The moment he opened the door and stepped inside his supposedly empty room, he heard a rustling sound. It was coming from the basket beneath the table where he kept his food stores.

Had a rat gotten in? Grabbing the poker he kept by the door, Isaac took a cautious step toward the table. Instantly, as if sensing his approach, a head popped up from the basket.

It was a cat. A black cat. A pitch-black cat with eyes the size of lanterns was poking only its head out of the basket. With a piece of cheese clamped in its mouth, it stared directly at Isaac with a look that clearly said, ‘Ah, busted!’

“……”

“……”

‘These little brats really are……’

Isaac marched over and hoisted the cat up by the scruff of its neck. Finally snapping out of its daze, the cat began flailing wildly and yowling, dropping the cheese onto the floor with a soft thud.

“I locked the door and shut the window when I left. How do you keep getting in here?”

Isaac threw the window open and casually tossed the cat out into the bushes, tossed the cheese out after it, and slammed the window shut.

“I’m exhausted and starving. Besides, I only have time for a quick nap before I have to head right back out for guard duty.”

Having not eaten a single thing since lunch, Isaac pulled a piece of dry bread from the basket and bit into it as he sat on the edge of his bed. Outside the window, the sky had already darkened, and the moon was high. Because yesterday had been the full moon, it was beautifully round and bright.

‘Probably just a bit tired today and tomorrow, then fine again by the day after.’ It wasn’t bad enough to call it an illness, but Isaac rubbed his heavy, lethargic head before his eyes drifted toward the window. The cross necklace he had tossed there that morning was glinting in the moonlight. He picked it up to put it away, but the metal brushed against his forearm.

“Aissh, hot…”

Flinching and pulling his arm back, Isaac dropped the necklace onto Hoden’s desk and rubbed his skin. The flesh had turned slightly red, but it hadn’t blistered or burned. If it had been the actual night of the full moon, it would have.

Witches are powerless under the full moon.

Witches fear the cross.

The things people commonly said weren’t the exact, literal truth, but they weren’t entirely baseless nonsense either.

Isaac drew the curtains and lay down on his bed with a sigh.

“If it’s this bad even for a half-blood like me, true witches must have had a truly miserable time surviving in this land…… How did you do it, Mom?”

Isaac’s mind drifted to his mother, who used to click her tongue at him when he was little and say, “How on earth did you manage to inherit absolutely none of my blood? Clueless and utterly dense, just like your late father.”

14 years ago, on the night of the Great New Moon, his mother boarded a boat carved from a sliver of the moon and crossed over into the Land of the New Moon. She left this land, where witches were slaughtered the moment they were discovered, for a realm where her kind could live in peace.

She had tried to take Isaac with her, but because his veins carried the blood of a human, he could not set foot on the moon-sliver boat. The ferryman shook his head, declaring that only those of pure witch blood could board. Hearing this, his mother turned her back on the boat, declaring that she would remain in this world with her son.

Isaac was the one who pushed her aboard.

It was the peak of the witch hunts. Only a few days prior, Isaac had watched their neighbor get brutally butchered in the street after being outed as a witch. Desperate, Isaac shoved his mother onto the boat with all his might.

“Go! You’re a witch, Mom. You have to go. I’m half-human, so I’ll be fine. You have to go!”

“Isaac, I can’t do that. You’re too young. My son.”

“If you get caught and killed here, I’ll be killed right alongside you for being a witch’s spawn! But if I’m left alone and live as a human, it might be hard because I’m young, but at least I won’t die!”

“Isaac……”

“Go, Mom! For your sake, and for mine, you have to.”

It took 7 years for the moon-sliver boat to travel to the Land of the New Moon and back. If she missed the boat that night, she would have to wait 7 long years to board again.

His mother looked closely at him. Knowing exactly what kind of boy her son was better than anyone, she eventually gave a slow nod.

“Alright, Isaac. It seems it is time for us to part. But you must make me a promise. Swear upon the Moon River. Swear that no matter what happens, you will live bravely and be happy.”

Swearing upon the sacred Moon River – an oath that not even the gods could break – Isaac promised her he would. Only after hearing his vow did his mother finally board the boat.

And so, at the age of 10, Isaac parted ways with his mother and began surviving on his own. As lonely as a solitary child was, he still managed to get by. His mother had left him a decent stash of gold coins, and while he was occasionally clueless and dense, Isaac was actually quite a clever boy.

