By Zephyria 
The Prince looked down at Isaac, who was lost in thought. Then, he gripped Isaac’s hair again, pulling him close to overlap their lips. Perhaps not, he seemed to whisper faintly.
…Yes, perhaps not. It felt as though, regardless of what appearance he had taken, it would have ended up like this.
As their tongues entwined, a rich surge of life force flowed once more. Swallow more. Just a bit more. As if saying so, their lips parted for a moment only to overlap again, repeating the cycle of brief separation and reunion.
“Never again,”
Suddenly, the Prince’s grip on Isaac’s hair tightened. Isaac’s neck was arched back. The Prince’s deep blue eyes shone brilliantly right before his vision.
“Never pretend to run away again. No matter the intention. Do not leave your place.”
The Prince threatened in a low voice. Beneath his words lay a clear, suppressed anger, as if he would tear through Isaac’s throat right then and there if he did not answer in the affirmative. Within that grip, which had tightened anew as he spoke, Isaac hesitated for a moment.
At that time, he had no choice but to leave that place. It was what Isaac believed to be the best course of action. And he could not guarantee how he would act if such a situation arose again. …However,
“Yes.”
Isaac nodded.
Because, in that moment, it was his sincere truth.
Hailen was a considerably large territory.
Vast mountain ranges and hundreds of lakes, large and small, occupied most of the land, meaning the cities where people actually gathered were only a small part of Hailen. However, beyond the largest castle city usually referred to as ‘Hailen,’ the territory extended broadly to include nearby Atlane and Kuslo. And between them, nestled within the overlapping mountain ranges, were countless small villages.
Kuslo, ranked as the third largest in the vastness of Hailen, was a town built in a concave basin between overlapping mountain ranges. In Kuslo, where tens of thousands of households resided, the surrounding mountains could be seen from anywhere in the streets.
“It should have been somewhere around here…”
Isaac muttered, gazing at the distant mountain scenery outside the window. On one side of the long mountain range encircling Kuslo, several peaks overlapped, forming high and low ridges. They were mountain ridges that looked similar wherever one looked, with nothing particularly unique about them.
However, the ridge Isaac had seen in the Witch’s Mirror was undoubtedly there. And if that ridge were visible at that angle and distance, it was likely somewhere not far from the shop where Isaac was currently sitting.
Even within the same room, the angle changes depending on where the mirror is hung, and the sense of distance cannot be measured precisely, making it difficult to pinpoint an exact location. Furthermore, a witch who would not stay in one place for long might have moved her lodging by now, so it might not be of great significance, but they had certainly been in Kuslo.
As Isaac traced the familiar ridge with his eyes, he suddenly felt a gaze on his cheek and lowered his sight. His eyes met those of a man standing under a gas lamp across the street. The man, who had been watching Isaac, seemed to avert his gaze for a moment when their eyes met, but soon looked back at Isaac as if it were nothing. He maintained an attitude of indifference, regardless of whether Isaac had noticed him or not.
Isaac looked away from the man, who was staring at him with blatant hostility. Perhaps it was a relief that he was merely watching and not storming inside to cause a commotion. Isaac clicked his tongue, not even bothering to look for the Roberni mark that would surely be engraved somewhere on the man’s belongings.
From the moment he entered the outskirts of Kuslo, their gazes had followed him incessantly. Though the observers changed from time to time, those harsh and malicious eyes pursued them relentlessly. Sometimes feeling several pairs of eyes at once rather than just one or two, Isaac thought to himself that the Roberni faction was spread throughout all of Hailen.
While Isaac descended to Kuslo through several small villages in the mountains, he had already encountered Roberni’s subordinates multiple times, and those among them who did not flee had all lost their lives. Perhaps the word that Isaac was with the Prince had spread among them, as the Roberni gang hardly appeared before them by the time they nearly reached Kuslo.
And it was the same now that he had descended into Kuslo.
To say they did not appear would be a misnomer. They were constantly circling around Isaac and the Prince. Likely, the moment a gap appeared, those bastards would press a blade to their throats. It would be better to hide and avoid their eyes somehow, but…
“…”
There was someone right beside him who was far too conspicuous for that.
Isaac stared blankly at the Prince, who sat beside him, scanning the dim interior of the shop. In the cluttered, narrow shop where dust flew about, three or four middle-aged men were sitting at a corner table, perhaps friends of the shopkeeper visiting. Even as they shared stories about the state of the world, they occasionally glanced back at the Prince. It was only natural that he drew attention; he was sparkling all on his own, bathed in the sunlight streaming through the glass window.
Kaieon, perhaps sensing Isaac’s gaze, shifted his indifferent look away from the shop’s interior. Seeing the blue eyes that seemed to ask Why?, Isaac shook his head.
“No… I just thought you were certainly conspicuous.”
Kaieon-nim certainly could never go undercover unless he wore a hood, Isaac thought, forcing his gaze away from the blonde, blue-eyed beauty. If he didn’t, even he, who was accustomed to it, felt as though his attention would continue to be stolen.
“I can just cover myself in ink later,” the Prince said nonchalantly. Isaac wondered why he was suddenly making jokes. Above all, his beauty was not something that could be obscured by a mere bit of ink on his hair.
“Even if you are conspicuous, the Roberni gang wouldn’t dare harm Kaieon-nim, but…”
Isaac swallowed the words, I don’t think you should be in a place like this.
He had already asked yesterday. Whether it was alright for him to be here.
No matter how he thought about it, it couldn’t be alright. Both the fact that he was with Isaac—who had fled despite receiving the Grand Duke’s Decree and had now become a semi-criminal—and the mountain of work that always awaited him. Because he was someone so conspicuous by his very existence, the moment they entered Kuslo, the administrator would have already heard through someone that the Prince was here. The premise of traveling in secret did not apply to him in the first place. If there was any consolation, it was that there was no one in this country who could recklessly touch this Prince, but this situation did nothing to help his position.
However, the Prince did not respond to Isaac’s cautious questioning and seemed not to care. Thus, Isaac did not press further. How he conducted himself was his own concern.
Now, Isaac was simply puzzled. Why this person had come all the way here.
As far as Isaac could judge, the Prince was not someone who moved without a reason.
In the current situation, it would have been better for him to wait for Isaac to contact him separately, and Isaac assumed that the Prince, naturally, would have thought the same.
Of course, had he not come, Isaac might have suffered a setback against the Roberni faction stationed in the unexpected Hailen, but still, why?
Isaac stared blankly at the Prince, who was languidly observing the shop. When the Prince looked back at him with a face that seemed to ask why he was staring, Isaac quickly turned his head away. At the same time, he realized his mistake.
“—”
Sure enough, the Prince’s hand ruthlessly gripped Isaac’s chin. He turned it toward himself. Their eyes met exactly.
“What did I say?”
“…I will not look away.”
“Good.”
Holding Isaac’s chin, the Prince lightly tapped his cheek with a finger before letting go. For a moment, the Prince’s eyes seemed to narrow. The expressionless face looking at Isaac was somehow unfamiliar. Even though it was clearly a familiar face.
