How long had he been standing there? Probably not long. Standing at the threshold, the Prince’s gaze, looking into the room, was fixed entirely on Isaac. Staring at Isaac with an expressionless face, the corners of the Prince’s mouth suddenly twisted.

“You have no choice but to cross over where…..?”

The Prince took long strides into the room and looked around. His gaze, sweeping over the contents of the room, stopped on the three tigers. Suddenly, the Prince furrowed his brow.

‘It’s not even the new moon……’ Isaac faintly heard the Prince mutter to himself. He seemed to find it highly suspicious that the three beings were sitting there in the form of tigers when it wasn’t the new moon. His piercing gaze meticulously evaluated each one. His blue eyes, looking as though they wouldn’t miss a single detail, studied the tigers with suspicion before turning back to Isaac.

“Right, you have no choice but to cross over where?”

The Prince looked at Isaac and asked again. Isaac looked up at him in flustered panic and stammered.

“……I was talking about the witches crossing over to the Land of the Dark Moon.”

The Prince stared intently at Isaac. Isaac tried desperately to look unfazed, but perhaps startled by the sudden intrusion, cold sweat beaded on his forehead. Watching Isaac, the Prince’s eyes narrowed further.

“You returned earlier than expected.”

“What were you doing?”

Isaac tried to change the subject as a greeting, but the Prince cut him off mid-sentence. Unconsciously, Isaac clamped his mouth shut. It was a reflexive reaction, like someone caught doing something bad—a clear tell to the Prince that there was something he desperately wanted to hide.

Looking at Isaac, the Prince narrowed his eyes. As if something was irritating him, he stared a hole through Isaac and asked once more.

“What were you doing?”

Despite being a low murmur, the voice sliced through the air sharper than any shout. The chilling aura made not only Isaac flinch, but the tigers beside him as well. The one that had its paw shoved into the cage jolted, pulling its leg back.

In doing so, the latch holding the cage door slipped. The cage swung open, and the crow inside, desperate to escape the tiger’s paw, flew out through the gap. *Flap—* Beating its wings, the crow darted straight toward the open window.

“——NO!”

Isaac’s face paled as he shot up from his seat.

He couldn’t let it escape. Alikisa wouldn’t be able to escape the crow’s body on her own, but if, by some million-to-one chance, another witch or a high wizard caught that crow, they might extract Alikisa from it. Even if the chances were slim, there was no telling what that cunning witch might orchestrate to escape the crow.

“ALIKISA!”

Isaac dashed to the window and reached out toward the crow as it flew out, but his fingertips only barely grazed its tail feathers before grasping empty air. The crow let out a long caw and flew out the window. Unaware that the Prince had caught him from behind as his body tipped dangerously over the sill, Isaac only stared at the retreating back of the crow.

Watching the crow quickly soar into the night sky and distance itself, Isaac bit his lip hard. A dark corner of his heart sank heavily.

Right at that moment.

A sharp whistle, piercing enough to split the eardrums, erupted from beside him. At the exact same time, a blinding white shadow shot out from across the sky like an arrow. That white shadow flew like a ray of light and slammed right into the fleeing black bird. *Caaaawk—,* the crow’s wretched scream echoed through the night sky.

“——.”

While Isaac watched the scene with wide eyes, the shadow, which seemed to tangle and flutter with the crow for a moment, soon flew back toward them. Gripping the black bird in its sharp talons, the large, white shadow quickly approaching was a falcon.

The massive falcon approached the window, slowed its wings, and dropped the crow into the Prince’s outstretched hand. The Prince, taking the wildly thrashing and fluttering crow, gripped the bird’s wing joint and twisted it brutally.

*Crack.* With a sickening, bone-chilling sound, the crow’s shriek ripped through the air. Without a second’s hesitation, the Prince snapped the other wing as well. Amidst agonizing cries, the crow hung limply, no longer able to flap its wings.

Isaac stared blankly at the Prince holding the crow.

He caught it. It’s a relief he caught it, but……

“Alikisa……?”

The Prince muttered. His gaze shifted from the crow to Isaac. Isaac shrank back, his face stiffening as he watched the twitching crow.