Around the full moon, which was poison to witches, his body felt heavy and lethargic. Around the new moon, the witches’ festival, he felt inexplicably giddy and high-spirited. The sight of goat meat or wine, things witches supposedly couldn’t resist, made his mouth water, and he always felt a vague sense of unease around crosses. But that was the extent of it. With only half-witch blood flowing through his veins, it wasn’t terribly difficult for him to blend in among ordinary, good-hearted people and live as a diligent, earnest orphan boy.

And that was how he had made it to where he was today.

He had faced his fair share of painful and sorrowful moments, but Isaac never regretted sending his mother away and staying behind. He simply strove to live bravely and find happiness, exactly as he had promised her.

He used to occasionally wonder what it truly meant to be ‘happy,’ but he no longer gave it much thought. Watching people live in hiding, only to be butchered the moment their true nature was discovered, Isaac decided that a quiet, peaceful life was happiness.

To live each day earnestly, quietly, and peacefully.

That was the oath he had sworn upon the sacred Moon River, and he was doing his absolute best to honor it.

His peaceful life had few complaints, aside from the poverty that forced him to ration his food for a day or two before payday. If he had one wish left, it was this:

“I need to save up and move to a quiet countryside village soon…… The capital, right under the King’s nose, is far too dangerous for a witch. I’ve heard rumors that there are villages far out on the borders where witches and humans live together……”

He muttered the words with a sigh.

There were still quite a few witches in the capital who hadn’t been able to board the moon-sliver boat. Undoubtedly, many were living right here in the city, perfectly hiding their true identities. But their lives had to be a terrifying, agonizing tightrope walk every single day.

While his situation wasn’t nearly as extreme, Isaac felt the same way. He wanted to live more peacefully, with more peace of mind. And so, he saved his money like a diligent ant and worked hard today, just as he had yesterday.

Isaac checked the clock. He didn’t have much time left before he had to leave for his scheduled night shift. He needed to catch whatever sleep he could right now, or staying awake all night would be torture.

Pulling the blanket up to his chin, Isaac coaxed himself to sleep. His already lethargic body quickly slipped into a heavy slumber, and his rambling thoughts melted into dreams.

‘Just a quick nap, and then off to work. If I work hard and save up my money, I’ll move down to a peaceful countryside village, build a pretty brick house, tend a pretty garden, meet a pretty girl, and we’ll live happily ever……’

‘Oh, please.’

‘I think everything he eats goes straight to his dreams. His dreams aren’t just plump, they’re downright chubby.’

‘Dreaming is a lovely thing…… Ah! The third one!’

How long had he been asleep?

He had faintly registered the sound of chattering voices tickling his ears like part of a dream, when suddenly——

*KYOW!!*

A sharp, piercing shriek tore through his eardrums.

Instantly jolted awake, Isaac bolted upright, his senses flaring as he scanned the room.

But his room was engulfed in quiet darkness. Beyond the curtains, the faint moonlight spilled in, but outside the window, there was absolutely no movement.

“……, …..?”

He swore he had heard an endless stream of chattering in his ear…… Was it just a dream? He definitely thought he had heard the sharp cry of a beast. Tilting his head in confusion, Isaac listened closely, but everything remained perfectly still.

‘Must have been a dream.’ Relaxing his tense shoulders, Isaac picked up the clock from his nightstand to see how long he had slept. It felt like he had merely blinked, but quite a bit of time had passed. Still, he had time for just a little more sleep.

He lay back down and was just pulling the blanket up when he heard it. The moment he closed his eyes, something rustled outside his window.

“……”

It was a small noise, it easily could have been a rat passing by or the wind tumbling some leaves. But considering what had just woken him up, it gnawed at his nerves. Dragging his heavy body back up, Isaac pulled back the curtain and peered outside. Because it was too dark to see clearly, he pushed the window open and stuck his head out. And at that exact moment——

Three cats sitting directly below the window stared up at him in perfect unison. Coming face to face with three pairs of massive, glowing eyes just inches from his nose, Isaac physically flinched.

…… Honestly, for a split second, he was terrified. Having not one, not two, but SIX  the size of lanterns flashing at him in the dead of night was horrifying.

“What the……  what are you doing out here?”

Clutching his pounding chest, Isaac finally managed to speak. As he did, he noticed one of the cats awkwardly holding up a front paw. Sticking out of its paw pad was a sharp thorn.

