Chapter 26

Despite his hazy mental state, the voices cut through the fog. Isaac rolled his eyes weakly to find the three beasts sitting neatly by the window. Three house-sized predators were packed into the frame, yet the window was so massive that there was still ample space. What a ridiculous window, Isaac thought in a dazed, useless observation. Perhaps thanks to the incessant chatter, the mouth finally retreated from his neck.

Kaiyan rose, lifting his frame from Isaac’s. His face entered Isaac’s view, hovering a handspan above, looking down with eyes of a clear, vivid blue. Seeing that the frantic, pain-clouded light had vanished from those pupils, Isaac exhaled a soundless breath. The prince was no longer in pain. That was enough.

At the very moment relief washed over him, the prince, who had been staring intently, pulled the corner of his mouth into a cruel smile.

“You seem to believe you’ve survived, witch’s child.”

The prince extended his hand, clamping it around Isaac’s throat with an unyielding grip. The pressure intensified, leaving no room for mercy. Isaac’s cervical bones groaned under the strain, and it felt as if Kaiyan was about to snap his neck like a dry twig. Isaac’s breath caught in his throat, his face contorting in a silent plea, but he remained motionless. Resistance or pleading would be futile against a man of this temperament; Kaiyan would act solely according to his own whims.

Their eyes locked. The blue gaze slowly swept across every inch of Isaac’s face, conducting a clinical examination. Finally, it settled back on Isaac’s eyes, which stared silently in return.

For an instant, the prince seemed to frown. Strength surged in the hand gripping Isaac’s neck.

Crack.

The bone groaned again, and at that moment, the prince released him. As Isaac choked and dragged in ragged breaths through his freed throat, the hand moved to his shoulder, showing no hesitation.

“Yes, I will keep you alive. But keeping you breathing is the extent of my obligation. I have no reason to concern myself with your comfort.”

With that callous dismissal, a wave of suffocating agony descended upon Isaac’s shoulder.

Snap.

Isaac’s vision oscillated between pitch black and blinding white, triggering a cold sweat that crawled down his spine like an insect. He lay paralyzed, drawing shallow, jagged breaths, until he finally registered the prince’s presence. Kaiyan shed his blood-drenched garments and submerged himself into the colossal bathtub—a basin the size of a private bathhouse that consumed an entire side of the room. It appeared as though Kaiyan had completely expunged Isaac from his consciousness.

THUD

One of the tigers by the window bounded forward, its rough tongue rasping against the weeping wounds on Isaac’s shoulder blade and nape.

「How does this fragile child manage to court such injury? That beauty treats his own vessel with such careless disregard.」

「Tsk, tsk. Whatever would he have managed without our intervention? Blessed, he truly is. Simply blessed.」

“…”

Isaac burned to retort, If it weren’t for you lot, I wouldn’t be in this miserable state in the first place, but he stifled the impulse, swallowing the venomous words. As the warm, sandpaper-rough tongue repeatedly glided over his skin, the lacerations on his neck and shoulder dissolved as if erased by a master’s enchantment. While this did nothing to soothe his drained soul, his physical shell was, at least, restored to perfection.

“I suppose even dog excrement has its medicinal uses,” Isaac muttered to himself, hoisting his body into a seated position.

Beside him, the tiger—which possessed an uncanny, infuriating intuition for insults hurled in its direction—hissed and bristled, its hackles raised. Yes, yes, you are a precious thing. Utterly precious. Isaac smoothed the fur back down with a sigh and rolled his shoulder to test the mend. In his peripheral vision, the prince climbed out of the tub with a thunderous splash.

Kaiyan spared Isaac, who had frozen mid-roll, only a fleeting, dismissive glance before stepping out of the basin in total silence. Water sluiced down his bare, powerful frame. In any other circumstance, an army of attendants would have swarmed the room with pristine linens, but the quarters were currently locked to all but them.

As the prince aggressively toweled off his skin and hair before donning a clean robe, Isaac sat as still as a stone, sweating profusely. He would be deeply grateful if Kaiyan continued to treat him as nothing more than a piece of inanimate furniture. Utterly, profoundly grateful.

“What magic did you employ?”

The low voice severed the tension in the air. Isaac flinched, locking his frame into place. He dared not move, his eyes tracking the prince’s movements until Kaiyan finally claimed the sofa.

“I am looking directly at your face, yet it remains obscured. It feels as though my mind simply refuses to render your features.”

Good.

The preemptive ward he had cast was functioning precisely as intended. Isaac felt a ripple of relief and managed to mutter, “If we happened to cross paths outside of this room, you would likely drag me away at once and bury me deep within a dungeon.”

Only after the words escaped his lips did he wonder if his tone sounded too sullen. He risked a glance, but Kaiyan appeared indifferent to his attitude. Instead, the man turned his head away.

“You must reside within proximity of the castle.”

Dammit.

“And yet, I rarely conduct inspections of the capital.”

Double dammit.

