After opening his eyes, Isaac sat up blankly and blinked, looking around, yet it didn’t quite register to him that he was awake. Then, slowly, the thought ‘Where is this……’ surfaced as he took in the unfamiliar, chilly room with barely any furniture. The thought ‘What time is it now……’ came as he looked at the windowless walls. And the thought ‘I don’t know who did it, but they did a great job……’ occurred to him as he saw the three cats with distinctly sullen faces, locked individually in three spacious birdcages hanging in a row.

It was only after discovering the heavy iron chain shackled to his ankle that his hazy, dreamlike mind finally snapped awake.

“…… What is this.”

As Isaac muttered, rattling his ankle with a *clink, clink,* a response flew back from his side, accompanied by the clicking of a tongue.

“What do you think it is? It’s a shackle to keep you from running away.”

Huh? Isaac turned his head and saw Brick standing guard next to a solid wooden door a few steps away. Isaac blinked at his former colleague, who was looking at him with a deep crease between his brows.

“What the hell did you do? I was told my head will fly off if you run away.”

Before Isaac could ask his tongue-clicking colleague, ‘So you’re saying you put this shackle on me?’, reason and memory finally began to trickle back into his mind.

The last memory remaining in his head was an agonizingly rough sensation, as if someone were violently rubbing sandpaper directly against his heart…… He couldn’t remember exactly what was said, but the Prince had uttered a few words that sounded something like ‘Just wait and see once you survive.’ And then……

“——The Blue Shadow Palace……”

Isaac looked back at Brick, feeling his heart sink with a heavy thud. Facing Isaac, whose expression had instantly hardened with urgency, Brick said nothing. Seeing his heavy, stoic face faintly grimace, Isaac’s lips twitched.

“Yesterday was the mass funeral.”

Brick said quietly. Isaac stared at him blankly before dropping his gaze. “I see.” He muttered just that and looked down at his own hands for a long time.

“How many are left?”

When Isaac asked after a long while, Brick shook his head.

“Aside from those who were off-duty that day…… no one but Prince Kyan and you.”

Isaac quietly looked down at his hands before letting out a soundless sigh. When he raised his head, Brick was watching him. Brick probably had a million questions for Isaac, who had somehow survived in the midst of all that, but he didn’t ask a single one. He just silently looked at Isaac, then voluntarily answered the questions the newly awakened man was likely wondering about.

He told Isaac he had been unconscious for exactly three days.

Naturally, the royal palace had been flipped upside down like a kicked beehive.

Everyone working in the Prince’s palace on the night of the full moon had been wiped out without a single survivor. Those on duty that night made up nearly a quarter of the total personnel working in the Blue Shadow Palace. The primary cause had been identified that very night: a curse fueled by a massive magical power beyond human limits——the deed of a witch. Opinions were divided on which witch had committed such an atrocity and for what reason, but the prevailing theory was that it was directly connected to the recent death of the Wizard Guild Master.

The sheer number of casualties was horrifying enough, but the shock was magnified by the fact that this massacre had occurred right in the center of the capital, deep inside the royal palace. Some argued that bizarre incidents had been happening far too frequently in the palace lately, necessitating a grand prayer ritual. Others fiercely insisted that they needed to double their efforts to hunt down and execute any hidden witches, appalled that one would dare cause such a tragedy inside the royal grounds. Because of this incident, there wasn’t a single department in the palace, from the court mages to the general administrative officials, that wasn’t in an absolute uproar.

In the midst of that storm-like chaos, the only person maintaining his composure was——.

“Is Prince Kyan alright?”

“Do you think he wouldn’t be? In what way could he possibly not be alright?”

“……”

Hearing Brick retort to his worried question, Isaac shut his mouth. Right. Even as he asked, he figured as much. He couldn’t even imagine what a ‘not alright’ Prince would look like. Brick frowned and clicked his tongue.

