The day was fading.

In the mountains, the sun sets surprisingly fast. Now that the sun was resting on the mountain peaks, it would sink in the blink of an eye, and the forest would plunge into darkness.

For the past few days, they had been roaming around this area looking for the pond, but today they needed to head down to where civilian houses were. Their consumables, like dry rations and medicine, had run out and needed to be restocked.

However, the journey from here back to the town of Kuslo was far too long and would take up too much time, so the best course of action at this point was to head to the nearest a relatively close, large clustered village. According to what was sketched out on the old map, just an hour or two’s walk down the mountain would lead them to a village of around a dozen or so households.

“About a dozen households…… It must be a cozy, close-knit village.”

Isaac remarked as he followed behind the prince. He didn’t say out loud that it was the perfect size for the witch to devour. The thought, ‘What if the witch has already eaten them in the meantime?’ briefly crossed his mind, but he quickly pushed it aside.

Every night, they had been coordinating from village to village to check if the flares were fired properly. Yet even so, there were times when a village suddenly stopped firing its flare. Whenever they went to check such places, they found them utterly empty, with not a single person left behind. The witch was steadily, relentlessly devouring people to gather vital energy.

The new moon, when the Grand Banquet of Witches would be held, was just around the corner. Once these few remaining days passed and the dark moon arrived, it would be the very day of the Grand Banquet.

What events still awaited them in the few days left?

He could only hope that fewer people would be hurt, and that the situation could be resolved without any further casualties.

“I didn’t realize so many people lived deep in the mountains.”

Isaac suddenly murmured as they walked down the mountain path through the dense trees.

Given that Heilen itself was a highly mountainous region, even those who ‘lived in the mountains’ went out to Heilen or Kuslo every few days. In capital terms, it wasn’t much different from building a house and living in the quiet suburbs. He had thought living in the mountains would be a much more isolated and difficult life, but seeing the mountain villages changed his mind; their monotonous, peaceful daily lives looked quite appealing.

Though there were some inconveniences, the air was fresh, the water was clear, and there was plenty to hunt and gather. If one could just give up a bit of cultural life, they could live more comfortably and freely than expected. Surprisingly, he felt it might suit him well.

“I suppose I’ll have to revise my dream of living in a pretty house, raising pretty chickens with a pretty wife…… into living in a pretty house in the mountains, raising pretty rabbits in the mountains with a pretty wife in the mountains……”

As he spoke, the latter half sounded a bit strange, but Isaac felt a brief moment of happiness in his free-flowing imagination. However,

“The mountains near the capital are protected areas; residency is forbidden.”

The prince’s icy words mercilessly shattered his brief happiness. Isaac shot him a slightly resentful look, but the prince’s expression was so utterly cold that he clearly didn’t care about such resentment.

“What’s the harm in just imagining it?”

Isaac muttered sullenly.

“For a lowly witch to covet a human woman is absurd to begin with, and furthermore,”

The prince’s tone seemed to grow even colder. At the same time, the prince grabbed Isaac by the collar and shoved him hard against a tree trunk. Slamming his back against the wood with a loud *Thud,* Isaac let out a cough but ended up swallowing his breath mid-way. It was because of the hand that roughly gripped between his thighs.

“Instead of here,”

From less than a handspan away, the prince looked down at Isaac. The eyes staring at him from so close were exceptionally blue. The hand gripping Isaac’s member through his clothes seemed to loosen its hold. Then slowly, that hand slid down and dug between Isaac’s legs, and then, pressed, it pushed deeply into the crevice there.

“You expect to hold a woman…… while bearing a body that swallows a man’s member right here, crying and thrashing wildly with your entire being…..?”

At the finger pressing down through the fabric as if trying to dig between his legs, Isaac held his breath. Without even blinking, Isaac stared at the prince, and the prince stared back as if trying to pierce right through him.

“No matter how lewd a witch you are, you shouldn’t play around with your lower half so carelessly.”

“——!”

With a fierce click of his tongue, the prince roughly squeezed Isaac’s groin. At that brutal grip, Isaac briefly furrowed his brow, but not a single sound escaped his tightly clamped lips. The prince stared down at Isaac for a moment before finally, slowly releasing his hand.

“Witch. As long as you draw breath, you will satisfy that lewdness solely by spreading your legs for me.”

Stating it in a low, absolute tone, the prince took a step back. Isaac looked up at him in silence. After a long moment of silence, Isaac quietly lowered his gaze.

“There’s no need to trample on me like that.”

Isaac murmured softly, like a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Whether it’s dignity, a mind, or a heart…… Even a witch possesses such things.”

The reason his gaze dropped to his toes was because his heart had grown faintly clouded.

