Isaac simply blinked blankly, merely staring at the petite young woman who sat crouched before him, glaring in his direction with obvious displeasure.

It seemed she had stubbornly refused to come until that tiger had snatched her up and dragged her here by force. As soon as she gathered herself, she quickly surveyed her surroundings. After hastily scanning Isaac and the cats with anxious eyes, she lifted her head slightly to look beyond the bushes. Her gaze stopped at the backs of the Lord’s daughter and the Prince, who were standing side-by-side by the distant lakeshore. Seeing her slightly drop her shoulders, which had been hunched like a cat with its fur standing on end, upon confirming their presence, it seemed they were the ones she had been so wary of and terrified of.

“…….”

Isaac was still staring at her with his mouth hanging open.

It was definitely the Elie he knew, the same girl he had run into earlier, yet she felt entirely like a different person. That sharp, prickly tone of voice, that sullen and disgruntled expression, that restless and anxious demeanor.

“……Elie?”

When Isaac mumbled softly, she, who had been anxiously glaring at the Prince’s back, turned her head. The way she stuck her lips out sullenly and glared fiercely upon seeing Isaac was also a far cry from the girl he had seen before. However, she clearly seemed to know who Isaac was.

“We meet again, Sir Guard.”

Given that she spoke like this, there was no way she was anyone other than Elie.

Isaac blinked at her before shifting his gaze to the tiger. The tiger, with an incredibly proud and triumphant face, wrinkled the bridge of its nose and spoke.

「She locked the door and refused to come out, so I smashed the door down and dragged her here in my mouth!」

「Now, now, introduce yourselves. You guys have seen each other before, right? This is Isaac, this is Elie. He’s a very delicious half-blood, and she’s a rather aged succubus.」

The wording of that introduction was grating, but he didn’t have the mental capacity to care about that right now. Staring intently at Elie, Isaac let out a long sigh and massaged his temples. Meanwhile, Elie began to inch backward as if trying to slip away, but the tiger firmly blocked her path from behind.

「Why do you keep trying to back out? You liked this guy, didn’t you?」

“That was when he was my prey!”

‘When the hell did I become this lady’s prey without even knowing it?!’ While Isaac stood there dumbfounded, chattering voices flew back and forth in front of him:「What’s the big deal, just stay for a bit, he might even let you have a bite.」,「This guy’s a bit dense, so if you sweet-talk him, he might even let you take two bites, you know?」. Without even looking, Isaac smacked *Bonk!* the backs of their heads.

“Hey, isn’t that thing prey?”

Elie, who was still looking at Isaac with wary eyes, gestured with her chin. Wondering whose ‘prey’ he had unknowingly become this time, Isaac blankly followed her gaze, and at the end of it stood the Prince.

“…… Prince Kyan? That’s not the case at all.”

As Isaac firmly shook his head, Elie narrowed her eyes and glared at him suspiciously.

“Are you sure? That shouldn’t be right. He looked exactly like he would kill anyone on the spot if they even pretended to touch his prey?”

“No way. You must be mistaken. That is absolutely not true……. I do get my blood sucked occasionally, but we’ve never made any sort of exclusive contract.”

Isaac held up both hands in denial, giving a firm answer, but Elie’s suspicious glare didn’t fade. As she tried to inch backward again, the tiger clamped its jaws over her head. She yanked her head out of the tiger’s maw in annoyance and shouted.

“Ugh, I still hate it! I’m scared! I don’t even want to be anywhere he can see me! I want to avoid even a one-in-a-million chance of getting unluckily tangled up with him!”

「Now, now, lady, don’t be like that and just take a quick rest here. Don’t you trust oppa?」

“Would you trust yourself?!” Elie vigorously shook out her hair, which was now wet with tiger saliva. All the while, she kept nervously stealing glances in the Prince’s direction.

「Maybe our Manbang should watch his back.」

「Tell me about it. Succubi have ghost-like intuition, you know.」

「That handsome guy might really be waiting for the chance to chew our Manbang right up.」

The cats chattered. The third one, having morphed back from a tiger into a cat at some point, was mixed in among them. Isaac looked up at the starry sky, reflecting on when exactly his life path had gone so horribly wrong. He didn’t think he had lived so recklessly as to be treated as ‘prey’ everywhere he went.

