Is this what witches are?

Beings for whom hunting and harming humans is nothing but natural.

The witches he had seen in his childhood weren’t like this. Even so, the few friends of his mother he had managed to see, because witches lived in hiding even back then, never arrived covered in human flesh and blood like these creatures. They didn’t talk about things that reeked of blood. But perhaps…… that was only when they came to visit his mother.

“——.”

Isaac let his shoulders slump. A hand lightly patted his back. When he looked back, the prince was nodding expressionlessly, as if to say nothing was wrong. Following behind the prince, who resumed walking as if suggesting they head that way, Isaac swallowed another long breath.

‘Right, right now I just need to focus on finding Alikisa. Only on finding Alikisa.’

As they drew closer to the bonfire, the number of silhouettes passing by gradually increased. In the dark field, a massive bonfire blazed, and the festival, crawling with activity in the dim light, finally began to clearly enter Isaac’s vision.

Most of the silhouettes had pulled long hoods over their heads. Or, perhaps obscured by magic, some appeared only in shadow-like forms. Most possessed a roughly human shape, but occasionally, he saw ones with the heads of beasts, or entirely bizarre, non-human forms.

They were gathered in groups of 10, 20, or sometimes more or less, forming their own little clusters. Within each group, there was a chaotic mix of those drinking, those shouting, those eating, those fighting, and those tangled together in wild orgies. It was far louder, more explicit, and unhinged than any human banquet. Between them, curses clumped together like masses of smoke drifted through the air, and beasts favored by demons or witches were occasionally mixed in.

It felt like having an unfamiliar, unsettling dream. Sights that could never exist in reality struck him with utter grotesqueness.

Isaac looked around, trying to find Alikisa among the countless silhouettes, but he couldn’t tell. The areas far from the bonfire were cast in dark shadows, making it hard to make out features without peering closely, and there was no way to know the appearances of those hiding beneath pitch-black hoods.

‘What should I do? I need to find Alikisa.’

Even as he hovered nearby and looked around, he couldn’t grasp a single clue, and time was steadily slipping away. The stars gradually lost their brilliance as the night deepened.

He couldn’t possibly grab and inspect each of these countless beings one by one, and he was beginning to doubt whether he’d even recognize her if he did. He started to grow anxious.

“……Hmm.”

Isaac stopped in his tracks. Kyan, who had been walking beside him, also stopped and turned around.

“Let’s wet our throats and clear our heads for a moment…….Would you like some?”

Isaac sat briefly on a rock, took out a canteen, and offered it to the prince. It was filled with the wine they had brought in two separate canteens. Trying to maintain his sanity while walking through a place as dizzying as a delusion was exhausting, making him feel he needed to borrow a little liquid courage.

Kyan silently took the canteen, drank a couple of swallows, and handed it back to Isaac. Isaac wet his throat as well. As the wine flowed down his throat, his head, which had been spinning with anxiety, seemed to clear up slightly.

“I doubt she’d be mixed in with the smaller groups of just a few people.”

Standing with his back to the quiet forest, Isaac muttered as he surveyed the scene around the bonfire.

Alikisa would be hiding somewhere inconspicuous. If so, she wouldn’t be mixed in with a small group where everyone could easily see each other. She would be waiting for time to pass, blending into a large crowd where it was easy to go unnoticed. Or perhaps she was crouching somewhere with no one around at all.

Somewhere among these hundreds of beings.

“……Would you like to search clockwise from here?”

Isaac asked, looking at the prince. He can go clockwise, and I’ll go counter-clockwise. It’s more efficient to split up and search.

Kyan cast a glance at Isaac, seemingly sharing a similar thought. However, he didn’t answer, perhaps not entirely keen on the idea. Isaac wasn’t entirely keen on it either.

