The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella-Chapter 89

A trap.

Karon halted in place, refusing to step any further inside.

‘Even if it’s a trap, it doesn’t matter.’

Without hesitation, he released his venom.

After all, no one could stop the mutated poison that was breaking down his body.

Even the Basilisks couldn’t control it—that was why they had sent him to Valkyrisen in the first place.

Even the Ratsons couldn’t do anything about it, so there was no way the Basilisks had created an antidote.

Not even that bastard could stop this poison—killing him would be enough.

Just as he thought that—

"How pathetic. You’ve spent so much time hiding that you’ve grown incompetent in handling your own poison."

Nyx threw something to the ground, shattering it.

A dense, white smoke billowed into the air.

"...Ugh!"

"You possess such immense power, and yet you’ve never fully utilized it? Shouldn’t you have been honing your abilities all this time?"

"Is this really how I raised you?"

Nyx sighed as if he were looking at a disappointing child.

"You had the perfect excuse in Valkyrisen. As long as you played the helpless child, no one would suspect you. You should have ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) killed more."

Karon couldn’t respond to his taunts.

Because at that moment, all sensation vanished from his body.

It was an impossible sensation—

Where were his hands? His legs? His eyes? His ears?

It was as if every nerve in his body had been severed, leaving him completely unmoored from himself.

He couldn’t move a single finger.

And, of course, he couldn’t release his poison anymore.

‘The dagger...’

He couldn't even reach for it.

His plan to stab himself and trigger a berserk state before dying was now completely ruined.

For the first time, he regretted not coming here when his poison had first started mutating.

If he had, he wouldn’t have even needed to release the venom—it would have spread naturally throughout the research facility.

But that had been impossible to begin with.

If he had come in that state, he wouldn’t have made it here on his own two feet.

‘When did they even make something like this?’

Karon clenched his teeth.

This had to be something they developed in his absence.

If it had existed before, they would have tested it on the most resilient of their experimental subjects long ago.

Nyx flicked his fingers.

Karon’s body, now completely out of his control, was forced three steps forward.

As soon as he moved, a binding spell hidden beneath the carpet activated.

"Since you crawled all the way here, are you ready to become my test subject again?"

"......."

"No, that won’t do. Honestly, if you go berserk, I won’t be able to handle it. Once your poison fully mutates, this place will become my grave."

Nyx spoke in an exaggerated tone, as if delivering a monologue in a play, shaking his head dramatically.

Even as he lost all sensation, Karon’s crimson eyes gleamed fiercely.

It was a glare filled with unrelenting bloodlust—the signature gaze of the Black Mamba, the Basilisk lineage.

When those eyes appeared, it meant they would never let go of their prey, even in death.

'So, blood really does run deep.'

Nyx was still smiling, but he absentmindedly rubbed the back of his neck, where a sudden chill ran down his spine.

Despite Karon’s inexperience, despite his current helplessness, the overwhelming difference in power was undeniable.

Because Karon was the strongest experiment the Basilisks had ever created.

A failure, yes—because he was uncontrollable.

‘Such a shame.’

Perhaps I should have made him weaker.

If I had designed his venom to mutate just enough, he could have been a tool for the family instead of a failure.

But Nyx never wasted time on broken tools.

Now was the time to decide the fate of his creation.

"Now then, you will return to Valkyrisen."

Nyx placed a gloved hand on Karon’s forehead.

"Go. Kill the beastfolk and humans alike."

"...!"

It had been Nyx who had given Physician Packer the traces of the forsaken god—those remnants abandoned by the divine.

It had been Nyx who had first mastered mind control, memory manipulation, and illusion magic.

And it had been Nyx who had last contacted Packer through a vision crystal before cutting ties.

Before using the forsaken god’s power himself, he had experimented through Packer.

The results had been disappointing.

The power of the forsaken god was nothing compared to the divine power of the true god—it could never defeat the Ratson family.

After witnessing the ‘real’ power of a god, the ‘fake’ held no interest to him.

'Who would have thought? That Ratson girl actually survived and broke the curse.'

When he had mocked her, telling her to beg her god for salvation—

The god had actually answered.

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And yet, divine punishment had never fallen upon him.

So was that truly the extent of their god’s power?

'How far can I push this?'

How much could he do before the god's reach failed to extend?

How could he make a god watch as the creature it had blessed was rendered helpless and slaughtered?

And how could he steal that power and make it entirely his own?

This was Nyx’s greatest curiosity.

"I told you, didn’t I?"

"You have to choose—between the Ratson girl and the people of Valkyrisen."

Karon gritted his teeth—but only for a moment.

His pupils dilated.

His gaze lost focus.

He had succumbed to Nyx’s illusion and mind control.

And just like that, the conditioning began.

***

Humans are truly fickle creatures.

Once they become fully immersed in peace, they unconsciously begin to believe that their happiness will last forever.

Even though that could never be the case.

Elodie had to admit—she had grown too complacent in the peace she had enjoyed these past days.

That was why, while Karon had been bedridden, struggling to endure the mutations of his venom, she had secretly drawn his blood.

It had been stored within the Sanctuary of Healing, preserving its freshness as if it had just been extracted.

‘I only took it on the off chance that I’d need it, since properly learning detoxification would take too long...’

In the end, she was going to use it.

[My lady...]

Inferno, watching her actions, had been desperately trying to stop her.

[Please, don’t do this.]

At first, he pleaded.

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[I told you, everything has its time.]

Then, he tried reasoning with her.

[Even that reckless idiot Raphael wouldn’t have pulled a stunt this insane!]

And finally, he erupted in anger.

But Elodie paid no heed to any of it.

Exhausted, she lay sprawled on the floor for a moment before parting her cracked lips.

"When we first met, when you tested me, I told you—I was prepared for this much."

[That doesn’t mean you actually have to do it!]

The fire spirit practically threw a fit, his flames flickering wildly as if performing a frenzied dance.

[People exaggerate! They bluff! Why do you always insist on keeping your word?]

"Even I..."

Even I hadn’t expected I’d go this far.

Her words trailed off, swallowed by silence.

By now, she should have accepted that saving him was impossible.

Knowing when to give up was just as important as knowing when to persist.

But irrationally—completely irrationally—she couldn’t let go.

That was all there was to it.

‘Has Karon endured this every single day of his life?’

She was a Ratson, so her body had detoxified itself in an instant.

But for the brief moment when the venom coursed through her veins, the pain had been so excruciating that she had wished for death.

And he had lived with this from the moment he was born...

Even now...

Elodie stared at the empty syringe in her hand.

Then, at the others piled on the floor.

Then, at her own inner forearm, where darkened traces of poison remained—left behind after she had been poisoned and then rapidly healed.

Even those marks, along with the needle scars, would soon vanish.

Elodie tossed the syringe behind her.

Then, she picked up the book again.

The book written by Delia, the 12th Head of the Ratson family.

The same book that had stubbornly refused to open no matter how much she had struggled.

The same book she had tried to pry open for as long as the syringes had been piling up on the floor.

<Immunity to All Poisons, Here We Go.>

"Ah, finally."

As the book effortlessly unfolded before her, Elodie let out a soft laugh, flipping through its pages.