If asked how it was unfamiliar, he couldn’t describe it precisely, but there were occasional moments when a sudden feeling of strangeness washed over him. It happened when the Prince stared at him intently with those narrowed eyes, as if looking at something new and curious. Or… yes, come to think of it, it had happened yesterday as well.
On the way down to Kuslo with the Prince, they had passed through a small village in the mountains. In that tiny village with only a few houses, it seemed the witch had already visited; every house was empty, yet the traces of daily life remained intact.
Nothing—no living thing—remained.
As he stood staring blankly at the clothes left behind like husks, Isaac looked up and met the eyes of the Prince, who had been watching him.
The Prince was looking at Isaac with a faint frown.
The Prince, who had looked down at the husk-like clothes with eyes as cold and emotionless as ice, was now regarding Isaac with a solemn gaze that felt unfamiliar. It was as if he disliked Isaac silently staring at those clothes—as if he were actually worried.
The Prince, who gestured for Isaac to leave and pulled him out of the house, was expressionless as usual, and that momentary strangeness passed by.
But after that, occasionally, for very brief moments, that feeling of unfamiliarity would flicker. He didn’t know what to call that strangeness.
It felt somewhat awkward, and at the same time, a bit bashful—.
It was just as Isaac tilted his head, rubbing his face which was heating up for no reason.
“You’ve waited a long time. I’ve brought some things you might want…”
The shopkeeper, who had gone into the back of the warehouse and hadn’t emerged for a while, returned clutching a bundle of papers. The owner, who looked to be in his mid-forties, seemed quite strong for his lean and short stature; despite the bundle of papers appearing heavy, he placed them on the table without any sign of struggle.
“In Hailen, if you count every high mound as a mountain, there are hundreds, and if you count every stream as a river, there are thousands upon thousands. There is no map that draws every single one of them, none at all. Even a military map wouldn’t be able to mark all those things. I’ve managed to find some of the more detailed maps, but I’m not sure if they’ll be what you’re looking for…?”
The shopkeeper glanced between the Prince and Isaac as he unfolded a few sheets of paper. Several maps were spread wide across the table.
The maps were similar and not greatly different. Upon closer inspection, there were only minute differences, such as whether they focused more on the mountain terrain or provided more detail on the waterways; there was nothing fundamentally different.
The shopkeeper unfolded the maps one by one, but the Prince’s gaze, looking down at them indifferently with arms crossed, did not stop anywhere in particular. He seemed not to find anything satisfactory. Sensing this, the shopkeeper did not seem particularly pleased either.
“Still, if you want the most detailed one among them, it’s this one. It was made twenty or thirty years ago, but this one is drawn with the most concrete accuracy.”
The shopkeeper unfolded the final bundle of paper. As he said, this map was much larger and more detailed than the ones shown previously. However,
“Twenty or thirty years ago. Then any settlements established after that won’t be marked.”
The Prince spoke in a tone that suggested he wasn’t particularly fond of the final map either.
The moment those words fell, the gazes of the three or four men sitting at the corner table converged on them all at once. Although they were looking out of the corners of their eyes, Isaac noticed that their casual conversation stopped instantly. Simultaneously, he felt a subtle, hostile vigilance emanating from them.
Isaac calmly gauged the position of his sword hilt, pretending not to notice. Getting into a dispute with strangers might be trivial, but in an unfamiliar place—especially in the current situation where an attack could come from anywhere at any time—one could never be too vigilant.
Moreover, above all, those men had been paying attention to them from the beginning—from the moment the Prince and Isaac entered the shop to look for a map. It was more than simple curiosity about outsiders.
Could they also be Roberni’s people—no, that doesn’t seem right. Then what is this vigilance?
“I take it you’re looking for a map where settlements are detailed. In Hailen, villages are scattered throughout the mountains. Villages with a few dozen households are generally marked, but very small hamlets with only a few families are too numerous to count, so there is no map that perfectly marks every place where people live. The best one we have, let’s see…”
The shopkeeper opened the cupboard right behind him and began to rummage slowly. As he did, he asked,
“But what do you intend to do with such a map…?”
“I have a use for it.”
“A use… You look like outsiders; why would an outsider need to know the remote mountain villages of Hailen in such detail…?”
“Indeed, strange things have been happening in the mountain villages lately, and I wonder what use an outsider could possibly have for such a thing.”
Isaac, who had given a vague answer, shut his mouth. One of the men sitting at the table had stood up and approached behind Isaac. The eyes scanning Isaac and the Prince from head to toe were filled with suspicion.
“Strange things? What kind of things?”
Isaac turned toward them. The men, who had turned their bodies from the table to face him, scanned Isaac with displeased eyes. Isaac waited calmly until those wary eyes had finished examining him. However, it was strange; he had never heard that Kuslo was a place that guarded against outsiders this much. Basically, Hailen and its surrounding areas were renowned for their gentle and mild people.
“By the way, where are you young men from? You don’t seem like you’ve just come to this area for pleasure…?”
A man in his early fifties, who seemed the oldest among them, asked. After a brief thought, Isaac took out his identification tag from his robe and presented it.
“I am a guard belonging to the Royal Guard of the capital’s Royal Palace. I am currently pursuing a criminal suspect who disappeared in this vicinity of Hailen.”
The older man glanced at Isaac and took the tag. The other men also leaned in to peer at it. They exchanged glances, looking back and forth between the object stamped with the Royal Palace seal and Isaac. After staring at the tag for a while, one of the men gave a slight nod, seemingly having verified whether it was genuine.
“A criminal suspect? …Is he a person of Hailen?”
“No. He came from the capital, but he was last sighted in Hailen before disappearing. I suspect he fled into the nearby mountains; he couldn’t have stayed alone for long, so I imagine he might have hidden in some mountain village.”
Relieved that the suspect was not a person of Hailen, the men nodded, and the suspicion in their eyes began to fade. While a sliver of vigilance remained, they frowned and asked again with a concerned look.
“It would be a disaster if a criminal suspect hid in a mountain village. What if he harms innocent people? But what kind of crime was it?”
“…He is a man suspected of harming a child of the Grand Duke’s house.”
Isaac replied nonchalantly after a very brief silence. He felt the Prince’s eyes glance at him from the side, but he absolutely did not look back.
“A child of the Grand Duke’s house! Then isn’t he a great villain?”
“Yes, though he is only a suspect for now. He fled the Hailen area, so I must find him, but there are so many villages in these mountains. That is why I need a detailed map, but I haven’t found a suitable one…”
“Yes, in that case, it makes sense that you’d need a map. But there are many villages too small to be marked on a map, so you won’t be able to visit them all one by one.”
“But my superiors are clamoring for me to find him, so what choice does a subordinate have? I’ll have to search every nook and cranny of the mountains.”
While agreeing with Isaac that he was working hard, the men still harbored a faint suspicion. Then, one of them suddenly shouted as if remembering something, “Ah, come to think of it,”
“Homan said earlier. He heard from a cousin who works at the Star Palace that a commotion broke out at the Star Palace just recently. Someone who committed a crime was discovered and fled, and for some reason, an official order to capture them hasn’t been issued yet, but there will be word soon.”
