The Great New Moon that returns once every seven years. And the Grand Banquet of Witches held on the new moon immediately preceding it.

Isaac had thought that the Grand Banquet – the gathering of every witch in the human world – would be held somewhere extraordinary. Perhaps on the moon, where human feet could never reach, or at the entrance to hell, infinitely deep underground.

So, when Isaac, who had been riding on the tiger’s back, stepped down as the tiger stopped and announced, 「We’re here,」 he unconsciously muttered, “What is this?”

It was the foothills near Heilen. A vast meadow on the mountain slopes overlooking the city. It was a familiar, unremarkable place, looking like somewhere they might have simply passed on the road to Kuslo.

“I think I’ve been here before. If we keep going down this road, isn’t it Kuslo? I’m pretty sure it is. I remember seeing those trees standing side by side over there too.” 

Furthermore, for a place where all the witches in the human world supposedly gathered, not a single shadow could be seen. ‘Did you bring us to the right place?’ Just as Isaac was about to grab the tiger by the collar,

「It’s the same place, but a different place.」

「Because a barrier is cast over this entire area.」

「Even right behind where you are standing now, witches are drinking.」

The cats followed him down from the tiger’s back. One of them swelled up massively and transformed into a pitch-black tiger.

「Then, I will grant your second wish.」

The heavy voice hummed and echoed in his ears. The tiger walked over and sat in front of Kyan, who was indifferently observing the surroundings, and seemed to roar silently at him. For a brief moment, it looked as if bluish dust puffed out from the tiger. It seemed to envelop Kyan before vanishing without a trace.

「Oh my, the human scent is completely gone.」

「How fragrant, how fragrant.」

「You just have to be careful not to bleed.」

The tigers and the cat mingled, chattering in their beastly voices.

Isaac looked at the prince, who didn’t seem to have changed at all. Even though the venue for the Grand Banquet of Witches he had sought for so long was right in front of him, the prince showed no particular reaction. No tension, no excitement. With his usual languid demeanor, he merely checked his sword once.

The moonless sky was exceptionally black, and in that dark sky, the stars twinkled dazzlingly. The constellations, slowly shifting their positions, were tilted significantly more than when he had seen them in the early evening, indicating the time was likely past midnight.

Now, once they stepped inside the barrier, all the witches residing in the human world would be there, and Isaac couldn’t even guess how many that would be. Whether there would be countless numbers, or barely a few dozen. Isaac had to find Alikisa among those who were notorious for being wicked and cruel.

「It won’t be easy to single her out.」

「Since they all live in hiding in the human world, they’ll be disguising their appearances.」

「Moreover, Alikisa is someone constantly pursued by a curse. She has many enemies, and since her current situation is bad, she’ll be hiding so as not to catch anyone’s eye.」

“……Right, we don’t even know what she looks like right now.”

Since the wizard she was residing in had died, she might have found another body, or she could be using some other method entirely.

The Grand Banquet of Witches lasts until dawn. They had to find her before the morning light broke. Isaac looked up at the pitch-black sky before turning to the prince.

“Shall we go?”

Kyan nodded. The tigers that had been watching them started walking. Following behind the beasts as they walked for quite a while toward the mountain slope, Isaac asked.

“You said it was here. Where are we going?”

「You can’t just break the barrier and enter. We have to go to the entrance, the entrance.」

They had been acting displeased since earlier, and now they were even losing their temper. Opening its huge maw and exposing its uvula while hissing, Isaac considered yanking the tiger’s whiskers but obediently followed behind it.

“What must be done to break the barrier?”

Kyan walking beside him asked. His gaze was directed at the crows flying around in unusually large numbers in the night sky. The birds, known as the messengers of witches, were flocking endlessly.

「The witch who cast the barrier must receive a shock massive enough that she cannot maintain it.」

“The witch who cast the barrier……”

「The witch who decides where the Grand Banquet will be held. In this case, it’s Alikisa.」

“A shock massive enough that she can’t maintain the barrier…… does that mean killing that witch is enough?”

