——MANBANG-IE! MANBANG-IE!

It sounded like cats crying from somewhere.

——MANBANG-IE! WHERE ARE YOU, MANBANG-IE!

——HURRY UP AND COME! MANBANG-IE! GET US OUT OF HERE!

Isaac’s eyes snapped open.

As the dim stone ceiling came into view, the voice that had been ringing clearly in his ears just a moment ago vanished like a lie. All that remained was a quiet stillness.

“……”

As Isaac bolted upright into a sitting position, the guard sitting outside the iron bars jerked his head up in surprise. Isaac blinked for a moment at Hoden, who was on day duty today, before slowly exhaling a sigh and rubbing the back of his neck.

He must have fallen asleep at some point. It was only for a brief moment, but it seemed he had dreamed. Isaac sat blankly staring into space. ‘Manbang-ie, Manbang-ie,’ the meowing sound still rang loudly in his ears.

Witches do not dream. What a witch sees while sleeping is either what they themselves desire, or what someone else desires of them.

The cats were calling out to Isaac.

“——.”

Isaac’s face clouded over as he roughly scratched his head. Ah…… a low groan escaped him. ‘Hurry up and come, get us out,’ that clear voice echoed in his ears over and over.

The cats were crying out urgently.

Because the Great New Moon had arrived.

There was no one to tell him how much time had passed, nor was there a single window, but Isaac could feel in his bones that the Great New Moon was here. It was a day when vitality surged from deep within, filling a witch with a restless, exhilarating energy.

It’s today.

Today was the Great New Moon that comes once every seven years.

Tonight, the Crescent Moon-Silver Boat would visit the human world and carry the witches to the Land of the Dark Moon. And if he missed that boat, he would have to wait another seven years.

“I have to let those little monsters out……”

Isaac muttered with a groan.

He had been catching snippets of the cats’ cries for a few days now. Whenever he closed his eyes, the cries would drift in briefly like a faint mist before fading away. With each instance, Isaac grew a little more anxious too, but no matter how much he pleaded whenever the Prince visited, no answer ever returned.

And so, ultimately, the Great New Moon had arrived.

Even though he had only closed his eyes for a very brief moment during the day, the cats’ cries had grown so pitiful and urgent that they rang loudly in his ears. His heart pounded anxiously in tandem.

What time could it be? Was it still day? Or night? Surely the Crescent Moon-Silver Boat hadn’t arrived already. Surely it hasn’t left yet.

His mind was so fraught with anxiety that his thoughts didn’t seem to be working properly. Slapping his own cheeks a couple of times and shaking his head, Isaac took a deep breath and raised his eyes.

Seeing Hoden, who was sitting outside the bars, constantly looking toward the door, it seemed shift change was approaching. That meant it was around six in the evening. Just about time for the sun to set and the new moon night to begin. He only had a few hours to catch the Crescent Moon-Silver Boat, which was said to arrive at sunset and depart at sunrise.

‘I should have brought the flint that day.’

Isaac regretted it belatedly. When he was caught by the Prince and dragged to the dungeon, he should have secured the tinderbox no matter what. But on second thought, he realized the Prince definitely would have found it suspicious if he had. Even now, the Prince was suspiciously pondering why Isaac had asked for gold coins in the royal treasury. If he had brought the tinderbox that day, the Prince would have undoubtedly caught on.

‘……But a time like this is exactly when I need it.’

Isaac swallowed a groan as he recalled the cries that seemed to ring in his ears once again.

Just then, the sound of the iron door opening echoed from the end of the hallway.

As Isaac turned his head, he saw Hoden, who had stood up with a welcoming face, assuming the relief guard had arrived, suddenly freeze stiff. At the same time, heavy, unstable footsteps could be heard walking down the hall. Slow, as if the body couldn’t move properly, yet approaching with an urgent air—the heavy sound of footsteps.

*——Stomp. ——Stomp.*

Isaac knew exactly what those footsteps, sounding like a terrifying beast approaching, belonged to.

The Prince.