Regardless, considering the reality that he was regularly providing his blood, maybe it wasn’t entirely wrong. Isaac sighed and scratched his head vigorously.

“Hmph, I knew you reeked of something strangely appetizing for a human. So you were a half-blood? Even factoring in that you’re a half-blood, the smell is so good you must be some kind of mutation.”

Elie, who was looking at Isaac disapprovingly, subtly leaned her head in and twitched her nose. Her neck seemed to stretch slightly longer as she muttered, “……Why do you smell so delicious?” Beside her, the three cats sitting in a row also started drooling at the mouth.

“You punks……, swallow your drool right now!”

Isaac ripped up a handful of grass and threw it at the three cats. At his fierce demeanor, Elie shrank her head back and smacked her lips.

“Tch…… well, if you’re a witch, you weren’t my prey to begin with anyway.”

The gaze that swept over Isaac as she muttered this was filled with utter regret. Isaac looked at her hesitantly and said.

“I can’t give you the whole thing, but if you help me, I’ll let you have a bite.”

“I thought you were a witch? Then it’s useless. I can’t enter your dreams.”

“……? Can’t succubi enter a witch’s dream?”

Isaac looked back at the cats and asked. The punks, leaping and swinging their paws to catch the blades of grass fluttering in the air, answered without even looking at him.

「Of course not. What witches have aren’t ‘dreams’ but ‘instincts’.」

「While witches sleep, they see what they themselves desire, or what someone else desires from them, or what will happen in the future.」

「You didn’t know that yet? Sigh, what does our Manbang even know?」

「He really can’t survive without us, noblesse oblige,」the cats chattered seriously about their nonsense. Looking at them suspiciously, Isaac turned his gaze back to Elie, who was also staring at him as if asking, ‘You didn’t know?’

“But I do have dreams sometimes, even if it’s not often?”

“It probably wasn’t a dream, you just didn’t know.”

Elie’s reply to Isaac, who had spoken as if making an excuse, was resolute.

“No it’s not. Just a little while ago——.”

Isaac stopped mid-sentence. Eyes still blinking, mouth still open, what surfaced in Isaac’s mind were the dreams he had had several nights in a row most recently. The lewd, vividly explicit wet dreams.

“Why? Did you have a dream that’s bothering you? What kind of dream was it?”

Elie, observing Isaac whose face was gradually starting to heat up with a subtle look, asked slyly. When Isaac didn’t answer out of embarrassment, she, who had been studying him intently, suddenly blurted out another question.

“Did you dream about sleeping with someone? Who?”

“——.”

They said succubi had ghost-like intuition, and it seemed to be true. Seeing Isaac instantly turn bright red and drop his gaze, Elie muttered “Aha” as if her suspicions were confirmed, and smiled mischievously.

‘What I desire. Or what someone else desires from me. Or what will happen in the future.’

Isaac mentally counted them off one by one and shook his head. No. It was none of the three. But if he absolutely had to pick one, the most likely possibility was probably the first……

“I guess there’s someone you like?”

The moment Elie said that, Isaac felt as if his heart had been struck. As if she had pierced straight through to the very core of something even he hadn’t realized.

“…….”

He reflexively tried to say, ‘No way,’ but the words wouldn’t come out, as if caught in his throat. No way, that can’t be, those words hovered on the tip of his tongue, but something caught sharply deep inside him. Soon, whatever was inside began to slowly, slowly spread upward until it reached his head.

‘Oh my god.’

‘……Oh my god. I think it’s true.’

Making his ignorance until now seem even stranger, the realization hit him so suddenly and clearly that Isaac became as flustered as if he’d been swept up in a typhoon. His entire face flushed hot, burning intensely.

“Who is it? A human?”

Elie, who was scrutinizing Isaac, asked. Still dazed, Isaac nodded subconsciously. Seeing his shell-shocked state, Elie waved a hand gently in front of his face and scoffed in disbelief.

“Wow, you live such an innocent and fresh life…… For a witch, why are you making such a hot and bothered face just because you had a dream about mating? Just pounce on them.”

To Elie, who was maliciously taunting him as if finding it an eyesore, Isaac shook his head, still dazed.

“Why? Are they a devout believer?”

“No, it’s not that……”

‘Is it true. Did I really like him. Enough to have such a dream—no, even if it wasn’t a dream.’

