The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella

"Hah."
"There was no prior record of this happening before, and the slightest difference in ratio determines whether it’s safe or dangerous. It seems even the best physicians struggled with it… but in the end, they figured it out."
"At least those useless parasites did something right."

It was a tea he had been drinking quite often.
At some point, it had become an indispensable part of his work routine.
He had, without realizing it, become dependent on a drink that had the potential to become poison.

And what if, once it had fully become part of his daily habit, Earl Hamilton had ordered the maid to mix it in a specific ratio?
It was a tea the Duke drank all the time. No one would suspect anything if he suddenly lost sensation.
Even if the cause was discovered, it would be far too late to do anything about it.

He had spent most of his life on the battlefield.
He knew better than anyone how dangerous a moment of carelessness could be—how a single instant could determine life or death.
"You almost got caught in a serious mess."

Yes.
If not for that little Ratson brat and her talk of playing doctor, he might have.
"I have no idea how she knew."

"She’s a child of the Ratson lineage. Perhaps she received divine revelation?"
"Hmph."
As if.

If gods actually cared about human affairs, the Ratson family wouldn’t have been cursed to ruin in the first place.
And yet… there’s no other explanation.
That brat had spent two years locked away in Bluewood. She hadn’t even known she was a beastfolk.
There was no way she could have had any connection to Hamilton.

Eisen turned back to look at the writhing, screaming Earl.
It was the first time their eyes had met.
"Does it hurt?"

Just a few words.
But to the Earl, it was as if a lifeline had been thrown his way.
"Yes! Yes!" he blurted out, blood dripping from his mouth.

"It hurts terribly, sir! Please, have mercy!"
"A mortal enemy, was it?"
Eisen chuckled.

"I was rather lenient with you."
He glanced at the stack of documents in his hand—records detailing Earl Hamilton’s lineage and past crimes.
Just in case he had missed anything, he skimmed them once more.

As expected… nothing new.
The previous Earl Hamilton and his wife had run an illegal slave operation along the borders of Animallia.
They kidnapped abandoned beastfolk children and sold them.

As labor. As test subjects.
They had discarded their humanity without hesitation.
To them, beastfolk weren’t people. They were high-value goods.

Even after the peace treaty, scum like them continued to crawl out of the woodwork.
And so, hunting them down naturally became his job.
He had wiped out their entire network, freed the captive children, and tried to rescue as many as he could from slavery.

That should have been the end of it.
But there had been one child.
A son.

At the time, he had been fourteen—not quite a child, but still young.
The boy had attacked him, screaming about revenge.
So Eisen had crushed him. Utterly.

And when the boy realized he couldn’t win, he had begged for his life.
And Eisen had let him live.
The boy had been raised in that kind of environment—had been part of the abuse and cruelty. His character was rotten to the core.

But he had been young.
His parents were gone, his wealth stripped away. All that remained was his family name.
So Eisen had kept him under watch, raising him until he was old enough to fend for himself.

For a while, the brat had behaved.
And now…
"This is what you do with that second chance?"

"Sir, please! Please!"
"You’re twenty-four this year."
He had grown quite a bit.

"You’re old enough to take responsibility for your actions."
With that, Eisen rose from his seat and turned his back completely.
"Sir!!!"

"If it hurts, make it stop for him. I wonder if the same nerve toxin he tried to poison me with will work as a cure for him."
"Are you alright, sir?"
"What would there be to not be alright about?"

Eisen waved a dismissive hand at his aide, as if shooing away a fly.
"It was just that kind of incident."
He adjusted his grip on his cane, limped forward, and left without a second glance.

***
Elodie had barely taken a few steps before she was once again slung over Duke Valkyrisen’s shoulder.
"Did you manage thirty steps this time?"

It was forty!
Did he have any idea how big a difference ten whole steps made?!
He had no clue what ten steps ahead could mean!

…But watching the scenery blur as he carried her effortlessly, she found herself unable to argue.
Life was unfair.
"I came because I had something to say."

"Okay, what is it…?"
"The young doctor seems to be quite the prodigy."
Her half-lidded eyes immediately snapped open.

She knew what this was about.
"Tell me, how exactly did you know I was drinking bad tea?"
Golden eyes gleamed at her, carrying the weight of years of hardship and war.

Eyes that had seen too much.
Eyes that looked like they could see through everything.
How did she know?

Damn it! I acted too knowledgeable!
Cold sweat pricked at her back.
She recalled the conversation she had overheard in the dungeon.

Should she pretend she had received a divine revelation?
No. Bad idea. He can see through lies.
A weak excuse would only make things worse.

When she had babbled about playing doctor, he had probably dismissed it as childish nonsense.
But now, she had to be careful.
She could not let the Duke become suspicious of her.

Her head spun from overthinking, but she forced herself to speak.
"I ate a lot of bad food too."
"Hm?"

"I was really hungry, so I ate whatever I could find. But I got sick a lot."
There had been times when her stomach hurt so badly she thought she might die.
She had survived by sheer luck.

"But even then, I never ate poison."
"Poison?"
"Yes. Humans put out poison to kill mice."

"……"
"That’s how I learned. You have to be careful with food."
As she spoke, she felt a lump rise in her throat.

She had only been trying to dodge suspicion, to use a truthful story to smooth over her slip-up.
But dredging up those memories…
She suddenly thought of the house mouse who had helped her before she met Sera.

It had been during the years she had wandered in a daze, lost and without memory.
That mouse had taught her how to find food. How to avoid humans. How to survive.
And yet…

That same mouse had died.
From eating poison.
Two years was all the life it had.

Not even that.
Her thick golden eyelashes drooped slightly.
Even after coming back in time, she had avoided thinking about it.

Because she knew exactly what she would wonder—
If I had returned just a little earlier, could I have saved it?
Enough.

Elodie shoved the thought away.
She didn’t want to watch anyone die from eating something they shouldn’t have.
Not again.

Even if it was a life others saw as insignificant.
"So please, don’t eat things like that anymore, sir."
"……."

Eisen looked down at her, silent.
What was he thinking?
She was curious.

But his face, honed by years of discipline, was unreadable.
The weight of his gaze was suffocating.
And the silence… heavy.

Wait, did I just make things worse?
Was he marking her as a threat right now?
Had her excuse completely failed?

Was he about to interrogate her for real?!
What do I say now…?