The Prince, facing the new moon, was walking toward him, submerged in terrible agony. Filled solely with the instinct to escape the pain, leaving only a thread of rationality intact. He was approaching Isaac while suffering from horrifying agony.

Even though he had already experienced the new moon several times, facing the Prince in that state brought a terror that made his very heart tremble. Beyond the iron bars where Isaac sat rigidly with clenched teeth, Hoden was trembling violently, pale with terror.

Soon the Prince reached the cell. In front of Hoden, who was too paralyzed with fear to even pull out the key to unlock the bars, the Prince grabbed the padlock and yanked it as if to tear it apart. The steel padlock smashed against the iron bars with a loud *Koong!*. Hoden belatedly fumbled to get the key with trembling hands, but the Prince didn’t even wait, continuing to yank the lock.

*Clang——, Clang——, Clang——,* after the metallic crashing echoed deafeningly throughout the underground dungeon, the iron bars holding the lock bent massively. The Prince stepped through the bent bars.

No matter how many times he experienced it, he could never get used to this moment. The moment when a beast, having lost its reason to pain, lunged at him.

“——.”

The Prince pounced on Isaac in a single bound. Feeling the Prince’s teeth sink into the nape of his neck, Isaac closed his eyes. Soon, along with a burning pain, he felt blood burst forth.

The fear that he might actually be killed this time by the Prince, whose reason was clouded, only subsided after he heard the sound of the Prince unhesitatingly gulping down his blood. His reason would return soon.

The first thing Isaac saw when he faintly opened his eyes was Hoden, looking at them with a pale, frozen face over the Prince’s shoulder. Perhaps thinking the Prince was eating Isaac alive,

Hoden, who was frozen with his eyes wide open, widened them even further when his gaze met Isaac’s. But he soon dropped his shoulders with a somewhat relieved expression.

The Prince’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed the blood like a starving beast, and Hoden just watched them restlessly with a mix of guilt and terror, like someone helplessly watching a man being eaten alive. Isaac gave a faint wave of his hand to signal that it was okay, to tell him to relax, though he wasn’t sure if Hoden saw it.

Isaac quietly embraced the Prince. Perhaps because it was the Great New Moon, the Prince seemed to be in even more pain than usual. Even though he had been sucking blood for much longer than normal, there was no sign of the pain subsiding. His body, which continued to writhe with spasms even as he drank the blood, his rough and irregular breathing as if he couldn’t even catch his breath properly, and the signs of him forcibly swallowing groans conveyed the depths of his agony.

“……It will be okay. Just a little more…… just a little more and it will be okay.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay, just a little more,” Isaac whispered softly into the ear of the Prince biting his neck. The muscles that had been stiffly tense and rigid seemed to relax ever so slightly. The Prince’s breathing also seemed to calm faintly.

“It’s okay, it will be okay in just a little while,” Isaac whispered ceaselessly while stroking the Prince’s back. To the Prince, and to himself, as he whispered those words, Isaac felt his head gradually growing dizzy. It was because too much blood had been sucked. ‘Today was far worse than usual.…… I might actually die of blood loss today.’

Suddenly, he thought he faintly heard a growling sound from the Prince biting his neck.

“……Is it you……, all of this is the doing of your kind……!”

That low voice was filled with pain and hatred. Beneath his not-yet-fully-returned reason, the hatred deeply engraved in his very nature seeped out desperately. Already deeply rooted in his heart, it was a primal emotion that could not be erased no matter what.

Isaac laid there staring at the ceiling, quietly letting out a breath. The strength drained from his body. But there was nothing he could do, so he just quietly continued to stroke the Prince’s back. Right now, he only hoped for this man’s pain to subside. For him not to suffer like this.

After some more time passed, right around when Isaac was seriously starting to feel the threat of exsanguination, the Prince’s body slowly relaxed. Only now was the pain subsiding and his reason beginning to return.