He didn’t want to see what kind of face the prince was making at this moment. He had heard harsh and mean words countless times in his life and usually didn’t pay them much mind, but still, there were times when they scraped at his heart. Especially when they came from someone he valued, and when he could feel the malice radiating from them.

‘It can’t be helped.’ Brushing away the gloomy feeling, Isaac shook his head and said, “It’s already gotten quite dark. According to the map, it’s about time the village appeared……” and took a step forward as if nothing had happened. But before he could even take a few steps,

“……!”

The prince, who had been standing frozen in place, suddenly grabbed Isaac’s shoulder and spun him around. Caught off guard, Isaac looked at him and stopped in his tracks.

The prince was looking at Isaac with a bizarre expression. That fierce face, which Isaac felt he had seen once before, somehow looked bewildered.

“——Y-o-u,”

The prince had just begun to spit out the word through his teeth, but right then, the sound of a commotion drifted up from just a short distance below. The noise, rapidly growing closer, was frantic. Voices shouting, people yelling, and cheers were all mixed together. As the sound of several people approaching grew louder, another noise blended in. It was the rough, grating growl of a wild beast.

Turning his head toward the noise, Isaac saw lights flickering through the dense trees. Judging by the swaying movement of the lights, they appeared to be torches.

“Are you sure it’s tied properly? The ropes look a bit loose.”

“It’s tied tight. It’s a dying beast anyway, it won’t have the strength to put up a fight, so what are you so scared of?”

“Don’t talk nonsense! Do you have any idea how strong and agile this monster is?!”

“True, even after it fell into the pit and we practically suffocated it, it still took fifteen of us to finally pin it down. It’s a terrifying beast, alright. Phew, look at the size of this thing.”

“Heeey——! Everyone come out and help us!”

As the boisterous voices drew closer, the torches burst into clear view. A group of men walking in a line carrying the torches also appeared. Seeing Isaac and Kyan, the men stopped in their tracks, looking surprised.

It seemed the men of the village had returned from a hunt. A dozen or so men, each holding weapons like axes or spears, were walking up, and suspended from the long, thick wooden pole they carried on their shoulders was a massive tiger bound tightly with thick ropes. The tiger, pierced all over by spears and drenched in blood, had not yet breathed its last; a pained and furious growl rumbled through its ragged breaths.

The men looked startled, probably not expecting to run into anyone deep in the mountains at such a late hour. Looking closely, a faint light could be seen at the end of the path they were heading toward. It seemed to be the clustered village where they lived.

‘Thank goodness. That village hasn’t been eaten by the witch,’ Isaac thought, letting out a sigh of relief. The man standing at the very front of the group offered a broad smile and addressed them casually.

“Are you folks crossing over from Atlan? Because this path is a bit remote, we sometimes get people losing their way around here. At this hour, it’ll be tough to reach Kuslo today. Why don’t you rest in our village for the night? It’s right over there.”

The middle-aged man, who looked to be in his early forties, smiled warmly and took the lead. The men lined up behind him glanced warily at the outsiders who had suddenly appeared so late, but they followed him without a word. Isaac and the prince fell into step slightly behind the middle-aged man.

“We were actually running low on medicine and dry rations and were hoping to get some help from a village, so this is perfect timing. It looks like you’ve been out hunting. You’ve caught quite a large beast……”

Isaac looked back. The tiger carried by the seven or eight men lay motionless, as if dead. However, seeing the whites of its rolled-back eyes twitching occasionally, he knew it hadn’t entirely lost its breath yet. Even on the verge of death, as if furious at dying like this, its ragged breathing betrayed its agony and rage.

“Yes, we did dig a trap, but we never expected to catch something this big…… Catching this beast left quite a few of us pretty banged up too. But, is it just the two of you? Do you not have any other companions?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Haha, to cross these rugged mountains with just the two of you at this late hour. Even though there are several small villages scattered throughout the mountains, you never know what might happen, so you must be careful…….But those little ones following you, are they pets you raise, sir?”

The middle-aged man’s gaze shifted slightly from Isaac’s feet to the side. There, three black cats were trotting along closely behind Isaac. No, more precisely, behind the prince. They were staring intently at Kyan as they followed him.

“Uh…… Yes, I am raising them…… for now, I suppose.”

“I’ve never seen cats follow their owner so well without even a leash. Goodness.”

The middle-aged man laughed and reached out to pet the cats, but without even looking at him, the creature coldly dodged his hand, keeping its gaze entirely fixated on Kyan.

The other two cats were the same. Wiggling their rears and tilting their heads slightly, they were watching the prince as if finding something highly intriguing. Their gazes constantly darted to the prince’s shoulders, above his head, and around his waist.

