The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella-Chapter 110

"Congratulations on your graduation!"

As soon as Sera finished her speech and stepped down from the podium, Elodie eagerly held out a bouquet of poinsettias.

"Thank [N O V E L I G H T] you!"

With a beaming smile, Sera scooped Elodie up in her arms.

Her blue eyes sparkled with joy, overflowing with life.

And at that moment—

"Congratulations on your graduation."

"......?"

A boy with snow-white hair and crimson eyes extended a small box to Sera, offering his congratulations.

Judging by the elegant wrapping, it was clearly a gift.

"And... who might you be?"

Sera, having run straight to Elodie without even glancing around, only now realized someone else was standing beside them.

She cautiously scanned him from head to toe like he was a stranger to be wary of.

But before she could say anything more, the child nestled in her arms suddenly interjected.

"I picked it out with him!"

Elodie exclaimed excitedly.

"......You picked it out together?"

"Yeah! I was being an idiot, only thinking about giving you flowers, and I completely forgot about a graduation gift."

But then Karon had asked.

He wanted to give a small graduation present too, so what did Sera like?

That was when Elodie, realizing far too late that she’d forgotten about getting a gift, had panicked.

At the same time, a question arose in her mind.

Karon's never even had a proper conversation with Sera. So why is he giving her a present?

When she had asked him that, he had answered in the exact same tone he used whenever he spoke about helping someone Elodie cherished.

"I need to stay on her good side."

"Sera’s?"

"If I get on her bad side, I won’t even be able to get close."

While Elodie recalled that conversation from a few days ago—

"Oh, I see. So you're the third prince."

Sera responded with a gentle smile.

A smile that subtly trembled at the corners.

So he had gained her favor by bringing up an unignorable topic and then spent time picking out a gift together with Elodie...

Even I haven’t had the chance to go on a shopping trip with her in the city...

"Thank you. I'll accept it."

Yet, no matter how much she wanted to, Sera couldn’t bring herself to toss aside the gift that Elodie had excitedly chosen with him.

Not when the little harvest mouse in her arms was gazing up at her with shining eyes.

"Even as a child, he’s still a snake."

He wasn’t ordinary.

The fact that he had prepared a gift instead of harboring hostility toward Sera—who monopolized all of Elodie’s love and attention—proved as much.

He knew it was a fight he couldn’t win.

So instead of pushing boundaries that would make Elodie uncomfortable, he approached with careful precision.

"In the brief moment I was away, he already took my place by Elodie’s side."

A black mamba.

Once it sank its fangs into something, it never let go.

That cunning snake was trying to swallow her little harvest mouse whole.

Sera felt her stomach churn.

She instinctively knew—this wouldn’t be an opponent easily shaken off.

And worst of all, she had realized something.

Even if Elodie didn’t dote on Karon as much as she did Sera... she was still quite fond of him.

Sera’s sharp blue eyes met Karon’s crimson ones in midair.

The wariness in her gaze was so fierce it was nearly murderous, but the boy didn’t so much as flinch.

Instead, he maintained a serene, docile expression.

And with an eerily flat voice, he spoke quietly.

"I’ll be in your care."

"Haha... I hate this."

The words slipped out of Sera's mouth before she could stop them.

Even if she died, she couldn’t accept this. Not ever.

***

Elodie visited the Temple of Healing for the first time in a while.

Without hesitation, she tossed a single sheet of paper—the prince’s exam answer sheet from the academy—straight into Inpirno’s mouth.

It burned brilliantly, like perfect kindling.

[Ugh, what was that for?]

The fire spirit crackled in irritation.

"What do you think? Do you feel any kind of power from it?"

[Power? More like a forbidden one.]

"Again...?"

Another heresy?

Did bad people just lack creativity?

How was it that every single power they used belonged to a deity stripped of their divine status and turned into an evil god?

Even the prince was some kind of fraud now.

The world was truly going to ruin.

Well, with the Third Great War coming soon, I guess it actually is the end times...

[Yeah. It contains the power of ‘Exchange.’]

"And what’s that supposed to mean?"

[It swaps what belongs to oneself with what belongs to another.]

"So... basically, a god of thieves?"

[That’s one way to put it.]

