But of course, he knew this would happen.

Isaac looked at the three cats sitting obediently outside the room door the moment the hotel staff politely opened it. He wasn’t particularly surprised.

Just as the door began to crack open, a dying, feeble little mouse darted out through the gap. The staff member, who had been proudly rambling on, “Our hotel is one of the oldest and most prestigious hotels in Kuslo……” suddenly became utterly terrified, jumping up and fleeing in panic. Witnessing the scene, the three mischievous cats snickered teasingly, only to have Isaac step forward and lightly trample their tails as a warning.

Kyan went straight to the bathroom upon entering, while Isaac sat at a wide table with three maps spread out. He began checking the villages marked on the detailed map against the others. Because there were so many small clustered settlements, it looked like the task would take quite a while.

“……”

‘Is that witch still eating people while I do this?’ Taking a deep breath, Isaac recalled the clothes discarded on the floors like shed skin. His heart felt heavy.

But why suddenly?

Why did Alikisa start eating people? It was far too many just for the wizard to maintain his consciousness. Even while hiding in the human world, she was risking exposure to devour people. Why—.

「To break the curse.」

「To break the curse those witches placed on her.」

The cats suddenly spoke up. Isaac, who had been examining the maps, looked toward the approaching footsteps with wide eyes.

“……Does eating a human break the curse?”

「She’s accumulating vital energy to offset the curse.」

「But doing so would require a massive amount of vital energy.」

「Isn’t that why she’s sucking them completely dry? Without leaving so much as bone dust behind.」

「Right, right. Seeing how she even eats the dry, tasteless bone dust, she really didn’t waste a single scrap.」

「Phew, we should really learn from her frugality.」

The cats’ conversation was derailing.

Isaac waved his hand to shoo the cats off the map, put down his pen, and let out a long sigh.

It is said that Alikisa is burdened by a terrifying curse. The witches whom she betrayed all cast their curses upon her before their deaths. To escape that curse, Alikisa had to hide her true body in a highly secret location deep within the mountains and forests.

And now, she was trying to reclaim it.

It made sense. Residing within a human host must have been highly uncomfortable. Because a human body could not withstand a witch’s aura for long, she would have had to transfer hosts periodically, and finding a suitable body capable of containing her aura and wielding her magic every time could not have been an easy task. Especially now, being chased as she was, she must yearn for her original body more than ever. Her own body, which she could move freely and wield exactly as she desired.

“Where did she hide her body……?”

Isaac blurted out the question unconsciously. Just then,

“She probably hid it somewhere not too far away.”

A deep, low voice echoed from the bathroom. The prince stepped out, his hair still drenched, droplets of water trickling gently along his shoulders. Isaac looked up in shock, his eyes widening in astonishment.

His hair had turned black.

The brilliantly shining blonde hair from just moments ago was dyed a dull black. The object the prince had just unceremoniously thrown into the trash bin in the corner of the main room was the bottle of ink that had been sitting on the desk all along.

“……”

‘He didn’t use proper hair dye, he used ink to color his hair? But more importantly, why would he ruin such beautiful hair……’ Isaac was so stunned that he couldn’t find the words, only able to blink in dismay as he looked at the prince with regret. The prince poured a bit of wine into the glass already full of ice, gently swirled it, then slowly approached. The crisp clinking of ice against the glass echoed softly.

“Since she cannot continue to hold that massive amount of vital energy in that human host, she must be transferring the gathered energy into her original body little by little. She will have to keep transferring it until it’s a sufficient amount, so she cannot be far from her original body.”

“……”

“We will have to keep an eye on where that witch’s body is from now on. Now we can put your eyes to good use.”

Kyan, looking at Isaac as he spoke, finally noticed Isaac staring up at him in a daze. Looking back at Kyan, who seemed to be asking: “Why are you looking at me like that?’, Isaac mumbled awkwardly.

“Your hair is……”

“Ah, it was annoying.”

Perhaps because he had been by the prince’s side long enough, the prince’s curt reply was immediately auto-translated in Isaac’s mind as: ‘Most people in this Heilen region have dark hair and dark skin. My blonde hair was far too conspicuous, and it was annoying to have people staring at me all the time, so I dyed it black to save myself the trouble.’ However,

However,

“…… I don’t think it will have much effect……” 

‘If someone was looking from afar, that might be bearable,’ Isaac thought to himself, but then reminded himself that even being able to deceive those watching from a distance was already a major plus. Indeed, the prince’s dazzling platinum hair had been extremely conspicuous before, even from a great distance across this Heilen region, it could still be recognized instantly.

