The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella

“Awoo— (If you’re planning to do something reckless, I’ll call the knights.)”

“Chiiik! Squeak squeak squeak! (No! I’m just taking a quick look!)”
“Awooo— (I’m calling the knights.)”
No way!

If she got surrounded and monitored by a pack of wolves, there would be no chance to escape.
With a puff, Elodie transformed back into her human form and immediately clamped both hands over Howlf’s muzzle just as he was about to howl for reinforcements.
“I’m Ratson. I’ll be fine, okay?”

His pale gray eyes narrowed.
He was silently asking, Did you get permission?
“Grandfather said there’s nowhere in Valkyrisen Castle I can’t go.”

Really?
Howlf’s gaze grew even sharper, full of doubt.
Of course, the Duke had specifically warned her not to go near Serenity Palace…

Elodie had no desire to throw herself into unnecessary danger.
She was a mouse. Mice were cowards.
If everyone was this insistent that she shouldn’t go somewhere, there had to be a good reason.

But the moment she started suspecting Karon Valkyrisen might actually be Karon Basilisk, she couldn’t ignore it.
“Then just wait thirty minutes.”
“……”

That basically meant she didn’t have permission.
“I’ll be right back!”
But the moment Howlf lowered his guard, Elodie transformed into a harvest mouse and darted away.
By the time Howlf turned his head, she had already vanished into the thickets.

He sighed, deeply.
***
The eastern palace, Serenity, was completely off-limits to everyone.

The eerie atmosphere was palpable the moment she stepped inside.
There were no guards stationed.
There were no people.

‘…Hmm.’
Could it really be a quarantine zone?
‘No way. That doesn’t add up.’

A contagious disease—roaming around freely in broad daylight?
There was no way the Duke and his son would allow that.
Elodie found it strange but slipped through a small opening to enter the building.

Inside, the emptiness was even more pronounced.
There wasn’t a single trace of human presence.
Not even a single insect.

‘Huh?’
No bugs.
‘How is that possible?’

There were no birds chirping in the trees.
No crickets in the grass.
No rats, of course…

And yet, there wasn’t even a single cobweb in this completely abandoned place.
It was utterly lifeless, like a graveyard.
‘This feels… like the land of the dead.’

It wasn’t just that there was no one guarding the Third Prince.
It was that nothing living existed here at all.
‘Wait… I’ve heard of something like this before.’

Once, in the Silvaria Kingdom, green had been the height of fashion.
But at the time, the only way to produce such a vivid green pigment was arsenic.
Humans, oblivious to its toxicity, had drenched themselves in poison—

They wore arsenic dresses, arsenic hats, arsenic blankets…
They even went so far as to paint their walls with arsenic-based pigments.
And those cursed mansions?

Not even rats dared to live there.
Anyone who entered would die of arsenic poisoning before long.
It was exactly like this place.

‘Wait a minute…’
Was this palace filled with lethal poison?
‘Poison?’

This couldn’t have happened overnight.
Elodie looked out the window at the trees—
They were completely blackened, shriveled beyond recovery.

The thorn bushes surrounding the palace were ashen corpses, barely holding their shape.
Even the grass that covered all of Valkyrisen was completely gone, leaving only a dry, desert-like wasteland.
She sniffed the air.

‘No scent… no taste…’
If someone wandered in without knowing, they’d die instantly.
Now she understood why everyone had warned her away.

This wasn’t a disease.
This was poison.
The Third Prince of Valkyrisen was carrying something far more terrifying than an illness.

And judging by the palace’s state, he had zero control over it.
She had no idea how he could walk around without poisoning everyone he met.
But this was no longer just an illness.

This was a living catastrophe.
‘If he’s really the cause of this poison… shouldn’t he be dead by now?’
He wasn’t Ratson bloodline.

He shouldn’t have any self-healing abilities.
Then—
A faint groan reached her ears.

Elodie immediately ran toward the sound.
‘The door’s shut.’
It was sealed tight.

There was no reason to lock a door in a place where no one was alive.
After hesitating for a moment, Elodie transformed back into a human and reached for the handle.
Creak—

The rusty hinges groaned as the door opened.
Too small to fully push it open, she had to cling to the handle, dangling off it as she peeked inside.
‘It’s dark.’

No lamps.
The windows were shrouded in thick black curtains.
The entire room was pitch black, like something out of a horror story.

But Elodie had been born a mouse.
Darkness was comforting.
Without hesitation, she stepped inside.

Her footsteps made soft, squeaking noises against the floor.
And yet, despite her obvious presence, the person inside didn’t react.
“Hgh… ngh….”

A pained sound.
Elodie tilted her head back, staring up at the massive curtains surrounding the bed.
The Third Prince was inside.

‘Hiding yourself so thoroughly, huh?’
Come to think of it, this felt exactly like a fairytale.
She had slipped past the guardian beast (Howlf), braved the thorn-covered grounds, and now stood before a cursed prince trapped in his tower.

‘I’m coming.’
With a determined breath, she threw the curtains aside.
The fabric fluttered, revealing a curled-up figure on the bed.

Unlike before, his black hair was now drenched in cold sweat, clinging to his pale face.
“……”
Karon finally noticed her.

But even then, he was too weak to respond—he just rolled his eyes toward her.
Though most of his face was hidden beneath his hair, his blood-red eyes shone vividly in the darkness.
“……”

“……”
No reaction.
Not even an attempt to ask how she got in or why she was here.

People say the eyes are the window to the soul.
But Karon’s eyes were like his room—
Completely sealed shut.

If not for the slight rise and fall of his back, she would have thought he was an elaborate doll.
‘He looks like he’s in agony…’
Elodie had been worried about this.

Because this child’s face looked exactly like Nyx Basilisk.
What if—just seeing him made her so angry she wanted to kill him?
Even if he was necessary for the Ratson family’s survival—what if she just… couldn’t bring herself to heal him?

What if she let personal emotions take over?
She had been afraid of that.
But—

He was just a child.
He looked so empty.
And—

His eyes…
He looked like he wanted to die.
For some reason, it made her want to cry.

She didn’t know why.
But she just wanted him to stop hurting.