His hands moved faster than his thoughts. By the time Isaac had firmly grabbed the cat by the scruff of its neck, the creature finally panicked and started flailing, but it was too late.

“Hey, hey, hey, hold still. Where did you go to get something like this stuck in your foot?”

Masterfully securing the thrashing, claw-baring cat, Isaac held it under the lamplight and took a closer look. It wasn’t a thorn at all, but a long, thin nail. It must have stepped on it while tearing through the graveyard in the front yard.

Isaac, frowning, kept the cat in his arms, knowing it would vanish the moment he let go. Keeping a firm grip on the creature, he pulled out his first-aid kit with his free hand before finally grasping the injured paw tightly.

“Just hold on a sec.——.”

“KYOW!!”

Before he even finished speaking, Isaac yanked the nail out in one swift motion. The cat flinched and shrieked. Offering up his own forearm as a sacrifice to the wildly thrashing, claw-swiping cat, Isaac expertly dabbed antiseptic on the wound and wrapped it tightly with clean bandages. The cat would probably chew the bandage off in a matter of minutes, but it would hold just long enough for the medicine to soak in.

Having exhausted its energy fighting him, the cat eventually went limp right around the time Isaac tied off the knot. It curled up obediently in his lap. Then, seemingly noticing Isaac’s forearm covered in fresh, bleeding scratches, it must have felt a twinge of guilt. It gave his arm a single, conciliatory lick……, though its rough tongue only made it sting more. Still, it was somewhat endearing.

Isaac gently stroked the cat’s back.

“Your eyes are several times larger than any normal cat’s, yet you couldn’t even see a nail on the ground and stepped right on it? What’s the point of having huge eyes if they’re completely useless?”

At Isaac’s tutting remark, the cat’s fur suddenly puffed up. “KSSSK!!” it hissed furiously, lashing out and smacking Isaac with its front paw.

“Gah! Ow, ow, ow…….”

Leaving yet another fresh scratch on Isaac’s arm, the cat calmly hopped off his lap and onto the windowsill. Glaring at him with its enormous eyes widened to their absolute limit, it leaped lightly out the window and vanished.

“Repaying kindness with hostility, you little…… Hey, did I say something wrong?!”

Isaac grumbled out the window, but the only response was silence.

Rubbing antiseptic into his own arm, Isaac packed up his first-aid kit. They used to say cats repaid kindness by leaving dead rats on their owners’ pillows, so honestly……, …… this was probably better.

Staring at the clock, he realized even more time had slipped away. After a moment’s hesitation, Isaac gave up on the idea of sleep and stood up. It was an awkward amount of time for a nap anyway. He figured he was better off chewing on another piece of bread and heading out early.

* * *

Isaac’s night shift tonight was guard duty at the Palace of Blue Shadows*.

(*The Palace of Blue Shadows = The Byeok-yeong Palace)

Located at the westernmost edge within the castle walls, it was set quite a distance from the main palace, isolated in its own serene pocket. Bordering the foot of a mountain and surrounded by a lake and dense forests, its scenery was breathtaking year-round. Because it was cool in the summer and warm in the winter, it had been one of the royal family’s favorite retreats…… At least, it was until last year.

Ever since Prince Kyan returned from the frontier last autumn and claimed this palace as his own, the casual foot traffic here had vanished entirely. This was partly because everyone, regardless of status, was terrified of him, but also because Kyan himself did not welcome guests. 

Not welcoming guests didn’t mean he actively chased them away. If someone came, he simply left them be to rest or do whatever they pleased. He just…… left them be. As long as they didn’t intrude on his personal space inside the palace, he didn’t care if they drank tea in the gardens or loitered in the drawing rooms. Put simply: he ignored them.

The Prince was a man with an absolute, terrifying lack of interest in other people.

“It’s not just interest he lacks…… He has no compassion and no m

ercy,” one guard whispered.

“Maybe he just doesn’t have any emotions at all?”

Having arrived at his post slightly earlier than the shift change, Isaac crouched beside two senior guards who were chatting and waited for his own partner for the night watch.

“If a word has ‘heart’ in it, something’s clearly missing.”

“Why? What about ‘coldhearted,’ ‘heartless,’ ‘ruthless’? Those exist.” Isaac muttered dryly.

