The room was dead silent. The human, the witch, the cats, and the tiger were all frozen, not moving a single muscle.

It felt as though time and space had simultaneously come to a halt in that eerie stillness. It was only after dozens of seconds had passed that a voice finally broke the silence.

「…… Will you…… grant…… a wish…..?」

The cat (no, the tiger) rumbled, its face looking as though a million question marks were floating above it.

The Prince looked at the tiger without any particular sign of surprise. With his usual expressionless face, he simply raised an eyebrow for a brief moment.

「What do you want…..?」

When no answer came from the Prince, the tiger made its extreme reluctance blatantly obvious, wrinkling the bridge of its nose into about ten deep creases, and asked again. Beside it, the cats, having snapped out of their frozen state, were circling the tinderbox with their fur standing on end in a frantic fuss.

“Well.”

The Prince gave a dry, clipped response. Looking at that relentlessly apathetic face even in a situation like this, Isaac couldn’t help but marvel. He already knew the Prince hardly seemed human, but seeing it anew really hammered the point home.

“U-Um, is there nothing you want? Aside from world-scale wishes like world peace or the extinction of all demonic beasts, it seems to grant pretty much anything.”

Seeing the creases on the tiger’s nose multiply to twenty, Isaac hurriedly intervened. He had no idea what was going on, but he figured they should just get past the immediate hurdle.

But come to think of it, he was curious.

Originally, the Prince’s wish had been to eradicate witches. That wish had been resolved, in a manner of speaking, after many twists and turns, and Isaac had never heard him express a desire for anything else since. He was a man who, once he had a desire, would pursue it with terrifying ferocity, but such instances were exceedingly rare.

‘What in the world could he possibly want?’

“Isn’t there even something trivial you want? Something you’ve thought about in the past, maybe…..?”

When Isaac asked again, the Prince stroked his chin, seemingly unable to think of anything. Suddenly, his gaze stopped on the tiger and the cats.

“For the witches—all the other witches except for you, to completely disappear from this land?”

The moment he nonchalantly muttered those words.

Suddenly, the flow of air seemed to stop. At the same time, the cats, including the tiger, vanished.

As if only those three had been perfectly snipped out of reality, a heavy silence fell over the suddenly desolate room, as if nothing had ever happened.

“…… Uh…..?”

Isaac, who had been blinking his eyes, completely immobilized for a moment, slowly turned his gaze. He looked at the flint still held in the Prince’s hand, and the tinderbox resting on the table.

The tinderbox was here, the flint and striker were here, but the cats were gone. The three furballs who normally never let the box out of their sight.

“Hey, ya…… Look here…..? Hey, you cats. All three of you! —KITTIES!”

Isaac shouted in a panic and jumped up. His unrecovered body creaked mercilessly, and the world spun before his eyes, but he didn’t even notice his legs wobbling. He frantically dodged the Prince’s hand, which had quickly reached out to steady him, and looked around the room, but the three creatures were nowhere to be seen. There wasn’t even a trace of their presence.

“Isaac.”

“Uh…… Your Highness…… These guys really disappeared. W-Where did they go?”

Too flustered. Isaac rummaged under the bed, behind the curtains, and inside the grandfather clock. Finally, he grabbed a bottle of wine from the cabinet, ran out toward the garden doors, and shouted into the outside. “Cats! Hurry and come out! I’ll give you wine! And goat meat!” But all that returned from the pitch-black darkness of the new moon was the sound of the wind and rustling leaves.

“—Isaac.”

The Prince stepped up from behind and grabbed hold of him. Standing there staring blankly out into the garden, Isaac slowly turned to look back at the Prince. Seeing that face utterly colored with panic, the Prince’s expression hardened.

“…… They really…… must have disappeared. …Well, the tinderbox does grant any wish instantly, so…… but still……”

Rambling incoherently, Isaac snapped his mouth shut. Realizing how agitated he was, he took a deep breath. His ragged breathing gradually calmed, but the trembling in his clenched fists did not stop.

“Where could they have disappeared to? If they vanished from this land, did they return to the Land of Dark Moon? Or did they really d—”

Isaac cut himself off. His heart plummeted, and even his breath hitched.

