By Zephyria 
As Isaac murmured while looking up at the full moon, dying voices drifted down from the trees. Three clumps of shadows, perched like fruit upon the branches, looked down at Isaac with bleak eyes. Their countenances were so gaunt that he almost instinctively whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“I heard witches can hardly use their power during a full moon, but it seems these fellows are still witches even while wearing cat skins,” the Prince said indifferently, glancing up at the branches. Normally, they would have flared up, rambling about being noble and elegant pure-bloods of a prestigious family, but they seemed utterly exhausted, only letting out low groans of pain without much of a response.
“It is difficult during the full moon. Even as a half-blood, my body feels heavy and strained, as if something is crushing it, so it must be worse for ordinary witches. My mother used to lock the doors and lie sick every full moon…”
Though it happened when he was young, he still remembered. On full moon nights, Isaac’s house was always tightly locked, and no one went outside. Young Isaac would run a slight fever and be bedridden, and his mother would not rise from her spot all night. On those nights, Isaac always waited in fear for the night to end.
Since witches lacked power on full moon nights, people primarily targeted those days to hunt them; thus, witches living in the human world feared the full moon.
“Even neighbors who lived affectionately like family would suddenly turn the moment they discovered someone was a witch, waiting for the full moon night to go kill them with pitchforks. That’s why the full moon was always a terrifying night.”
That is why he was still afraid of the moon when it was round as a platter. And of that white light.
The Prince listened to Isaac’s words in silence. Looking at the Prince, who seemed exceptionally cool—perhaps because of the moonlight—Isaac suddenly let out a faint smile.
“But now, the full moon night isn’t so bad. Since Lord Kaieon already knows I am half-witch, he won’t suddenly decide to harm me just because it’s a full moon. …I’ve never spent a full moon night with another person feeling this at peace.”
The full moon isn’t so bad, the white round moon is pretty too; Isaac murmured to himself, looking up at the moon. The moonlight he had always regarded with fear and anxiety was truly beautiful today. It felt a bit sorrowful that he had only just realized this, and that he wondered when he would ever be able to gaze upon a full moon night with such peace of mind again.
Having been lost in thought while staring at the full moon for a long time, Isaac didn’t realize the Prince had been watching him the entire time. Only then did he drop his gaze to look at the Prince.
“It must have been the opposite for you, Lord Kaieon. You probably struggled during the Dark Moon and felt comfortable during the full moon.”
The Prince, who had been staring at the corners of Isaac’s mouth as he asked with a calm smile, nodded.
“While I was in the borderlands, the full moon was always the night I went out to kill monsters. I did not move on the Dark Moon nights.”
Isaac recalled the man he had seen on that Dark Moon night when he first used magic with a flint stone. The sight of blood seeping out instead of sweat due to excruciating pain. In such agony, no one would have been able to move.
He was truly glad the pain of the Dark Moon had ended. Isaac sincerely thought it was a good thing that he could give his blood to him.
“From the soldiers’ perspective, the Dark Moon must have been better. They wouldn’t have had to go on night subjugations.”
The Prince shook his head at Isaac, who spoke lightly as if joking.
“No, the Dark Moon was also when the most soldiers died.”
“Oh… why?”
For a moment, Isaac almost asked, ‘Because Lord Kaieon killed them?’ but he barely managed to swallow the words. It wouldn’t have been surprising at all if the Prince, having lost his reason to pain, had killed his subordinates indiscriminately. However,
“Because the monsters knew that was the time I was most vulnerable, and they launched fierce attacks every Dark Moon night. That’s why, once every few months, there were those who tried to hand me over to the monsters instead.”
Isaac fell silent, looking at the Prince who spoke so casually.
He remembered something he had seen once. A memory of the Prince he had glimpsed.
Always alone amidst the reverence and fear of people.
In those memories, where he had endured everything thoroughly on his own, the scent of the borderland sands was mixed in. Amidst the dry smell of blood mixed with sandy dust, he was always alone, betrayed even by those who should have been his allies. Even amidst the pain of the Dark Moon that gnawed away at his body and mind.
“—You managed to survive quite well.”
“Being in pain doesn’t mean I can’t move.”
Hearing the Prince’s indifferent words, Isaac could soon guess. The Prince on a Dark Moon night almost lost his reason to pain, but in exchange, he became an even more terrifying beast. If left alone, he would pass the Dark Moon with a single thread of reason, but the moment he was provoked, he would tear everything apart with nothing but the wildness of a body writhing in pain.
Inevitably, on such Dark Moon nights, the Prince must have slaughtered both the attacking monsters and the soldiers who tried to offer him up to them, and amidst that gruesome scene, he would have become more and more alone.
As he always had been.
Just as no one dared to go near the Prince during the Dark Moon.
“…”
Isaac looked at the Prince in silence and then lowered his head. The Prince cast a glance at Isaac, who was quietly letting out a sigh. Receiving a look that seemed to ask why, Isaac remained silent for a moment before murmuring.
“It just makes me feel a bit bad that you speak of it as if it were nothing.”
Though those memories were now things of the past, there were still remnants left. It wasn’t that he spoke ‘as if’ it were nothing; to him, it was nothing. That was why Isaac’s mood sank, but the Prince, who looked at Isaac with a raised eyebrow, probably didn’t know why Isaac had become depressed.
Still, because he liked those blue eyes that looked at him steadily, and because he suddenly felt an unbearable sense of pity and love, Isaac quietly took his hand and kissed his fingertips. The Prince merely looked at Isaac as if he were strange.
Just then, the faint sound of a signal flare exploding was heard from far away. He welcomed the sound that broke the darkness of the deep mountains. It meant there were people over there who had spent the day in peace.
“They must be working hard to go around distributing the signal flares.”
Isaac murmured, thinking of Rihan’s colleagues whom he had never met. The Prince, who had been staring at the hand Isaac had let go of, said, “Not really.” Indeed, those who spent their days in that dangerous and barren borderland wouldn’t find wandering through the mountains to be a hardship.
“I heard the soldiers in the borderlands are all violent and fierce, making them quite a headache to handle.”
They were people who would shoot an arrow into a horse’s rump to make the highest administrator from the capital fall off and then chase them away while cackling. He wondered what on earth the people who sent the then-young Prince to a borderland swarming with such men were thinking, but no one could have imagined that the young Prince would suppress those rough men in an instant and place them beneath his feet.
“They are useful. They obey someone stronger than themselves.”
“I see, obedience… well, I suppose that’s a different concept from comradeship.”
In the Royal Guard where Isaac had served, there were ranks and a basic system of command and obedience, but they were still all within the framework of ‘comrades.’ Whether they were the captain or the lowest rank, there was a kind of family-like bond. However, the borderland where the Prince had been was likely different. A strict division between top and bottom. A world the Prince had always lived in, a world familiar to him.
I consider this person my superior and at the same time a companion to move forward with, but to him, I must be nothing more than a subordinate and a witch… Thinking this, Isaac shook his head, feeling as though he might become depressed again. What did it matter? Regardless, wasn’t he a generous superior who let him eat his fill of life force every day? The only problem was that it was a bit excessive.
