Adventurer's Guild Café: I Was Wrongfully Exiled by the Saint, So I Will Enjoy My Second Life with My Fluffy Friends-V2.1 Prologue Part 2 - The Forgiveness of Saint Meltia

One day, in the courtyard of the Royal Aluda Academy, Agnès Leiria let out a sigh as she sat on a bench.

“Why do I have to travel to a country full of demi-humans...? And on top of that, they say my sister-in-law is alive?”

Irritated, Agnès kicked a small stone at her feet.

The stone rolled across the deserted courtyard. No matter where she looked, there wasn’t a single person in sight.

Had it started about a month ago? No—perhaps it had been progressing unnoticed for some time.

The flowers had withered, and monsters had begun appearing in the city. Despite the kingdom’s efforts, the miasma thickened, drifting ominously through the streets. To protect its students, the Royal Aluda Academy had decided to shut down. Today was the closing ceremony, and from tomorrow onward, the school would be closed.

However, only a handful of students had gathered for the ceremony.

Most had been too afraid of the monsters to attend. Agnès, too, had been told by her mother to stay home.

Yet, she had a reason why she absolutely had to come to the academy today.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

Lost in thought, she suddenly heard a familiar voice beside the bench.

Turning around, she saw Saint Meltia standing there with a gentle smile.

“Good day, Mel-sama.”

Agnès stood up happily and gave a graceful curtsy. The two of them then sat side by side on the bench.

The reason she had come today was to meet with Saint Meltia. Meltia had invited her to the academy, saying she wanted to talk no matter what.

“I’m sorry... It’s because my powers as a saint haven’t awakened that things have come to this...”

“No, Mel-sama, this isn’t your fault. Just having the power of a saint is amazing. Besides, when it comes to monsters, those barbaric adventurers? They’ll take care of them.”

The Kingdom of Aluda had been a relatively peaceful nation.

For example, in the neighboring country of Grantania, there were numerous spots known as dungeons, which constantly spawned dangerous monsters. Because of this, Grantania had extensive knowledge about monsters and a well-prepared force to deal with them. However, Aluda had no dungeons. In the past few years, incidents involving monsters had been rare.

As a result, they lacked both the knowledge and manpower to respond to this situation.

Creatures corrupted by miasma and driven to violence were called demons. Demons were stronger than regular monsters because they could only be defeated using special tools or techniques.

Currently, the Kingdom of Aluda was gathering forces from across the land, but they still struggled to exterminate all the demons. As a temporary solution, they had begun bringing in barbaric adventurers from Grantania to deal with them—or so Agnès had heard.

“So, um... what did you want to talk about?”

After some casual conversation, Agnès finally broached the subject.

“Actually... there’s something very important that only you can do.”

“!”

Agnès’ cheeks flushed.

──Something only I can do?

Agnès, who was rarely relied upon by others, felt her heart soar just from being told this by the saint.

...It had been the same before.

To drive out her sister-in-law Kuna, who was seen as a potential threat to the kingdom, Agnès had cooperated with Meltia. And at that moment of condemnation, she had given false testimony.

──That her sister-in-law had tormented the saint.

But it had been necessary to save the kingdom.

According to Meltia, Kuna’s heart was too corrupt, and one day, she would inevitably become possessed.

The possessed were people who had been corrupted miasma and transformed into demons. Once that happened, they would become a danger to those around them.

That was why, for the sake of saving the kingdom, Meltia had asked for her help.

Being able to assist the saint—it was a source of pride for Agnès.

(Because... no one had ever truly seen me... No one had ever believed in me or relied on me before...)

In her mind, Agnès saw the faces of her father and mother.

(Mother always resented Father’s first wife and could only hate Kuna. And Father... he never looked at me or Mother—he was always thinking about his first wife. The only person who ever truly saw me was Mel-sama...)

Agnès’ mother had been in love with Count Leiria since childhood.

She was supposed to marry him as soon as she reached a suitable age.

However, Count Leiria had fallen in love at first sight with Elena, a beastkin and Kuna’s mother, and had married her instead.

