Adventurer's Guild Café: I Was Wrongfully Exiled by the Saint, So I Will Enjoy My Second Life with My Fluffy Friends-Chapter 3.6 - Great March of the Mokomots

“Ugh... I’m so tired...”

After stepping out of the bath and changing into my loungewear, I couldn’t resist diving straight into the bed. My eyelids felt unbearably heavy.

This might have been the most exhausting day since I came to Grantania. Not even my first day working at the café left me this drained.

“Sigh. And yet...”

Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I glanced at the basket resting on my bed.

“Peep~”

“Peeyo.”

“Peep-peep.”

Inside the basket I had gotten from Beryl’s bakery, something chirped softly.

“Roon.”

Lulu sniffed at the basket inquisitively before plopping down on top of it.

Lulu has this habit of sitting on my face while I’m sleeping, so dealing with this isn’t new.

“No, Lulu, stop that. You’ll squish the Mokomots to death...”

It seemed Lulu had taken a liking to the basket, which still smelled faintly of sweet bread.

Inside it were three Mokomots—the ones that had exploded earlier today.

The yellow one was Riri.

The pink one was Pipi.

The blue one was Lala.

I even went ahead and gave them names.

“Peep~”

Mokomots look a bit like chicks, but apparently, they can fly. They flapped their tiny wings enthusiastically and flew toward me.

“Wah!”

With a soft pof, they landed on me. All three snuggled against me, their fluffy little bodies tickling my skin.

“Ruuu!”

Not wanting to be outdone, Lulu pressed her body against me too.

“Ahaha, it tickles!”

Buried under the fluffy little creatures, I laughed as I lay on the bed.

But somehow, it felt soft, warm, and comforting—so much so that I couldn’t help but nuzzle against them.

Now, I’m buried under the fluff, so it’s okay, but… today was really tough.

“Ultimately, what was that black mist of yours, I wonder?”

I sighed as I recalled the events after the Mokomot explosion.

◆

After that explosion incident…

It was really, really tough.

Kiril forcibly pulled me out of my dazed state and dragged me outside.

“Kuna-san! What are you doing!?”

As soon as we left the warehouse, I was suddenly hugged by Ellen, who was crying, and I was shocked.

“I thought you were… I thought you were dead!”

“I-I’m glad you’re okay…”

Kurona also let out a relieved sigh.

“S-sorry…”

Surprisingly, I stayed calm.

Rather, I was more shaken by Ellen’s crying than the explosion itself.

After releasing me, Ellen blew her nose with a chiiin sound.

As I stood there flustered, Kiril scolded me.

“Kuna.”

“Y-Yes?”

“That move you made earlier… no, wait! Do you realize that you could have died just now? Do you understand?”

“…I’m sorry.”

My tail and ears drooped.

…But, I wonder. Even though I’m being scolded, it feels really strange.

As I stood there flustered, Kiril suddenly moved his face closer to mine.

“You’re apologizing, but with that attitude, it seems like you don’t understand at all. We’re worried about you. We were shocked because we thought you were going to die. Do you understand?”

“…”

It was only after he said that that I realized.

Ellen-san, Kiril-san, and Kurona-san…

They were worried about me, and they were angry because they cared…?

It was the first time I had experienced that—anger born out of concern for someone.

“I’m sorry!”

I had caused them worry.

This time, I genuinely bowed my head in apology.

As I stood still, I could hear a sigh.

“Well, if you’re not hurt, it’s fine now.”

I cautiously looked up, and Kiril was scratching his head.

“Seriously, making us worry… You should’ve just left it all to me.”

Kiril muttered as he looked at the exploded warehouse.

The warehouse was surrounded by many Knight Mages, and it had already been cordoned off.

People from the town were gathering, curious about what had happened.

By the warehouse, Gier was talking to Solaris’s family.

Solaris was crying…

Feeling uneasy, Kurona suggested, “Let’s go too,” and we headed toward Solaris-chan.

◆

“It… It wasn’t that big at first…”

Solaris said, choking back a sob.

“Mo-Mokomot was… hic… so rare… I thought it was just a regular Mokomot, so I raised it in the warehouse…”

To summarize Solaris’s story, it goes like this:

First, Mokomot is like a spirit that lives in dungeons.