The Prince tossed the bird onto the table. The crow, which seemed to try and move its wings, weakly flopped around a few times before collapsing. With the twitching bird between them, no one spoke.

“Alikisa…… You mean this crow.”

Finally, the Prince murmured. His finger slowly stroking down from the top of the crow’s head was inexplicably dangerous. Isaac watched those fingertips, fraught with tension.

“Explain yourself. What is the meaning of this.”

The Prince’s cold command dropped.

Looking down at the crow twisting its body in spasms, Isaac swallowed a bitter breath and dropped his shoulders. Things having reached this point, he could neither deceive him nor gloss over the situation. And the man before him was not someone he could successfully lie to anyway.

“……Alikisa has possessed that crow. Originally, she was inside me, but she was driven out and went into the crow.”

Isaac spoke with a heavy tongue. It wasn’t exactly something that had to be kept secret. He hadn’t particularly wanted to reveal that the witch everyone thought was dead was still alive, nor the circumstances of her possessing the crow, but……

The Prince raised an eyebrow.

“Why was a witch inside you?”

“……Because I made a pact like that with her.”

Right before the witch died, he made a pact with the dying woman.

He asked her to lift the wizard’s curse placed upon the Prince.

In exchange, she was permitted to reside within Isaac’s body.

Isaac quietly looked down at his feet before raising his head. He met the Prince’s gaze with an expression that was gloomy, yet entirely unapologetic. The Prince was looking at Isaac with a faint scowl. As he seemed to trace back exactly when and why such a pact was made, his face suddenly grew icy cold.

He was a highly intelligent man. From the fragmented pieces of information he possessed, he could effortlessly deduce the entire flow of events. And with that, he must have found the answer to the question he had been pondering. Why would the witch risk the backlash of breaking a pact with a young wizard just before her death? If it was on the condition that she could possess Isaac’s body, the pieces fit perfectly together.

“……”

The Prince’s eyes were terrifyingly cold. So cold it chilled the very heart of Isaac, who was facing him. Suppressing the spine-tingling urge to look away immediately, Isaac muttered.

“I am sorry. For letting her live as I pleased.……But still, I thought it would be good if I could break the curse placed upon you,Your Highness. And by transferring her into the body of an animal, I intended to ensure she could never harm anyone again.”

“I didn’t expect to lose her like this, but thanks to you, she was caught securely,” Isaac bowed his head slightly as if to say that. Taking that opportunity, he briefly avoided that terrifyingly fierce glare.

The Prince said nothing. In that quiet silence, Isaac sweated profusely inside, feeling as if he were sitting on a bed of thorns.

“Transferred her…… A witch wouldn’t have moved on her own volition.”

After a long silence, the Prince finally spoke. Isaac instinctively glanced at the Prince before lowering his head again. This wasn’t something that absolutely had to be a secret, nor would saying it change much, but he still hadn’t wanted to say it. Even though to the Prince, whether he was a half-witch or a pureblood witch, it would be all the same anyway.

“……Because a witch cannot possess the body of a witch…… once I discarded my human blood, she could no longer remain in my body.”

At Isaac’s words, the Prince raised an eyebrow, as if he had heard something incomprehensible.

“Discarded your human blood……?”

“I…… am no longer a half-blood. I have become a complete witch.”

Isaac said, swallowing a heavy breath.

He had made the pact knowing it would come to this. He couldn’t keep Alikisa housed in his body forever, waiting on her whims, so he knew he had to force her out. And he knew the only way to do that was to become a pureblood witch.

So, all these results were from the choices he had thought out and made himself. But he hadn’t particularly wanted to say it out loud.

The Prince already found him so displeasing even when he was only a half-witch; how much worse would it be if he were a complete witch? Perhaps the only reason he was allowed to stay by his side was because that half was human.

The Prince remained silent. After staring at Isaac wordlessly for a long time, the Prince finally spoke.

“How, when it is not the new moon? I thought wishes could only be made, and granted, during the new moon?”

Isaac instantly shut his mouth.

