The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella-Chapter 91

Elodie, who had been running down the corridor, suddenly had to come to a halt.

She didn't know which direction to go.

Where is Karon right now? What about Grandfather?

Elodie tried to recall the newspaper article from her past life that had reported on the massacre.

She desperately struggled to remember exactly where it had begun.

But—

I think it only said that it happened somewhere within Valkyrisen territory...

Even if she did remember the location and ran there, there was no guarantee that things would unfold the same way, now that the timeline had been pushed forward by three months.

Then... if I could at least find Grandfather's voice or his footsteps...

Elodie sharpened her hearing to its very limit.

"Oh my, good evening, little miss!"

"Have you eaten yet?"

But all she could hear was the bustling of the castle staff.

Maids, strolling through the halls and exchanging lighthearted chatter, stopped to greet her.

Beyond the wide-open windows, the laughter of servants hanging laundry filled the air.

The rhythmic footsteps of knights patrolling the castle grounds.

Everything was as peaceful as always.

And yet, Elodie's heart pounded.

"......"

It had been said that hundreds of people, along with all nearby flora and fauna, had turned to ash, leaving not even bone dust behind.

As if the very Reaper of Death had passed through.

She felt as though she was isolated in an empty, glass-encased world.

Only she knew that if she failed to stop Karon, this peace would vanish in an instant, as if it had been nothing more than a fleeting dream.

While Elodie stood frozen, on the verge of tears, frantically scanning her surroundings—

Whoosh.

The Magic Cotton suddenly shot off in one direction all at once.

Momentarily paralyzed by panic, she jumped in surprise.

Some of the Magic Cotton even pressed against her back, insistently pushing her forward.

W-What...?

Though the force wasn't strong enough to move her, she understood what they were trying to convey.

They want me to follow them?

Could they possibly know where Grandfather and Karon were?

Elodie stood there, dazed for a moment, before hurriedly snapping back to her senses and sprinting after them.

She ran desperately, not stopping even when her breath burned at her throat.

And then—

"No, it seems I've arrived at just the right time."

A hoarse, broken voice rang out, as if the speaker’s vocal cords had been damaged.

Before she could place where she'd heard that voice before—

A boy, clad in a black hood, pulled down the mask that had been covering his mouth without hesitation.

His lips, red like fading embers, curved into a fragile smile.

She saw him reach for Eisen's hand.

And the moment black energy coiled around the old man's wrinkled fingers—

"No—Long-Long!"

Elodie didn't have time to think.

She threw herself forward and rammed into him.

She didn't even realize that she had called the boy by the name of the snake she had spent four years with, rather than Karon.

All that mattered was getting him away from Eisen.

"Urk—"

Perhaps he hadn’t expected anyone to charge at him.

Karon was thrown to the ground, groaning in pain.

Elodie, lying atop him, quickly turned her head to check on Eisen.

Whew, he's fine. The poison only brushed him slightly.

His fingertips were darkened, but at that level, it wouldn't be a serious issue even if left untreated for a while.

She could detoxify him later, once the situation settled.

It was the moment she breathed a sigh of relief at the old man’s condition—

"Elodie, that boy is hallucinating. You need to get away from—"

Eisen, his face a mask of grim determination, reached out toward the child.

"Stay back!"

Elodie, realizing that Karon hadn't yet withdrawn his poison, screamed.

"If you come any closer, Grandfather will really die."

"......"

"I'm fine, so just stay back. Please."

The moment Eisen stiffened and withdrew his hand, Karon’s poison slithered toward her like an invisible noose tightening around her throat.

Of course, it had no effect on her.

"That’s right, just pour it all out on me instead."

Elodie wrapped her arms around the boy without hesitation.

She was trying to contain the poison within herself, preventing it from spreading beyond her own body.

He was called Number 32, wasn’t he?

She had no idea where Karon’s poison originated from.

But as long as it was a power housed within a person, she didn’t believe it could be produced infinitely without limit.

If she absorbed all of it, wouldn’t he be left in a temporarily depleted state?

Though I have no idea how much ‘all of it’ entails.

It was impossible not to recall the massacre.

The moment when hundreds of lives had been wiped out in an instant.

If she could delay his rampage by forcing him to empty out his poison now...

And if, for just a little while, Karon could be free of his suffering...

If she could prevent the catastrophe entirely, here and now...

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Even as a Ratson, Elodie rationally understood that this could be dangerous.

But she ignored that logic without a second thought.

Still—

A fourteen-year-old boy was simply too big to hold in the arms of a nine-year-old child.

...When did he get this big?