They’re harmless, and the floors where Mokomot live are considered safe.

Additionally, when Mokomot grow, they sometimes lay eggs filled with magical items, which is why they are cherished by adventurers as a symbol of safety on their journeys.

Because of this, Mokomot rarely leave the dungeon, and it’s forbidden to take them out of the dungeon without permission.

However, one day, Solaris noticed a Mokomot about the size of a small bundle lying in the shadow of the usual path she took.

It looked like it was struggling, so she picked it up and started taking care of it in the warehouse.

“I… I just thought it was cute, so I picked it up… But once it gets better, I planned to send it back to the dungeon right away.”

“You idiot. Just because it’s cute, you can’t just bring something like that back!”

Kiril sighed with frustration.

Sobs echoed as Solaris sniffled.

It seemed like she had thought of it like taking in a lost puppy to care for in a shed.

“But… It… started getting strange…”

Solaris continued with her story.

After a few days, the Mokomot started to get better.

But suddenly, it began to swell up and started becoming aggressive, trying to bite.

The Mokomot grew bigger by the day, and Solaris couldn’t do anything to stop it.

“Somehow… there was a black mist surrounding it. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get rid of it…”

Ah… could that be the same mist I saw?

“Th-That’s why… I went to the Adventurer’s Guild to make a request…”

With that, Solaris apologized again.

Gier listened silently, while Kiril sighed.

“Hey, Solaris. Listen up. An S-rank adventurer doesn’t just go around slaying monsters. You need to come up with the optimal solution to the problem,” Kiril said sternly.

“…”

“Don’t hide things, you idiot. If it were Simon, he might have been able to handle it, even if I couldn’t.”

“Sorry…”

The owner and his wife at Beryl’s bakery bowed their heads, apologizing too.

But no one got hurt, and I thought that was good enough… until I felt Kiril’s intense stare on me.

Ugh, I’m sorry…

“Anyway, this is quite a mess,” Kurona muttered, looking toward the town.

The large number of chicks that had fallen from the sky earlier.

“Peep!”

“Peep!”

“Peep-peep-peep!”

The chicks that had exploded earlier were now walking in a line, heading toward the dungeon.

It was the great march of the Mokomots.

The people of the town watched in stunned silence as the procession moved forward.

“Mokomots are like spirits, so they don’t die,” Kurona explained while watching the procession heading toward the dungeon. “That’s why when they grow too big, they split into smaller versions like that and continue to multiply as dungeon spirits.”

As we watched the grand march toward the dungeon, Kurona added, “Well, if they’ve multiplied this much, the dungeon will definitely thrive!”

Ellen’s eyes sparkled as he spoke.

It seems that Mokomots are good for the dungeon, so their increase was something to be happy about.

The fluffy creatures chirped cutely as they walked along. The scene felt like something out of a fantasy, a fairy tale, and it was mesmerizing to watch.

But then…

“Peep!”

“Um…?”

A Mokomot, about the size of my palm, chirped and landed gently on my head. Then one landed on my shoulder, and another on my hand, each one perching there.

Pink, yellow, light blue.

They were so colorful and cute, but… why did they land on my head?

“Um, chick-san…?”

“Peep~”

The fluffy little chicks kept rubbing their heads against mine.

…For some reason, the yellow, pink, and light blue chicks wouldn’t leave me alone.

“They’re all going back to the dungeon. Hey, you guys too…”

I said this while gently lowering them to the ground.

But the chicks, for some reason, fluttered right back to me, over and over again.

No matter how many times I set them down, they returned to me.

“Huh…?”

“Peep!”

“Peep!”

“Mupee!”

I wonder what they’re saying…

“Roon!”

Even Lulu came over, and it was turning into a fluffy panic.

“Wait… that tickles…”

I was struggling to get the little fluffy creatures to the ground when Kiril muttered something.

“Kuna-chan…”

“Y-Yes?”

“Could you possibly be an amazing monster tamer?”

“No way. I have zero magical power.”

“To be liked by dungeon spirits… that’s not something that happens normally…”

Everyone looked at me in disbelief.

