The pretty chickens in the pretty annex had increased to fifteen.

At one point, they had multiplied to thirty, but Isaac, judging that his manageable limit was exactly half of that, tearfully selected fifteen and carefully adopted the rest out to good owners.

Though it was little more than a nominal title, Isaac officially worked as a guardsman of the Blue Shadow Palace. Usually, he only stopped by the annex briefly during his lunch break or after evening hours, leaving the dedicated servants to basically manage the place. However, on his legally guaranteed one day off a week, he would spend nearly the entire day in the annex with the chickens. (Strictly speaking, he was legally entitled to two days off a week, but getting even a single day off from his employer, who cared nothing for regulations, was a hard-won victory. And even on that single day off, if Isaac was at the annex, his employer would invariably seek him out and settle down there as well.)

Today, too, Isaac had come to the annex to fully enjoy his day off, pretending not to notice the Prince’s displeased gaze (since the Prince had a lot of work to do today). Normally, he would be happily tending to his plump, pretty chickens, but today, their charming figures just wouldn’t catch his eye.

“A wish…… the third wish……”

Sitting in the shade of the awning, Isaac muttered as he absentmindedly scattered feed to the chickens.

He hadn’t thought much of it until now, but after that terrifying daydream, Isaac realized he needed to be extremely careful with this. If he rashly wished for just anything, it could bring about an unimaginable disaster.

“This wish is…… No, that wish is…… terrible too,” Isaac mumbled to himself, scratching his head as if pulling his hair out. Suddenly, a hand thrust a bag of snacks right in front of his eyes.

“What’s terrible? Is the state of your brain terrible?”

“Oh. Hoden. Thanks. I guess you’re on annex duty today?

”

As soon as he received the bag from his familiar old colleague, Isaac tore it open and popped a snack into his mouth. It was just baked flour dough seasoned with salt, but Isaac quite liked it. Since it was a cheap snack mostly bought and eaten by poor commoners, it was hard to find inside the royal palace. ‘My old roommate really is different; he takes care of all this for me,’ Isaac thought, chewing the cracker contentedly.

“What are you doing sitting alone mumbling to yourself? Don’t talk to yourself, witch, it’s creepy. Were you reciting a curse or something?”

Despite his words, it had been a long time since Hoden had returned to treating Isaac just as he used to. The same went for the other acquaintances who had known him for a long time.

When the fact that Isaac was a witch was first revealed, they had kept their distance, feeling repulsed. But as they watched Isaac living in the Blue Shadow Palace maintaining his usual demeanor as if nothing had changed, their attitudes gradually shifted. It was partly because they were old comrades who had shared life and death together for a long time, but pity probably played the biggest role.

Rumors that the Prince was abusing and torturing the witch quickly spread throughout the palace, and the fact that these weren’t baseless rumors was proven every new moon by the eyewitness accounts of guards and servants. Things had gotten so out of hand that the rumors didn’t just stop within the palace; a fairy tale about a ‘Poor Witch’ had even circulated in the outside world a while ago.

The world really has gotten better. Just a few years ago, the word ‘witch’ was a target of fear and hatred, but now that they’re all gone, my image is being laundered like this.

Crunching on the cracker, Isaac thought that living as a witch in such a world wasn’t too bad. For one, he had a healthy body that didn’t catch diseases unlike humans, and now he didn’t even have to walk on eggshells worrying that people would notice when he lay down exhausted on the full moon.

But of course, even so, if something happened, humans could instantly turn on him and point their blades at his throat. Just as his comrades, whom he had thought were as close as family, had once done.

Humans could be affectionate at times, cruel at others; brave at times, and cowardly at others. Looking at his old comrade, who was one of those very ordinary humans, Isaac chewed his snack and suddenly asked.

“What is the wish of an ordinary human like you?”

“A wish? ……But what’s with that premise at the beginning?”

“It’ll be different from an extraordinary witch like me, won’t it? Anyway, if someone were to grant you a wish, what would you ask for?”

“Me? Making a fortune overnight, of course!”

Hoden shouted without even a second of hesitation, and Isaac nodded, thinking I knew it. Right, since he had lived as a human much longer himself, he had figured as much, but he had just asked in case.

“Other than that?”

“Power! Status! Success!”

“Mmm, right….. I don’t think I need to hear any more.”

