The first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was a ceiling bathed in yellowish sunlight. It was the color of late afternoon sunlight, when one finishes busy work and starts to catch their breath. It was also Isaac’s favorite time of day.

Blink, blink. As Isaac lay there blankly staring up at the ceiling, what brought his consciousness sharply back was a “Meow~” sound. Hearing the cry that seemed to urge him to get up, the thought that suddenly flashed through his mind was, ‘I need to feed those guys.’ Wondering how long he had been lying there, and how long they had been starving, he quickly sat up. And what he witnessed was……

“…….”

「…….」

Three cats, who had been loudly lapping up a generous portion of meat broth from a dish far more luxurious than Isaac’s own tableware, froze mid-action the moment their eyes met his.
A mix of indignation that these punks were eating so well while a person lay unconscious, relief that someone had fed them so they weren’t starving, and an immense, crushing wave of fatigue all crashed over him at once. At the same time, he remembered why he was lying in bed.

Right, that’s what happened. He had tried to see the witch and lost consciousness after completely exhausting his life force. How much time had passed since then……

“It seems your condition truly is good on the New Moon. You woke up earlier than I thought.”

Isaac flinched at the voice coming from over his shoulder. There had been no presence, so he thought no one else was there. Turning around, he saw the Prince sitting with his back to the window. Who knew how long he had been there, but sitting languidly in a large chair, he was staring blankly at Isaac.

“…… How long have I been out?”

“A day and a half.”

I see, Isaac nodded. He felt like he had watched the witch for much longer than the last time he collapsed, yet he had been unconscious for less time. His life force truly must have been overflowing because it was the New Moon. Even though, right now, just after opening his eyes, he was so tired he felt like dying, and his entire body drooped heavily like waterlogged cotton.

Beside Isaac, who was sitting half-slumped and spaced out, the Prince rang a bell. The door opened quietly, and a servant peeked inside before disappearing again upon seeing Isaac awake. Not long after, he wheeled in a tray with steaming hot food and placed it next to the bed.

“Has your mind still not fully returned?”

The Prince asked Isaac, who was just staring blankly at the food in front of him. The way he lightly rolled up his sleeves looked as if he were about to slap him across the cheek, so Isaac quickly raised his head and answered, “No, I’m fully awake.” Following the Prince’s pointed glance, he picked up a spoon and pulled the soup bowl toward him.

However, his hand, which had stirred the appetizingly fragrant soup a couple of times, soon slowed down. Keeping his gaze silently lowered, Isaac quietly covered his face with his hands. A sick-sounding groan was stifled in his throat.

“He was eating a person.”

Isaac muttered in a suppressed voice.

“He was sucking a person dry while they were still alive……. Because that wizard’s consciousness remains.”

Saying it out loud made the memory surface even more vividly. The young man’s face, contorted in agony and terror as he dried up in an instant. That dark space where his skin shriveled and even his bones crumbled to dust, leaving no trace behind in a matter of seconds.

The wizard’s smile as he curled his lips upward in the mirror.

All of it churned horrifyingly inside his head——.

“Eat.”

Just then, a cold voice dug into his ears. That awl-like tone pierced straight through the dark, muddy memories in his head.

Startled, Isaac raised his head and locked eyes with the Prince, who was watching him expressionlessly. The Prince gestured with his chin toward the soup bowl resting on Isaac’s lap. As if he didn’t care in the slightest about what Isaac had just said, looking more annoyed that the soup was getting cold.

Fearing that if he hesitated any longer he might be the one getting his head chewed off, Isaac quickly brought the spoon to his mouth. As the warm soup flowed down his throat, he felt his mind settle a little. Only then did the forgotten hunger rush in.

But what should he do? It probably wasn’t the first time the wizard had eaten a person. And it wouldn’t be the last. He couldn’t just leave it be.

“Don’t think about it.”

At that moment, the Prince’s cold words flew over again. Isaac flinched and looked up. The Prince’s blue eyes were staring intently at him.