Come to think of it, it seemed he did. From the time he lost himself staring at that appearance, from the time he thought he just wanted to be by his side, from the time that felt familiar and even comfortable, from the time he often felt depressed without reason while looking at him……Good lord.

Isaac lost all strength in his knees and slumped to the ground. As he groaned and clutched his head, Elie cast him a bizarre sidelong glance and asked, “Why is he suddenly putting on a one-man drama?” The cats, each muttering,「I know, right.」,「I wonder why.」,「I have absolutely no idea,」merely stared at Isaac with deadpan eyes.

“What’s wrong? Did you eat something bad? Or did you find out the human you like is actually your half-sibling, or your best friend’s lover, or the married woman next door?”

“……No, it’s not that……”

What kind of soap operas has she experienced living as a succubus, Isaac replied somewhat aghast, but thinking about it again, his situation was no different from a tragedy of that level.

“It’s just, I can already see the heartache coming from a mile away…… It’s a name I would die calling……”

As Isaac muttered gloomily, looking rather pitiful, Elie clicked her tongue and crouched down side-by-side in front of him.

“That’s why you shouldn’t fall for a human. If a witch falls for a human, they only end up hurting each other. You just enjoy each other and eat what you can. If you can’t do that, just go to the Land of Dark Moon.”

“Given my profession, I’m pretty good at reading people, and knowing your personality, I think that would be easier for you,” Elie said. At that, the three cats, who had been rolling their eyes with somewhat disgruntled expressions for a while now, immediately chimed in eagerly.

「Yeah, yeah, hurry up and find the tinderbox!」

「Is this the time for you to be playing at love!」

「Don’t waste your energy on that! You need to be saving your life force anyway!」

As the punks who had been sullen suddenly started yowling, Elie looked at them as if wondering what was wrong with them.

“As for life force, there are plenty of humans around, so he just needs to suck some vitality out of them, right?”

「This guy is so dense he can’t even suck vitality!」

「He can’t eat even when it’s handed to him, even when handed to him!」

“What kind of dog-eating-grass nonsense is this,” catching Elie’s gaze as she looked Isaac up and down, Isaac finally regained his senses a little.

Right, that wasn’t the important thing right now. First and foremost, Isaac had a job to do right now.

“Right, that’s why I asked them to call you, to get some help with that.”

“That? What?”

“How do I suck vitality from a human?”

At Isaac’s question, Elie stared blankly at Isaac with a face as if she had just heard a completely foreign language. An expression that said she heard the words but couldn’t comprehend them at all.

“What? ……What do you do to suck vitality?”

“Huh? Ah. Since succubi gets human vitality through dreams, maybe you don’t know how to physically suck it out directly?”

“What? No, of course I know? Sucking it directly is much easier, but it’s just much safer and easier to run away just in case something happens if we deliberately go through dreams. ……So, you asked me how to suck human vitality?”

Elie, still unable to understand but checking just in case, asked with that nuance, and Isaac nodded. Elie tilted her head, looking at Isaac, and answered in an uncertain tone, as if wondering if she had truly understood the question correctly.

“What do you mean how, you just suck it out, sluuuurp.”

“…….”

“Just, sluuuurp.”

This one was no different from those damn cats. They say smart people can’t understand why dumb kids can’t memorize a sentence after reading it just once.

In front of Isaac’s rotten expression, Elie and the three cats put their heads together and whispered. Catching a word or two, it sounded like the cats were explaining to Elie that since he was half slow-witted human and incredibly dense, he wouldn’t understand if she explained it like that. After a few exchanges of disbelief and confirmation, Elie looked back at Isaac with an incredibly pitiful and pathetic face.

“If you were asking how to breathe, I’d understand that better. How can you not even know that, tsk tsk. Fine. Either way, I want to get back quickly, so I’ll teach you as easily as possible. When you’re hungry, you want to eat food, right?”

“Huh? Uhm, yeah.”

“Alright. You are hungry right now. But it’s not your stomach, it’s somewhere deep inside your body that’s starving. Right—a full state is, say, the night of the Dark Moon, when you are full of energy, that’s being full. A full moon night is being starving. So how is it right now?”

“…… Slightly peckish?”

He didn’t know clearly by feeling, but his head roughly understood. A state of lacking energy. Slightly languid and tired.

