The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella - Chapter 1
Cinderella married the prince and lived happily ever after.
Just like in all the fairytales.
But, I want to ask, Fairy Godmother.
How long is ‘happily ever after,’ exactly?
These days, Cinderella doesn’t seem happy at all.
She seems to have forgotten how to smile.
Even when she eats delicious food and wears pretty dresses, it’s not the same as when she wore the magical dress and glass slippers, smiling as if she had the world…
Fairy Godmother, the palace is strange.
It appears kind but makes sure Cinderella can’t do anything on her own.
Prince Charming doesn’t seem to care.
He says she doesn’t need to do anything.
She’s told she doesn’t need to know anything and can’t do anything.
She doesn’t have to do laundry, cleaning, or even cooking anymore.
She doesn’t have to sleep next to the cinders because she doesn’t have a room or a bed.
She doesn’t have to rush to wash or change clothes, and there’s no need for her to wear rags full of ash.
But Cinderella cries alone every night in the grandest and most magnificent room in the world until she’s exhausted.
Fairy Godmother.
The prince found and married the mysterious lady who left behind only one glass slipper.
He found her and brought her back.
Then locked her up in the palace.
But is she still mysterious and enchanting?
At some point, Prince Charming stopped looking for Cinderella.
Five years ago, I saw him happily laughing with a certain lady at a banquet.
With the same look he once had when he looked at Cinderella.
Three years ago, she entered the palace as the prince’s consort.
And just yesterday, Cinderella’s dethronement was decided because she couldn’t bear an heir.
But… does that give a reason to end a lifelong vow within just ten years?
Is it because it’s not a lifetime?
I really don’t understand.
I just wish I could run away with Cinderella.
But in reality, there’s nowhere to go.
Where would she even go?
Back to that mansion where she barely escaped, living with the stepmother and stepsisters?
In Cinderella’s eyes, which used to be filled with things brighter than anything, there’s nothing now.
What shone even brighter than the appearance everyone praised was what sheheld in her heart.
I thought she would be happy for a lifetime.
I thought she wouldn’t have to endure any more.
Everyone said so.
But now, even though she has nothing, that girl who used to be as healthy in her heart as she didn’t have anything has lost her heart.
What should we do now?
If I had known that this fleeting happiness would be the last happiness she would enjoy, I would have ruined the wedding, even if it meant being trampled to death by the people that day.
But it’s probably too late now.
I’m already too old, and I don’t even have the strength to get up.
In fact, even if I hadn’t aged, even if I had gone back to the youngest and most vigorous time, what could I do?
I can only survive, and that’s all. Nothing else…
Fairy Godmother.
I’m just a loathsome little mouse.
The kind, generous Cinderella took a creature like me in.
From the moment Cinderella named me, I could become a special mouse, not one of the ordinary ones littering the streets.
The fact that I’ve lived far beyond a mouse’s lifespan, my ability to understand human speech and think differently from other mice, it’s all thanks to her.
So, I’m content.
I’ve even had more than my share of luck.
What I wish for… is to see Cinderella smile once again.
Like the time when she could smile as brightly as if she had the whole world, even if she had nothing.
* * *
“Is that your final wish?”
The voice, cracking and eerie, as if it weren’t of human origin.
From head to toe, he was covered in a black hood, and his flowing white hair in between.
He looked more like a demon, infinitely closer to malevolence than the aging mouse that had been searching for the fairy.
“You haven’t changed.”
His pitch-black, bloodstained fingernails touched the tip of the old mouse’s fur gingerly before falling away.
His hands had broken, decayed, and dirtied numerous times, yet he managed to hold his form.
“….”
There was never direct contact.
He was that kind of person who could easily extinguish this small life with the slightest touch.
He was the living death.
Only after the old mouse’s breath had been completely cut off did he gain the ability to reach out for the first time.
Even that was only a tentative touch of the fur tip, barely a touch.
“Because you couldn’t say that one word that you didn’t want to die until the end.”
With just that one word, somehow,
I… somehow, I would escape from this curse…
“….Ah.”
After a moment of silence, he whispered with a short chuckle.
How could he dare?
For a monster who ruined everything he touched, there was no salvation.
“The curse on you can only be lifted by that child.”
That’s why he willingly decided to grant the last wish of the old mouse, who had wished for the happiness of that child until the moment of death.
“If that child smiles, you’ll smile too.”
If you’re the one who loves everything, maybe I’ll give you a miracle, unlike me.
That miracle will lead you to where you were originally supposed to be.
It will help you regain what you were supposed to have and your precious connections.
It will finally lead you to happiness.
“Live like that.”
Without knowing what unhappiness is.
Without having to wish for the demon because there’s nowhere to hang on.
Without searching for me in the darkest and most miserable place.
“In the next life, always stay where the sun shines.”
So that creatures like me will never cross paths with you again.