“Comrades. Can you trust and entrust everything to such comrades?” the Prince asked.
Meeting the piercing gaze that seemed to look right through his thoughts, Isaac remained silent for a moment. Then, he shook his head.
“No. Because I couldn’t tell them that I am half-witch.”
Even though he knew that doing so would isolate him from them.
Within a sense of detachment that only he felt, while they remained unaware, Isaac had also been alone. In the midst of that, he had lived, filling his solitude moment by moment.
In truth, loneliness is fundamental, and everyone lives through days that feel as if there is nothing. Yet, very occasionally—once every few years, or only a few times in a lifetime—there are treasure-like moments that remain in the memory for a long time. They are like treasures, yet on the other hand, they are trivial things: a lump of bread handed over by a neighbor who had always been rough and violent during a time of hunger and hardship for several days, or a single letter given by a girl he thought he alone liked in secret as she moved far away. Things like that.
He patched together these empty days, filling his heart one by one with such moments. Waiting to taste that gift-like time again, not knowing when it would come. Day by day.
The Prince was looking at Isaac expressionlessly. Then, he suddenly reached out. Grabbing the back of Isaac’s neck and pulling him in, he overlapped their lips. Along with the stinging sensation of biting lips and tongues, the faint taste of blood seeped through. The Prince sucked on Isaac’s tongue, swallowing the slowly seeping blood. He was as greedy as if he were drinking a glass of sweet water in the midst of thirst.
“When you eat one meal after starving,” the Prince suddenly whispered between his lips, “once you realize something you didn’t know, you become even greedier.”
“—.”
“Waiting for something that may or may not come is not my way.”
The grip on Isaac’s neck tightened. The force sucking his tongue grew stronger. Crushed under that greed that sought to devour Isaac ravenously, Isaac quietly embraced the Prince, who lunged at him as if starving.
The sound of a signal flare exploding was heard again from somewhere far away. It probably exploded numerous times in places they couldn’t hear. Listening to that reassuring sound, as he obediently surrendered his body to the hands parting his legs once more…
Rustle. The sound of grass being stepped on echoed loudly in the darkness.
Startled, Isaac shifted his eyes and saw Rihan walking toward them from the forest. Upon seeing them entangled, he merely murmured a short “Ah,” and as if it were no big deal, he moved and perched himself on a rock behind them. He seemed accustomed to it, as if he had seen such sights numerous times in the past.
Just as Isaac was about to stealthily turn his head away from the man who sat in a position where his lower body was too blatantly exposed, the Prince suddenly stopped his movements and cast a glance at Rihan.
“Don’t look.”
When the short command fell, Rihan didn’t seem to understand what he had heard at first. Looking at the Prince with a bewildered face, he then looked at Isaac, looked back at the Prince, and then, with a look of great surprise and strangeness, he jumped up and went to sit behind a large rock.
As Isaac accepted the Prince leaning in again, he felt embarrassed that the awkward sounds would be clearly audible over there, but he thought it was a relief that he was no longer in sight. On the other hand, he wondered why the Prince had told that man not to look. A person who didn’t care about the eyes of others wouldn’t suddenly care now.
“—.”
However, Isaac’s thoughts ended there.
As if he didn’t care about anything else, the Prince began to drive Isaac relentlessly, and Isaac had to endure for a long time, clinging to the Prince while being semi-forced to inhale the life force he had already eaten to his fill.
If life force were like food, I would have died from my stomach bursting long ago… Isaac thought, staring blankly at the night sky that seemed to be gradually brightening, perhaps just in his imagination. This is enough, this is enough, he had thought numerous times, yet the Prince would not let him go. He didn’t know why he felt so ragged and exhausted even though life force was being poured into him until he was bursting. “Our Manbang is dying, just dying,” he thought he heard a meowing sound in a dying voice from the trees.
Only when the full moon began to lose its light did the Prince lift his body from atop Isaac. Fearing the Prince might change his mind, Isaac nailed the greeting, “Thank you for the life force today,” and as expected, the Prince, who seemed to be contemplating whether to do more or not, looked down at Isaac and let out a hollow laugh as if he were letting him off. Then, he stood up abruptly and threw himself into the pond a few steps away. Splash—a sound that would have seemed cold in the early winter mountains, but to ears where the heat had not yet faded, it sounded refreshing.
I need to wash too… But since his groin was throbbing and aching, he couldn’t move a muscle, so he decided he would wash after staying like this for a bit longer. Isaac let out a long, languid sigh and let his body limp.
At that moment, he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps.
Rihan, who had been sitting behind the rock, seemed to have sensed that it was over and was approaching. Watching him perch on a thick tree root and throw a handful of dry branches into the dying campfire, Isaac forced his aching body to sit up. When he saw his naked lower body glistening, drenched in fluids under the moonlight, he became suddenly embarrassed and quickly pulled the blanket over his waist.
Regardless, Rihan didn’t seem to care. That actually made Isaac feel more comfortable, and he looked at Rihan over the campfire while sitting hunched. Then, at some point, Isaac frowned. He had a bad feeling. A repulsive and avoidant energy seemed to be flowing from that man. He remembered feeling something similar before—when was it? He searched his memory and soon recalled. It was when he had been near a consecrated holy relic.
It seemed the man was carrying something like a talisman to ward off monsters. If he, a half-witch, felt this repulsive, ordinary witches would probably shudder. Sure enough, the three cats that had been perched on the branches had disappeared.
Then again, to survive in the borderlands swarming with monsters, it made sense to carry at least one monster-warding talisman.
“Home…”
Trying to speak, Isaac realized his voice was completely hoarse, so he pulled the water skin the Prince had left by his head and swallowed some water. His throat hurt with the first gulp, but by the second and third, thirst surged like water soaking into dry soil. Only after nearly emptying the Prince’s water skin to quench his thirst did Isaac turn his gaze to Rihan, who was staring at him.
“It seems you’ve worked hard going from village to village to deliver the signal flares… thank you for your hard work.”
Isaac spoke in a deeply hushed voice, but no answer returned. Since he had only seen the man a few times and the man didn’t seem to be talkative, Isaac didn’t find it particularly strange. He had said what he wanted to say, so it was fine.
As he stared blankly at the night sky, Rihan, who had been scrutinizing Isaac for a long time, suddenly spoke just as the campfire was coming back to life.
“Witch?”
Having likely heard the Prince call Isaac a witch, he asked as if confirming a known fact, and Isaac readily nodded.
“Yes, though only half.”
“Ah, mixed-blood,” he nodded, looking at Isaac with a strange expression. Then he asked again.
“Then why are you alive?”
“…I wonder. Somehow, I’m still alive. I suppose I’m of some small help to Lord Kaieon.”
It seemed he found it incredibly surprising that a witch had managed to keep her life while by the Prince’s side. Thinking that it was a reasonable thing to be surprised by, Isaac answered, and Rihan nodded as if convinced.
“Right, well, if they are useful, he does keep them around for a while.”
For a while. At those words, Isaac smiled bitterly. He felt as if he had just confirmed something he had momentarily forgotten. That the Prince would eventually get rid of all witches.
“Even if it’s only for a while, it’s a good thing if I can be of help during that time.”