Isaac waved his hand, stopping him. When he held out a cup filled to the brim with tea, Hoden quickly took it, blowing on it to cool it down before drinking. “But nowadays, more than anything else, I just want my kid to grow up healthy without any trouble,” he muttered with a pleased smile. “Ah,” Isaac said, nodding his head.

“It’s been a month now, right? Does it look a bit more like a person? What was the baby’s name again?”

“Hey, I’m not telling you. I’m not telling. What if it’s bad luck for a witch to call my kid’s name?”

Hoden glared at him, speaking quite seriously. ‘I’m sure it would be,’ Isaac just snorted and let it go.

Hoden had recently had his first child. Because his wife had suffered a miscarriage once before and they had finally conceived again after much hardship, both husband and wife had been incredibly anxious until the birth. The baby was finally born last month, and both mother and child were healthy, but Hoden was still buying all sorts of talismans just in case.

“Drop by after work later and take a carton of eggs to your wife.”

It’s from animal welfare, free-range, fertilized chickens, so it’ll be good for the body. As Isaac looked proudly over at his pretty chickens, he heard displeased whispering from the roof above.

「He fought tooth and nail to stop us when we tried to eat them.」

「Discrimination! It’s discrimination!」

These little brats. Even though they’re constantly looking for an opportunity to hunt the chickens themselves, not the eggs.

「Chicken or the egg!」

「Which comes first, the chicken or the egg!」

Isaac glared up at the roof briefly, but Hoden simply looked at him, confused as to what was going on, utterly oblivious. But only two of them have been hovering around since earlier. Where did the other one go off to play?

“Phew…… To think I’m already a father. It feels like just yesterday I married Aire, but time sure flies.”

Hoden muttered, looking deeply moved, and beside him, Isaac nodded as well.

Time was surprisingly fast. Each day seemed to flow by slowly, but before he knew it, months and years had slipped past.

When this guy married Aire, Isaac had been struggling frantically to find the witch Alikisa. That memory was still so vivid, yet so much time had passed, and suddenly Hoden was a father, and the next Great New Moon was steadily approaching in the distance.

There wasn’t much time left to dally around with those three cats either. Yes, like all things, life rides on the flow of time and continues on. People are born, grow, and age.

“But Isaac, how come you look exactly the same? You don’t have a single wrinkle, do you? Haven’t you aged at all since we lived together?”

“Because I’m a witch.”

Hoden, who had suddenly shoved his face close to scrutinize Isaac’s features, rubbed his own face.

“How long do witches live?”

“Well, I hear they live a very long time.”

Isaac looked up at the roof, but only saw a black tail tapping against the edge of the awning; no answer returned. “I see,” Hoden muttered after a brief silence, then patted Isaac on the shoulder.

“Then, just suffer for a few more decades, and when Prince Kyan passes away, you can cross over to the witches’ world. It might be hard now, but if you endure it, time will fly by, so cheer up.”

It was a considerate word of pity for the suffering witch’s plight.

But the moment he heard those words, Isaac felt a strange sensation.

Along with a stiff feeling, as if he had been lightly struck on the back of the head, his throat felt hot and his chest grew tight—an inexplicable emotion spread through him.

Isaac just blinked, unable to come up with a proper response, and ended up mumbling vaguely.

“Uh, well…… ……but, there’s really nothing to endure. He’s only a bit like that on the night of the new moon; normally he’s gentle and generous.”

“……? Who are you talking about?”

“Who else.”

Isaac stared blankly at Hoden. Hoden, who had been staring blankly back at Isaac, suddenly opened his eyes wide as if struck by lightning, and stuttered with a horrified face.

“His Highness, Prince Kyan?! Isaac, you, you, you didn’t go a bit weird from all the abuse, did you…..?”

‘This punk…..?!’

“No, it’s true! In the past, his aura was so terrifying that just standing next to him felt like your life was hanging by a thread, never knowing when lightning would strike. But lately, he’s fine! As long as you do your assigned work diligently, he’s the type to overlook minor mistakes.”

Isaac insisted. In reality, when it came to unintentional mistakes, the Prince was far more lenient with his subordinates than other royals or nobles. He had no unreasonable fits of anger or fussiness, and depending on how you looked at it, he was a very good superior. He was only strict when it came to intentional wrongdoings or incompetence.

