The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella-Chapter 76

"Do you want a different name?"

"...Karon."

"You don’t need a new surname?"

Karon shook his head.

Changing his name wouldn't erase the poison that had always been inside him.

And there was no name that suited him better anyway.

"Then, you’ll be Karon ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) Valkyrisen."

"......."

"I never told anyone your real last name except for Edmund. Everyone else thinks you're just an adopted human child."

"Why...?"

"Because if people believe you died back then, those persistent Basilisk snakes won’t come after you."

That was what Liana said.

Karon knew he should tell her.

That it was the Basilisk who had sent him here.

He should say it.

It was his duty to the person who had saved him.

I actually approached you on purpose...

Karon was young, but he wasn’t a fool.

Even if Valkyrisen hadn’t given him a specific mission, he knew he had been sent here for a reason.

Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to speak.

‘Of course, they’d cast me out.’

Maybe they had tolerated him until now because he was still just a child, but if they found out he was a spy, there was no way they wouldn’t drive him away.

So, he hesitated.

"...Be careful of the Basilisks."

"Oh my, are you worrying about me? You don’t have to, sweetheart. Your mother is very strong."

"You be careful too."

"Of course. My little Karon is a big, scary venomous snake. When you roar, everyone trembles in fear, don’t they?"

"......."

Just a little longer.

Just one more month...

Just one more year...

But while he hesitated, happiness ended too quickly.

The same year Karon arrived in Valkyrisen, Liana and Benjamin died in an accident.

Karon.

A name belonging to the one who ferries the dead to the afterlife.

That hollow death... It felt like his fault.

And it wasn’t just a feeling.

Because later, he learned that the ones who had killed them were Basilisk spies.

In the end, his judgment back then had been completely right.

So.

"I'll make sure they feel it—the agony of their bodies melting from the inside out while still alive."

That was the only thing he could do for his benefactors, whom he hadn’t even spent a full year with.

Since that day, five years ago, he made a vow.

He would never again reach for a hand offering salvation.

He wouldn’t dare to take someone’s hand, only to drag them down into the same filth he stood in.

Until the day he died, he wouldn’t desire anything beyond this secluded palace, beyond the peace of Valkyrisen.

That’s what he had sworn.

"I’m never going to die."

"......."

"So, whenever you’re in pain, whenever it’s too hard, whenever you feel like you might die—call me."

I’ll be right by your side.

That was what Gracia Ratson said.

A child who had once lost everything—his parents, his power, his land—all to the Basilisks.

Even if he had reclaimed what he had lost now...

‘It’s only a fleeting moment.’

There was no way the Basilisks would just let go of the prey they had once set their sights on.

They must have something in place already.

Just like they had planted Karon here in Valkyrisen.

‘Do you even know who you’re saying this to?’

The Basilisks.

The ones who had done that to you, to your family, to your land.

And yet, Karon neither blocked his ears nor stopped the boy from speaking.

He should have. He should have told him to never talk to him again, to never come near him.

He should have pushed him away so violently that he would never even dare to approach again.

But the words wouldn’t come out.

‘Maybe Ratson is different.’

He had survived Karon’s poison. He wouldn’t just disappear so easily.

‘But he’s still a Ratson.’

One day, he would be crushed beneath the Basilisks’ hands.

"Hah."

Karon let out a short breath.

"You’re going to regret saying that for the rest of your life."

Because he could already see it.

One day, in the not-so-distant future, Gracia Ratson would die—his voice burning with resentment, cursing Karon with his final breath.

That foolish kindness of his, his need to save anyone who was suffering, would be the very thing that destroyed him.

And even in his last moments, he would regret it.

He would regret this very moment—reaching out his hand to a snake, unaware that it was his enemy.

But as soon as Karon finished speaking, Elodie answered without hesitation.

"I won’t."

"......."

"Because I’m super strong, and I can defeat them all!"

She swung her Holy Hammer through the air, acting as if she were rolling up her sleeves.

Just a naïve, clueless child.

But instead of rejecting her words or accepting them, Karon turned around and left, as if fleeing the scene.

Because in the end, he really was nothing more than a wicked little viper.

***

Karon, that bastard.

'He ran away again...'

Elodie trembled with frustration.

It wasn’t that she was truly angry—it was just a little embarrassing to be outright rejected after hugging him.

She had only planned to keep him by her side all day, let him absorb some natural healing like Magic Cotton.

She had even compromised, saying he only needed to stay with her when he was in pain!

'Well, there’s no helping it.'

Psychology, reasoning—forget all of that. Time to grab him by force.

Elodie considered her last resort.

She had been avoiding using this method unless absolutely necessary.

"This flaming thing, before I say something worse, tell me how to bring the dead grass back to life."

[You’ve already skipped past ‘saying something worse’!]

"Huh? What did you just say?"

[Aaagh! Why are you always so impatient and extreme?!]

Elodie grabbed the sacred watering can—the one she used to nourish the medicinal herbs in the sanctuary—and pretended as if she was about to pour it.

The fire spirit panicked.

Impatient?

Of course she was impatient!

How could it take ten whole years to master this?

"By then, everything will have crumbled, and everyone will be dead already!"

[I know you’re in a hurry, baby, but do you think I’m doing this for no reason? If you use power beyond your limits, your body will break down!]

Tch!

The fire spirit suddenly yelled and bolted straight out of the fireplace.

"...?"

Wait.

It could walk?

Elodie glanced between the now-extinguished fireplace and Inferno, who was now dashing around the sanctuary. She slowly put the watering can down.

Not that she had actually planned on using it.

A long sigh escaped her lips.

[Just start with what you can do. One step at a time. Honestly, at the rate you’re growing, I think you might be on par with the very first Ratson patriarch. No—actually, even beyond that.]

"......."

But Raphael, that so-called first patriarch, had probably never had to complete his mission under such a suffocating time limit.

And all alone, at that.

‘If I don’t find a way to weaken or control Karon’s poison... then what happens?’

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Would history repeat itself? Would the same massacre from the past unfold all over again?

She hoped not.

In the end, she sighed and downed the calming potion Inferno had given her, pleading for her to settle down.

A little while later, as Elodie left the sanctuary and walked down the corridor, something caught her attention.

"Lord Waldemar is suffering from a toothache?"

She stopped in her tracks, listening closely to the conversation ahead.

"Please let him know that if he visits the medical hall today, we’ll extract the tooth immediately."

...What?

They were just going to pull it out without even checking first?

No, that couldn’t be it.

Maybe he had already been examined, and they had determined extraction was necessary?

"And now that I think of it, Count Guntram has been struggling a lot with arthritis, hasn’t he? Has he been wearing the bandages I gave him? They’re infused with a special medicine..."

Arthritis treatment with medicated bandages?

"And Young Lord Egon still hasn’t recovered from the flu? I have a special potion from the Empire, personally acquired from Doctor Fehr. Once he drinks this, he won’t feel any pain and will fall right to sleep..."

"NO WAY!"

Elodie couldn’t hold back any longer.

She burst out from her hiding place and jumped right into the conversation.