Chapter 85: Chapter 82 – Exploring the capital

It felt like an eternity to Sophia because of just how much happened since coming to this world, especially after meeting Maya, but the group had finally arrived at the beastfolk capital after their long and eventful journey.

"Uuh..." They were currently walking alongside a big road that leads towards the main gate of the capital. There, the blonde tiger noticed that every single gaze of the beastpeople along the way was focused on her while they were respectfully stepping aside from the group to make way for them. "S-So much attention…"

"The lost tiger has returned home." Aura was having fun. "Everyone is, of course, curious."

"I'm not lost! Nor have I returned!" She retorted on instinct.

"Well, that story makes a lot more sense than what actually happened, Sophia..." Maya, unfortunately, had no nice words for her.

"I hate that you're right..." She hung her head. While trying her best to hide herself between the wolves, which wasn't overly effective because they had shrunk in size, the gate soon was in full view.

"Ahaha..." The cat-girl let out a dry laugh when she spotted a couple of stone statues near the gate. There were a few actual tigers and multiple tiger-beastpeople that had very similar features to the one in their group.

"Uuh... I should've gone for a cat-girl, after all... They're super adorable, as well, I would've matched Maya even more, and I wouldn't get so much attention!"

"You decided that yourself, though."

"Because it's cute! I love the stripes!"

"Then stop complaining!" Maya naturally had no sympathy for such a reason, not that she disagreed.

"Urgh..." There was a lot of regret in her voice, but Sophia had gotten way too attached to her tiger-form that she doesn't want to give it up anymore.

"Come on, it's going to be fun." Maya grabbed her hand while saying so. "It'll also help you get rid of the rest of your shyness."

"F-Fine..."

"Shyness?!" Aura sounded surprised about this absolutely unfitting description.

"Long story, don't ask." Fen stopped her from going down that rabbit hole.

"Haa..." Sophia kept complaining all the way until the central gale, which didn't take long because everyone was making room for the group, parting the crowd while they were whispering about them, or rather, her.

"Eh...?" They had reached the guards, who looked very confused about their arrival. From the looks of it, it were mostly men in their late thirties with all kinds of animal-like features to varying degrees. "Excuse me this terribly rude question, but... who are you?" A guy with ears resembling those of foxes addressed them while he was clearly looking at Sophia as he said out loud what absolutely everyone around them was thinking. "We know every individual of the tiger family, but I never saw you before..."

"Uhh..." She tried to find an answer. "I... I'm S-Sophia... It's my first time he-... I-It's my first time being here. It's natural you never s-saw me before..." She needed two tries.

"How's that supposed to be possible? Every member of the royal family has its permanent residency here. I mean, your hair color is different, but there's no doubt..."

"W-Well, no one told me about that... In fact,... I only learned that me being a t-tiger-girl is something out of the ordinary a little while ago... I'm from, err... really far away and never met another tiger before..."

"S-Seriously?!" The guards were shocked.

"Y-Yes..."

"Wow... this is going to be a massive uproar!"

"O-Okay... let's go back, girls..." Sophia already had enough and turned around. She had thought that it's not going to be easy for her, but actually hearing it was too much.

"Nonono, you can't just leave now, miss. Now that you appeared, they're going to dispatch search parties to find you again if you disappear now!"

"Urgh..."

"We could easily outrun them, though." The high-spec Fen didn't see an issue.

"T-That might be true... but I like the beastfolk. So, having to run away and hide from them is a bit..." She didn't like the idea and faced the guards again. "W-What's going to happen to me if I enter the capital?"

"Hard to say... This never happened before. I would reckon the royal family is going to seek an audience with you, and you have to explain who you are..." They could only guess.

"Haha, I would like to know the same..."

"Yes, I can imagine you have a lot of questions, too." The guard misunderstood her reaction.

"S-Sure..." She just rolled with it.

"Anyway, welcome to Tirago, the capital of the beastfolk, founded and ruled by the tiger family."

"T-Thanks..."

"I look forward to the uproar." Aura was still having a great time.

"I-I could do without that..."