As Isaac murmured, Rihan stared at Isaac again. It was a gaze that seemed to be digging for some other meaning within those words. However, Isaac had put no other meaning into them and simply faced him calmly.
“Being kept alive is one thing, but…”
Rihan, who had been scrutinizing Isaac for a while, murmured. He tilted his head while stroking his chin, looking quite puzzled. “Lord Kaieon isn’t that kind of person…” he muttered to himself, sounding very suspicious. Then,
“Well, I suppose that could be the case. Not every witch is the same kind of monster, and I’ve seen a few who were quite human-like.”
Though he still sounded skeptical, Rihan spoke in a tone suggesting it didn’t particularly matter, then looked at Isaac. A flicker of pity appeared in his slightly narrowed eyes.
“Regardless, since you’ve been captured by Lord Kaieon, there is no other way. But from the looks of it, you don’t seem to have lived a particularly wicked life, so I suggest you pray for a swift death. His way of killing witches is truly terrifying.”
Rihan’s complexion turned sallow, as if recalling some specific memory. If a man who had lived a rough life, seeing all sorts of horrors on the frontier, could pale like that, one could only imagine how gruesome and cruel the deaths he had witnessed were.
Isaac felt a chill creep into his chest and lowered his gaze. He was reminded once again of just how much the Prince hated witches.
It was then. The sound of splashing water echoed from the pond, and the Prince emerged. Walking toward them while carelessly wiping his wet body with a towel, he saw Rihan sitting there and raised an eyebrow, glancing back and forth between Rihan and Isaac, who sat facing him.
“What were you talking about?”
As the Prince spoke, tossing the towel aside, Rihan tilted his head with a look that said, ‘He’s not the type to ask such things…’ before gesturing toward Isaac with his chin.
“He said he’s a witch.”
The Prince merely glanced at Isaac without answering. He picked up a canteen, found it nearly empty, and instead took a drink from a keg to moisten his throat before perching on a rock. It seemed Rihan had grown fond of Isaac, despite having met him only a few times.
“If he is a witch, it can’t be helped, but since he seems to be quite helpful, I thought it might be best to kill him as late as possible, and in one swift blow…”
Rihan continued, intending to support Isaac in his own way, but suddenly fell silent mid-sentence.
The Prince’s gaze upon Rihan was terrifyingly cold. Under that gaze, which felt as if it could cut through him, cold sweat beaded on Rihan’s tense forehead.
After a moment of silence, the Prince spoke.
“The situation in the mountain village.”
At the short question changing the subject, Rihan stood up without hesitation and handed the Prince a map. The unfolded map was densely marked with dots indicating villages that had been given signal flares and villages where people had already disappeared.
“Judging by the witch’s route, I believe the next hamlet to be eliminated will be one of these three or four. As for the pond where the witch is hiding, we are searching for it, but there have been no significant results yet.”
Rihan reported business-like, and the Prince stared at the map in silence.
Listening to their conversation from the periphery, Isaac slowly stood up. He felt the Prince’s gaze briefly touch his back as he entered the pond to wash, but the Prince did not call out to him or stop him.
Isaac let out a low breath as he immersed himself in the pond water, which felt perfectly cool against his sweltering skin.
I see. It is already a given—at least for Rihan and those who know the Prince.
Witches must die.
Whether they die sooner or later, if they are a witch, they must die. That was the ultimate goal the Prince desired.
“…Is it impossible to live together?”
Isaac murmured to himself. His breath stirred the surface of the water, causing the reflection of the full moon to waver.
Must they really be killed? Is it forbidden for witches and humans to coexist?
They say all the witches in this world must vanish to break the Curse on the royal family, but the Curse on the Prince can no longer be broken anyway. Could they not live in coexistence, as they once did?
「Witches in the Land of Witches, humans in the land of humans.」
Suddenly, a breeze blew. Amidst the rustling of water plants, a sound like the wind suddenly mixed in. A low, purring sound, like a whisper from far away.
「It is the natural order for witches to leave the land of humans.」
「For it is impossible for them to coexist as equals.」
Rustle, rustle. The water plants swayed. The sound that had seemed to drift in faintly soon stopped, leaving only the sound of the wind. And from very far off, the thin cry of a cat.
Isaac remained silent, staring at the lush water plants.
He knew. They could not live together.
A witch was a witch, beyond help, and different from a human. In the eyes of Isaac, who had grown up as a human among humans, there were moments when even his mother appeared eerie. There were times when an emotional spectrum clearly different from that of a human was revealed.
Humans are not beings capable of empathizing with witches or standing on equal ground with them. They are prey, or beings to be consumed. Even if a witch feels affection for a human, it is akin to how one treats a pet or a cherished object; it differs from the affection humans have for one another.
To a witch, utilizing or harming a human was not at all strange or wicked. With standards for death, life, good, and evil entirely different from humans, it would be impossible to live alongside them.
Therefore—to keep the world where humans live intact, witches must disappear.
Isaac let out a slow, heavy breath.
There wasn’t much time left.
If things continued to flow without incident, Alikisa would be captured soon, and the Prince would be able to eliminate the witches of this land before the Great Dark Moon. And then.
“….”
I won’t be able to see him anymore.
Isaac gazed blankly at the full moon reflected on the pond’s surface. With a light tap of his finger, the moon wavered and shattered.
When the time finally comes and the Prince tries to kill him.
He had no intention of simply bowing his head. Even if it was like throwing an egg against a rock, he would try every form of resistance and every attempt to survive. No matter how impossible it seemed to survive the Prince’s hand, he would do as much as he could. If he died after that, he considered it inevitable. And if, by some miracle, he succeeded, it would be a great blessing.
There was only one way to escape from him. As long as the oath sworn upon the River of the Moon bound Isaac, there was no way to escape him while remaining in the human world. He would have to cross over to the land of the new moon.
Either way, Isaac would no longer be able to see the Prince. Whether he died by his hand or survived and crossed to the land of the new moon.
The thought of it brought a wave of regret and a sigh.
Isaac, who had been staring up at the full moon, turned his head upon hearing someone approaching the pond.
The Prince had arrived. Since Rihan was nowhere to be seen, he must have gone back already.
“I see witches’ lips turn blue from the cold too.”
The Prince pulled Isaac out of the water. Only then did Isaac realize his body had grown chilled from being submerged for so long, and he belatedly shivered, rubbing his forearms.
“What did you talk about with Rihan?”
Wrapping Isaac’s body in a large towel, the Prince lifted him up effortlessly. Isaac let out a small “oh” and struggled for a moment, but the Prince moved him to the campfire without any sign of strain. Isaac sat there blankly for a while before murmuring, “We didn’t talk about much…” and looked up at the Prince.
“Could you kill me without it hurting?”
The Prince’s eyebrows twitched slightly. Isaac spoke calmly while wiping away the moisture.
“I have an attachment to my own life, so I won’t die quietly, but that’s just an inevitable instinct, so please overlook that. But if you do kill me, I’d like it to be painless. …”
However, mid-sentence, Isaac felt a chill at his temple and looked aside, flinching as he met the Prince’s harsh gaze. His eyes shone fiercely, as if he might actually strike him.