「Even if she doesn’t die, a blow that momentarily shakes her mentally or physically would suffice.」

「But it won’t be easy.」

「It’ll be tough.」

Listening to the cats chiming in one by one, Isaac also guessed it wouldn’t be easy. To find her – hiding somewhere unknown, in an unknown form – and deal her a massive shock before dawn.

“……Still…… we have to.”

They had to catch Alikisa somehow. Isaac muttered this and took a deep breath.

The tigers, walking until they almost reached the mountain slope, stopped in front of two standing trees. The large trees, their grown branches intertwined to become one, stood side by side as if forming an entrance to the mountain slope.

「Now, like this.」

The tigers went behind the trees, slipped through the gap, and stood in front of Isaac. Then they blinked and stared at him. Three pairs of eyeballs – the size of teacups, windmill wheels, and towers – rolling and staring right in front of his nose was a bit scary.

“Like this, what.”

「We’ve entered inside the barrier.」

The tigers looked around the vast field they had walked across, as if they could see something. They’re already drunk, so drunk. That nasty-tempered one is throwing a fit again. The white heron shouldn’t go where the crows play, they grumbled.

Isaac looked at them for a moment before going behind the trees as they had done. And stepped under the connected branches.

In an instant, a feeling of something brushing through his body. A sensation as if passing straight through a transparent membrane, and at the same time,

“——.”

Isaac closed his mouth looking at the scene unfolding before his eyes.

On the field that clearly had nothing just a moment ago, there were suddenly countless silhouettes. Under the pitch-black night sky, a bonfire larger than a house was blazing in the middle of the field, and around that bonfire, silhouettes gathered in groups of 3 or 5, enjoying the banquet.

Elaborate tables placed here and there overflowed with liquor, meat, and food, and the silhouettes, already heavily drunk, were giggling, laughing, and tangled among themselves. Their numbers easily looked to be well over several hundred.

He had heard that all the witches in the human world gathered, but he didn’t know this many were left. After the long era of witch hunts, witches could no longer be found, so he thought there would be almost none left.

Just then, something suddenly thrust right in front of Isaac’s face.

What stopped right in front of Isaac’s nose, as he reflexively gripped his sword, was a mass of smoke. A bluish mass of smoke the size of a human head paused for a moment as if peering into Isaac, then whisked away upwards.

——No…… that’s not her……

——Where are you…… where are you hiding……

The humming, sobbing sound dragged on with a long tail.

「The witches’ curses are relentlessly hunting Alikisa at this banquet as well, without fail.」

「What’s the point, it’s useless if her body is hidden.」

The tigers prowled forward, looking up at the sky. In the air, countless of those whitish smoke masses were floating around. Roaming the air like will-o’-the-wisps, they would suddenly thrust right in front of passersby’s faces as if searching for something, then brush past. Sometimes, when they collided with the crows circling the sky, the smoke seemed to shatter and scatter, but it soon regrouped and found its original shape.

“How long have those curses been searching for Alikisa?”

「Since the witches Alikisa betrayed died, so it’s been over several decades.」

Several decades. Isaac looked at the smoke occupying the air, mingling with the crows. For that long, they had existed desiring only one thing. As masses with no reason or intellect, leaving only a grudge. Just like the wizard who had only hatred left at the end.

That wizard’s curse also remained forever like that. Even if all the witches on this land disappeared and the witch’s curse on the royal family was lifted, the prince alone would have to taste the agony of the new moon forever.

“…….”

Isaac quietly swallowed his breath. Turning his gaze to the prince, the prince was looking up at the distant sky. Following that gaze, a pure white falcon was floating in the high night sky. The white falcon glided, drawing a massive arc over the field.

“Does the barrier only apply to humans? Can beasts enter and leave freely?”

