By Zephyria 
“But why is this corner broken? Where did the corner piece go?”
“What?!”
The moment the boatman spoke, three cats bristled their tail hairs simultaneously. They rushed forward to snatch the box, looking around frantically.
“Kyaaaaah!!”
“What is this! Why is it broken!! The corner! Where is the corner!”
“My precious treasure! My priceless flint jar!”
The three of them screamed, every hair on their bodies standing on end.
Isaac, who had been indifferently scanning the inside of the boat, only recalled the memory upon hearing the commotion.
“Ah, sorry. I did that. Earlier in the prison, I tried to put the flint jar inside… the bars were too narrow, so I pulled it through by force and a bit of the corner flew off.”
He muttered nonchalantly that it didn’t seem to affect its use and that the wish had been granted just fine, only to be struck sharply on the back of the head by a cat’s tail. Three times in a row.
“This precious thing!”
“What are you going to do about the corner, the corner? Where did you leave it?!”
“Ow! I mean, it’s just a tiny piece of the edge… ow, ow, ow!”
The moment he opened his mouth, Isaac was hit by a triple strike from the steel-like tails again. He curled up, clutching the back of his head, while the cats circled the box, pacing anxiously. Seeing them like that, Isaac felt a bit sorry and asked with a cautious expression.
“Does it cause a problem if that piece is missing…?”
“Of course it’s a problem! A huge problem!”
“It’s less pretty!”
“An elegant and beautiful box has become slightly less elegant and beautiful!”
“….Is that all?”
“What do you mean ‘is that all’! That’s the biggest problem!”
Since he had grown up with nothing, he didn’t understand how great a virtue beauty was, and the cats continued to fuss and grumble. Isaac, sitting slumped against the gunwale, quietly accepted the beatings from the cats’ tails as punishment for damaging someone else’s treasure.
“They’ll find their way back on their own, so why make a fuss.”
Perhaps feeling pity for Isaac, who continued to be hit, the boatman spoke while holding a tobacco pipe in his mouth. Isaac blinked, looking up at the boatman.
“What’s coming back? The corner?”
“Hmm.”
“….”
It had been a joke, but the boatman nodded far too readily. As Isaac stared at the boatman in silence, another witch climbed aboard. The boatman exchanged a nod with the witch and spoke.
“You all found your way here too. Things born with Mana are naturally drawn to places with stronger Mana. Just as you know where this boat drops anchor without being told, or where the Grand Coven of Witches is held. Just as this boat, which was headed for Valhalis, dropped anchor here, drawn by the energy of this treasure. Thus, the corner will find its way back to its body.”
“…Is the corner even alive?”
“An object with Mana this old and strong should be considered alive. Whether a mouse carries it or a bird brings it, it’ll be delivered.”
Isaac stared blankly at the boatman and then at the cats. The three, who had been lamenting the missing corner, seemed to have forgotten already and were happily rubbing their cheeks against another corner. Cherishing it with utmost care, as if it might break if blown or extinguish if gripped, the three took turns stroking the box, refusing to leave its side.
Could it really be that wonderful?
Isaac gazed at the three for a moment, let out a small chuckle, and turned his head. He looked down at the night view, where lights twinkled late into the night under a pitch-black sky. A bird was soaring in a wide circle in the night sky.
Once this night ended, the Moon Fragment Ship would weigh anchor and depart. Once it left for the land of the new moon, there would be no returning.
It was the land where he was born, raised, and had lived all his life. In the center of it, he could see the Royal Palace floating white amidst the darkness. Looking down upon it all, a part of Isaac’s heart grew cold.
“When the Moon Fragment Ship returns in seven years, will I be able to come back then?”
Isaac murmured, gazing at the distant Royal Palace. The boatman, who had been talking with the witches on board, looked back.
“The Moon Fragment Ship doesn’t come to lands where there are no witches. Unless at least one remains. I heard all the witches living in this land decided to leave during this Great Dark Moon.”
“Let’s see, just one or two more and we’ll be set,” the boatman said, scanning the boat. Isaac’s heart sank heavily. Once he left now, he could never return. Isaac let his shoulders slump and turned his gaze back toward the city.
“What would you do if you came back? Those heartless humans hunted down and killed every last witch.”
“Exactly. They could have just lived together, but they only cared about their own survival.”
As the boatman spoke abruptly, the witches he was talking to chimed in. The witches, who were naturally interested in other people’s business, sat in the boat and echoed, “Right, right!”
“There are so many humans in the world, so why make such a fuss just because a few—one, two, three, four, ten, twenty—got eaten?”
“That’s the truth. What’s wrong with getting eaten a little? In a world where we live together and bump into each other, isn’t it natural to kill and be killed?”
“Look at how they killed all our kids this time. Just because they didn’t want to share a bit of their own lives. Anyway, humans have such nasty dispositions.”
“Because they killed off all the witches, I couldn’t even get back the ring I lent to Ermania. That damn girl should have returned the ring before she died!”
“Fufu, I saw Tetina die right next to me and rushed to her house to take all the life beads she had collected. I actually profited.”
The witches began to chatter boisterously. The quiet boat was suddenly filled with cackling laughter.
Isaac kept his mouth shut as he listened to them. A corner of his heart turned chilly. It was a similar feeling to what he had felt at the Grand Coven of Witches, though far lighter. A sense of alienation, as if there were an uncrossable river between them and himself.
To them, this was a natural and normal conversation. They were beings who always prioritized themselves and felt no empathy for the pain of others.
The people in the world Isaac had lived in until now were—.
“…Well, they weren’t exactly moral and virtuous either…”
Unless they were great saints or great villains, everyone was more or less the same. Everyone was moderately selfish, greedy, and mean. And they were moderately kind, virtuous, and generous. Among them, there were treasure-like moments and moments of tears. And there were moments that could not be categorized as either.
What suddenly came to mind were his comrades, who had been so close to him, yet looked at him with apprehension and fear once they discovered he was a witch. And yet, despite that, Hoden, who could not shake his worry and paced anxiously when Isaac had collapsed as if dying. Even then, while granting Isaac’s request, Hoden feared that something might harm him, and when the Prince approached Isaac with a terrifying expression, Hoden looked back at Isaac with uncertainty and anxiety.
In the same person, and in the same sequence of events, resentment and gratitude were thus intertwined. Come to think of it, nothing was ever purely good or purely bad.
So, as he moved to the Land of Witches and lived among them, there would be good things and bad things, but…
“…I can’t adjust right now… It would have been better if not just my body, but the very structure of my brain had changed into that of a witch.”
Isaac murmured, barely listening to the witches’ conversation as they bragged about who was better or worse.
Yes, truly, it would have been better if his mind had changed into a witch’s.
Then perhaps he wouldn’t feel this regret. Perhaps he wouldn’t miss them this much. He already felt such longing and sorrow.
“I miss them…”
“What do you mean, you miss them?!”
The moment Isaac whispered to himself, the cats lashed his back with their tails, but he still missed them.
What remained vividly in his mind was the expression of the Prince just before Isaac left this place, as he stepped into the iron bars.
The usual expressionless light had vanished completely, replaced by a face he had never seen before—one of urgency and agitation.