“Thanks to that, people’s fear of Prince Kyan has grown even worse. I mean, the people working in his own palace died like that, yet at the funeral, his expression didn’t change a single bit, let alone shed a tear. Even knowing he’s always been that kind of person…… it just doesn’t feel like he’s human. He feels like a completely different species from us. Honestly, I’m terrified of him. Truly.”

“……I suppose so. Naturally.”

Even though it wasn’t the Prince’s fault. Isaac swallowed his words. The wall between that man and everyone else is growing thicker again. Not that the Prince would care.

“At least it’s a relief you survived. You kept not waking up, so I was worried something had happened to you too…… Thanks for staying alive, you punk.”

Brick tossed the words out casually. The deep sincerity carried in that gruff tone reached Isaac perfectly, making him let out a small chuckle. It was moments like this. Living completely detached from others, but occasionally picking up these little pieces of warmth that made his heart feel full.

But at the same time, his heart felt heavy. Even I, who isn’t fully human, can sometimes receive this warmth, yet he never does, he thought, recalling the Prince anew.

“But how did you manage to survive completely unscathed, without a single scratch, in the middle of all that? And yet you were out cold for three whole days, so the guys and I were pretty damn worried.”

“Huh?”

“……Now that you mention it.”

Isaac blinked, then lowered his gaze. He pulled at the collar of his shirt to look at his chest, revealing skin that was perfectly clean, without a single scar.

‘I definitely pierced my heart with my sword back then.’

Then the memory quickly connected. Right, before he lost consciousness, there was that rough, grating sensation. It felt like someone was aggressively scrubbing his heart with sandpaper; it had hurt immensely even as he was fading out.

Isaac turned his gaze. The cages he had briefly noticed when he first opened his eyes came into view. Between the wooden door and the bed, three cages hung suspended from the ceiling. Inside, the cats were sitting, one in each cage. They were staring at Isaac with incredibly sullen faces, and the moment they made eye contact with him, they began to meow and yowl, their voices sounding incredibly wronged and aggrieved.

“……”

Looking closely, they were silver cages. Seeing those bastards so quietly confined, they were undoubtedly consecrated items.

“Why are they hanging up there like that?”

When Isaac asked, Brick shrugged.

“Because Prince Kyan ordered it. Hey, hey, don’t touch them, don’t touch them. He said if even one of those guys escapes along with you, he’ll chop my head off.”

Isaac, who was just getting up from the bed to walk toward the cages, froze at those words. Actually, even if he tried to go, the chain shackled to his ankle was so short he couldn’t take more than two steps away from the bed anyway.

Just as he was wondering why the cats had been locked up so securely, a fact he had completely forgotten until now struck his mind like a lightning bolt.

‘Right.’

‘Right, right. Now that I think of it——.’

The exact moment Isaac’s heart dropped with a clunk.

The wooden door opened. The person who stepped inside was the very person Isaac had just thought of: the Prince.

Passing by Brick, who had hurriedly snapped to attention, with total indifference, the Prince seemed to slow his pace briefly upon seeing Isaac sitting awake. Then, he resumed walking and sat on a chair situated a short distance from the bed. And silently looked at Isaac.

Isaac, too, looked at the Prince without a word. Or rather than looking, it was more like he looked at the Prince, then at the edge of the bed, then briefly glanced at the Prince again, then looked at his own toes—it was more accurate to say he kept shiftily averting his eyes.

The Prince watched Isaac do this for a while before turning back to Brick.

“Leave us.”

“Pardon? ……Ah, yes.”

Brick looked momentarily flustered, but he bowed his head without complaint and stepped outside. Through the closing gap in the door, a look that said, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but survive well, my dear fellow’ flashed in his eyes.

‘DON’T LEAVE ME, PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME ALONE WITH HIM,’ Isaac pleaded internally, but in vain. With the sound of the door shutting, only the Prince, Isaac, and the three hanging cages containing the sulking cats remained in the room.