「Mostly. Because humans are the creatures furthest removed from witches.」

「Beasts, being closer to nature, are free from barriers unless a specific ward is cast.」

「But whether they enter the barrier or not depends on the beast. When so much magical energy is swarming like this, beasts are divided into two. Those that absolutely love it and seek it out, and those that strongly resent it and avoid it.」

「For instance, things like crows love it,」 just as the cat said, the cawing sound of crows gathered filling the air covered the night sky. Rats and snakes had also been seen quite often since earlier, and a goat could be seen running among those silhouettes.

“Right, and things like black cats.”

「Cats?」

「Where are there cats?」

When Isaac muttered playfully, the two tigers and the one cat sitting on their scruff opened their eyes wide and looked around. Just then, a silhouette that had been strolling leisurely from the forest looked this way and turned its steps towards them.

「My, who is this. If it isn’t the three brothers of the Gregoroborius family. Have you been well? You’ve gotten even blacker and larger since I last saw you.」

「Aha, the second of the Delana family! You still haven’t crossed over to the Land of the New Moon. It’s been a long time, a long time.」

The silhouette, covered in a pitch-black hood from head to toe, was bizarrely tall, looking like its head would touch the ceiling in an average house. Yet the hem of the hood had plenty of excess fabric and fluttered, making Isaac guess it was quite skinny. But what popped out from the sleeve of the hood was a white bone. The bone grabbed the cat’s front paw and shook hands.

‘……I should absolutely not be curious about what’s inside that hood. I shouldn’t ask to see it either,’ Isaac thought to himself.

The elongated silhouette, the second of Delana, shook hands with the cats in turn and looked back at Isaac and Kyan. He looked back and forth at the two of them, who were wearing gray hoods as the cats had instructed them before leaving the palace, and asked.

「Who are these? I don’t think I’ve seen them. The smell is also new…… Hmm, truly an unfamiliar scent. It seems similar to a human scent…..?」

The elongated silhouette suddenly grew even longer. The neck, stretching as long as a human’s height, thrust its face right in front of Isaac. Only the shining eyes could be seen inside the black hood. Eyes like pitch-black beads without any whites.

「He’s a kid who came to play just recently and got left behind because he missed the boat. The son of the mother’s friend of the eighth cousin of the in-laws of the butler who helps with our family chores.」

「He’s lowly and clumsy, but since he serves us with all his sincerity in his own way, we specially take him around.」

「He likes human meat so much he practically lives on it, so he smells a lot like humans. His taste is pretty trash, but understand him.」

The cats clicked their tongues tsk tsk and said to the silhouette. The silhouette, moving its long neck around Isaac’s crown, nape, and back for a while, sniffing sniff sniff, muttered suspiciously, 「Is that so?」

「Why are you coming from that direction? Was there something good in the forest?」

「Ah, a little human child was wandering in the forest, maybe lost, so I ate it as an appetizer. Even for humans, the young ones are soft and delicious. Human-like parents were also wandering around, maybe looking for the kid. I just ate the woman’s organs, and the man looked tasteless so I just killed him and left him there.」

「Crows will probably peck at him later,」 the silhouette grinned. The jawbone and teeth were revealed under the hood. Flesh and blood were smeared on that white bone. Even small, cute fingernails.

The moment he saw that, Isaac’s complexion hardened. He unconsciously brought his hand to his sword. But right then, the cat sitting on the tiger lunged at Isaac. Because the cat suddenly plopped down on his face, Isaac ended up stepping back a couple of steps.

「I thought you were looking for a friend? Then don’t loiter around here, hurry up and go find your friend, Man-bang…?」

「Since we met an old friend, we’ll chat and catch up, so you go play on your own.」

「But you shouldn’t act up and cause a commotion for no reason……?」

The tigers also thrust their heads at Isaac. Isaac, whose vision was blocked by the massive heads, stood still for a moment before loosening the grip on the hand holding the sword.

His heart pounded. He almost reflexively cut down the silhouette craning its long neck from over there. He wanted to cut it down even now.