“…And please don’t beat me to death.”
The Prince’s gaze grew even more menacing. His pupils wavered in a deep blue, as if something were surging inside him, but he clenched his jaw tight as if suppressing it. He gripped Isaac’s shoulder roughly and pulled him closer to the campfire.
“And don’t burn me to death…”
As Isaac murmured once more, the Prince let go of his shoulder. Seeing the expression sink into a cold stillness, Isaac decided he should stop here. It had been secretly a bit amusing.
When Isaac gave a faint smile, the Prince clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction. Then, using the back of his hand, he wiped away a droplet of water clinging to Isaac’s eyelashes that was about to seep into his eye.
Strange, Isaac thought, looking at the Prince.
Again. It was unfamiliar. It felt like looking at a stranger.
The Prince was looking at Isaac as if observing something. As if looking at something warm and lovely. It was truly strange.
Isaac gazed at him blankly and then asked impulsively.
“Must you kill me?”
At that moment, the Prince paused. The hand that had been brushing through Isaac’s wet hair slowly dropped.
“The Great Dark Moon is coming soon. Couldn’t you just put all the witches on the Moon Fragment Ship and send them away?”
Isaac knew. The Prince had been searching for the Witch of Roberny because of the witches’ grand assembly. To eliminate them all in that place where every witch living in the human world gathers. And Isaac, as well.
The Prince stared intently at Isaac. His expressionless face had grown cold. The unfamiliar light from moments ago was gone.
“And if they cause harm in the meantime?”
The Prince spoke.
Between the grand assembly and the Great Dark Moon, if a witch who hadn’t died harmed people again during that month.
“What if they refuse to board the Moon Fragment Ship? Or what if they return after leaving?”
The Prince spoke. His glowing blue eyes were like ice. Isaac could say nothing and only stared back.
“Yes, witch’s child. You were a witch raised in the human world. Is that why the witches seem pitiful to you? Do you feel sorry for them?”
The Prince leaned his head closer to Isaac. Every low word was clearly steeped in contempt and cynicism.
“I likely know them better than you, who lived as a human half-heartedly. They are a race wicked and cunning to the very bone.”
At that low assertion, Isaac could neither agree nor disagree.
Witches have different standards than humans. Things that seem wicked and cunning to humans are as natural and obvious as breathing to them. For them, ‘one’s own benefit and pleasure’ was the standard for all judgment. However, that must not be tolerated in the human world.
—Witches in the Land of Witches, humans in the land of humans.
The words he had heard on the breeze suddenly came back to him.
That it is the natural order to live where one’s own rules apply.
“It’s not that communication is impossible. If they promise not to harm humans in the future,”
“If they promise, how do we settle the past? What about the people already dead? The people who have already suffered? The people who watched them suffer?”
“That is why many witches have already died.”
As the madness of the witch hunt blew, people killed witches with confidence. Countless witches perished. To the point where they had become rare. However,
“It is not enough.”
The Prince said. There was not a shred of hesitation in those words of firm assertion. Isaac looked at him and murmured.
“Why must ‘everyone’ die?”
Even though not all witches were wicked and cunning.
The Prince’s lips twitched. The blue eyes staring at Isaac were terrifyingly cold.
“Fine. Then if we kill selectively instead of everyone, by what standard do we distinguish those who must die from those who shall not?”
“—.”
“Whether they please me or not? Whether they harmed people or not? Then what should be the standard for harming people? Did they kill? Did they suck life force? Did they steal wealth? To what line is it tolerable, and at what line is it intolerable?”
The low voice sounded like a beast threatening. A warning sound just before biting. Hearing that low, cold tone in his ear, Isaac could not say a word. The Prince whispered, peering into Isaac’s face from inches away.
“Witch. I loathe your kind.”
Those words drove into his heart like a wedge.
Isaac remained motionless, as if frozen in place, looking at the Prince. He examined the Prince carefully, as if trying to pierce through him. The one and only emotion the Prince had ever clearly acknowledged—that pure hatred—was vividly displayed on his face.
And in that moment, Isaac realized once again.
I see. This person cannot help but hate me. And since it is already decided, there is nothing to be done.
“….”
Isaac lowered his gaze for a moment, then looked back up at the Prince. The moment their eyes met, he saw the Prince’s eyes twitch slightly. Isaac looked clearly at the Prince, who had suddenly shut his mouth tight and was staring intently at Isaac’s face.
I’ll just have to cherish the present.
The present would be one of the few treasures of his life. The time spent with this man now would be moments he would reminisce upon for a long time during the empty days to come. …Provided he doesn’t die, of course.
“It can’t be helped, then.”
Isaac murmured like a sigh.
“But I still like Lord Kaieon.”
The powerless whisper sounded like he was talking to himself. Isaac looked down at his hands for a moment, thought ‘it can’t be helped’ once more, and then lifted his head.
The Prince was looking at Isaac. Without blinking, as if he wouldn’t miss a single expression, the Prince’s eyes were fierce, almost as if he were angry. …No, perhaps it was slightly different from being fierce. It was a strange face Isaac had never seen before.
The Prince was looking at Isaac as if he were angry, or perhaps bewildered, or perhaps not knowing what to do. His lips twitched for a moment as if he were about to say something, but in the end, he said nothing.
Isaac wiped his body once more with the towel, which was already nearly dry. It was the towel the Prince had wrapped around him when he had been blue with cold. That, too, will remain in my memory for a long time, he thought, wrapping the large towel around himself instead of clothes.
He threw a few twigs into the fading campfire. Crack, crack, the sound of twigs burning echoed in the quiet night.
The full moon was beginning to wane.
A low, murmuring sound was drifting in.
The incessant mumbling sounded like the wind, or perhaps the sound of a small animal.
It was a place so dark that nothing could be seen. He opened his eyes wide and blinked, but saw nothing. Even waving his hand in front of his eyes yielded the same result. It was perfect darkness.
A darkness that felt somehow sticky and clammy was clinging to his entire body. Within that unpleasant and eerie darkness, a damp sound echoed incessantly.
Mumble, mumble, mumble… The ceaseless sound, like someone reciting an incantation, scratched at his nerves like the scuttling of a rat in the dark.
It took a long time for him to realize it was a human voice. The sound, which grew faintly louder, then softer, faster, then slower, was gradually increasing in volume. The sound, which had been barely audible, suddenly pierced his ears clearly, and from that moment, it exploded in volume.
Growing incessantly until it felt as if it would tear his eardrums, the sound had now become a horrific scream, uttering only one thing.
I loathe you… I loathe you… I loathe you…!!
“—.”
Isaac snapped his eyes open.
Even after waking, he lay there motionless for a while, as if paralyzed by sleep paralysis. The back of his neck was damp.
The yellowing sunset filtered through the leaves, casting long shadows across his forehead. It seemed the short nap he took had turned into a deep sleep. Isaac sat up. When he rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand, cold sweat came off.
It felt as if that sound was still clinging to his ears.
The sound of someone murmuring as if sobbing, saying they loathed, that they loathed. Isaac knew whose voice it was—the one that eventually turned into a scream that tore through the eardrums.