With the tinderbox—the magical tinderbox capable of granting any wish. What would happen if he said that?

Isaac hesitated. He couldn’t quickly judge if it was safe to tell him. But then, the tigers caught his eye.

The tigers’ ears were pinned back. Their pitch-black, glossy eyes darted around erratically. A low growl seemed ready to leak from their bared teeth at any moment.

‘Do not say it. You must not tell him. That is our treasure. Humans must not know. Because humans will steal it away.’

“——.”

The Prince stood motionless, looking down at Isaac as if waiting for an answer. But seeing Isaac remain stubbornly silent, the Prince seemed to realize he wouldn’t get an answer and faintly furrowed his brow.

The Prince’s gaze shifted to the tigers. Meeting the Prince’s cold, sunken stare, the tigers seemed to widen their eyes, but refusing to back down, they glared right back at him. The prince glanced over each tiger one by one, then let his eyes scan the entire room. As if searching for some sort of clue.

As his gaze swept the room, the Prince’s eyes lingered for a moment on the tinderbox atop the table and the mound of gold coins piled next to it. The things brought from the royal treasury.

The moment the Prince reached his hand toward them, Isaac’s heart sank. However, looking somewhat doubtful, the Prince merely swept his hand through the gold coins once with a *clink,* before turning his gaze away again.

Having surveyed the room, the Prince seemed lost in thought for a moment.

“So now that you have become a witch, does that mean you can use magic?”

The Prince asked casually, and Isaac shook his head nervously.

“Probably not. That’s something you have to be born with…… Even if I somehow learned how to use magical energy, I doubt I could cast any grand magic.”

“And yet, a wish to become a pureblood witch was granted……?”

It was a feat difficult to achieve without a considerable amount of ‘grand magic’. Faced with the Prince’s cynically tinged question, Isaac closed his mouth again.

How——it was an extension of that question.

He could not speak about the tinderbox. The tigers, the owners of the tinderbox, did not want him to. After a long silence, Isaac only offered the briefest reply he could manage.

“Exactly three times. I can make a wish exactly three times. Though I only have two left now.”

That was the entirety of the answer Isaac could give. He would say nothing more. Realizing this from Isaac’s quiet but firm tone, the Prince faintly furrowed his brow. Isaac met the Prince’s gaze in silence.

Even if he couldn’t answer, things like that didn’t matter to Isaac. What he used to grant his wish, how the wish could be fulfilled—none of that mattered to Isaac right now. What mattered to him was the fact that he was now a witch. And that he could no longer stay here for long.

‘I didn’t want this. I wanted to stay here, in the world where this man is.’

“……Actually, I wanted to become human.”

Isaac, staring blankly at the Prince, murmured at some point. The words, leaking out with a soft sigh, were closer to a soliloquy. The Prince raised an eyebrow and looked at Isaac.

“If I became human, you would find me less repulsive, Your Highness. I could blend in comfortably among people and live a stable life, and,…… I could continue to stay by your side.”

The last part was added after a moment of hesitation. It was a bit embarrassing, and he considered not saying it, but now he felt it didn’t really matter. There wasn’t much time left anyway; there was no reason to forcibly suppress the words he wanted to say.

“So, if I could have a wish granted, more than anything, I wanted to become human first……”

Trailing off as if sighing, Isaac looked at the crow on the table. The crow was still twitching, struggling to flap its wings. Was Alikisa’s mind still asleep inside it? Or was she awake now?

If he hadn’t made that pact with her, he would have wished to become a complete human. By becoming a witch, many of Isaac’s hopes had popped like bubbles and vanished, but he still didn’t regret it. He was satisfied with breaking the curse placed upon the Prince. The only thing left was the regret that he couldn’t stay long.

“And so, what about now?”

The Prince asked then.

“So, how is it now that you are a witch?”

The Prince’s voice as he asked had dropped faintly low. Was there some subtle nuance in Isaac’s answer? The voice demanding an answer while scrutinizing Isaac’s every inch was rough.

Isaac looked at the Prince, then answered quietly.

“Well…… I have no choice but to go to the Land of the Dark Moon.”