“Sometimes he even makes jokes, he has a subtle mischievous side, and above all, he is staggeringly handsome…… If that’s not an excellent boss, what is?”

However, despite Isaac’s passionate defense, Hoden did not drop the look of someone staring at a madman.

“Hey, hey, wake up. It was just last week that he mercilessly slaughtered his own family, Lord Gazelle!”

“No, that was because they tried to frame Lord Franz, insisting that Prince Illian must become the Crown Prince.”

“Is that something worthy of the death penalty?!”

“Strictly speaking, yes, it is worthy of the death penalty.”

Secondly, Prince Illian was a man without ambition. Normally, he would be the strongest successor to the throne after the eldest, Kyan. However, he absolutely loathed the headache-inducing affairs of the monarch, and his mind was fully set on peacefully retiring to his own territory once his father passed away.

Yet, the sons of regional lords, who pretended to be close aides by constantly visiting Illian’s palace and pushing their sisters onto him, had relentlessly egged Illian on to become the Crown Prince. Meanwhile, it was revealed that they had plotted to frame the young cousin currently favored among Kyan’s close aides, in an attempt to target Prince Franz.

Interfering with the line of succession was, strictly speaking, a capital offense.

However, it was so common for nobles to line up behind various royals and support them that, unless a major incident occurred, it was usually swept under the rug. Even this time, although it was somewhat disruptive, it could have ended with them being stripped of their titles and sent into exile for a few years. But the result was execution.

‘Determining the successor is the right of the monarch. There must be no interference or corrupt conspiracies regarding it.’

No one could go against Kyan when he spoke so firmly.

“He truly is a man without mercy.”

“No, I mean, that’s because they committed a crime……”

Isaac’s voice, which had been defending the Prince, slowly trailed off. It’s true that he absolutely has no tolerance for wrongs, especially intentional ones.

But then Hoden added, “This whole thing happened because he firmly declared from the start that he wouldn’t see an heir anyway.”

“……”

The Prince’s declaration that he would not take a Princess Consort came right after the grand witch hunt had ended and everything had settled down. Naturally, it caused a massive uproar among the nobles and officials, but even then, no one dared to say anything to the Prince’s face.

Even after that, for a while, there were people who somehow tried to push their daughters, sisters, or nieces onto the Prince. But as each of them was demoted for various reasons, those attempts gradually disappeared as well.

“But why is Prince Kyan so adamant about not having children? He could just take a consort from an appropriate house……”

Hoden, clicking his tongue, suddenly clamped his mouth shut. Staring intently at Isaac, he quickly averted his gaze and mumbled, “Mmm…… Never mind……” Isaac could hear his entire muttered soliloquy: “Right, there’s already one scapegoat, no need to needlessly increase the victims. I suppose it’s his own way of accumulating virtue.”

‘This punk, since earlier……’ A vein popped in Isaac’s temple, and he was just about to roll up his sleeves.

Suddenly, the presence of people moving busily echoed from the distance. The tense air transmitted from afar. And those who had worked in the palace for a long time knew very well what this specific presence meant.

“……!”

Hoden, springing up as if his backside had caught fire, hastily gathered his weapons and ran off toward the other side of the annex as if fleeing. “HEY, THE EGGS! DON’T FORGET TO TAKE THE EGGS LATER!” Isaac shouted, but Hoden didn’t look back.

Barely a second after Hoden stood at attention next to the pillar of the corridor, his assigned post, the Prince appeared from the direction of the Blue Shadow Palace. As if he already knew the situation over here, the Prince briefly glanced at Hoden but walked toward Isaac without a word.

“Lord Kyan.”

The Prince sat beside Isaac, and Isaac quickly set out tea in front of him. Having no proper refreshments to serve, he offered the commoner’s flour snack. ‘Well, whatever, he should try things like this every now and then.’

Amidst the pretty chickens strolling peacefully, a single black cat suddenly prowled out. Seeing that there were still two black tails hanging from the roof awning, the missing one had returned. ‘I see, that one was hanging around near Prince Kyan.’

“What brings you here? Weren’t you overwhelmed with work today?”

“I was on my way back from seeing my father. I thought I’d sit for a moment.”

Come to think of it, he had heard the King was unwell lately. Perhaps due to his age, he had been suffering from various minor ailments since last year.