Though he had lacked reason, the Prince seemed to know he had drunk much more blood today than usual. Normally, he would continue to suck blood for a long time even after his reason returned, but today he pulled his lips away not long after. However, as if clear reason had not yet fully returned, he just sat there blankly.

‘Ah…… it really hurts and I’m really dizzy……’ Isaac lay blankly looking up at the dizzyingly swaying ceiling. Then, dropping only his gaze, he looked at the Prince.

“Are you alright? You seemed to be struggling more today than usual.”

Isaac looked at the Prince, who was drenched in cold sweat mixed with blood, and frowned as he examined him. The stained sweat soaking his entire body was redder and thicker than usual.

“I suppose it’s because it’s the Great New Moon…… After today passes, all the witches will be gone.”

Isaac murmured as he gently wiped away the bloody sweat rolling down the Prince’s eyelids with the back of his hand. The Prince, staring somewhere into the air with a haggard face as if he still hadn’t fully escaped the memory of that horrifyingly painful sensation, let out a low soliloquy.

“……I should have killed them.”

All the witches in the human world had been massacred, leaving only a handful, even those few who were leaving the human lands. He shouldn’t have just let them leave. He should have killed every last one of them without exception.

The seething hatred bled through the Prince’s voice.

Isaac’s hand, gently wiping over the Prince’s eyes, paused. He quickly resumed his movement as if nothing was wrong, but that brief silence seemed to have reached the Prince. Suddenly, the Prince’s gaze fell on Isaac.

The moment his eyes met Isaac’s, the Prince’s eyes narrowed slightly. A look of dismay flashed across his face very briefly, as if he had only just realized Isaac was there. However, the Prince’s face quickly contorted fiercely as he yanked Isaac toward him. Embracing the limp body he had pulled up, the Prince bit Isaac’s earlobe.

“You should have become a human. No matter what happened to that wizard’s curse.”

The rough voice spat out anger. As if he couldn’t control that anger himself, biting Isaac’s earlobe, his cheek, his neck in his embrace, Isaac swallowed a low breath.

To have such deeply engraved hatred in his bones.

It was no use. It was fundamentally impossible to wash away.

Isaac reached out and hugged the Prince. The body of the Prince biting Isaac seemed to pause. That rough body loosened, and until a low, suppressed breath leaked out, Isaac just quietly held the Prince. “It’s okay,” just like when he had whispered to him earlier.

How much time passed?

The Prince, whose pain had completely vanished and mind had awakened clearly, eventually rose slowly. Then he stared down at Isaac. After looking at the limply sprawling Isaac for a long time, the Prince let out a low breath.

“I will let you out tomorrow.”

Isaac’s eyes widened faintly at the Prince’s words. The Prince, who had reached his hand out toward Isaac’s face only to stop mid-way, clicked his tongue lowly and stood up. Sweeping his blood-and-sweat-stained hair back, he turned away.

Hoden, who had been standing frozen outside the bars, flinched and stepped back. But the Prince didn’t even spare Hoden a glance as he stepped out of the cell. Staring at the bent iron bars for a moment, he grabbed them and pulled. Without seeming to exert much effort, the bars were more or less straightened out after a few yanks. The Prince patted the bars before finally walking away.

“Keep a close watch on him. Today is the last day.”

Tossing a brief order to Hoden, the Prince went outside. As always after drinking Isaac’s blood on a new moon night, he was heading to a puddle or pond somewhere to wash his blood-and-sweat-soaked body.

Hearing the retreating footsteps eventually get cut off by the sound of the iron door closing, Isaac lay sprawled out as if dead.

He was dizzy. He must have lost too much blood. Even though it was the Great New Moon, when he should have been overflowing with more vitality than usual, he couldn’t put any strength into his body.

“……”

As Isaac lay there with his eyes closed, finding it too exhausting even to blink, he forced his eyes open at the faint clink of metal coming from his side. Shifting only his eyes, he saw Hoden, who had approached right up to the bars and was peering inside, flinch and take a step backward.

“……, ……A-Are, ……Are you okay?”

