The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella - Chapter 11

Edmund pulled out one of the swords displayed on the wall.

It slid out smoothly, despite looking as if he didn’t put much effort into the motion.

He pressed the blade close to the butler’s throat.

“Gasp! Please, sa-save me…!”

A blinding flash of white light streaked across at a speed too fast for the eyes to follow.

Instinctively, the butler clenched his eyes shut.

However, no pain followed.

Instead, a sound of something being completely shattered came from behind.

“…?”

Sweating profusely and rolling his eyes, he saw a huge hole had been punched through the wall.

The very wall that several knights, despite their best efforts, couldn’t make a dent in.

The question of ‘how?’ evaporated instantly under the renown of the Valkyriesen name.

The butler collapsed on the spot, his legs giving out from under him.

“Lady Ratzen, I have come to save you.”

Regardless, the boy’s attention was entirely fixed not on the hole in the wall that he just made…

But on the small, trembling creature huddled up inside the wall.

Edmund, with a completely opposite demeanor of politeness and kindness from before, carefully reached his hand into the hole.

“Step on my palm and come out. I will help you out.”

It was a soft, tender voice that could even sound affectionate to some.

Elodie, trembling and wedged between swords, hastily climbed onto the hand that appeared like salvation through the broken wall.

Edmund’s face softened as he confirmed a field mouse, no bigger than his thumb, was safely in his palm.

The corners of his eyes, previously sharply raised, now drew a gentle curve.

“I am relieved you are safe.”

Elodie felt a bit sour.

This was the first time someone had smiled at her in her mouse form, apart from Sera.

And yet, this person was a powerful figure who had subdued the butler and knights with a few words and had the strength to punch a hole in the wall.

“Elodie!”

“Uwaaahh, Sera!”

Briefly gazing up at him, the sobbing Elodie quickly ran and embraced Sera.

She had transformed back into a human child in an instant.

“Are you hurt anywhere, are you?”

“Nuh-uh, what about Sera?”

“Is this the time to worry about me? You should be…”

You suddenly appeared in my life.

You keep thinking about my wellbeing, you keep putting your life on the line for me.

Sera bit her lip and then stopped, her throat choking up as she hugged Elodie tightly.

Watching this, Edmund rotated and rubbed his shoulders, as if doing a light warm-up.

Whoosh— Crack!!

Then, suddenly, he threw his sword.

Precisely at the butler, who was giving silent signals to the knights.

“Eek…!”

The sword brushed exactly past the butler’s cheek and embedded itself back into the same wall.

The boy calmly watched the butler and knights, trembling and sprawled on the floor, keeping his place until Elodie and Sera calmed down.

***

Edmund took a handkerchief out of his pocket.

“…….”

Sera blushed as she looked at the handkerchief handed to her.

She had been caught trying to hold back her tears in front of the child.

Elodie’s gaze sharpened as she observed the two.

‘Trying to make moves on Sera…’

Do you know how starved this dear child is for affection?

Appearing like a prince on a white horse in a moment of crisis and now offering delicate comfort too?

‘This is what you do when you want someone to fall for you.’

If it’s intentional, it’s worthy of a death sentence, and even if it’s his natural disposition, he should be kept at a distance.

She immediately began her investigation.

“Mam, womam?” (Man or woman?)

Faced with a question he had never heard before, Edmund stuttered as if his thoughts had momentarily stopped.

“Man…… I am a man.”

Elodie, having lived her entire life thinking she was a mouse, had difficulty distinguishing human genders.

It couldn’t be helped.

Just as humans couldn’t tell if a mouse was male or female, one year old or two, just by looking at its appearance.

But, having lived as a mouse at the palace, she could at least discern beauty.

“How owd?” (How old?)

“Fifteen this year.”

“Hmm!”

“……Is there a problem with my gender and age?”

There were many problems.

He was really handsome, like a real prince, and only about a year older than Sera.

“Which famiwy?” (Which family?)

She had heard he was a young duke, but that’s nothing.

Sera had once been married to a prince who was to inherit the throne.

That experience taught her that things like status were utterly useless in making Sera smile or happy.

Elodie bristled suddenly as if on guard, and Edmund rubbed the back of his neck.