“……”

A thick silence settled over them.

Isaac remained silent, alternating his gaze between the edge of the bed and the Prince for a while, until finally, under that persistent stare, the Prince opened his mouth.

“So, what are your thoughts, child of a witch.”

At that languid, low calling, Isaac flinched instantly.

‘Right. That.’

He shouldn’t have been caught, but he had been caught. And now, his situation was……

With drooping shoulders, Isaac mumbled gloomily.

“……What thoughts could I possibly have……”

The Prince stared intently at Isaac. Isaac, who had lowered his gaze to avoid eye contact, felt as if he were suffocating in the silence, so he mumbled, “But you see……”

“I already swore an oath on the New Moon anyway, so whether I like it or not, I will be bound to you, Prince Kyan…… Couldn’t you just not lock me up? Underground prisons are bad for physical health, bad for mental health, and if health deteriorates, the freshness of blood drops, and if prisoners increase, it’s a waste of the national treasury……”

The Prince tilted his head at an angle as he listened to Isaac babble on with whatever excuses came to mind.

“I see you dislike being locked up.”

“Who would like it?”

“Is that why you deceived me?”

“…………I am sorry.”

Isaac shut his mouth, unable to utter a single squeak of protest.

‘Is it a one-way trip to the underground prison without a doubt now? So my free life is over. Pining away in a cell for the rest of my life……’

The Prince stared at Isaac, whose shoulders were dropping lower and lower. Scrutinizing him carefully as if observing some bizarre creature, Isaac eventually lifted his gaze after a long time. He met the Prince’s eyes.

“So this was your face.”

The Prince muttered. Confirming what the Witch of the New Moon looked like only now, Isaac merely nodded, feeling partly renewed and partly awkward.

“So, on the inside, are you a witch or a human?”

At the Prince’s question, Isaac couldn’t readily answer and fell deep in thought for a while. Eventually, he shook his head.

“I do not know.”

“You do not know your own mind?”

“Do you know what you are, Prince Kyan?”

Isaac asked back. This time, the Prince looked at Isaac without answering. The slightly raised eyebrow—it was entirely impossible to tell if he was pondering an answer, if he found it absurd, if he was displeased, or if he was amused.

“What I know is that I am the son of Gaia and Kalina, that I am an escort holding a post in the Blue Shadow Palace, and that I simply wish to live quietly and safely anywhere. That is the extent of it.”

Isaac answered softly.

Whether he was a witch or a human. He had given up trying to find an answer to that a long time ago. It was a question he used to ponder deeply in the past, but eventually, he stopped thinking about it upon realizing it was something neither he, nor anyone else, could decide.

The Prince sat leaning loosely against his chair, staring blankly at Isaac. The faintly narrowed eyes, the hand resting on his chin, his languid posture—he didn’t move, as if time had stopped. Then, suddenly.

“Right.”

The Prince muttered as he stood up.

“Whether you are a gatekeeper or a dog guarding the house doesn’t matter, as long as you perform your role properly.”

What an unpleasant comparison…… But his discomfort was brief. Isaac stiffened his body as he watched the Prince draw his sword. The Prince walked towards Isaac, casually raised his sword, and swung it just like that——Isaac tightly closed his eyes and stopped breathing, but in the next second, he felt a cold snick near his ankle.

When he tentatively opened his eyes a few seconds later, the shackle holding his ankle was sliced clean off…… ‘To slice through solid iron like that without leaving even a thread-like scratch on my ankle…… I already knew it, but that sword is terrifying, and the hand wielding it is terrifying too.’

Even though it wasn’t his ankle that got cut, Isaac absentmindedly rubbed his ankle from the sudden chill, then quickly stood up, watching the Prince turn and walk out, seemingly telling him to follow. Isaac hurriedly followed him out of the room, but suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned around. The three cats hanging in a row were staring at him with wide, round eyes.

