Adventurer's Guild Café: I Was Wrongfully Exiled by the Saint, So I Will Enjoy My Second Life with My Fluffy Friends - V 2.2 Chapter 7.5

“That woman is lying!”

“!”

Looking up, I saw Agnès standing at the entrance of the hall, her shoulders trembling with anger. I had told Stepmother and Agnès to wait outside… but it seemed she had been secretly listening in on our conversation. With flames of fury burning in her eyes, she strode toward us.

“Liar, Onee-sama! Someone as lowborn as you could never carry noble blood!”

Agnès marched right up in front of me and raised her voice so everyone could hear.

“I heard it from the Holy Maiden herself! Onee-sama stole this divine beast!”

“!”

She pointed a finger straight at Lulu. Divine beast… she means Lulu, right?

Everyone froze, dumbstruck by her outrageous words.

“The Holy Beast who brought the oracle of the gods to the Holy Maiden went missing! The Holy Maiden said that when you fled to the neighboring country, Onee-sama, you stole it away with you!”

Such a ridiculous claim—it didn’t even throw me into a panic.

“Wait, Agnès. I met Lulu in the forest. I didn’t steal her.”

Now that I thought about it, the legend of the Holy Maiden in Aluda also said a rabbit-like creature came bearing an oracle from the gods. So that was referring to a Carbuncle? They’d only ever told me it was some rabbit-like creature, so I hadn’t realized…

“Lulu saved me. When I was all alone in the Monster Forest, she brought me all the way here to Grantania—”

“Lies! All of it, lies!”

Agnès cut me off, her voice shrill like a tantrum. It reminded me of my days in the Leiria household, when she would pin false crimes on me again and again until I lost everyone’s trust. No—more accurately, in that house where I was despised, there had never been any real trust in me to begin with. But here, it was different. Everyone listened to Agnès with furrowed brows, suspicion clear in their eyes. The unshakable trust I had built up was plain for all to see.

“See? Everyone thinks so too, don’t they?”

Agnès smiled sweetly, just like back in Aluda. But no one reacted—if anything, they stared at her warily. This was Grantania. Her old tricks no longer worked. Perhaps only now realizing the oddness of the situation, Agnès’s face twisted in frustration as she reached her hand toward Lulu.

“You were kidnapped by Onee-sama, weren’t you? That must be it! A sacred creature could never warm up to someone like—”

“Shaaa!”

“Kyah!?”

Lulu’s fur bristled, and she sank her teeth into Agnès. I felt Lulu’s anger—far greater than I had ever sensed before—and hastily scooped her into my arms.

“Lulu, stop! You mustn’t bite!”

“What do you think you’re doing, you beast!?”

Agnès raised her hand high, about to strike. Clutching Lulu close, I stumbled back just in time to narrowly avoid the blow.