“It is a bit unsettling. We don’t know what might happen…….It’s already nerve-wracking enough to leave the anti-magic talismans behind……”

Isaac scratched his neck. Even knowing that splitting up was better, he couldn’t readily bring himself to do it. It was because he felt anxious leaving the prince alone among this horde of witches. If the prince at least had a talisman to repel witches, it would have been slightly better, but he couldn’t exactly bring something like that to the Grand Banquet of Witches. The only thing protecting him was the black clothing he wore……

As his thoughts reached that point, Isaac suddenly noticed the prince’s gaze piercing into him. He could distinctly feel that expressionless gaze carrying a clear glint of pathetic disbelief. Actually, saying it out loud made Isaac realize it too. Who exactly am I worrying about right now?

“Still……, even though I’m only a half-blood, I am a witch, but Prince Kyan is just a human whose scent is merely masked. If they find out, it’ll cause a massive uproar…….”

Furthermore, in a pinch, Isaac still had the flint from the tinderbox. In the worst-case scenario, he could use his last remaining wish to escape.

As expected, being separated from the prince felt unsafe and reluctant. But time was ticking, and there was still no trace of Alikisa…….It can’t be helped. We can’t let time just slip away like this.

After a brief moment of thought, Isaac looked at the prince. Kyan, meeting his eyes, seemed to have reached a similar conclusion; he gave a faint frown but slightly nodded his head. 

“Alright,” Isaac said, pushing himself up from the rock. From now until dawn broke, they would search the vast field in opposite directions to find Alikisa.

“Then Prince Kyan, go that way, and I’ll go this way…….”

「Mmm——Smells good, what is it……? What is it……? Are you hiding something delicious——?」

Isaac was just extending his arm to point directions. Suddenly, a voice came from uncomfortably close. Startled by the voice that had crept up right behind his back without him even sensing a presence, Isaac whipped around.

5 or 6 silhouettes were swaying there. 4 of varying sizes wearing hoods, 1 with a goat’s head attached to a human body, and one that looked similar to a wild boar but had the form of an unidentifiable beast.

Perhaps they had separated from a group a few dozen steps away and were wandering over with liquor bottles and food in their hands. Their swaying movements suggested they were heavily intoxicated. The new moon is when witches become intoxicated. The banquet held on this day was a place more exciting and exhilarating than any other time.

「Why are there just two of you? Come play with us. Where did you guys come from? We haven’t seen you before, right?」

「*Sniff, sniff.* I smell it. A good smell. A fragrant and delicious smell.」

「What? What is it? A delicious smell, a delicious smell.」

They giggled and chattered, tipping their glasses or biting into the chunks of meat they held. Drunk as if on drugs, their moods were elevated; some didn’t even pay attention to Isaac, while others came right up close, sniffing vigorously. The same went for the prince.

To the person who despises witches so much……, Isaac looked anxiously toward the prince, where a short shadow was sniffing at him, but the prince simply stood still expressionlessly, looking only at Isaac.

The witch with the goat head brought her nose close to Isaac and was sniffing him. Then, slowly sniffing its way down from the top of his head, the goat’s head stopped at the canteen Isaac was holding.

「It’s wine!」

「It’s wine, it’s wine!」

「You’re hiding good wine.」

The witches cheered. Even beneath the dim hoods, their eyes began to gleam. A bluish light seeped out from the gaps in their hoods.

“……Here, I’ll share it.”

Isaac held out the canteen. As soon as he did, a stout hooded figure snatched it away. Isaac briefly caught sight of the hand snatching the canteen—it was shaped like a beast’s hoof.

The witches swarmed the canteen all at once. There was no order or yielding in the hands indiscriminately tangling to steal it. There was only pure greed, faithful to their instincts.

「Give it here.」

「I’m going to eat it, I’m going to drink it all.」

The voices arguing roughly gradually morphed into the growls of beasts. At the same time, the shadows wearing the hoods began to swell larger and larger. The ominous light flashing inside the hoods grew fiercer.

Just as Isaac stepped back with a pale face, something seemed to suddenly whip right past his nose. It was only after a drop of blood formed on his lightly scratched cheek that he realized something as sharp as a sickle had grazed him perilously close.

