The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella-Chapter 120

Elodie watched Edmund, who was completely absorbed in distributing sunflower seeds.

When he and Geno had returned to House Valkyrisen, he had looked as if he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

‘The moment he heard that an escort was needed for the Holy Kingdom, I bet he volunteered and rushed over.’

Edmund remained utterly focused on his task for a while before finally snapping back to reality.

“Oh, Elodie.”

He carefully removed the harvest mice clinging to his hair and his coat, setting them down gently into their designated compartments.

Then, after closing the carriage door, he stepped out and spoke in a low voice.

“I have urgent information. I wanted to deliver it personally.”

That was unexpected.

She had assumed he had just come to see the mice.

“What is it?”

“This way...”

It seemed to be highly classified information. He led Elodie and Sera to a secluded area before speaking.

“The moment the royal meeting ended, the prince was nearly put on trial. But the queen intervened and saved him. She even erased any record of him using the Dark God’s power.”

“What?”

Elodie shrieked before hastily checking her surroundings and lowering her voice.

“The queen?”

Queen Prouvé.

Elodie dug through her memories.

All she could recall about the queen was a sense of deep unpleasantness.

"Tch."

That was the first thing she had done upon seeing Sera.

And that was the end of it.

The queen had never properly acknowledged Sera.

She dismissed her requests for audiences as mere tantrums.

She ignored her greetings as if they were beneath her notice.

On the rare occasions where they had no choice but to meet, she treated Sera as if she were invisible.

Elodie had always been by Cinderella’s side, so encounters with the queen had been rare.

‘I understand now why the queen acted that way.’

Even though Sera had married her son and become the crown princess, the queen had always known she would be discarded.

‘But now that I think about it, there was one time...’

Just once, the queen had approached Sera and spoken to her.

It had been the day her dethronement was finalized.

The queen had approached Sera, who was slumped in exhaustion after crying, and said:

"The only things you had were beauty and youth, and now you couldn’t even bear a child during your prime. That makes you defective, doesn’t it?"

"......."

"My son wasted ten years of his life on a worthless woman like you, and that pains me deeply. I truly don’t understand why you continue to cry when you’ve already lived a life far beyond your worth."

At least now, I don’t have to see you cry anymore.

With that, Queen Prouvé had turned and walked away without looking back.

Elodie had been furious watching that unfold.

But she hadn’t been able to run up and comfort Sera.

Because that very night, she had died.

‘In my past life, the queen never played any significant role.’

She was a woman who thought only of her son.

A person incapable of seeing the suffering of others.

Nothing more, nothing less.

But now, when she was cornered, she had managed to pull the prince out of trouble?

“How?”

Elodie had to ask.

Even the King of Silvaria wouldn’t have been able to resolve this.

“The High Priest of Terranolia personally testified that the prince had not used the Dark God’s power.”

A false testimony?

If that were discovered, the priest himself wouldn’t get away unscathed.

Why would he take such a risk?

‘I expected Cesare to ally with the Basilisks.’

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Even if it wasn’t just the prince acting alone but the queen working with him, it still shouldn’t have been possible.

A beastfolk noble like Basilisk wouldn’t have enough sway in Terranolia to make this happen.

‘That means... there must be another human ally.’

Someone who wanted the peace treaty to collapse.

Someone who wanted House Valkyrisen ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) to fall.

A war profiteer who stood to gain from the conflict.

A powerful figure who could command the High Priest.

‘There’s no one else but the Emperor.’

The Basilisks wanted to replace the Ratson family after the war.

Prince Cesare wanted to achieve glory and take the throne.

‘And the Emperor wants to use the war to eliminate House Valkyrisen and the neutral territories.’

She couldn’t pinpoint his exact goal.

This was all speculation.

But one thing was clear—Queen Prouvé had powerful backing in Terranolia.

‘If that’s the case, then the queen wouldn’t have been sitting idle all this time.’

She had simply been working in the shadows, beyond Elodie’s awareness.

Perhaps she was even worse than the prince.

‘If only I could confirm that the Emperor really is backing her...’

The best way to do that would be to ask someone with close ties to the imperial family.

‘The Imperial Household...’