He had never seen such a face. He hadn’t even thought the Prince was capable of making such a face. That distraught face, blurring within the spreading white light.
In that light, the Prince had opened his mouth as if trying to say something.
What had he been trying to say? There was no way to know now, but the curiosity lingered, weighing on his heart. He wished he had stayed to hear it.
“I wonder why he tried to catch me…”
Isaac murmured abruptly.
The boatman, who had been greeting a witch just boarding the ship, looked back.
“Catch what?”
“….I just wondered what a ‘strong emotion’ is.”
The boatman looked at Isaac with a face that seemed to ask what on earth he was talking about. He looked at Isaac suspiciously, wondering why he was giving such a random answer, and then looked at the cats. The cats pointed to their own heads with their tails, shaking them as if to say, “He’s just like that. He’s Manbang,” and “He’s a bit lacking.”
For a moment, Isaac felt like grabbing them by the scruff of their necks and shaking them gently, but soon even that became too bothersome.
He thought about the “strong emotion” the Prince had mentioned. What was deeply rooted in the Prince was hatred and rage toward witches. For someone who had lived almost entirely without feeling other emotions, it was the only emotion he felt intensely and clearly. And he had said that he felt a strong emotion toward Isaac—who had now become a full witch, or perhaps since he was only half a witch.
What could it have been?
Hatred? No, it couldn’t have been just hatred. If it were, Isaac’s head would have been severed and turned into a corpse somewhere long ago during their time together. However, he also said it wasn’t affection—he hadn’t even expected it to be.
Then, what was it?
Even though he couldn’t know the answer now, it wouldn’t leave his mind. If he had heard what the Prince tried to say at the very end, would he have known?
That remained as the single stumbling block in his heart. Even as he tried to cut off all other lingering attachments.
“Maybe he meant he hated you intensely.”
“Maybe he meant he was intensely angry.”
“Indeed, it would have been words better left unheard. No doubt about it.”
The cats chattered. Even though he had told them hundreds of times not to read people’s faces… Isaac glared at them fiercely from the corner of his eye, but of course, they weren’t the type to be deterred by that.
However, Isaac eventually let out a light sigh and nodded. Yes, it might have been that. In fact, the possibility was quite high. …But still, it would have been better to hear it. Rather than leaving with this kind of regret and lingering attachment.
“Strong emotions… Humans have so many strange and incomprehensible emotions, and their fluctuations are so severe that they’re nearly impossible to understand. They swear they hate someone, yet they want to know every single move that person makes; they scream that they love someone, yet they treat that person miserably.”
The boatman swung the oar in his hand—which seemed utterly useless for moving such a large sailing ship—and shook his head. Another witch chimed in from the side.
“I’m telling you, they’re just an incomprehensible breed. You just have to memorize it. Just accept that they’re built that way.”
“But it’s exactly because of that part that it’s so easy for us to coax them and eat their souls. You could call it a human virtue.”
The witches cackled. The sight of their tongues licking their lips wickedly looked somehow eerie, so Isaac quickly looked away.
“You must never trust the surface of a human’s words. Humans are capable of deceiving even themselves. ——But one thing is certain.”
The boatman spoke, resting his chin on the end of the oar that touched the floor.
“A strong emotion, whatever it may be, means that you think about that person for a long time and very much.”
“——.”
Isaac fell silent. Suddenly, his chest felt a hot, aching throb. Because of the inexplicable pain in his heart, he held his breath for a moment.
For a long time, very much. No matter what the emotion was, the stronger it was, the longer and more often one thought of them and kept them in their heart.
Emotions are never one-dimensional; one can love and hate the same person within a single day, and it is impossible to hold only one emotion toward something.
Thus, it is difficult to give a single name to an emotion, but this much is clear: the more intense the emotion, the longer that person occupies one’s mind and heart.
Just as Isaac had almost always kept the Prince in a corner of his mind, whether he was with him or not.
Had he thought of him much? Regardless of what the emotion was, had he thought of him often and for a long time?
“…I miss him.”
Isaac murmured like a sigh. The cats, who caught that small sound with supernatural precision, lashed Isaac’s nape and the back of his head, shouting, “What do you mean, you miss him?!” and “Get a grip!”, but he couldn’t help but say it. Only those words filled and swelled in his heart, making it impossible to swallow them.
“I miss him. …I know I shouldn’t be by his side, but I still miss him.”
What about it if I miss him? It’s not like I can’t just say it.
Isaac spoke while looking gloomily at the cats. The cats, who had been staring at Isaac with wide, piercing eyes, gradually lowered their eyelids. With expressions that seemed to say, ‘Oh, you poor, foolish thing,’ they spoke.
“But you’re leaving.”
The moment he heard those words, Isaac’s heart leaped. But after a short pause, he nodded.
“Then don’t think about him.”
“Don’t think about him for long. Don’t think about him much.”
The cats whispered. Those words seeped into Isaac’s ears and leaked out again as a sigh. Isaac slowly nodded.
If he didn’t think about him for long, and didn’t think about him much, his heart would gradually settle. The intense emotion would become calm.
Even this intensity.
This emotion—the first time he had ever liked someone this much.
…Really?
A small voice questioned from a corner of his mind. But he had to stop thinking about that, too. Isaac turned his head and looked down at the night view of the city. As the hour grew late, the lights had mostly gone out, and the city was submerged in darkness. Beneath a dark sky where only birds flew, only the Royal Palace was lit white.
Meanwhile, the witches were boarding the ship one by one, and by the time the night sky ceased to grow any darker, the last remaining witch in the land had boarded.
“Let’s see… right, everyone’s here now.”
The boatman, scanning the ship, counted on his fingers while looking into the air and then nodded. Isaac’s heart gave a great thud.
Everyone who needed to board had boarded.
Once this ship departed, no witches would remain in the human world. Witches would live in the Land of Witches, and humans in the land of humans, divided in that way. Never to mix again.
And now, Isaac would be unable to return here.
The boatman pulled the rope. The stairs that had been draped beneath the ship were pulled up. The last path connecting him to the human world vanished.
“Ah…”
Isaac instinctively started to stand up, but when he met the puzzled gaze of the boatman, he could say nothing. What would he say? There were no words left to say.
The stairs, pulled up from the ground, were placed inside the ship, and the ship was now ready to depart. The boatman looked up at the sky, where the colors were beginning to fade.
“It’s a bit earlier than usual, but since everyone’s on board, shall we head out… …Hmm?”
The boatman, who had just picked up the oar, suddenly narrowed his eyes and looked toward the horizon. A bird was flying toward them from across the night sky. By the time he recognized the fairly large bird as an owl, the cats, who had been lying with their paws on the flint jar next to Isaac, pricked up their ears and stood up.
“It’s the flint jar piece!”
“The corner has returned!”
The cats leaped up in joy and danced around the box. The owl soon descended toward the cats, who were pacing back and forth, staring at it with fluttering eyes. More precisely, it landed on top of the flint jar. And then, it dropped what it had been clutching in its talons.
Clink. A small piece of wood fell. It was a small fragment that fit perfectly into the broken corner of the box.
“It’s here~!” “Yippee~!” As the cats frolicked, Isaac shifted his gaze to the owl, which was already flying far away again. He wondered how it had managed to spot that tiny fragment from such a distance.