At the same time, the head of one of the squabbling witches flew off with a slice. It was the witch with the goat head. The head fell with a thud and rolled across the dirt, but none of them paid it any mind. Instead, the witch who had bared long, sharp claws – likely the one who had just grazed Isaac and severed the goat’s head – snatched the canteen, and another witch cut off that witch’s arm with her own claws to steal the canteen back.

Over a simple canteen, heads and arms went flying in an instant. Dark blood splattered, and tearing screams mixed with shrieks and mad, cackling laughter.

Despite this, no one from the other groups looked back. They paid no attention, acting as if this was an entirely trivial, everyday occurrence.

It was a scene of pure madness. Isaac stared at them in stunned silence.

This was the banquet of witches, revealing only their base instincts.

“——.”

As Isaac furrowed his brow, the short, hooded witch approached him. She swayed as if drunk, stepped right up to Isaac, and smiled, tearing her lips wide open.

「You gave us something good, so I should repay you. Here, I’ll give you this.」

Saying so, she held out a chunk of meat she was carrying. Practically having it shoved into his face, Isaac flinched. The chunk of meat in his hand was wriggling.

Without realizing it, he suppressed the urge to throw it away and looked into it. The shadows of the witches blocking the bonfire made it hard to see clearly.

「It’s still fresh, so it’s delicious. I just pulled it out in the forest.」

The witch spoke as she leaned aside to make way, the flickering firelight from the other side casting its glow brightly upon Isaac’s hand. The moment he clearly saw what now lay in his palm, Isaac’s entire body froze.

In his hand lay a beating heart. He didn’t know what kind of heart it was, but exactly the size of a human heart, it was still pulsing and twitching as if to prove it had been alive just moments ago.

Isaac turned his head and looked around. Only now did the wine glasses and food the witches were holding come into his view. The glasses contained an unidentifiable dark red liquid, occasionally mixed with bits of flesh, and what they held in their hands was raw meat, or the severed limbs of humans or beasts. 「Tasteless forearm meat should be thrown to the crows or rats,」 a witch said as she tossed away a long chunk of meat with something resembling fingernails dangling from one end.

「Why aren’t you eating? I told you it’s quite delicious? Hmm? Or do you want more wine? That fragrant wine, hmm?」

The witch poked the chunk of meat in Isaac’s hand with her long fingernail, then leaned in and started sniffing him again. *Sniff, sniff,* the witch’s gaze, which had been smelling him, suddenly shifted to the prince standing next to him.

「What about you——? You don’t have any……?」

The witch approached the prince, pressing her nose right against the prince’s chest, then suddenly tilted her head as she sniffed.

「Strange……, it smells strange……. What is this smell……?」

As the witch muttered, another witch approached. A hooked nose protruding from under a hood sniffed vigorously, smelling the prince.

「The smell of blood……, it smells like human blood…….」

She muttered in suspicion. The hooked nose brought her nose even closer to the prince. Isaac, watching them with nerve-wracking anxiety, quickly chimed in, mimicking what the cats had done earlier.

“It’s because we just came from eating a human. The human scent rubbed off on us.”

「Hmm? Is that so? The smell seems to be flowing strangely, yet it also smells thick…….」

It was when the hooked nose tilted her head.

Kyan, looking down expressionlessly at the hooked nose thrust right up against him, seemed to quickly raise his hand. In that hand, drawn before anyone realized, was his sword. With a chilling *Slaassh,* the sword carved the air, and simultaneously, the witch’s nose was sliced off.

*Kaaack——!* Shrieking a scream like the cry of an old crow, the witch clutched her face. Witnessing the gruesome plight of their comrade, the witches around showed not the slightest concern or intent to help; on the contrary, they burst into even louder, more maniacal cackling.

They were crazy. This was pure madness.

In this blood-reeking place where they casually harmed their own kin and laughed about it, Isaac’s stomach began to churn.

‘…… No…… at least I’m glad they aren’t swarming Prince Kyan in a pack……’

In that state, even if his mood soured and he sliced down a few witches, they wouldn’t fly into a rage and attack him for losing a comrade. No, it seemed no one would care at all.