Changing hair color doesn’t change the person, but just as he was thinking it was a bit of a shame……

「Oh my! Where did the shiny, pretty thing go?!」

「What a waste, what a waste! That bright, sparkling like the sun!」

The cats shrieked like they were screaming. ‘When have those guys ever lamented and genuinely regretted something so much?’ Isaac thought while looking at them. Then again, they were witches too, so their flashy tastes were exactly the same. Even though there was no way he could understand what the cats were saying, the beasts continued to chatter regretfully in front of Kyan, who was looking at them with an annoyed gaze.

「Even if the Cornucopia’s temper is total shit, his face was the greatest beauty in the kingdom.」

「Now he must have dropped to second place. With such a plain, dull hair color.」

“……Why don’t you take a look at your own fur colors……”

「Our fur is glossy, elegant, and alluring, like obsidian!」

The three cats snapped back in a huff as Isaac muttered.

The beasts put their heads together for a long time, whispering, 「He’s just jealous because he doesn’t have fine fur like us.」, 「Jealous, definitely jealous.」 Then they looked back at Kyan and let out a disappointed sigh.

「Then I suppose that if our Manbang-ie tells us to bring him the greatest beauty in the kingdom, we’ll have to find someone else.」

One of them blurted out. Although he wasn’t incredibly interested, a man’s innate nature couldn’t be helped, and Isaac’s ears perked up at the phrase ‘greatest beauty in the kingdom’.

“The greatest beauty in the kingdom? Who is it now?” he asked.

Suddenly, a hand swept across the floor like lightning. In a single swift motion, it snatched up all three cats, leaving them dangling by the scruffs of their necks.  「Eh……?」 The bewildered cats struggled belatedly as they realized they had been caught, but it was already too late. Once caught in this prince’s grip, it was over.

‘It’s amazing every time I see it, how he catches those ghost-like beasts so easily……’

While Isaac was marveling, Kyan opened the closet door, tossed the three of them inside, and slammed it shut. Then he took out a large padlock from his luggage and locked the door handle. A temple seal was stamped very prominently on the padlock’s surface. *Clack,* the sound of the lock snapping shut echoed unusually loud.

「Huh……? Eh……?」

「WHY ISN’T THIS OPENING?」

Sounds of voices leaking through the closet door crack were followed by the rattling and shaking of the door.

And then Kyan returned back to Isaac, leaving the meowing cats locked in the closet. Facing Kyan, who stared at him with cold eyes, Isaac muttered in a small voice, “Your new hair…… It suits you very well.”

Although His Highness was absolutely not the type to care about being the greatest beauty in the kingdom, his face still didn’t look entirely pleased either. Being as sharp as a ghost, he clearly had more than enough wit to infer what the cats had just said from Isaac’s comment alone.

While Isaac debated whether to add ‘You’re still beautiful,’ Kyan sat in the chair without another word and pointed to the maps spread on the table with his chin.

“So, what about the maps?”

“I’m marking the locations of the clustered villages. There are quite a few, but I should be done by the afternoon.”

‘Thank goodness the subject changed.’ Isaac let out a silent, relieved sigh, then pointed at the map and explained:

“Here and here are the empty villages we passed yesterday. And here.”

Isaac, tapping the map lightly, wondered if no one lived in these dozens of villages anymore. Perhaps even at this moment, another village was disappearing. Suppressing his heavy heart, he took a deep breath.

“To the southwest……”

Kyan muttered, looking at the map.

As he said, the villages where people had disappeared were located to the south and west of the mountain ranges surrounding Kuslo, with Kuslo at the center. The number confirmed so far was small, but the distances between those villages were not great.

The witch’s true body must surely be hidden somewhere nearby.

Also, because of that, there was a high possibility that one of the villages in this vicinity would disappear next.

As for when or where, there was no way to know right now. It could be right next door to a sacrificed village, or one over the mountain. It could be days from now, or right at this very second.

“……I think I’m a bit short on vital energy,”

Isaac thought for a moment before raising his head.

“Is it okay if I get some?”