Despite his reluctant demeanor, Hoden didn’t take his eyes off Isaac and mumbled his question. Restlessly watching Isaac with a worried gaze, this was the naive and mild Hoden from when they used to share a room. He was the same guy who, while keeping his distance and shunning the Isaac who returned as a witch, also stole pitiful glances at him.

Having witnessed him being bitten and terrifyingly drained of blood by the Prince right before his eyes, Hoden seemed deeply shocked, continually muttering, “God, oh God.”

“A-no matter if you’re a witch, such cruel treatment……”

Isaac stared blankly for a while at Hoden, who paced back and forth in front of the cell not knowing what to do. Suddenly, a warmth spread through his chest.

‘I see. He still worries about me.’

Letting out a weak breath and smiling, Isaac closed his eyes again, when Hoden, looking conflicted and hesitant, carefully spoke to him.

“W-what…… should I bring you some medicine? Damn it, what kind of medicine is a witch supposed to apply for something like this?”

Hoden muttered while biting his nails. At that moment, a thought suddenly flashed through Isaac’s mind. ‘……Maybe. ……No, it might be dangerous. ……But there’s no other way. Or time.’

Isaac, who had been staring up at the stone ceiling for a moment, quietly opened his mouth.

“I think it’d be nice if I could smoke a cigarette. I think the pain would go away a bit if I did.”

“A cigarette? ……I don’t smoke……”

“There’s some in my room. It’s the annex, so just go up from here and it’s right next door. Go through the small door towards Blue Shadow Palace, and the room on the immediate right is the one I used. It should be in the inner pocket of my uniform.……And I’ll need a light, so my tinderbox too. There should be a small wooden box on the table along with a flint.”

Hoden hesitated and looked at Isaac. Though he had offered, he belatedly felt reluctant about associating with a witch, and even though the annex was right next door, he was uneasy about leaving his post even for a very short time.

“I guess not.” Isaac weakly closed his eyes and exhaled quietly. His pale face looked as if he could stop breathing at any second and it wouldn’t be strange. Blood was still seeping from the neck the Prince had bitten into. Teeth marks were carved everywhere.

Seeing that miserable state, Hoden frowned. Blinking for a moment and swallowing dryly, Hoden looked at the firmly locked iron bars and padlock, which no one but a monster like the Prince could ever bend, and then turned away.

“I-I’ll be right back. Just stay put.”

Even though he knew perfectly well Isaac couldn’t leave, Hoden emphasized the point and hurriedly ran out. Listening to the sound of those urgent footsteps fading away, Isaac opened his eyes. His heart began to pound heavily.

‘……Will I really be able to get my hands on the tinderbox without a hitch?’

‘What if someone had moved the tinderbox somewhere else in the meantime? Or what if he ran into someone else on the way and just borrowed a cigarette and a light? Or what if he tripped on the way back and broke the tinderbox?’

Perhaps due to his anxious and urgent state of mind, all sorts of thoughts surfaced.

‘Please. Please let it reach my hands safely.’

“……”

Isaac let out a long sigh and covered his face with his hands. It was exhausting. His body was tired, yes, but his mind was far more exhausted.

‘Yes, I have to go.’

‘Must I absolutely cross over to the Land of the Dark Moon? Couldn’t I just keep staying here? That witch’s curse—if the person afflicted by it was holding onto him, and the curse couldn’t be broken because he couldn’t leave for the Land of the Dark Moon, it wouldn’t be his fault. So wouldn’t it be okay to pretend ignorance and stay?’

Those thoughts arose in Isaac’s mind several times a day.

There was no way he could leave without any lingering attachments. This was where he had been born and raised his entire life. Of course he wanted to stay.

And by that Prince’s side, too. Even if he couldn’t be right next to him, it would be nice to live in the same world and catch a glimpse of him from afar every now and then.

He never knew that liking someone could be such an agonizingly tender emotion. He wanted to do everything for him. If that person could be happy, he felt he could give him anything. Even if nothing returned to him.

‘That is precisely why——I must go.’

