By nature, witches boast a rather robust constitution.

Sure, around the time of the full moon, their energy plummets and leaves them utterly drained. They bleed and feel pain if stabbed by a sword, suffer burns if touched by consecrated silver, and will certainly die if decapitated or burned to ash. But short of all that, they live their lives free from both minor ailments and major diseases. Even if they do get hurt, they heal at a speed completely incomparable to humans.

Therefore, unless someone is absolutely dead set on killing them, a witch can easily live out their natural lifespan in perfect, lively health……

“Even if they aren’t dead set on it, I think I might die anyway……”

Isaac mumbled brokenly. The bitter medicine that had been forced down his throat was only just now beginning to break down in his stomach, finally granting him enough energy to move his tongue. The ceiling was still swimming dizzily before his eyes. The black cats had multiplied to about fifteen and were swaying along with it.

「Mmm, it’s possible. Highly possible.」

「You possess the extraordinary potential to go down in history as the first witch to die from having his blood sucked by a human.」

「If you ask me, it’s only a matter of time. You’ll probably set the record soon.」

「Wasn’t it a bit too close this time? If he had taken just five more swallows, I’d be knocking on the doors of the underworld.」 Isaac wanted to grab the scrawny necks of the chattering black furballs and shake them violently, but he simply didn’t have the strength. Truthfully, he had been drained of so much blood that he really did feel like he could hear the River Styx flowing in the distance.

Barely managing to roll his eyes, Isaac looked toward the door that opened out into the garden.

When Isaac had nearly lost consciousness, his face turning a ghastly shade of blue, the Prince had shouted for the servants to hurry and boil some blood soup. But the moment he heard the frantic footsteps of the kitchen staff – who were running around completely pale, crying that they had no ingredients for blood soup in the middle of the night – the Prince clicked his tongue and dashed straight into the forest.

He had likely gone to hunt something himself. Isaac had a myriad of doubts. ‘Was it really okay to just extract blood from any random beast? Would eating blood soup actually replenish his own blood?’—but he had neither the time nor the energy to stop him.

Still, the medicine the Prince had poured into his mouth with such a grave expression must have been quite effective. After taking about a dozen more breaths, Isaac found he could twitch his fingers. A dozen more breaths after that, and he might even be able to roll over. ‘I don’t think I really need to go as far as eating blood soup……. No, actually, let’s eat it. I have to. At this rate, I really will die of anemia.’

Truth be told, Isaac had had a premonition that he was going to be sucked dry tonight. It was exactly one month ago, right after the last new moon, when the Prince had departed for the northwestern border deserts on a demonic beast subjugation mission.

Usually, a subjugation took a week or two at most; it never exceeded a month. But this time, the beasts were exceptionally intelligent and troublesome, dragging the mission out. As a result, the day the subjugation squad finally returned to the capital was today—the evening of the new moon, exactly one full month later.

Even so, Isaac was just relieved he had returned before the night of the new moon truly set in. He had been waiting anxiously as the days dragged on, terrified by the thought of the Prince having to endure the horrific agony of the new moon’s curse all alone, far away from him.

He was genuinely thankful that the Prince had narrowly made it back before the night of the curse began, but on the other hand, given that they had been apart for an entire month, Isaac knew tonight was not going to be easy.

From what Isaac had observed over the several years he’d spent with him, once the night of the new moon began, the Prince’s reason would blur in the midst of his agony. And on nights when his carnal urges were particularly strong, he had a tendency to completely lose his mind, pounce, and overindulge.

Because of this, whenever the new moon approached, Isaac always made sure to dedicate his body to him in advance, with all his heart and soul……

「I knew this would happen. He’s been starving for a month; you’re lucky he didn’t chew you down to the bone. Even when you two are stuck together every day, he’s always anxious because he can’t devour you fast enough.」

「If he had starved for two months, you’d be a mummy.」

Isaac weakly tilted his head to look at the little beasts. Even though a person had just narrowly escaped death, the black cats were sitting around without a care in the world, licking their paws and grooming themselves. The worn wooden box they were huddled around looked exceptionally enticing right now.

‘Ah, if only I could use that right now…… If I could just refill my blood with that tinderbox, I wouldn’t ask for anything else……’

Having regained a bit of his strength, Isaac swiftly reached out, trying to snatch the tinderbox tucked beneath one of their rumps, but he failed.

In a flash of lightning, the cat leapt up onto the windowsill, clutching the tinderbox to its chest and baring its teeth.