The man’s words and Isaac’s words roughly aligned. Only then did the men seem to believe him readily. The lingering suspicions soon faded. “Right, right, you’ve had a hard time,” the men said, patting Isaac on the shoulder, and Isaac could only smile. He didn’t know why the Prince’s gaze, staring intently from the side, felt so piercing.
“Then this one…? Is he also a guard?”
One of the men pointed with his head toward the Prince and asked Isaac. He seemed reluctant to ask the Prince directly. Indeed, the Prince’s aura was not one that allowed anyone to approach him casually.
“This person… is a relative of the deceased. He is assisting in the pursuit of the suspect.”
At Isaac’s words, spoken without once looking at the Prince, the men’s eyes widened. “Then he must be someone of very high rank. No wonder he didn’t look ordinary,” they whispered, hesitantly standing up. The Prince, however, didn’t seem to care that they stood there awkwardly, not quite knowing how to properly show their respect.
The Prince, who had been gazing steadily at Isaac, turned his gaze and asked the men briefly.
“What about the strange occurrences in the mountain villages?”
The men looked at each other for a moment. As if feeling an ominous sensation, one of them, after frowning for a while, spoke as if throwing the words out.
“Villages are appearing where people vanish entirely…”
After speaking, the men fell silent, appearing even more unsettled. Isaac also fell silent. A cold chill washed over his chest as the memory of a village where only empty houses remained surfaced in his mind. Following that was the image of a young man dying in terror. So many people. Entire families at once. A child before the eyes of its mother. Or a father before the eyes of his child—.
Just then, a finger snapped right in front of Isaac’s eyes. When Isaac looked up, the Prince was withdrawing his hand. Don’t think about it. A phrase the Prince had once said suddenly came to mind. Don’t think any more about those bastards. As that voice echoed, his heart suddenly calmed down a bit.
“Villages where people vanish entirely…”
When Isaac asked again, the silence was not long this time. Despite their lingering unease, the men spoke readily.
“Those living in the mountains come out to the city here, or to Atlane or Hailen, once every few days or weeks to buy necessary goods. But when someone’s visits suddenly stopped for a while, we wondered what happened. Then, when someone had business crossing the mountain path near that village and stopped by, they found the village empty, with no one there… stories like that have started circulating a few months ago.”
“Since there are so many tiny hamlets, there’s no way to know every single one, but it seems there are quite a few such villages. I’ve already heard of four or five places,” the men said with grim expressions. Then, one person suddenly spoke.
“It’s the work of a witch.”
The work of a witch. Isaac remained silent and looked at the man who had said it. Beside him, the other men nodded in agreement.
“There’s no other way to explain such things than as the work of a witch.”
“Only a witch could do such a thing.”
“A witch…”
When Isaac murmured low, as if to himself, the men shook their heads, assuming he meant it couldn’t be.
“It’s not a common occurrence in the outskirts, is it? Long ago, many witches lived in Hailen. So there have often been stories of witches eating people. Though such things stopped after the witch hunts made them hard to find.”
“There were no incidents of entire villages vanishing like this.”
“A witch is eating people; an evil witch.”
“We must catch the witch. We must catch and kill her.”
The men nodded to one another, speaking with determination. Then, looking back at Isaac and the Prince, who were standing silently, they spoke in a somewhat apologetic tone.
“In such a situation, we were just mentioning among ourselves that it’s strange how many outsiders have suddenly entered recently. Moreover, most of them look like they’ve lived rough lives. There are a few loitering around here right now, so it was even stranger that you lot came in looking for maps. So, are the fellows outside also guards?”
“…No, probably not…”
Isaac trailed off with an ambiguous smile. Kuslo wasn’t so small that they wouldn’t recognize outsiders, but it would certainly be noticeable if the number of rough-looking men suddenly increased.
However, even if Roberni had subordinates throughout the country, he wouldn’t have called them all here. Had they gathered to such a noticeable extent? Isaac glanced at the man still blatantly loitering outside the shop and clicked his tongue.
Seeing that the government office didn’t take action even though they were so openly spread across the city, he could tell how politically well-connected Roberni was.
…But seeing three black, vicious, ownerless cats roaming the streets and no one doing anything about it, maybe the public security in Kuslo is just bad… Isaac turned his gaze away from the black cats catching a mouse at the end of the alley. Even in the mountains, they would catch snakes, birds, or mice and create work for him by making him bury them all; he just hoped they wouldn’t bring that back. And he hoped they wouldn’t say things like, “It’s a gift,” or “So offer us goat meat in return.”
“Then these maps, and this… and this one. Three maps should be enough.”
Isaac sifted through the maps the owner had brought out from the warehouse and selected three. One map with the most detailed geography and two others that clearly showed the locations of hamlets. If a perfect map didn’t exist, taking these and synthesizing them was the best alternative.
When Isaac looked back at the Prince, the Prince nodded. A single gold coin taken from his robe fell onto the table. The moment the royal gold coin clinked, the men, who seemed about to linger and say more, fell silent instantly. Leaving them there, glancing at each other, the Prince turned around, and Isaac, scratching his head in bewilderment thinking, Uh, I should get the change, a lot of change, quickly hugged the maps and followed him.
The afternoon streets, as the sun began to set, were quite crowded. The Prince, walking ahead, was heading toward the lodging they had secured upon entering Kuslo.
“I’ll have to go and combine the maps.”
Isaac spoke, thinking it would take the entire afternoon.
He would just need to add the mountain village markings onto the geographical map, but since there were countless red dots marking where people lived, transferring them to the map would be quite a task.
Even on the way to the lodging, which was slightly away from the center, Isaac felt a steady gaze. They were likely men from Roberni’s gang. They’ll probably pounce the moment I’m separated from the Prince… Isaac sighed inwardly. The witch was one thing, but what to do about this? He had to find a solution regardless, but the way forward seemed bleak.
“…Do I really have to cross over to the land of the new moon?”
It was just as Isaac murmured with a click of his tongue. The Prince, walking a couple of steps ahead, suddenly stopped. Feeling that cold, silent gaze turning back toward him, Isaac looked at him in confusion. He checked the direction the Prince was facing to see if something had happened, but there seemed to be nothing… just as he thought that.
A middle-aged man sitting at an outdoor table of a quiet teahouse at the end of the alley caught his eye. Two men stood behind him like attendants.
The man was lifting his teacup to smell the aroma while looking at Isaac and the Prince. Turning his wrinkled eyes away from them, he said to the two men behind him, “Good tea,” and drank. Despite sitting with a relaxed air, the man showed no openings; Isaac knew who he was. He had seen him briefly from a distance before.
It was Roberni.
Roberni had come here personally. And the fact that he was sitting right there suggested that the reason for his visit was them—Isaac and the Prince. Now that it was clear who the mysterious assailant was, he intended to see this through to the end.
