Chapter 87

Isaac continued staring with his mouth open. She unquestionably looked like Elli, the same woman he had met earlier. Yet she seemed like an entirely different person. Her sharp, irritable tone, her sulky and dissatisfied face, and the restless anxiety in her movements bore no resemblance to the woman Isaac knew.

“…Elli?”

At Isaac’s quiet murmur, the young woman turned from glaring anxiously at Kaiyan’s back. She thrust out her lips and glared at Isaac as well, another expression entirely unlike anything he had seen from her. Still, she clearly recognized him.

“We meet again, Sir Guard.”

If she said that, she could hardly be anyone else. Isaac blinked at her, then turned toward the tiger. The beast raised its nose with immense pride.

「She locked the door and refused to come, so I broke it down and carried her here!」

「Now, introduce yourselves. You already know one another, don’t you? This is Isaac, and this is Elli. This one is an exceptionally tasty half-breed, and this one is a dream demon who has been around for quite a long time.」

The introduction irritated Isaac, but he had no attention to spare for it. He stared at Elli, released a long breath, and pressed his fingers against his temples. Meanwhile, Elli began quietly edging backward, but the tiger stepped directly behind her and blocked her path.

「Why do you keep trying to leave? You liked him, didn’t you?」

“That was when I thought he was prey!”

When did I become that woman’s prey without realizing it? Before Isaac’s stunned eyes, the cats began chattering.

「What does it matter? Stay for a little while. He may allow you one bite.」

「He’s rather simple-minded. Flatter him properly, and he might allow two.」

Without looking at them, Isaac smacked the backs of their heads in quick succession. “Isn’t he that one’s prey?” Elli, still watching Isaac warily, gestured with her chin. Isaac followed her gaze, wondering whose prey he had become now. Kaiyan stood at the end of it.

“…Lord Kaiyan? Not at all.” Isaac shook his head firmly.

Elli narrowed her eyes, her gaze sharp with skepticism. “Are you certain? That cannot be right. He looked ready to kill me the moment I so much as pretended to touch his prey.”

Isaac lifted both hands, offering a placating assurance. “Surely you misunderstood. That is absolutely not the case. He occasionally drinks my blood, but we never signed any sort of exclusive contract.”

Elli’s suspicious expression remained etched on her face. As she began to edge backward, the tiger lunged, clamping its jaws around her head.

Snarl!

She yanked herself free with an irritated cry. “I said I don’t want to! He frightens me. I don’t even want to remain anywhere he might notice me. I want to avoid even the slightest possibility of becoming entangled with him!”

「Now, now, young lady. Rest here for a moment. Don’t you trust your elder brother?」 the tiger rumbled.

“Would you trust yourself?” Elli retorted, shaking the tiger’s saliva from her hair. Even then, her gaze kept drifting back toward Kaiyan.

「Perhaps our Muddlehead should be more careful.」

「Indeed. Dream demons possess exceptionally keen instincts. The handsome one might truly be waiting for an opportunity to chew Muddlehead into tiny pieces.」

The cats chattered amongst themselves, the third having already transformed back into human form to join the others. Isaac stared up at the starry sky, wondering where his life had taken such a disastrous turn. He did not recall living so recklessly that everyone should treat him as a meal. Then again, given how regularly he supplied his blood to Kaiyan, perhaps the description was not entirely inaccurate. Isaac sighed, raking a hand through his hair.

“Hmph. I wondered why you smelled far too delicious for an ordinary human. You’re a half-breed? Even accounting for that, your scent is unusually good. Are you some sort of mutation?” Elli looked at him with palpable displeasure, leaned closer, and twitched her nose. Her neck seemed to lengthen slightly as she inhaled. “…Why do you smell this delicious?”

The three cats sitting in a row beside her began to drool.

“You little monsters. Swallow that saliva!” Isaac tore up a handful of grass and flung it at them. Elli drew back, smacking her lips beneath the force of his sudden irritation.

“Tsk. If you’re a witch, you were never my prey in the first place.” The regret in the gaze sweeping over Isaac was unmistakable.

He looked at her uneasily. “I can’t offer you all of me, but if you help me, I’ll let you take one bite.”

“You’re a witch. What good would that do? I can’t enter your dreams.”

“…? Dream demons cannot enter a witch’s dreams?”

Isaac turned toward the cats. They were jumping about, swiping at the grass fluttering through the air. Without looking at him, they replied,

「Of course not. What witches experience while sleeping is not a dream. It is instinct.」

「While asleep, a witch sees what she desires, what someone else desires of her, or what will happen in the future.」

「You still didn’t know? Honestly, Muddlehead, what do you know?」

「As expected, he cannot survive without us. Noblesse oblige.」

Isaac stared suspiciously at the cats as they solemnly spouted nonsense, then looked toward Elli. She also seemed surprised that he had been so ignorant.

“But I’ve had dreams before. Not often, but sometimes.”