“I guess those eyes aren’t just unnecessarily large…”
As Isaac muttered unconsciously, the cats, ears pricked, glared at him with sharp eyes. As a front paw whipped past, a long claw mark was sliced across Isaac’s forearm.
“Yikes! That hurts!”
「Fine, now that the flint jar fragment is here, let’s launch the ship immediately without a single backward glance! Boatman! Let’s get going!」
The cats ignored Isaac’s pleas of pain and urged the boatman. Holding the oars, the boatman looked up at the sky with a somewhat reluctant expression.
「But why are there so many damn birds in the middle of the night? We might collide while launching the ship.」
Following the boatman’s gaze as he waved his oars, claiming it was dangerous to collide with birds when launching a ship into the sky, Isaac looked up. Sure enough, as he said, birds were fluttering thick across the night sky.
Hawks.
Dozens, perhaps more, of hawks raised in the borderlands were flying above the capital. As if they had been chasing the owl, they circled above the foothills where the Moon Fragment Ship was anchored.
High above them, a giant white hawk was gliding.
“…That hawk is…”
「Boatman! Launch the ship now!」
「Hey, are you going to take responsibility if I’m late?! There’s no time, let’s go quickly, quickly!」
The suddenly urgent cats perched on the ship’s railing, chattering away while drumming on the boatman’s shoulder with their tails. The boatman looked back and forth between the birds in the sky and the cats, bewildered, and frowned.
「I guess that piece of treasure brought something troublesome along with it.」
「Stop talking nonsense and just launch the ship already!」
It was just as the cats shrieked.
The sound of galloping hooves echoed from below the foothills. The sound of a fierce charge grew steadily closer. Following the thunder of hooves, the sound of branches snapping—crack, crack—followed, as if something were charging straight through the dense forest. The presence of a terrifying gallop approached, shaking the ground.
Isaac stared intently in that direction. He didn’t even blink his faintly narrowed eyes.
That familiar sound. That familiar presence.
A presence that should never have been seen here again was charging through the dark mountain night. Above, a hawk screeched. A long, sharp cry tore through the sky.
The cry of a hawk. Relentless hooves.
Amidst the sounds cutting through the night air, a figure finally emerged from between the pitch-black trees.
“—.”
Isaac clung to the side of the ship, staring intently at the figure.
The shadow emerging from the darkness, the sturdy man riding a horse that charged majestically as if carving through a battlefield—he was someone Isaac knew well. The very person he had been thinking about until just a moment ago.
It was the Prince.
The Prince saw the Moon Fragment Ship. He saw Isaac standing on the deck.
Their eyes met. Even at a distance where expressions were hard to discern, it was clear that their gazes had locked.
Isaac flinched, his shoulders shrinking. As if sensing this, the Prince charged toward him, staring only at Isaac with eyes that gleamed menacingly.
「I don’t know, I don’t know, he’s here, he’s here!」
「That’s why I told you to launch the ship quickly! Don’t come crying to me if you get locked in a birdcage because you dawdled!」
The cats shrieked and meowed. The boatman, looking flustered as he glanced at the birds in the sky, the cats, and then the man charging fiercely from afar, narrowed his eyes and looked again.
「What is that, isn’t it a human? Why is a human here…?」
「Oh my, a human came? Then before leaving the human world, maybe I’ll have a little snack for the road… …Oh? Wait, isn’t that the human who turned the grand assembly into a complete mess a while ago?」
A witch, who had approached and tilted her head out of curiosity, suddenly paused and spoke. Hearing this, the boatman’s eyebrow twitched. 「Really?」
「Is that the brat who drove away my guests and wiped out one of my routes? I can’t just let that slide.」
Muttering grumpily that a human shouldn’t even dare come near the Moon Fragment Ship, the boatman pulled a small bottle from his pocket. He threw the glass bottle containing a colorful liquid outside the ship.
Clink. The glass bottle shattered against a rock. From the liquid that poured out, smoke suddenly billowed up like an explosion. In front of the Prince, who was rapidly closing the distance to the Moon Fragment Ship, the billowing smoke vomited out a giant magical beast.
A magical beast with the head of a lion, the horns of a goat, the body of a tiger, the wings of an eagle, and the tail of a snake blocked the Prince’s path. The beast, as massive as an elephant, let out a terrifying roar and bared its teeth. From its wide-open, blood-red maw, which looked capable of swallowing a person whole, toxic fluid that emitted white smoke dripped down.
“Aiolia…!”
Isaac muttered blankly, staring at the magical beast summoned from hell.
But the boatman didn’t stop there; he threw glass bottles one after another. Clink, clink, clink. Every time a bottle shattered, hideous magical beasts leaped out from the billowing smoke.
“Give them to me!”
With a stiff expression, Isaac grabbed the boatman’s arm, trying to take the bottles. The boatman, eyes wide, blinked at Isaac and turned his pocket inside out. 「Why? What? There are no more.」
Four or five glass bottles had all been broken. Magical beasts, each capable of overturning a large village on its own, now blocked the path to the Moon Fragment Ship in numbers equal to the bottles, their eyes gleaming like fire as they searched for something to tear apart.
“—.”
Isaac grit his teeth. His heart turned cold.
No. He mustn’t get hurt—.
「He released that many magical beasts? I wanted to watch a bit, but this is boring.」
「Whether he releases one or many, it’s all equally boring.」
The witches muttered, leaning their heads over the railing. “That being said,” a response followed.
As they said, the Prince was but a single man before those terrifying and ferocious magical beasts. He was even hidden from view by the house-sized beasts.
No, Isaac whispered only with his lips. Beside him, the cats observed the magical beasts and quickly clung to the boatman again.
「Launch the ship! I said launch the ship now! There’s no time!」
「Why are these creatures constantly nagging?! Just wait, I’m launching it!」
The boatman snapped at the persistently urging cats and raised his oar. He swung the oar outside the ship as if slamming it into the ground. Simultaneously, the ship shuddered. The ship, which had been floating at the height of a person, began to rise—slowly, very slowly.
“Stop the ship! Wait, I’m getting off—.”
Isaac shouted urgently, looking toward the Prince, who was obscured by the magical beasts. The cats clung to Isaac’s waist, dangling. 「Getting off where? The ship has lifted! It’s dangerous, sit down!」
Meanwhile, the magical beasts let out horrific roars and began to charge toward the center. Ear-splitting sounds echoed terrifyingly.
“Lord Kaieon!”
Isaac shouted instinctively.
It felt as if his heart would burst. The blood drained from his hands and feet.
No. He mustn’t get hurt in a place like this. Not just hurt—he might die. No, if it were anyone else, they would have died already.
Just then, one magical beast let out a loud roar and twisted its body. As it collapsed onto its back, its neck was more than halfway severed, spurting blood like a waterfall. Only then did the Prince’s figure become visible where the beast had fallen.
The Prince, drenched in the blood sprayed by the magical beast, was looking this way. His eyes gleamed a piercing blue as he watched the ship beginning to float above the ground.
「Oh? One of them died?」
The boatman, who had been pulling the ship up, looked down indifferently and widened his eyes. The hand rowing the oar paused for a moment. The rising ship also stopped.