“Roberni has come.”
Isaac murmured. However, the Prince did not even turn his gaze in the direction Isaac was looking.
“Where did you say you were going?”
The Prince, looking at Isaac coldly, asked something completely out of the blue, leaving Isaac staring at him blankly. Did he mishear me?
“I said Roberni has come.”
“Where are you saying you are going?”
“Huh? Me? …I’m not going anywhere.”
More importantly, Roberni is here. Isaac wondered if the man had suddenly gone deaf, but since Roberni’s gaze was fixed on them, he couldn’t ask every detail and instead reminded him of the important fact.
The Prince looked at Isaac with an expression that wasn’t particularly pleasant, then turned his head. For a very brief moment, the Prince seemed to look toward the table where Roberni sat, but upon meeting his eyes, he indifferently turned away from Roberni—who was bowing his head with feigned politeness—and began walking again. Isaac simply followed behind him, silently hugging the maps.
Until they turned the corner, he could feel Roberni’s gaze on the back of his head.
The feeling that he truly intended to see this to the end was palpable.
“To be targeted by Roberni himself… I’ve really made it in life.”
Isaac let out a hollow laugh.
「Of course, you’ve made it, you’ve made it.」
「Is he only targeting that one? Manbang was trying to throw the Grand Duke in jail too.」
「Oops, he’s really made it big! He’s going to be someone someday!」
“…”
How can those bastards wag their tongues so well even with mice in their mouths… Isaac glanced back at the three who were trotting along, sticking to his heels. Then, he quickly followed the Prince into the lodging and slammed the building door shut before they could follow. He didn’t even look back, regardless of whether they shouted from outside.
But of course, he expected this.
The moment the lodging staff politely opened the room door, Isaac saw three cats sitting in a row right in front of the door and thought: Not surprising at all.
As soon as the door opened, a half-dead mouse staggered out from between them, and the staff member, who had been rambling a long boast about how ‘our hotel is a historic establishment, second to none in Kuslo…’, had to run around in a panic. Isaac firmly stepped on the tails of the wicked cats who were snickering at the sight.
As soon as the Prince entered the room, he went straight into the bathroom, and Isaac sat in a chair after spreading the three maps on a wide table. He then began checking the villages marked on the maps onto the other maps. Since there were so many small hamlets, it seemed it would take quite a while.
“…”
While he did this, was that witch still eating people?
Suddenly remembering the clothes lying on the floor like shed skins, Isaac took a deep breath. His heart felt heavy.
But why suddenly?
Why did Alikisa start eating people? It was too many people for a mage simply trying to maintain her consciousness. While living hidden in the human world, she was absorbing people, risking the danger of being noticed. Why—?
「She’s trying to break the Curse.」
「To break the Curse the witches put on her.」
The cats spoke abruptly. Isaac lifted his gaze from the maps to see them perched right on the edge of the maps.
“…Does eating people break a Curse?”
「She’s trying to offset the Curse by accumulating life force.」
「But she’d need an enormous amount of life force for that.」
「That’s why she’s sucking them all dry, isn’t it? Without leaving even bone dust.」
「Right, right. Seeing how she eats even that dry, tasteless bone dust, she really does eat frugally.」
「Phew, we should learn some of that frugality.」
The cats’ conversation was gradually drifting off-topic.
Waving his hand to clear the cats off the maps, Isaac put down his pen and let out a long sigh.
It was said that Alikisa’s body was under a Curse. The witches who died because of Alikisa’s betrayal had placed a Curse on her, and to avoid that Curse, Alikisa had hidden her body deep somewhere.
And now, she intended to reclaim that body.
It was understandable. Dwelling in a human body must have been very uncomfortable. Since a human body cannot withstand a witch’s energy for long, she would have had to change bodies periodically, and finding a suitable body that could contain a witch’s energy and use Mana each time would not have been easy. Moreover, now that she was in a position of being hunted, she must have missed her own body even more. Her own body, which she could move freely and as she pleased.
“Where would she have left her body…”
Isaac murmured without realizing it. Then,
“She would have left it not far away.”
The answer came from the bathroom. Isaac turned toward the sound of someone walking and dripping water, as if having just finished a shower, and for a moment, his eyes widened as he looked up at him.
His hair was black.
The golden hair that had been dazzlingly sparkling until a moment ago was now dyed a dull black. What the Prince was carelessly tossing into the trash can in the corner of the room was the ink bottle that had been on the side of the desk.
“…”
Not even proper dye, but with ink… No, more importantly, why would he do that to such beautiful hair? Isaac didn’t know what to say first and could only blink, staring at him blankly. The Prince, pouring liquor into a glass with ice, approached while lightly shaking the glass. The sound of ice clinking echoed.
“She cannot keep that vast amount of life force in that body indefinitely, so she must be transferring the collected life force into her original body little by little. Since she must continue transferring it until there is a sufficient amount, she cannot be far from her original body.”
“…”
“From now on, we must watch for where that witch’s body is. Now your eyes can finally be used effectively.”
As he spoke and looked at Isaac, the Prince finally noticed that Isaac was staring up at him in astonishment. To the Prince, who stared back as if asking why he was looking like that, Isaac hesitated and murmured.
“Your hair…”
“Ah, it was a hassle.”
He must have spent quite a lot of time with the Prince. Now, the Prince’s nonchalant answer was interpreted by Isaac’s ears as: ‘Since most people in the Hailen region have dark skin or hair, bright blonde is too conspicuous and it’s a hassle that people stare more, so I dyed it dark.’ However,
“…I don’t think it’ll be very effective…”
If it’s someone passing by from a distance, maybe, but… he murmured, then changed his mind, thinking it would have some utility in that people wouldn’t stare even from a distance. Certainly, that platinum blonde had been strikingly visible from afar in the Hailen vicinity.
Just as he was thinking that changing hair color doesn’t change a person, but it was somehow a bit of a shame,
「Oops! Where did that sparkly pretty thing go?!」
「What a waste, what a pity, that bright and sparkling thing!」
The cats wailed like they were screaming. When have I ever seen those bastards be so grief-stricken and sincerely regret something? Isaac thought as he looked at them. Then again, being witches, they shared the same taste for flashiness. Even though there was no way they could understand the words, the cats continued to chatter sorrowfully in front of the Prince, who looked at them with an annoyed gaze.
「Even if the life source had a temper like hell, in terms of looks, he was the greatest beauty in the world.」
「Now he’s probably dropped to second place. With that plain, dark hair color.」
“…Look at your own fur colors first…”
「Our fur is glossy and elegant, like seductive obsidian!」
When Isaac murmured, the three retorted indignantly. They huddled their heads together for a while, whispering, 「He doesn’t even have fine fur like us,」 and 「It’s jealousy, jealousy,」 before looking at the Prince again and letting out a disappointed sigh.
「Then if Manbang tells us to bring the greatest beauty in the world, we’ll have to look for someone else.」
One of them suddenly muttered. It wasn’t that he was intensely interested, but a man’s natural instincts are unavoidable; Isaac’s ears perked up at the mention of the world’s greatest beauty, and he asked, “The world’s greatest beauty? Who is it now?”