“You merely failed to realize they were not dreams.” Elli’s response to Isaac’s defensive explanation was decisive.

“No. Even quite recently, I…” Isaac stopped. He remained with his mouth open, blinking. The last dreams he could remember had come repeatedly, one after another: vivid, indecent dreams filled with lust.

“What? Did you have some sort of troubling dream?” Elli watched Isaac’s face begin to heat, her question laced with subtle interest. When he failed to answer, she examined him carefully and abruptly asked, “Did you dream about sleeping with someone? Who?”

Dream demons truly do possess frightening intuition. Isaac’s face flared hot, and his eyes dropped immediately to the ground. Elli murmured, “Aha,” as though her suspicion had been confirmed, and smiled wickedly.

Something I desire. Something another person desires of me. Or something that will happen in the future. Isaac counted the possibilities, then shook his head. No. None of the three. Yet, if he absolutely had to choose the most plausible one, perhaps the first…

“You must have someone you like,” Elli said. The words struck Isaac like a physical blow to the heart. It felt as though she had pierced the center of something he himself had never recognized.

He reflexively tried to deny it, but the words died in his throat. Impossible. There’s no way. The denial circled the tip of his tongue, yet something deep inside him stopped it. Then, that hidden realization slowly spread upward until it reached his mind.

Good God. Good God.

It seemed to be true. The realization arrived with such sudden, undeniable clarity that it became stranger that he had failed to understand until now. Isaac felt as though a storm had swept him away, his entire face growing unbearably hot.

“Who is it? A human?” Elli scrutinized him. Still dazed, Isaac nodded without thinking. She waved a hand before his blank face, then scoffed in disbelief. “You live such an innocent, youthful life. You’re a witch. Why are you turning red merely because you dreamed about mating? Just pounce on him.”

Isaac continued shaking his head while Elli mocked him, clearly finding the sight offensive.

“Why? Are you a devout believer?”

“No, not particularly…”

Is it true? Do I like him? Enough to dream such things about him, even if they were not truly dreams? Looking back, perhaps he had. From the moment Kaiyan’s beauty first left him speechless. From the moment Isaac began wishing merely to stay beside him. From the moment his presence had begun to feel familiar, even comfortable. From all the times Isaac looked at him and became inexplicably sad.

Good God.

Isaac’s knees lost their strength, and he sank to the ground. He clutched his head with a groan.

Elli gave him a bizarre sidelong look. “Why is he suddenly performing some private tragedy?”

The cats stared at Isaac with narrowed eyes.

「Indeed.」

「Why could that be?」

「We simply cannot imagine.」

“What’s wrong? Did you eat something strange? Or did you discover that the human you love is your half sibling, your closest friend’s lover, or the married woman next door?”

“…No. Nothing like that.” Isaac looked at her with mild horror. What sort of scandalous tragedies has she witnessed during her life as a dream demon? Then again, the reality was hardly less disastrous.

“It’s only… I can already see how painful it will be. His is a name I might die merely from calling,” Isaac murmured dejectedly. Perhaps he looked pitiful, because Elli clicked her tongue and crouched beside him.

“That is why witches should not love humans. Nothing comes from it but hurting each other. Enjoy whatever pleasure you can, eat what you want, and leave it at that. If you cannot, go to the Land of the New Moon.” She added, “I’m good at judging people because of my profession. With your personality, that would probably be easier.”

The three cats, which had been rolling their eyes in visible displeasure for some time, immediately joined in.

「Exactly. Hurry and find the tinderbox!」

「This is no time for romantic nonsense!」

「Do not waste your energy on that! You already need to conserve every scrap of vitality you possess!」

The cats had been sulking moments earlier, but now began yowling furiously. Elli looked at them as though wondering what had possessed them. “There are humans everywhere. If he needs vitality, he can simply drain some.”

「This fool cannot even drain vitality!」

「He cannot eat even when someone puts it directly in his mouth!」

Elli stared Isaac up and down as though she had just heard an absurdity. Only then did Isaac finally regain some of his composure. Right. That is not the important matter at present. He had something he needed to accomplish immediately.

“That is why I asked them to bring you. I need your help.”

“With that? What do you mean?”

“How do I drain vitality from a human?”

Elli stared at Isaac as though he had spoken an entirely unknown language. She had plainly heard the words but seemed incapable of understanding them. “What? What do you mean, how do you drain vitality?”

“Hm? Ah. Since dream demons feed through dreams, do you not know how to drain it directly?”

“What? No, of course I know. Direct feeding is much easier. We enter dreams because it is safer and makes escape simpler if something unexpected occurs.” She paused and stared at him. “Were you genuinely asking how to consume human vitality?”

Isaac nodded.

Elli tilted her head and regarded him, then answered in a doubtful tone, as though uncertain she had understood his question correctly. “What do you mean, how? You simply pull.”

“…”

“You just pull.”