“I can’t believe he stuffed them all in one place and locked them up……”

Isaac grumbled to himself, then unhooked the three cages and strung them together on the curtain cord. Slinging it over his shoulder, it was quite heavy with the weight of the cages added. To make matters worse, the three cats began meowing loudly right next to his ears, complaining that they were dying of unfairness, dying of anger, and dying of frustration, making an absolute racket.

Upon stepping outside, he realized the place he thought was an underground prison was actually an annex attached to the Blue Shadow Palace. Situated right next to the main palace, the annex was rarely used, but it was a quiet building designated for external nobles visiting the Blue Shadow Palace.

‘To think I was lying in an annex reserved only for the highest of nobles…… I was thankful enough it wasn’t an underground prison, but this is incredibly gracious……,’ Isaac thought, slowing his steps behind the Prince.

A large black cloth draped over the front gate of the Blue Shadow Palace caught his eye. And the white flowers laid beneath the black cloth.

In front of the flowers, matching the number of people who had suddenly died just days ago, stood guards he was seeing for the first time, presumably replacements for the guards who had died.

Right. That happened.

So many people lost their lives through no fault of their own.

Isaac stopped walking in front of the main gate. He silently gazed at the white flowers that contrasted sharply with the black cloth. Flower by flower, he looked at the large and small blossoms, overlaying them with the faces he had seen for the last time that night. Only when he raised his head did he see the Prince standing at the door, watching Isaac. The Prince, who had been waiting silently as if giving him time, finally turned around once their eyes met. Isaac followed him without a word. Even though it was a familiar building and a familiar path, it felt unusually foreign today—likely because the faces encountering him were all completely new.

The Prince headed straight for his study. As the Prince sat in his chair, Isaac took his usual position diagonally from him.

Wondering what to do with the cages on his shoulder, Isaac subtly set them down next to him. The cats were yowling, demanding to know how long they would be locked up, but as soon as the Prince’s gaze flew over, they snapped their mouths shut with faces full of dissatisfaction.

If I can’t have the cages, I wish I could at least borrow that glare……, Isaac thought to himself. Realizing the Prince’s gaze was soon directed at his own face, he hastily corrected his posture. I should cancel that thought. If I kept that glare at close range, it wouldn’t be good for my own heart health.

“Did you rest well for three days?”

The Prince’s question flew over.

Isaac mumbled, “Yes, thanks to you……” and realized the passage of time anew.

He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, three days had passed. There was a time in the past when he had rolled around so exhaustingly day and night that he slept for a whole day straight, but this was the first time he had slept for three days.

Was slashing my heart that heavy a burden? Still, I should have woken up at least once in between, but I was out cold like a dead man.

“Your heart has completely reattached, and there are no abnormalities in your bodily functions, yet you wouldn’t wake up, so I was just contemplating whether I should find a way to forcefully wake you.”

Rubbing his chest over his heart, Isaac bowed his head awkwardly at the Prince’s words.

“I apologize for causing you concern.”

“No, I was not concerned.”

“……Yes.”

Of course you weren’t. Isaac muttered bitterly, while the Prince directed an indifferent gaze toward the cats in the cages.

“Those beasts occasionally chattered among themselves but didn’t show any particular signs, so I figured nothing was wrong. If I could understand what they were saying, I might have known the reason why you weren’t waking up, but I don’t know the language of beasts. So, what is the reason you didn’t wake up for three days?”

At the Prince’s question, Isaac blinked. There was no way Isaac would know the reason either, so he turned his blinking eyes and looked blankly at the cats.

The cats, who were squinting at them, sharply turned their heads away the moment they made eye contact with Isaac. That grumpy attitude clearly meant, ‘I know the reason, but I won’t tell you.’

Crouching in front of the cages, Isaac shook the bars, whispering, “Hey, hey, you little punks, spit it out quickly,” but the three cats stubbornly turned their heads away and refused to look. Then, shortly after, the three of them suddenly began to twitch their noses.