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Afterward, the group finally entered the capital while Sophia was already tired enough to look for an inn and take a long nap. Continuously being pierced by the gazes of everyone around her didn't help, either.

"Hmm...?" Maya suddenly noticed that Sophia had disappeared. After looking around for a second, she found the girl inside some sort of hat store next to the group. "What is she doing...?"

"Ahh... much better!" When she exited the place, the tiger-girl was wearing a medium-sized, white hat. It was made with beastpeople in mind, so it provided extra space for the ears and hid them beneath the fabric at the same time."I should get a bit less attention now... Even the clerk I bought it from was super confused..."

"Most of your striped hair's still out in the open, though." Maya didn't find it to be overly effective. "So is your tail. It angrily swishing all over the place doesn't help much, either."

"I-I'm nervous, okay?" Sophia glared at her tail as if ordering it to stop. It didn't help, though, and it almost seemed to get even more lively instead. "Stupid thing... W-Well... It's at least a little less obvious, right...?"

"Sure... That being said, a white hat with your green shirt? It doesn't match at all."

"You're so picky!"

"Am I wrong?"

"You're... not." Sophia had to agree. "I didn't buy it with fashion in mind, anyway! My priorities were elsewhere!"

"But, you know... it would go perfectly with the white dress I gave you. You should totally change into that!"

"Yeah, that would be a good match... Wait! An all-white and floral-patterned dress would bring even more attention to me in this situation!"

"Tch! So close..." Maya had her very own motives in this situation.

"Y-You!"

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They continued to walk around in the capital for a while, and Sophia's hat idea worked to some degree. People who didn't look at her tail simply walked past her. But everyone who paid a little bit of attention to her immediately became suspicious and took a better look. Interestingly enough, it was mostly girls who managed to instantly identify the tiger-girl for some reason. Maya also didn't like this observation one bit.

Eventually, they came across a nice-looking inn and decided to get two rooms for a couple of days while they were at it. Maya and Sophia obviously shared one, but the two wolves did the same. Rooms for full beastpeople didn't have any actual beds in the first place, but rather the floor had some sort of cushioning. Other than that, both of them are adults, so there's nothing to consider because whatever happens, happens. After resting there for around an hour, the group went back to the streets of the capital.

"Anything you want to explore, Sophia?" Maya was walking beside her and curiously looked around.

"Hmm... Oh, what's this?" She pointed at a massive building at the end of the street they were following. Various kinds of beastpeople were going in and out, but their looks were what pulled Sophia in. One half of them looked like warriors, covered in many different types of armor and carrying a wide variety of weapons. The other half was much lighter dressed, and there were no visible weapons. Still, the way they were dressed caught her attention. Eccentric, one might say. Large hats, extremely colorful clothes, robes, capes, there was nothing that wasn't there.

"They look a little like Chiyo's group, don't they? Maybe a little more, uh... dedicated?"

"So, is it a gathering spot for adventurer... type of people?" The tiger questioningly tilted her head.

"Seems like it. Want to take a look?" Maya was a little curious as well.

"Hrmn..." Sophia wasn't sure. She didn't remember why, but something about entering such a place in another world made her uneasy. "Yeah, whatever, let's go. I have a bad feeling, but I want to see it..." Having agreed on it, the group walked over to the building with the many interesting people. Arriving there, they earned a ton of curious gazes, as usual, but no one raised too much of a fuss.

"Welcome to the Adventurer Guild of the capital! How can I help... huh?" An energetic girl with brown hair and dog ears stood behind a counter inside and greeted the group once they entered the building. Even her tail seemed to be wagging for a moment, but she stopped when she saw Sophia and noticed her features that the hat wasn't hiding.

"Shhh." The cat-girl put a finger on her lips. "She wants to explore the city on her own because she hadn't had the chance to do that yet."

"I-I see..."

"So... adventurer guild, what's that?" Maya tilted her head.

"As the name implies, it's a place where adventurers gather together and do quests or tasks for rewards." The dog-girl managed to keep her composure in front of the tiger.

