The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella-Chapter 157

“Do you realize,” Nyx said coldly, “that no matter who ends up in charge of you, you’ll end up crawling on the floor, begging for death? That part hasn’t changed.”

“Reminds me of when I was a kid.”

Karon answered with a blank expression.

Not a flicker of emotion crossed his face.

“...Tch. This is why test subjects are so hopeless.”

Nyx sounded bored now, his amusement having waned.

As he said, Karon didn’t feel shame or humiliation the way most did—not as a former test subject.

And now that he had come back through time, those emotions had dulled even further.

Karon was ready to do anything to reach his goal.

Even if it meant kneeling before Nyx and licking his boots.

If that’s what it took—he would do it.

He never wanted to experience the agony of building another coffin or digging another grave for Elodie.

He didn’t even want to lay her in the cold earth in the first place.

A part of him had foolishly held onto hope—that she might open her eyes again.

That somehow, a miracle might happen.

And now, he had been sent back.

If there was even a chance to save her, he’d do anything.

Anything, if it meant avoiding that future.

If every person had a set amount of misfortune fated to them in life, he wanted to shoulder it all for her.

So please...

Let this not be a dream.

Let this not be some delusion.

“Wait here until we decide what to do with you,” Nyx said, shoving Karon into a lab chamber.

Karon, now a young boy again, leaned his forehead against the glass and closed his eyes.

The chill helped cool his thoughts.

This was the place he had once wished to escape from forever.

But not now.

Now, when he slept, he prayed that he would wake back up in this lab.

***

After that, Karon remained sealed inside the glass chamber for several days.

As if it were the only revenge he could inflict, Nyx gave him no food.

But the more Karon endured the familiar hunger, the clearer his mind became.

This isn’t a dream.

Nyx was still alive.

He had really gone back in time.

It took Karon # Nоvеlight # a long while to accept this truth.

After reaching the worst possible ending—after watching Elodie die—time had miraculously reversed itself.

How could he accept that so easily?

But once he did, his mind began to work quickly.

It really was the gem that reversed time.

The jewel that Number Ten had been carrying on him.

Karon had taken it just before dying—that had to be what brought him back.

The moment he saw it, he’d felt a strong instinct to take it, even amid the chaos of battle.

And now that he was here—he didn’t just feel instinct. He was certain.

Why?

Was it because there was nothing else to suspect?

Or was it the strange, intangible force he had sensed inside the jewel?

It was a reasonable guess—but still, not enough to be conclusive.

And yet Karon had risked everything, going back to Basilisk for that jewel alone.

Even if it turned out to be nothing, he was gambling this final chance on it.

And even if it really had reversed time—who’s to say it wasn’t a one-time thing?

Still...

I can go back again.

He already knew.

He knew the moment time rewound—that he hadn’t used up all his chances.

Maybe not infinite, but enough.

And I’m the only one who can use the gem.

No matter whose hands it fell into—if it wasn’t Karon’s, it was just a pretty trinket.

So in this life, he had to figure out where the gem was and how to obtain it.

At the very least, he had to get his hands on it.

That way, every time time reset, he could recover it again.

And how could he be so sure?

Because this... isn’t the first time.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

There was a strange sense that he had already rewound a very long stretch of time before.

Karon touched his aching forehead.

“When he—smiles, you’ll—again...”

“Remember, eve—if you—again, you must—”

“I want you all to—”

“—no one’s he—!”

“Please—O Lord. P—protect—”

A barrage of voices—familiar yet distant—flashed past like afterimages.

Were these memories from the past?

Or things he lost while coming back through time?

Or just hallucinations, symptoms of madness?

Ugh.

His head throbbed painfully.

But Karon squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath.

He focused, desperate to seize even a single thread of meaning.

Bzzz—

“....”

Just then, a soft alert chime rang in his ear—one only he could hear.

The artifact he was carrying had activated.

It was Elodie.

Karon’s hand reflexively reached toward the hidden pocket where he kept it—but he forced himself to stop.

Nyx wouldn’t be so careless as to skip a body search.

In fact...

Karon’s eyes turned toward the monitoring orb embedded in one corner of the glass chamber.

He’s watching me. Waiting to see what I’ll try.

It had been a long time since he’d been so closely monitored and controlled.

He wanted to lift the artifact to his ear.

He wanted to hear Elodie’s voice—desperately.

He wanted proof that the moment she died in his arms was now nothing more than a memory.

Cowardly as it was...

But I have to resist.

In this life.

Even if they branded him a traitor.

Elodie would still trust him—he knew she would.

He didn’t need to explain that he was doing this for her—that he was here to reclaim the happiness she deserved.

She had always trusted him completely.

So completely it sometimes made him wonder where that faith came from.

And she’d come for me... no matter what.

And that was the problem.

Elodie couldn’t bear it—seeing Karon sacrifice himself for her.

He never knew why.

Not like she had feelings for me. It was like she felt indebted somehow.

So he had to cut off contact.

Because Elodie would throw herself into danger without hesitation.

Karon avoided the monitoring orb, placed his hand over his chest, and released a small amount of poison.

Silently, he destroyed the artifact.

The only way he could contact her—gone.

***

A messenger arrived from the Basilisk main house.

As expected, they valued Karon’s abilities.

Even more than Number Ten, who had once been hailed as the most successful of all test subjects.

Naturally.

Had Karon been able to handle his poison from the start, he would’ve been trained as High Priest long ago.

And so, just like that, he was named a candidate for High Priest.

When Karon met Number Ten again, he asked:

“Did time rewind for you too?”

“...Time? What the hell are you talking about?”

But Ten, standing in the lab, just looked confused.

Worse, he now saw Karon as a clear threat.

Nervous, terrified that his lifelong dream might be snatched away right in front of him.

The moment Karon saw that reaction, he confirmed it again.

It’s just me.

Only he had the ability to turn back time.

I knew it.

He had no choice but to trust this inexplicable certainty.

Karon was locked up in an underground interrogation chamber not far from the main house.

“Now that you know the location of our stronghold, if you take even one step outside, we’ll dispose of you. Understood?”

“...”

“Either you leave here as the High Priest, or you leave as a corpse. It’s your call.”

Naturally, they didn’t trust him.

After all, he had spent his life with the Valkyrisen family since he was six years old. No paranoid Basilisk would trust him easily.

“They say you went straight to one of our research labs right before you lost control. Probably to blow yourself up. So tell me—how do we know you’re not a spy?”

“...How do I prove that?”

“For starters, that arrogant look in your eyes needs fixing.”

And so the indoctrination began.

Back in the lab, all the torture he had endured had at least been called “experiments.”

But this was nothing more than pure, sadistic abuse.

Nyx, satisfied for a brief moment as he watched Karon writhe on the floor, eventually left.

Crushing the bug that once bit him had felt good—but sticking around to watch was pointless.

Karon, meanwhile, confessed everything.

He told them about his time with House Valkyrisen and House Ratson.

He made no attempt to escape.

“I am Karon Basilisk. Only Basilisk gives me life. I exist only for Basilisk.”

He gladly debased himself, speaking with a tongue as venomous as theirs.

He gave everything.

Because he didn’t want Elodie to lose anything.

Once they deemed him “broken in” enough, they resumed testing to help him control his poison.

Karon was torn, sewn back together, cut, and recombined—

Day after day.

He endured the dull, dragging passage of time.

Until the moment came.