In that interval, the remaining beasts charged at the Prince.
The hellish magical beasts swung their claws at the Prince. They lunged with poison-dripping teeth, breathed fire, and moved their massive bodies with surprising agility to attack him.
A magical beast resembling a giant bull swung its chain-like front paws. Long claw marks were carved into the chest of the Prince, who had been unable to dodge because he was surrounded by other beasts. Blood splattered. However, as he took the hit to his chest, the Prince leaped simultaneously, and his sword plunged deep into the crown of the beast that had left an opening while attacking.
Squelch. The tip of the sword pierced the crown and emerged below the jaw. As the Prince sliced downward with the sword, the beast’s head was split vertically in two. Amidst the black gushing blood, the beast slowly tilted and collapsed to the ground. The earth shook with a loud thud.
「…Uh. Xanthiria is…」
The boatman muttered blankly. Blinking as he watched, he frowned and craned his neck.
「Is that really a human…? Strange, he looks human…」
「Don’t stop your hands! Row the oar, row!」
As if the urgently nagging words of the cats were unheard, the boatman stared wide-eyed at the scene unfolding below.
And beside him, Isaac also watched the Prince, unable to even breathe.
The Prince was cutting down the magical beasts with terrifying momentum.
Beasts with leather as thick as steel and immense strength fell one by one. However, with each victory, the wounds on the Prince’s body increased.
Meanwhile, the Prince’s horse, once so brave and fierce, was cut across the neck by a beast’s claw and collapsed. Stepping over the twitching corpse of the horse, the Prince was now facing them alone with nothing but a sword.
There was no part of his chest, back, or limbs that wasn’t wounded. Deep gashes that tore through flesh to reveal bone were carved all over his body. His skin was charred black and blistered from the flames and toxic fluids spewed by the beasts.
An ordinary person would have already died or fled. No, they wouldn’t have come at all.
Three magical beasts remained.
The Prince, too, was a wreck, with not a single healthy spot left on his body.
It had all happened in a very short time. The boatman, who had been staring down with wide, disbelieving eyes, almost dropped his oar before hurriedly gripping it again, and another magical beast fell. Simultaneously, the Prince’s thigh was halfway sliced open by a beast’s claw.
Isaac looked at the Prince. As if sensing the gaze, the Prince looked at Isaac.
Their eyes met.
The Prince’s piercing blue eyes held onto Isaac.
“—.”
Why.
Why did he chase him this far? Why didn’t he go back? Why doesn’t he turn around and flee right now?
Why is he looking at him like that? With such a desperate face.
His heart beat frantically. Seeing his fingertips trembling faintly as the blood vanished, Isaac clenched his fists.
Beside him, the boatman, who had been staring down with a serious expression, suddenly gripped the oar.
「I need to lift the ship quickly. I have a bad feeling.」
“We told you so! You should have hurried!” The cats clamored, but without looking back, the boatman began to row with a fiercely hardened face. As he rowed vigorously against the air, the giant sailing ship began to rise slowly, as if it had found a current.
He could see the Prince’s face harden. The ship rose to the height of a house, then the height of a great tree, and eventually to the height of a tower.
And then—.
“Isaac!”
For the first time, he called out.
As if words he had been barely suppressing had finally burst through his throat.
That desperate voice.
Isaac heard for the first time that boiling voice, which bordered on despair.
Isaac leaned his body out as if he might fall from the deck. The Prince looked up at the rising ship with terrifying eyes. His expression was clearly crumbling into darkness.
It felt as if his heart would snap.
Just then,
“—Kai,”
Isaac’s face suddenly stiffened. Words wouldn’t come quickly from his frozen tongue. Two magical beasts were charging at the Prince simultaneously.
It was already too late for the Prince, who had been staring only at the rising ship and Isaac, to dodge the two beasts lunging at him.
He would have to take at least one of the attacks head-on. And whichever it was, it would be a fatal blow.
No.
Turning hurriedly, Isaac grabbed the harpoon lying under the equipment. Beside him, the boatman approached in panic, 「Wait, surely you’re not trying to use that on those things,」 but the voice didn’t reach his ears.
The magical beasts were already within arm’s reach of the Prince. And the Prince, bracing for the attack of the beast approaching from behind, swung his sword at the beast lunging from the front.
The sword sliced through the air and cleaved the beast’s torso. Sshhh—as the beast split in two, its blood drenched the Prince. The Prince raised his arm to cover only his face, and his skin sizzled and burned. And at that very moment, the beast that had already reached his back was driving its claws into the Prince’s heart—.
“————.”
The moment the sharp claws pierced the skin, a harpoon flying through the air pierced the beast’s chest. The harpoon protruded from the chest through to the back.
The magical beast stopped moving. For a brief moment, it was as if time itself had stopped. The beast, having received an unexpected attack and standing frozen as if struck by lightning, slowly raised its head. Its blood-red eyes, gleaming like flames, saw Isaac leaning over the railing. The one who had thrown the harpoon. The beast’s eyes burned like fire.
Beside him, the boatman gasped. Isaac also swallowed his breath.
The beast’s eyes, burning red with rage, were looking at none other than Isaac.
The beast roared. The scream of rage echoed terrifyingly, as if tearing the entire night sky apart. In the next instant, the beast looked straight up at Isaac and leaped from the ground. The eagle wings on the beast’s back soared.
The beast surged into the sky in an instant, reaching the Moon Fragment Ship which was floating at the height of a spire, and Isaac met the beast’s eyes right in front of him.
Eyes like blood-red flames. Filled only with rage and murderous intent.
「Man, Manbang-a!」
He thought he heard the cats screaming. The beast’s blade-like claws flew toward Isaac’s neck. The moment the claws, capable of taking a human head in an instant, sliced Isaac’s skin,
“————.”
Just as a red blade descending diagonally seemed to appear,
A blade, sliced diagonally from the neck down to the opposite shoulder, cleaved the beast’s torso.
The magical beast stopped moving. A short moment where even time seemed to stand still.
The beast’s neck slowly slid from its torso. The moment the neck detached and rolled down to the distant ground, blood surged from the remaining torso.
That toxic fluid, pouring like a fountain toward Isaac who stood right in front, did not reach him. Only a few drops splattered; most of the blood burned the back of the person who had blocked Isaac’s path with a horrific tsss sound.
And Isaac knew who the person blocking his view was.
The man who had grabbed the tail of the house-sized beast the moment it flew up and ascended with it, the man who had beheaded the beast the moment he stepped onto the deck.
“—Lord Kaieon.”
Drenched in blood, dripping droplets of blood—whether his own or someone else’s—the man stood there as a complete wreck; it would not have been strange if his breath stopped at any moment.
Exposed red flesh, pale white bone, skin charred black and blistered—looking at that wretched sight, Isaac swallowed his breath.
Though he looked so horrific that he was barely recognizable, the man looked at Isaac with eyes that were piercingly alive. Looking down at Isaac, he took a step back from the railing. With every step, blood dripped.
“I told you I wouldn’t let you go.”
A low voice escaped through his teeth.
Isaac looked up at him without even blinking, his breath stopped. The Prince was looking at Isaac with eyes that flashed brilliantly. It felt as if his heart would freeze. Something hot surged up in his chest.
