aren’t you?” Sophia let out a hearty chuckle. “Chloe’s your daughter and the nicest person in existence. Unless you decide to turn into a genuinely horrible person at some point, she’ll never not need you.”

“Why are you, another baby, and without kids, a wiser mother than I am? Okay, I'm a bad example, but still.”

“I genuinely don’t know, and it really confuses me, too.” She scratched her cheek. “I BET I'll make plenty of stupid mistakes once it's actually my turn, so maybe wait with the praise a little longer.”

“Haha.” Her reply was silly enough to cheer the fox up a little.

“Also, technically, you never were needed to protect Chloe from the dangers of this world because of what Mira did in that regard, but the way you raised her turned our pink one into an amazing person, so you definitely did a lot right.”

“I’m glad to hear that from you.” Fey showed her a genuine smile before her expression quickly turned complicated again. “Wait, what do you mean? What did Mira do?”

“I mean the part where she literally changed the magic system to make Chloe the highest priority and changed the rules to ensure her safety specifically.”

“Huh…?” The fox-girl blinked a couple of times while tilting her head. “What?”

“W-Wait, you didn’t know?” The blonde’s expression turned awkward.

“Explain what you mean!”

“Mira told you that I accidentally increased my authority by amassing a lot of ambient magic and using it all at once, right?”

“More or less, yes.”

“She also told me just how stupid and dangerous that was.”

“That’s good to hear.” Fey was happy that the overseer still had some common sense left.

“While scolding me, Mira also mentioned that only two people, aside from regular overseers, would’ve been able to survive what I did. Me, because Canir blessed me and gave some overseer aspects, and Chloe, because Mira made sure that she’s protected by magic and nothing could seriously harm her.”

“…” The fox-girl had been speechless a lot today.

“You may’ve thought you were overprotective, but Mira’s the real deal.” Sophia let out another chuckle. “She also became my new role model when it comes to that. Literally changing the very structure and rules of an entire world for the protection of your baby is a level of dedication I aspire to have in the future.”

“I honestly have no idea what to say right now.” Fey could only scratch her cheek.

“You actually didn’t know that she did that?”

“I mean…” She searched for the right words. “I know that she abused some of her overseer powers to make her immune to serious diseases to ensure she’s always healthy and similar things, but I always imagined she gave our baby a couple of blessings while I was pregnant with her. Kind of what Canir did with you. Just with more thought put into it. Overseers have the power to do such things, so I just assumed that was what she did. Her having literally rewritten the magic system for Chloe has never crossed my mind!”

“I’m so sorry, Mira.” Sophia felt a little bad that she had just blurted it out now.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to scold her for it.” Fey smiled at her. “That’s the type of overprotectiveness I really enjoy. She gave Chloe absolute protection in a way no one would ever notice. I will have a chat with her about not telling me, though.”

“Ahaha.” The tiger reacted with a small chuckle and decided against saying anything because she was happy that the attention wasn’t on her anymore.

Afterward, Sophia waved her goodbye as the fox disappeared through the portal she came from before the tiger decided to finally take the trip to the royal castle and regroup with Anna and Ari there.