Isaac looked around anew, observing the scene of things stuffing chunks of bloody flesh into their mouths, or things resembling beasts grabbing lower halves and humping them.

Hell must look exactly like this.

「Oh——this one’s face is completely pale. Since you look exactly like a human, your face turning blue makes you look even more human——.」

「You’re holding something delicious——why aren’t you eating?」

A massive shadow approached. As large as two humans combined, this shadow had the head of a bull growing from its neck. Its legs ended in thick hooves, like those of a wild beast.

「Why aren’t you eating?」

「Exactly, I gave it to you. Why aren’t you eating? Why?」

The short, hooded witch interjected. She, who had been bursting with mad laughter just moments ago, suddenly hardened her face menacingly. Looking at the witch whose body was swelling ominously, Isaac clicked his tongue to himself, wondering what to do with the heart in his hand.

“Do not eat it.”

The prince spoke.

The moment those cold words fell, the witch, who had been glaring angrily at Isaac, turned her head to the prince.

「What, why?! Why are you telling him not to eat what I gave him?! Are you mocking me right now?!」

“He is my familiar. He cannot eat anything except what I give him.”

At the prince’s words, the witch widened her eyes and looked back at Isaac. The bull head, and the other witches nearby, also tilted their heads and looked at Isaac. Under the combined weight of their red and blue gazes, Isaac replied, “Uh, well……, right, I suppose……”

Demons or witches typically used beasts as familiars, but it wasn’t exclusively beasts. They often bound lower-ranked or weaker demons and witches as well.

「A familiar? Right, so that’s it. If that’s the case, well.」

「I see. I was actually looking to bind a useful witch as a familiar myself. What did you pact for? The vital energy of a hundred humans? Five hundred nyang of gold?」

The bull head, seemingly curious, twisted its massive neck and asked. Exhaling sparks from its nostrils with every breath, the bull looked as if it had crawled straight out of hell.

“…….Eating only my vital energy for the rest of his life.”

Kyan, glancing briefly at Isaac, replied. Instantly, Isaac’s face grew hot for no reason, and he slyly turned his head away. ‘He’s just making it up on the spot, there’s no reason to be flustered. Don’t be flustered.’

Beside Isaac, who was wiping his face with the back of his hand, the bull head tilted its head in confusion.

「Only your vital energy? ……Is your vital energy that delicious?」

“This one eats it very well.”

「Really? Can I have a taste too?」

The bull head tilted its head and approached the prince, but Kyan shook his head.

“No. I pacted to give it only to this one.”

「Hmm? Why? What kind of pact is that?」

The bull head looked back and forth between Kyan and Isaac suspiciously. The other witches watching them also rolled their eyes bizarrely. And at the end of those gazes that seemed to demand an answer, Isaac froze for a brief moment…….Uh.

They were just witches, devoid of reason and intoxicated by excitement anyway. He just needed to make something up. Anything. Anything at all.

“……Because I want to eat it all by myself.”

「Hmm? Is it that delicious? Enough that you wouldn’t need to eat anything else for the rest of your life?」

“……Mmm.”

「Until you die, you’ll only eat this guy’s vital energy? Nothing else?」

“……Mmm.”

The bull head asked as if it couldn’t believe it. The other witches also widened their eyes as if seeing something truly rare. As witches whose instinct was to diversely indulge in all sorts of pleasures. Whether taste, lust, or sensation—it was a difficult concept to grasp.

Isaac’s face, nodding vaguely, dropped lower and lower. Kyan, the very person who had spouted this nonsense in the first place, had been watching indifferently before his gaze settled intensely on Isaac at some point. Even though it was just a lie made up on the spot, his gaze was incredibly piercing.