The Prince reached out. A hand drenched in blood and charred black by poison gripped Isaac’s shoulder. Then, the Prince turned his gaze to the surroundings.
Those on the boat—the ferryman, the cats, the witches—were all struck speechless, staring at the Prince in stunned silence. The Prince shifted his gaze from the witches, who were whispering disapprovingly with distorted faces, to the cats huddled with their fur standing on end, and finally to the ferryman gripping the oars.
“Turn the boat around. I need to get off.”
It was just as the Prince’s cold words fell. A cat suddenly snapped out of its daze and looked up.
「Of course, you must get off! Humans aren’t allowed on the Moon Fragment Ship!」
「Of course, hurry up and get off! Get off by yourself!」
「That’s right, get off alone and go back alone!」
The cats chattered, each trying to outdo the other. However, the Prince ignored them completely and jerked his chin toward the water below. The ferryman frowned in displeasure, glaring at the Prince. Then,
“…I am not going.”
Isaac spoke.
In that instant, the Prince’s terrifying gaze snapped back to him.
Isaac looked straight into those bluish eyes. His heart hammered wildly and a hot lump rose in his throat, but he did not avert his eyes as he spoke slowly.
“I will cross over to the land of the new moon as I am and live among the witches.”
The Prince stared intently at Isaac. His face was void of expression as he scanned every inch of Isaac; it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. As Isaac faced the Prince, his expression suddenly clouded. He could no longer suppress the emotions surging within him.
“Why did you come? Why did you let yourself be so ruined… why leave me with such a harrowing memory for our final meeting? To be… to be so severely injured,”
But the words stopped midway. A stifling heat filled his chest, pressing down on his throat. Isaac looked at his feet for a moment and let out a sigh that sounded like a groan.
“Still… I am glad I could see you once more. I felt it was a pity that I left without a proper farewell… Please, stay safe and well. I wish you long life and peaceful days always.”
Isaac bowed deeply.
A wave of melancholy washed over him. No, beyond melancholy, he wanted to cry. He couldn’t remember the last time he had wanted to simply wail out loud. Fearing that he might actually break down if he saw that ravaged form again, Isaac kept his head bowed. Then,
“You won’t go…?”
A low voice drifted down from above. Isaac flinched at the chilling, formidable tone. When had he ever heard a voice so low and devoid of emotion? Isaac raised his head slowly, very slowly. And when he saw the Prince’s face,
“—”
Isaac stopped breathing. Unable to think, he simply stared at the Prince in a daze.
A man with a complexion so dark and lifeless. It was as if he had received some hopeless sentence. A face sinking into a deep, deep blackness.
But that face soon hardened terrifyingly. It was as if a steel plating was covering the tattered, worn skin that had been exposed.
“I told you. I decide everything regarding you. You are returning.”
“—I will not go. I will cross over on this boat.”
Isaac spoke again.
The Prince’s terrifying gaze flew toward him. Glaring at Isaac with eyes distorted by anger, the Prince suddenly spoke in a low voice.
“Then I suppose I can just drop this boat.”
The words were finished the moment he acted. Turning away from Isaac, the Prince swung his sword at the mast towering in the center of the ship.
It happened in a flash, before anyone could anticipate or stop him.
Sshhhhk.
With a blade sharp enough to cleave a house-sized magical beast in one stroke, and with that terrifying strength, the Prince cut deep into the mast, which was thick enough for two grown men to embrace. The relentless blade stopped just as it had sliced through more than half—nearly all—of the mast.
The faces of everyone on the boat froze. More than anyone, the ferryman looked absolutely horrified, his complexion changing instantly.
「Th-th-this human bastard, this precious boat…!」
“Turn it around now. Before I break the mast completely.”
The Prince leaned his hand against the mast and looked at the ferryman. His face was eerily expressionless, as if the rage boiling within him had nowhere to go. Or perhaps, he had half-lost his reason.
“Kaieon,”
“Stay still, witch.”
The moment Isaac opened his mouth, the Prince spat the words sharply through his teeth without even glancing back. At that low tone, which sounded as if he were barely suppressing something, Isaac instinctively shut his mouth.
“If you say one more word, I might actually kill you, so stay still. —Please.”
The last word squeezed out of his constricted throat.
It sounded as if he were barely, barely holding back a genuine desire to kill. As if he were precariously gripping a line that must never be crossed.
“No matter what you say, whether you hate it or refuse it, —no matter what you think of me because of it, you must come with me.”
The Prince spoke in a strained voice. Something embedded in every word pierced into Isaac’s heart. It resembled a terrible agony. …But surely. …Why.
Isaac stood frozen, staring at the Prince. The Prince’s lifeless complexion, his terrifyingly clouded expression, his ravaged and tattered body—all of it was because he had come to find Isaac.
Why.
Isaac grit his teeth. His heart tightened.
Then,
「…For a mere human, you are quite skilled and utterly insolent…!」
The ferryman muttered low.
His beard-covered face distorted hideously. His short stature swelled bulkily. Like a beast transforming into a monster, his frame expanded. His beard and hair fluttered and stood on end. The eyes hidden behind the beard began to glow with a bluish light.
A terrifying magical energy flowed from the ferryman. A power more potent and violent than any witch Isaac had ever seen rose from the ferryman—the guardian of the Moon Fragment Ship—like a tidal wave.
「The Moon Fragment Ship is not for humans to ride, nor is it something to be dared to scratch…! You have no right to be on this boat!」
The ferryman, now swollen like a cloud, shouted thunderously. Simultaneously with the roar that echoed as if in a cave, the ferryman raised the oar he held and hurled it. The oar, emitting a lightning-white light and sparking flames, flew toward the Prince.
The terrifying beam of light sliced through the air in a way that no one could avoid, and it plunged deep into the Prince’s chest, though he seemed to have dodged the worst of it.
“—!”
「—.」
A silent groan escaped Isaac’s lips. Seeing the beam of light strike just beside the heart, the ferryman’s eyes widened in surprise, and he muttered, 「To dodge that,」. But the muttering soon stopped.
“This boat… will not leave until it returns the one I desire…!”
The Prince muttered. At the same time, he threw his entire weight against the mast. Thump—with a violent impact that seemed to crush his body, the already nearly severed mast creaked and tilted.
The ferryman’s face turned pale in an instant. The witches erupted in clamor.
Screeeech—the tilting mast stopped midway, held by the rigging. However, as the massive mast tilted, the hull began to tilt along with it. In an instant, the boat leaned sharply to the side.
The Prince, who had been leaning against the mast, grabbed onto the sail drooping above him and clung to it. But the silver, fluttering sail could not withstand the weight, and the rigging fixing it above snapped. The Prince’s body fell outside the hull.
“Kaieon-nim!”
Isaac, who had been gripping the railing of the deck, felt his heart drop at the sight. All the blood drained from his body at once.
The boat was floating higher than a spire. It was not a height from which a person could fall and survive.
His heart, which had seemed to stop, began to beat frantically. His blackened vision returned, but his hands were shaking.
“Kaieon-nim! Kaieon-nim!”