It belonged to that mage. The mage who had given his body to the witch Alikisa was crying out in hatred. It seemed that was all the consciousness he had left. Having lost both reason and intellect, only hatred remained.
It likely wouldn’t last long. As long as the witch continued to use Mana, there was no way a human body could endure for much longer. That mage’s body must have nearly reached its limit; normally, his consciousness should have vanished long ago. He had sucked the life force out of people to maintain his awareness, but now that life force was being poured solely into Alikisa’s main body, leaving almost nothing of the mage’s own consciousness.
A faint consciousness writhing in hatred, sensing its own complete death. That malice and Curse that clung stickily to the entire body.
“…….”
Isaac shivered, shrinking back and rubbing his arms. He looked around. One cat was focused, hindquarters raised, perhaps hunting a grasshopper in the brush; another was vigorously scratching its claws against a tree trunk.
The Prince was nowhere to be seen. He probably hadn’t gone far. Roberni’s subordinates had been circling them constantly, looking for an opening, and the Prince never left Isaac out of his sight for long. After trailing them for days and seeing that the Prince and Isaac rarely drifted far apart, the subordinates were beginning to show signs of impatience. Not long ago, four men, unable to contain their haste while the Prince had stepped away for a brief moment to scout the area, had rushed to attack Isaac; they were promptly beheaded and dumped into the valley.
“Where’d one of them go? Did he follow Lord Kaieon?”
As Isaac muttered while looking at one of the cats, the Prince appeared from between the dense trees with the sound of footsteps on the soil. A tiger, a tiger. Behind him, a cat pretending to be a tiger followed trottingly.
“Did you finish scouting?”
When Isaac asked, the Prince simply gave a light nod. It seemed there had been no significant findings.
Isaac turned his gaze toward the open slope. Beyond the foothills where the trees grew lush, a gentle mountain ridge was visible in the distance. Ridges with snow-covered peaks stretched long, encircling Kuslo.
It was the same landscape that had served as the backdrop when he saw the pond where Alikisa’s body was submerged. That pond should be somewhere not far from here.
The ridge appeared in the same direction and at a similar distance as before, and this entire area was covered in birch trees turning yellow. So it must be somewhere nearby, yet the pond was nowhere to be seen.
A pond carved out in solitude, as if hiding among the dense trees. In those waters, where green moss grew because no one had set foot there for a long time, Alikisa’s body lay.
He had been searching this area for days to find that place, but such a pond simply would not appear. There were so many ponds and springs of various sizes, all looking so similar, that he often wondered if he had misremembered one of them or if he had already found it and failed to recognize it. He had revisited several spots, but nothing gave him a definitive sense of certainty.
“It must be somewhere around here…….”
Isaac muttered, scanning the scenery. That ridge, the birch forest surrounding them in bright yellow—everything was exactly as he had seen it then, yet only the pond was missing.
Then again, the witch wouldn’t have submerged her body in a pond that was so easily found. It was likely hidden somewhere.
The terrain here was rugged, the altitude high, and since there were no paths leading to other regions, it was a place few people visited. However, it wasn’t impossible to reach if one intended to come. Still, the solitary air, as if even wild beasts avoided it, and the green moss clinging to the water suggested that no one had visited for a very long time.
“There must be a hidden path somewhere.”
The Prince spoke. Perched on a flat rock, he flicked his sword and began to clean it. As he turned, blood dripped from the blade, suggesting he had slain some wild animal on his way back.
Isaac sat on a nearby tree stump and watched him.
No matter how you looked at it, the man was a picture of perfection. Even dressed in clothes covered in dust and splattered with blood, with his hair stained and soiled, it was impressive how he remained as flawless as a sculpture.
As Isaac stared blankly at the Prince, the man paused his cleaning and glanced at Isaac, as if sensing the gaze. With a look that asked why he was staring—though it was nothing new—Isaac gave a slight shrug of his shoulders.
“I guess if a person’s natural features are that handsome, it doesn’t matter if their hair or clothes are a total mess…….”
“A total mess……?”
“……No, I mean, since I’m a total mess, I wish my natural features were at least good, something like that.”
Isaac stealthily averted his eyes. Oops. I have to be careful. You don’t say things like that to a man holding a sword…… 「Yippee~」, 「Our Manbang is really going for it!」 Over there, the cats seemed to be dancing with joy for some reason.
Isaac had never been particularly polite or formal to begin with, but he was becoming increasingly casual. From a while ago—perhaps around the day he became certain that this man would eventually kill him once everything was over—Isaac had become more relaxed in some ways. Perhaps it was because he recognized that there were facts that would not change, no matter how hard he tried.
Since that day, the Prince had been glaring at Isaac noticeably.
‘Glaring’ might not have been the exact term. He was a man who had always been expressionless and cold in his gaze, so it hadn’t changed drastically. However, the amount of time he spent staring at Isaac had increased.
There were frequent occasions where Isaac, while doing something else, would suddenly turn his head and lock eyes with the Prince. In those moments, Isaac would stare back silently. The Prince would occasionally arch an eyebrow but wouldn’t look away, and they would gaze at each other as if in a staring contest.
Then, at some point, the Prince would either click his tongue and turn away, or he would gesture for Isaac to come closer so he could bite him—it was always one of the two.
He didn’t know what the man was thinking. But he decided not to think about it.
Thinking about it only led to the conclusion that this man hated witches and would eventually kill him, which only made him gloomy. He felt it was best to live comfortably, focusing only on the present moment.
……Still, he shouldn’t push it too far. If he spoke too bluntly and the man got angry, he might just chop Isaac’s head off regardless of Alikisa, and then it would all be over. For now, since he was still useful in finding Alikisa, he probably wouldn’t be killed easily even if he spoke a bit casually.
While it didn’t seem like this Prince was the type to let go of or fail in his target, Isaac had no intention of sitting still and waiting for death. He would have to find a way to escape. Once Alikisa was caught—once he got the flint jar.
“Am I actually useful at all?”
When Isaac asked abruptly after a moment of thought, the Prince lifted his gaze from the blade and looked at him intently.
“You’re talking about the reward. What do you want?”
As expected, he was a quick-witted man. He understood ten things when only one was said. On one hand, it made conversation easy, but on the other, it made Isaac feel he must always be careful with his words.
“Well, I’ve heard the King’s treasury has so many rare treasures…… would it be alright if I looked around and picked one I liked?”
This answer seemed safe enough. The Prince stared at Isaac, who was putting on his most innocent face, and eventually gave a light nod.
“When the job is done.”
Perfect.
Isaac’s heart raced. He was a man who kept his word. Once this task was over, Isaac would be able to enter the treasury. And the flint jar. If he could just get his hands on that.
……Whether he died or escaped, the time he spent with this man would end, but he would achieve his goal.
Isaac looked at the cats that had been trotting around the Prince. One was circling the Prince’s side.
Then, Isaac suddenly locked eyes with the Prince. While wiping the blade, the Prince had been watching him. He slowly scanned Isaac with his gaze, as if examining every detail.
That gaze. The way the Prince often looked at him.