“You just need to move exactly as I command. Do not think about them any further. Just eat your food and build up your life force, if you want to be useful.”

“…………I suppose I will.”

Isaac mumbled the words, chewing them along with his soup. Trying to move a person around like a chess piece, he grumbled internally for a moment, but as the Prince said, he tried to empty his head. Right now, he was actually grateful for that.

“I suppose that wizard can no longer be called a human.”

Isaac, stopping his soup mid-bite, suddenly muttered. The Prince, who had been watching Isaac all along, raised an eyebrow faintly.

“He had no intention of remaining human from the moment he made a pact with the witch.”

“……Why do you think he did it?”

Was the desire to remain human something that could be discarded so easily? Even with half his blood being a witch’s, if the time came, he couldn’t be sure if he would be able to let go of the thread tying him to humanity.

“Is being ‘human’ really an identity worth missing that much?”

The Prince said. Hearing those indifferent words, Isaac stared blankly at the Prince. And after a brief pause,

“I would miss it.”

He muttered like a soliloquy.

Having lived his whole life at a crossroads, neither fully human nor fully witch, Isaac felt a sense of longing for both. He had wished for something solid to hold onto, whatever it might be. So, seeing someone discard it so easily felt pitiful and regrettable to him.

“That doesn’t sound like something a witch would say.”

The Prince, who was staring at Isaac, said. Whether he was mocking him or scoffing, it was impossible to tell from those indifferent words alone.

“I can’t help that I am not fully human…… but please don’t hate me too much for being a witch.”

As Isaac mumbled like a sigh, the Prince raised his eyebrow.

“You do not need to worry for now. I have no plans to harm you at the moment.”

‘Are you saying that while not right now, you will in the future……, no, more than that,’

“It’s not that I’m worried you will harm me, Prince Kyan. It’s because I dislike the fact that you dislike me.”

“Why.”

“As for why, ……”

He was at a loss for words. Isaac looked back at the Prince. He felt as if he were pinned down by those blue eyes that stared fixedly at him without wavering for a single second.

“Does it bother you when others dislike you?”

“……No……, of course, knowing someone dislikes me isn’t a pleasant feeling, but I don’t care too much about it.”

One cannot be loved by everyone, nor can one be hated by everyone. Just as there is love without reason, there is also hatred without reason. He had realized that a long time ago. He wouldn’t let himself be swayed by someone’s baseless emotions. So that wasn’t it.

It was just that he hoped this man wouldn’t dislike him. Whenever he felt this man’s hatred for witches, his spirit drained. As for why……

“…….”

Isaac quietly looked at the Prince. He observed the Prince anew, step by step, who was silently meeting his gaze as if waiting for him to finish his sentence. His sculpturally perfect face and hair glinting in the sunlight. His clasped hands and languid expression, his low breaths, the slow tilt of his head.

Even though they were things he already knew, it felt as if he were seeing them for the first time. Then, at some point, suddenly,

“I think I’ll need to think about it a little more to know for sure.”

Isaac murmured, dropping his gaze.

The tips of his fingers fiddling with the spoon felt inexplicably anxious. It was because his heart was racing. So suddenly.

The Prince seemed displeased that an answer didn’t return, but he didn’t press the matter. Or perhaps he simply wasn’t that interested.

Watching Isaac silently swallow his soup, he checked the clock and stood up from his seat.

“Come to the study when you are finished eating. Work has piled up significantly.”

“Pardon? ……Ah, yes.”

Isaac, who had looked up at the Prince in bewilderment, met his cold gaze and quickly nodded, and the Prince soon left the room. Isaac blinked at the door that closed behind him.