「Are you saying you only give vital energy to him too?」

The short witch asked Kyan again in a tone of disbelief. Kyan, who had been watching them with his arms crossed, nodded expressionlessly while keeping his eyes on Isaac……. ‘It’s fine that you’re just spouting whatever comes to mind, but I wish you wouldn’t stare at me like that while doing it.’ Isaac tried to act as brazenly unaffected as possible, so he stared into empty space. However,

「Then do you only mate with him too?」

Hearing such bizarre words from the short witch, he almost choked on a hollow gasp and coughed. 「No, you can give vital energy without mating, right?」, 「But if you mate, you end up giving vital energy, so you shouldn’t mate with other partners then?」 The two witches argued back and forth amongst themselves.

Isaac stubbornly kept his gaze fixed on empty space, but even while doing so, he could clearly feel the prince’s gaze touching his cheek. ‘I wish he wouldn’t look at me like that in this kind of situation, why is he looking, I don’t know. No, maybe I’m the strange one for getting flustered over nothing.’ Isaac tried hard to manage his expression again.

「With so many delicious things in the world, you’re going to live eating only that——. Did you really make a pact like that? Sworn on the Moon River?」

The short witch looked at Isaac as if she couldn’t believe it. ‘Yep, I just need to casually nod my head,’ Isaac thought, but he paused mid-nod.

No matter how casually made up the lie was, the weight carried by the ‘Moon River’ was completely different. It was like asking if you could swear on your mother’s life.

“……Uh……, well…….”

With an awkward face, answering as ambiguously as possible; with a nuance that meant ‘sure, let’s go with that’, Isaac unconsciously shifted his eyes and glanced at the prince. When meeting his eyes, Isaac slyly dropped his gaze like someone who had done something terrifyingly wrong. He felt his face growing hot. Fortunately, the surroundings were so dark that they couldn’t distinguish his complexion.

“Moon River…… indeed.”

Kyan seemed to mutter suddenly. Though his voice, like a soliloquy, was so quiet it was barely audible, Isaac felt unnecessarily guilty, as if he had just lied ‘on his mother’s life’.

‘This won’t do. I need to get out of here quickly.’ They didn’t have the time to be mingling with witches in a place like this anyway. He didn’t want to be entangled with them any further, and they needed to find Alikisa quickly.

Isaac, who had been looking up at the sky where the stars were tilting, gave the prince a look, and the prince nodded.

However, just as Isaac stepped forward and was about to move behind Kyan, the bull head widened its eyes and blocked their path.

「But I’m curious about this supposedly delicious vital energy. I want a taste too.」

A low growl rumbled from the bull head’s throat, baring its teeth. A mix of greed and excitement caused drool to drip from its mouth.

“It’s a pact meant only for this one. Move aside.”

Kyan looked up at the bull head and spoke coldly. However, the bull head, unable to suppress its surging greed, puffed up the fur all over its body. Its size grew even more massive.

「In that case——I’ll just suck the vital energy this guy received from you, out of him——.」

The bull head’s eyes flashed a terrifying blue. As it turned toward Isaac, its mouth tore open all the way to its ears. It looked less like a bull now and more like a demonic beast crawled straight out of hell.

The bull head approached Isaac. Its heavy footsteps thumped, shaking the ground. Looking up at the beast, Isaac swallowed hard.

Witches could easily suck vital energy from their opponents. It was said that once accustomed, they could drain energy just through breathing. Judging by how it was approaching, this bull seemed fully intent on grabbing Isaac directly and sucking out the energy; if it just wanted a taste, he could have given it a little, but would that be okay? If he did, wouldn’t it cause trouble by revealing that he was a half-blood, or wouldn’t the bull realize the prince was a human while consuming his energy? He wondered if it would cause a problem. Just as Isaac was agonizing over the furry hand thrusting towards his face,

*Slash.*

The massive, furry hand that was just about to grab Isaac’s head was severed. Dark, foul-smelling blood burst forth.

“He is mine. Do not touch him.”

The prince flicked the sticky demon blood off his sword and spoke coldly. Before him, the bull head clutched its severed hand and let out a horrific scream, “GUAAAAAAH!”

「MY HAND! MY HAND!」

The bull head stomped its feet in rage. Its eyes, flashing with blue sparks, glared at Kyan. Roaring a thunderous bellow, the bull head swung its other arm at the prince, but that arm too was cleanly severed. An ear-piercing scream followed.