A gaze that seemed to be quietly observing something Isaac didn’t know. As if looking at something he didn’t know how to handle. Whenever that happened, Isaac didn’t avoid it and looked back, and doing so made his heart feel heavy for an unknown reason.
After I leave.
Whether to the other side of the horizon or to the land of the new moon, once he disappeared, that man would be alone. Just as he was now, and just as he had been before.
That was the only thing that weighed on his mind. And perhaps, at the moment his head was flown off by that man’s sword, or the moment he departed for the land of the new moon, that would be the very last thought he had.
“…….”
Having finished cleaning the sword and sheathing it, the Prince beckoned Isaac with a flick of his finger, and Isaac readily approached him.
As a result of repeating the same act dozens or hundreds of times, it had now become natural—to be precise, led by the arm wrapping around Isaac’s waist—for Isaac to sit on the Prince’s lap and press their lips together.
As he overlapped his mouth with the Prince, who sucked his lips and pressed his tongue greedily as if it were the first time despite the familiarity, Isaac felt a strange sensation. It was an act intended for him to drink the life force, but since the Prince never explicitly said so, it felt like an act of affection without a reason. Naturally, without any motive. Like an act done simply because he wanted to.
……To think such thoughts while kissing the man who will kill me; I guess I’m bolder than I thought. Though, I suppose there is a reason.
“Shall we look one more time?”
Isaac whispered in the brief moment their lips parted.
He had been seeing the witch almost every day. Since seeing the witch was extremely draining, he couldn’t do it that often, but he seemed to do it about once a day. However, there had been no particular harvest. Most of the time, she was walking through a village or forest path, or simply inside a room. He had only seen her submerged in the pond that one time.
“I wonder what she’s doing now…….”
Since the Prince had shared his life force, it was now Isaac’s turn to see the witch. Just as Isaac was about to close his eyes, the Prince’s brow suddenly twitched in a frown.
“I suppose drinking the life force is enough.”
The tone of his low mutter was harsh. As Isaac paused with a startled ‘oh’, the Prince pulled him closer without a word and pressed their lips together again. And just as he was sucking and biting Isaac’s tongue with a force that was almost painful, as if he were upset—at that moment.
Tap.
A fluffy, pitch-black paw pressed down on the Prince’s chin.
Their movement stopped while their lips were still joined. In the meantime, that paw tapped rapidly against the Prince’s cheek, ear, and nape. The Prince pulled his lips away from Isaac and cast a cold gaze downward.
The cat that had been trotting around the Prince was hopping and tapping its front paws all over the Prince’s body. It seemed as if there were some kind of flying insect.
“What are you doing…….”
Isaac muttered, but the cat ignored him and continued to circle the Prince. Occasionally, it would leap and pat the Prince’s back or shoulder. It looked exactly like a cat running around trying to catch a butterfly or a flying insect.
But he couldn’t see anything.
While Isaac looked around the Prince in confusion, the Prince, who had been staring coldly at the cat, suddenly reached out. He easily snatched the cat by the scruff of its neck and lifted it up. The cat dangled in mid-air.
“What are you doing?”
「I’m playing. Do not disturb.」
When Isaac asked, the cat replied sullenly, its face showing that it was deeply offended and displeased to have been caught so easily. At that, the two cats sitting a short distance away clicked their tongues.
「Why bother trying to catch it. Even if you catch it, another one will just appear anyway.」
「Though, of course, that black, large, fluttering thing does look exactly like something you’d want to catch.」
The two cats speaking also seemed restless, their hindquarters twitching as they glanced at the Prince. They had eyes that could see something like a butterfly.
Isaac scanned the Prince once and then looked at the cats with narrowed eyes.
“It’s about time you lot started taking care of your eyes……. You’re getting old, so you’re starting to see things that aren’t there.”
「What do you mean ‘things that aren’t there’?!」
「Who are you telling to take care of their eyes, you who can’t even see that fluttering thing flying around?!」
The cats immediately bristled their tail fur and shouted in an uproar.
“What on earth is flying?”
「A resentful spirit is flying! Circling around the life source!」
The cats shouted, their large eyes wide open. Isaac fell silent. He looked at the cats for a moment, then at the Prince, and asked again.
“A resentful spirit?”
「It’s just waiting for an opening, desperate to harm the life source.」
「If it finds something suitable to cling to, it’ll latch on immediately and spring upon the life source.」
「Looking at it, that mage kid probably sent it; he must really hate the life source.」
It makes sense, because if you look at our Sourcey, he’s a bit of a nuisance, isn’t he? A bit of a nuisance? He’s just a nuisance, the cats continued to chatter among themselves, heads huddled together.
Isaac shifted his gaze from them to the Prince. The Prince, who would have easily understood the cats’ words through just a few of Isaac’s words or actions, seemed entirely uninterested.
It was that mage.
Isaac suddenly recalled what he had seen while napping earlier.
The sensation of a consciousness that had almost entirely vanished, leaving only a sticky, clinging hatred. For the mage consumed by Alikisa, only that remained.
“Can’t you drive it away?”
Isaac looked around the Prince, trying to see where the thing—invisible to his eyes but visible to the cats—was circling. Judging by the constant movement of the cats’ heads, it seemed to be fluttering around incessantly.
「It can’t be driven away at this point, no.」
「A dying kid sent a resentful spirit born of pure grudge; how persistent do you think it is?」
「Just wait a bit. It’ll disappear once he dies. Judging by the stench of rot, he doesn’t have much time left.」
「Besides, a resentful spirit only attacks by clinging to something else; it has no power of its own.」
“But what if it clings to a wild beast and attacks—”
Isaac stopped mid-sentence. The three cats stared at him with wide eyes, their faces saying, 「And then what?」 ……Right, no matter what wild beast attacked, would this man suffer so much as a scratch? Isaac sighed, half-resigned.
Just then, there was a presence from beyond the brush. The sound of footsteps softly treading on the grass approaching them belonged to Rihan. Having become accustomed to him over several days, Isaac could now distinguish him by his footsteps alone.
Originally, the man had appeared like a ghost without any sign, but after appearing abruptly a few times while the Prince and Isaac were in the middle of intimacy and receiving a sharp glare from the Prince, he had started approaching while making his presence known. Then, if he heard the Prince say, ‘Stay there,’ he would stop and not approach any further.
Since things had already reached this point, Isaac felt that whether he blatantly showed them doing it or said, ‘We’re doing it right now, so don’t look and wait there,’ it felt like the same thing. Still, if he had to choose, letting the man hear the sounds was a tiny bit better than showing him openly. Isaac had already thrown away his dignity and shame since he started sharing a bed with the Prince.
“The witch has appeared.”
Rihan, having approached the Prince, spoke before offering a greeting. Isaac, who had been turning away to let them talk, paused and turned back. The Prince, who merely arched an eyebrow slightly without showing any other emotion, waited for the rest. Rihan continued.
“About an hour ago, at a hamlet located between Aiel Valley and Minen Valley. It coincided with the time the soldiers went to distribute signal flares, but it was slightly delayed; she was encountered by the soldiers just as she was emerging after devouring the hamlet’s residents.”
Between Aiel and Minen.
It was near the area they had pinpointed as highly likely for the witch to appear. Not far from here. A hamlet in that location would have been a village of considerable size. Roughly twenty households living there—.