The Prince had taken out a bottle of wine from a display cabinet, poured a glass, and was drinking it while watching them casually, as if observing a spectacle. The wine was so fragrant that even Isaac, who didn’t usually enjoy wine or have deep knowledge of it, took a deep breath. Meanwhile, the three cats were sticking their noses out between the bars of the cage, sniffing frantically. Drool was practically dripping from their mouths.

「This, this, this, this! Isn’t this the wine handcrafted by the legendary ‘God’s Hand’ old man Gobuschilde in the Aiscent region, famous for its wine, in that year 53 years ago when the grape harvest was unprecedentedly magnificent?!」

「No mistake! It must be that very wine, with barely a hundred bottles left in the world now!」

「To think such a magnificent and beautiful work of art is right here, oh heavens!」

“……”

Are their noses ultra-precision chemical analyzers or what……, As Isaac looked at the cats with deadpan eyes, the Prince approached next to him. In one hand, a wine glass; in the other, the wine bottle. The eyes of the cats looking desperately up at his hands sparkled with unshed tears.

“So, why didn’t he wake up?”

The Prince spoke languidly and tilted the wine bottle. Red wine trickled onto a small saucer the size of a palm inside the cage. Gasp, what a waste……, before Isaac could even try to stop it, the cats scrambled wildly to the saucer and buried their noses in it. The lap-lap-lap sound of them licking the saucer was almost cheerful.

When the saucer emptied, he filled it again, and when it emptied again, he filled it again. While he repeated this several times, that precious wine bottle was emptied, and the cats, with faces of unparalleled ecstasy, continually licked their lips.

「The handsome boy is a good boy.」

「As expected, humans need to be handsome.」

「Of course, when it comes to humans, the face is everything.」

As the three purring cats lay cheerfully inside the cage, the Prince asked them again, “So, what is the reason this guy couldn’t wake up for three days when there’s nothing wrong with his body?” And the cats answered readily.

「His body is fine, but his stamina was depleted, so he couldn’t get up. All his energy was drained and completely discharged, so it’s natural he couldn’t open his eyes until he was recharged again.」

The Prince looked at Isaac as if telling him to translate the meowing sounds, but Isaac, despite understanding the words, just blinked at the cats, wondering what nonsense this was.

“Depleted all my stamina……? When did I ever use my stamina like that?”

「Your eyes, your eyes. You saw where Alikisha was. Do you know how much energy it drains to use magic like that when you aren’t even a proper witch?」

「Moreover, you used magic on a full moon night when your physical condition wasn’t good to begin with, so there’s no way your body would hold up. You should be grateful you only fainted for three days and woke up.」

Ah.

Only after hearing that did Isaac’s memory surface.

The night view of the capital that flickered beneath his closed eyelids. The eyes that felt like they were burning. That feeling of exhaustion, as if all his energy was instantly drained and he was being dragged into the earth.

The sensation of his strength draining from his entire body in an instant was exactly like the feeling of life leaking out like water through the cracks of a broken jar. He had thought it was because he was dying from piercing his heart.

“So you’re saying that trying to see where the witch is drains stamina like that? But I only saw it for a few seconds back then? And I didn’t wake up for three days just because of that?”

「What do you mean, ‘just’. You should be grateful your skull didn’t instantly turn to ash for using magic bare-handed when you aren’t even a proper witch.」

“But I’m still half witch, aren’t I? How does it make sense that I couldn’t wake up for three days after barely seeing that much? Then if I looked for a few minutes, I’d just die?”

「A few minutes wouldn’t even be an option. Maybe 30 seconds?」

「No, 20 seconds, 20 seconds.」

「No, still, our Manbang has pretty good stamina. Let’s say 35 seconds!」

‘I couldn’t even hold on to my life for that long. No matter what, hanging in there for about that much……’

As expected, the cats began to bicker and chatter among themselves.