Kyan looked down indifferently at the hunching, wailing bull head before turning his steps. Just as he signaled Isaac with his chin to let’s go, and Isaac took a step forward,

「I want a taste too, that delicious vital energy——, to say you won’t eat anything else for the rest of your life, just how delicious is it to make you do that——?」

The short witch, who had been stepping aside and observing the situation, suddenly leaped up and clung to the prince’s back. In the brief moment the witch sprouted sharp claws from both hands and was about to tightly embrace Kyan, and Kyan, looking down at those hands in annoyance, swung his sword backward.

The witch, whose head almost flew off by the sword, screamed 「KYAAAK!」 and was sent flying. In the process, the witch’s long claws scratched the prince’s shoulder. Skin tore, and drops of blood fell to the ground.

Curling her body, the witch glaring fiercely at Kyan suddenly widened her eyes. Then, sniffing the air, she crawled low to the ground.

「Human……, it’s the smell of human blood……!」

At the same time the witch muttered, the bull head also whipped its neck around. The monster, twitching its nose and sniffing vigorously, began to straighten its hunched body. Its sharp, darting eyes locked onto Kyan’s shoulder.

「The smell of human blood……! It’s unmistakably the smell of humans……!」

The bull head twitched its nose and took a step, then another step, closer to Kyan. With that, the nearby witches, who had until now been minding their own business and ignoring the commotion beside them, all started sniffing and tilting their heads.

「Human smell…….」

「It’s the smell of human blood…….」

「THERE’S A HUMAN……, A HUMAN HAS ENTERED……!」

One by one, the nearby witches stood up and looked around. The eyes of the heavily intoxicated, excited witches flashed bright red and blue. Bristling their hair and tearing their lips into wide grins that stretched to their ears, they searched the surroundings for stimuli to further incite their excitement.

「KILL HIM……! TEAR HIM TO SHREDS AND KILL HIM!」

「PLUCK OUT HIS EYES AND RIP OUT HIS TONGUE AND THROW HIM IN THE CAULDRON!」

「WE MUST BOIL HIM IN A BUBBLING POT AND MAKE SOUP! SKEWER HIM AND ROAST HIM BLAZING HOT TO MAKE JERKY!」

The witches chattered excitedly. What started with a few nearby witches quickly spread to the surroundings.

「A human entered? There’s a human? Let’s kill him, let’s eat him,」 the witches, thrilled at the prospect of new amusement, gleefully clapped their hands and stomped their feet.

Amidst those excited shouts, Kyan severed the neck of the short witch who had been the first to run wild and approach him, and successively severed the neck of the bull head as well. He then unwrapped the cloth bound to his scabbard and soaked it in their blood. He tied that cloth around his shoulder to cover his scent. Having temporarily masked his scent with this makeshift measure, Kyan looked back at Isaac.

“You go counter-clockwise, I’ll go clockwise.”

“——.”

After a brief remark, Kyan stepped onto the left-hand path leading toward the bonfire. Isaac, who watched the prince with somewhat conflicted eyes for a moment, pressed his lips tightly together and stepped in the opposite direction. Ignoring the cacophony of witches shouting 「WHERE IS HE, WHERE IS THE HUMAN, SEARCH, FIND HIM」 behind his back, he steadily began to move forward.

He hadn’t wanted to separate from the prince. Especially now, when the witches were clamoring to find a human, and even more so when blood was seeping from his wound, leaking his human scent. He hadn’t wanted to leave the prince alone in a situation where they didn’t know when the witches would swarm him.

However.

Even if he had been in the prince’s shoes, he probably would have done the same.

There was no time. Furthermore, in a situation where they were being chased like this, splitting up was the right choice. Whoever it was, at least one person had to find Alikisa.

He didn’t need to worry about the prince. There was likely no one in this world capable of harming that man. So let’s just focus on what needs to be done right now. Isaac walked without looking back.