Despite some saying it was a fatal wound and his life couldn’t be guaranteed when he first arrived at the capital, the Prince recovered at an astonishing speed, rendering their worries meaningless.

He was already known for his terrifyingly fast healing, but this time too, the court physicians secretly clicked their tongues and whispered behind his back, “He doesn’t seem human.”

Meanwhile, inside the palace, the Prince’s young cousin began to gather people’s attention. Having steadily built a good reputation, he achieved outstanding results in this subjugation, and the number of people trying to add weight to the possibility of him being the next-in-line to the throne increased.

The owner of the next throne was already firmly decided anyway, and barring any extraordinary circumstances, it wouldn’t change for decades. Yet, the impatient clamor insisting that the seat behind him couldn’t be left empty, regardless of when that time might come, seemed to have subsided somewhat.

‘For some reason, I feel like this person’s influence played a small—no, a considerable—role in this……’ Isaac thought to himself.

Listening to the report from Rihan, who visited shortly after breakfast, Isaac caught bits and pieces of the conversation. It seemed the Prince had pulled strings in advance to elevate the boy’s reputation as much as possible. Rihan, for a commander stationed at the border, came to the capital at least once or twice a month without fail; it seemed the Prince was using him like a spy.

“…… It seems Lord Svart has also shifted his stance to support Lord Franz. If so, the neighboring lords who follow him will likely align their views, so the southern region is essentially sorted out.”

“Good. I’ll be hearing less of that annoying noise now. At least my uncle will quiet down a bit.”

“He is a man who receives a great deal from Svart, after all,” the Prince muttered nonchalantly as he turned the page of his newspaper.

Beside the Prince, who was listening to the report with his ears while reading the paper with his eyes, stacks of various newspapers and government reports, piled as high as the table, were shrinking at a rapid pace, all while he lay in his sickbed.

“Are you intending to entrust the future to Lord Franz?”

Dangling a foxtail grass in front of the napping cats’ noses and getting his hand scratched in return, Isaac licked his wound and came to sit beside them. Normally, this wouldn’t be a topic an ordinary guardsman could casually interject in, but now, even Rihan didn’t find this strange.

Glancing at Isaac’s hand from the corner of his eye and confirming it was only a light scratch, the Prince threw a displeased look at the cats before picking up the next newspaper.

“Well. But for now, Franz is the most useful material. In this subjugation as well—although he made a slight mistake at the very end—he moved quite well. He was quite helpful.”

Those words from the Prince were massive praise. Rihan nodded as if he agreed.

A successor with outstanding character, capability, aptitude (and even looks); one couldn’t ask for more.

While Isaac thought it was a good thing, he also felt a subtle dissatisfaction bubbling up in his heart. It was a dissatisfaction that had been eating away at a corner of his mind the entire time he nursed the Prince.

Looking at the Prince, who still had thick bandages wrapped around his abdomen despite it being hidden by his clothes, Isaac suddenly spoke up.

“If you took me along, I could be of help too.”

The Prince’s finger, which was turning the newspaper, seemed to pause for a brief moment. Rihan, who was eating the flour snack placed on the refreshment table, also glanced at Isaac. However, Rihan said nothing, and the Prince continued to read the newspaper as if he hadn’t heard a thing. Isaac persistently reiterated.

“Next time you go on a beast subjugation, please take me with you.”

“No.”

An immediate rejection returned, without even a second of consideration.

Isaac was momentarily crestfallen, but gathered his courage and insisted again.

“Of course, I know the subjugation squad is gathered from only the strongest soldiers in the nation. But I believe I can at least perform the abilities of a low-ranking soldier among them. If you just accept me, I will train and work harder than anyone else.”

“I said no.”

The Prince rejected him mercilessly. Isaac flinched and looked at Rihan with tearful eyes, but Rihan silently averted his gaze, offering no help whatsoever.

“…… Am I really lacking that much in skill? So much that you can’t even feel at ease taking me?”

Isaac knew it too. The subjugation squad was the most elite unit that had been fighting monsters at the borders with the Prince for a long time, engaging in life-or-death struggles with demonic beasts, and hunting witches. It wasn’t a place one could join with just passable skills, but he still thought he could manage the role of a single squad member.

He was deeply saddened that the Prince left him behind in the capital as a weakling he couldn’t trust, and that he himself couldn’t offer any help in a place where the Prince might get hurt like this.

As Isaac slouched in dejection, the Prince gave him a look of annoyance. With a frown, the Prince spoke coldly.

“You are a Royal Guard.”

Rihan, who had been drinking his tea as if seeing and hearing nothing, quickly rolled his eyes to look at Isaac and the Prince. Then, unable to bear the heavy atmosphere, he stood up from his seat. “I will take my leave now,” he said, bowing hastily and walking out. He had already shared everything he needed to, and he looked as though he wanted to plug his ears even more during their conversation.