Four years ago, she had been able to embrace him.

But now, no matter how she looked at it, it was she who was clinging onto him desperately.

In the two years she had only seen him in his snake form, Karon had grown far too much.

Too much...

"Ah."

At that moment—

Elodie caught a glimpse of the strands of hair spilling from beneath Karon’s hood.

"This is..."

The strength in Elodie's arms, which had been wrapped around the boy’s neck, gradually loosened.

Had he grown his hair without her noticing, or had he simply not had the time to care for it? His hair now reached down to his chest.

With trembling fingers, Elodie grasped the strands—so white they seemed almost translucent, like snow.

This was confirmation.

There was no room for doubt.

The child, staring endlessly at that white hair, slowly lifted her head.

With his hood now naturally pushed back, the boy’s face was completely exposed.

For two years, Karon had desperately hidden this face from Elodie.

"...Fairy Godmother."

Pale skin, drained of all color. Blackened fingertips, decayed by poison.

White hair that had turned stark as snow.

Red, empty eyes that always seemed to gaze somewhere far away.

Elodie suddenly remembered when she had first met the Fairy Godmother.

It was shortly after the newspaper reported the Valkyrisen Massacre.

That day, she had briefly left the Bluewood estate.

Sera had been miserable because her stepmother and stepsisters wouldn’t let her attend the ball.

And Elodie—unable to do anything to help her—had felt utterly wretched.

That was when she had met them.

The Fairy Godmother...

"You..."

At first, she had been wary of the hooded and masked figure in the garden, finding them suspicious.

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But when she saw those red eyes, wide with distress and trembling helplessly, she had blurted out a question without thinking.

"Are you crying?"

"...No."

And to her surprise, she had received an answer.

"Huh? You /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ understand me? But I’m a mouse..."

That had been the biggest reason why she had assumed they were the Fairy Godmother.

She had never even considered that they might be beastfolk.

Well, back then, I didn’t even know I was beastfolk myself.

The Fairy Godmother—no, Karon—had been standing there, leaning against a tree, his face buried in one hand.

"Human, human."

"..."

"Human, I have a wish."

Elodie had been the one to speak first.

"Cinderella wants to go to the ball. But she doesn’t have a dress or glass slippers."

"...What do you expect me to do about that?"

"Can’t you help her?"

What had Karon been thinking when he looked at her back then?

She didn’t know what circumstances had led him to be there that day.

But after Duke Valkyrisen’s death, after killing hundreds with his own poison...

And after believing everything had finally ended—only to realize that the heir of the Ratson family was still alive.

What had he felt in that moment?

"It would be safer for you to remain a mouse."

"Huh?"

"Just live like this. Somewhere the light doesn’t reach. Somewhere utterly miserable."

"Why are you suddenly cursing me like that?"

Back then, she had thought he was just a strange person.

But now she knew—it hadn’t been a curse.

He had been hoping she would stay hidden from the Basilisks’ eyes.

Which meant that even then, he had already known that the Ratson family had no future.

"Then I’ll find a way. Somehow..."

It seemed certain now—the one who had turned back Elodie's time had been the Fairy Godmother.

No, it had been Karon.

She was about to get lost in her thoughts when—

"Who the hell are you?"

Still trapped in his hallucinations, Karon suddenly grabbed Elodie by the shoulders, gripping so tightly it felt as if her bones might shatter.

"Ugh..."

A groan escaped her lips involuntarily.

Even though he was thin and sickly, his strength was still unbelievable.

Elodie glanced down at his skin—patches blackened by poison, a complete mess.

And though he was in human form, she could still see traces of snake scales peeking through where he had failed to conceal them.

Just how much pain had he endured alone all this time?

Why had he hidden it?

She wanted to scream—wanted to demand to know why.

Were the four years we spent together worth so little to you that you could hide everything from me?

But—

No... right now, this is actually a good thing.

Elodie decided not to break the illusion Karon was under.

This was a boy who had always tried to shoulder everything alone.

If he realized the person in front of him was Elodie, he would never release his poison.

She had to take advantage of this moment—while he still saw her as an enemy.

"Why... why doesn’t my poison work on you...?"

Through gritted teeth, Karon muttered his disbelief.

At the same time, Elodie could feel his poison flooding into her body.

There it is.

At the very least, she had stopped the poison from spreading into the air.

The child lifted her small hand and firmly grasped the darkened one clutching her shoulder.

She wouldn’t let him escape.

"That’s right. It’s okay—you can pour it all out on me."

"..."

"You have the right to do that."

At her words, Karon's hand trembled where it touched hers.