“Were they all devoured?”
When Isaac asked, Rihan nodded. Isaac took a deep breath, his heart turning cold.
“What about the casualties on our side?”
“Since everyone carried a demon-repelling talisman, no one was directly affected by the witch’s evil spell, but three were struck by monsters summoned by the witch. Two have minor injuries, and one is seriously injured. The seriously injured person has been sent down to Kuslo.”
“It seems you missed the witch.”
“She escaped while we were dealing with six mid-grade magical beasts she summoned. One of our men managed to slash her, but it likely didn’t deal a significant blow.”
Rihan handed a sword to the Prince. The weapon, presumably the one used to cut the witch, was stained with a thick, black substance, and a foul stench of decay wafted through the air the moment it was drawn from its scabbard.
「Phew, disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. What a vile smell.」
「It looks like it’s rotted right to the core. It wouldn’t be strange if it died today.」
The cats whipped their heads away, curling their lips and distorting their faces. Just as they said, the smell was wretched. Isaac frowned as he looked at the blackened blade. It was the scent of a decomposing corpse.
「At this rate, will she even last until the grand assembly?」
「That’s probably why Alikisa is trying so hard to return to her own body as quickly as possible.」
That mage is dying. The mage who gave his body to Alikisa is now almost entirely rotted, his consciousness vanished, leaving only hatred behind.
Isaac looked at the Prince. Though invisible to his own eyes, he had been told that the mage’s resentful spirit was persistently lingering around him.
“I should keep her bound to that body. At least until the grand assembly,” the Prince murmured, lost in thought.
“Station soldiers in every hamlet nearby. Ensure she can no longer procure life force.”
At the Prince’s command, Rihan bowed without a word and turned away, vanishing as quickly as he had arrived. Once again, only Isaac and the Prince remained.
The witch’s body had reached its limit.
The witch would need to find a new body, but that was an impossible task while she was currently in the mountains of Hailen. Someone who knew how to use Mana and was willing to enter a contract with a witch was not something easily found, even in cities teeming with greedy people.
She wanted to return to her original body, and now, with soldiers occupying the hamlets, gathering life force would become difficult.
Inevitably, the witch must be growing anxious by now.
“Stop thinking, witch.”
Just then, the Prince spoke as he grabbed the back of Isaac’s neck. Isaac flinched slightly and looked at the Prince. Meeting the expressionless gaze of the Prince, Isaac let his shoulders slump and muttered, “I guess I will.”
Not that he could actually stop his thoughts, but suddenly his heart felt a bit lighter. It was as if the Prince were blocking out his gloom and apprehension.
The day was waning.
In the mountains, the sun sets with startling speed. Now that the sun was hanging on the mountain peak, it would sink in the blink of an eye, and the forest would plunge into darkness.
For the past few days, they had been wandering this area searching for a pond, but today they had to descend toward the residential areas. They were out of consumables like dried rations and medicine and needed to resupply.
However, descending all the way to Kuslo would take too much time, so it was better to head to a relatively nearby and large hamlet. According to the map, there was a hamlet of about a dozen households a couple of hours’ descent from here.
“A dozen households… it sounds like a cozy, quaint village,” Isaac said, walking behind the Prince. He didn’t mention that it was exactly the right size for a witch to devour. The thought briefly crossed his mind—what if the witch had already eaten them?—but he quickly pushed it aside.
Every night, they were checking the connection between hamlets to ensure signal flares were being fired correctly, but even then, there were hamlets that stopped firing them. Whenever they went to check such places, they found that not a single person remained; everyone had vanished. The witch was steadily and persistently devouring people to gather life force.
The Dark Moon, when the Grand Coven of Witches would be held, was fast approaching. In just a few days, when the Dark Moon arrived, it would be the day of the grand assembly.
What tasks remained in these few remaining days?
He only hoped that fewer people would get hurt and that the damage could be contained without further loss.
“I didn’t know so many people lived in the mountains,” Isaac suddenly remarked as they descended the mountain path through the woods.
After all, Hailen itself was very mountainous, and even those living in the mountains would go out to Hailen or Kuslo every few days, so in terms of the capital, it was no different from living in a quiet suburb. He had thought living in the mountains would be far more isolated and difficult, but after visiting the mountain villages, he found that wasn’t the case; their simple and peaceful daily lives looked appealing.
Despite some inconveniences, the air was fresh, the water clear, and there was plenty of game and forage. If one could give up a cultural lifestyle, it seemed one could live quite comfortably and freely. He felt it might unexpectedly suit him.
“I’ll revise my dream of living in a pretty house, raising pretty chickens with a pretty wife, to living in a pretty house in the mountains, raising pretty mountain rabbits with a pretty mountain wife…”
As he spoke, the latter part sounded a bit strange, but Isaac felt a momentary happiness in his free imagination. However,
“Mountains near the capital are protected areas; residence is prohibited.”
The Prince’s cold words ruthlessly shattered his brief happiness. Isaac looked at him with a hint of resentment, but the Prince’s face was utterly frigid, seemingly indifferent to such feelings.
“What’s the harm in just imagining it?”
It was just as Isaac muttered gloomily.
“It is absurd for a mere witch to covet a human woman, and furthermore,”
The Prince’s tone seemed to grow even colder. Simultaneously, the Prince grabbed Isaac by the collar and slammed him against a tree trunk. Isaac coughed as his back hit the tree hard, but he suddenly gasped for air. It was because of the hand gripping his groin with brutal force.
“Not there,”
The Prince was looking down at Isaac from less than a hand’s breadth away. His eyes, staring directly at Isaac, were exceptionally blue. The hand gripping Isaac’s genitals through his clothes seemed to loosen for a moment. Then, the hand slowly slid down, digging between Isaac’s legs. And then, it pressed firmly into the deep center.
“With a body that cries and thrashes in total surrender while swallowing a man’s member here… you would embrace a woman…?”
Isaac held his breath as the finger pressed as if it would pierce through the fabric into his thighs. Isaac stared at the Prince without blinking, and the Prince stared back just as piercingly.
“No matter how lewd a witch is, you shouldn’t use your lower half like that.”
“—!”
With a sharp click of his tongue, the Prince gripped Isaac’s groin. Isaac frowned for a moment at the powerful grip, but no sound escaped his tightly closed lips. Looking down at him, the Prince eventually slowly withdrew his hand.
“Witch. As long as you are breathing, you shall satisfy that lewdness only by spreading your legs for me.”
Isaac looked up silently as the Prince stepped back, stating this with a low, firm certainty. After a long silence, Isaac quietly lowered his gaze.
“You don’t have to trample me like that,” Isaac murmured softly, like a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Whether it’s personality, mind, or heart… even a witch has those things.”
The reason his gaze fell to his toes was that his heart had grown vaguely clouded.
In this moment, he didn’t want to see what kind of expression the Prince was wearing.
He had heard plenty of harsh and mischievous words throughout his life and didn’t usually take them to heart, but occasionally, they scratched at his soul. That happened when the words came from someone he valued, and when he could feel malice from that person.