Even the knight-casters were whispering to each other as they looked our way.

“Big sister, thank you.”

As I was flustered, Solaris tugged at the sleeve of my clothes.

“Thank you for helping Marmo. Big sister, you have some kind of special aura, so everyone seems to really like you.”

“Aura?”

I tilted my head in confusion.

What is an aura?

Now that I think about it, Solaris also mentioned seeing a black mist around this Mokomot.

“Solaris is still an apprentice appraiser, right?”

Ellen said.

“Appraiser?”

Is it the same thing as what Simon does?

Solaris lowered her head shyly.

“Well… I don’t really understand it yet, but sometimes, I can vaguely sense whether something is bad or good. Big sister has a good aura.”

Wow, that’s amazing!

I thought her beautiful golden eyes were special, but it turns out she has an appraiser’s talent.

“But… I didn’t realize Marmo had a black mist around it until it grew larger…”

Solaris muttered quietly.

“…It seems like some kind of curse was placed on it.”

While listening to Solaris, Gier was skillfully giving instructions to the knight-casters and quietly muttered to himself.

“A curse?”

Ellen frowned.

“To place a curse on a dungeon spirit…! There are some truly despicable people out there, aren’t there!?”

“…It’s not just the spirits. There are also those who try to use underhanded methods to steal valuable monsters and try to make them thrive in other dungeons.”

Is it something like poaching?

“We’ll look into this matter thoroughly on our end.”

With that, Gier turned to leave the scene.

But just at that moment, a stern-looking female knight-caster turned to look at us and spoke up.

“Wouldn’t it be a good idea to ask this woman as well?”

“…”

“Probably, but there are traces of a very strong curse left behind. If she can remove it…And besides, it’s a face I haven’t seen before.”

Huh… me?

Could it be that I’m being suspected…?

“Uh, I…!”

I started to panic, but Gier shook his head.

“That’s enough. There’s no need for that right now.”

“However… her actions earlier…”

Now that I think about it, it seems like the knight-casters had witnessed all of my actions from earlier.

I must have done something strange after all.

I realized that they were whispering among themselves while glancing over at me.

It made me feel uncomfortable, and I instinctively shrank back.

“Captain—let’s just take this girl with us~”

A man, wearing his knight-caster uniform rather loosely, approached and said.

“I’m curious about her too.”

They kept glancing at me. The cheerful-looking person with brown hair.

I felt a cold shiver run through me.

“Hey, hey, hey, you’re not seriously planning to kidnap our Kuna and drag her into your bunch of magic-obsessed idiots’ lair, are you?”

Kiril intervened sharply.

“You know the agreement between the Knight-Casters and the Guild, right, Gier?”

Gier furrowed his brow and replied,

“I know it, even without you reminding me.”

It seems that Gier tends to show his emotions, especially when it comes to Kiril.

“Then hurry up and release her. We’re tired, you know. I’m going to have to file a report anyway.”

Gier sighed.

“Captain!”

The female knight-caster continued to press.

“I said it’s fine. If necessary, I’ll go to Kuna later. Kuna, you should go home and rest for the day.”

“!”

With that, Gier left us.

The female knight-caster gave me an unhappy look before following him.

“Tch.”

The brown-haired man also glanced at me before walking away.

Wait… come to think of it, did I even tell him my name?

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“Ugh, I’m so tired…”

As I spaced out, Ellen weakly plopped down onto the ground.

“Should we just head home for today?”

Kurona yawned softly.

By the time I realized it, the sky had turned a deep orange.

The great procession of chicks had somehow disappeared, and the town had returned to its usual state.

But the three little Mokomots were still by my side, as usual.

“What should I do…”

“They’re like spirits, so I think they’ll just wander off somewhere once they’re satisfied,” Kurona said.

The Mokomots were chirping happily.

Lulu sniffed around them curiously.

“Roo?”

“Peep.”

“Roo!”

It was unclear what was going on, but it seemed like they were getting along.

“Well, we’re hungry too. Let’s head back to the Guild for now.”

“Okay.”

Ellen weakly raised her arm.

And with that, the fluffy explosion incident came to an end.