Suddenly, a hand swept across the floor in a single motion. And in that hand, which had just skimmed the surface, three cats were dangling by their scruffs. The cats, momentarily bewildered, only realized they had been caught a moment later and began to struggle, but it was already too late. Once caught in the Prince’s grip, it was over.
It’s amazing every time I see it, how he hooks those ghost-like things so easily… While Isaac was admiring him, the Prince opened the wardrobe door, tossed the three inside, and slammed it shut. He then took a large lock from his bundle of belongings and snapped it onto the door handle; the temple’s seal was stamped prominently on the surface of the lock. The clank of the lock engaging echoed unusually loud.
「Huh…? Wh-what?」
「Why won’t this open?」
Sounds leaked through the gaps of the wardrobe door, followed by the rattling sound of the door shaking.
Leaving the cats to wail inside the wardrobe, the Prince returned. Isaac met the gaze of the Prince, who was staring at him with a cold, piercing look, and murmured in a small voice, “It suits you well.”
The Prince was not the type of person to care whether he was the most beautiful person in the world, but his expression didn’t look particularly pleasant. Being sharp as a tack, he had clearly guessed what the cats had said just from Isaac’s words.
Should I add that he’s still beautiful? While Isaac agonized over whether to add another comment, the Prince said nothing more and sat in the chair, gesturing with his head toward the map spread out on the table.
“So, the map?”
“I am marking the locations of the villages. There are quite a few, but I should be able to finish by this afternoon.”
Thank goodness, the subject changed, Isaac thought, feeling inwardly relieved as he pointed to the map.
“This place and this place are the deserted villages we passed yesterday. And here as well.”
Lightly tapping the map, Isaac wondered how many more of these villages would no longer be inhabited. Perhaps, at this very moment, another village was disappearing. He took a deep breath, suppressing the heaviness returning to his heart.
“The southwest, then…”
The Prince muttered while looking at the map.
As he said, the villages where people had vanished were located to the south and west of the mountain range surrounding Kuslo. Although the confirmed number was still small, those villages were not far from one another.
The witch’s body was somewhere nearby.
Consequently, there was a high probability that one of the nearby villages would disappear next.
No one knew when or where it would be. It could be the immediate neighbor of the sacrificed village, or somewhere beyond the mountains. It could be in a few days, or at this very moment.
“…I think I’m slightly lacking in energy,”
Isaac thought for a moment and then looked up.
“Would it be alright if I took some?”
He just wanted to obtain life force. He had no other intention; he only wanted the life force to see where the witch was. Even as he repeated this to himself over and over, he didn’t know why his face grew hot every time.
The Prince watched Isaac for a moment—Isaac, who was trying his best to act nonchalant while his face turned flush—and then flicked his finger. Isaac approached the chair where the Prince sat and stood beside him.
“…”
Excuse me, thank you for the meal—several phrases crossed his mind, but he said nothing. Isaac silently bowed his waist toward the Prince, who was staring at him with an expressionless face. I wish he wouldn’t stare so openly, he thought, quickly leaning his head closer to escape that line of sight.
Their lips overlapped. Isaac slid his tongue between the parting lips and entwined it with the Prince’s. The sensation of rubbing their tongues slowly, as if stroking, was already familiar, yet it never ceased to feel new no matter how many times they did it.
Suddenly, his body grew hot. Feeling heat rising from the back of his throat, he exhaled a hot breath and sucked on the Prince’s tongue. He felt the life force beginning to leak out slowly. Drop by drop, like a faucet being opened bit by bit, the life force grew denser.
Then, the Prince wrapped an arm around Isaac, who had been standing bent over by the chair. The arm winding around his waist pulled Isaac into a tight embrace. Caught off guard, Isaac practically collapsed onto the Prince, and he reflexively tried to push himself up, but the arm holding him firmly and the hand gripping the back of his neck and pulling him wouldn’t let go.
“…—”
Their lips locked more deeply. The tongues, saliva, and breath exchanged between them heated his body to a swelter.
The Prince’s body, which had been cool after stepping out in a single gown following a shower, had also become hot, perhaps absorbing the heat from Isaac’s pressed skin. As the arm holding Isaac’s body tightened further, the chair creaked faintly.
Then, the Prince suddenly let him go. Feeling the grip on his torso and the back of his neck release, Isaac stopped the kiss. I guess he wants to stop. Thinking that he wanted to drink a bit more life force, but feeling too awkward to ask for more, Isaac began to pull his head back, only to freeze upon seeing the Prince right before his eyes.
Having forgotten for a moment while indulging in the life force with his eyes closed, the black hue of the hair felt unfamiliar, and he blinked at it for a while.
…Still, he looks like a sculpture. Although the black color was stained as if drenched in ink and the hair looked coarse, and it felt strange and unfamiliar compared to when it was platinum, it still drew his gaze.
Sensing Isaac’s gaze as he stepped away from the chair, the Prince also stood up and looked at Isaac with a puzzled expression. Isaac gave a faint smile and shook his head.
“No, it’s nothing. It’s just a bit unfamiliar… The taste of the life force is exactly like Lord Kaieon’s, but since the appearance is different, it feels a bit strange.”
It almost feels like I did it with a different person, Isaac murmured, scratching his head awkwardly.
The Prince, who had just stood up from the chair, stopped in his tracks and looked down at Isaac. Isaac, meeting his gaze without any particular thought, flinched when he encountered those blue eyes staring through him with a complete lack of expression.
Uh, for some reason, it felt like a warning alarm rang in my ears just now; he looks like he’s staring at me quite scarily. Isaac blinked at those deep blue eyes that had suddenly turned ice-cold and instinctively took a step back.
Right then, the Prince grabbed Isaac by the scruff of his neck.
“Why are you backing away?”
“Uh… no… I just thought you should rest…”
“You should still be lacking in life force to see where that witch is.”
The Prince turned around, holding onto the neck of Isaac, who was slowly trying to pull away. Isaac followed behind him as if being dragged, but they didn’t go far. Reaching the bed in the center of the room, a few steps away, the Prince dropped Isaac onto it as if throwing him.
“For a fellow who is quite clever and quick-witted, you’ve completely misread the situation. Did you think I gave you all today’s life force with that?”
We’re far from finished. Simultaneously with those words, the Prince pushed Isaac down and lay on top of him.
And then—their lips overlapped far more violently than before. The sensation of a tongue greedily exploring his mouth, as if a beast were biting, would not leave Isaac’s lips or the inside of his mouth. Amidst the relentless sensation of pushing in to the point where he couldn’t breathe, the feeling of his skin being exposed to the cool air was added.
Clothes, stripped away as if torn, fell beside the bed. The hands groping his body, the hands gripping and pulling his waist, would not leave Isaac. The tongue that had been obsessively swallowing his lips and licking the inside of his mouth suddenly slid downward. At the sensation of his neck being bitten hard, Isaac let out a short, involuntary “Ugh.”