「KHEKKK! What do you think you’re doing?!」

“Just let me use it once……”

「Your chances are already up! Three strikes, you’re out!」

Isaac rarely understood what on earth these creatures were saying, but it was clear enough that it was a ‘no.’ He figured as much.

Ever since fulfilling his final three wishes after the Great New Moon – the night the witches’ banquet was held – Isaac hadn’t laid a finger on the tinderbox. Occasionally, when he saw the cats hugging it, purring, biting, and sucking on it, he would absentmindedly reach out a hand. But every time, the cats would pack up the tinderbox with ghostly speed and perch themselves atop a windowsill, a cabinet, or the chandelier.

Seeing them glare at him with those big eyes, as if to say, ‘HOW DARE A LOWLY THING COVET OUR PRECIOUS TINDERBOX! NOT A CHANCE!’ did make his stomach churn a bit. But considering it was a treasure they had barely reclaimed after having it stolen for hundreds of years, it made sense they’d cherish it so fiercely. Isaac would usually just let out a soft chuckle and let it go.

It wasn’t as if he had any desperate wishes he wanted granted anyway. He had everything he needed, and for the rest of the minor things, it was fun to work hard and achieve them one by one. Wasn’t that the joy of living, after all?

Well, occasionally there were moments of desperate urgency that effort alone couldn’t fix……

Though his vision was still spinning, Isaac, having regained enough energy to at least shift his body, rolled onto his side and asked.

“But is it a rule that one person can only use the tinderbox once? No, that can’t be it. I’ve already used it multiple times.”

The cats completely ignored him, not even pretending to listen, but Isaac threw question after question at them anyway.

“What’s the criteria for whether someone can use the tinderbox or not? Do they have to be someone you choose? But looking at the old records, it seemed like anyone who got their hands on it could just use it.”

As Isaac muttered, “Like the soldier who stole it from Amnemika,” the cat swinging from the edge of the chandelier nonchalantly replied.

「That’s because back then, the tinderbox hadn’t been in human hands for so long, it chose him out of sheer boredom.」

“It chose?” Isaac’s eyes widened and he lifted his head. “That happens too?”

「Hardly ever. You see, our tinderbox doesn’t like working. It’s a kid who always wants to rest, diligently and earnestly.」

「But even it has its whims every now and then.」

「Oh, this unpredictable charm!」 

Whether the cats cheered in unison and made a fuss or not, Isaac stared at the wooden box with wide eyes before lowering his head back down.

Come to think of it, he felt like his mother had mentioned something like this in passing a long time ago. That ancient magical artifacts possess a will of their own. She had said such artifacts were incredibly, impossibly rare and precious.

‘I see. So that thing is……’

To Isaac, the battered wooden box suddenly looked entirely different.

「But anyway. Did you come up with a wish you want granted? What would you wish for if you could use it again?」

「Do you finally want to cross over to the afterlife? You were right on the verge of being sucked to death, weren’t you?」

To the whispering cats, Isaac simply replied, “No, I just thought it’d be nice if it could replenish my blood…” But then he paused, wondering if there was anything else.

Something he couldn’t achieve with his own power, but desperately wanted to happen.

Nothing came to mind.

「Is he really a witch? If he were a proper witch, his desires should be boiling over.」

「It’s because he still hasn’t shaken off his half-blood taint. Even after we took the trouble to make him pureblood, he can’t stomach it.」

「This is why those with lowly origins just won’t do. Tsk, tsk.」

“……”

‘How could those little runts be so consistently obnoxious?’

Suddenly, Isaac felt like he did have a wish. Come to think of it, he had never once managed to dangle those brats by their tails and string them up on the pepper shaker……

But a wish……. a wish.

“Umm…… How about something like world peace? Or asking for all demonic beasts and monsters to vanish from this world?”

He just blurted out whatever came to mind, but once he said it, it actually sounded like a great idea. If the demonic beasts disappeared, the Prince wouldn’t have to go on subjugation missions, and people wouldn’t get hurt.

Just as Isaac’s eyes lit up and he tried to push himself up to beg them to let him use the tinderbox just once, the cats snorted indifferently.

「Are you confident you can handle it?」

“Handle what?”

「There’s a cosmic balance in this world, you know. A personal wish doesn’t even amount to a speck of dust in the grand scheme of universal energy, so that’s fine. But if you make a wish on a global scale, shouldn’t you consider the backlash that will return? Like having to pay the price with the lives of 99 percent of humanity to achieve perfect world peace.」

“……Huh?”

