Adventurer's Guild Café: I Was Wrongfully Exiled by the Saint, So I Will Enjoy My Second Life with My Fluffy Friends - Chapter 1.5

“…Was that really the right thing to do?”

The Kingdom of Aluda.

At the noble academy in the early afternoon.

Roy Grad, Kuna’s former fiancé, was gazing absentmindedly out the window from a special research room reserved only for top students.

It had been more than ten days since Kuna was exiled to the “Cursed Forest.”

Since then, Kuna had vanished without a trace.

A few days later, Roy’s servant went to check the spot where Kuna had been abandoned, but there was no one there.

“But this is…”

On Roy’s desk lay a broken magical device.

It was a criminal’s restraint, a magical device meant for binding the arms and legs.

The servant had reportedly found it in the forest.

Could it have been the one Kuna was wearing?

She was powerless.

There was no way she could have removed such a powerful, cursed magical device on her own.

“Kuna…”

Why was it?

He couldn’t forget the look in Kuna’s eyes on that day when she was apprehended by the Knight Commander’s son, Garde. The disappointed expression she had when she looked at Roy. Every time Roy remembered those eyes, it felt as if his heart were being wounded.

Roy’s fiancée, Kuna Leiria.

A girl of the beastkin race, with snow-white hair and a matching tail.

Originally, he had only intended to imprison her and make her reflect on her actions.

If she showed enough remorse, even if he wouldn’t take her as his wife, he thought he could at least keep her as a mistress.

It was an arrangement proposed by his parents, but Roy had liked Kuna. Agnes, the other daughter of the Leiria family, was greedy, temperamental, and incompatible with him. But Kuna was obedient, kind, and never complained.

Above all, she was the most charming and beautiful sight he had ever seen.

In the Kingdom of Aluda, beastkin were despised as inferior beings.

However, it was often said that demi-human women possessed a beauty that human women lacked.

For that reason, noblemen discriminated against demi-humans while also seeking to conquer and claim demi-human women as their own.

Specifically, they would take them as mistresses and keep them close.

Roy was one of those who had noticed that allure.

Kuna was small, pure white, and fragile-looking. She had an ethereal beauty.

So, despite being a beastkin and having a magic power value of zero, he had made her his fiancée.

The plan was to marry her and have children with another woman.

But as he spent time with the kind Kuna, it gradually started to feel like something closer to true love.

…Since Kuna disappeared, he had been thinking about her constantly and agonizing over it.

As he fiddled with the magical device on his desk, unsure of what to do, the door to the room suddenly opened.

“Lord Roy!”

The one who entered without knocking was an adorable girl with fluffy caramel-colored hair.

“Oh, Lord Roy, did you forget your promise? We said we’d have a tea party with everyone today!”

The girl puffed her cheeks in a pout.

“Ah… my apologies.”

The girl—Meltia, the daughter of Baron Hail—interacted with Roy in an innocent way, unconcerned with social status.

Some might find this behavior offensive, but Roy found her innocence endearing. Unlike noble ladies, and certainly unlike Kuna, Meltia’s straightforward, childlike demeanor seemed dazzling and precious.

This was likely due to her upbringing among commoners, combined with her naturally cheerful disposition.

The charming Meltia was currently the only Saint in the kingdom, attending the academy.

—The Saint.

A hundred years ago, this country was rescued by a savior.

A century prior, an immense outbreak of miasma led to a disaster where the country was overrun by monsters.

But when the people were drowning in despair, a single beast appeared at the temple.

A divine beast sent by the gods—Carbuncle.

With its discerning eyes, Carbuncle chose a single girl.

Mysteriously, this chosen girl possessed a powerful ability to heal and purify.

Using this power, she cleansed the entire country of miasma and led it to peace.

…This story is thoroughly documented in history books.

And now, the Kingdom of Aluda was facing an abnormal situation with a surge of miasma outbreaks that led to the emergence of monsters.

The higher-ups of the kingdom had been consulting the historical texts to confirm the existence of the Saint and Carbuncle, constantly searching for them.

In fact, those accounts were accurately detailed in history books, and Carbuncle was indeed known to exist in this world.

However, it was only seen in the deepest levels of dungeons. There were no dungeons in the Kingdom of Aluda. So normally, a creature like Carbuncle should not appear.

—Yet it did. Accompanied by a girl.

“Roy-sama?”

“…Ah, my apologies.”

Lost in deep thought, Roy snapped out of it when Meltia leaned in to look at his face.

“You’ve been spacing out lately. Is it… about Miss Kuna?”

Meltia furrowed her brows slightly.

“No…”

He couldn’t deny it.