Isaac frowned slightly. It seemed those vengeful spirits mentioned earlier were still circling the prince. ‘It might not be a big deal, but having something so foul following him around isn’t exactly pleasant……’ Isaac thought, before suddenly dropping his expression. The three cats, rolling their eyes as if itching to pounce, were all looking at different spots. It was as if those vengeful spirits had multiplied into several.

“Just across that stream is our village. Do you see the lights over there? We built the wooden bridge sturdily, but please watch your step; it’s dangerous if you slip and fall in. The stream is quite deep to begin with, but it’s even more dangerous now because the water has swelled from the recent rains.”

Through the trees, a rather deep-looking stream appeared. Just as the middle-aged man pointed, a wooden bridge spanned the water, and right across it was the brightly lit clustered village. A few people stood on the other side of the bridge, perhaps having heard the news in advance and come out to meet them.

In the darkening forest, the group halted before the rather threateningly rushing stream. The wooden bridge was too narrow and precarious for 5 or 6 men to cross side-by-side while carrying a tiger.

“We’ll have to tilt the pole up to cross.”

“Someone go across first and help from the other side.”

While they discussed this among themselves, Isaac watched the cats. When Kyan came to a halt, the cats, standing next to him, began kicking at the empty air. It constantly moved its front paws, as if trying to catch something invisible. Striking the empty air here and there, as if trying to catch countless things flying around.

“…… How many of those vengeful spirits are flying around?”

Isaac asked the cat quietly. The cat, seemingly entirely absorbed in catching the invisible things, didn’t even look at Isaac as it leaped around and answered.

「A lot, a lot. Fourteen, fifteen… I don’t know, they just keep multiplying!」

「Maybe there’s something nearby that’s easy for vengeful spirits to attach to?」

Instantly, Isaac’s expression hardened. Reflexively turning his head, his gaze fell on the massive tiger hanging from the pole the men were just beginning to tilt to the side. The rope binding the beast was pulled taut under the tiger’s immense weight.

“Wait a moment……”

Isaac had just taken a step and opened his mouth to speak.

The prince, who had been silently watching what they were doing, spoke languidly to the middle-aged man.

“By the way,”

As Kyan muttered, gazing indifferently toward the village across the bridge, the middle-aged man turned around, still wearing a smile. “Yes?”

“Why are there only about ten men in their prime in a village of barely a dozen households?”

The moment those words fell from the prince’s lips, the middle-aged man’s expression hardened. The expressions of the men standing as if surrounding them hardened as well.

The prince lazily drew his sword without any particular change in his demeanor, and almost simultaneously, the men gripped their weapons. Just as Isaac stiffened his face and was about to move,

“GAH!”

The man standing near the bridge cried out. The man leading the pole used to carry the tiger had lost his grip. The pole plummeted to the ground, and unable to bear the tiger’s massive weight, it snapped. The rope that had been pulled taut snapped with a sharp twang, and the rope on the other side unraveled from the end of the broken pole.

In that instant.

Isaac felt as if he had just seen a small whirlwind suddenly whip up around the prince in the darkness. Countless things resembling huge, jet-black butterflies suddenly multiplied and swarmed the tiger in a massive flock. Those shadows clung darkly to the beast and seemed to seep into it in the blink of an eye.

“——.”

Was it an optical illusion? When he looked at the tiger in the next moment, the black shadows that had covered the air were completely gone without a trace. However, the tiger began to move.

The tiger, which had been dying with sharp spears and bamboo sticks thrust all over its body – a massive beast well over a person’s height – rose, lifting its heavy body. Its dark, flickering eyes, clotted with the dying creature’s resentment, pain, and hatred, locked onto the prince.

——I hate you.

——I resent you.

A voice full of bitter grudge seemed to echo from somewhere.

The agonizing resentment of a dying beast, tangled with the curse of a wizard whose body was rotting and whose reason had decayed, leaving nothing but pure hatred, churned inside the tiger’s body.

The tiger’s shadow seemed to swell like a monster. Every single hair standing on end flickered like flames. The tiger, now massive as a house, leaped up lightly from its spot and lunged at the prince, cleaving the sky with a ringing roar.

Watching the tiger expressionlessly, the prince swung his sword straight down at the beast rushing right before his nose, and the tiger’s head, its massive jaws wide open as it lunged at the prince, was split vertically in two, but—

“——.”

*Crunch.*

Unbelievably, the tiger, its head split cleanly in two, bit down just like that. Kyan dodged nimbly to the side, narrowly avoiding having his entire head bitten off, but he was a fraction of a second too late; the tiger’s jaws clamped down on the area from his neck to his shoulder.