Isaac shifted his grip on the railing and moved toward the direction where the Prince had fallen. Meanwhile, the ferryman crawled quickly and grabbed the helm to right the ship. The heavily tilted boat regained its balance, but it still rocked precariously because the mast was broken.
And Isaac,
“Kaieon-nim!”
He didn’t know what state of mind he was in. He simply rushed to the edge of the deck where the Prince had fallen and leaned his body out. And—he saw the Prince hanging from the sword he had driven deep into the exterior of the hull.
From that dizzying height, the Prince was clinging to the body of the sword embedded at an angle. However, his blood-soaked, ravaged body seemed as if it could no longer hold on and would fall at any moment.
Without thinking, Isaac leaned out and grabbed the Prince. The moment he barely managed to catch the Prince’s wrist, his own body, which had been precariously balanced on the railing, was pulled out with him.
“—!!”
In the confusion, he grabbed an anchor rope that had been trailing along the deck, but even the anchor rope slid off the tilted boat and fell.
「Manbang-a!!」
He heard the cats screaming behind him. Isaac’s body, which seemed destined to plummet, ended up dangling in the air, supported by a single anchor rope. Thump! The moment his body jerked to a stop in mid-air, Isaac almost let go of the Prince’s arm, but he managed to hold onto the wrist.
「Manbang-a! Manbang-a!!」
The cats shouted from the boat. But he couldn’t look back. He felt that the moment he looked back, he would lose his grip. So Isaac looked only forward—only at the Prince who was looking up at him.
“—Grab on.”
It felt as if he would slip from his hand at any second. Fearing that even speaking loudly might cause him to lose his grip, Isaac whispered for the Prince to grab his wrist. However, the Prince only stared at Isaac with piercing eyes and did not grab on.
“Grab on!”
Isaac shouted again anxiously. His heart felt like it would burst. If they fell from this height…
“—Will you go, witch?”
Then, the Prince spoke. Perhaps because his internal organs were injured, a faint scent of blood wafted with every word. But as if he didn’t care about such things, as if this situation where he could fall at any moment mattered not, the Prince looked at Isaac with eyes that had sunk into blackness.
“If you were going to leave in the end, why did you bewitch me?”
The Prince spat the words through his teeth. In every syllable, there was anger—no, something that resembled anger but was different. At that heartbreaking tone, Isaac fell silent.
“Why did you make me think only of you? Why did you make me see only you…!”
The Prince’s rough voice flowed out desperately. The eyes looking only at Isaac glistened black.
“No witch was ever this hateful. No emotion I have ever felt was this violent. I have never had my mind completely blown away to the point where nothing else mattered. —Why did you bewitch me, witch!”
It was a tone that sounded as if he were vomiting blood.
Isaac stared at him, unable to even blink. His heart, his heart tightened terrifyingly.
What is this person saying? What is he trying to say?
When had he ever seen such intense emotion? Regardless of what that emotion was.
At the end of those words that surged with terrifying force,
“—Do not go.”
The Prince spoke.
It was an infinitely soft and unstable command. One where a faint tremor could be glimpsed. The words were so blurred and low that they sounded almost like a plea.
“Don’t go.”
As if no other words remained, the Prince repeated himself. The faint voice scattered into the air.
The Prince did not grab Isaac’s hand. Only Isaac was holding onto the Prince. He clung to the blood-stained wrist that felt as if it would slip away at any moment, supporting the Prince with all his might. Behind him, he could hear the cats shouting for him to let go, to let go and climb back up quickly, that it was dangerous, but the sounds were mixed with the wind whistling past his ears, making them hard to understand. No, such sounds didn’t matter.
Isaac simply looked at the Prince, looked at him for a long time, and then suddenly spoke.
“…, I am a witch.”
Muttering haltingly, Isaac didn’t even know what he was saying. The words leaked out, suppressed in his throat as if he were about to cry.
“Every time you look at me, Kaieon-nim, you will constantly be reminded of witches, and you will not forget your feelings toward them. …You will continue to remember the emotions of hatred and anger.”
Isaac’s clumsy words were faint and small, but they must have reached the Prince’s ears. The Prince’s face distorted. It looked like he was smiling, yet also like he was grimacing.
“Witches,”
The Prince spat through his teeth.
“Because of you—because of this sensation, more intense than anything else, I can’t even think of them. Only you—only you fill my mind, leaving no room for any other sensation to squeeze in.”
The Prince’s hand felt like it was slipping. Isaac quickly gripped the hand tighter and shouted, “Grab on,” but the Prince did not move his hand at all. Even though it seemed he would fall straight down.
“It is because of you.”
“—”
“The reason I can think of nothing else is because of you.”
The Prince spoke. At the end of that fierce gaze, Isaac kept his mouth shut and faced him.
“Therefore, you must return with me. If you won’t—let go of my hand.”
Isaac flinched. The hand barely gripping the Prince trembled.
If he let go of this hand. Then Isaac would be free from the Prince. The Prince would never be able to catch Isaac again. And Isaac would never see him again. Forever.
“…If I stay, the Curse won’t be broken.”
Isaac muttered with a face that looked like he was about to cry. That was the last excuse he had left. Please. This shouldn’t happen; if he returned with him, so many things would become meaningless—and yet, he wished the Prince wouldn’t make him want to go back.
He wished the Prince wouldn’t look at him with such a desperate face. He wished he wouldn’t speak with such a desperately boiling tone.
“If you go, a life more terrible than the Curse remains.”
The Prince spoke. The hand Isaac held seemed to tremble faintly. As if recalling the terrible pain of the Dark Moon, or something even worse.
“I would rather be in pain only during the Dark Moon. Than to live every minute and second with this wretched feeling.”
The Prince spat through clenched teeth. He could feel the Prince’s body stiffening through the hand he held.
“If you intend to go, let go of this hand.”
The Prince spoke. Isaac stared intently at him. Those words were surely the Prince’s true feelings. And so was the pain-laced whisper that followed shortly after.
“Stay by my side. —Please.”
Either way.
Whether he let go of this hand—dropped him into that dizzying abyss—and left, or whether he returned to his side.
Isaac looked at the Prince.
The Moon Fragment Ship was tilted by their combined weight. Above, the ferryman was saying he would have to cut the anchor rope, and the cats were meowing, 「Let go!」, 「Let go and we can pull you up once the boat stabilizes! Manbang-a!」, 「Abandon him!」.
Either way, he couldn’t stay like this forever without letting go.
The Moon Fragment Ship could not travel to the land of the new moon while tilted, and if they continued like this, the ferryman would soon cut the rope. Moreover, it didn’t seem as if the precariously tilted hull could maintain its balance enough to pull both of them up. Furthermore, Isaac no longer had enough strength left to keep holding onto the Prince, whose grip he now barely held by a finger’s breadth.
In the end, there was no choice but to let go.
However.
“Is it truly alright for me to be by your side? …Really, truly?”
Isaac asked with a heart that felt like it would break. He felt that if he let his guard down even a little, he would burst into tears.
The Prince would have to carry the feelings toward the witch and never forget them. Just when a long, long Curse was finally about to be broken. Moreover, he himself would have to endure many difficult and upsetting times under the gaze of others. No matter how he thought about it, it would be better for him to cross over to the land of the new moon.