“Right, then you look at the other person’s vitality. In human terms, you’d say you ‘feel’ it.”

“How do I feel it?”

“Even humans can roughly feel that. ‘That person is full of energy,’ ‘That person always looks tired,’ ‘That person looks to be in a good mood today,’ ‘Looks down.’ That’s essentially the state of their vitality.”

“It’s not perfectly accurate, but it’s easier to understand it that way for now,” Elie muttered. Just as she said, Isaac readily nodded, “Right, I understand up to that point.”

“Yes, yes, then you’re all set. It’s easier to get vitality from someone who looks full of energy and in a good mood, so you pick someone like that, place your hand like this—you can eat it just through their breath without touching, but that seems too hard for you—and suck the vitality.”

“How?”

When Isaac asked, Elie seemed to hit a wall. Looking frustrated and annoyed, wondering how on earth she was supposed to enlighten this foolish mortal, she pondered for a long time before suddenly grabbing Isaac’s hand.

It was a subtly cool hand. Just as he thought it felt unlike a living person’s body temperature, the strange sense of alienation felt like an illusion as the hand quickly began to warm up. A warm heat seemed to transfer through the touching palms and fingers.

“Focus on your hand. You’ll feel something in your hand. You are incredibly hungry right now, but if you eat this, you’ll be full. Imagine you have a mouth on your palm…… Imagine it. Focus only on that thought.”

Elie whispered. It was that low, soft, pleasing voice. The tone whispering in his ear suddenly made his mind go slack. Come to think of it, he hadn’t eaten dinner properly. Because his heart felt heavy, he didn’t have much of an appetite, so he had barely picked at his food. The forgotten hunger revived.…… ‘If I eat this.’

Suddenly, for a very brief moment, it felt like air pushed against his palm. However, like a breeze lightly brushing past, it vanished shortly after. And that was the end of it.

In that moment, he felt a sudden sense of ‘I failed,’ but ‘I am hungry, I am hungry,’ Isaac kept muttering in his mind and looked at Elie. Elie severely furrowed her brows.

“Ah——it felt like it was going to work! I went out of my way to send you my own precious vitality, why didn’t you eat it? Why?! You opened your mouth all the way, why did you stop before eating it?”

“……Did I?”

Isaac scratched his head, and following Elie’s shout of “Again!”, he tried again. But it ended with a similar result this time too, and he had to endure her irritation once more, “Why can’t you eat it even when it’s given to you?!”

After trying exactly three more times and getting the exact same result each time, Elie’s eyes finally slanted upward in anger. *Bam!* Stomping down hard on the tails of the cats who were chattering,「She’s getting salty, she’s getting salty,」,「Yeehaw~」, Elie glared fiercely at Isaac and spoke.

“From what I can tell, it’s not that you’re innately born unable to eat it. You can eat it. You can eat it, you just don’t have the knack for it.”

“I’m doing this right now precisely because I don’t know what that knack is.”

When Isaac sighed, Elie fell deep in thought. Glaring at Isaac with an incredibly intense and serious expression, she suddenly mumbled.

“Contacting mucous membranes is a bit easier than skin…… Right, let’s try that.”

“Huh……?”

Isaac slightly grimaced. It felt like he had just heard a word that brought a very unwelcome premonition. Even worse, it was only after she suddenly grabbed him by the collar that this premonition grew even stronger.

“Since mucous membranes fundamentally have an absorbing property, it’s much easier to exchange things through them than through skin.”

“Uh, right, I suppose so, but regarding mucous membranes……”

“Tongue to tongue is the easiest.”

“…….”

“No need to wash, can do it anywhere,” grabbed by the collar by Elie who was speaking so nonchalantly, Isaac slowly pulled his head back and looked at her. Noticing this, Elie frowned.

“You don’t want to? You think that won’t work either? Then do you want to mate? That’s the easiest and most certain way.”

“But I don’t want to because I might end up giving you too much of my energy,” she grumbled. To her, Isaac quickly retorted, “No, that’s a bit!” and hurriedly shook his head. Cold sweat poured down his spine. Just then, Elie abruptly shoved her finger into Isaac’s mouth. “Try eating this,” she said as her finger roughly dug in, poking his uvula and making his eyes water. But with her urging “Hurry!”, he shut his mouth without even the presence of mind to push her away.