In the end, Elena had died quickly from an epidemic, allowing Agnès’ mother to enter the Leiria household as his second wife.

But she had never let go of her hatred for Elena.

That was why she had treated Kuna so harshly—because Kuna looked just like her mother.

Even if only for a short time, she had taken Count Leiria away from her. And in doing so, Agnès’ mother had sought her own form of revenge.

Count Leiria, for his part, never truly paid attention to Agnès or her mother, even after Elena’s death—or so Agnès believed. As a father, he treated Agnès with a certain level of decency, but deep down, his heart always belonged to Elena. And that fact frustrated both Agnès and her mother. In the end, they always felt as though they were being controlled by Elena and Kuna.

(That’s why I absolutely hate my sister-in-law.)

The one who saw through Agnès’ pain and offered her comfort was Meltia.

“You’ve done nothing wrong. You’re such a good girl, so why does no one see you?”

Those were the words Agnès had truly longed to hear, and Meltia had given them to her. Agnès had been saved by those words. That was why she was happy to be of use to Meltia, and why she had cooperated in driving Kuna out—because if Kuna were gone, maybe her parents would finally see only her.

“I heard that your family will be staying in Grantania for a while...”

“...Yes. I really don’t want to, but since it’s Father’s decision, I have no choice.”

“Your father going to Grantania... it’s because there’s a possibility that Kuna is still alive, isn’t it?”

“......”

Agnès made a displeased face.

Some time after Kuna had been exiled, her father, Count Leiria, appealed to the country, arguing that the punishment had been far too cruel. In fact, the decision to cast a fifteen-year-old girl into the Monster Forest without even a trial had been met with severe criticism—primarily from the commoners, especially the demi-humans.

Considering that the ones who had carried out the act were human teenagers, the backlash was inevitable. On top of that, the crown prince had not even informed King Aruda about the incident.

──Since she was just a beastkin girl, it didn’t matter what happened to her.

This was nothing short of a lynching. Without any proper investigation or trial, they had taken a young girl’s life. Historically, the Kingdom of Aluda had built its culture around humanity, and discrimination against demi-humans persisted to this day. However, the current King of Aluda, despite his frail health, was a known supporter of demi-humans. To prevent the nation from falling behind in international affairs, he had actively hired talented demi-human officials.

Even though the decision had been influenced by the Saint’s opinion, it was said that the king had also shown a grim expression upon learning of the incident. Furthermore, the fact that the Saint had yet to fulfill her duties only deepened the public’s unease.

Even among humans, dissatisfaction toward the Saint was growing.

This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

──When will this crisis finally come to an end?

Many of the nation’s citizens were growing restless.

“Hey, please. If Kuna is really alive, bring her back to this country.”

“Huh?”

Agnès froze, completely unprepared for such a request.

“But... didn’t you say my sister would become possessed by corruption in the future...?”

“Yes, that’s right. But, you know, I think we may have gone a little too far. As for how she bullied me... I suppose I could consider forgiving her.”

Meltia had grown up among commoners.

Perhaps she now felt that losing the support of the common people would not be ideal.

“But I still don’t think my judgment was wrong.”

Then why did she want to bring Kuna back?

“I’ll tell only you.”

Meltia whispered into Agnès’ ear.

“You see, the divine beast that delivered God’s revelations to me... has gone missing.”

“!?”

“And apparently, some people claim to have seen Kuna stealing it when she fled to the neighboring country.”

How far would her sister go in committing crimes?

“So, could you bring her back? Along with the divine beast. If this becomes public, it will also implicate House Leiria in a grave crime.”

Agnès felt a chill run down her spine. If her sister had truly committed such a grave crime, it would undoubtedly affect their family as well. Without thinking, she nodded vigorously.

Their reputation had already suffered because of Kuna—she didn’t want to be dragged through any more unnecessary disgrace.

“...Understood. I will definitely bring my sister and the divine beast back!”

“I see. Thank you.”

Meltia grasped Agnès’ hand and smiled brightly.

Agnès couldn’t look away from that smile.