‘It can’t be helped,’ Isaac thought, shaking his head to drive away the dark mood. “It’s already gotten very dark. According to the map, the hamlet should be appearing soon…” he said, stepping forward as if nothing had happened. But before he could take more than a few steps,
“…!”
The Prince, who had been standing as if frozen in place, suddenly grabbed Isaac’s shoulder and spun him around. Isaac, caught off guard, froze.
The Prince was looking at Isaac with a strange expression. That fierce face, which he seemed to have seen before, also looked somewhat bewildered.
“—You,”
It was just as the Prince began to speak through gritted teeth.
Right then, the sound of a commotion drifted from a short distance below. The approaching noise was a mixture of urgent running, shouting, yelling, and cheers. As the sounds of several people grew louder, another sound blended in: the rough growling of a predator.
Turning toward the sound, lights flickered through the dense forest. Judging by the way the lights swayed, they seemed to be torches.
“Are you sure it’s tied properly? The rope looks a bit loose.”
“It’s tied well. He’s half-dead anyway, so he won’t have any strength. Why are you so scared?”
“Don’t be naive! Do you know how strong and fast this thing is?!”
“True, it took over ten of us to finally catch it even after we dropped it in a pit and stabbed its throat, so it is a monster. Whoa, look at the size of this thing.”
“Hey—everyone, come out and help!”
The boisterous noise drew closer, and torches suddenly entered their field of vision. A group of people walking in line with torches also appeared. They seemed to hesitate, letting out an “oh” as they spotted the pair.
It appeared the men of the settlement were returning from a hunt. About a dozen men, each carrying weapons like axes or spears, were walking toward them. Slung over a long, thick wooden pole on their shoulders was a massive tiger, likely weighing several hundred pounds, bound with ropes. The tiger, pierced all over by several spears, hung limp and bloodied, yet it was still breathing, letting out rough, rattling gasps.
The men seemed surprised, as they hadn’t expected to encounter anyone in the mountains at this late hour. Looking closer, a faint light was visible at the end of the direction they were heading. That seemed to be the settlement where they lived.
‘Thank goodness, this settlement wasn’t eaten by the witch,’ Isaac thought, feeling relieved. Just then, the man leading the group spoke up with a broad, friendly smile.
“Are you travelers coming from Atlane? This path is quite secluded, so people often get lost around here. At this hour, it’ll be difficult to reach Kuslo today, so why don’t you rest at our village? It’s right over there.”
The middle-aged man, who looked to be in his early forties, led the way with a kind smile. The men following behind him glanced at the strangers with some caution, perhaps due to their sudden appearance late at night, but they followed without saying much. Isaac and the Prince walked slightly behind the middle-aged man.
“I was actually thinking I needed some help from a village since I’m out of medicine and rations, so this is perfect. It looks like you’ve come back from a hunt. You caught a truly massive one…”
Isaac looked back. The tiger, carried by six or seven men, lay motionless as if dead. However, the occasional flicker of its upturned white eyes indicated that its breath had not yet completely ceased. Even in its dying state, the rattling breath was laced with pain and fury, as if it were resentful of its own demise.
“Yes, we set a trap, but we never imagined such a huge one would get caught… several of us were quite badly injured catching this beast. By the way, are there only two of you? No other companions?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Haha, crossing these rugged mountains with only two people at this late hour. Even though there are many small and large villages throughout the mountains, you should be careful as you never know what might happen. …By the way, are those things following you pets of yours, sir?”
The middle-aged man’s gaze shifted to a few steps beside Isaac’s feet. There, three black cats were trotting along behind Isaac. Or rather, the Prince. They were following the Prince while staring at him.
“Uh… they are… my pets, for now.”
“I’ve never seen cats follow their owner so well without even being on a leash,” the middle-aged man said with a laugh. He tried to pet one of the cats, but the creature dodged his hand without even looking at him, focusing its gaze solely on the Prince.
The other two were the same. Wiggling their hips and tilting their heads slightly, they looked at the Prince as if there were something incredibly interesting to see. Their gazes constantly shifted from the Prince’s shoulder to his head, then to his waist.
Isaac frowned slightly. The resentful spirit mentioned earlier must be continuing to hover around the Prince. It might not be a big deal, but he didn’t find it pleasant that something unpleasant was following him. As Isaac was thinking this, his expression suddenly vanished. The three cats, their eyes rolling as if their bodies were itching to pounce on the Prince, were each looking at different spots. It was as if that resentful spirit had multiplied.
“Just across that stream is our village. Do you see the lights over there? We’ve built a sturdy wooden bridge, but it’s dangerous if you misstep and fall, so please watch your footing. The stream is quite deep, and since it rained recently, the water has risen and is dangerous.”
A fairly deep-looking stream appeared between the woods. As the middle-aged man pointed, a wooden bridge spanned the stream, and just beyond it lay the lit hamlet. A few people were standing across the bridge, having presumably heard the news and come to greet them.
The people stopped before the stream, which flowed quite menacingly in the darkening forest. The wooden bridge was too narrow for five or six men to cross side-by-side while carrying the tiger.
‘We should carry the pole horizontally,’ ‘Someone cross first and help from the other side’—while they discussed among themselves, Isaac watched the cats. As the Prince stopped, the cats began to paw at the air beside him. They moved their front paws repeatedly, as if trying to catch something invisible. It was as if they were trying to catch countless flying things, all over the air.
“…How many of them are flying around, those resentful spirits?” Isaac asked the cats in a low voice. The cats, preoccupied with catching the invisible things, didn’t even look at Isaac and replied while hopping.
「Many, many. Fourteen, fifteen… I don’t know, they keep increasing!」
「There must be something nearby that resentful spirits love to cling to!」
In an instant, Isaac’s expression hardened. Reflexively turning his head, Isaac’s gaze fell upon the giant tiger hanging from the pole that the men were beginning to tilt. The rope binding the beast was stretched taut by its weight.
“Wait—”
It was just as Isaac stepped forward and opened his mouth.
The Prince, who had been silently observing their actions, spoke slowly to the middle-aged man.
“By the way,”
As the Prince murmured while looking indifferently toward the village across the bridge, the middle-aged man turned back with the same smiling face. “Yes?”
“Why is it that in a village of only a dozen households, there are over ten men of prime working age?”
The moment the Prince spoke, the middle-aged man’s expression froze. So did the expressions of the men standing around them.
The Prince gripped his sword with a languid face, showing no particular emotion, and almost simultaneously, the men gripped their weapons. Just as Isaac’s face hardened and he was about to move,
“Uwaaaah!”
A man near the bridge shouted. The man leading the way had dropped the pole carrying the tiger. The pole fell to the ground and snapped under the tiger’s massive weight, and in the process, the taut rope snapped, and the other end of the rope slid off the broken pole.
At that moment.
Isaac thought he saw a small whirlwind suddenly swirling around the Prince in the darkness. Countless things, like large, pitch-black butterflies, suddenly multiplied and flew in a swarm toward the tiger. Those shadows clung to the tiger in a black mass, seeming to seep into it instantly.
“—”
Was it an optical illusion? When he looked at the tiger the next moment, the black shadows that had covered the air were gone without a trace. However, the tiger began to move.