The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella

"......."

"......."

"......."

"When should we set off the fireworks?"

"Shh, this isn’t the right atmosphere for that right now."

A harvest mouse quietly lowered the miniature firework it had been holding.

Elodie’s birthday party, planned and personally led by the High Priest himself.

This surprise party, which had even roped in Sera, Eisen, and Karon, seemed to be off to a successful start thanks to the enthusiastic cooperation of its organizers.

At first, that was the case.

Until Elodie lost her temper...

"Why do you have to do this?"

"If not me, then who else?"

"You're just a ten-year-old child."

"Why does ten mean I’m a child?"

Elodie grumbled.

In truth, she herself was aware that ten was an age where one still needed parental care...

'But not me.'

Her mental age was already that of an adult!

Elodie offered a compromise.

"This much is young girl territory."

"No, you’re still a baby."

"What baby? I’m not going ‘goo-goo ga-ga’!"

"And yet, you're still called 'Baby Highness'."

Well, many did call her 'Baby Highness.'

But that wasn’t because she was actually a baby—it was a title for the heir to the High Priesthood who had yet to reach adulthood.

Maximilian himself must have been called 'Baby Highness' until he became an adult.

"Dad, when you were seventeen, you weren’t an adult yet, so you must have been called ‘Baby Highness’ too."

"......."

"You must have hated it back then, didn’t you?"

Elodie asked sharply.

"Ahem, I... accepted it without complaint even at that age..."

Seventeen and obediently accepting 'Baby Highness' as a title?

That was an obvious lie.

The child turned to look at the harvest mouse butler, who had supposedly served the Ratson family for generations.

"......I shall exercise my right to remain silent."

"Dad, lying in front of your own daughter, really?"

Wasn’t this exactly the kind of thing where the pot called the kettle black?

"And it’s not like I’m going to do anything big—I’ll just go there, eat, play, and relax. What’s there to worry about? Even a baby could do that."

Honestly, what grand feat could Elodie accomplish by going?

She was just going as the Ratson representative.

She couldn’t exactly send only the attendants ahead, could she?

Elodie was merely a symbol.

Maximilian’s /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ mustache twitched as he struggled for words, but in the end, he shut his mouth tightly.

Because deep down, he knew better than anyone that what Elodie was saying was the best course of action.

Still, he was anxious.

How could he not be?

For seven whole years, he had been unable to appear in public.

Not just a single castle, but an entire sacred land defined as a holy nation had to be left empty.

Whenever other beastfolk started questioning the High Priest’s absence and tried to dig deeper, he lost sleep at night.

He had no choice but to ask the Emperor to cover for him, yet every time he thought about how much deeper in debt he was falling, his head throbbed.

"The sooner we go, the better."

Just as his daughter said, it was something that had to be handled as soon as possible.

"Mom and Dad will take a long time to break the curse, so I’ll go ahead and make everything look presentable first."

He knew that...

"But it’s not as easy as you make it sound..."

"It won’t be easy, but it won’t be dangerous either. Grandpa will help me."

Right?

The child turned to Eisen.

He was clutching a champagne glass given to him by the harvest mouse butler, barely managing to gulp it down.

The old man handed the glass back to the butler and replied.

"Well, if Baby Highness wants something, I have to follow along and protect her. After all, you entrusted me with your precious daughter."

"......."

"If I’m busy, my grandson will lead the knights in my stead, so there’s nothing to worry about. In fact, the younger ones are even better fighters."

"......Tsk."

Why did Dad look even angrier?

Elodie glanced down worriedly at the trembling harvest mouse, whose small body was shaking excessively.

Is he going to explode at this rate?

Still, perhaps because they had just received confirmation that they could return to being human, everyone was watching the father-daughter argument while struggling to hide their excitement.

Even the priests’ pitch-black eyes sparkled with hope.

They had all thought they would be stuck as mice for the rest of their lives, yet now, no matter how long it took, they had a chance to return to human form.

Everyone was in a festive mood—except for the High Priest himself.

"Hehe."

"Don’t laugh."

"Hehehe."

Elodie munched on a bite of chestnut cake, lingering near the High Priest.

"So, is it a no?"

Maximilian glanced at his utterly carefree daughter before looking up at the night sky, densely scattered with stars.

Then, he let out a deep sigh.