Hearing Isaac’s sudden interjection, the senior guards snapped their mouths shut, looked down at him, and then slowly nodded in agreement. 

“Right, there are those words too. That’s exactly what he is,” they whispered among themselves.

Letting their chatter fade into the background, Isaac gazed out at the moonlit lake. The forest in the distance was pitch-black under the night sky, but the heavens themselves were brilliantly illuminated by the moon, which was just a day past full. Upon the surface of the calm, rippleless lake rested a perfect reflection of the beautiful moon.

“You have to admit, the scenery at Blue Shadows Palace really is gorgeous……” Isaac murmured.

The other guards clicked their tongues.

“What does that matter? I’d rather guard the Main Palace or the North Palace even if the scenery was utterly hideous.”

“I swear, he has this weird habit of admiring pretty things at the most random times…… One of these days, that’s going to get him in serious trouble. Ugh, I hate guard duty here more than anything.”

“Me too. By the way, it’s time for the shift change. Where the hell is Bern?”

One of the guards grumbled, looking back toward the clock tower. Right on cue, the distant bells tolled eleven times. It was time for his shift, so Isaac brushed off his pants and stood up.

“Good work today. Go get some rest. I’ll take over from here.”

“By yourself? What about Bern?”

“He’ll be here soon. Besides, it’s not like anything is going to happen anyway.”

“True enough. That idiot Bern is always late. Alright, we’re heading in. Have a good shift.”

The two guards patted Isaac lightly on the shoulder and turned to leave. Isaac was left alone to wait for Bern, his assigned partner for the night.

A few steps beyond the grass lay the lake, bordered by the densely wooded forest, with the palace standing quietly in the distance. In the sky hung a slightly waning moon, and beneath it stood Isaac, all by himself.

So beautiful.

Though the lingering power of the full moon made his body feel heavy and lethargic, Isaac stared out at the landscape, entranced. He almost felt like he wouldn’t mind if Bern didn’t show up, so he could have this entire view to himself all night.

Standing guard here was practically a formality anyway; it didn’t matter if there was one guard or two. The very idea of an intruder or a dangerous assassin sneaking into Blue Shadows Palace was laughable.

Where would they come from? Through the forest at the foot of the mountain, teeming with deadly beasts? Across a lake so vast and deep it was impossible to swim across? Or perhaps from the Main Palace side, where everyone knew exactly who resided here? No matter the route, it was impossible.

The guards here simply had to stand at their posts until their shift ended and then swap out. It was the easiest duty a royal guard could ask for. Simultaneously, it was the one they dreaded the most.

Because it was also the place where, if you were unlucky, you had the highest chance of witnessing something truly horrifying.

“…… Hmm. On second thought, it’s better if Bern gets here. Two is definitely better than one.”

Just as Isaac changed his mind and muttered to himself, he heard a rustling sound coming from the forest. He turned. Someone was approaching from the pitch-black woods. It was too dark to make out who it was, but the shadow was panting heavily, its footsteps slow and burdened.

“Who goes there?”

Isaac raised the lantern he had set down, but its light couldn’t penetrate the shadows of the forest. However, a response came quickly.

“It’s me…… Bern……”

“Bern? What’s wrong with your voice?”

Isaac relaxed his grip on his spear and asked in confusion. It was definitely Bern’s voice, but he sounded like he was on the verge of tears, gasping and wheezing for breath.

When Isaac took a step forward, Bern finally broke free of the forest’s shadows. Even in the dim light, his silhouette looked bizarrely thick. It wasn’t that he had suddenly gained weight……. the shape lumbering toward him wasn’t entirely human.

“Bern?!”

“Isaac…… h-help me…….”

As the shadow took two more stumbling steps forward, sobbing, Isaac could finally see Bern clearly under the moonlight. Looking as though he might burst into tears at any second, Bern was carrying—no, dragging—something massive on his back. It took Isaac a moment to realize the enormous thing trailing behind Bern was the corpse of a beast as large as a full-grown man.

“Bern! What happened?!”

Isaac rushed over to him. Supporting his sobbing friend, Isaac lost his words the moment he saw the gruesome state of the beast. Its belly had been ripped wide open, exposing its intestines. The tearing was so jagged it looked as though it had been done entirely with bare hands. Chunks of torn flesh clung to the bloody pelt. Even Isaac, who had a strong stomach, felt the sudden urge to vomit.

