The Harvest Mouse Exits the Fairytale Together with Cinderella-Chapter 88

Karon had tried to endure by using even the potion that Nyx Basilisk had given him before coming here, but it was useless.

In front of Elodie, he could maintain a relatively composed facade, but the price of forcibly prolonging his lifespan only caused his condition to deteriorate further.

And just yesterday—

"If you're going to die anyway, then die together with that Ratson girl."

A man sent by the Basilisks came to him at the eastern palace and said this.

"Ah, even if you neutralize the poison, it won’t ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ matter."

"......."

"This body is merely a puppet that moves according to my instructions. If you kill it, it will simply die, and if you don’t listen to what I have to say until the end, you’ll regret it."

The man laughed while pointing at himself.

He spoke in the exact same tone as Nyx Basilisk.

"If you refuse, I will kill every living being in Valkyrisen, whether beastfolk or human. The one I planted there isn't just you."

"You......."

"You’ve become quite arrogant in the short time I haven’t seen you. It seems the experiments I conducted on you weren’t enough."

"......."

"Think carefully. You only have two choices. You should at least live up to the name I gave you."

The name I gave you.

Karon—the guide to death.

Nyx Basilisk had sent him to Valkyrisen with this exact purpose in mind.

From the very beginning...

To eliminate the most troublesome person for the Basilisks.

To kill that girl and die along with her?

Karon gazed down at the corpse, the body that had been controlled by Nyx Basilisk, its eyes murky and lifeless.

Had they expected that simply delivering this message wouldn’t be enough to make him obey?

So they added the threat of wiping out every living being in Valkyrisen?

'What an idiot.'

Did they think that just because Karon had spent nearly ten years here, from the age of four, he would have grown attached to the people of this land?

But Karon had already known.

That if it was the Basilisks, they would undoubtedly use him like this when the time came.

So how could he possibly grow attached?

Whenever he saw traces of people, he avoided them without question.

If he had to weigh Elodie and the people of Valkyrisen on the scales, he would obviously choose the former.

And yet—

"Dogren, I’m not afraid of dogs anymore."

"My lady...!"

"Catlix, you too."

"This is unbelievable. I even brought a bell collar for you to put around my neck."

"W-What did you bring?"

"Putting a bell on a cat... you know, that sort of thing."

"I don’t need it."

Elodie always mingled with the people of Valkyrisen, engaging in meaningless conversations, her face lighting up with countless expressions.

Her large, round eyes would curve into half-moons, folding beautifully.

She was someone who would despair more than anyone if the people of this land were to die.

Even if she survived alone, she wouldn’t be happy.

On the contrary, she would resent him, demanding to know how he could make such a choice.

'I told you, didn’t I? That you would spend the rest of your life regretting the words you spoke to me.'

Liana and Benjamin, the first people to ever extend a hand of salvation to him, were dead.

After that, Karon had been convinced that the only thing left for him in life was death.

But miraculously, a second salvation had come.

Rather than continuing to live in agony, he had been given the choice of a peaceful, contented death.

Because of that salvation, he was able to make a decision.

It was time to put his long-planned idea into action.

'I will go to the Basilisks.'

Karon was the ferryman who carried the dead across the river to the underworld.

And at the very least, for his final journey, he would choose with his own hands who to drag down into the depths with him.

***

Karon had spent every moment of his recovery figuring out a way to safely infiltrate the Basilisks.

In truth, that part wasn’t difficult.

Karon had been born and raised among the Basilisks until he was four.

And he hadn’t been just any ordinary child—he had been entrusted with the mission of mass slaughter.

There was no way the Basilisks, who never left behind a trace of their movements, would have allowed him to travel by ordinary means.

He knew all the secret passages.

The difficult part was actually escaping from Valkyrisen.

‘They’ll immediately send pursuers after me.’

The worst-case scenario in his plan was being caught on the way to the Basilisks.

Not only would he fail to exact his revenge, but he would also be labeled as a traitor or a spy in Valkyrisen...

‘But would that be any different?’

He had been deceiving and hiding from everyone all this time.

He was already a traitor. He was already a spy.

So Karon had no intention of backing down anymore.

"...Artetis Revela."

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

As he murmured the words, a massive building emerged from what had once been an empty clearing.

It was the Basilisks' research facility—the place where he had been born and raised.

Though, in reality, this facility wasn’t directly connected to Basilisk territory.

If any information were ever leaked to the outside, it had been designed to be cut off immediately.

‘That’s a shame.’

If he could have infiltrated the Basilisks’ main estate, he could have unleashed his venom to the limit and wiped out the entire family.

But that wasn’t an easy feat.

He had never stepped foot there before, and only those granted permission could enter that secretive place.

‘I can’t afford to gamble in my current situation.’

If he attempted to break into the main estate and got caught, he would once again become nothing more than an experimental subject.

So for now, this was the best option Karon had.

'Nyx Basilisk.'

He was surely inside.

Karon pictured the man who had spent day and night holed up in the research facility.

They were related by blood, but not once had he ever thought of the man as his father.

A lunatic researcher who had always wanted to become a god.

This building contained his life’s work—his dreams, his efforts, his obsession.

Karon thought to himself,

'If I have to drag someone into the underworld with me, it has to be Nyx Basilisk.'

'Curses always break when the one who cast them dies.'

If that was the case, then Karon’s destination had always been this research facility.

If Nyx Basilisk died, the curse placed on the Ratson family would naturally be lifted.

That alone made his death worthwhile, the boy thought.

At least then, he wouldn’t have to suffer from guilt every time he looked at Elodie.

Or maybe... he wouldn’t get the chance to see her anymore.

"......."

Karon recalled the way her pitch-black eyes had widened when he had kissed her on the cheek.

Despite being a color as dark as the abyss, her eyes had always shimmered with thousands of hues, radiating light.

In that moment, a thought crossed his mind.

If he had approached her as a human from the beginning, told her everything truthfully, and begged for forgiveness—

Would things have turned out differently?

‘No.’

He was bound to die from the start.

How could he inflict such a wound upon a girl who, despite meeting a stranger for the first time, would still treat them if they were simply a patient?

This was enough.

Having paused briefly, he now moved forward without hesitation, stepping inside the building.

This content is taken from fгeewebnovёl.com.

Even after nearly ten years, the research lab remained vividly etched into his mind.

"Ha..."

Nothing had changed.

No, if anything, it had only worsened.

Karon shut his eyes tightly for a moment, overwhelmed by the suffocating feeling that he had been dragged back into his past.

Then, turning his head away, he refocused.

‘Finding Nyx comes first.’

Transforming into a serpent, Karon slithered silently toward the deepest part of the facility.

The interior of the building was a labyrinth, riddled with false paths and hidden traps.

But he knew exactly where to go.

‘The lab director’s office.’

Reverting to his human form, Karon immediately pushed open the door.

And—

As always, at this hour, Nyx Basilisk was there.

Seated at his desk, arms crossed, waiting as if he had known Karon would come.

"So this is your choice?"

Karon hadn’t expected Nyx to be waiting for him, but he answered calmly.

"...Yes."