「No, no, even if only 1% of humans were left, they’d pretend to cooperate for a bit and then immediately start fighting again. They aren’t a peaceful species. For perfect peace in this world, we’d need the lives of 100% of humanity.」

Listening to their chattering, Isaac stared blankly.

「The world is designed so that the energy of Yin and Yang remains in balance. War and peace, good and evil, joy and sorrow. Over a long period of time, they eventually level out on the scales.」

“……Is, is that how it works?”

「Exactly.」

「That’s why, since ancient times, whenever evil accumulates too much, the world just goes to ruin and resets once. Like everyone getting swept away in a flood and dying.」

‘What kind of religion do these guys even believe in? I definitely have to ask them next time,’ Isaac thought through his foggy mind. He quickly gathered his senses and offered a rebuttal.

“But saying war and peace are perfectly balanced—if you look at human history, the periods where peace was maintained are far, far longer than the periods of war.”

“[That’s because the value of peace is heavier.」

「We said they achieve balance; we never said their values were equal.」

「For example, peace weighs 100 grams per second. War weighs 2 grams per second. So, war has to happen 50 times more to have an equivalent weight to peace. In reality, you’d have to factor in the population size, the level of societal development, education levels, and so on into the equation,…… making it a much more complex calculation.」

「Which is why evil overflows in the world far more commonly than good.」

Isaac desperately held onto his fading consciousness and pushed back again.

“But who decides the value of good and evil? Where is the line drawn? Depending on your perspective, the exact same action could be good, or it could be evil. Who judges that?”

Three pairs of eyes, glowing like fire lamps, stared intently at Isaac before the cats huddled their heads together.

「Why is he trying to get into such a deep conversation? Do we have to start by talking about the Sophists*? Wait, did the Sophists even exist in this world?」

While the three of them whispered amongst themselves in incomprehensible murmurs, the sharp stench of blood suddenly wafted in from the open garden doors.

From beyond the pitch-black darkness of the new moon, the Prince was returning, lightly carrying a massive deer, easily as large as his own frame, over his shoulder.

The soldiers who had been standing guard on one side of the garden rushed over frantically to take the blood-soaked deer, and the chefs, who had been waiting anxiously in the distance wondering when he would arrive, began to scramble.

Isaac pushed himself up into a sitting position. After spotting him, the Prince washed the blood off at the garden fountain before stepping inside. When Isaac tried to stand to greet him, the Prince pushed him back down into his seat.

“How is your body?”

“Still a bit dizzy, but it’s better than before. The medicine must be highly effective.”

Looking at Isaac’s still-pallid complexion, the Prince clicked his tongue. His cold face remained as expressionless as ever, but Isaac could tell now that a faint trace of regret and guilt lingered within it. He also knew that the silent sigh the Prince released was one of relief.

“How was the subjugation? I heard this batch of demonic beasts was quite a troublesome species.”

Earlier, the moment the Prince had returned, he had lunged at Isaac so fiercely they hadn’t even been able to speak. Encountering Isaac, who had come out to the front of the palace to meet him, the Prince had dragged him to the bed and descended upon him like a man who had already lost his mind—even though the night of agony hadn’t yet truly begun.

He had pushed him until Isaac lost all sensation in his lower half, and then pushed him some more. Once Isaac was completely limp and worn out, the Prince had started biting into his neck. Pinned beneath the Prince, who swallowed his blood while still thrusting relentlessly into him, Isaac had genuinely thought he was going to die.

“It won’t be long before I have to go out again. I missed one of the pups.”

“If the hidden pup is to grow and emerge again, it’ll probably be in about two months,” the Prince muttered, a deep crease forming between his brows. This was a rare occurrence; the beast must have been exceptionally cunning and agile.

“Ah…… Then, will it take as long as it did this time?” Isaac asked nervously.

If they were separated for another month and met like this again, today’s disaster would surely repeat itself. ‘Oh, please, God.’ He still felt as though there was a gaping hole beneath his waist. Even if it weren’t for the anemia, he felt like he’d have to lie down for three days straight just to recover.

“No. I’ve figured out their patterns, so this time it should only take a week.”

“That’s a relief. It would be even better if the new moon doesn’t fall during that time.”

Isaac murmured, letting out a breath.

Sometimes, if the timing of a demonic beast’s appearance was unlucky, the new moon would fall right in the middle of a subjugation period. Whenever that happened, Isaac would plead to go with him, but the Prince never allowed him on the battlefield.

