Adventurer's Guild Café: I Was Wrongfully Exiled by the Saint, So I Will Enjoy My Second Life with My Fluffy Friends - V 2.1 Chapter 3.9

Ares, who had taken on the form of a man, properly used a fork and spoon to eat the food.

“…Delicious.”

He murmured quietly. Good. It seems I did well.

“Ares, do you have a body that needs to eat?”

Lulu and the others don’t need to eat, since they seem to absorb magical power into their bodies like photosynthesis, so they’re actually fine without food. Yet they’re gluttons…

“No. I don’t need to eat.”

Just as I thought, it’s the same as with Lulu and the others.

“But it’s nice once in a while. I can understand taste, and enjoy it. Cooking can sometimes form bonds between people. More than anything, the things you put your energy into purify my body.”

“Um… what do you mean by ‘purify’?”

When I asked that, Ares lowered his eyes.

“I have been tainted. To cleanse that taint, I need pure power.”

“Taint… what is that?”

“In your words, I believe it was called ‘miasma’?”

“!”

Miasma. That’s the malicious energy currently spreading through the Kingdom of Aluda, causing people and animals to become ferocious and generating monsters.

“I was living on a continent far to the east until recently.”

Ares began to speak, slowly.

“Then, on the way back to my birthplace, Grantania, it happened. I was caught off guard.”

“It happened…?”

“You said the Kingdom of Aluda, right? While I was resting in that country’s mountains, my body was afflicted by miasma.”

“!”

Miasma can transform animals into ferocious monsters.

Maybe what Ares means by “afflicted by miasma” is something like that…

“But I’m all right now. I rested in the depths of a dungeon with clean air. And I ate food you touched.”

“Food I touched…?”

“You seem to have a mysterious power that even repels miasma.”

“Eh!? Really!?”

“Yes. It’s still a small power, but for me, it’s enough. It’s not just restoring my strength. What was it… in your words, is it called a ‘status ailment’? You have the ability to alleviate that.”

I-I didn’t know that…

But the power to remove miasma should only belong to a saint, shouldn’t it…?

“…It’s merely my speculation. It may not actually be repelling the miasma. However, my condition is definitely returning to normal.”

Hmm, unless Simon appraises me, I won’t know for sure. There’s no way I could do something only a saint can. Maybe I wasn’t repelling the miasma, but doing something else without realizing it. Either way, it’s a very small power. I probably can’t replace the saint.

“By the way, Kuna—”

“Y-Yes.”

While I was deep in thought, Ares licked his lips and said:

“Humans eat something sweet after a meal, right?”

“Uh… ah, you’re talking about dessert.”

Clap went my hands.

“I do, I do. Just a moment, okay?”

I opened my bag and rummaged around inside. I was sure I had baked and brought a raspberry pie.

“Hmm…?”

Huh, where did I put it? I can’t find it at all.

“Lulu, do you remember where it is?”

When I asked Lulu, who had been eating quiche with the Mokomotts, her body jolted stiffly. Then she looked over here and wagged her tail in a friendly way. No way…

“Roon…”

When I stared at Lulu with half-lidded eyes, she hurriedly dove into the backpack.

“Lulu!”

“Ru!”

When I reached in to pull Lulu out, my hand touched something.

When I pulled it out, it was the brush Lulu insisted on bringing before we left for the dungeon.

“Lulu, you ate all the raspberry pie, didn’t you!”

“Ru…”

When I looked inside, I saw Lulu’s dejected face.

I’m the one who wants to be dejected! Uuuu, I told her not to eat all of it…

“…I’m sorry, Ares. I actually baked a raspberry pie… but it looks like Lulu ate it all…”

As I said that and glanced up at Ares, he was staring intently at my hand.

“?”

In his line of sight—was the brush.

“Kuna.”

“Y-Yes.”

“As thanks for feeding me something delicious, I shall grant you the right to groom me with that comb.”

“?”

Saying that, Ares returned to his original griffon form. Just like that, he flopped over on his side. The adventurers, who had been quietly watching us without making a sound until now, began murmuring behind us. I also felt a bit bewildered.

“Um…?”

Wait, does he mean I can brush him?

“Come now, quickly.”

“…”

Urged on, I tried brushing Ares’s chest fur with the brush I was holding for now.

Wow, it feels really nice to the touch. It has a luster that Lulu and the Pipis don’t have.

As I combed through the slightly stiff fur, it gradually began to shine brightly.

“P-Paradise…”

While I was brushing, Ares suddenly let out those words.

I guess it really does feel good to be brushed… Huh? Is he purring?

“Does it feel good?”

“…W-Well, it’s not bad.”

He really is purring…!

Come to think of it, aren’t lions part of the feline family? But his face is that of an eagle…

As I was thinking that, Ares suddenly muttered:

“Hey.”

“Y-Yes.”

“Don’t you have something to say?”

“Eh?”

Something to say?

“Y-Your fur is beautiful…?”

“Hm. All those I’ve permitted to touch me have praised my fur more than that. They were moved.”

Yeah, yeah, it’s true—I’ve never seen fur this shiny and beautiful.

But I wonder why… hmm. Could it be that I’ve gotten too used to fluffing Lulu and the others? I don’t feel all that surprised.

“……”

“Um.”

Ares looks kind of sad…

“Y-Your fur is super beautiful and fluffy! It’s an amazing coat of fur!”

When I said that, his expression returned to a slightly happier one.

“Isn’t it? You may fluff me more if you like.”

“Y-Yes!”

And then I continued to endlessly fluff the legendary creature.