“I was late…… so I cut through the forest…… and I ran into him…… He told me to carry it here……”

Isaac didn’t need to ask who Bern was talking about. Because at that exact moment, another figure emerged from the forest behind Bern.

Stepping out of the shadows and into the moonlight, the man was drenched in dark blood from the crown of his head to the tips of his boots. A thick, metallic stench of blood hit the air a second later.

Whether it was because of the night, or the suffocating aura of slaughter clinging to him, the tall man looked terrifyingly massive as he walked slowly toward them. Standing beside a violently trembling Bern, Isaac froze like a statue, unable to twitch a single muscle as he watched the man approach.

The man didn’t spare a single glance at Bern, the beast, or Isaac. With cold, utterly apathetic eyes, he walked slowly past them, exactly as if they were thin air.

It felt like a monstrous entity had just brushed past his nose.

Isaac remained rooted to the spot, entirely paralyzed, until the man had taken several more steps and put some distance between them. Only when the man stopped at the edge of the lake, stripped off his blood-soaked clothes, and waded into the water did Isaac finally snap back to his senses.

The water around the man immediately bloomed a deep crimson before slowly dispersing. Washing the blood from his skin, the man cut slowly through the water. The serene moonlight captured in the lake shattered and rippled around him.

As Isaac took a deep breath, trying to calm his hammering heart, his eyes caught sight of several servants rushing out from the palace, trailing far behind the man.

“Get the towels! Quickly, before Prince Kyan gets out!”

“We need fresh clothes!”

“We don’t have enough drinks! Run to the kitchens and fetch a water pitcher and ice glasses! Prince Kyan never stays in the water for long, so hurry!”

Amidst the frantic servants bustling to prepare for the Prince’s exit, the pretty escort youth from earlier that afternoon stood looking utterly dazed. Officially, he was a royal guard, but everyone knew he was simply the Prince’s current paramour.

The beautiful young man, who followed the Prince everywhere like a shadow, was pale and yellow-faced, clearly traumatized by whatever he had witnessed in the woods. His eyes drifted to the mutilated beast Bern had dragged in, and finally, he hunched over and retched violently.

“Eugh…… eugh…… I was barely holding it in… Now I feel like I’m going to throw up too…” 

Bern mumbled, covering his mouth. Isaac quickly took the beast’s corpse from him, dropping it into the tall grass, then crouched beside Bern and rubbed his back as he gagged.

Listening to Bern’s stuttered, terrified rambling, Isaac pieced together the story. Poor Bern, running late for the shift change, had tried to take a shortcut through the woods and stumbled directly into the Prince in the middle of his hunt. To make matters worse, he had arrived at the exact moment of the kill.

“I can’t even describe it…… It was still alive when he ripped its belly open and started tearing out its organs bare-handed…… I thought I had stumbled into hell…….”

“You’ve been through a lot.”

“I’m never, ever going to be late again…… Not if it means seeing something like that……”

Sniffling and wiping his tears, Bern’s conclusion was a bit oddly placed, but Isaac thought it was a very productive takeaway nonetheless, patting him comfortingly on the back.

Venturing into the deep forest in the dead of night to hunt was one of the few things the Prince actually enjoyed. Whenever the whim struck him, he would dart off into the darkness, leaving his frantic servants scrambling to catch up. It seemed tonight was one of those nights.

From a distance, Isaac watched the Prince quietly cutting through the water, leaving ripples in his wake. The water had to be freezing, yet he swam with leisurely, unaffected strokes. ‘Is it possible he doesn’t just lack emotions, but physical sensation too?’ Isaac couldn’t help but wonder.

Eventually, the servant who had bolted to fetch the refreshments returned, and Bern managed to drag the beast’s corpse to the designated area and come back. By then, Bern had somewhat regained his composure, though he smelled faintly of the liquor he had sneaked to calm his nerves.

Just as the servants finished arranging the dry towels, fresh clothes, drinks, and snacks, the Prince emerged from the lake. Pushing past the reeds, he stepped out of the water, and every person present held their breath in stiff terror.

The Prince swept his wet hair back and let out a light breath. His bright blonde hair, bathed in the moonlight, gleamed like spun silver. Even the droplets of water cascading from his ends looked like jewels adorning an impossibly flawless, imposing physique.

