“Are the witches…… are all the ones who came there dead?”

“Surely not all of those countless beings died,” Isaac asked, and the cats snorted once again.

「Witches have lived in the human world for a long time; they wouldn’t all die from something like that. Some survived.」

「Mmm. Probably about a dozen or so?」

「Noble and elegant beings like us survived, didn’t we.」

「So you could say we’re in the top one percent of this race,」 Listening to the cats chatter on noisily, Isaac quietly held his tongue.

Out of all those witches filling that vast field, only about a dozen survived. It truly was near annihilation.

He felt conflicted. The faint ache of realizing so many had died en masse simultaneously tangled with a lingering regret—since they hadn’t all disappeared, the curse on the royal family wouldn’t be lifted. These two opposing thoughts weighed heavily on him at the same time.

“Right……, the curse placed on the royal family won’t be lifted.”

「It will be lifted soon. The survivors talked among themselves and decided to all cross over to the Land of the Dark Moon on this Great New Moon.」

Isaac, who had murmured like a sigh, paused at the cats’ reply. He stared at them blankly.

「Things were already getting tough because humans were acting increasingly heartless toward us, but everyone lost their attachment to this world after this incident. They all agreed to take the Crescent Moon-Silver Boat on the Great New Moon and leave.」

「Soon, there won’t be a single witch left in the human world.」

Isaac looked down blankly at the cats speaking sullenly. Suddenly, that faint sense of regret crept in again.

I see. Now there will truly be no more witches in the human world. It really will be witches in the land of witches, and humans in the land of humans.

Isaac nodded slowly.

“……You must be sad since many of your comrades died.”

Even if he was appalled by the witches’ demonic banquet, witnessing so many of them slaughtered made Isaac’s heart heavy as someone who shared their blood. How much heavier must their hearts be? It wouldn’t be strange at all if they felt utterly sick of it and wanted to abandon this land.

A subtle guilt for having stood beside the man who perpetrated such slaughter covered his heart. Isaac gently reached out his hand to the sullenly crouched cats. However,

「Why would we be sad that they died?」

「Their lives are theirs, our lives are ours.」

「If they were going to die there, they wouldn’t have lived long anyway. They probably only lived another hundred or two hundred years, right?」

「If you cross over to the Land of the Dark Moon, there are tons of beings who have lived for thousands of years; we don’t even talk to those who are only a hundred or two hundred years old. We don’t share a table with their kind.」

“…….”

They flicked Isaac’s hand away with a tail and replied nonchalantly. Yet, there was complete sincerity in their words. Isaac stared chillingly at the cats answering in a tone that seemed to ask why are you suddenly talking nonsense, without a single hint of regret.

‘These witches truly have no sense of comradeship whatsoever……, the ones who say humans are heartless are the most heartless of all. And, even though I already knew, what is up with that blinding sense of superiority? Well, I suppose all witches were somewhat like that.’ The pity and sympathy he briefly felt vanished completely.

“Then why do all three of you have your eyes open like that? Do you not like me?”

Isaac, mimicking the three cats who had been looking sullen and dissatisfied since earlier, shot them a chilling glare. Unwilling to be outdone, the cats’ gazes grew even colder. Cold enough to make one feel unsettled.

「What did you bring inside your body?」

「It seems like something very disgusting and unpleasant has settled in there?」

Isaac blinked. He stared blankly at them for a moment before letting out a late “……Ah.” Only then did he remember.

‘Right, Alikisa was there.’

“……Can you see her?”

「Of course we can!」

「Are your eyes pierced just because you lack skin?!」

「Why is she sitting in there sleeping?!」

“She’s sleeping?”

「Yes, sleeping! She must be completely exhausted, she’s completely penniless! She’ll have to sleep for years just to regain the energy to even open her eyes!」

「Then sleep for several years?」

「She’ll sleep very soundly, very soundly!」

「WAKE HER UP AND KICK HER OUT IMMEDIATELY!」

「KICK HER OUT EVEN IF YOU DON’T WAKE HER!」

「WHO SAID SHE COULD GO IN THERE?!」

「And you too, no matter how much of a Manbang you are, how could you be so utterly clueless and foolish?! Did you just accept her into your body without knowing what that was? Would you drink lye if it were free?! Why did you let her in?!」

The three cats clamored like fish meeting water. The entire room buzzed so loudly it was deafening. With a frown, Isaac leaned back a fraction and muttered under his breath.

“She said she would lift the curse the wizard placed on Prince Kyan.”

The cats instantly clamped their mouths shut. And stared piercingly at Isaac. Isaac backed away a little more. The expressions on the cats were growing fiercer, making him speak even though he felt no need to justify himself.

「YOU’RE SO SMART, SO SMART!」

「A HERO IS BORN, IS BORN!」

Sure enough, the cats, jumping up and down on the head cushion, looked ready to lunge at Isaac and bite him.

“You said you’d kick her out, just kick her out.”