“…I also said that banishing her to the Forest of Demons was too much. But El wouldn’t listen, worried that she might become possessed…”

“…Yes, I understand.”

“And didn’t Miss Kuna restrain you, Lord Roy?”

Meltia tilted her head slightly.

“Lord Roy was often caught up with Miss Kuna, and it was so unfair. You couldn’t always stay by my side… I felt lonely.”

A tug at the hem of his uniform.

Roy felt his head spin at the sight of that adorable, upturned face.

…That’s right. Kuna had bullied Meltia.

So Kuna deserved to be punished.

Pushing Meltia down the stairs—something that could have easily ended in her death.

Meltia. The only saint of this country.

It was about a year ago when she came to the temple holding the injured Carbuncle with a broken leg.

“Um… this little one came to me. This is a divine beast, isn’t it?”

From that moment, it was pure chaos.

A commoner, an illegitimate child raised among the townsfolk, was chosen as the Saint.

Shortly after that, Meltia was taken into the baron’s family and, without being given sufficient time to acquire proper education, was enrolled at the noble academy. This was to awaken her powers as a saint as quickly as possible.

It was decided that she could pick up social norms and knowledge of noble society at the academy, and a team was chosen to support her.

Roy and the other two members of the trio were those chosen to assist her.

“…I’m sorry, Mel. I should have prioritized being there for you. My role is to protect you.”

“…It’s okay. Just being by my side is enough.”

Meltia gave a delicate smile as she said this.

As they gazed at each other, the door to the research room opened again.

“Hey, what’s keeping you?”

The one who opened the door roughly was Garde, followed by Elmecius, who entered gracefully.

“Oh, I’m sorry. We were just about to come!”

Meltia looked at the two, smiling as she waved.

“Honestly, you two take your time. By the way, Roy, what’s that on your desk?”

Elmecius quickly noticed the broken magic tool on the desk.

Roy hesitated in his words but, realizing there was no point in staying silent, decided to honestly report that it might belong to Kuna.

Garde frowned.

“Wait, so what does this mean? Is she still alive?”

Garde, a pure-blooded aristocrat from a family of military officers, harbored a deep disdain for demi-humans. He twisted his face in disgust and spat out the words.

“…I don’t know. At least, I don’t think Kuna could have survived being abandoned deep in that forest.”

“That’s not necessarily true,” Elmecius said quietly.

“Considering Meltia’s purification ability.”

He said this while looking affectionately at Meltia.

Meltia shyly smiled in response.

—The Monster Forest.

The forest where Kuna had been abandoned was known for its heavy miasma, a place where monsters frequently appeared.

But, despite the forest’s reputation for being so tainted with miasma, for some reason, the miasma was purified in just one night.

“I had been wishing for that forest to be purified. I think, deep down, I was still concerned about Kuna.”

“Meltia, you’re truly amazing. Your care and your ability to purify the evil,” Garde said with a laugh.

“My power is still unstable… I don’t really understand how I was able to do something like that,” Meltia replied.

The matter of the Monster Forest being purified in just one night is said to have been resolved by Meltia activating her holy power.

The people who had been hunting in the forest were very happy to be able to enter it again.

“Take it slow, it’s fine. We still have time, and Meltia must be tired too,” Elmecius said as he gently lifted Meltia’s hair and kissed her softly.

Meltia’s cheeks flushed a bright red.

“El, stop it!”

“Meltia, there’s nothing for you to worry about. You have no concerns, right?”

When he asked, Meltia’s face clouded for a moment.

“Well, El… about the Carbuncle…”

“Oh, it’s fine. We’ve continued the search. However, there’s an opinion from the temple that the divine beast’s role was just to find the Saint, so it may have returned to the heavens.”

Meltia had arrived at the temple with the injured Carbuncle. However, since the Carbuncle kept trying to escape, it had been kept in a small silver cage for management.

But just the other day, the Carbuncle had completely disappeared from the cage.

Meltia was worried about it.

“I see,” Meltia responded.

“Yes, so there’s no need for you to worry. Now, let’s go.”

Elmecius insisted, and the group left the research room.

Surrounding Meltia, the three noblemen acted like knights, protecting her.

Meltia looked like a princess.

♦ ♦ ♦

In the academy’s courtyard.

A young lady, who had been tending to the flowers, suddenly furrowed her brows as she looked at a corner of the flower bed.

“Hey, look.”

“Oh my…”

“The flowers are wilting.”

She sighed, still holding the watering can.

“Somehow, it feels like the flowers around the academy have been looking a bit weak lately.”

“I hope it’s not an omen of something bad…” she murmured softly. At that moment, one of the wilted flowers fell with a soft crack, shattering on the ground.

TL Note: Changed Hermecius to Elmecius so the nickname “El” works.