The Prince possessed a deep-rooted hatred for witches, and even if the curse was lifted now, the hatred he had harbored for so long wouldn’t be forgotten.

Isaac wanted the Prince to live with a peaceful and relaxed mind. He wanted him to forget hatred entirely. For that to happen, there shouldn’t be anything around to remind him of those memories.

“I suppose a witch like me shouldn’t be by his side……”

Isaac murmured weakly. The words, smothered in a sigh, didn’t even make it out of his mouth. Suddenly, exhaustion seemed to crush his entire body even more heavily, and he went limp, draping his arm across his forehead. His consciousness felt like it was going to drop completely away.

Then, faintly reaching his ears, the thin cry of a cat.

“……”

They keep crying, not even letting a guy get a moment of shut-eye. Isaac ended up forcing his heavy body upright. His already gloomy heart grew even heavier. His heart beat anxiously, too.

‘Somehow.’

‘Somehow, I had to get out. I had to go to the Crescent Moon-Silver Boat. Even if just for those three.’

The night was deepening. The sun must have set by now, and the dark night had fallen. Somewhere in this pitch-black night with no moon, the Crescent Moon-Silver Boat must have touched down. Only for tonight.

“Why is he so late……”

Isaac muttered anxiously, peering out through the bars. Quite some time seemed to have passed since Hoden left, but there was still no sign of him returning. Perhaps due to his urgency, it felt like dozens of minutes had passed, even though in reality it had probably only been a few minutes.

Did something really happen? Maybe he couldn’t find the tinderbox, or ran into the wrong person. What if the Prince comes back first? It really felt like the Prince might arrive first. It wouldn’t take that long to dip his body in the pond right in front of the Blue Shadow Palace and come back out.

He couldn’t remember when he had ever been this nervous and anxious. Clamping his hands over his ears, where the cat cries still seemed to cling, Isaac let out a low groan, “Ughhhh.”

Right at that moment. The sound of the iron door opening rang out.

Isaac flinched and raised his head.

‘Who could it be? Is it Hoden, or did the Prince really come back first?’

As Isaac anxiously listened to the sounds outside, the rapid *tap-tap-tap* of running footsteps reached his ears. Hearing that light sound, a heavy wave of relief washed over Isaac, while his heart pounded wildly.

‘It’s Hoden. Did he really bring it? What if he couldn’t find it?’

“Ah, Isaac, is this it……?”

Hoden suddenly appeared in view. Isaac cast his gaze toward Hoden’s hands as he approached the bars.

In one hand, a cigarette box, and in the other——the tinderbox.

His heart leaped in an instant.

No doubt about it. The magical tinderbox.

“Uh…… yeah, thanks.”

Isaac suppressed his wildly beating heart and spoke with as nonchalant a look as possible. As Isaac reached his hand out through the bars, Hoden handed him the cigarette box and the tinderbox. From inside the tinderbox, the flint could be heard rolling around.

‘Finally found it. I got it back. Now I can get out of here.’

“Thanks, Hoden. But did it take you a long time to find it? Why were you so late?”

“No, I found both right away, but I ran into a servant on the way out and had to greet them.……They looked at me weirdly for bringing this out, so I told them you asked for it and I was bringing it to you…… It is yours, right?”

Hoden asked confirmingly, as if thinking he might be misunderstood as stealing someone else’s property. Isaac nodded, then froze.

“Uh, yeah. It’s mine.……. You ran into a servant?”

Hoden nodded and scratched his head. He didn’t have a very pleasant expression, perhaps feeling reluctant once again about conversing with a witch, or showing a witch the mercy of a smoke. He also seemed belatedly worried that he might get severely punished for it.

And Isaac shut his mouth. Hearing that Hoden had run into a servant gave him a bad feeling. The Prince had said he ordered Isaac’s belongings to be left exactly as they were. If that was the case, if someone took those belongings out, even something trivial would probably be reported up the chain. Probably right around now.

“——.”

A sudden surge of anxiety struck Isaac, and he tried to pull the hand holding the tinderbox back inside the bars, but *clunk,* it snagged on the iron bars.