Eventually,

「Manbang! Now, hurry up and look where Alikisha is! You have to look until you die!」

「Good, I shall time it precisely with a blade to see exactly how long it takes.」

「The standard for stopping the timer is when his heart completely stops, right?」

Hearing them reach such a conclusion, Isaac was about to viciously smack the little punks—but thwarted by the bars of the cage, he had to settle for violently rattling the cage instead. He dropped his shoulders in defeat.

The time he had seen the capital beneath his eyelids back then was only a few seconds at best. Ten seconds at most. If that alone resulted in a three-day coma, trying to properly survey the surroundings to pinpoint the exact location would……

“……”

As Isaac slouched with a gloomy face, he suddenly met the Prince’s eyes. The Prince, who had been silently watching Isaac and the cats, seemed to have grasped the gist of the situation just from Isaac’s muttered complaints.

“It seems it will be difficult to put that eye to use in your current condition.”

“……It appears so.”

The Prince looked at the gloomily muttering Isaac before asking.

“Are you a half-blood?”

“Yes.”

Being a half-blood wasn’t a sin, yet for some reason, Isaac felt slightly apologetic about the current situation where he couldn’t use the power properly because of it.

“Your mother’s side, or your father’s side?”

“My mother was a witch.”

“And now?”

“My father passed away, and my mother crossed over to the Land of the Dark Moon.”

“When.”

“When I was ten……”

“Then have you been living alone since then? Without a guardian?”

“Yes.”

‘Why does it feel like I’m undergoing a background check……’ Isaac thought as he obediently answered every question. Just as he was beginning to wonder what any of this had to do with anything, the Prince’s questioning returned to the main point.

“Then, if you have the stamina, can that eye see where a witch is at any time?”

Isaac hesitated at the question.

Whether it was day or night, full moon or new moon, could he see where a witch was regardless? He couldn’t be sure. Isaac looked at the cats for an answer, but they were entirely too preoccupied with sorrowfully licking the empty wine saucer.

“I would think so, but……”

Isaac, muttering without confidence, quietly focused his mind.

How did it feel back then? He hadn’t exactly tried to do anything specific at the time. Amidst the chaotic lack of time, he had just seen it automatically.

Back then, his only thought was that he absolutely could not lose the witch. Amidst the corpses of familiar faces, he was consumed by a desperate urgency that he couldn’t let the witch get away like this. Even if it meant throwing away his own life, he had to find her——.

*Ba-dump.*

Suddenly, his heart rang.

*Ba-dump. Ba-dump.* With every beat, the pumping felt increasingly violent. It felt as if a giant fist was squeezing his heart. Squeeze, squeeze. Along with that, his eyes began to burn. His eyeballs throbbed as if they were going to fall out. Because of the crushing pressure, it felt like hot, boiling blood was rushing violently into his eyes.

Suddenly, his vision darkened and wavered. He felt dizzy.

And at the same time——.

“——.”

Like blood draining completely from his head down to his toes, the strength rapidly drained from his body. It was incredibly sudden and fierce. It felt as if he were dying in a single instant.

‘If life were to drain away like water, would it feel like this?’

Isaac took a step back and leaned against the wall, blindly fumbling for something to hold on to. But it was useless; unable to support his own body with legs that had completely given out, he slumped down against the wall. It was a miracle he hadn’t just collapsed and rolled onto the floor.

‘No. I’m going to die.’

‘Stop.’

Consumed by a sudden, pitch-black terror, Isaac reflexively closed his eyes. Blink. The moment he opened his eyes again, his dimming, wavering vision instantly brightened. And what he saw right in front of him was the Prince’s blue eyes, and his hand, which had been reaching out toward Isaac.

The Prince made eye contact with Isaac, realized that Isaac was conscious of him, and slowly withdrew his hand.

Only then did Isaac fully return to reality, realizing he was panting heavily. Looking down at his cold fingertips, he saw his nails were tinged blue, devoid of blood. His face was likely just as pale.