The teeth piercing the skin of his neck to the point where blood seeped out were sharp. It truly felt like being bitten by a beast. No, at the very least, it seemed certain that he was not human.
The neck, the chest, the waist—every time Isaac flinched, the sensation of being obsessively tormented, bitten, and stroked heated his entire body in an instant.
But it wasn’t just Isaac. The Prince’s breathing was also rough and hot, as if a sweltering heat were surging within him. He groped every corner of Isaac’s body persistently, as if searching for a place to pour that heat.
How many days and nights had he spent like this with this man? Even though it should no longer be unfamiliar, Isaac gasped and shuddered every time the Prince’s hand touched him. It shouldn’t be unfamiliar, he should be used to it, but it felt more foreign as time went on. He felt his body reacting more sensitively to this touch.
Even now—the moment the Prince swept his tongue up Isaac’s chest, the moment sharp teeth bit the nipple, Isaac jumped and let out a short sound. The moment that sound reached his ears, it was a panting moan that made his own face flush with heat.
For a moment, the Prince seemed to stop his movements. Then, the Prince let out a short, dry laugh and chuckled low, like a growl.
“Now, with a body like this, it will be harder to live as a human. With a body that has become so desperate for life force, can you live like a human?”
“—”
“But remember this, witch. If you dare act like a witch anywhere where I cannot see, I will not leave you be. Anywhere, —no matter whose life force, if you drink even a single drop, know that I will not let it slide.”
The Prince gripped the scruff of Isaac’s neck. He looked down at Isaac from right above his face. Looking down as if he were about to devour him, the Prince pushed his waist between Isaac’s legs.
Isaac flinched involuntarily. It was because he sensed what was about to happen. A faint fear made his heart thrum loudly.
However, there wasn’t much time to feel fear. Looking down at Isaac’s anxiously tense face, the Prince bit his lip. Simultaneously with that short pain, something massive touched the inside of his thigh, which the Prince’s hand had roughly gripped and pushed aside. It soon forced its way open and pushed into Isaac’s body.
“—!!”
Tears welled up in his tightly shut eyes. A moan burst out, but it disappeared into the Prince’s mouth and was not heard externally.
The Prince’s member was burrowing into Isaac’s body. It was so frighteningly swollen that it felt like that of some giant beast, as if it would tear apart the narrow body that was struggling and fighting to escape. Once the fist-sized tip forced its way through the narrow entrance and barely settled inside, the member, which seemed to stop for a brief moment, was simply shoved deep into the body, which had been stretched to a precarious tightness.
“…—!! —!!!”
Isaac’s body jolted. The Prince, lying atop Isaac, pressed him down with his own weight and pushed his lower body even deeper. Thump, thump, thump—despite such violent thrusting, the body, which had been so tightly fitted, only fully accepted him after three or four powerful surges.
Only then did Isaac slightly part his lips, and beneath the Prince, who repeatedly gave light kisses to his cheek, he looked up at the ceiling, tears streaming down reflexively.
Something immense had entered his body. Something that seemed impossible to fit entirely into a human body had forced its way in. He felt breathless. Yet, even though he wanted to stay curled up and motionless, the Prince soon began thrusting again. At the sweltering sensation of the object tightly entering and leaving his body, Isaac hugged the Prince’s back tightly and closed his eyes.
It was no longer unfamiliar. They had overlapped their bodies dozens, hundreds, countless times. Yet, every time they did it, it felt new and foreign. To the point where his lower body trembled. …Nevertheless,
“Yes, you must eat. I’ll give you plenty, so eat your fill.”
The Prince suddenly let out a low laugh and spoke into Isaac’s ear.
Hearing those words, Isaac realized that at some point, he had begun to shake his hips. Longing for the terribly sweet life force beginning to seep from that heavy, massive piece of flesh. He could tell that he had begun to greedily crave the life force.
And another thing he realized was that whenever that happened, the Prince would always exhale a rough breath mixed with a faint smile and embrace Isaac as if to crush him. As if he were immensely satisfied that Isaac wanted him.
Isaac hugged the Prince’s neck. Suddenly, his fingertips touched coarse hair. The ink-soaked hair felt dry and rough. So, as he held his head while closing his eyes like this,
“…Like a different person,”
He murmured unconsciously.
At that exact moment, Isaac realized something was wrong. The Prince, who had been lying on top of him, stopped moving.
An ominous premonition swept over him instantly, and Isaac opened his mouth to say something, but what burst from his mouth was a loud moan.
The Prince began to push into Isaac violently. Like a bison hit by a bolt, he hammered his lower body upward as if striking body against body. Thud, thud—the sound of flesh colliding began to echo harshly.
“Ka, Kai, eon, Ka,”
He tried to call him. He wanted to beg him to stop, whatever had suddenly made him angry. However, his entire body shook so violently that he couldn’t even utter a single name properly. His lower body felt as hot as if it were on fire.
“—Yes, you do know. Who am I?”
The Prince, who had savagely bitten Isaac’s shoulder, whispered low. It was a terrifying tone, like a beast growling.
“Kai, Kaieon, Lord,”
“Yes. Witch, whose life force are you eating right now?”
“It is Lord Kaieon’s,”
Yes, you said it well, the Prince whispered in Isaac’s ear. Yet, as if his anger hadn’t fully subsided, he bit Isaac’s earlobe. But more than the biting of the earlobe, the sensation of the lower body slamming into him even more violently left Isaac shaking frantically and gasping for air. Even as cries like moans mixed into his breath, the Prince’s movements did not slow.
“Do you want to try eating another fellow’s life force?”
“—, I’ve never thought, about that,”
Isaac couldn’t finish his answer. It was because his body was shaking so much that he could only manage that much. The thrusting was becoming even faster. The object filling his body grew even more swollen. Thinking that his body might actually split in two this time, Isaac clung to the Prince’s neck. The Prince laughed low.
“Remember this well. You must not have such thoughts. Do not even think of another fellow. For the rest of your life, the only life force you can eat is mine. Do you understand?”
“—”
No answer came. He was too breathless to respond. However, Isaac managed to nod his head, and since his drenched face was pressed against the Prince’s neck, the Prince must have known he was nodding.
The Prince seemed to laugh wildly, like a beast.
“Yes. But in exchange, I will pour it into you so that you are never lacking for the rest of your life. Enough to overflow, so that you don’t feel a moment of deficiency—every single day.”
The Prince whispered low through his teeth. Simultaneously, his lower body drove into Isaac violently—and at the same moment Isaac stopped breathing, the Prince also stopped moving. A sweltering heat exploded violently inside Isaac’s body. The life force, which burst out as if exploding and filling his abdomen, permeated Isaac’s body entirely.
Like warm water slowly filling from the bottom, the life force piled up steadily from within. In that vivid and clear sensation, Isaac lay there as if entranced. Though he hadn’t lost consciousness, he felt as if his mind were drifting somewhere in the air like a dream.
