The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella

Cinderella married the prince and lived happily ever after.

Just like in every fairy tale.

But you know, Fairy Godmother...

How long does ever after last?

Cinderella doesn’t look happy at all these days.

It’s as if she’s forgotten how to smile.

Even when she eats delicious food, even when she wears beautiful dresses.

There was a time when she stood in glass slippers and a gown spun from magic, beaming as though she owned the world...

But Fairy Godmother, the palace is strange.

It seems kind, yet it won’t let Cinderella do anything on her own.

"This is not a matter for the princess consort."

"There is no need for you to involve yourself."

They don’t tell her anything, saying she has no need to know. They don’t let her do anything, saying she has no need to act.

She no longer has to do the laundry, or clean, or cook.

She no longer sleeps by the hearth because she has no room, no bed of her own.

She no longer goes about covered in ashes because she has no time to wash or change her clothes.

Instead, Cinderella spends each night in the grandest, most dazzling chamber in the world, crying herself to sleep.

Fairy Godmother.

The prince searched for the mysterious, enchanting girl who vanished, leaving behind only a single glass slipper.

He found her. He claimed her.

And then, he locked her away in the palace.

Is she no longer mysterious? No longer enchanting?

At some point, the prince stopped looking for Cinderella altogether.

Five years ago, I saw him in the garden, laughing with another woman.

With the same look in his eyes he once had for Cinderella.

Three years ago, she was brought into the palace as his mistress.

And just yesterday, it was decided—Cinderella is to be dethroned.

Because she has failed to bear an heir.

But... is that really enough reason to end an oath of eternity after just ten years?

Is ever after not even a full decade long?

Was it never meant to last a lifetime?

I don’t understand.

I wanted to take Cinderella and run far away from here.

But truthfully, there is nowhere for us to go.

Where could she return to? The house where she barely escaped from—where her stepmother and stepsisters live?

Her eyes, once filled with things brighter than anything that could ever shine, now hold nothing at all.

Everyone praised her beauty, but what made her truly radiant were the things she carried in her gaze.

She was supposed to be happy forever.

She was never supposed to suffer again.

That’s what everyone said.

But even though she had nothing, at least her heart had been whole.

And now, she has lost even that.

What are we supposed to do now?

If I had known that fleeting moment of happiness would be the last she ever had, I would have ruined the wedding that day—even if it meant being trampled to death by the crowd.

But it’s far too late now.

I’m already too old, too weak to even stand.

Though even if I weren’t—if I could return to my youngest, strongest days—what could I possibly do?

I’ve never been capable of anything more than surviving.

Nothing at all...

Fairy Godmother.

I’m nothing more than a loathsome rat.

But Cinderella—she was the kind of child who would embrace even a creature like me.

The moment she gave me a name, I ceased to be just another rodent scurrying along the streets. I became something special.

I’ve lived far past a rat’s natural lifespan. I can understand and think in human language, unlike any other rat.

And it’s all because of her.

So, I have enough.

If anything, I’ve had far more than I deserve.

I am nothing without Cinderella. If only I could return all my fortune to her...

What I wish for—

I just want Cinderella to smile again.

Like she once did, when she had nothing, yet still smiled as if she had the whole world.

***

"Is that your final wish?"

The voice was hoarse, fractured, and inhuman. It sent a shiver through the air.

A black hood cloaked the figure from head to toe, with long strands of ghostly white hair spilling from beneath it.

No matter how one looked at him, he bore no resemblance to the fairy the old rat had spent so long searching for. If anything, he looked far closer to a demon.

"You never change."

Jet-black nails barely grazed the old rat’s fur before withdrawing.

His hands—if they could even be called that—looked as if they had been shattered, rotted, and decayed countless times, barely holding their form.

...

He had never touched anything directly before.

Even the smallest contact could easily snuff out such a fragile life.

He was living death itself.

It was only when the old rat had breathed its last that he could finally reach out.

Even then, he could do no more than barely brush the tips of its fur.

"All because you never once said you didn’t want to die."

Just those few words—if only I could have—

If only I could have freed you from the curse—

"...Ah."

A short silence, then a faint scoff.

How foolish.

A creature like him, who ruined everything he touched, speaking of salvation?

"The curse placed on you... only that child can undo it."

And so, he granted the old rat’s final wish.

The wish it had clung to until its very last breath.

The happiness of the one it had loved beyond all else.

"If that child smiles, so will you."

If she was the one you had given everything for, then—unlike me—perhaps she would grant you a miracle.

A miracle that would guide you to where you were meant to be.

That would return to you the things you should have had, the bonds you should have never lost.

That would finally lead you to happiness.

"Live that way."

