The group reached the outskirts of the desert after having left the oasis city, but once they were there, Sophia made a quick return to it to tell Doma about the portals she created to make it easier for them to reach the trade hub the inhabitants usually go to restock on supplies and food every couple of weeks. Naturally, the horned man had a hard time believing her story, so the blonde simply showed him by pushing the man through the portal.

  “W-What just happened?!” Back at the edge of the desert, Doma, who had just exited the portal and was made to walk up the underground stairs by Sophia, was more than just confused over the recent events. “Wait, I know this place! This is just a few hundred meters away from Barak!” Once he noticed his surroundings, the horned man got even louder.

  “Hey.” Noticing their arrival, Ari lightly waved at him before Anna and Maya eventually did the same.

  “I went with my tried and proven show, don’t tell method because explaining my portals is a pain.” Sophia gave them a brief overview of the situation.

  “Tried and proven for you, yes.” The jaguar felt sorry for the confused and bewildered-looking man next to her.

  "Exactly!" Sophia gave her a thumbs-up before facing Doma again. "You are right. The trade city is just behind this slight hill.” She pointed to her right. “I’ve put the portal here because no one from the city would ever see you using it in this area.”

  “Ha.” He went silent for an entire minute. “Are you serious?”

  “It’s okay because you don’t know me that well, but I’m always serious.”

  “…” All the girls and Fen stared at the serious blonde while slowly shaking their heads.

  “Shush!” She glared at them before smiling at the horned man. “That’s how my portals work. They connect two faraway places directly with each other like you’ve experienced just now.”

  “How is that possible?” Doma was still flabbergasted.

  “Magic~.” Sophia’s smile only got brighter.

  "Is that really a viable explanation for things?" He wasn't happy with her reply.

  “It unfortunately is.” Ari, Anna, and Maya let out a sigh.

  “It’s the best explanation~.” Sophia didn’t share their reaction.

  “Just who are you?!”

  “Just your average friendly neighborhood tiger you can meet everywhere.” The blonde gave him a thumbs-up.

  “Why do I feel like only half of that is true.” He raised an eyebrow in return.

  “At best.” Ari also stared at the shorter tiger.

  “You all should stop being so hung up on little details!”

  “Are they little, though?” Doma had his doubts about it.

  “Anyway!” Sophia had enough. "I get that outsiders find it hard to understand me, but let's focus on my portal, okay? You saw it working, and that's all that counts, right?"

  “At the end of the day, it certainly does.” He agreed with her. "Okay, I'll agree on the technical aspect, because I doubt I’d ever understand it, but I’m still curious about the why. Why here and why in general?”

  “That’s a lot easier to answer!” The blonde’s expression brightened again. “I like you and the oasis, so I wanted to make things easier for you all. Having to traverse a desert twice for an entire night just to get some supplies sounds like pure horror to me! Even so, I respect your wish for reclusiveness. That’s why I placed it away from both cities and hid it from outsiders." She smiled at him. "No one who doesn’t know about it would ever stumble onto it because you have to use magic to get to it. All the portals do is shorten your shopping trips. The oasis won’t suddenly become overrun by tourists or anything like that. You don’t even have to tell anyone. I wouldn't be upset if you decided against using it entirely, either." Sophia just shrugged at the end.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Now I feel bad for sassing you.” The horned man got a little awkward.

  “That happens quite often with her.” Ari nodded. “Sometimes, all you want to do is get back at her for the teasing, but then she turns incredibly wholesome, and you just feel bad.”

  “I’m a girl of many layers~.” The blonde wasn’t upset.

  “Very true.” Maya, who knew her the best, easily agreed there.

  “Hehe.”

  “So, in summary, we’d be able to use these portal things to skip the dangerous desert traversal to reach Barak? You also created them in a way that will make our nice little oasis stay secluded if we desire so?"

  “That’s the gist of it.”

  “Wow.” Doma needed a second. “Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. This will eliminate the literally only downside of our little paradise.”