“How is his condition?”

“Normal. The court physicians advised him to move to a resort with a better climate.”

That was what the King himself desired as well, but due to the circumstances delaying his abdication, his departure to the resort was also being delayed.

Watching the Prince drink his tea with his usual expressionless face, Isaac quietly asked.

“Umm…… Did something unpleasant happen…..?”

The Prince’s blue eyes looked at Isaac. Isaac flinched but met his gaze, pretending to be as unfazed as possible.

Sometimes, nowadays often, even when the Prince was expressionless, there were times when his mood was somehow transmitted. And sometimes, there were moments when the Prince realized Isaac was reading his expression.

At first, he seemed slightly taken aback, though this too was hidden behind his expressionless face, leaving almost no trace, and sometimes he seemed displeased or annoyed. But as these instances repeated, he gradually became calmer about it. Now, most of the time, he would just stare intently at Isaac with a subtle gaze, like now, before letting out a low smirk.

“Not particularly. It seems my face is quite readable to you now, witch.”

“No, well…… compared to how you see right through me, Your Highness, it’s nothing.”

‘And honestly, whenever you suspect I’m hiding something, you shake me down until I spill it, but even if I notice something, if you don’t speak, I have no way of finding out.’ Isaac grumbled internally about the unfairness.

‘But clearly, nothing was wrong until this morning. If he was in a bad mood after visiting His Majesty, then……’

Lost in thought for a moment, Isaac cautiously spoke.

“If you are deeply concerned about His Majesty’s condition, how about using the third wish for his recovery, or perhaps for his longevity and health? So that he and the Queen can live healthily together.”

The Prince’s blue eyes looked at Isaac again……Ah. This isn’t it. It was a look that said he had just heard complete and utter nonsense out of nowhere.

“I suppose it wouldn’t matter, but is there a need? With court physicians and mages attached to him, he will live out his natural lifespan. If his body weakens due to old age, it can’t be helped. If he passes away earlier than average, then that is simply his lifespan; that’s all there is to it.”

A completely unbothered answer returned. ‘Ah, yes, of course……’ Isaac chewed on his snack, reflecting on his foolishness for expecting the sentiments of an ordinary, filial son from this person, even for a moment.

「Mr. Moisture’s nature is closer to a witch’s, isn’t it? Manbang-ie is basically at the level of a disqualified witch.」 

「The two of them divided the temperaments poorly. But since two kids like that met, they matched well. It’s a match made in heaven.」

To the sound of tapping on the awning, chattering voices were added. ‘These guys……’ Isaac glared sideways at the roof, but fortunately, the Prince was merely drinking his tea indifferently.

「If you’re going to use the wish on just anything anyway, how about wishing for Mr. Moisture to become a bit kinder? If he gets a more human-like heart, won’t your twisted fate smooth out a bit too?」

Isaac threw a piece of the snack fiercely toward the black fuzzball on the roof.

「Oh my, oh my, look at him hitting us, small and beautiful beings, just for speaking the truth. That one’s nature isn’t exactly pretty either, is it?」 The whispering sound mixed with the crunching sound of them chewing the snack.

Isaac suddenly thought about it. If Kyan became kind……

…….

He couldn’t imagine it.

From one to ten, he couldn’t even begin to guess what would happen or how.

After spinning his brain for a moment, Isaac soon shook his head. No matter how he changed, Isaac didn’t want that.

Sure, Kyan’s personality traits sometimes made things hard for Isaac, but changing a personality meant fundamentally changing the person themselves. He didn’t want to do that. He liked the current Kyan exactly as he was.

「Manbang-ie has terrible taste, so it won’t work. He says he likes the mean Mr. Moisture.」

「That one’s hopeless. You couldn’t even fix his idiocy with the tinderbox. He just has to live like that forever.」

‘Just because I’m listening quietly, these brats…..!’

Isaac rapidly threw snacks, hitting the black fuzzballs. He threw them with all his might, so it should have stung, but only the sound of excited crunching returned from the roof.

「Give me more, give me more. Baked flour is a rare delicacy sometimes.」 Only after hearing their chattering did Isaac stop throwing snacks.

Feeling Kyan’s gaze on him, Isaac quickly straightened his posture and chewed his snack demurely.