The Prince would claim that the agony of the new moon was something he had endured his entire life before meeting Isaac, and going through it a few more times now was no big deal. But still, Isaac didn’t want to see him suffer.

Once, Isaac had suggested, ‘Then how about I draw plenty of my blood in advance, freeze it in a preservation flask, and you take it with you?’ The Prince had glared at him with such terrifying eyes that Isaac had clamped his mouth shut and shrunk back. The Prince had absolutely no reservations about sinking his own teeth into Isaac, yet he refused to tolerate Isaac getting hurt by any other means. Isaac honestly didn’t understand the absurdity of it.

“And you? Nothing out of the ordinary?”

“What could possibly happen to me?”

At the Prince’s question, Isaac lightly shrugged his shoulders.

He had grown entirely accustomed to living as a witch. In truth, Isaac himself felt almost no physical change from before, so it was more accurate to say that the people looking at him had grown accustomed to it.

For the first year or so after Isaac began living in the Blue Shadow Palace, the stares had been sharp. The attitudes of his old colleagues felt strained, and the palace servants had kept their distance, finding him repulsive.

But contrary to their fears, as time passed without incident, they gradually relaxed, seemingly realizing that being a witch wasn’t that big of a deal, and they began treating Isaac normally again. His former comrades in the Royal Guard now treated him almost exactly as they used to—only occasionally looking at him with fresh realization and saying, ‘Oh right, you were a witch, weren’t you?’ when he was slumped over, devoid of energy, on the day of the full moon.

‘Actually, I think pity played a massive role in softening their feelings, but……’

Isaac swallowed the medicine the Prince handed him for a second dose, lost in thought.

The reason Isaac had earned the pity of the masses was, of course, because of the Prince. No, thanks to the Prince.

Because situations exactly like today’s, where he was subjected to brutal, cruel acts by the Prince, occurred every new moon (and often very frequently even when it wasn’t the new moon), the people seemed to harbor a deep, human grief and sympathy for Isaac.

Even tomorrow, rumors would probably spread: ‘He sucked his blood right to the brink of death, then kept him alive by feeding him raw deer blood in the middle of the night just so he wouldn’t die. He intends to torture him forever.’

It was half truth and half misunderstanding, but Isaac decided to just leave it be. Besides, there seemed to be rumors quietly spreading in other circles that Kyan was suspiciously overprotective of the witch……

“So? What were you talking about with these guys?”

Confirming that the bite marks on Isaac’s neck had completely vanished, the Prince pulled a bottle of wine from the display cabinet and popped the cork. The cats, who had been anxiously reading the room, rushed over in delight and began lapping up the wine the Prince poured onto a plate.

「I do like that Moisture is clean with his calculations. He knows what a transaction is,」 The Prince watched three cats wiggling their butts. It was incredibly rare for the Prince to actually have a productive conversation with the three of them, but he still occasionally checked to see what Isaac had been discussing with the beasts.

Ever since he’d been caught saying, ‘Next new moon, when the Crescent Moon-Silver Boat comes to pick us up, let’s all ride it together, Manbang-ie,’ the Prince often did this.

Back then, the three cats had been locked in a giant silver cage for a month, unable to come out…… and the Prince had declared to Isaac, ‘When the next new moon comes, I will lock you in here too.’

The Prince clearly hadn’t believed Isaac when he insisted, ‘No, I have no intention of leaving!’ but even so, he never retracted the declaration. It seemed highly likely Isaac would end up locked inside the cage all night during the next new moon.

“We were just talking about wishes or something.”

“Wishes.”

Thoughts of the world’s Yin and Yang energy, good and evil, and balance floated…… haphazardly through his mind, but unable to organize them, Isaac vaguely mumbled and pointed at the tinderbox with his chin.

“I brought it up thinking that if I could use the tinderbox again, I wouldn’t have to worry about anemia…… But it turns out the tinderbox isn’t all-powerful either. They said it can’t grant something like world peace. It would be great if it could just wipe out all the evil forces or something…… Ack!”

A thick tail whipped mercilessly across Isaac’s ankle. A cat, having already licked the wine plate clean, was licking its front paw and glaring at him.

「How dare you insult our precious tinderbox!」

「If we wiped out all the evil forces, depending on where the standard is set, Mr. Moisture might be the very first one swept away!」 

“No, what are you saying about our Prince Kyan—”

As Isaac instinctively tried to defend him, a series of memories flashed through his mind like a kaleidoscope.