Work had piled up…… well, the Prince was always incredibly busy. Aside from his unapproachable temperament, the Prince was unparalleled when it came to competence. Just as he had perfectly subjugated the borderlands’ soldiers, so notoriously rough and rowdy that even the most seasoned veteran generals struggled to command them, at such a young age, turning them into his loyal limbs and achieving dazzling feats on the frontier, the Prince also excelled at handling the myriad of documents and administrative tasks poured before him upon his return to the capital, executing them with a proficiency that made even administrators with decades of experience click their tongues in awe.

Work naturally gravitates toward those who do it well, so tasks requiring his official seal piled up like mountains every day. Under such circumstances, he couldn’t just sit back and relax simply because he had come to Heilen for a vacation. Although not to the extent of the capital, he still had a massive amount of official duties to attend to here at the Heilen Villa. Considering even the sheer volume of ancient texts and literature he was personally scrutinizing with interest, he might not even have enough time to sleep properly.

However, that was the Prince’s work, and an escort guard’s job was simple. To protect the Prince. Easy if you call it easy, difficult if you call it difficult, but it wasn’t complicated. Standing by the Prince’s side and protecting him in dangerous situations was the entirety of Isaac’s duty. Even then, aside from the recent string of unsavory incidents, that Prince was rarely ever in danger. Thus, the perception of being ‘the Prince’s escort guard’ was one of two things: a boy toy, or a cushy job where you did nothing but eat and play.

But telling him to come to the study because work was backed up… The one whose work was backed up was the Prince himself anyway, and all Isaac had to do was stand blankly behind him doing nothing, so it was truly a bizarre thing to say. A man who never cared whether he had an escort or not, since when did he start dragging his escort everywhere like that? Still,

“…….”

Isaac busily moved his spoon. He’d just roughly empty the soup bowl and hurry over.

「Wasn’t that handsome guy slacking off?」

「Right? What work is backed up?」

「Come to think of it, some official-looking guy came by about fifteen times looking like he desperately needed to shit, begging him to check the documents he submitted.」

「Ah. He was sitting dead still in here the whole time, so I thought he just didn’t have anything to do, but I guess he was skipping out on a mountain of work.」

The cats, who had somehow completely polished off the massive bowl of meat broth larger than a washbasin, licked their lips and chattered. Isaac, mid-spoonful, paused and looked at them in confusion.

“He was in here the whole time? He’s not the type of person to put off his work.”

「Guess he had free time.」

“He’s not exactly someone who would have free time either.”

When it was announced he was coming to Heilen, more than one or two government offices and officials had expressed their dismay. There were several who had followed him to Heilen strictly because of work.

「He was here the whole time, though? He just sat in that chair doing absolutely nothing, just goofing off?」

「The underlings brought him food but he barely ate, so he must have been a bit hungry. The way he was fiercely watching you looked like he was agonizing over which part to chew off.」

「If we hadn’t been guarding you by your side, you would be nothing but bones by now.」

「Right, right. You should be grateful!」

“……You punks would have just happily rubbed your faces against his shins begging for meat broth whether I woke up or not…….”

When Isaac glared at them with deadpan eyes and muttered, they instantly shut their mouths. It was just a wild guess, but he must have hit the nail on the head. Watching them deliberately avoid his gaze by licking their paws, washing their faces, or chasing nonexistent flying bugs, Isaac let out a sigh and turned his head. Whatever, what else could I expect from them. More importantly……

“……Why?”

Isaac tilted his head and looked at the chair by the window. He imagined the person who had allegedly been sitting the whole time in that empty chair, now only bathed in yellow sunlight.

‘Was he curious how long it would take this time, since I was out cold for three whole days last time? But there was no real need for him to sit there watching over me…… was he perhaps worried I might just drop dead like this? Afraid of losing the eye that can see the witch. Or maybe that chair is simply the most comfortable chair in the world.’

He racked his brain in several directions, but couldn’t pinpoint a plausible reason for the Prince to have stayed right there.

“It would be nice if he was worried about me.”

He blurted it out absentmindedly.