The box was just slightly larger than the gap between the bars. By a tiny margin, less than half a finger’s length, the tinderbox caught on the bars and wouldn’t come through.

‘Damn it……,’ Isaac clicked his tongue. He tried changing the angle to pull it in, but it caught no matter which way he turned it. Panic set in.

“It won’t go in. ……Give it here. I’ll light it for you.”

Hoden, who had been watching from a step away with a reluctant look, stole a glance at Isaac and reached out his hand. As Hoden took hold of the tinderbox again, Isaac quickly shook his head.

“No, it’s fine. It’s hard to light and requires a trick, so I have to do it.…… Ah, I can just put it through here.”

The iron bars that the Prince had bent and then straightened out earlier were spread just slightly wider than the others. Isaac shifted over to that spot and pulled the tinderbox. However, it caught minutely here too. By the length of a fingernail, very minutely.

Isaac grew increasingly frantic. Just a little, if it was just a little wider it would work. Isaac pulled the iron bars with all his might, but they didn’t budge. It felt like a lie that the Prince had bent them so easily earlier.

“Let me just try lighting it……”

Hoden said, giving Isaac an uncertain look as he struggled to pry the bars apart, but Isaac just shook his head and hung onto the bars. It just needed to spread a tiny bit more. Truly just a fingernail’s width, no, half a fingernail.

His heart pounded harder and harder. It had come to his hands, he was holding it right now, yet he couldn’t bring it in. He had to hurry.

Just then,

*——Clang.*

The sound of the iron door opening rang out. Isaac’s heart plummeted.

Rough footsteps grew closer. Heavy strides rapidly approached.

Isaac reflexively turned his gaze. Beyond the bars, from the other side of the hallway, he caught sight of the man approaching almost at a run.

The Prince.

The Prince was striding this way with a freezing aura.

Perhaps having just emerged from submerging his body in the water and coming straight here, water was dripping from his body. Droplets of water beaded and rolled off his face, which was hardened with a terrifying expression.

At that moment, Isaac locked eyes with the Prince.

The Prince’s gaze, having seen Isaac, dropped downward. To Isaac’s hand reaching out through the bars. He saw the tinderbox Isaac was desperately trying to pull in through the gaps.

In that instant, the Prince’s expression hardened.

He had finally realized.

What Isaac had brought out of the King’s royal treasury was not the ‘gold coins’ that filled a small, battered box. It was the ‘small, battered box’ holding the gold coins.

“DON’T GIVE IT TO HIM!”

The Prince’s shout echoed loudly throughout the dungeon.

Hoden, who had been bewilderedly watching the Prince approach with a terrifying face, flinched and hunched his shoulders. And the moment he heard that shout, Isaac, who had been frozen locking eyes with the Prince, frantically yanked the tinderbox.

It caught on the bars and wouldn’t come in. It felt like just a tiny bit wider would do, but the very edge of the corner was minutely caught. ‘Please.……Please.’

The Prince’s steps quickened. No, he was running. The distance between them closed in a flash.

Reaching the front of the cell where Isaac was imprisoned, the moment the Prince reached out his hand and was just about to snatch the box,

“——!!!” 

Isaac tumbled backward. Clutching the box he had blindly yanked with all his might. The tinderbox, its corner slightly chipped off, slipped through the iron bars and fell into Isaac’s embrace.

The Prince’s face hardened fiercely. He immediately grabbed the iron bars and pulled. *Screeeech,* the bars that hadn’t budged at all a moment ago slowly began to pry apart.

Isaac quickly scrambled up. Scrambling backward urgently, he opened the tinderbox. The moment Isaac grabbed the flint in his hand——as if sensing something, the Prince’s face froze solid. With a desperate look like someone cornered at the edge of a cliff, the Prince shouted, “STOP!!!” And simultaneous with that shout, Isaac struck the flint.

