The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella-Chapter 83

"Lady Bluewood is undoubtedly a genius. She understands ten things when you teach her just one."

The private tutor—who Elodie suspected was the cause of all this—spoke with shining eyes.

"I merely explained a simple light magic formula to her..."

"Wait... Are you telling me Sera is a magic genius?"

"No, that’s not it. Magic is a field of innate talent, after all..."

Well, that made sense.

If Sera had any magical talent, it would have manifested in their past life.

And if she had known how to use magic, she wouldn’t have needed to consider marrying some useless prince.

For a brief moment, Elodie imagined Sera launching a meteor at the prince.

"But she has an even more incredible gift. The moment she saw the formula, she immediately deduced how to nullify the spell!"

"WHAT?!"

Sera had that kind of talent?

Elodie's eyes nearly popped out of her skull.

"Of course, it was only a basic spell, and the countermeasure is fairly well-known. But Lady Bluewood had never encountered any form of magic before, had she? And yet, at first glance..."

There was no other way to describe it—she was a genius.

The tutor was so excited that they could barely contain themselves.

"And that's not all. Upon hearing the characteristics of an unfamiliar monster, she immediately identified its core weakness."

So, to summarize...

She had an innate ability to pinpoint weaknesses and understand how to destroy or neutralize them.

Though calling it a ‘talent for destruction’ sounded... a little unsettling.

"I happen to be acquainted with a professor at the Terranolia Imperial Academy. If they were to meet Lady Bluewood, I have no doubt they would write her a recommendation for transfer."

Even with just this brief summary, it was clear she was someone the nation should be supporting.

Elodie had always known Sera was smart, but she had no idea she was this brilliant!

'Damn that Bluewood family! They let a child with this much potential go completely uneducated?!'

And the prince was just as bad.

If he married her as his princess, he should have ensured she received an education fit for royalty! Instead, he treated her like a decorative trophy, never giving her the chance to learn anything!

Elodie was fuming.

"Elodie... Will you be okay without me?"

And just like that, all her excitement faded.

Sera hesitated.

She clearly wanted to receive proper instruction from an expert, but at the same time, she didn’t want to be apart from Elodie.

And... even though Elodie heard her words, she couldn’t bring herself to tell Sera not to go.

She refused to be like that prince, who kept Sera by his side like a beautiful ornament, crushing her brilliance without even realizing it.

"I—I’ll come with you!"

So she suggested another option.

"Beastfolk aren’t allowed to enroll in the Imperial Academy under Terranolia’s laws."

"Then I’ll just stay as a harvest mouse!"

Eisen didn’t say anything, but his face clearly asked, ‘Do you really think that’s going to work?’

‘It could work.’

She had hidden perfectly well in the Silvaria royal palace before.

Living in secret as a tiny mouse wouldn’t be that difficult.

But...

'If I spend years like that, Valkyrisen and Ratson will fall apart in the meantime...'

And she wouldn’t be able to improve her own abilities, either.

In other words, it wasn’t realistic.

Elodie sighed.

"That was just a joke."

Though, in truth, she had been completely serious.

"I just... I just don’t want you to have any regrets, Sera. I want you to do everything you want to do."

This, too, was nothing but the truth.

Elodie met Sera’s blue eyes and spoke firmly.

"So go. Do your best."

The moment she said that, Sera jumped to her feet, scooped Elodie into her arms, and hugged her tightly.

She took a deep breath before declaring,

"Since I’m enrolling late, I’ll probably fall behind at first. But by the time I graduate, I’ll be at the top of my class!"

She asked Elodie to wait for her.

Of course. Once Sera set her mind to something, she never stopped until she reached her goal.

Elodie didn’t particularly care whether she graduated as the top student or just barely scraped by—though, of course, the latter was highly unlikely. As long as Sera was happy, that was all that mattered.

"Yeah. I’ll be looking forward to it."

Sera seemed to want her to be excited, so Elodie played along.