Isaac clamped his mouth shut, sealing his fate behind locked teeth. Cold sweat slicked his spine as the prince’s narrowed gaze rested upon him with predatory precision. He reminded himself that he must never forget the nature of the man before him. Kaiyan was not merely a creature of cruelty and physical dominance; he was terrifyingly brilliant. Among his illustrious military accolades on the frontier, there were countless instances of impossible monster subjugations resolved through sheer tactical genius. There was, in fact, a dedicated curriculum at the university’s Department of Strategy and Tactics focused solely on deconstructing the cases he had resolved.

If Kaiyan were to press the investigation, what path would he choose? Isaac stiffened, frantically scouring his mind for a response that would avert a catastrophic error. He averted his gaze, held his breath, and prayed for silence.

Fortunately, the prince showed no inclination to continue the interrogation. The man shifted his focus, reaching for the velvet cord hanging beside the sofa. When the bell, intended to summon an attendant, failed to elicit a response, his gaze drifted toward the guard standing near the door.

“Ah, actually, there is a magical barrier currently in effect…”

Even without Isaac’s fumbling explanation, the prince seemed to grasp the reality of the situation. The guard, shimmering vaguely as if viewed through a heat haze, clearly remained oblivious to his command. Kaiyan touched his own throat with a light, contemplative motion. Perhaps he was simply thirsty.

Soon, however, that triviality proved irrelevant. He stared down at his own hand as he withdrew it from his neck. Although he had endured this during the last new moon, the absence of agony remained a surreal, alien sensation. He slowly flexed each finger, testing this strange new reality, before murmuring, almost to himself, “It feels like a dream.”

“If only that were the truth…”

If only it were a dream.

The melancholic thought slipped past Isaac’s lips before he could anchor it, and he shook his head, instantly regretting his lack of restraint. Sensing the prince’s sharpened gaze, Isaac flinched. Damn my tongue. It continues to run wild today. As Isaac pinched his lips together, the prince observed him with a chilling, analytical cool.

“If you possess magic of this magnitude, there should be rumors of your existence. Yet you remain remarkably cloaked. Perhaps you share an alliance with a high-ranking magician.”

Such whispers had persisted for generations. The gossip suggested that magicians sequestered witches, utilizing them as living batteries for arcane power or extracting knowledge directly from their blood.

Nevertheless, the suspicions were likely not entirely devoid of truth. In his youth, when his mother gathered with other witches, the names of friendly magicians had surfaced occasionally. During the frenzy of the witch hunts that had ravaged the kingdom, there were surely those betrayed by the magicians they trusted, but there must have also been those who survived under a protector’s shadow. Now, however, Isaac possessed no way to keep his ear to the ground; the news of his kind was as silent as the grave.

Isaac shook his head. “I am not acquainted with any magicians, Your Highness.”

“I have slaughtered countless witches, yet I have never encountered one with your specific regenerative capacity. With such ability, you should have a magician or two clinging to your shadow like leeches.”

The prince’s eyes swept over Isaac’s unblemished throat, then lingered on his shoulder, which now moved with perfect fluidity.

Isaac shook his head once more. “Healing is not my inherent power. If these things lick me, I simply mend…” He gestured vaguely toward the tigers perched in a row beside him.

The prince followed the motion, one eyebrow arching slightly. “Those beasts are rather convenient, then.”

“Would you like them? Please, take all three.”

Isaac brightened instantly, prepared to offer the trio as a bundled set at the unbeatable price of free if Kaiyan would only relieve him of their presence. Beside him, all three let out a synchronized, phantom hiss.

So these wretches are happy to offer me as a sacrifice, but they refuse to be taken themselves. Damn them.

“If those creatures lick me, will the agony of the new moon vanish?” the prince asked, still observing the tigers with calculating eyes.

「Absolutely not!」

「It will not disappear. It certainly will not!」

「Of course not. We heal the flesh. The mechanism is entirely distinct from the agony caused by a curse!」

The three tigers roared in a dissonant, grating chorus. The prince remained unmoved, staring at them in icy silence for a long beat before turning away with a dismissive shrug.

“Useless creatures, then.”

「Of course, useless!」

「Indeed, entirely useless!」

The tigers clamored in immediate, jarring unison. As the realization of his insult sank in, their expressions soured; their rolling eyes sharpened into predatory, resentful glares. When Isaac spitefully echoed their own words, “Of course, useless,” they hissed in a fit of petty pique.

Isaac’s mood brightened by a fraction. Ignoring the tiger currently licking its paw with irritation, he addressed the prince with formal deference. “Then, since your business is concluded, may I be excused?”

The prince, occupied with rhythmically flexing his fingers, merely glanced at him without a word. Interpreting the indifferent silence as permission, Isaac turned back toward the tigers. “Let’s go.”

「「「…」」」

“Why are you just staring at me with those round eyes? I said let’s go.”

「It isn’t dawn yet.」

“What?”

「You said you’d stay for the night.」

「If you said you would stay for the night, then you must stay for the night.」