So it was real, then.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

[Back when his power was in its prime, he could swap even the statuses of a prince and a beggar. No one would feel any discomfort in the process. But now, only a weak remnant of that power remains.]

The fire spirit elaborated.

The god of Exchange had originally existed to test humanity.

[You’ve probably seen stories about it in fairy tales or novels.]

But as more and more followers began abusing that power, the Supreme God stripped him of his divinity and cast him out.

So, in short, another fallen god and another heretical power.

It was too much of a coincidence.

Elodie considered a possibility.

What if the prince had made a deal with the Basilisks?

She recalled what the second Basilisk experiment had said.

"His mind was still a mess... but he kept mumbling about Silvaria."

Silvaria.

It had been Silvaria, for sure.

Whether the entire kingdom was involved or if it was just the prince acting alone, she didn’t know yet.

"Hey, if a god is stripped of their divinity and forgotten, their power weakens too, right?"

[Of course. If no one remembers them, their name fades. A god’s power comes from recognition, so how could they possibly grow stronger?]

That was only natural.

And they had been exiled because their power was too dangerous, a potential source of chaos in society.

Could the world really afford to leave them be?

What if someone incited a rebellion and overturned everything using that power?

"You mentioned before that only the Supreme God has the authority to grant power to humans."

[That’s right.]

"Then it’s rare for an evil god to lend their power to a human, right?"

[Rare? It was the first time I’d ever seen it happen, remember?]

The fact that the Basilisks knew how to do it had already been proven in the Packer case.

And now, the power being used was once again an evil god’s power—one that Cesare, a mere human, was wielding without issue.

It would be stranger if they weren’t working together.

If they were colluding, then...

The sword the prince had obtained in his past life.

The sword that had made his name famous with its overwhelming skill.

It was difficult to analyze the exact nature of that sword’s power since it had happened in a previous life, but...

What if it had been acquired using the power of Exchange?

Right now, it was being used for something as trivial as swapping answer sheets.

But at its peak, it could make a beggar into a prince.

"So that fallen god... could grow stronger again?"

[That’s right. If his name is spoken again, if people begin to worship him, if he spreads his influence and gains followers—he can recover his power.]

It was possible.

What if someone had established a cult to spread the power of an evil god?

And what if Cesare had used that power to swap his miserable swordsmanship with someone else’s exceptional skill?

And then, if the one who had been swapped was killed in the war... completely erasing any evidence...

Edmund...

Why did she have such an ominous feeling that the prince had specifically targeted Edmund out of all the countless swordsmen?

It was obvious.

Because Edmund’s swordsmanship was beyond human, unparalleled.

And because she still remembered the day the prince had received that sword.

How much must that inferiority complex of his have festered after being utterly humiliated by Edmund in their duel?

She could still vividly recall the prince’s laughter that day, as if the burden of his lifelong struggles had finally lifted.

Elodie felt as though the truth behind the Third Great War of her past life was slowly coming into view.

The prince and the Basilisks’ alliance.

A union between humans and beastfolk.

Had they deliberately orchestrated the war, using it as a means to secure what they wanted?

The Basilisks gained the High Priest’s seat, and Cesare killed Edmund and stole his power...

The prince wasn’t just a scumbag who had betrayed his wife.

He was the true architect of the war.

The embodiment of chaos that had plunged the world into turmoil.

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At that moment, Inpirno, who had been deep in thought ever since she asked about fallen gods regaining strength, finally spoke.

[That god with the power of hallucination, brainwashing, and forgetfulness... He was far stronger than one would expect for someone rejected by the Supreme God. Right now, he can only influence people one by one, but if he gathers enough followers and regains his strength, he could become a serious threat.]

"If there are multiple evil gods like that?"

[Then even the Supreme God and the divine order would struggle against them.]

"Wait, are you saying the Supreme God could lose?"

[I’d call that blasphemy, but... well, we’d have to see. No matter how strong the evil gods become, they wouldn’t be able to destroy Fenerys. At most, they could seal him away.]

A seal...

So they had crushed Ratson, the Supreme God’s representative, with a curse.

And in the meantime, they had nurtured the power of the evil gods to overturn the world.

Even with an evil god’s power, they couldn’t take the Supreme God’s throne.

But they could seal him away and steal the High Priest’s position instead.

Elodie thought carefully.

I need to lift the Ratson family’s curse before things reach that point.