The servants stared at him in a mesmerized daze, only snapping to their senses when the Prince, having wiped the water from his face, lifted his gaze and looked at them with profound apathy. Flustered, they rushed forward with the dry towels and robes, but the Prince waved them off.

“Take it off.”

The Prince, taking a seat in the chair the servants had prepared and downing a glass of ice water, tossed the command into the air. His cold eyes were fixed on his escort, the one acting as his paramour. The youth flinched before scrambling forward in a panic.

The young man kneeling before the prince, who was seated naked, soon buried his face in the prince’s groin and began to moan, while simultaneously hurriedly stripping off his own clothes. As if fearing what might happen if he hesitated even slightly, the young man hurriedly stripped off his clothes and stood naked, while the prince, resting his chin on his hand, looked down at him with an expressionless face, as if he were staring at some dull object.

Before long, the prince grabbed the young man’s hair and began to push him harder into his groin. The young man, who was being roughly choked, let out hoarse, beast-like groans and tears welled up in his eyes. Soon, the prince pulled the young man firmly to his groin and paused for a moment, the sound of the young man’s Adam’s apple gulping echoing loudly in the otherwise silent surroundings.

“Lie down.”

When the prince pushed the young man away and spoke, the young man coughed as if choking but quickly turned around and lay down. The prince grabbed the young man’s waist, who had lowered his head and raised his buttocks, and without any foreplay or caresses, immediately inserted his genitals into the young man, and the violation began.

It wasn’t making love. It wasn’t even intimacy. It was a one-sided violation.

While the servants and guards stood rigidly at their posts – clearly accustomed to this nightmare – the young man wept, treated as nothing more than a tool to empty the Prince’s desires. Yes, the youth had secured a life of luxury, fine food, and arrogant power in exchange for this position, but still…… this was too much.

Isaac quietly averted his eyes. Sure, it was a transactional relationship of mutual benefit, but that didn’t mean Isaac had any desire to watch someone else’s deeply intimate and agonizing ordeal right in front of his face.

Isaac subtly took a few steps back and turned halfway around, removing the horrific scene from his line of sight. Bern, who had been standing right next to him with his jaw hanging open, noticed Isaac moving and quietly shuffled over to join him.

“What’s wrong? You can’t see well from here.”

“I moved because I don’t want to see.”

“Why?! I know Prince Kyan does whatever he wants, wherever he wants, in broad daylight or pitch black without caring who’s watching, but regular guards like us never get a chance to see something like this up close! …… Whao, that’s crazy…… Hey, hey, hey, look at that, look at that! The rumors must have been true. That thing is like a damn forearm—”

Isaac clamped his hand over Bern’s mouth. Bern had been whispering like the wind, so there was no way his voice reached the Prince, but one of the servants threw a nervous glance in their direction. Bern wasn’t entirely lacking in awareness, so he quickly shut his mouth, putting on a brazen expression. Isaac, for his part, straightened up, standing as rigidly as befitted a royal guard.

Because of this, he was facing the Prince’s direction again. To avoid the gruesome display, Isaac kept his gaze fixed high above the scene.

‘If I have to look at something, it might as well be something beautiful,’ Isaac thought, allowing his eyes to rest on the Prince’s face.

It was a breathtakingly beautiful face. Striking enough to steal a person’s breath away without them even realizing it. But at the same time, it looked profoundly lethargic and utterly bored. Even in the very midst of a sexual act, his expression was dead.

He was always like this.

Always looked as though everything in the world was terribly tedious and exhausting.

“Hey, our Prince really is ridiculously handsome, isn’t he?” 

Bern whispered, sounding as though he couldn’t hold back his admiration any longer. Isaac stared at Bern, marveling at how he could possibly formulate such a thought while watching that scene, and let out a sigh.

“That is, undoubtedly, an undeniable fact.”

“How can someone with a face like that be so…… um…… awe-inspiringly terrifying?”

‘This guy is definitely going to climb the ranks someday,’ Isaac thought, impressed by Bern’s ability to rephrase ‘a horrifyingly cold-blooded monster of a boss’ into ‘awe-inspiring.’ Isaac shrugged.

“Who knows…… A person’s face doesn’t dictate how they live. Besides, no matter how high and mighty someone is, life isn’t always a bed of roses.”

“True enough. Just look at what happens on the night of the new moon…… Sigh, it’s all because of that damn witch’s curse.”