But now that she thought about it...

'That prince must be attending the Imperial Academy, too.'

She had never paid any attention to his childhood, so she wasn’t sure.

But every member of Terranolia’s royal family was required to attend.

Unless he had gotten himself expelled somehow, he was probably still there.

‘Ugh.’

She really wanted to go with her.

Not because she was worried about Sera falling for the prince again.

She already knew now that Sera had never truly loved him in the first place—she had only been trying to escape a miserable reality.

But the prince...

Unless he had suddenly become a completely different person, he was definitely going to take an interest in Sera.

The moment he saw her, he’d start following her around, trying his usual pathetic tricks.

Just imagining it made her blood boil.

But even so...

'The Sera of today is different. She’s not the same girl who was left off the family registry, forced to endure injustice without fighting back.'

Unlike before, when she had been treated like a servant, people—including the prince—wouldn’t be able to disregard her so easily.

Especially with Valkyrisen’s support behind her.

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And most importantly...

‘Sera won’t tolerate it this time.’

Seeing how much she had changed, Elodie was able to set aside some of her worries.

Actually, she was even looking forward to it.

'If Sera’s goal is to be the top student...'

She didn’t know what kind of grades the Silvaria prince had, but surely, Sera would surpass him.

"Sera."

Elodie suddenly spoke with a serious expression.

"I really hate the prince."

Sera’s eyes widened in surprise.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

It was rare for Elodie to openly say she disliked someone.

"Ah, now that I think about it, the prince did try to steal your Magic Cotton before, didn’t he?"

"You remember that?"

"Of course. It’s something that happened to you. I remember every single detail."

Elodie later told Sera the full story.

How the prince had tried to openly steal Magic Cotton.

And how Elodie had baited him into making a fool of himself before kicking him out.

Sera’s brows furrowed slightly, as if recalling something unpleasant.

"Want me to do something about him?"

Sera asked.

"Yeah. Crush him completely."

The prince might be good at studying—Elodie didn’t know.

But everything else?

She had never seen him excel at anything.

So if Sera was going to the Academy, she might as well utterly destroy him.

"That’s easy."

Sera said confidently.

And to bless her victory, Elodie pressed a kiss to both of her cheeks.

***

To Elodie,

This feels strange. It’s my first time writing a letter, and I don’t quite know how to put my thoughts into words.

It’s only now, with the ink on the page, that I’m realizing how far away I am from you.

I already miss you—what do I do?

I never imagined I’d end up in the Terranolia Empire. I always thought I’d spend ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) my entire life within the borders of the Silvaria Kingdom...

But thanks to you, Elodie, for pulling me out of the Bluewood estate, I’ve been able to experience so much.

Really, you always insist it wasn’t a big deal, but I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to repay you for this.

The Imperial capital is massive, crowded, and full of strange things.

Well, not that I’ve seen much of it yet. I came straight to the Academy as soon as I arrived.

I’ll explore the capital over the weekend and write to you again.

Oh, and I saw the prince.

You meant Cesare something-or-other, right? Not that there’s more than one prince of Silvaria.

I barely even saw him, yet he approached me immediately, saying that he felt an instant kinship with me because we were from the same kingdom. It caught me completely off guard.

And then, he said—Where has the brightest flower of high society been hiding all this time?

I have never heard something so awful in my life.

Was that... supposed to be a compliment? Did he think that would make me want to be friends with him?

Because, if anything, it only made me want to put more distance between us.

To be honest, I thought there wouldn’t be much to him, but surprisingly, he’s actually the top student in our year.

Well, my goal is to be top-ranked anyway, so I’ll have to surpass him eventually.

It might take a while, though.

I’ll catch up to him someday.

Make sure you eat on time. And stop staying up all night just because you want to learn healing magic.

You’ll stop growing.

You scolded me, but honestly, you’re the one overworking yourself more.

—Sera

Cesare is the top student in his year.

That’s the most shocking thing I’ve heard all year.