Never knowing what misfortune is.

With nowhere so dark and hopeless that you’d be forced to come begging a demon for a wish.

"In your next life, always stay in the light."

So that you never have to cross paths with something like me again.

***

Thud, thud, thud—!

Elodie jolted awake at the sound of heavy footsteps.

Each impact sent tremors through the ceiling, shaking loose dust that rained down like a downpour.

"Cinderella!"

"Cinderella, you lazy girl! Do you have any idea what time it is?!"

The shrill voices of Cinderella’s stepsisters, Rose and Daisy, rang out one after another.

This place...

It was dark, with no light seeping in, and cobwebs stretched across the corners.

A space so cramped that even the tiniest of creatures—like a harvest mouse—could barely live here.

The place she had known for as long as she had existed. The place she had lived before Cinderella was taken to the palace.

Under the floorboards of the Bluewood estate.

How could this be possible?

Elodie knew better than anyone that she had been at the brink of death.

So why was she alive?

More importantly...

Why are Rose and Daisy tormenting Cinderella again?

They had been exiled to a remote village with their mother, forbidden from ever setting foot in the capital again.

Yet here they were, treating Cinderella like a servant?

That made no sense.

Unless... time has somehow turned back.

At that moment—

"Yes! I'm coming, sisters!"

For a brief moment, she hesitated, startled and confused.

Then, she heard it—a voice she hadn’t heard in years.

Younger. Softer.

Elodie didn't stop to think. She bolted forward.

She had to see for herself.

A light, bouncing gait. A warm, gentle smile. Eyes sparkling with curiosity, kindness laced with quiet strength in her voice...

Before she became a princess.

No—before all of that.

Seraphina Bluewood, the youngest daughter of the Bluewood family.

"Sera!"

She was there.

Wearing tattered clothes, balancing a tray of teacups in her hands.

Rushing about to appease her stepsisters, who were already losing their tempers early in the morning.

Her golden hair, dulled with soot, trembled dangerously along with the unsteady cups.

Ah... she was this young?

Back then, Elodie had always seen her as towering in comparison.

But that was only because a harvest mouse was barely the size of a human thumb.

She had never truly realized it before—

That no matter how mature she seemed, Seraphina had only been a fourteen-year-old girl.

That she had endured unimaginable cruelty in the Bluewood household all the way until adulthood.

No wonder she had clung to the first prince who reached out to her.

Because no one else ever had.

Elodie darted after her without hesitation.

Time has rewound.

Her heart pounded.

Is this the Fairy Godmother’s magic?

The Fairy Godmother had once granted Cinderella’s wish to attend the ball.

A dazzling gown, gleaming glass slippers.

A fleeting illusion of magic that vanished when the clock struck midnight.

Even if that’s all this is...

This was a chance.

"The tea is cold!"

"I’m sorry, sister. I’ll be more careful next time."

"Tch. At least you know how to apologize. But look at you—what a mess."

"Ah..."

Sera awkwardly rubbed at the soot-stained edges of her skirt.

"Do you even bathe? It’s disgusting. How are we supposed to drink something you touched?"

"I did wash... but since I have no room, I sleep by the fireplace, so..."

"Don’t make excuses. If you get ash on my precious dress, you’re dead."

From the time she was little, the Countess of Bluewood had used Sera as a servant.

Her daughters had learned from her example, treating Sera no differently.

They stole her room, forced her to sleep by the hearth, and then mocked her for being covered in soot.

But at least they weren’t related by blood.

The one thing that had always filled Elodie with unrelenting fury—

"Tch. Stop making a scene."

The Count of Bluewood.

He had remarried barely three months after Sera’s mother passed.@@novelbin@@

As the head of the family, he had a duty to protect his daughter.

Yet he had abandoned her instead.

No matter what her stepmother, stepsisters, or the servants did to her, he merely clicked his tongue.

Called her a fool who couldn’t even stand up for herself.

And while the others had faced some punishment in the past, he alone had never paid for his sins.

He had lived comfortably until the end.

Because he was the noble head of the prestigious Bluewood family.

"Don’t talk back to your sister."

"..."

"You should at least know how to listen."

Trash.

The lowest kind of filth.

Sera’s blue eyes wavered, her cheerful mask cracking ever so slightly.

Elodie, who had been lurking just out of sight, shot forward.

She was still just a pitiful little mouse.

Even with this second chance, she could never be some grand hero on a white horse.

But—

She was fast. And strong enough to sink her teeth into grain.

That was enough.

She would throw herself into this with everything she had—

Even if it meant getting crushed to death—

"AAAAAAACK!!!"

And she sank her teeth into the Count’s hooked nose.