While traveling towards Agola, the girls ran into a traveling merchant, who was escorted by a group of adventurers. After greeting them and explaining the situation, the tigers decided it would be fun to accompany them on the way to Agola, so everyone set out together for the trade city.

"By the way, what kinds of goods do you sell?" The girls were walking alongside the carriage when Sophia looked at Dago, who was steering it. Although, not all of the girls were walking because, at some point, Chloe had also sneakily boarded the carriage because she had enough of walking for so long.

"Mostly household goods." The dog-man looked back at her. "Cooking utensils, cutlery, and the like, as well as a wide variety of fabrics for all sorts of applications."

"Ohh!" Hearing that, the ears of the resident cooks, Ari and Maya, perked up as they were getting excited over that.

"Feel free to take a look in the back." Dago smiled at the duo. "I'm sure we can agree on a price if you find something that catches your interest." The merchant inside of him came to light.

"Okay!" As none of them had any issues with that, the two happily agreed to his suggestion and went to the back of the moving carriage, climbed inside, and inspected the goods.

"Then again, it won't be hard to carry anything if you're travelling so far away from home, huh?" He noticed a flaw in his sales pitch.

"Don't worry about that~." Sophia smiled at him this time.

"Okay?" Naturally, the dog-man looked rather confused about that remark.

"Putting that aside, have you met the prince when he was in the city?" While Maya and Ari were busy in the back of the carriage, Anna used the time to potentially learn more about her brother.

"I've seen him walking around with his group a couple of times, but I wouldn't call that meeting him if you ask me." He just shrugged.

"I guess so." Anna nodded. "Was there anything odd or noteworthy about him or his group?"

"That's hard to tell." Dago tilted his head. "The prince and the black-haired cat-boy of their group definitely were full of energy and gave the golden-haired jaguar maid and her girlfriend not a single calm moment, that's for sure."

"Yeah, that sounds like Nathan." The princess looked quite nostalgic as she said so.

"That runs in the family, huh?" Chloe reacted with a slight chuckle.

"Absolutely!" Anna had no plans of denying it.

"H-HUH?!" Ari stuck her head out of the carriage with a shocked expression on her face after hearing that. "Did you say the jaguar's girlfriend just now?!"

"Yes?"

"How certain are you about that?!" The black-haired jaguar was quite invested in this new information.

"They weren't exactly hiding it?" Dale wasn't sure what to say. "It was really obvious. Even without the constant handholding and the occasional further display of public affection."

"Who was her girlfriend?!"

"A brownish-blonde puma-girl." He paused for a moment. "First time I've seen a puma, if I remember right. Beautiful girl, too."

"Anna, we have to find them IMMEDIATELY!"

"Sure~." She could only smile at her jaguar.

"What's wrong with her?" Looking incredibly confused, the merchant looked at the tigers for answers.

"The golden jaguar is her sister, and she didn't have a girlfriend when she last saw her, so our Ari here naturally is curious about what her sister is up to." Anna didn't have to think too hard about the reason for Ari's reaction.

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"Ahh, okay, that almost makes sense." He was too old to put himself in their shoes.

"Do you remember how long the prince stayed in Agola?" The tall tiger wanted more details.

"I'm not sure, definitely for quite a while." Dale scratched his cheek. "It easily was a couple of months. He was already there when I returned from my usual route, but he left the city around six or seven months ago."

"Ohh!" Hearing that, Anna got excited. "That means we're absolutely catching up!"

"Way faster than I thought, too." Sophia nodded in agreement. "Your brother sure is slow."

"I think it's more like because we're incredibly fast." Chloe didn't think that was the reason. "And I don't mean the part where we're not staying for months in the same city."

"Speaking of, is there any reason you're trying to catch up with the prince?" The dog-man was a little confused over that. "Is he needed in the capital again?"

"Not really." The princess shook her head. "We just found out that we're on a similar path as him, and because I haven't seen Nathan in a few years, we're trying to see if we can catch up with his group."