  “You’re very welcome~.” Sophia was glad he liked it.

  “Still, is it okay to use such a gift on something so trivial as making our commute easier? It seems like something like this would be invaluable to the kingdom.” He felt like it was wasted on them. “No, let me correct myself, for the entire planet.”

  “It’s fine.” The blonde smiled at him. “I’m not limited on how many portals I can create, so it makes no difference.”

  “Ah, is that so?”

  “Yup.” She just nodded. "In fact, placing portals all over the country is our side-mission while traveling. We're also visiting bigger cities and connecting them with the capital through my portals to create a massive hub leading to various places instantly. The oasis city was too small to be included in that, though. Also, it would actively go against everyone’s values there, being directly accessible by the capital of all places, so we doubly decided against it.”

  “Thank you SOO much for that!” Doma was incredibly happy about the last part. “Yes, we would probably abandon the oasis if it were connected to the capital like that.” They really liked being secluded.

  “Again, you’re welcome~.”

  “Even so, it seems like the kingdom will change a lot, huh?” The horned man tilted his head. “Those portals, if they’re really placed all over the place, will revolutionize the way basically everything is done.”

  “I’m looking forward to it.” As Sophia was a big fan of convenience, she couldn't wait to see what people would come up with when distance wasn't an issue any longer.

  “I can imagine.” He clearly saw the potential.

  Once the topic calmed down a bit, Sophia explained a little more about the portals to Doma and how to use them. Afterward, she also told him what he had to do to open the ground to access the hidden portal and where exactly he had to pour his magic into it. Once everything was clear to the horned man, he returned to the oasis area to think about who to tell about it and how to proceed with the gift in the future.

  ----------------

  “Alrighty, this was fun!” Once the group was on their own again, Sophia lightly clapped her hands with a satisfied expression on her face.

  “You really live for breaking the common sense of others, huh?” Ari stared at her.

  “You first have to break it to fix it~.” The blonde, as usual, wasn’t the slightest bit sorry about it. “Okay, I admit there might be less drastic approaches, but they’re also less effective. I'd go crazy if I had to explain it in great detail while ensuring not to overload them every time we meet someone new. They will greatly benefit from the changes, so I have no qualms about them suffering a little for half an hour with a headache because of me.”

  “Ha.” The jaguar had little to say there. "Actually, that's quite reasonable, all things considered. It’s probably on me because I see people getting overloaded by you so often. For others, it’s a one-time thing to go through.”

  “Except for Menzor.” Maya lightly corrected her.

  “True.”

  "Father, as the king of the kingdom, also benefits the most from Sophia's improvements, so it's fair he suffers more." Anna had no remorse for her father.

  “Exactly~.” Sophia gave her fellow tiger a thumbs up.

  “Fair.” Ari and Maya could live with that.

  “Okay, should we head over to the trade city now?” Saying so, Sophia closed the hole to the underground portal and pointed at the small hill to her right.

  “Let’s go!” The others liked the plan.

  “Oh, by the way, while you were getting Doma earlier, I took another look at the list of cities to get a portal we got from Menzor.” After they started walking, Maya addressed the blonde. “Barak is actually on it, so your solution of connecting the oasis place with it like this was actually the perfect solution for everyone involved.”

  “Ohh!”

  “Perfect!” Anna clapped her hands. “That means we have all the more reason to meet the mayor. After all, I wanted to ask them about Nathan! He definitely visited them and spent some time there. That means the mayor’s likely to know where he and his group headed to after leaving Barak.”

  “It sounds like we have a plan there!” Even more motivated, Sophia energetically raised her arm while the group walked up the small hill before reaching the city in question.

  - Jtank -

  - That_Loli_Kiddo -

  - Lassi M?kiniemi -

  Patreon and financially supporting the story so everyone can enjoy more art!

  extra stuff!

  Lots of NSFW goodies (art/animations) to see there~

  Discord for detailed info and a free NSFW preview of what to expect!