"Oh, is that so?" Sophia had gotten interested in it because she had read about this in countless novels in her previous life before. "Like, you have to register with your party and advance in ranks to do more profitable quests?"

"No?" She immediately shot her down.

"Ehh...?"

"You just come here, either solo or with your companions, and fetch a quest that tickles your fancy."

"But... how do you make sure no one takes quests that are too difficult for them?"

"We don't? People have common sense and know that they'll die if they undertake a too difficult task. Well, we'll provide assistance and recommend quests that match your power, but it's ultimately your own responsibility to not die a stupid death."

"I-I see..." Sophia sounded a tiny bit disappointed that there were no ranks and the likes.

"I'm sorry for this girl. She doesn't do well with common sense." Maya apologized for some reason.

"Hey!"

"I understand." The dog-girl simply nodded.

"Hmpf!" She pouted for a moment but swiftly recovered. "Wait, so we could do some quests, as well?"

"Uhh..." The guild worker looked at Sophia, mainly her tiger bits. "Technically... yes? There aren't any rules against it, but... are you sure?"

"Great, let's take a look at the quest board thingy!" She didn't care about her reaction and headed straight for the bulletin board.

"Don't worry, it's fine." Maya gave the dog-girl a slight reassuring wink before following after Sophia.

"Let's see what kinds of quests are available in this terribly lackluster guild..." Sophia was still disappointed that they were so easygoing. "Escorting a merchant... Nah, let's not do that. Oh, teaching someone fire magic, huh?"

"We're definitely not doing that!" The cat-girl instantly stopped her. "You already destroyed my common sense enough."

"Aww... I thought that could be fun. Hmm... fetching kows, yeah, we did that enough already..."

"Are there any dragon hunting requests?" Aura also had gotten interested.

"Dragon, dragon, dragon... nope." She actually searched for it.

"Aww..."

"Thank goodness... Also, there are no dragons here!"

"Okay... giant frok killing... Frok?" Sophia tilted her head. "Ahh... probably frogs? Green, somewhat slimy amphibians with long tongues?"

"They come in all sorts of colors, but yeah, that sounds like them." Maya confirmed her suspicion.

"This world... Wait, how giant are we talking about here?"

"About three meters tall. They even attack beastpeople or humans and try to catch them with their tongue, swallowing them whole. You apparently can get out by cutting their stomach from the inside, but you'll be slimy and smelly for days, or so I've heard."

"W-What else is there to do?" She didn't even want to comment on it, let alone consider going near them. "Forest lizards... 10 silver coins each... 100 silver was one gold, right? Wow, that doesn't sound profitable at all."

"They're really easy to catch."

"Hmm... you would still need to catch a 1,000 of them to get the same pay as for a rock golem, whose eyes sell for 100 gold each."

"Sure, but they're also 5,000 times tougher. Ten silver is still enough for a somewhat decent meal or a ton of sweets because those lizards are mainly hunted by children, and that's some nice pocket money for them." The cat-girl was telling her more about this world.

"Ohh... yeah, wrong quest for us, then... Also, the sweets example just now sounded oddly specific?" she looked at Maya for a moment, who averted her gaze. "Ah, look at this! They're actually looking for the eyes of said rock golems. Wait, don't we still have a ton of them left from Fenny's killing spree the other day?"

"Right, you kept them, didn't you?" The wolf in question had already forgotten about it.

"Let's sell a couple of them the next time we come here. I don't think taking them out of my extra space here and now would be a good idea."

"My girl's growing up!" Maya was proud that she had developed a tiny sliver of common sense.

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Because there was a distinct lack of interesting quests, the group left the adventurer guild for the time being, but Sophia immediately regretted this decision.

"There she is!"

"Wow, the rumor was actually true... An unknown tiger-girl has really arrived in the capital." Two male and official-looking beastpeople were waiting in front of the guild. While of feline origin, as well, they didn't look like tigers. Instead of stripes, their yellow-ish hair, fur, and tails had more of a rosette-like pattern, resembling those of a jaguar.

"A-Ah." Sophia had a bad feeling about this and wanted to go back inside the guild again.

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