Adventurer's Guild Café: I Was Wrongfully Exiled by the Saint, So I Will Enjoy My Second Life with My Fluffy Friends - Prologue Part 2

The carriage rattled along, advancing through the dimly lit forest.

Finally, it came to a halt deep within the woods, and the locked cabin door swung open.

“Hurry up, get out!”

“Kya!”

I had been fitted with special restraints designed to bind criminals’ hands and feet. The coachman yanked me by the arm, throwing me outside as if he were slamming me into the ground.

Because my sprained ankle—injured seven days ago when Sir Garde subdued me—had barely been treated, I couldn’t even stand up.

As I grimaced from the pain, the coachman gave a vulgar grin.

“This is the Forest of Monsters. So, I wonder how many days it’ll take for you to become nothing but bones?”

“…!”

“If only you’d been born a human, this wouldn’t have happened to you.”

When he touched my hair, a chill ran through me.

I instinctively drew back, only for him to click his tongue.

“If it weren’t for the “Divine Message” from the Saint, I would’ve had some fun with you.”

Looking at me with feigned disappointment, the coachman returned to the carriage.

“Better pray that you’re reborn as a human in the next life.”

Without mercy, the carriage began to return to the edge of the forest.

Left alone in the eerie woods, restrained by these magical bindings on my hands and feet, I couldn’t chase after him.

“No… Am I really going to die here?”

Abandoned in a place like this, there was nothing but despair.

Looking up, I could barely see the sky, obscured by the thick growth of trees above.

“What am I supposed to do…?”

Hopeless, I sank to the ground, crouching where I was.

♦ ♦ ♦

After that ridiculous farce of a judgment, they took me away, threw me into the dungeons beneath the royal castle, and, without a proper trial, sentenced me to exile in this forest.

It seems that the Saint advised the Prince that I was shrouded in a dark miasma and would eventually become ‘possessed by monsters.’

So the Prince decided to discard me in this forest and let the monsters deal with me.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that I am surrounded by a dark miasma. But then, what was the point of that false confession claiming I bullied the Saint? Why would she say something like that?

…Is it really because I’m a beastkin?

The kingdom of Aluda, where I live, still has a strong human supremacist mindset. While most nations on the continent have developed through a blend of humans and non-humans, in Aluda, society has been built and centered around humans.

Though His Majesty the King leans more towards supporting non-humans, the nobler the bloodline, the more prideful they are about their human heritage, looking down on other races as inferior.

The Saint. The First Prince. And my stepmother and stepsister were the same way.

That’s why almost all of the nobility in this country are human. Even at the Royal Academy of Nobles, only about ten percent were non-human.

“If only I didn’t have these ears and tail, would this never have happened?”

I touched my soft, fluffy ears and sighed.

But it’s what I was born with, so there’s no use wishing for something different.

My mother was a member of the White Wolf Tribe—a beastkin with silver hair, wolf ears, and a tail.

At the time, my father had just inherited his position as a Count. He fell in love with my beautiful mother at first sight and, despite opposition from those around him, insisted on marrying her.

And so I was born.

I was often told I resembled my mother closely, having inherited her features strongly.

But my mother passed away early on from a widespread illness.

After that, pressured to finally take a human wife, my father was forced to marry my stepmother, Zenoria, who had noble human blood.

Father, however, couldn’t forget my mother and began to grow more and more troubled. Eventually, he couldn’t even bear to see me, who looked so much like her, and started ignoring me.

In the meantime, my stepmother did whatever she pleased.

Naturally, she only cared for her own true daughter and, being intensely prejudiced against non-humans, treated me like a mere servant.

‘A beast-blooded one with zero magic power? How shameful for the Leiria family.’

People are born with magic power, which allows them to use magic.

Everyone has at least some amount.

But I was born with none at all.

A complete zero.

Apparently, that’s actually rare.

These circumstances only exacerbated the situation, and before long, a rule had formed in the Leiria Count family that it was acceptable to mistreat me.

Not just my stepmother and stepsister, but all the servants in the house, everyone.

Though I carried the Leiria surname, I had always been alone. Staying at home meant being made to do countless chores.

That’s why I was so happy when my engagement to Roy-sama was decided.

It was a marriage arrangement made for the benefit of both families.

It seemed that Roy-sama’s family wanted the trading rights to magic silver located within the Leiria territory, and in exchange for my engagement, they obtained those rights.

Roy-sama was kind.

While it wasn’t a fierce feeling that could be called love, he was a respectable person with whom I felt we could definitely support each other.

Once I graduated from the academy, I could leave that house.

I could live with Roy-sama.

That thought was my only source of strength as I went about my days, but looking back now, I realize how foolish I was.

Officially, it’s said that discrimination against non-humans has been abolished in this country.

On the continent, such attitudes are considered outdated.

But it seems that the deeply rooted values have been slow to change.

Even now, this country continues to discriminate against non-humans, preventing them from being involved in important national decisions and looking down on them as a means of achieving peace of mind.

No matter how hard things get, it’s still better than being born a non-human, right?

♦ ♦ ♦

“Am I… going to die like this?”

As the sun set, the forest grew darker.

I couldn’t move due to my injured foot.

However, since I could see well at night, I could make out my surroundings to some extent, even in complete darkness.

“It’s cold…”

As night fell, the temperature in the forest dropped sharply.

I shivered.

But for some reason, even after spending the whole day here, I hadn’t seen any monsters or strange creatures at all.

In this country, a harmful gas called ‘miasma’ has become a serious issue.

In places where the miasma is dense, beasts can become magical beasts and attack people, and as the Saint told me, humans can become ‘possessed’ and turn violent.

It seems that only the Saint, who can use light magic, is able to dispel that miasma.

And because this forest is known for its dense miasma and many monsters, it became famous as the ‘Forest of Monsters.’

“Ugh, my cheeks are itchy.”

But there were no magical beasts at all.

It was just that bugs were making me itchy…

“!”

At that moment, the nearby bushes rustled.

“W-What…?”

Had a monster finally come?

Am I really going to be eaten here and die…?

My body trembled with fear.

My tail got caught between my legs.

In the next instant, something sprang out of the shaking brush.

“…!!”