The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella

Elodie had just returned from having lunch with Sera.
These days, it feels like the only time I get to see Sera is during meals.
She really was busy.

Even when Elodie widened her eyes and clung to her, begging her to stay, it didn’t work.
Surprisingly.
“Uuugh, Sera, do you not like being with me?”

“Ugh…!”
Sera clutched her chest, trembling, as if struggling to resist temptation.
But in the end, she only said something straight out of an adventure novel about coming back stronger, then ran off.

Apparently, she had started training in swordsmanship on top of all the other lessons she was already taking.
She had strictly forbidden Elodie from watching her practice, saying it was embarrassing since she couldn’t even lift a wooden sword properly yet.
I feel so lonely…

Recently, Zenovia had been trailing after her, so she hadn’t had much time to feel bored, but…
Zenovia was like an overgrown puppy, brimming with energy, and it was exhausting trying to keep up with her.
Even though Elodie was physically younger, she still couldn’t handle her.

Speak of the devil…
Elodie waved at Zenovia, who was approaching in the distance.
She wondered what she would be begged to play today.

“Hey, you little rat.”
“…What?”
Elodie thought she must have misheard.
“Don’t mistake me hanging around you for actual friendship.”

She had just come back from lunch, and now, out of nowhere, Zenovia had completely changed her attitude.
She had not seen that coming.
Excuse me?

Had she accidentally time-traveled again?
Why was Zenovia acting exactly the same as before?
Did she hold a grudge because I ran away when her grandfather started lecturing her?

Elodie was frozen in place, unable to grasp the context behind Zenovia’s sudden shift.
The boy, who had been leaning against the wall, straightened up and took a threatening step forward.
“I’ve figured out your scheme.”

The look in her eyes made it clear she wasn’t joking.
Ah… she was like this in my last life too.
Zenovia Valkyrisen, the uncontrollable delinquent.

She could be laughing and chatting with people one moment, then suddenly turn on them and lash out like a wild beast the next.
Memories of the past came flooding back, making Elodie instinctively step backward.
She gripped the Holy Hammer she always carried.

If she goes completely feral, I’ll just have to resort to brute force.
Maybe knocking her out would reset her back to normal.
Elodie swallowed hard.

“You’re in league with the people who killed my parents, aren’t you?”
“…What?”
And then, she heard something absolutely absurd.

Me…?
In league with the ones who killed the previous Duke and Duchess of Valkyrisen?
She had gone missing at the age of three, spent two years living as a mere harvest mouse in the Bluewood household, but somehow, that was just a cover?

That her disappearance had been orchestrated by some grand conspiracy?
Yeah, right.
Elodie’s expression turned ice-cold.

And at that moment, Zenovia suddenly grabbed her by the collar.
This translation is the intellectual property of .
“Ugh…!”

“What’s wrong? Did I hit the mark?”
Mark? More like a pile of nonsense so ridiculous she didn’t even know how to react.
She was sure she had heard their deaths were the result of an accident.

“It’s suspicious how a five-year-old is smarter than me. You even know complicated stuff like laws and use them to your advantage…”
“…”
“You’re probably an assassin they raised, right? That’s why you got close to me—to find my weaknesses and gain my trust.”

Elodie didn’t even bother hiding her expression of pure disgust.
So this idiot, who couldn’t even remember his own territory’s regulations, had been quietly stewing in baseless paranoia?
Had he secretly been sneaking alcohol?

Whatever. I’ll just knock her out.
Elodie squeezed her eyes shut and tightened her grip on the hammer, preparing to swing—
“Zenovia!”

Before she could, Edmund arrived, having rushed over at the sound of the commotion.
He grabbed Zenovia’s arm so forcefully it looked like he might break it.
“Ugh!”

Zenovia groaned in pain, releasing Elodie’s collar.
The situation flipped in an instant, and now she was the one being grabbed by the scruff of her neck.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing? Are you out of your mind?!”

“Stay out of this, Edmund!”
“This isn’t something we can just brush off! It’s way beyond that now.”
Edmund clearly intended to call Eisen and have Zenovia punished for this.

He wasn’t going to let it slide.
He started dragging Zenovia away before she could escape.
“She could be working with the ones who killed our parents!”

“…What?”
“Think about it! Mom and Dad wouldn’t have left us so easily! It was the beastfolk who killed them!”
“…You… you’ve been thinking like this all this time?”

Edmund looked completely shaken, his face going pale.
But Zenovia ignored him, furiously pointing at Elodie.
“I know their deaths weren’t an accident. Father let all kinds of beasts into our house without caring about status or rank, and look what happened!”

“Zenovia, watch your language—”
“And out of all of them, she’s the most suspicious. Can’t you see how she’s using the Ratson family’s power to infiltrate Valkyrisen and seize control from the top?”
“…No. I don’t see that. What are you even talking about?”

“Are you really not even a little suspicious? How easily she wins people over? Are you saying she has nothing to do with it?”
“…So this is why you were harassing a little kid? Your delusions?”
“This isn’t just a delusion! What if she was taken by them when she went missing and raised to be a spy—”

“Ugh, I can’t listen to this anymore.”
What the hell happened to her?
Edmund, struggling to suppress his anger, looked down at his sister in concern.

Zenovia was the type to act first and think later—swinging her sword before even questioning why she was upset.
“Who told you this?”
“I figured it out myself.”

“…No. That’s not your own thought.”
“What, do you think I’m too stupid to think for myself?”
“No, I think you’re too bright and optimistic to have come up with something this twisted.”

Edmund was, in a roundabout way, saying that Zenovia’s mind was too simple and innocent for such convoluted ideas.
Hearing this unexpected compliment, Zenovia stammered mid-rant.
“Uh…?”

“…Anyway, there’s no way it wasn’t an accident.”
“No, it was intentional.”
“It was an accident.”

“No! Someone did it on purpose.”
“It was an accident, Zenovia. Just… stop.”
Edmund’s hand unconsciously went to his throat as he spoke, as if something sharp were caught there, making it hard for him to get the words out.

Ever since Zenovia had started accusing the beastfolk, ever since she called them their parents’ murderers, he had worn that same expression.
Like he was forcing himself to stay composed, even as something inside him cracked.
Sensing the tension between them, Elodie stepped in.

“Zenovia, stop. I get it, so let’s just sleep on it and talk later.”
A little sleep might at least bring her back to her senses.
But Zenovia only lashed out more wildly, like a horse that had just had its tail stepped on.

“Where do you think you’re running off to? I need to end this today—”
She lunged toward Elodie, but Edmund twisted her arm behind her back and shoved her against the wall.
“Agh!”

“Zenovia. Enough.”
His face now emotionless, Edmund swept his disheveled hair back.
“Stop taking out your anger on an innocent child. How much more do I have to tolerate from you?”

“No matter what you say, I refuse to believe it was an accident—”
“You’re right. It wasn’t.”
“…What?”

“It was me.”
For a moment, Edmund squeezed his eyes shut, as if swallowing poison.
Then, returning to his usual expressionless self, he said:

“If you must find someone to blame for their deaths, then it wasn’t the beastfolk. It was me.”
Zenovia froze.
The words were so shocking that even she had no reaction.

Even Elodie, clutching her Holy Hammer, was stunned into silence.
“So just… stop.”