While Rihan hurried out, the Prince, who had been staring at Isaac, slowly lowered his newspaper.

“The days of me personally taking to the battlefield are numbered. The subjugation squad has been trained enough to function without me, and Franz will soon be able to coordinate well with the general commanders like Rihan. A year or two, at most.”

“——.”

“His Majesty has also been constantly urging that he wants to step down. He’s aged noticeably compared to before.”

The tasks the Prince had built up step by step, considering them one by one, had piled up to the point where they were nearing fruition. All so that he could put down his single worry, ascend the throne, and lead the kingdom.

Feeling a warm and overwhelming emotion at that, Isaac took a deep breath and nodded.

If so, if there really wasn’t much time left, there was no need for Isaac to stubbornly try to mix into the subjugation squad. He just needed to endure and wait a little while longer.

“It would be great if Lord Franz takes over well.”

“Mmm. Even if Franz doesn’t work out, another useful person will emerge. I can just raise them while I’m on the throne, so time is not lacking.”

Everything would flow just as the Prince said. He would undoubtedly cultivate this kingdom firmly from the foundation up, and Isaac would stand by his side, watching that flow together.

“I hope many excellent people grow up so you can leave the future affairs to them with peace of mind, Your Highness.”

As Isaac spoke, the Prince, who was drinking tea and looking at the garden, threw a subtle, narrow-eyed glance at Isaac.

“I will have to find them. Since you aren’t going to bear my child anyway.”

“……”

He choked. Isaac, who choked on mere air while eating nothing, coughed several times before wiping his mouth with his fist.

“No, that’s a bit……”

“I quite liked that wish, though.”

The Prince, speaking nonchalantly, was clearly recalling the projected realization of the second wish.

“You said from the beginning it wasn’t a very good wish…… By the way, how exactly did you see it, Your Highness? For me, it felt like I was experiencing it firsthand, like having a vivid dream.”

“Mine was similar.”

“Really? You weren’t just watching it like a spectator?”

The Prince nodded.

“The days I actually tried to get you pregnant—those I remember quite vividly, exactly as if I really did them. Strictly speaking, it was closer to me immersing myself fervently in it as a hobby rather than purely trying to get you pregnant, though.”

Wow…… Isaac’s face burned, and he grabbed his head just thinking about it.

To think he experienced that dream, where he was the main character, so vividly, experiencing it intact. It would have been nice if Isaac was the only one who knew and it ended there. Damn cats……

Isaac, whose thoughts had reached that point, paused. Wait, then perhaps,

“Then by any chance…… Do you remember the third one too?”

Bringing up a memory he didn’t want to revisit, Isaac asked cautiously. The Prince had been asleep at the time, so Isaac thought he was the only one who had seen it. Why hadn’t he considered this?

“Ah……, the one where all the demonic beasts disappear and a plague breaks out?”

The Prince nonchalantly nodded. Isaac’s face immediately contorted.

“I thought I was dreaming in my sleep, but upon waking up, I realized I wasn’t.”

Right, he would have known it wasn’t. It was like a dream, but it felt different from a dream. Isaac grabbed his head again. Then, looking ready to cry, he studied the Prince’s expression.

“Were you not in pain? In that place, Your Highness……”

The image of him drying up black and dying flashed through his mind. Just recalling the thought seemed to suffocate him. To Isaac, whose face was growing pale, the Prince shook his head.

“No, not at all. I recognized that ‘I am currently in a state of agonizing pain,’ but I didn’t actually feel the pain. That’s why I initially thought it was a dream.”

Isaac sighed in relief, but kept his face buried in his hands for a long time. Right. The physical sensations weren’t directly transmitted in that illusion. However, the emotions were vividly surging up as if directly experienced.

“…… I will absolutely never make that wish.”

Muttering with his face covered, Isaac suddenly lifted his head, his eyes widening as he said, 

“But you know.”

“I only remembered this after waking up from that illusion, but normally my blood doesn’t work on illnesses, right? But in a unique situation like that, couldn’t it possibly work?”

“Well. I doubt it.”

“If you consume a whole lot more than usual, it might. If a situation like that really comes, I want to try feeding it to you until you recover, Your Highness.”

As soon as Isaac finished speaking, the Prince’s eyes turned fierce. Glancing at Isaac out of the corner of his eye, the gaze was so chilling that Isaac unconsciously flinched.

The Prince looked at Isaac coldly and spoke with a voice just as frigid.

“Even a witch will die if all their blood is drained. You are not allowed to die first.”

“It probably wouldn’t mean much anyway. If you pass away, Your Highness, I think I’ll be buried alive with you.”