“You must stay.”
The Prince spoke. Though his voice was low, he asserted it firmly, and Isaac stared at him. Within that desperate gaze, he could see a faint glimmer of joy, or some heat similar to it. It was strange. He was the one who felt like crying, so he didn’t know why the Prince’s expression looked like that.
“If you later tell me to be killed because you want to break the Curse… I will be so aggrieved that I’ll curse you.”
As Isaac spoke in a choked, mumbling voice, the Prince seemed to smile faintly. Yet, perhaps he didn’t. Whether he was smiling, feeling relieved, or whether some other emotion was surging within him, the corners of the Prince’s mouth twisted.
“Do as you wish. By then, I suspect I will no longer be of this world.”
“――.”
It couldn’t be helped. He couldn’t take it.
Isaac had never experienced such intense emotions before. Neither his own, nor those of the other.
He had never been so acutely aware of someone, nor held them so deeply in his heart. Nor had he ever been held so intensely by another.
It no longer mattered what that emotion was. He felt as though everything else was irrelevant.
「Manbang-a!!」
The cat let out a loud, piercing cry.
The Prince’s hand, which had been barely clinging to Isaac’s fingertips, finally slipped from his grasp, but the hand he needed to let go of was not that one.
Isaac released the hand that had been holding the anchor rope. Then, he quickly seized the Prince’s hand again. Only then did the Prince grip Isaac’s hand back. Firmly, as if he would never let go again.
At this height, no matter how lucky one was, survival would be impossible. Many things were regrettable and heartbreaking, but he felt that it wasn’t entirely unfair.
The Prince pulled Isaac toward him. The moment their bodies collided, the Prince’s arms wrapped around Isaac in a suffocatingly tight embrace, as if he would never lose what he had barely reclaimed. Within that embrace, Isaac closed his eyes, and—
“――.”
Thump—!
As if they had jumped with a rope attached, their bodies, which had suddenly stopped in mid-air, bounced. Though it wasn’t as violent as hitting the ground, the impact was significant enough to make their bodies recoil. From behind the nape of Isaac’s neck, as he clung tightly to the Prince, a cry full of indignation echoed.
「Manbang is bad!」
Voices mixed with resentment, anger, and frustration followed in succession.
「This is all because of the life source!」
「The source was useless, but Manbang was bad too!」
「How can a kid be this dim-witted?!」
I told you to just let go! I told you to release your hand! The sounds of complaining and fussing echoed above his neck.
And then Isaac realized that, while still tightly embracing the Prince, they had stopped just barely above the thick branches of the mountainside. The one dangling them was a pitch-black, sleek tiger. Right beside them, two other tigers floated airily, looking up regretfully at the Moon Fragment Ship as it tilted and swayed, drifting away into the sky.
“……, cats…….”
「Where are the cats?!」
The tiger holding Isaac shouted back indignantly. At that moment, Isaac, who had been held in the tiger’s mouth, dropped straight down and landed with a thud—rolling across the dirt ground. Though not enough to kill him, he had been tossed from a height where it wouldn’t be strange to break a bone or two; Isaac gasped, his body trembling. Then, belatedly noticing the Prince pinned beneath him, he hurriedly pushed himself up.
“Are, are you alright?”
But before he could fully rise, the Prince’s arms pulled Isaac back down. Clutching Isaac’s body, the Prince held him with a fierce intensity, as if he would never let him go again.
……I caught you.
The sound of the Prince mumbling into his chest seemed to brush faintly against Isaac’s ear.
Barely. ……Barely.
The sound vanished back into the Prince’s mouth.
“――.”
Isaac paused as he tried to lift himself. After staying like that for a moment, he quietly let the strength leave his body.
The tremor contained within that short, faint sound. What had been suppressed within it until now was the relief of barely escaping a distant fear. The arms embracing Isaac seemed to be shaking. Or perhaps it felt that way because the hearts pressed against each other were beating frantically.
However, Isaac could not distinguish whose heart was pounding so.
“…….”
Isaac quietly rested his forehead against the Prince’s nape and lay prone. It felt as though the arms holding him tight would never loosen. Just as Isaac intended to remain lying atop him.
A multitude of problems that would be piled up once they returned briefly crossed his mind, but he decided to set them aside for now. Isaac pushed the thoughts away and closed his eyes.
For now, just being like this was enough. Everything else was irrelevant.
The Moon Fragment Ship that had drifted further and further away until it vanished beyond the night sky; the grumbling of the beasts huddled head-to-head beneath the tree, muttering 「I don’t know」, 「He has to be tied down for another seven years」, and 「Manbang is a fool」; and the sky that was beginning to brighten into a pale grey.
Right now, this man, who was embracing him as if to crush him and exhaling a faintly trembling breath, was enough.
It had been exactly one month since the Prince had eliminated hundreds of witches at the witches’ grand assembly and driven the witches out of the human world.
It had not been long since he achieved the historic feat of completely erasing the wicked beings who lived hidden among humans, eating them and stealing their life force.
However, during the very next Dark Moon, when several carcasses of house-sized magical beasts were discovered at the foot of the mountains on the outskirts of the capital, the people were once again thrown into a frenzy. The sword marks remaining on the carcasses of the magical beasts—each powerful enough to wipe out an entire village—were clearly the Prince’s, and the Prince was the one who had ordered the removal of the bodies. But the fact that the Prince had returned to the Royal Palace that dawn drenched in the blood of magical beasts from head to toe and in a state of total wreckage made it clear to everyone that he was the one who had slaughtered them all.
And the people revered and worshipped the Prince even more for having slaughtered those terrifying monsters alone.
The Prince’s already firm position became absolutely unshakable, and when the King announced that he would abdicate the throne the following year, it became so that—as it had been before, but now even more so—no one dared to question the Prince.
Therefore, even when rumors circulated that the Prince, who hated witches so much, had left one alive amidst the slaughter to cruelly torment her as revenge, no one dared to step forward to ask or plead.
“Since he suffered such terrible pain due to the witch’s curse, it is only natural that his resentment and hatred have accumulated,” or “Perhaps that witch considers a painful life better than death,” were the opinions of most. A rare few suggested, “The witch kept alive only for revenge is pitiful,” “Will she not live in pain for the rest of her life?” or “No matter how wicked the witch, from a humanitarian perspective, this seems wrong.” However, even that minority ultimately could not openly question the Prince and fell silent.
That very witch—Isaac, the only witch the Prince had left in the human world to vent his hatred and anger—had been by the Prince’s side for some time since the Great Dark Moon and was completely unaware that such rumors were circulating.
The Prince, having achieved the unbelievable feat of eliminating several hell-beasts in one place, had returned to the palace in a state nearly resembling a corpse. Because he disliked mages, he refused to use their power to heal his body, and for a while, he had to stay in Byeokyeong Palace with limited mobility. During that time, Isaac remained glued to the Prince’s side, never leaving. Whenever he tried to go somewhere, the Prince’s sharp gaze would immediately fly toward him. Eventually, Isaac considered it a blessing that he was at least allowed to go to the restroom and stayed quietly by his side.