At that exact moment, the sensation from a little while ago that he had briefly forgotten revived. The feeling of his heart suddenly racing. “Hey, hey, what’s wrong with you,” he muttered to himself, thumping his chest in fluster. The three cats, watching this display from a distance, narrowed their eyes.

「He must have really hit his head hard.」

「Right? No wonder he couldn’t get up for a while.」

「Manbang, do you even recognize who we are…..?」

“Shut up, you damn cats.”

「That nasty, insolent way of speaking…… it’s definitely our Manbang.」

「But why is he suddenly beating his own chest like that?」

Isaac stopped his hand that had been thumping his chest. He snapped his head around to look at the cats, who flinched, puffed up their fur, and stared back with wary eyes.

“I mean Prince Kyan.”

「The handsome guy?」

“Yeah, he’s handsome. But was he always that incredibly handsome?”

「…….」

The cats’ eyes narrowed even further.

「Well, he is the greatest beauty in this country.」

“Ah, right. True. He was.”

「…….」

Isaac nodded and quietly let out a breath. From a distance, it seemed the three cats had put their heads together and were whispering something, but he couldn’t even hear them.

——Isaac.

What surfaced vividly in his mind was the image of him calling his name low. That face, looking straight at him with terrifying intensity through those bright blue eyes, was clearly etched in his brain. The only person he could safely cling to amidst that horrific terror. Massive like a great mountain.

That face, that expression, that voice—they all came rushing back with vivid clarity.

‘…… Why does my heart keep pounding?’

Isaac swept a hand over his chest and took a deep breath.

「Hey, hey, if you’re just going to think about useless things, just go to sleep.」

「Indeed, a lack of sleep naturally clouds one’s judgment.」

「Get some sleep, deeply.」

The cats yowled in a highly dissatisfied tone. Whether they did or not, barely listening to them, Isaac, who had been resting his hand quietly on his chest, put down his spoon and stood up from the bed.

“No, I need to hurry to the study. I can’t neglect my duties.”

And I want to see more of that sculptured face, Isaac added only in his head as he quickly got dressed. His languid, drooping body lacked strength, but it was somewhat manageable to move around.

「What is he doing stumbling around when his life force hasn’t even returned.」

「He should just sleep and replenish his energy.」

The cats chattered spitefully. What are they so dissatisfied about now that their voices are dripping with malice, Isaac thought, before suddenly freezing. He stood utterly still as if turned to stone……and didn’t move for a while. Deep in thought with his gaze lowered, he finally turned his head when the cats started rolling their eyes, wondering, 「What is he doing?」

“If I were to suck just enough life force not to harm a person, how many people would I need to get it from to be able to see Alikisha without issue?”

「Alikisha? To see where Alikisha is?」

「Well, assuming you observe for a few dozen seconds, keeping enough energy just short of passing out…… maybe twenty people? Thirty people?」

「But more importantly, if you only suck a tiny bit of energy like that, it’ll dissipate in no time, didn’t we tell you?」

“What if I gather several people in one place at the same time and draw a little bit from each of them to collect it?”

「You’re going to gather multiple people in one place and eat from them simultaneously?」

「Trying to advertise that you’re a witch?」

「Guess you’ve firmly made up your mind to leave the human world?」

Isaac closed his mouth.

If he really did that—if he tried to receive divided life force from several people in a short amount of time, he wouldn’t be able to hide the fact that he was not human. With multiple mouths, rumors were bound to leak somewhere, and from then on, Isaac would have to live openly as a non-human entity.

Would he be able to live alongside others in the human world like that?

He didn’t know. He couldn’t be confident. However,

“It’s best to know for now. How to obtain life force from a person.”

The terrified expression of the young man being devoured in an instant wouldn’t erase itself from a corner of his mind. And that young man’s image…… was likely spreading to someone Isaac didn’t know, somewhere Isaac didn’t know.

“Let me meet a succubus.”

Isaac said to the cats, and the cats, who had been looking at each other and rolling their eyes, tapped their tails against the floor and said, 「If you wish.」