But for what reason was he in a bad mood? Just as Isaac tilted his head internally,

「That youngest uncle of his was stuck by his father’s side nagging him. Saying having many children is the greatest duty of the one who will become King, blah blah blah, you need to set the royal line straight, blah blah blah.」

The black cat that had been happily chasing the fleeing chickens zipped past Isaac and chattered. No, how did that brat sneak all the way into the King’s bedchamber…..? That could cause a huge problem…… But it was certainly a good spy cat.

“Umm…… Did, by any chance……. His Majesty or someone……. say something to you, Your Highness……?”

Though he tried to ask as indirectly as possible, the Prince’s gaze immediately pinned onto the black cat. The cat glanced over its shoulder and hurriedly scrambled up onto the roof. The black tails tapping on the awning increased to three.

‘Ugh, I shouldn’t have said anything,’ Isaac thought, looking nervously at the sword hanging from the Prince’s waist. The Prince turned his gaze back to Isaac, stared at his anxious face for a moment, and let out a short click of his tongue before speaking.

“Those creatures talk too much useless nonsense…… Well, fine. This too is only until the next Great New Moon.”

The Prince grabbed Isaac’s hand, pulled it toward him, and took the piece of snack Isaac was holding straight into his own mouth. His tongue grazed Isaac’s fingertips as if he might bite them off.

“There is no problem whatsoever. I will be on the throne for decades to come, and there will be plenty of capable successors to raise up later. It’s just useless, incompetent old men chattering on about the destiny of the legitimate heir, worrying that my political enemies might snatch power in the process.”

The Prince spat out the words. Seeing the rare trace of irritation in his voice, it seemed that ‘useless, incompetent old man’ was likely the King’s brother, which made it awkward to simply kill him off, hence the Prince’s displeasure…… Or wait. Does he look like he’s actually considering whether to kill him off or not?

“I suppose the royals would strongly prefer a direct descendant of yours, Your Highness. Since you are young, strong, capable, and handsome, even I would be curious what kind of child you would have if you had one.”

“Not leaving behind an heir from someone like you was indeed a massive waste of genes,” Isaac spoke soothingly, also trying to save the uncle’s life.

The Prince stared intently at Isaac. Unsure of what he was thinking, Isaac met those ice-blue eyes and flinched unconsciously.

“Would you like it if I had a child?”

“Yes? Oh, well…… not necessarily, but it would ease the royal family’s worries, and as your uncle said, fertility is indeed the duty of the royal successor, so……”

Isaac mumbled his answer, feeling for some reason that he was making a mistake. Why does it feel like this person is looking at me with eyes that say I’m being insolent and disappointing…..?

“Really? If so, there is a solution. You can just give birth to a child.”

“……Pardon?”

For a moment, Isaac blinked, unable to comprehend what he had just heard.

“Yes. You just give birth. If we use the third wish to change you into a body capable of bearing a child.”

As the Prince spoke, his eyes narrowed as if he genuinely considered it an option worth pondering. Receiving the gaze that slowly swept over his body, Isaac felt a chill run down his spine.

“No, wait, Your Highness, ahaha, what a funny joke. No, not funny at all—”

“……Hmm.”

“No, no, no, you can’t do that. It would be very troublesome. I am already being glared at as a witch; if I have a child, would people simply accept it? No, no, it’s not even that, I have never once even imagined such an impossible thing as me having a child—”

「It’s possible. Totally possible.」

「Of course, what could be impossible for our tinderbox?」

「Anything is possible, except curing Manbang-ie’s idiocy.」

Suddenly, a loud interruption came from the roof. Isaac found the Prince’s gaze turning toward the roof to be unbelievably terrifying. 

Instead of three black tails, three pairs of eyes glowing like lanterns were looking down from the roof.

“Something like that is possible?”

At the Prince’s question, the three black furballs wiggled their rears and cried out, 「OF COURSE!!!」

「Do you want a specific prediction?」

“No, no, no—”

「Like, the most highly probable reality if you were to make that wish~.」

“NO, NO! I REALLY DON’T THINK THAT’S NECESSARY!”

Isaac sprang up from his seat and quickly reached out his hand to grab the mouths of the three brats. However, instead of a mouth, a ruthless paw flew out and scratched the back of Isaac’s hand. At the stinging pain, he tightly squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them—