For an instant, everything seemed to stop.

In that dead silence, the prince, bitten by the monster-like tiger, slowly raised his sword. Without changing his expression in the slightest, he cut the tiger’s neck. *Swish.* The neck was severed. Blood splattered, and the massive body remained suspended for a moment before collapsing heavily onto the dirt. The ground seemed to shake.

The tiger was dead.

Just as he thought that.

From the tiger’s severed head, which was still firmly biting the prince, the eyes suddenly flashed with a brilliant light. As if burning with pitch-black hellfire, the flickering eyes of the tiger’s head soared up into the sky like it was springing into the air.

With its teeth still sunk firmly into the prince, the tiger’s head, springing into the air, dragged the prince into the stream. *Splash——* a loud splash was followed by a geyser of water. The stream seemed to turn blood-red in an instant, but the fierce current swept the prince, still firmly bitten by the tiger’s head, downstream in a flash.

“PRINCE KYAN……!”

His face turning pale, Isaac ran toward the stream. But in the already pitch-black mountains, only the loud rushing of the stream could be heard; the figures of those swept downstream were invisible, and Isaac could only stand there in stunned silence.

‘No, he will be fine. He avoided a fatal wound. If it’s just the severed head of a tiger driven by a vengeful spirit, it won’t be that much trouble for him. ——It has to be.’

As Isaac stood rooted to the spot, buried in the darkness and staring downstream, a presence approached from the side. Simultaneously, the chilling touch of cold metal pressed sharply against the skin of his neck.

“Hah, to think you’d walk right in on your own.”

A hollow laugh drifted to his ear. He could feel the tips of weapons pressing sharply against his other neck, his back, and his stomach.

“I don’t know what happened, but this turned out well. We were wondering how to shake off that monster, and a monster dragged the monster away. We should finish our business while we have the chance.”

The middle-aged man was standing right next to Isaac. To the side and behind him, the men surrounded them. The men who had come out to meet them from the clustered village also carried weapons in their hands.

Carved into the hilt of the blade pressed against Isaac’s neck was the mark of Roberni. The moment he confirmed that mark, *Smack,* Isaac felt a severe pain strike the back of his head without hesitation, and lost consciousness.

‘He can’t.’

‘He can’t get hurt.’

Even in his unconsciousness, that was the only thought remaining.

‘He can’t get hurt. What if he’s badly hurt? Nothing terrible should happen to him. Please…… please save him.’

——That guy is doing that shameful, ugly thing again. Why does a witch have the holy mark?

——You worry too much. That cornucopia’s not someone to get hurt. Even if the grandfather of vengeful spirits dragged him to the pits of hell, he’d come back perfectly fine.

——Why isn’t the third one coming? He went to fetch him.

——Must have been swept far downstream. That vengeful spirit seemed quite persistent. Still, he should easily peel it off if it’s just that.

From somewhere, the sound of cat meows drifted in. He never knew he would find comfort in those always annoying and cheeky sounds.

‘Yes, that’s right. He’s a man who returned perfectly fine even from that hellish border. There’s no way he could be seriously hurt or harmed by this……Still, you guys should have gone to save him, why are you here?’

——He’s spouting nonsense when his own life is on the line.

——If things go wrong and our Manbang-ie dies…… the tinderbox……

‘Those guys are worried about the tinderbox right now, not me.’

Blood rushed to the veins on his forehead even while Isaac was unconscious. But in the very next instant,

“——!!!”

He gasped and opened his eyes. A pain so intense he couldn’t even exhale had slammed into his head.

“You can’t be sleeping forever. You don’t have that kind of luxury.”

A familiar voice entered his ringing head. Where have I heard that before? He thought, blinking his blurry eyes, and remembered as he saw the man in front of him. Ah, yes, the middle-aged man from earlier. The one who acted like the leader of the village men.

“Caught you nicely. We were in a bind because that person was always with you.”

A low voice drifted down from above Isaac’s head. He tried to lift his head, but his forehead must have cracked when he was thrown hard onto the stone floor, as blood streamed down and obscured his vision.

“Yes, it seems someone laid a curse. To turn a dying tiger into a magical beast and drag him into the water, creating an opening for us.”

“Hmm, a curse. Yes. If it’s a curse, he’s done plenty to deserve it. It’s not strange at all. So, did you confirm what happened to him?”

“It’s dark and the current is strong…… I will send people downstream at dawn.”

The owner of the low voice seemed to nod. From his blurry vision obscured by blood, the shadow sitting in front of him slowly moved. But even without seeing clearly, Isaac soon remembered who the shadow was. He remembered the voice he had heard just a short while ago.

Roberni was right in front of him.