“If I concentrate…… just a little more, I think I might…… be able to see it,”

Isaac mumbled disjointedly. A drop of sweat that had formed on the tip of his nose fell with a plop. Watching Isaac in silence, the Prince said shortly, “Drop it.”

“It would be troublesome if you die after a single use.”

Too exhausted to even answer, Isaac merely nodded and drew a ragged breath. He was dead tired in an instant. Just from this…… yes, now he finally understood why he had been laid out for three days. With it like this, how am I ever going to use it……

As Isaac sat there panting and entirely at a loss, the Prince seemed to fall into thought as well. However, seemingly unable to come up with an immediate solution, the Prince skimmed the shelves of his bookcase filled with materials related to witches and muttered, “We shall give it some thought in due time.”

“Can you stand?”

Isaac glanced at the Prince. He desperately wanted to just sit exactly where he was and rest, but he wouldn’t dare.

His body felt like waterlogged cotton, but he somehow managed to stand. When Isaac returned to his original spot, the Prince, who was watching him, gestured with his chin. He was pointing to the sofa.

Isaac, hesitating and nervously gauging the Prince’s mood, took the gesture as permission and gingerly perched himself on the edge of the sofa. Wondering if he was really supposed to sit there, he waited in suspense, ready to stand up at a moment’s notice, but the Prince simply opened the book he had been looking at before Isaac sat down. After that, he seemed to completely lose interest in Isaac’s side of the room, not even sparing a glance whether Isaac lay down or rolled around.

After sitting frozen like that for a long while, Isaac very, very slowly let the tension bleed from his body. Just as he finally sank comfortably into the sofa, the Prince abruptly spoke without taking his eyes off his book.

“Bring your belongings and stay in the annex for the time being.”

“Pardon? …… Pardon?”

Isaac questioned reflexively, then paused to process what he had just heard, before questioning it again. He understood the words being spoken, but he couldn’t comprehend the meaning. The Prince merely cast a sideways glance at Isaac; perhaps finding it bothersome to repeat himself twice, he said nothing more.

Isaac, who had thought he misheard, began to realize he might have heard perfectly correctly. A chill crept down the nape of his neck.

“Uh……, ……Your grace is immeasurable, but as I have always done, I would prefer to serve you, Prince Kyan, by commuting morning and evening……”

He stopped mid-sentence because the Prince’s gaze had flown over the top of his book and landed on him. That cold, utterly dumbfounded stare fixed intently on Isaac lingered for a moment, shifted briefly to the cats in the cage, and then returned to Isaac.

……Right, that’s how it was. His current identity in this place was the child of a witch. He was in a position where he should be groveling in gratitude just for not being locked in the underground prison.

“I will pack my things and move in tomorrow.”

“Today.”

Isaac, who had been speaking with his head bowed deeply, froze exactly in that position. From above his head, only the nonchalant sound of pages turning could be heard. Even as Isaac slowly lifted his head to look at the Prince, the Prince’s eyes remained firmly fixed on his book, and that was the end of it. The powerless had no choice but to obey.

Always quick to adapt to his circumstances, Isaac slumped his shoulders. Just as he began mentally tallying the luggage he needed to pack and the items he needed to organize back at his quarters, the Prince’s voice suddenly flew over.

“Let me make this clear, child of a witch. Your eyes are mine. And so is your life.”

Isaac raised his head and locked eyes with the Prince. The Prince, staring back at Isaac, spoke as if hammering in every single word.

“The moment your breath stops must be the moment I desire. If you arbitrarily slash your own heart like you did this time, I will not forgive you.”

“……, I will keep that in mind.”

Isaac bowed his head and answered. The Prince watched him for a moment before slowly withdrawing his gaze. After that, no more words flew his way. And Isaac, sitting vacantly on the sofa with an exhausted body and mind, unknowingly began to nod off.