Boosted Continuation – A new world (GL)

The girls continued chatting with Dago, the merchant they met on their way to the trading city, and learned more about how trade between bigger and smaller cities usually works. They also received further confirmation that Nathan had indeed stayed for multiple months in Agola, meaning they caught up with them even more.

"By the way, how are you going to carry all this?" Maya and Ari had finished sorting through Dago's wares in the back of his carriage and bought all sorts of cutlery as well as pots and pans for the kitchen in their cottage. Seeing them holding all of those, the merchant got curious about how they'd deal with the bulky extra weight.

"Well," The two scratched their cheeks while looking at Sophia.

"There isn't actually a reason to keep it a secret, is there?" She tilted her head while looking at the princess. "Like, it will become public relatively soon anyway, won't it?" The blonde was thinking about showing off her storage, or rather, the portal to it.

"Kind of, but no one usually realizes it was made by you before we're already long gone. Which, now that I think about it, is kinda weird." The princess paused for a moment. "We all know how much you love the attention, so I honestly expected you'd love to be showered in praise by everyone seeing your revolution."

"Why do I keep catching strays for trying to be helpful?"

"You know, you're right about that." Anna started to feel bad. "I'm sorry, that wasn't the best time for a quick tease."

"Thank you very much~."

"What's going on?" Naturally, Dago had gotten rather confused over their cryptic exchange.

"Well, the truth is, we aren't just running after Anna's brother." Sophia wasn't sure how to begin her explanation.

"Yeah, I figured." The merchant wasn't exactly surprised about that. "I wouldn't think that the members of the royal family were that free."

"To be fair, walking around and exploring is like 95% of our motivation." The blonde scratched her cheek before continuing. "We're also on a bit of a side mission while visiting places of interest."

"As one would expect from the royal family. Ignoring the 95% part, that is." The dog-man wasn't sure how to feel about that bit.

"You remember my hypothetical question from earlier, right? About eliminating the need to travel between major cities."

"The impossible what-if situation, yes." He nodded while lightly rolling his eyes.

"Truth to be told, it wasn't a hypothetical question. Neither is it a what-if situation. Using some rather special magic, I'm able to link two areas together so you can go from one to the other in less than a second."

"Yeah, sure." The dog-man obviously didn't believe a single word the blonde was saying.

"Heh." Smirking at the expected and understandable reaction, Sophia then lifted up her arm and presented the palm of her hand. A moment later, one of her usual pink and purple portals with a diameter of roughly 50 centimeters appeared on top of it. "Feel free to put the stuff you bought in like always." She then looked at all the goods Maya and Ari had bought from the merchant, who promptly followed suit to free up their arms.

"H-Huh?!" Dago just stared at the blonde's hand with big eyes and a dumbfounded expression while trying to understand what he saw. "What… What did just happen…?"

"Magic~." Her expression turned cheeky. "I'm fairly good when it comes to that."

"That explains exactly nothing!" The merchant could only vehemently shake his head.

"I invented a special magic that lets me create something I call portals that I can use to travel between two places. Or, in the case you just saw, put items in something akin to a storage in a different place than here, so we can travel without the need to carry luggage."

Stolen novel; please report.

"N-No way! Who or what are you?!" He only got more shocked.

"As I said before, I'm just your friendly neighborhood tiger~."

"Again, I don't know what you think this would explain, but it explains very little at best. In fact, it only raises more questions."

"She may not look like it, and especially not act like it, but our Sophia here is by far the most important person in the beastfolk. Far above even father, King Menzor, who has said so himself." Even though she couldn't resist another slight jab at the blonde, Anna had nothing but praise for her.

"How do I not look important enough?!" The shorter tiger couldn't help but start pouting once more.

"You're too cute for how important you are for the future of the beastfolk." The princess just smiled at her.

"…" Sophia paused for a second. "Go on." It worked on her.

"Like you just saw, she has rather special magic. Not only has she never been limited to certain elements, but she also never used anything other than chantless magic. On top of that, she has mastered uncategorized magic that was commonly known as pretty much just a myth. Combine that with her near limitless amount of magic inside of her, which anyone around her can feel, it's easy to see why she's regarded as a national treasure by our king and his ministers and advisors."

"And that's what I call a friendly neighborhood tiger~." Sophia summarized it for him in easier words.

"You know, if you two weren't tigers, I'd report you to the guards at the gates of Agola for being insane."

"Just because they're tigers, it doesn't mean they can't be insane." Maya didn't see the connection.

"Absolutely not." Ari energetically nodded a couple of times.

"Oi." The striped girls didn't appreciate that.

"Are you actually trying to tell me that there's a type of magic that lets you put wares in a special place so that you don't have to carry them?!" The eyes of the dog-man lit on fire.

"That's part of what my magic can do, yes."

"Do you have even the slightest idea what every merchant on this planet would do for this type of magic?!" After the fire in his eyes, Dago's expression turned a little crazy.

"That's the least crazy part of my magic~." Sophia obviously wasn't the least bit intimidated by his intense reaction.

"Ha..." The dog-man exhaled sharply once before calming down. "Is it really okay for her to run around like that if her magic is that significant?" He then looked at Anna. "It sounds like she should have an entire army constantly nearby to protect her? I'd assume there are a lot of people who'd love to exploit her powers."

"Good luck finding an army stronger than her." The princess scratched her cheek. "As you can probably sense with your instincts, she's incredibly strong."

"Well, all of you seem unnaturally powerful, and my only thought when sensing her strength was yes, so I just thought my instincts were failing me. I've never been overly confident when it came to sensing power."

"No, yes, is a pretty good descriptor for Sophia's strength." Maya thought that his estimation was spot on. "There's no normal being on this continent that could even scratch her. Spooking her with insects is a possibility, but the wrath you'd receive afterward probably wouldn't be worth it."

"Definitely wouldn't be worth it." The blonde corrected her statement.

"While, uhhh… I'm still at a loss for words, but what does this have to do with eliminating the need to travel between places?" He needed a moment to recover. "You only just showed me the… well, wet dream of every merchant in existence. If anything, this would increase the frequency of trips because you don't have to think about carriages or any other sort of limitations any longer."

"My portals aren't limited to storing items." Sophia smiled at him. "Living beings, like us, can also go through them if the portals are big enough. That way, you'll instantly arrive on the other side, which is wherever I linked it to. For example," Saying so, she took a small, enchanted stone out of her storage and opened another portal roughly the same size as before. However, this time, it was see-through, and Dago could spot what was on the other side. "That's our capital~."

"Nuh-uh." The merchant firmly shook his head. "It's just not." He was unable to believe that for various and obvious reasons.

"Girls, things will become a little rowdy for a second, but please try not to get too startled, okay?" Sophia looked at the adventurers walking next to the carriage before her expression turned into a smirk. A moment later, the portal massively grew in size and swallowed them all. The merchant, the adventurers, the girls, the carriage, the horses, everything.

"H-HUH?!" Dago and the four adventurers went into shock when they suddenly found themselves in a different area from before. Instead of being on the coastal road towards Agola, they suddenly found themselves on a small hill a few kilometers away from the capital of the beastfolk while having a perfect view of it, as well. Luckily, the horse hadn't really realized what was going on and stayed calm the entire time.

"Welcome to, uhhh…. Welcome to the capital of the beastfolk!" Sophia smiled at the group while she closed the portal and returned the stone it came from back to the ground for future use.

"Tirago." Anna lightly shook her head, knowing what the blonde wanted to say first, but then realized she had no idea what the capital's name was.

Afterward, a lot of explaining was needed, so it took a relatively long time for the group to finally leave the little hill they were on.