‘Right…… Even if our Prince is the hero of the kingdom, you couldn’t exactly call him a ‘good’ person…… Now that I think about it, that makes sense. I really shouldn’t just make wishes recklessly.’

As Isaac quietly shut his mouth and stole a glance at the Prince, he noticed the Prince, who had been indifferently watching the cats, suddenly start to rise.

With practiced ease, the Prince reached out. And nonchalantly, he grabbed the wooden box trapped beneath the belly of one of the cats, slipped it out effortlessly, picked it up, and sat back down.

“Uh…?”

「「「Eeh, eeeh…?」」」

“You use this to make a wish, you say.”

The Prince muttered, looking down at the box ominously.

Frozen like ice, the cats blinked their eyes as if possessed by ghosts. It was only a second later that they erupted, screeching and jumping wildly.

「GIVE IT!」 

「I SAID GIVE IT BACK!!」

Unfazed. The Prince casually batted away the three cats lunging at him like flashes of black lightning, and examined the box. His hands were perfectly steady as he opened it and turned it over.

“……”

‘It’s amazing every time I see it…… It was the same when he effortlessly scooped up these goblin-like creatures and locked them in the birdcage, but how on earth did he do it? These swift creatures who could slip through any trap or net.’

Isaac stared at the Prince’s hands as if witnessing a magic trick, and asked.

“Uhm…… How did you do that…..?”

The Prince looked at Isaac as if he didn’t understand the question. In that brief pause, one of the cats snatched the tinderbox from his hands with the speed of lightning. Just as the three of them let out a triumphant 「HURRAH~!」

“What do you mean how? Like this.”

The Prince simply plucked the box right out from among the three of them again. The cats, caught in mid-dance as the box was effortlessly harvested from them, froze in their poses and let out sharp, ragged hisses. 「KHEEKKK—!”

Right in front of Isaac, who was still staring with a bewildered face, the cats took the box back from the Prince once more (or rather, it looked more like the Prince just handed it over) and the Prince, as if giving a demonstration, snatched it right back. “Just like this.”

“…… Ah…… I see……”

A sudden wave of déjà vu washed over him. A long time ago, when he had asked these guys how to drain a human’s life force, he felt the exact same way when they simply replied, ‘Touch them and sluuuurp.’ Isaac decided to give up trying to understand.

The Prince slowly inspected the tinderbox. Beside him, three streaks of black lightning crackled continuously, but they couldn’t so much as graze the box.

Though the wooden box was old, apart from the fact that it had been polished smooth by constant handling, it looked entirely ordinary. Even the corner that had broken off in the past was glued back together so perfectly that Isaac couldn’t spot a single flaw, yet the cats still lamented over it constantly.

“It’s a well-made box. The hinges haven’t rusted at all, and it’s sturdy despite its age.”

The Prince fiddled with the flint he had pulled from the tinderbox with one hand and looked at Isaac.

“This grants wishes?”

「It doesn’t just grant them for anyone! So hurry up and hand it over!」

「You have zero chance, so give it back!」

“…They say it doesn’t grant them for just anyone.”

“Is that so?” the Prince murmured ominously, looking at the box.

‘But why does it look like the box just flinched and shrank back?’ Just as Isaac had that thought, the Prince gripped the flint tightly. Uh, wait, he’s going to break the flint…… Before Isaac could even finish the thought, the Prince struck the flint against the striker he had picked up.

*Clang—*

A spark flew.

“Y-your Highness!”

Isaac jumped to his feet in panic, unsure if it was just a spark or if a piece of the flint had chipped and flown off. ‘Oh no, he broke it. It’s shattered. What do we do!?’

In the split second Isaac leapt up, drenched in cold sweat, he caught a glimpse of the screaming cats out of the corner of his eye.

Suddenly, one of them seemed to puff up like a cloud—

And right in its place, a massive tiger was left sitting there, completely conspicuous.

“uh…..?”

「Uh…..」

「Huh…..?」

Single-syllable sounds leaked out from them, like air deflating from a balloon.

* * *

*The Sophists were professional traveling teachers in ancient Greece during the 5th and 4th centuries BC who focused on rhetoric, virtue, and public speaking. Key figures among the Sophists included Protagoras, Gorgias, and Thrasymachus. They taught people how to argue and persuade others, although philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle criticized them for sometimes focusing more on winning arguments than on discovering the truth.

(Socrates Address by Belgian artist Louis Joseph Lebrun, 1867)

[Fin]