Isaac didn’t respond, choosing instead to look up at the bright, round moon in the sky. Tonight, with the energy of the full moon still lingering, the Prince and the rest of the royal family – though everyone but Kyan was currently asleep – would be in peak physical condition. The exact opposite of Isaac. The same inversion happened on the new moon.

The Moonless Night. The time when a witch’s power was at its absolute zenith. Around that time, the royals would suffer from heavy, draining headaches, and on the actual night of the new moon, they would writhe in unspeakable, flesh-tearing agony until dawn. The other royals, having made pacts with wizards, were able to fall into an enchanted sleep to escape the pain. But not this Prince. He endured that horrific torment, entirely conscious, every single month.

“Do you think he became like this because he’s lived his whole life in that kind of agonizing pain?” Isaac muttered thoughtfully.

Bern tilted his head. “Who knows?”

“We won’t know until the curse is lifted. They say it’ll break once every last witch in this land is eradicated, but I wonder if that day will ever actually come.”

“Honestly, I wonder how many are even left,” 

Hunted, slaughtered, burned. It was incredibly rare to hear news of a witch being caught these days. Perhaps one or two every few years. Yet the curse remained, which meant there were still witches hiding in this land.

‘If that’s the case…… what exactly am I?’

As Isaac stared blankly at the moon, lost in thought, a heavy thud reached his ears. Turning his head, he saw the young escort collapsed on the ground beneath the Prince, entirely limp. It seemed he had finally lost consciousness.

Looking down at the boy, the Prince uttered a single command.

“Throw water on him.”

‘……. Yo…… what a shining beacon of humanity……’

Whether Isaac was horrified or not, the servants dutifully fetched freezing water from the lake and splashed it over the youth to wake him. They moved with a practiced calm that suggested this was entirely routine. ‘Then again, considering this is the same man who tore the organs out of a live beast bare-handed……’

As soon as the cold water hit him, he regained his senses, only to be dragged back beneath the prince and pierced through once more. “Please, just for a moment.” “Please, forgive me,” he gasped, but it was all in vain. Unfortunately, with the full moon approaching, the prince’s condition was at its peak.

Isaac felt a sudden pang of deep pity for that guy. During the day, the youth strutted around the palace with an arrogant sneer, looking down on the servants and flaunting his status. Now, Isaac silently offered a prayer for him.

There was nothing anyone could do. Isaac could only mourn the tragic fate of the pretty man who had fluttered around the Prince hoping to catch his eye. Actually, could it even be called a tragic fate? The youth had intentionally pranced in front of the Prince to secure this exact position.

The Prince had relatively clear preferences: he chose neat, pretty-looking men as his paramours. He hadn’t originally favored men exclusively. In the beginning, he had taken women, but they would all end up completely broken and discarded within a matter of days. Realizing men could withstand the physical toll slightly longer than women, he shifted his focus, leading to the current state of affairs.

Male or female, he didn’t actually care. He was perfectly, flawlessly apathetic to everything and everyone around him.

In the end, the young man fainted again shortly after. The lower half of his body, smeared with cloudy bodily fluids and bright red blood, showed how much it had suffered. His paramour, having lost consciousness, did not wake up even when water was splashed on them.

The Prince, standing up and discarding the unconscious escort, looked around as if his desires had not yet been fully satisfied. The intent in his cold eyes as he surveyed the area was terrifyingly clear. Everyone present froze solid.

Scanning the servants one by one, the Prince’s gaze eventually landed on Isaac. Standing rigidly at attention, Isaac felt his heart turn to ice. Those cold, emotionless eyes were weighing him, calculating which prey to tear into next. A violent shudder ran down Isaac’s spine.

The gaze lingered on Isaac for a terrifying second before moving on to the next person. Even after the Prince had finished sweeping the area, the icy grip on Isaac’s heart didn’t loosen.

“These faces……”

The Prince clicked his tongue, clearly displeased. Then, he flicked his finger toward a relatively pretty apprentice servant. The boy’s face drained of all color, turning a ghostly white as he hesitantly, trembling, approached the Prince. Before long, the air was filled with agonizing shrieks that sounded like a pig being slaughtered alive, eventually dying down into broken sobs. Everyone standing there simultaneously mourned the poor victim, while deeply, profoundly thanking the gods that their own faces were not pretty enough to be chosen.

Watching the moon slowly tilt toward the horizon, Isaac thought to himself: ‘This is the longest night shift of my entire life.’