Consequently, Isaac, who had become dull to the affairs of the world, did not understand why the people he encountered while accompanying the Prince—who had risen from his bed after three days with a non-human healing capacity to pay his respects to the King—all looked at him with subtle eyes, as if he were pitiful or unfortunate.
He had even less reason to understand why, when the Prince greeted the King in the audience chamber, the King himself looked at Isaac, who was standing guard behind the Prince, with a complex and pained expression.
At that moment, Isaac’s only concern was:
‘Yes, I am very glad that you have eliminated those terrifying magical beasts and that your body has recovered much. However……, it seems that witch standing behind you did not cross over to the land of the witches on the day of the Great Dark Moon? Then how…… do you intend to keep her alive?’
It was that very question.
Though it was an expected question, Isaac’s heart sank.
Now that almost all the witches in the human world were dead and the few remaining had crossed over to the land of the new moon, Isaac had become the last witch remaining in the human world.
The royal curse passed down through generations is only broken when all witches disappear from the human world. Because Isaac remained, the curse was still in effect. Thus, anyone of royal blood would naturally wish for Isaac to disappear, and the King would be no different.
Knowing there were people who wished for his death was not a comforting thought, and Isaac bore the brunt of the people’s gazes with a pounding heart. Of course, mixed in were gazes of pity and sorrow, the reason for which he still did not know.
‘Yes, I will keep her alive.’
The Prince’s answer was crisp, without hesitation or doubt.
Some may have been disappointed that the curse would not be broken after thinking they were finally free, but since the person who contributed most to eliminating the witches spoke thus, no one could possibly object. Furthermore, most of the direct royal descendants under the curse had contracted with mages to fall into a deep sleep during every Dark Moon, thus avoiding the pain. The Prince, being the only one who tasted that horrific pain in full, was someone whose words could not be challenged.
The King felt the same, and having lived his entire life falling into a deep sleep every Dark Moon, it was no longer an inconvenience. Most others felt the same.
However, as much as they had hoped for the end of a centuries-old curse,
‘Still, this is a rare opportunity to break the curse…….’
Someone managed to utter those words, but,
‘I will not kill her as long as I am alive.’
The Prince answered firmly again, and this time, neither the King nor anyone else said another word.
If that were the case, it was only for one generation. If a curse that had lasted hundreds of years was to end in just a few decades, it was no longer an indefinite wait, and that was satisfactory enough.
Isaac, who had been inwardly worried, sensed this shift and felt relieved. While he had a slight fear that the King might order his immediate execution, he was more concerned that someone might express dissatisfaction toward the Prince because of him.
However, the Prince’s position was more solid and firm than Isaac had imagined.
Thank goodness, Isaac nodded to himself and let out a sigh.
And only then did Isaac realize that the glances people were stealing at him were suspicious.
Starting with the guard standing just across the door—Simon, Isaac’s former colleague—he was looking at Isaac with a dark expression.
Why is that guy looking at me like that……? He clearly remembered Simon looking at him with a repulsive gaze toward a witch not long ago, but now, while still repulsive, there was a distinct air of pity and sorrow.
‘……?’
When Isaac frowned in confusion and looked back, Simon completely turned his head away and even sighed.
Once he noticed those gazes, they felt even more acute. While the Prince discussed state affairs with the King, Isaac sensitively felt that most of the people present were casting subtle glances his way.
After staring at the ceiling for a moment, Isaac glanced at a young priest standing a couple of steps away. Having followed the High Priest sitting opposite the Prince, the young man flinched when their eyes met, blinked several times, and gave a barely perceptible nod. He even gave a vague greeting, saying, ‘You’re working hard……,’ but his voice sounded incredibly mournful.
‘No, what is there to work hard at?’
When Isaac replied with a light shake of his head, the young priest’s expression darkened even further. He seemed to think Isaac was pretending to be cheerful.
‘Lord Kaieon is truly a wonderful and great person, but since he hates witches so much……, ……no matter how much he hates her, he shouldn’t keep her alive just to inflict pain…….’
‘……. Pardon?’
‘No matter how wicked a witch is, she should be persuaded and guided; how can he lock her in a dungeon, draw her blood, and sexually abuse her?’
‘It is a tragedy,’ the young priest clicked his tongue and whispered a short prayer. Isaac stared at him, blinking blankly. In that moment, a bolt of realization struck. Why people were looking at him with such subtle eyes. What those pitying and sorrowful gazes were.
‘That bastard Hoden…….’
Isaac muttered unconsciously, then shut his mouth upon receiving the priest’s puzzled look.
Hoden must have been spreading rumors. The Royal Palace was a place where gossip traveled fast, and since it concerned the Prince, who was the center of attention, a single word must have turned into a hundred and spread at the speed of light.
It seemed the rumor had spread that while he was locked in the dungeon, the Prince had sucked Isaac’s blood during the Dark Moon. Then again, Hoden had looked on with a face of utter shock at the time. It was understandable if one witnessed the bizarre sight of someone sucking another’s blood.
Furthermore, since they had rolled around in bed every night until dawn in Hailen for the sake of obtaining life force—and it had been no different since returning to the capital—it wasn’t strange for rumors to spread that Isaac was being abused, suffering through the Prince’s near-violent member all night.
‘…….’
So, I’ve suddenly become the pitiful witch who is sucked of her blood and raped by a Prince burning with hatred and revenge…….
He was glad that the true reason the Prince sucked his blood hadn’t leaked—otherwise, some other royal might try to taste blood—but he still felt an incredibly complicated and tangled set of emotions.
After that, whenever Isaac encountered people he used to know while moving through the palace, he received their dark, heavy gazes and greetings simultaneously. Former colleagues who had avoided him occasionally approached him to say, ‘Hang in there,’ before clicking their tongues and leaving. While it wasn’t bad that his conversations had increased by a word or two……, Isaac didn’t find it particularly refreshing compared to when he received gazes of contempt and avoidance.
“…….”
And this person has been branded by the palace folk as an utterly shameless and cruel individual. ……Well, he was already evaluated as such a person from the start, so it’s not like he’ll be newly affected by it.
Besides, it wasn’t a lie that the Prince sucked Isaac’s blood.
Even right now, Isaac was having his blood sucked by the Prince.
While gazing at the first-quarter moon shining through the window, when the Prince, who had been biting his nape, slid his lips upward and bit Isaac’s lip, Isaac flinched and tightened his grip on the Prince’s shoulder. No matter how used to it he was, the moment the lip burst was still painful.
“……By the way, does drinking a witch’s blood make simple pain disappear too……?”
Isaac asked abruptly as the Prince licked his lip and sucked his tongue. The Prince nodded slightly, answered with an “Mm,” and then bit Isaac’s tongue as well.
「How could that be!」
「Since when is a witch’s blood a panacea!」
「If it were, the seed of witches would have been wiped out of the human world long ago!」
The cats sitting on the cabinet by the bedside shouted and glared. Isaac glanced at them out of the corner of his eye and turned his gaze back to the Prince. Because their faces were so close, he couldn’t see the expression, but the Prince didn’t seem to be lying.
The body that had been torn to shreds by magical beasts that day, with flesh exposed and bones visible, had mostly healed within just about seven days. Even as the physicians marveled at his non-human recovery rate, they warned him to be careful as the internal tissues hadn’t fully knit back together yet.