*——Shessh.*

A spark flew from the flint. The tinderbox Isaac hugged in one arm trembled faintly. *Wooooo——* a low resonance began to spread through the air. The flint glowed bluish, igniting tiny flames. It felt as if the low, massive roar of a giant beast could be heard faintly from somewhere far away.

The Prince, and Hoden, saw the flint spewing blue flames from outside the bars. Next to Hoden, who stared in dumbfounded shock with wide eyes, the Prince’s face hardened ever darker.

Isaac knew, without anyone having to tell him, that now was the time to state his wish. In place of the tinderbox’s messengers, who could not come here, directly to the tinderbox itself.

“For the cats——for the three brothers of Gregoroborius, the masters of the tinderbox, to be freed.”

The moment Isaac whispered, the flint erupted in a blinding flash, like a massive explosion. His vision turned completely white as if struck by lightning. The light that flashed dazzlingly, as if illuminating the entire underground dungeon, vanished like a lie in the next instant.

It was an incredibly brief, fleeting moment. Like waking from a dream, no trace remained there. Neither the flame, nor the blinding light.

However, Isaac knew that his wish had been fulfilled. The flint in his hand was trembling faintly. Vibrating very softly and gently, letting out a low hummmm. It felt as if it were saying, ‘Your wish, has been granted’, so Isaac quietly clutched the stone.

Right then, *Screech——,* a metallic groan rang from the iron bars.

Isaac flinched and looked up to see the Prince prying the bars apart. Every time he gripped the bars and yanked with all his might, the bars bent with a *screech, screech.*

He had to hurry. He couldn’t delay even a fraction of a second.

Isaac hastily struck the flint, *Shessh——,* once again the moment the bluish spark flew,

The spark instantly turned into a massive blaze, swelling as if to engulf everything inside the cell,

And a colossal tiger revealed itself from within.

A tiger radiating a pitch-black gleam from its entire body, with eyes as large as a tower.

「I will grant your wish. What do you desire?」

The tiger, filling the entire cell, pushed its head toward Isaac and asked. Hearing that low, majestic voice, Isaac stared intently at the tiger and then threw his arms around its neck.

“——, you got out safely.”

Isaac whispered. It had only been a few days since he last saw them, but his chest grew hot.……Though he ended up yelping, “OW, THAT STINGS!!” when the beast licked its rough, broad tongue up Isaac’s face.

Then again, *Screech——,* a harsh metallic sound rang out. Turning his head, the iron bars were heavily bent; it looked like with just one more pull, a person could step inside.

Through the bars, he locked eyes with the Prince. The Prince was looking at Isaac with a hardened face. In that fierce gaze that looked almost like a glare, an urgent and precarious light flickered. So unlike the man.

Isaac’s gaze was stolen for a moment by that unfamiliar expression.

At that moment, the Prince slammed his body against the bars once more, and *Screech——,* the bars bent massively enough for a person to pass through. The Prince’s steps entered inside.

Isaac’s heart pounded heavily in an instant. ——No.

“Take me,” Isaac clung tightly to the tiger’s neck. “Take me to where the Crescent Moon-Silver Boat is.”

Isaac spoke.

That was Isaac’s final wish.

The three wishes the tinderbox granted to Isaac would end with that. And, that wish was absolutely bound to come true.

The Prince crossed through the bars and reached out his hand toward Isaac.

And then,

「The third wish, I shall grant.」

The tiger’s voice echoed, and simultaneously, the surrounding area was engulfed in a blinding light like lightning. A light so intense and bright that he couldn’t keep his eyes open wrapped around Isaac and the tiger, and through narrowed eyes, Isaac saw the objects around him instantly blurring.

And amidst that, he saw the Prince just reaching Isaac.

The Prince’s fingertips brushed Isaac’s face.

However, in that exact moment, the Prince’s hand passed through Isaac’s hazily turning transparent face——and the Prince, his expression devastatingly contorted, soon blurred into white in Isaac’s vision.

——ISAAC!!!

From beyond his already white-faded vision, it felt like he heard a heart-wrenching scream loudly calling his name from afar.