The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella-Chapter 60

Elodie had grown quite close to Zenovia.

"Hey, do you know what this is?"

Zenovia hovered around her, bringing a toy she likely hadn’t encountered before while living as a mouse.

"If you press this, it lights up."

"......."

Elodie stared at him with the dead eyes of someone who had long lost interest and mechanically opened her mouth.

"Wow. So. Very. Amazing."

"......You can talk that clearly?"

No, it was just that watching a toy transform from a carriage into a massive weapon required some kind of reaction.

As for the fact that it had an additional function where a belt lit up—she couldn’t care less.

"Ahem. You like it that much? You can have it."

She didn’t need it.

Elodie barely stopped herself from letting that thought slip out.

But considering that he had probably brought one of his most treasured childhood toys, she held back.

'At my age, playing with toys...'

She felt like she was about to sigh like Eisen.

Seeing Zenovia sneak glances at her with anticipation, she decided to play along.

She clicked the toy’s joints into place and called out loudly,

"Hiyah! Transform—Shing—!"

"You need to fix your pronunciation."

And just like that, he immediately criticized her speech.

How picky.

"But it’s really noisy today, isn’t it?"

Zenovia, irritated by the constant murmuring around them, was about to snap when his eyes suddenly lit up.

Then, without warning, he dragged Elodie away and pressed himself against a corner.

"Hey, what are you doing? You have to listen in too."

Ah, entertaining kids was exhausting...

Looking like a worn-out babysitter, Elodie reluctantly followed his lead, eavesdropping on the conversation among the servants.

"That’s impossible."

"I wasn’t the only one who saw it."

"Are you saying he dyed it?"

"No, I’m saying the roots of his hair were black."

"His hair... is growing back black?"

"That’s exactly it! And his wrinkles seem to have faded a little. I thought I was imagining things, but it turns out everyone else noticed too!"

The duke’s personal attendant, a gorilla beastfolk named Goril, nodded fiercely as he passionately explained.

But the servant listening to him looked skeptical.

It was too absurd a claim.

Of course, it was.

Reversing aging?

Even if the High Priest of Ratson himself were here, even if the legendary patriarch of Ratson returned from the dead, it would still be impossible.

It was the same reason why a dead person could be revived, but dead hair couldn’t be.

"His Grace hates bootlickers who spout nonsense about him getting younger."

"You think I don’t know that? But you wouldn’t understand because you don’t see him up close every day."

Goril thumped his chest in frustration.

He was just stating what he had seen, but now he was being treated like some liar. It was unfair.

"I personally trim and groom His Grace’s hair every morning! Are you telling me I wouldn’t notice?"

"Alright, alright, calm down."

As Goril thumped his chest again in agitation, the other servant quickly tried to soothe him.

'Grandpa... got younger?'

Zenovia and Elodie exchanged looks.

There was no way they weren’t going to check this out.

The two of them immediately barged into Eisen’s office.

The duke was frowning, lifting and lowering his monocle in front of his eyes.

"Grandpa!"

"Good timing. My eyes feel strange—can you fix them?"

"Your eyes?"

Eisen calmly explained his symptoms.

"Whenever I use my reading glasses, my vision feels a bit dizzy."

"...Grandpa, that’s not something wrong. That means your eyesight got better."

"Why would my eyesight suddenly improve?"

Eisen shot her a look that clearly asked: Was this your doing?

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Elodie immediately shook her head.

Sure, it seemed like something only she could accomplish, but she hadn’t done this on purpose!

If there had been a physical injury to his eyes, she could have healed that.

Maybe even nearsightedness, if she studied it.

But presbyopia?

That was on a completely different level—as if time itself had been rewound!

Of course, she was a living testament to time reversal, but still!

"Who are you?"

Zenovia was staring at Eisen like he had seen a stranger.

He cautiously circled his grandfather before poking his arm a couple of times.

Then he muttered in awe,

"Grandfather, you look at least ten years younger."

And it wasn’t just a typical compliment—it was simply a statement of fact.

'I have been giving Grandpa all sorts of things to keep him healthy lately, but...'

Eisen, already absurdly healthy for his age, had received every possible treatment and consumed every potion Elodie had to offer.

And now, he had accidentally reversed his aging.

Oops.

Maybe it wasn’t a universal phenomenon—maybe it was just because he was Duke Valkyrisen.

Or maybe she had unknowingly concocted the perfect formula.

'Should I write a book about this for future generations?'

Not that she knew if she would even leave behind any descendants.

But still, if she made a rejuvenation potion, she’d make a fortune.

She was certain that if she told Inferno about this, the fire spirit would be so shocked that sparks would fly.

"Grandpa."

Elodie held out her arms, signaling him to pick her up.

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Without hesitation, Eisen lifted her, and she promptly began climbing his torso.

"Now you’re climbing me like a tree."

Well, he did feel like an ancient oak tree.

Zenovia snickered at the sight, amused.

Eisen looked exasperated but eventually let out a small scoff.

Elodie, not one to miss an opportunity, immediately began messing up his neatly combed white hair.

His fringe, usually swept back, tumbled down over his forehead.

"What are you doing, you little rascal?"

"You really do have black hair now."

"Black hair?"

Eisen had no idea.

The indifferent look on his face said it all.

It seemed he had never even paid attention to when his hair had turned white in the first place.

'I had a feeling he wouldn’t care.'

Aside from his slightly younger appearance, he was exactly the same as before.

He was far too indifferent toward himself.

In contrast, Zenovia, who now shared the same hair color as his grandfather, reacted much more dramatically.

"Whoa! Grandpa, your hair is the same color as mine now?"

"I was always black-haired."

"Wait... you weren’t naturally white-haired...?"

At that ridiculous statement, Eisen’s face turned completely deadpan.

So he hadn’t cared about getting younger, nor about his improved eyesight, but this of all things made him stop?

Silently, he placed Elodie back on the ground.

He rubbed his temples and then, suddenly looking stern, spoke in a grave tone.

"Zenovia. You’ve been spending all your time playing with this brat—are you even studying properly?"

"O-Of course! I didn’t ask because I didn’t know Grandpa used to have black hair! I knew all along!"

No, that was absolutely a lie.

"I already heard from your tutor. You’ve been skipping lessons two days a week, ignoring your homework, and bringing home grades so abysmal they can’t even be measured. What do you plan to do with your life?"

The nagging continued endlessly.

Zenovia glanced desperately at Elodie, silently pleading for help.

"Why are you looking at her? The only thing turning black will be your future if you keep this up."

Eisen cut him off coldly.

Wow.

She had never seen him like this before.

'But it makes sense.'

Even Duke Valkyrisen had his limits, and Zenovia’s lack of academic dedication had finally pushed him there.

"Zenovia, you’d better pull yourself together and listen to your grandfather..."

Elodie slowly backed out of the room.

Zenovia shot her a betrayed look, but she didn’t care.

Wasn’t this exactly what he had wanted?

His grandfather’s attention and love?

'I’ll leave so you can have plenty of it.'

You wanted this.

Suffer through it.

And just to be extra kind, Elodie made sure to close the door tightly behind her.