"......Sniff."

After sniffling for a moment, he abruptly turned around and walked away.

"Dad, where are you going?! There's water up ahead!"

"I don't care! I'll swim across!"

"What? Since when does a High Priest swim?!"

"Why? Is a High Priest not allowed to swim?!"

Honestly, it would be a disgrace if the High Priest were floundering in ankle-deep rainwater!

Not just a little disgraceful—extremely!

Elodie held back from saying that outright and instead turned to her mother, Ximena, who had once been the Chief Priestess.

"Leave him be. It looks like he needs some time alone."

In the end, Eisen stepped in.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Before Maximilian could start flailing in the water, Eisen lifted him up effortlessly and carried him to the Grand Temple.

Not that it was very far.

Hmm... If I look closely from here, I might still be able to see my heartbroken dad.

"He probably wanted to do everything for you when you returned, but now he’s frustrated because he hasn't been able to do anything and has only received help instead."

"But it couldn't be helped, right? It's not like Dad wanted things to be this way, and it’s not like he’s incompetent."

Once he lifts the curse and turns human again, can’t he just make up for it all then?

Elodie had full confidence that she could handle all the love her parents wanted to pour on her.

"He cherishes you too much. If you had grown up normally in the Ratson family, he would’ve carried you around so much you’d have forgotten how to walk."

"That's a bit..."

Suddenly, she wasn't so sure she could handle that much affection.

There had to be a limit to being an overly doting parent...

"I feel the same way as he does, but at least I’m not that bad."

Ximena firmly put an end to the discussion.

‘Guess I have no choice but to leave him alone like Mom says.’

Elodie scratched the back of her head, then shrugged as if to say, ‘Whatever.’

"Then can we break the curse now?"

Sera asked.

"Of course, everyone has been waiting."

Elodie translated Ximena’s words.

"Yep, go ahead and lift it!"

Sera placed her hand on the forehead of a trembling harvest mouse that had approached.

Or at least, she tried to. It was so small that, in the end, she had to cradle it in her palm instead.

"Then, I’ll begin."

They said that if a priest made a mistake, their heart would explode on the spot.

But the process of breaking the curse on the servants was surprisingly simple.

All they had to do was destroy the core of the curse.

"There’s a double layer, but this much should be fine to break by force."

This was Sera’s specialty.

Just like how a steady trickle of water could eventually bore a hole through stone, she focused pressure on a single point, gradually weakening the curse itself.

And once it had sufficiently weakened, she precisely pierced through its core to shatter it completely.

"Zzt!"

"Does it hurt?"

"No, just a little sting. This much is bearable."

Elodie translated the mouse’s words.

"Sounds like it hurts a lot."

"Baby Highness, please don’t mistranslate."

"For the sake of the other harvest mice, we should be honest."

"Well... it does feel like getting smacked awake, but... if it means I can become human, anyone would endure it."

What’s a little pain in comparison to that?!

Just as the servant harvest mouse clenched its tiny fists, bracing itself for the pain to come—

Sera placed it down and said,

"It’s done."

"...Really?"

Maybe because it had prepared for something much worse, the servant harvest mouse looked doubtful even after hearing it was over.

But that lasted only for a moment.

With a pop, its body transformed back into human form.

"My goodness, my hands!"

The servant stared wide-eyed at its own hands, then touched its face in disbelief.

Upon realizing it could feel smooth skin, it immediately reached for its hair.

‘I was like that, too, when I first turned human.’

Elodie watched with an oddly nostalgic feeling, as if seeing a fellow ‘senior’ in transformation.

And just then, the next one—the nanny harvest mouse—returned to human form.

"Baby Highness!"

Now human, the nanny rushed forward and scooped Elodie into a tight embrace.

"Ugh, I can't breathe..."

"Sniff... It feels like just yesterday I could lift you with one hand, and now you fit so perfectly in my arms. I couldn’t even properly take care of you..."

"Calm down, Nanny."

Elodie comforted her.

Though the woman’s appearance was unfamiliar, her affectionate voice carried nothing but sincerity.

As they stayed in that embrace for a while—

"Gracia..."

This time, a youthful voice called out.

Still trapped in the nanny’s hug, Elodie barely managed to lift her head.

And there, she locked eyes with a boy who had the same ash-golden hair as her.