Lying atop Isaac, the Prince did not move away. He did not leave Isaac’s body, but continued to press endless kisses upon Isaac’s cheeks, lips, and ears. Sometimes softly, as if merely brushing against him, and sometimes fiercely, like a predator suddenly pouncing, the Prince traced Isaac’s skin with his lips before lifting his head. He looked down at Isaac. Isaac’s gaze, which had been wandering vacantly through the air, slowly returned to the Prince.
“Call my name.”
“—…, Lord Kaieon.”
Isaac whispered in a strained voice, sounding like a breath of wind. Satisfied, the Prince pressed a light kiss to Isaac’s lips. Then he asked once more.
“Who am I?”
“Lord Kaieon.”
“Yes. Call me again.”
It was strange. Such a low and gentle voice. He didn’t seem like the person Isaac knew. That unfamiliar feeling he had been sensing occasionally lately brushed past him again. That strange, somewhat embarrassing—warmth.
Call me quickly, the Prince whispered again, lightly biting his lip, and Isaac embraced him. Exhaling a languid breath, just as he opened his mouth to call his name—
「Ah, the life source! The life source!!」
「What are you keep asking! Do you not even know your own name?!」
…he stopped.
In front of the closet door, which had begun to rattle and shake, Isaac froze in silent stillness. The Prince also fell silent.
「How long do you intend to keep doing that in front of us!」
「Our eyes are rotting! Our ears are rotting!」
「How insolent, doing this in front of an elder!」
The lock on the closet door rattled. Through a gap in the door about an inch wide, three pairs of glittering eyes were peering obliquely outside. For eyes that claimed to be rotting, they were quite glossy; for ears that claimed to be rotting, they were quite perky.
The Prince glanced at the closet with an annoyed look and, just as he was about to lie back over Isaac while ignoring the noise, Isaac—whose mind had already been drenched in cold water—slowly rolled his body to partially escape from beneath him.
“The witch… I must see what Alikisa is doing. While we are doing this, she might be up to something…”
Half of it was an excuse, but half of it was sincere.
For a moment, the Prince seemed to resist by pressing down firmly on Isaac’s body, but after looking down at Isaac, who was gazing up at him pleadingly, he clicked his tongue briefly and moved aside. The muttered words, Fine, we can do it again in a bit, lingered uncomfortably in Isaac’s ears, but regardless, he had escaped for now. Seeing that the Prince was still casting a dissatisfied glance his way, Isaac hurriedly sat up and shifted his consciousness.
What was the witch doing? Alikisa. She must be somewhere not far away; where and what was she doing now?
As he closed his eyes and concentrated his consciousness, his eyes slowly began to feel hot. No matter how many times he experienced it, the sensation remained consistently painful, causing Isaac to frown.
As the inside of his eyelids burned with heat, his heart began to beat violently, as if trying to further intensify that heat. Even with his eyes closed, he could clearly feel his vision distorting and dizziness arising. Then, within that pitch-black void, the sight slowly began to brighten blurrily, and eventually, something appeared as if emerging from a thick fog.
The first thing he saw was a long, long mountain range. A range that seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance. The long ridge, which felt both familiar and unfamiliar, was likely somewhere surrounding Hailen. Beneath that ridge, where snow-covered peaks were scattered here and there, a closer view came into sight.
There was a forest. A lush, dense forest.
Though it was certainly midday, the branches covered the sky to the extent that it felt like a dark evening, and beneath them, the next thing he saw was a water surface.
Isaac was momentarily startled. It was because the water level was excessively high. The surface of the water was right beneath his eyes. He could see ripples spreading with every breath he exhaled right below his field of vision.
Only then did he realize he was submerged in water up to his neck.
There, in a lake somewhere in the dense forest, they were. The young mage, Alikisa, was immersed in the lake up to her neck.
It might be more accurate to call it a pond than a lake. They were submerged in the middle of a pond that wasn’t very large—roughly the width where lushly overgrown branches could reach and cover the top of one’s head.
The pond they were submerged in was covered in bluish moss, making the bottom invisible; it seemed as though no one visited and nothing lived there. Yet, in the cloudy blue water, a dim blue light rose from within the water only near where they were submerged, as if a lantern had been dipped inside.
A space of desolate silence, without a single sound.
If Isaac watched them this long, the witch should have noticed by now, but she remained motionless, as if her attention were captured by something else. She simply stayed in place, her gaze dropped only toward the shimmering light rising below.
Isaac merely watched that silent place.
Then, at some point, he felt the sensation of a cheek being gently stroked.
Isaac, who had been seeing through the witch’s eyes, momentarily wondered if someone was stroking the witch, but he soon realized this sensation was happening in his own reality.
Someone was stroking Isaac’s cheek. Slowly and softly, as if brushing over something new and precious. Isaac knew whose body temperature that somewhat cool touch belonged to. Thus, Isaac opened his eyes as if that hand had called to him.
“…….”
Returning from the witch’s vision to his own always felt like being pushed or bounced back from somewhere else. Although, as always, he had opened his eyes of his own will rather than being pushed out by the witch, Isaac momentarily felt a wave of dizziness and the world spinning, so he quietly pressed his fingers to his temple. His eyes, which had felt like they were burning, throbbed. Only then did he newly feel his heart, which had been pounding and fluctuating wildly. And a sudden surge of life force seemed to flow out all at once.
Surprised at how naturally he accepted the Prince’s kiss amidst the dizziness, Isaac swallowed the life force flowing in through their touching tongues. Even after the dizziness subsided and the energy that had plummeted was replenished, their lips did not part for a while. Not until Isaac abruptly muttered after a brief separation.
“……A pond.”
As Isaac muttered, the Prince looked down at him in silence. Isaac looked up at him and spoke.
“She was immersed in a pond. Up to her neck. She was concentrating on something in the bluish, mossy water, so she didn’t notice me watching… something was glowing blue in the water. Blue, like light reflecting off ice.”
Though I couldn’t see what it was because it was blurry, he added, yet Isaac felt as if he knew what it was. The thing the witch was concentrating all her spirit on. The thing submerged in a small pond hidden beneath the dense trees deep in the mountains, where no one visits. The thing she was pouring shining life force into.
That was—.
「Alikisa was there…!」
A cat spoke. At some point—likely while Isaac was watching the witch—the three cats, who seemed to have been released from the closet, were sitting side by side on the table, their eyes gleaming as they looked at Isaac.
「In a deep and secluded pond.」
「Just like the times when the old witches used to take the essence.」
「She was submerged in there…!」
The cats’ eyes flickered like pitch-black flames.
「Where was it? That pond?」
The three witches asked Isaac with glittering eyes. However, Isaac could not answer immediately.
It was a small pond, as if hidden beneath the trees in a deep forest where the foliage was so dense it seemed no one had visited for a long time. And those peaks seen in the distance, with snow covering the tops here and there.
“……In the temperate Hailen, there aren’t many peaks covered in snow.”
Isaac muttered. He tried to spring up from the bed—but since there was no strength in his legs, he tumbled back onto the blankets, and he asked the Prince to bring the map from the table. He then traced the high-altitude peaks.