He just wanted to get some vital energy. He had absolutely no other intentions; he only wanted the energy to find out where that witch was. He didn’t know why his face grew so hot every time he asked, even though he repeated this to himself over and over.

Although Isaac tried his best to appear nonchalant, the flushed tips of his ears betrayed him. Kyan gazed at him intently, as if savoring an amusing pastime, then slightly crooked his finger in a beckoning gesture. Isaac slowly approached the chair where the prince was seated and stood beside him.

“……”

‘Excuse me, thank you for the meal,’ several phrases crossed his mind, but he didn’t say any of them. Isaac silently bent at the waist toward Kyan, who was staring right at him with an expressionless face. It would be nice if he didn’t stare so openly, Isaac thought as he quickly brought his head closer to escape that line of sight.

Their lips overlapped. Pushing his tongue between the parting lips, Isaac laid his tongue over Kyan’s. The slow, caressing sensation of rubbing tongues was already familiar, yet at the same time, it never failed to make him nervous no matter how many times they did it.

Suddenly, his body heated up. Feeling the warm surge of energy rising from deep within his throat, Isaac breathed softly and then eagerly sucked on Kyan’s tongue. The abundant life force began to seep out slowly, drop by drop, thick and scalding, as if someone were gradually turning open a faucet.

Then, Kyan wrapped his arm around Isaac, who was bent over beside the chair. The arm wrapping around his waist pulled Isaac into an embrace. Isaac, who practically collapsed onto Kyan’s lap in his haste, reflexively tried to push himself up, but the arm holding him tightly and the hand gripping the back of his neck and pulling him down did not let him go.

“……—.”

Their lips interlocked even deeper. The tongues, saliva, and breath exchanged between them heated up the insides of his body heavily.

Kyan’s body, wearing only a single robe after his shower, was damp with the cool mountain air, yet the heat radiating from Isaac’s tightly pressed skin seemed to have warmed it before he knew it. As the arm holding Isaac’s body tightened its grip, the chair creaked faintly.

Then, suddenly, Kyan released Isaac. Isaac, feeling the hands that had firmly held his torso and the back of his neck fall away, stopped kissing him. That must be all he was getting. ‘I wanted to drink a little more vital energy,’ he thought, but feeling too embarrassed to ask for more, Isaac pulled his head back and stopped, looking at Kyan right in front of him.

Having had his eyes closed while indulging in the vital energy, he had forgotten for a moment. The unfamiliar jet-black hair before him made him blink blankly at His Highness for a long while.

‘……Still looks like a sculpture, though.’ 

Even though the black dye was blotchy from being haphazardly drenched in ink, and the hair looked rough, it gave off a completely different vibe than when it was platinum blonde, making it look unfamiliar, but it still drew the eye overwhelmingly.

Perhaps sensing Isaac’s gaze as he stood up from the chair and looked at him, Kyan also stood up from the chair and looked at Isaac curiously. Isaac smiled faintly and shook his head.

“No, it’s nothing. It’s just a bit unfamiliar…… The taste of the vital energy is exactly the same as yours, Prince Kyan, but the appearance is different, so it feels a bit strange.”

“Somehow it feels like I did it with someone else,” Isaac muttered while awkwardly scratching his head.

Kyan, who had just stood up from the chair, froze in place and looked down at Isaac. Meeting those blue eyes that stared as if trying to pierce through him with no discernible expression, Isaac flinched without any particular reason.

‘Uh, suddenly it feels like a warning bell is ringing in my ears…… And he seems to be looking at me a bit scarily……’ Isaac blinked at those blue eyes that had suddenly turned to ice, and subconsciously took a step back.

Right then, the prince grabbed the back of Isaac’s neck.

“Why are you stepping back?”

“Uh…… no…… I think you should rest……”

“You won’t have enough vital energy to see where the witch is yet.”

Kyan turned his steps while gripping the neck of Isaac, who was slowly backing away. Isaac followed him, practically being dragged, but they didn’t go far. In just a few steps, the prince shoved him hard, sending Isaac’s body sprawling onto the large bed in the middle of the room.

“A rather smart and quick-witted guy has completely misread the situation this time. Did you think I was done giving you today’s vital energy with just that?”

“Not even close.” As he said that, the prince pushed Isaac down and got on top of him.

And then——their lips clashed incomparably rougher than before.