Elie’s finger pressed firmly onto Isaac’s tongue. ‘I only feel a light pressure and taste absolutely nothing,’ Isaac thought, when it happened. Even though the finger and tongue were clearly touching, a bizarre sensation emerged as if there were a soft layer of air between them. A feeling like a very tiny breeze fluttering within it.

“——.”

Looking up at Isaac, whose eyes widened, Elie whispered, “Let it seep in just like that. Just swallow quietly. Slowly.”

Unable to comprehend what this sensation was, he looked at her and slowly inhaled a breath. 

The feeling of the breeze pooling on his tongue like water, swaying back and forth, back and forth upon it. Right, just like that, Elie whispered happily.

“You should be incredibly grateful to me, you know I’m pushing my own life force to you with all my might.”

「I see, so she literally had to scoop it up with a spoon, shove it in his mouth, and move his jaw up and down to make him chew it.」

The cats watched from the side and chattered. Feeling the breeze pooled on his tongue slowly subsiding——and simultaneously feeling his hunger being very, very faintly satiated——Isaac thought, ‘Is this it?’

He felt like he knew. He felt like he knew what this sensation was, but as she had said, this was her pushing it into him. It didn’t feel like he was sucking it in of his own volition.

So the moment he actually swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing with a *gulp.*

“Ah——you idiot! It was going so well, why did you stop!”

Elie shrieked. Yanking her finger out of his mouth, she aggressively pointed it right in his face.

“……I guess this wasn’t what you meant by swallow.”

When Isaac muttered somewhat sullenly, she, who was stomping the ground in anger, whirled around.

“Feel it carefully. This time, suck it properly. Got it?!”

The sharp end of her words disappeared into Isaac’s mouth. Gripping Isaac’s collar, she pulled him in and kissed him.

In an instant, words and movement ceased. Wrapping her arms around the frozen Isaac’s neck and deepening the kiss, her tongue entered Isaac’s mouth and rested on his. And before Isaac could even realize the situation and panic,

“——.”

The air felt much clearer than before. A breeze pooling and pressing down stronger on his tongue. It slowly began to seep in, as if someone were forcing it. Along with it, a sense of satiety rising from the bottom of his body. Right, it was satiety. Filling not the physical body, but his fundamental life force.

That bizarre sense of satiety Isaac had never tasted before in his life was slowly filling him drop by drop from the very bottom. Its origin point was their touching tongues.

‘So this is what it is. This is the sensation. Sucking life force——was something this sweet and alluring.’

“Now, I’m going to slowly reduce it, so try sucking it yourself.”

Elie whispered, slightly parting her lips. Then she overlapped their tongues again. This time, the sensation from before drastically diminished. Only a faint, barely-there flow hovered, making him feel tantalized. ‘I want to drink more. A little more. How did it go again. What was the sensation. A little more like this, as if a warm, abundant breeze were flowing from this person to me——.’

That was when. For a moment, a heavy breeze seemed to blow into his mouth.

“Yes! That’s it!”

Elie shouted shortly. Pulling her head back, she patted Isaac’s shoulders with sparkling eyes. A bright, proud smile of having finally succeeded was painted on her lips. Beside them, the cats aggressively pounded their front paws, cheering,「Yeehaw~」,「Well done, our Manbang!」,「You’re a full-fledged witch now!」.

In front of them, Isaac merely blinked blankly.

The feeling he had tasted for the first time in his life was incredibly unfamiliar and new. Along with it, he could feel that rich, abundant vitality—which he usually only enjoyed on the Dark Moon—visit him for a brief moment before vanishing.

That surprise. Vividness. Abundance. Regret.

“……So this is what it is.”

So this is what it feels like for life force to be filled. That’s why witches so thoroughly enjoy stealing human vitality.

Isaac quietly looked up at the sky.

Along with the excitement of discovering an unknown sensation, a faint regret revived within him. It would have been better if I had never known. I will mourn this sweet, abundant taste for a long, long time.

Isaac let out a quiet sigh.

“……It’s delicious. Perhaps because it’s a taste I’ll never get to eat again.”

“Why won’t you be able to eat it again? You know the trick now.”

“No…… right, well, I might have to slowly gather a little bit at a time from people for a while, so I might have a chance to eat it again.”

