Chapter 51

The darkest place is often found directly beneath the lamp.

Isaac watched the three cats sprawled on their bellies in the cool shade of the tree beside him. One dozed with narrowed, slit-like eyes; another rolled indolently through the grass; while the third groomed the back of his hand with obsessive, rhythmic focus.

“You know her?” Isaac asked.

「Of course.」

“Roverni’s witch?”

「Naturally. We are witches, too.」

Isaac blinked at the creatures, unsettled by their chilling, preternatural composure. “Then why didn’t you tell me?”

「You never asked.」

Isaac’s eyes narrowed into thin, dangerous slits. His freshly groomed hand moved with lightning speed to seize the cat’s whiskers. “Oh, you little monsters. You pretty little things. What am I supposed to do with you?”

Hiss!

The cat reacted with venomous intensity, launching a sharp, retaliatory kick. Its claws raked four bright lines across the back of Isaac’s hand, drawing beads of fresh, crimson blood.

「I warned you that anyone who lays hands on me after being dazzled by my beauty will receive a severe rebuke!」 Glaring at him with eyes as wide as lanterns, the creature aggressively licked its paw.

“Ow, ow…” Isaac shook his stinging hand, watching as the second cat lazily raised its head to lick the fresh scratches. “So, who is she? What kind of person is Roverni’s witch? I realize she isn’t human, but you catch my meaning.”

「A wicked bitch.」 The response was so brutally concise that Isaac fell silent, absorbing the weight of the insult.

Witches were, by their very nature, cruel and malevolent entities. They might occasionally offer aid to humans, but their default state remained one of unadulterated malice.

「She was rotten from childhood. I knew what she was like from the moment she roasted Eleanor’s beloved hellhound whole and fed it to her,」 one of them declared.

「And what about the time she skinned Hetisha, whom everyone praised, and burned her pelt?」 another added.

The trio began chattering over one another, raising a cacophony of grievances.

「Fortunately, she has now been banished from the Land of the New Moon and can never return. Once we cross over, we will not have to see her again.」

Isaac arched an eyebrow. “What did she do to get herself banished?”

All three cats turned their gazes toward him in perfect, haunting synchronicity. The sheer weight of those enormous, luminous eyes forced Isaac to clamp his mouth shut.

「She did what must never be done.」

“What?” Isaac pressed.

「She purchased her own life with the lives of other witches.」

Isaac fell into a grim silence.

The cats’ eyes gleamed with a strange, unnatural brightness. Alikisa, Roverni’s witch, had been born with an abundance of potent magic. Vicious by nature, she was a flawless witch in every regard, yet she treated her own kind with such profound malice that she became universally loathed. Because of her immense power, however, no one dared to confront her directly.

Alikisa delighted in tormenting humans, plunging them into bottomless misery as she moved at will between the human world and the Land of the New Moon. A little over a century ago, during the height of the great witch hunts, she was finally snared in a trap set by a powerful human magician.

To secure her own survival, she betrayed her kin, selling the magician information on every witch hiding within the human realm. Countless sisters perished because of that single act. For that transgression, Alikisa was cast out of the Land of the New Moon and exiled to a permanent existence among humans.

“So then she joined forces with Roverni?” Isaac scratched the bridge of his nose, contemplating the practicality of the alliance. Roverni was, after all, a hidden titan of the human world.

The cats snorted in unison. 「As if. Why would our noble kind bargain with some inferior human? Someone as proud as Alikisa would never deal directly with a human she considered no better than an insect.」

「A magician might barely possess the qualifications to serve as one of our vassals, so perhaps she might grant a contract to one of those.」

“Oh, you pretty little—” Isaac lunged for their whiskers again, but all three darted away with fluid grace before he could land a finger on them. Sighing, Isaac turned his thoughts to the sigil he had witnessed the previous night. The mark that had flickered as the corpse crumbled had undoubtedly belonged to the Guildmaster.

The connection was now blindingly clear: Roverni was tethered to the Guildmaster, and the Guildmaster was tethered to the witch. “They say the Guildmaster never leaves his private laboratory in the palace. When did he meet a witch? Don’t contractors normally have to meet regularly?”

Even for a genius like the Guildmaster, maintaining clandestine contact with a witch inside the royal wing—a space crawling with master magicians—would be impossible without drawing unwanted scrutiny.

The cats rolled their eyes. 「Why would they meet separately when they are always together?」

“Always together?”

「They use the same body.」

Isaac blinked, but the cats only stared back, unimpressed.

「He does not know. Why does he not know something every witch knows? It must be because our Muddlehead is only half a witch. Tsk, tsk.」

After deftly avoiding another grab, they deigned to explain. 「Alikisa has no body. The witches who died because of her betrayal cursed her as they breathed their last, and curses have a nasty habit of attaching themselves to flesh. To evade them, Alikisa hid her original body in a place so deep and secret that even the curses could not locate it.」

「She exists by dwelling inside the bodies of others, using them as living vessels.」

Isaac stared at the cat, who spoke of gruesome possession as if discussing a change of wardrobe. “Inside the Guildmaster’s body?” he asked.

「Her situation is not easy, either.」

「A human body is far too weak to contain a witch’s soul for long. She will probably have to change bodies again soon. Yesterday, the breath coming through the corpse when she used magic smelled rank and fishy. The human body she currently occupies must be almost completely rotten.」

The cats began to speculate on her next vessel with chilling nonchalance. There would be no shortage of greedy humans, making a replacement trivial to find; the only inconvenience was the frequency with which they had to switch. They described the process as casually as one might discuss a seasonal change in fashion.

Witches preyed upon human desire, and anyone foolish enough to succumb inevitably paid the ultimate price. Yet many sought contracts regardless, unable to resist the lure of their deepest, darkest yearnings.

“So, have you three ever met Roverni’s witch?”

「Of course.」

「Though we would prefer not to. It cannot be helped. Every witch must attend the Grand Banquet held just before the Great New Moon. We have to see her once every seven years.」

「Though we would prefer not to.」

The Grand Banquet. Isaac remembered his mother speaking of it in hushed tones when he was young. Every witch in the human world was compelled to attend, gathering at midnight on the new moon preceding the Great New Moon to gorge on human flesh and blood until the sun rose.

“Is Roverni’s witch the strongest left in the human world?” Isaac asked.

「We are far nobler than she is! We are the magnificent and sacred three brothers of the illustrious House Gregorovorius!」

“Then who is the strongest?” he pressed.

「She is. The wicked thing possesses nothing but strength.」

Every word dripped with sharp, unadulterated resentment. Isaac clicked his tongue, sensing their lingering fear.

「Oh, I do not want to see her. Once we cross into the Land of the New Moon, we will never have to see her again. Let us cross quickly. Let us leave at once.」

「So hurry and bring us the tinderbox.」

「「「Bring it. Bring it. Bring it.」」」 The cats broke into a deafening, insistent chorus of demands.