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 7.7

“Don’t touch me, you failure! Filthy beastkin!”

“…”

How much more did she intend to sneer at me? In this moment, I probably could slap her across the face once. But I wouldn’t. I would never stand in the same place as Agnès and Stepmother. No matter how much I despised them, that was never a reason to raise my hand in violence.

“…Agnès, I never knew how you truly felt.”

“!”

“But that doesn’t change the fact that I hate you. No matter the reason, there’s no excuse for the awful things you did to me. Even so…”

I locked eyes with her and spoke clearly.

“…I think I can understand you, just a little. I could never understand Father, not a word of his reached my heart. But with you—I think I should have tried to talk more. That’s what I realize now.”

Agnès’s eyes widened. My younger stepsister was selfish and foolish beyond saving. But I could see why she’d turned out that way. Growing up in that household, anyone’s heart would twist somewhere along the way.

I could never forgive what she had done to me. But we were still young. Which meant this child still had a chance—a chance to change.

“Agnès, I won’t sever this bond. So please, wake up. Someday, really talk with me.”

“Ah…!”

Light overflowed from my hands, sweeping away the black haze gnawing at Agnès. I knew how to banish it. I just lacked the strength. But then Lulu let out a sharp cry, pouring the missing power into me.

Disappear. Leave Agnès’s body!

I prayed with all my strength, teeth clenched as the darkness tried to fight back. Just as I felt victory within reach, Lulu roared mightily. In that instant, the black haze clinging to Agnès vanished completely.

—Light had triumphed over darkness.

“—!”

When the miasma was gone, Agnès collapsed to the floor. Her eyes had returned to normal. This time, true clear tears spilled freely down her cheeks.

“I thought… I thought you were just a failure, empty, a coward…”

…Father had said the same thing just earlier.

Before I noticed, Simon had stepped up beside me, sighing as if exasperated.

“So in the end, you were jealous of Kuna all this time.”

His voice, like an adult scolding a child, left Agnès looking dazed and weak.

“Agnès, I’m not empty. I have so many things I want to protect. That’s why I fought this hard today.”

I turned back and exchanged a glance with Gear. Now that the miasma’s presence had vanished from Agnès, the doors of this chapel should finally open.

“Let me show you.”

At Gier’s signal, the chapel doors burst open all at once. We had gathered adventurers in advance, just in case something like this happened. The staff knights and adventurers who had been waiting outside surged into the hall.

“Sorry! For some reason, the doors suddenly wouldn’t open!”

“H-hey, what the hell is going on here!?”

The sight of the ravaged chapel left everyone stunned. It proved that Agnès had already been acting strangely before she even came here. She must have used some kind of sorcery to seal the doors shut.

“This is…”

My father, who had been silent all this time, finally lifted his face. In a daze, he looked around at everyone. Ruri and the others rushed straight to my side—because they had all gathered here for my sake.

“This is my treasure, Father, Agnès. I found it with my own strength, and I will protect it.”

“…”

“I will live here. Together with everyone who is dear to me… Goodbye.”

With those words, Father hung his head and was escorted away by the staff knights.

“Agnès! Agnès!”

My stepmother’s anguished cries rang out as she ran toward us. Her figure was nothing less than that of a mother desperately worrying for her child. She loved Agnès far more deeply than Agnès herself realized. That bond… something I no longer had… I couldn’t help but feel a little envious.

I had cut ties with family—the most important bond of all. Surely, I would never return to House Leiria again.

──But even so, I know this.

“Kuu-chan! Kuu-chan, thank goodness!”

“Ruri!”

I hugged the tearful Ruri tightly.

There are ribbons that come undone, but there are always new ones to be tied again.

And from now on, there will surely be many, many more.

◆

—Kuna.

While I was holding Ruri close, I thought I heard someone call out to me. I looked up, and there by the entrance of the hall, bathed in light, stood a lone woman. She had the same wolf ears and tail as me.

The woman gave a gentle smile and slowly parted her lips. Maybe that sight, those words I heard, were nothing more than an illusion born from my heart.

But that was fine. Even if it was a dream, I got to see my mother one last time.

—You did well.

With those words, my mother was wrapped in light, scattering away like the golden petals that had once danced across the night sky.

—I love you, Mother. Always, forever.

I whispered it in my heart. My chest overflowed with warmth, with love so precious it hurt.

Mother had never wished to marry Father.

And yet, she loved me—truly, from the bottom of her heart.

No matter what the circumstances, she always looked at me for who I was, and poured all her overflowing affection into me.

So even before I came to Grantania, I was never empty.

Because Mother’s love has always been alive within me.