Isaac nodded, but he couldn’t stop sighing. It’s this delicious. ‘But it’s bad for the body—someone else’s body—so unless there’s a serious circumstance, I shouldn’t eat it.’

Isaac fell deep in thought for a moment before looking back at Elie.

“I think I know how to do it. Just to make sure I really understand it properly, could we try it one more time?”

“What?”

Elie heavily scrunched her face. Looking displeased as if saying, ‘My own precious vitality!,’ she glared at the cats tapping her ankles with their tails, saying,「Now, now, please just let our kid try one more time.」,「This little blood-sucker is trying so hard just to survive.」, and let out a short click of her tongue.

“Fine. Just once. Just a very tiny bit.”

Elie stretched her neck forward. Isaac nodded and stepped closer to her. ‘Just a tiny bit, I’ll just confirm I’ve got the hang of it and stop, otherwise I’ll feel even more regretful.’ Thinking this, he cupped Elie’s cheeks and gently pressed his lips to hers. Right then.

He suddenly felt Elie’s body freeze. He could also tell her eyes were blowing wide open. At his feet, the cats’ fur stood completely on end.

At the same time Isaac noticed those signs,

“Oh my…….”

A softly whispered sound of surprise came from over Isaac’s shoulder.

Isaac also instantly stiffened in shock, but quickly hid his dismay and turned around, trying his absolute best to look as nonchalant as possible. He didn’t know who had caught them, but since it had already come to this, he had to try and smooth things over somehow……

“Oh my, it was Elie. Oh my, and Sir Guard…….”

However, the moment he faced the Lord’s daughter, who was holding both her hands over her mouth and looking back and forth between them in surprise——and simultaneously the moment he met the eyes of the Prince staring at them right next to her, Isaac felt his very brain freeze over.

The Prince was silently looking at Isaac. Those bright blue eyes had sunk into a pitch-black abyss. His utterly expressionless face was exactly the same as usual, but it gave off an entirely different aura. He didn’t know how to describe the chilling sensation creeping up from the absolute bottom of his chest.

The Prince, who had been staring at Isaac, shifted only his eyes to look at Elie. In an instant, Elie visibly flinched and shrank back. Her violently trembling body seemed unable to even lift a foot to hide behind Isaac. At the end of the Prince’s gaze, her complexion turned deathly pale in seconds.

“Oh my, Elie…… there’s no need to be that surprised……”

Seeing Elie trembling violently with a bluish face, the Lord’s daughter spoke to her sympathetically, but she seemed unable to even hear the words.

At their feet, Isaac now saw that even the cats had their fur standing on end, their bodies hunched low. Their tail fur was completely stiff.

Why.

It wasn’t an illusion.

It wasn’t just Elie, the cats, or Isaac; even the Lord’s daughter and the guards standing at a distance behind her were studying the Prince with anxious expressions. The Prince stood exuding a chilling, terrifyingly cold aura.

The instinctual thought that this was dangerous struck him. Isaac forced air into his seemingly frozen heart.

To think he hadn’t noticed they had come this close. Just how lost had he been in sucking life force.

“I recall saying I would not tolerate you touching a human.”

Eventually, the Prince spoke. Those low words were colder and heavier than ice.

The people, who had been maintaining a tense silence, exchanged confused glances, but Isaac immediately remembered the words he had spoken at the banquet. The Prince had said that, at the very least, no witch would dare touch a human right in front of his eyes.

“——, it’s not like that,”

Isaac, who was just opening his mouth, stopped speaking. The Prince’s expressionless eyes stared intently at Isaac. In front of the Prince, whose silence seemed to demand ‘If you have something to say, say it,’ Isaac couldn’t say a word.

In a place with other people present, he couldn’t just say he wasn’t trying to harm a human. Nor could he reveal that Elie wasn’t human. In the end, when Isaac couldn’t say anything and shut his mouth again, the Prince’s set jaw subtly clenched. Isaac’s heart instantly ran cold and sank.

“Um, although they were neglecting their duties, please turn a blind eye just this once on such a beautiful night.”

Just then, the Lord’s daughter, who had been quietly gauging the atmosphere, stepped forward. Resting her hand affectionately on the Prince’s arm, she looked back at them.

“They looked like they were getting along well anyway…… it’s something that can easily happen between a young man and woman.”

