The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella-Chapter 153

After the High Priest of the Ratson family was executed, a new figure possessing formidable healing abilities appeared as if he’d been waiting for the moment.

A Basilisk.

He wasn’t as powerful as the Ratson family in their prime, but he was capable enough to fill their void. The people, desperate for stability, offered their relief and praise.

As an alternative, he was hailed as divinely chosen, and without any formal procedures, he was swiftly appointed as the new High Priest.

A replacement was urgently needed to silence the unrest of the people.

And so, the Basilisk family became the new priestly bloodline.

The Ratson family, who had protected the continent of Animallia for hundreds of years, was naturally forgotten—until the war ended.

The war came to an end only after Duke Valkyrisen fell in battle.

Edmund Valkyrisen was dead.

Elodie no longer reacted with shock.

“If there’s been no word of the crown prince of Terranolia either, then I suppose he was taken out around the same time.”

Was it the emperor who killed him?

Elodie muttered with the air of someone who had reached a state of quiet surrender.

“Maybe things that are meant to happen... just happen.”

She shed tears.

Her face was as pale as a corpse, but hot tears rolled down her cheeks without end.

“If everything was already fated from the start... then why show me hope and make me believe it could be different...?”

She cried for a long time.

And after that day—she never cried again.

Like a lifeless wax doll, she simply sat by the window, staring blankly outside.

Karon remained silently by her side.

Time passed.

Endlessly.

***

Karon had become an adult.

He realized it all at once.

When had so much time passed?

‘How long are we going to live like this?’

He didn’t resent living alone with Elodie.

He’d spent his entire life confined to labs and isolated chambers.

Being a fugitive now was, ironically, the freest he’d ever been.

He was always tense, always alert, always prepared for pursuit—but he didn’t resent it.

Sometimes, he even felt... happy.

Pathetically so.

When everyone else was gone and Elodie had no one left, he felt such sorrow for her, and longed for the day she might smile again. And at the same time...

He began to have a shameful thought.

That maybe, this quiet lull before the storm—this stillness—wasn’t so bad.

When she spoke about the past, the part of her life she could never return to, and let out a sigh that barely resembled a smile...

When she tasted food she used to love and gave the faintest twitch of a smile...

In those moments, he thought:

Even if the world has crumbled, if you're still here—if we can still be together like this—then I’m grateful.

You disgusting bastard.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Those feelings would come suddenly, and when they did, the self-loathing nearly blinded him.

As if keeping her beside him, even if she was just a shell of herself, was enough.

That was when the thought came—he couldn’t just keep running. He needed to do something.

‘If there’s anything I can do besides running...’

Honestly, only extreme thoughts came to mind.

If Nyx was the only one who had known the mastermind’s identity, then wasn’t it likely the one behind all this was a Basilisk?

If he could somehow find where the Basilisks were based and wipe them out, maybe he’d catch the real target in the process.

Even if the mastermind wasn’t a Basilisk, eliminating them would still be progress—wouldn’t it?

He remembered the plan that had once been foiled by Elodie, when she stopped his berserk state.

Now that he’d lost everything, he felt he could go through with it.

He didn’t just want to destroy the Basilisks. Honestly, he wanted to—

“Kill every last one of them.”

The one who started the war was clearly the emperor of Terranolia.

There may have been someone behind him, but officially, it was his doing.

The people knew that.

But they still chose to scapegoat the Ratson family.

They branded them the cause of the war.

Because they were weak and powerless now.

No one cared to know, or even asked, how many sacrifices the Ratson line had made over the centuries to maintain peace.

They trampled on the suffering of others as if it were owed to them.

In that way... how were they any different from Nyx Basilisk?

Do they deserve to live?

But Karon couldn’t act on those thoughts.

Because he couldn’t leave Elodie behind.

If he disappeared too, she’d be alone.

And if that happened, he already knew exactly what she’d choose to do.

So he chose to do nothing.

Even if he died, it could never be before her.

Karon made a silent vow—to die the day after Elodie did.

***

One day, Karon remembered something Elodie had once said:

"Once I’m all better... when spring comes, let’s go out into the garden and eat walnut pie together."

He didn’t know why that moment suddenly returned to him.

Maybe because they never made it to spring.

Or maybe... because now the weather felt unmistakably like spring.

Passing by a bakery, Karon saw walnut pie in the window.

As if possessed, he bought it.

“It’s time to eat.”

“...”

“Elodie.”

“...”

“Gracia.”

Even her favorite pie failed to elicit a response.

Karon took her hand and forced ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) a fork into it.

“You’re not hungry.”

“Eat anyway.”

What, was she planning to just starve to death?

Lately, he’d found himself forcing more and more things on her.

Ever since she stopped making even the bare minimum effort to survive.

If she refused food, he’d make her eat.

If she seemed lost in thought, he’d talk to her nonstop or shove a book into her hands.

If he didn’t, he feared he’d wake up one day to find her dead and cold.

“Karon.”

Suddenly, Elodie asked,

“Can you turn back time?”

Karon couldn’t understand.

“What do you mean?”

Was she just wishing out loud? Hoping he could?

The idea was so impossible, he didn’t even try to interpret it.

“I see...”

After that, Elodie said nothing more.

Days passed like that.

She stopped eating entirely.

Even when forced, she’d only pick at her food—and then, suddenly, she wouldn’t even do that.

Even light soup made her gag, her hand clamped over her mouth.

“Ugh...”

The more nostalgic the food—the stronger her reaction.

Childhood favorites triggered the worst responses.

But even new dishes didn’t help.

Nothing stayed down. Her body simply rejected it all.

She withered by the day.

After Edmund’s death, the war fizzled out, and a peace treaty was signed.

The Valkyrisen family hadn’t been destroyed.

Their former glory was gone, but Zenovia Valkyrisen—who survived the battlefield—would inherit the house.

“At least one person made it.”

When Elodie heard that, she seemed to regain a sliver of clarity.

Karon felt relieved.

He even hoped that, one day—no matter how long it took—she might find the will to live again.

But it was all a perfect illusion.

What looked like recovery was actually the most dangerous warning sign.

Even after the war ended, the hunt for Gracia Ratson continued.

Across both continents.

By now, one would think they’d give up—but they didn’t.

In fact, they redoubled their efforts.

Because the new High Priest, who had taken the Holy Kingdom, had begun preaching that he had received a divine message.

He claimed the reason his healing powers were lacking was because the heir to the Ratson line had fled.

That until Gracia Ratson was killed and her bloodline severed, he would never fully regain his power.