The moment he gave that answer, the reality that he had become a witch, that his departure to the Land of the Dark Moon was finalized, hit him all at once. Suddenly, a hot lump rose in his throat. He might have even looked on the verge of tears for a second. Isaac dropped his gaze to his feet.

“I’m a pureblood witch now, so I have to board the Crescent Moon-Silver Boat on the upcoming Great Dark Moon.”

Isaac quickly swallowed back the gloom threatening to show on his face and raised his head. But seeing the Prince staring at him from right in front, Isaac froze.

The Prince was looking at him without any expression. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking or what mood he was in. However,

“Do you think you will be able to board it?”

The quietly asked voice was terrifyingly low and subdued. Even without that chillingly cold voice, Isaac could tell from his frighteningly icy expression that the Prince’s mood was exceptionally foul. Exceptionally. Worse than ever before.

“……Are you going to kill me?”

Isaac asked after a brief moment of thought. If the Prince wasn’t going to let him simply leave the human world and intended to kill him because he was a witch…… Well, he would try his best not to die, but escaping the Prince’s grasp would be difficult.

The moment Isaac’s words dropped, the Prince’s face grew even colder. It wouldn’t have been surprising if he had sliced Isaac’s neck off right that very second.

“If not, then I must board it.”

Isaac muttered, scratching the back of his neck. Now that he had become a witch, there was no other way. All the witches remaining in the human world would leave, and with that, the witches’ curse would be lifted. He couldn’t just remain here. It was a shame he wouldn’t be able to see this man anymore, but it couldn’t be helped. The only thing he hoped for was,

“Please take good care of me for the little time left until the Great New Moon.”

He just wanted to spend that little remaining time together on good terms.

Isaac bowed his head in greeting. Just as he was about to raise his deeply bowed head, a cold voice fell from above him.

“I see…… The moment you decided to become a complete witch, you resolved to cross over to the land of witches.”

Hearing those words that sounded almost like a soliloquy, Isaac raised his head.

“And you think you can cross over by boarding the Crescent Moon-Silver Boat on the Great New Moon.”

The Prince, whispering as if confirming the conclusion he had drawn, was staring at Isaac, who merely blinked in silence. His complexion was terrifyingly cold. As cold as his deeply blue eyes that looked almost pitch-black.

Suddenly, the Prince brought his face close to Isaac’s. From just a handspan away, those coldly sunken blue eyes stared at Isaac.

“Witch. It seems you thought you could think all of this up yourself, make your own decisions, and do whatever you pleased, but you are mistaken.”

The Prince whispered lowly. While keeping his gaze locked intensely on Isaac, the Prince reached out toward the crow, which was still twitching on the table. Caught by its neck in that large hand, the crow trembled violently, as if trying to flap its broken wings, but it was useless.

*——Snap.*

The sound echoed exceptionally loud in the quiet room.

*Flap,* the wing that jerked up in a spasm stopped moving for the last time. Forever.

The crow’s corpse, tossed aside carelessly, rolled onto the floor. The toes that twitched and spasmed eventually stopped as well.

The Prince, whose gaze had been entirely fixed on Isaac the whole time, reached out and pulled the cord hanging on the wall. The cord to summon the guards.

“I told you that your life is mine, and the moment your breath ceases must be the moment I desire it.”

The guards, who came running at the sound, opened the door and entered. Greatly startled by the sight of the Prince, Isaac, and the three massive tigers, the guards hurriedly drew their weapons. Isaac looked at them, just as flustered as the wide-eyed tigers.

At the sight of the guards, the Prince jerked his chin toward Isaac. The guards exchanged bewildered glances – first at the tigers, then at Isaac – but obeyed, closing in on him as the Prince had indicated. Soon, Isaac found himself surrounded by the tips of their weapons, sitting rigid in the center of a ring of blades, his eyes fixed on the Prince. He couldn’t grasp how things had come to this.

The Prince stepped back coolly, his gaze settling on the bewildered Isaac before he finally spoke.

“The one who decides everything about you is me——and you will not be boarding that boat.”