"Oh, I see, that makes sense."

"By the way, on an unrelated note, can I ask a hypothetical question?" Sophia also seemed like she wanted to know something.

"What can I do for the friendly neighborhood tiger?" The dog-man smiled at him.

"As a wandering merchant, it is your job to travel between cities to sell your wares, right?" The blonde was trying to find the right words.

"Pretty much, yes."

"Just imagine and don't question the following situation: How would it affect you if there was a way to connect major cities directly with each other, thus eliminating the need to travel between them? Every type of ware would immediately be available with next to no effort."

"Ignoring the impossibility of such a thing?" Dago stared right at her while looking quite confused.

"Exactly." She just nodded.

"Just major cities or every place?"

"Just the absolute major ones," Sophia added some more detail.

"Like Agola and Barak would be connected with each other." As Anna knew there was zero chance her fellow tiger would remember those city names, she took over that part for her. "Every village or smaller city in between would stay the same."

"That's an interesting situation." He needed to give it some thought first. "It certainly would be amazing for procuring new and exotic wares. Indeed, it would eliminate the need to travel between bigger cities, but visiting smaller villages and the like would be more important than ever. Trade rather than just selling could become more lucrative, as well. If major cities are linked, it would be much easier to find a buyer for all sorts of wares. Things would change, but I definitely wouldn't be out of a job. Quite the contrary, even."

"That's great to know!" Sophia was happy that her portal revolution wouldn't necessarily automatically put merchants like him out of business once they became public.

"Why?" He was still staring at her. "Why would you care about such a hypothetical and impossible scenario?"

"The things I think about are mysterious and complex." The blonde just gave him a thumbs-up.

"And convoluted." Steph had to do a follow-up. "Sometimes weird, too."

"Can't deny that." The older sister could only shrug and accept that in return.

"Tigers really seem to be something else entirely."

"…" Anna wasn't sure what to say in this situation.

"Is there anything you can recommend exploring in the city we're headed to?" Steph wanted to know more about their destination. "We've never been in this area before, so we don't want to miss anything of interest!"

"Hmm, Agola isn't overly tourist-focused, so I don't feel like there's too much to explore in my opinion." The dog-man paused for a moment to give it more thought. "The harbor area is rather nice. The many ships and boats are quite interesting to look at. You get the best food in the city there, too."

"Ohh!" Hearing that, Sophia clapped her hands. "We're definitely going to take a look there." After all, she was a big fan of all things related to food.

"I can definitely recommend it." He nodded a few times. "Otherwise, it really shows that Agola is one of the main trading hubs in this country. It doesn't just have one marketplace but multiple of them, and while I might be biased, I'd strongly recommend visiting all of them."

"Well, shopping and food are always nice!" Anna liked the suggestions. "It also means that there's no need to stay for too long, and we can try and hurry after Nathan sooner rather than later~."

"If we find out more about his travel direction, that is." Chloe scratched her cheek. "We can't continue following him and his group unless we find someone to tell us about the path they planned to take."

"That is true." The princess didn't want to think about that. "Though, if Nathan really stayed there for multiple months, it shouldn't be too hard to find someone to know about. I'm confident that, just like before, the mayor at the very least would know."

"If anyone were to know the destination of the prince after leaving Agola, it definitely would be the mayor." Dago agreed with her. "They were constantly together whenever I saw them, so I'm sure they talked about stuff like that, as well."

"Exactly what I wanted to hear!" The tall tiger got excited over that again. "We plan to meet the mayor anyway, so that would be perfect."

"Makes sense that the tigers would want to meet the mayor." Dago wasn't surprised by that. "Probably won't be hard to get an audience with him, either."

Once this topic was taken care of, the girls asked for more details about the trade city, while Maya and Ari searched through the entire carriage to find any sort of household goods that they'd love to get for their kitchen to make their cooking even better and more enjoyable.

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