Cinderella married the prince and lived happily ever after.
Just like in every fairy tale.
But you know, Fairy Godmother...
How long does ever after last?
Cinderella doesn’t look happy at all these days.
It’s as if she’s forgotten how to smile.
Even when she eats delicious food, even when she wears beautiful dresses.
There was a ti when she stood in glass slippers and a gown spun from magic, beaming as though she owned the world...
But Fairy Godmother, the palace is strange.
It seems kind, yet it won’t let Cinderella do anything on her own.
"This is not a matter for the princess consort."
"There is no need for you to involve yourself."
They don’t tell her anything, saying she has no need to know. They don’t let her do anything, saying she has no need to act.
She no longer has to do the laundry, or clean, or cook.
She no longer sleeps by the hearth because she has no room, no bed of her own.
She no longer goes about covered in ashes because she has no ti to wash or change her clothes.
Instead, Cinderella spends each night in the grandest, most dazzling chamber in the world, crying herself to sleep.
Fairy Godmother.
The prince searched for the mysterious, enchanting girl who vanished, leaving behind only a single glass slipper.
He found her. He claid her.
And then, he locked her away in the palace.
Is she no longer mysterious? No longer enchanting?
At so point, the prince stopped looking for Cinderella altogether.
Five years ago, I saw him in the garden, laughing with another woman.
With the sa look in his eyes he once had for Cinderella.
Three years ago, she was brought into the palace as his mistress.
And just yesterday, it was decided—Cinderella is to be dethroned.
Because she has failed to bear an heir.
But... is that really enough reason to end an oath of eternity after just ten years?
Is ever after not even a full decade long?
Was it never ant to last a lifeti?
I don’t understand.
I wanted to take Cinderella and run far away from here.
But truthfully, there is nowhere for us to go.
Where could she return to? The house where she barely escaped from—where her stepmother and stepsisters live?
Her eyes, once filled with things brighter than anything that could ever shine, now hold nothing at all.
Everyone praised her beauty, but what made her truly radiant were the things she carried in her gaze.
She was supposed to be happy forever.
She was never supposed to suffer again.
That’s what everyone said.
But even though she had nothing, at least her heart had been whole.
And now, she has lost even that.
What are we supposed to do now?
If I had known that fleeting mont of happiness would be the last she ever had, I would have ruined the wedding that day—even if it ant being trampled to death by the crowd.
But it’s far too late now.
I’m already too old, too weak to even stand.
Though even if I weren’t—if I could return to my youngest, strongest days—what could I possibly do?
I’ve never been capable of anything more than surviving.
Nothing at all...
Fairy Godmother.
I’m nothing more than a loathso rat.
But Cinderella—she was the kind of child who would embrace even a creature like .
The mont she gave a na, I ceased to be just another rodent scurrying along the streets. I beca sothing special.
I’ve lived far past a rat’s natural lifespan. I can understand and think in human language, unlike any other rat.
And it’s all because of her.
So, I have enough.
If anything, I’ve had far more than I deserve.
I am nothing without Cinderella. If only I could return all my fortune to her...
What I wish for—
I just want Cinderella to smile again.
Like she once did, when she had nothing, yet still smiled as if she had the whole world.
***
"Is that your final wish?"
The voice was hoarse, fractured, and inhuman. It sent a shiver through the air.
A black hood cloaked the figure from head to toe, with long strands of ghostly white hair spilling from beneath it.
No matter how one looked at him, he bore no resemblance to the fairy the old rat had spent so long searching for. If anything, he looked far closer to a demon.
"You never change."
Jet-black nails barely grazed the old rat’s fur before withdrawing.
His hands—if they could even be called that—looked as if they had been shattered, rotted, and decayed countless tis, barely holding their form.
...
He had never touched anything directly before.
Even the smallest contact could easily snuff out such a fragile life.
He was living death itself.
It was only when the old rat had breathed its last that he could finally reach out.
Even then, he could do no more than barely brush the tips of its fur.
"All because you never once said you didn’t want to die."
Just those few words—if only I could have—
If only I could have freed you from the curse—
"...Ah."
A short silence, then a faint scoff.
How foolish.
A creature like him, who ruined everything he touched, speaking of salvation?
"The curse placed on you... only that child can undo it."
And so, he granted the old rat’s final wish.
The wish it had clung to until its very last breath.
The happiness of the one it had loved beyond all else.
"If that child smiles, so will you."
If she was the one you had given everything for, then—unlike —perhaps she would grant you a miracle.
A miracle that would guide you to where you were ant to be.
That would return to you the things you should have had, the bonds you should have never lost.
That would finally lead you to happiness.
"Live that way."
Never knowing what misfortune is.
With nowhere so dark and hopeless that you’d be forced to co begging a demon for a wish.
"In your next life, always stay in the light."
So that you never have to cross paths with sothing like again.
Reviews
All reviews (0)