「Once we know which pond it is, pulling her body out will be simple.」
「There is more than one or two witches waiting for Alikisa.」
「Once she is pulled from the pond, the Curse that has been searching for her body for so long will finally find its destination.」
The black bodies of the cats swayed as if excited.
After examining the map for a long while, Isaac finally pointed to a spot.
“Around here. ……Where these peaks are visible in a row. The mountaintops didn’t seem that high, so the elevation must be quite high. And…… a place covered in birch trees.”
Those yellow, beautiful trees. Isaac imagined the body that would be quietly submerged beneath them. It had been submerged in a quiet and beautiful place for a long time.
The Prince, looking down at the map, suddenly said, “Rihan.” Despite the call not being loud, the door opened immediately and a man entered. It was the man he had seen in the forest a while ago. The man dressed in frontier attire who had pierced Roberni’s subordinate with an iron arrow.
He was now dressed in attire commonly seen in Hailen, but the rugged and dangerous aura could not be hidden. The Prince said this man had been his direct subordinate when he was at the frontier.
Frontier soldiers were famous for being ferocious and rough. They could be called the strongest and coarsest military unit in the country. Being the Prince’s direct subordinate meant he was among the highest ranks of those soldiers.
When Isaac had asked why such a man was here, the Prince had simply replied, ‘Because I called him.’ Isaac did not ask further. The man occasionally spoke with the Prince, but only for a very short time, and he hardly ever stood out.
Nevertheless, seeing how he appeared immediately upon being called, it was clear he was always near the Prince. ……Come to think of it, while he and the Prince were rolling around in bed, that man must have heard everything from outside……. Isaac, who had been half-naked, felt a sudden wave of embarrassment and began to gather his clothes and put them on. Meanwhile, the Prince handed the map to the man and gave some instructions. A question from the Prince suddenly caught Isaac’s ear.
“How far have you come?”
“Far enough to be useful.”
The man’s answer was vague, but the Prince seemed to find it sufficient. Nodding, the Prince spoke.
“We must begin preparations to capture the witch.”
Near Hailen, there were more lakes than mountains. If ponds or even wide puddles were included, they were truly countless. According to someone born and raised in Hailen, there were so many that they couldn’t even be marked individually on a map. Naturally, a pond that had never been touched by human feet would not be on a map. Therefore, no matter how one estimated the direction or distance, finding a pond with an unclear location would not be an easy task.
Right now, just a dozen steps away from where Isaac was lying, there was a small pond. This, too, was a pond not shown on the map.
It won’t be easy to find the pond where Alikisa’s body is submerged, Isaac thought, looking at that modest pond.
The midnight pond was quiet and settled calmly. Whether fish were moving inside, or whether an insect or a small bird landed and flew off the surface, ripples occasionally spread across the water. Each time, the full moon reflected on the surface would waver and break, then find its shape again.
It was a full moon night at the beginning of early winter.
No matter how temperate the area around Hailen was year-round, it was still nominally early winter, and moreover, it was in the mountains. Lying naked in such a place, there was no way he wouldn’t be cold, yet Isaac was panting, exhaling hot breaths. This was because the Prince, who was covering Isaac’s body, was emitting a sweltering heat.
“……Ugh,”
The moment the Prince pushed up roughly after a long period of thrusting, Isaac let out a short moan, and simultaneously, hot life force erupted from within Isaac’s body. The liquid leaking through the narrow gaps that were not just filling his body but tightly interlocking already drenched his groin. Since it was an act of unknown frequency, it was not strange that he was damp down to his waist.
“……, wait, can we, take a break.”
Isaac spoke sporadically between ragged breaths, looking up at the full moon. He added that it would be okay to stop for today, but he now knew those words would have no effect.
The Prince always poured ‘sufficient’ life force into Isaac. Claiming that he must be able to see that witch whenever necessary, he always poured it in until Isaac was exhausted from eating and eating the life force. Even so, since he didn’t see the witch that often, Isaac felt the life force was almost a waste, but no matter how many times Isaac carefully mentioned it, the Prince didn’t seem to listen; ‘It’s better to have too much than too little’ was his only answer.
Moreover, on a full moon—a day when Isaac naturally felt heavy and devoid of energy—the Prince, who was contrastingly and terrifyingly full of vigor, would not let Isaac out of his arms almost all night.
To tell the truth, Isaac had now become not only accustomed to drinking life force and the acts with the man, but was even feeling pleasure. Furthermore, excluding that wicked size, the Prince was peerless in his endurance, agility, and technique, to the point where Isaac would half-lose consciousness and wail throughout the act. However, no matter what, doing it over and over again inevitably left him mentally exhausted and limp.
Thus, Isaac now looked after his body by barely securing moments of rest with the words ‘let’s take a break’ in between.
The Prince looked down at Isaac with a somewhat dissatisfied expression, but soon nodded, bit Isaac’s lip once, and pulled himself out of Isaac’s body. The feeling of the volume that had been tightly interlocked and slowly pulled out, then suddenly slipping away, followed by the sensation of the liquid that had filled the space gushing out, was something he could never get used to. Isaac shuddered and hunched his shoulders.
Just then, from a distance, a red signal flare was seen shooting high into the sky with a pop! Turning his head toward it, Isaac muttered, “I guess there was a village over there too.” And it seemed that village was currently without incident.
Rihan, who had received the Prince’s orders—and his comrades, whom Isaac had not yet seen—were said to be distributing signal flares to every village in the mountains. Because there were countless villages and their locations were not all identified, many villages had yet to be visited, but it was said that those who had received them were instructed to fire the signal flares at regular times every day for the time being. At least so that it could be known if there were people in that village.
Meanwhile, the witch seemed to be steadily devouring villages. There were not a few cases where, upon visiting to distribute signal flares, no people remained. Each time, a red dot marking the witch’s movements increased on the map.
“I wish the full moon wouldn’t set until we find Alikisa.”
Isaac muttered, looking up at the sky that turned dark again as the signal flare faded. A while ago, after finishing the several rounds of acts, he had briefly seen the witch. As he had guessed, since it was a full moon night when the witch could not use her power, they were in a room somewhere. As if they would not go out that night, they remained curled up in a dark room with the curtains drawn, wearing only a thin robe.
If she devours people whenever she goes out, it’s better for it to remain a full moon night. Isaac thought, looking at the full moon pressing down on him.
When his body was full of life force, he often saw what the witch was doing and where, but since the day she was submerged in the pond, there had been nothing particularly special. He had not seen that pond again, nor had he encountered her devouring people. Once, he saw her walking the streets on the outskirts of Kuslo and hurried there, but he was one step too late and the witch was already gone. He could only guess that she was certainly staying somewhere nearby.
Fifteen days left.
Fifteen days later would be the Dark Moon, when the Grand Coven of Witches is held. And the following Dark Moon would be the Great Dark Moon, coming for the first time in seven years.
“I wonder if we could keep the full moon up every night until the grand assembly…….”
「Why are you doing this to us……?」