The Lord’s daughter smiled benevolently and lightly stroked the Prince’s arm. The Prince’s gaze, which had been on Isaac, dropped to her hand. The apathetic gaze that briefly looked down at the hand stroking his arm soon traveled up to her face. And then,

“——PRINCE KYAN!”

It was immediately after that Isaac frantically kicked off the ground and grabbed the Prince’s arm.

The Prince, whose hand had reached to his waist and just gripped his sword hilt, looked back at Isaac, who was deathly pale and practically clinging to his arm. The emotionless eyes that had been looking at the Lord’s daughter as if she were some annoying, inhuman pest were now laden with emotion. Coming face-to-face with that emotion, something akin to wrath, sent a freezing chill down Isaac’s spine.

The Lord’s daughter, clueless as to what had just happened, looked back and forth between them with a bewildered face, while Elie was trembling so violently she seemed to be convulsing. Even Isaac could now sense the terrifying killing intent that had been contained and was now seeping out.

“I am sorry. I was in the wrong.”

Isaac hurriedly spoke with a stiffly frozen face. He was so terrified his tongue felt frozen to the roots, making it hard to speak, but he had to say those words at least. If he didn’t, he felt the Prince would inevitably draw his sword.

“I had absolutely no intention of fulfilling my own greed. I swear it. I have absolutely, absolutely no intention of harming anyone.”

‘I will not harm a human.’

Isaac looked into the Prince’s eyes, pleading with all his sincerity. The blue eyes, looking so dark they almost appeared pitch-black, were terrifying enough to make his chest tremble, but his instincts told him he couldn’t avert his gaze here.

The Prince was staring intently at Isaac. His gaze, sharper than a honed blade, felt as if it would slice Isaac open right then and there. The Prince’s hand still gripped the sword hilt. The moment Isaac felt a faint sign of that hand moving, he reflexively tightened his grip on the Prince’s arm. With no other solution coming to mind, he clung with all his might, only to realize his mistake a moment too late…… ‘Oh hell nah!’

‘It’s obvious I can’t win with strength, yet I uselessly made a show of blocking him with force,’ ——just as he thought this, the Prince’s gaze seemed to briefly brush over Isaac’s arms, which were clinging to his own arm as if embracing it. A crease slowly formed between the Prince’s brows.

……Uh……? Just as Isaac faintly wondered about this, the cats, who had been holding their tail fur stiffly erect, seemed to relax their bodies just a fraction. Elie’s convulsions also subsided ever so slightly.

Displeasure was evident on the face of the Prince as he looked back at Isaac. However, the terrifyingly sharp aura had subsided somewhat compared to his previously expressionless face.

The Prince let go of his sword hilt. And with a slowly raised hand, he grabbed Isaac’s wrist, which was holding his arm. Crack, Isaac clenched his teeth at the crushing grip that was strong enough to make his bones grind.

“Right, let us hear what your intentions are, then. Let us see if you can give me an answer I will accept.”

The Prince said, staring down at Isaac. Meeting those darkened eyes, Isaac realized that, for this moment at least, he had survived. His shoulders, which had stiffened rigidly from tension without him even realizing it, ached.

The Prince immediately turned and walked in the direction of the Lord’s mansion, and seeing him leave without so much as a backward glance, the Lord’s daughter looked back and forth between them in a panic. “U-Um, Prince Kyan,” she stuttered, hurrying after him. Watching her retreating back, Isaac slumped his shoulders.

His heart was still racing. The cold sweat wouldn’t stop.

Quietly rubbing his goosebump-covered skin, Isaac suddenly looked back at Elie. Shivering in terror, her eyes were open, but she didn’t seem to be in her right mind.

“El,”

The moment Isaac reached out a hand toward her, she shuddered violently in horror, slapped his hand away as if she had seen a ghost, and frantically bolted into the forest.

Isaac stood blankly, staring in the direction she had vanished, and snapped back to his senses at the sound of the cats violently shaking out their fur.

This was no time to be standing around. Whatever change of heart the Prince had experienced to grant him this brief reprieve, if he dawdled even a fraction of a second right now, he might be killed before he even had a chance to explain himself.

Recalling the Prince’s darkly gleaming eyes, Isaac felt a cold chill wash over his entire body. Rubbing his shivering arms, he hurriedly quickened his pace to follow.