「Kick her out? Who said you could kick her out?! She probably made a pact, a pact! And now you’re going to kick her out however you want?! What will you do now?!」

They had been angry when he let her in, and now they were angry when he said he would kick her out. Isaac stared blankly at the howling, meowing cats acting extremely upset, then let out a small laugh. He patted the three cats; though he got a firm bite on his hand for it, he didn’t yield and scratched behind their ears.

“Can you kick her out?”

「What, how?! Are you telling us to break a pact?! Do you want the backlash to hit you a hundredfold? Do you want to die?!」

“You can’t possess a witch, right?”

「Right, that’s why she possessed a half-blood like you! If you just left her alone, she would have had nowhere to go and died, so why did you snatch her up?!」

“She’ll be kicked out when I become a pure-blood witch anyway.”

The moment Isaac spoke casually, the cats’ wailing stopped abruptly. The world suddenly fell quiet. In the profound silence, three pairs of eyes stared intensely at Isaac.

「A pure-blood witch……?」

“You said I could become a pure-blood witch if I got my hands on the tinderbox.”

「You can, since the tinderbox is a treasure without equal in the world!」

“Then naturally, Alikisa won’t be able to stay in my body, right?”

「Of course! A witch cannot possess a witch!」

“Then what……, if I prepare a beast with a bit of magic for her and become a pure-blood witch, would Alikisa—kicked out from me—have any choice but to enter that beast if she doesn’t want to die?”

“She’ll have to live as a mute beast for the rest of her life, so it’ll be a tough life, but let’s just consider it the price for the sins she’s committed so far,” Isaac murmured, while the cats stared blankly at him.

「Wow……, this guy is really mean…….」

「Exactly……, how wicked…….」

Putting their heads together, the cats gossiped about him to their hearts’ content, but their rears were twitching happily.

「But if you become a pure-blood witch, it’ll be hard to live in the human world?」

「All the witches are leaving, are you going to be the only one left? The royal family will throw a fit, saying the curse won’t lift because of you.」

「First of all, that foul-tempered Cornucopia will probably lunge at your neck first.」

The cats looked back at Isaac and chimed in one by one. Isaac lowered his head silently for a moment. He had already made up his mind, but saying that one phrase out loud made his heart ache a little.

“…….I guess I’ll have to cross over to the Land of the Dark Moon, too.”

The moment those words fell from Isaac’s lips, the cats leaped from the head cushion with a cheer, 「HURRAH~!」

「Right, good thinking! Manbang-ie, you cross over too!」

「What’s the point of staying in the human world! Humans are so stingy, the water and air are dirty, it’s boring and no fun!」

「It’s been a long time since Manbang-ie had a proper thought!」

The three cats, as if they hadn’t just been crouching sullenly, bounced around on the bed in excitement. Seeing those usually cheeky guys so visibly pleased made Isaac let out a hollow laugh. Soon that laugh faded entirely.

Yes. There was no other choice. To lift the curse placed on the prince. He had no choice but to make the decision to leave this place.

If so, there really wasn’t much time left. About a month until the Great New Moon when the Crescent Moon-Silver Boat arrives.

Looking blankly at the setting sun outside the window, one of the cats approached Isaac. Quietly curling its tail around him, it tapped the back of Isaac’s hand with its tail.

「It’s better to leave than to stay here and die at the hands of the Cornucopia just because you’re a witch. If you go to the Land of the Dark Moon, there are plenty of pretty guys with faces like his.」

“…….Is that so?”

He wasn’t sure if his ears pricked up and he felt a bit better——or not. No matter what kind of beauty he found now, even if someone better than the prince appeared, he didn’t feel it would be any better. To like someone is, on the one hand, a fond thing, but on the other hand, a sorrowful thing.

However, the cats were right. If he remained in this land, the prince would kill every last witch, and once the last remaining witches disappeared, Isaac would be the one to die. Even if he liked him that much, he had never intended to just quietly accept death. This was a sequence predetermined from the start.

Isaac let out a long sigh and nodded alone.

Now, what he had to do was,

“So I need to go get the tinderbox quickly.”

“…….”

Yes, this was it.

Whether he could actually take the tinderbox from the King’s treasury was the key, but this had been Isaac’s goal from the beginning.

“I wonder if I can claim that I was quite useful in my own way…….”

The prince had promised to let him into the treasury if he produced useful results. Having survived death several times like this, he felt justified in demanding the fulfillment of that promise.

……But where is that person?

“Prince Kyan is……, in his office? Or the study?”

「Who knows? He looked incredibly busy since morning. People have been visiting him relentlessly all day.」

Ah, Isaac nodded. That made sense. Today was the day after such a massive witch hunt occurred, so he would be indescribably busy. He would probably be this busy for a week, and for the following month he’d barely have time to drink a cup of tea, and for three months after that he would be busier than usual.

If he went into that situation and said ‘Give me my reward,’ he’d be lucky not to get kicked out by the prince, let alone sworn at by the people around for lacking tact. However, regardless of that, since he was nominally a guard, he felt he should at least go and fulfill his assigned duties.

Isaac pushed himself up from the bed. His joints and muscles ached slightly, but his body felt very light. ‘I must have received vital energy while sleeping again,’ he thought awkwardly, scratching his cheek, and left the room.