“……Isaac.”

The Prince urgently called out to Isaac, who was rapidly turning pale. He hadn’t even realized the Prince was standing close enough for their breaths to mingle. It was only when a strong grip seized his arm that a bit of reason returned to Isaac, and he looked up at the Prince. The Prince’s usually expressionless face was faintly creased into a frown. It looked as though a single drop of dismay, guilt, or frustration had been mixed into it.

Staring blankly at the Prince, who was watching him intently, Isaac slid down and collapsed to the floor.

“Surely they aren’t dead. Surely that can’t be it. They probably just went to the kingdom of the new moon, but still, they could have at least said goodbye……”

Isaac’s lips quivered as if his spirit was about to extinguish.

His heart had sunk to a degree that surprised even himself. Is this what it feels like to lose family? Since they were the only witches left on this land, perhaps they could be called a sort of kin. No, even if they weren’t anything like that, it seemed he had grown incredibly attached to them without realizing it.

‘What do I do? I feel like I’m going to cry. This silence was far too unfamiliar.’

Looking bleakly at Isaac, who was crouched down staring at his own toes, the Prince let out a low click of his tongue.

“There were three wishes, right?”

“Yes…..?”

Unable to immediately comprehend words muttered like a soliloquy, Isaac asked back. The Prince stepped away from him and walked back into the room.

On the table, looking as if nothing had ever happened, the tinderbox and flint were neatly laid out. The Prince picked up the flint. And without hesitation, he struck it.

*Clack—* A spark flew.

The air trembled and wavered. A low, humming vibration spread out from the wooden box.

No beast or being appeared to promise the granting of a wish, but the tinderbox was vibrating the air, creating ripples. As if urging him to quickly speak his wish.

Looking at the tinderbox, the Prince spoke.

“My next wish is to cancel my first wish.”

The moment the words left the Prince’s lips, the trembling in the air ceased.

At the exact same time, as if appearing out of thin air, three black cats plopped down from nowhere. One fell onto the bed, while the other two tumbled onto the carpet, rolling over and letting out a confused “Meow?”

「The fire pit? Where did the fire pit go?」

「Who put out my cozy hellfire?! I wasn’t done roasting my body yet!」

The cats, rolling left and right, lifted their heads in bewilderment and shouted.

And Isaac, who had been watching the scene unfold from the doorway, unconsciously cried out, overwhelmed with emotion.

“Cats!”

「KHEKKK! Who’s a cat?! Where are you calling a cat?!」

The cats bared their teeth and hissed, but even that felt familiar and reassuring now. Isaac let out a heavy sigh and dropped his shoulders.

「Man, I was finally getting a nice warm soak for the first time in ages. You should’ve left us a bit longer.」

「There’s really no place quite like a brimstone bath.」

One of the cats licking its paw looked over at Isaac, who was sitting on the floor completely drained.

「But Manbang-ie, why were you crying just now?」

「Were you crying because we were gone?」

「Well, I suppose losing the overwhelming honor of serving our noble and beautiful bodies is worth shedding a tear over.」

‘I wasn’t crying……’ Isaac thought. But as he looked at the little beasts with eyes that had nearly grown damp but quickly dried up, the cats suddenly rushed at him with their large eyes sparkling.

「Oh my, having a welcome drink all prepared for us—our Manbang-ie is finally developing some sense!」

The brats, who had snatched the bottle of wine Isaac was still hugging with their tails, instantly brightened up and began chattering noisily.

「Hurry up and bring some glasses!」

「Tsk tsk, for a fine wine like this, you need crystal glasses, not regular glass!」

「Haiya, I thought you had developed some sense, but you’ve still got a long way to go. A long way.」

Staring with completely dry eyes at the three furballs chattering endlessly around the wine, Isaac silently went and fetched crystal glasses for them.

“Where are the snacks? You should bring out some dried goat meat or boiled goat belly!”

Getting smacked in the ankle by three tails drumming excitedly against the floor, Isaac looked up at the Prince.

“…… I’m belatedly thinking that you really didn’t need to go so far as to cancel your wish……”