At that moment, Elodie recalled Crown Prince Julian from the academy.

“Sera, do you have a way to contact the crown prince? You seemed close to him.”

Sera frowned.

“We’re not close at all. But I can contact him. He gave me a direct access code and told me to use it if I ever wanted to work with him.”

A contact code—a direct magical link to someone’s communication device.

It allowed direct connection without needing linked devices.

It was extremely rare for someone to share theirs, especially considering the security risks.

And a crown prince, of all people?

At that moment, Edmund, who had been silent, suddenly interjected.

“You received a contact code from the crown prince?”

“And?” Sera responded.

“...Why did you accept it?”

“I had no choice. If you had seen how persistent he was, you wouldn’t be asking that.”

She couldn’t exactly punch him.

Sera spoke indifferently, as if it was nothing special.

‘Hmm?’

But Elodie sensed something off.

Just now, Edmund—

“Should I contact him, then?” Sera asked.

“Oh, yeah.”

Elodie had been distracted for a moment but quickly refocused.

“I want to probe him about the relationship between the Emperor and the queen. Since he’s the Emperor’s son, we can’t fully trust him, so be careful.”

“Leave it to me.”

Sera, pleased to be useful, responded confidently.

Elodie smiled at her reassuring presence, then turned to Edmund.

“The queen might retaliate. I’ll do everything I can to protect you.”

But before she could ask him anything—

He had already fled, concluding the conversation all on his own.

Wait, hold on—!

***

"......."

Elodie spent the entire journey glaring at Edmund with a dissatisfied expression.

Of course, she knew he was a genuinely good person—an unusual rarity.

But still, Sera...!

Calm down.

Sera didn’t seem to think anything of it.

And Edmund had only shown a brief moment of strange reaction before returning to his usual self.

Elodie was deep in thought, her mind on the verge of bursting, when she suddenly realized they had arrived near the Holy Kingdom.

The jet-black magic circle symbolizing Valkyrisen flickered on the ground, repeatedly appearing and vanishing as the scenery ahead shifted rapidly.

"Gracia."

It was then.

A harvest mouse beastfolk approached her.

What should she call it?

His appearance was like the quintessential prince from a fairy tale.

The soft curls of his golden hair made him look even more like one.

He definitely has the kind of looks that would captivate children.

Was that why she had followed him around?

Elodie muttered to herself, thinking about it.

"...Daniel, was it?"

At that, the boy’s dark eyes widened in surprise.

"Could it be that you remember me?"

"No, I just heard about you."

"I see..."

His expression turned wistful as he lowered his gaze.

"I heard that when I was young, I followed you around asking you to marry me."

"Hmm, that’s right."

The boy’s cheeks were faintly tinged with color as he smiled softly.

There was an undeniable trace of longing in his eyes.

"You almost drowned while playing near the lake. I happened to pass by and saved you. After that, you started following me everywhere."

"Ah."

So he was her savior.

Well, that made more sense than just chasing after someone for their looks alone.

It’s my past, but it still feels completely unfamiliar.

But if he really had pulled her out of the water...

I suppose he might have looked like a prince on a white horse.

At that age, it would have been easy to get swept up in such fantasies.

Her insistence on marrying him suddenly seemed more understandable.

He must have found it troublesome, though—having such a young child following him around demanding marriage.

With that thought, Elodie spoke.

"Sorry. I didn’t realize."

"There’s no need to apologize at all..."

"Still, thanks to you, I’m alive today. Completely forgetting that would be rude."

She must have been too young back then to realize how childish she was being. Now, it felt like she should at least offer some kind of compensation.

Daniel was silent for a moment, as if contemplating something. Then, he spoke the most important words first.

"It must have been troublesome for you back then. You couldn’t just harshly push away the High Priest’s daughter, after all. I guess I’ve always had trouble controlling my emotions since I was little..."

Even now, she wasn’t much better.

She really needed to work on self-restraint.

But with Sera liking affectionate gestures so much, it felt like she was losing control more and more.

"But don’t worry. I have absolutely no interest in you now."

"Ah."

Daniel swallowed his disappointment, hesitating for a moment before responding a beat too late.

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"...It wasn’t that troublesome."