Chapter 10

“…I really must be losing my mind.”

Hearing voices now? I should look into getting some tonic medicine, he thought. With that, he reached for the cat again. Just as his fingers brushed its fur, the animal—which had been motionless—sprang into action. It lunged off Isaac’s shoulder, bounded onto the table, whipped its tail against the oil lamp, and vaulted onto the bookshelf. The lamp toppled, the flame extinguished, and the room plunged into sudden, total darkness.

Isaac remained rooted to the spot.

The abrupt shift to blackness momentarily blinded him.

It was the new moon.

A night devoid of moonlight.

Beyond the glass, only thin, jagged fragments of starlight glittered in the void.

Slowly, Isaac’s eyes acclimated, and the stars re-emerged one by one. There was no moon in the sky, only the vast expanse of the cosmos. The celestial spot where the moon should have resided was now a hollow, absolute black.

A witches’ night.

Isaac’s heart hammered against his ribs.

It was a bizarre night.

He always felt buoyant, almost intoxicated, during the new moon, but this sensation was sharper, more volatile.

His heart surged with a nameless anxiety.

As he stared at the pitch-black sky in a daze, a low cry reached his ears. The cat, which had moved to his feet without his detection, let out a faint mew. Now that he reflected on it, was this not the first time he had truly heard the creature cry? As Isaac lowered his gaze, the cat on the bed stared back and let out its own mew.

As if taking a cue, the third one on the table joined the chorus, one by one.

The three cats shrieked in Isaac’s direction. They vocalized in a rhythmic sequence, as if engaging in a structured conversation.

“What’s going on here?”

Isaac whispered the question, his eyes wide as he pivoted between them. His mind scrambled for an explanation, yet the only conclusion that held any weight was grounded in their obvious intent. He sighed.

“What? Are you hungry? Fine, fine, I hear you, you gluttonous little beggars.”

At his dismissive remark, the cats erupted into a chaotic, enraged clamor. Desperate to silence them, Isaac navigated toward the cupboard. Finding sustenance within the dark recess near the doorway—a space devoid of starlight and tucked away from the window—proved to be an arduous task. He fumbled for bread, discarded it, grabbed dried meat, realized the salt content was dangerous, and replaced it. He repeated this cycle several times.

“I need to light the lamp first.”

He retreated to the table, grasping the lamp. He was just rotating toward the kitchen to transfer an ember to the wick when the cat perched on the table vaulted down. It planted itself firmly before his feet and dropped something from its mouth with a dull THUD.

THUD

It was a stone—the very one that had been rolling forgotten in the corner of the table for days. As Isaac stared, bewildered by this sudden offering, another cat approached and deposited a scrap of metal with a sharp CLATTER. When he identified the jagged, rusted piece that had been abandoned in the corner, the memory of the steel these creatures had previously dragged to him flooded back.

CLATTER

“…”

What are these things? They are absolutely terrifying.

Isaac studied the cats with a blend of profound suspicion and revulsion. How many humans had they extorted to hone their wits to this unnerving degree? He was paralyzed by genuine fear when their cacophonous meowing compelled him to snatch up the flint and steel. Fine, whatever. They likely intended for him to illuminate the room and produce food. He would feed them, evict them, secure the locks, and finally sleep. He positioned a fragment of oiled paper as tinder and struck the steel.

CLICK

At that exact instant, the world before him buckled.

“…what?”

In the thick darkness, his vision shimmered, as if a layer of heated haze were undulating before his eyes.

Isaac steadied the hand that held the steel. Perhaps it was a hallucination; the darkness remained undisturbed, heavy and still. He really did require tonic medicine. Now, he was suffering from untimely dizzy spells.

He struck the steel again.

Sparks showered, and that sickening sensation returned, his sight warping like a reflection in a disturbed pond, yet he did not yield. The cats were one concern, but he needed to eat before he collapsed.

Finally, the spark ignited the tinder.

The room flooded with amber light. Amid a lingering distortion, as if the very air were swaying, Isaac hoisted the lamp and turned.

“Now then, I’ll feed you, so hurry up and be gone—”

His voice died in his throat. Where the cats had stood, three tigers crouched, staring at him. One possessed eyes as massive as teacups; the second, eyes as vast as windmill wheels; and the third, eyes as enormous as stone towers.

“…”

Impossible. I am clearly dreaming with my eyes wide open. No, surely I have just drifted into a slumber. My constitution has been so frail lately; it would be unremarkable if I succumbed to fatigue without realizing it. This is a dream. How else could one justify this grotesque reality?

The three beasts locked their gaze upon him. Those enormous, glowing eyes seemed oddly familiar. Just as the thought manifested, a voice resonated through the room.

「You are Kali’s son, aren’t you?」

The sound was impossible—at once a sharp whisper directly against his ear and an echo rolling from beyond distant mountains. Isaac stared, paralyzed, as the beast directly in front of him articulated the words.

A beat later, the gravity of the name hit him.

「You look exactly like her.」

「You do.」

The other beasts took turns, and each time, that resonant, otherworldly sound reached his core. Then, their voices surged in like a tide.

「She was beautiful, from a respectable family, and clever, too. How did that girl end up marrying a human and suffering so much?」

「For a human, he was decent-looking. She always did care about appearances, even in her youth.」

「What good is that? Humans have wretchedly short lifespans to begin with.」

「Humans never last. A hundred years at most.」

「Then what about this one? Does he only have another seventy years left, too?」

「He’ll live longer than his father, at least. Half-baked or not, a witch is still a witch.」

「They say Kali crossed over to the Land of the New Moon and spends every day bragging about how the son she left in this world looks exactly like her, and how pretty and clever he is. Is she scamming everyone far too openly simply because no one is there to check?」

「Leave her be. Her father was so delighted that his runaway daughter returned home that he would have nodded along even if she told him to brew soybean paste from red beans.」

Isaac, who had been staring in stunned silence, slowly anchored himself back in reality.

Yes.

This was a dream.

A dream brought on by the new moon.

But it was a welcome dream.

Even if only a fantasy, hearing that his mother was living happily in that distant realm filled Isaac with a tender, aching warmth.

Mom, you always scolded me for being slow and absentminded because I took after Father.

Once he accepted the nature of the dream, the tension bled from his shoulders. Isaac scrutinized the giant-eyed beasts for a moment, then spoke.

“You lot… You are the cats, aren’t you?”

The beasts flinched in unison, their fur bristling along their spines.

「W-what, what, what!」

「So what if we are!」

They roared in outrage, as if he had stepped on their tails, glaring at him with eyes that expanded until they dominated his view. It was a grotesque display, yet Isaac felt a surge of resolve. I knew it. He planted his feet firmly. In a dream, why should a cat turning into a tiger be difficult? More importantly, no other creature possessed eyes of such absurd proportions. If they were mere cats, they were not truly terrifying.

“You tiny things, why are you acting so large and talking down to me?”

「Tiny things? We are noble and elegant beings! How dare a lowly half-blood speak so to us!」

“If I am a half-blood, then what—are you all pure-blood witches?”

「Of course!」

「Not merely pure-blood, either. We are the magnificent and holy three brothers of the prestigious Gregorovorius family!」

「Lowly thing, now that you know whom you serve, prostrate yourself and worship us at once!」

The jangling, chattering cacophony sounded disturbingly familiar.

Isaac paused, the realization settling over him like a shroud: these were the very entities that had been yammering incessantly in his dreams night after night.