Recalling the whispers of those who were fully intending to kill the witch and bury him alongside the Prince once he died, Isaac spoke. The Prince frowned, but Isaac nonchalantly continued.

“But I think that’s fine too. Following you into the grave sounds good. Because I think I’d be quite unhappy if I were left all alone later…… Well, being buried with you isn’t bad.”

He meant it half as a joke, but as he spoke, it became more than half truth. He genuinely felt it would be like that. He was happy being together right now, but he would be quite unhappy if they were separated.

‘Mmm, I think it would be fine.’ As Isaac nodded in agreement with himself, the Prince frowned deeply, opening his mouth to say something before snapping it shut mid-sentence. Then, without a word, he looked out the garden.

* * *

He felt the approach of death vividly.

He had never felt death in any of the countless battlefields he had survived in the past. Even when he was isolated in the heart of the beasts’ lair, watching his own flesh be torn apart and the contents of his body exposed to the naked eye, he had not actually felt death.

But this—this sensation of all remaining energy in his body evaporating like mist, the feeling of life withering away. The definitive sensation of inescapable death felt throughout his entire body.

‘Am I dying now?’

Witches and demonic beasts had all vanished from this world. He had achieved what he wanted from the very beginning. Then it was done. There was nothing more to wish for.

The only thing he regretted was—

He rolled his pupils down to look at the man sleeping face down against his bed. The man’s wrists were completely covered in knife scars and dried with blood. It was because every time he woke up, he sliced his own wrist to drip blood into his mouth. It was utterly useless.

He wanted to touch that soft hair, but his charred, dried-up hand wouldn’t even twitch; he could only watch with his eyes.

The last remaining witch in this world.

As he traced those gaunt cheeks with his eyes, the sound of someone whispering drifted from somewhere outside the window.

“—…… The commander’s wife also caught the disease while nursing him and was isolated.”

“—Prince Kyan will also soon……”

“—But Isaac is completely fine even though he stays right beside Prince Kyan.”

“—Because he’s a witch. That’s not a human. No matter how much he looks like a human, that’s a witch.”

“—What happens when Prince Kyan passes away?”

“—We must eliminate him, of course.”

“—But Isaac hasn’t done anything wrong……”

“—Even so, he’s a witch. If we leave him alive, we don’t know what he might do. We can’t trust a witch.”

“—Yes, you’re right. If Prince Kyan isn’t here, who could stop him? …… We have to eliminate him.”

“—…… I agree.”

“—Let’s do that. The moment Prince Kyan passes away, we will take the witch with him……”

His eyes, which had been dead like a corpse’s, flared vividly blue.

‘You wretched bugs dare try to kill my witch!’

A pitch-black fury surged from the depths of his stomach. His vision was dyed black with rage. But on the other hand, at the same time, an emotion surfaced in a corner of his mind.

‘If I could take my witch with me.’

‘If I could drag him with me even beyond death.’

A desire so intense it stopped his breath seized his heart.

‘Yes, this is my witch. My possession, who must be with me at any given moment, no matter where. I can never leave him behind—’

At that moment, the man lying face down twitched and moved. Having regained consciousness, the man heavily lifted his head. He stared blankly for a moment as if still caught in a dream, then looked at him and pushed himself up. Pulling his chair close and staring at him for a long time, the man picked up the knife placed on the bedside table. With practiced ease, he sliced back into his already blood-crusted wrist, and brought the dripping wrist to his mouth.

‘Drink. You never know. It might not be working because you haven’t drank enough yet.’

He did not swallow. He didn’t have the strength left to swallow, nor did he want to. Even though he was utterly sick of the man continuously inflicting wounds on himself like this, he didn’t even have the strength to tell him to stop.

‘I said drink…… If you don’t, I’ll just cut off my wrist like this. The blood won’t stop anyway, so if you don’t drink it, it’s just being wasted. Are you really not going to drink while I’m sitting here with my wrist perfectly sliced open?’

The man made a clumsy threat. Yet, looking down at him with infinitely tender eyes, the man gently placed a hand on his cheek, leaned in, and matched his lips to his.

‘I will give it all to you. I will give you everything—so please, stay with me.’

A whisper trickled between their lips.

In that moment,

He fell into a bizarre sensation.

It was an incredibly strange feeling. For the first time since he was born, he felt it—his chest growing numbly hot, a halo of light wavering in his eyes.

‘If you can be happy.’

‘My greed, my desires, my cravings didn’t matter. It was fine even if my single remaining fierce desire wasn’t fulfilled. If you can be happy.’

‘If only you could be happy, nothing else—not even myself—mattered.’

That was the powerful sense of fulfillment that captivated him in that moment, something he had never felt before in his entire life.