Chapter 12

The words escaped his lips before he could reel them in. A stray memory of laughing and drinking with his colleagues drifted through his consciousness. Only after the confession had slipped out in a fit of panic did Isaac belatedly lament the lack of more practical requests—a pretty wife, a modest house, perhaps some chickens. To have such a lecherous thought burst forth in the heat of the moment proved he was perhaps a shallower man than he had realized. His face burned with sudden, self-conscious heat.

When Isaac dared to lift his head, intending to retract the request in favor of something more sensible, the enormous beast had vanished into thin air.

“Huh? Wait, where did that one go…?”

「The second one?」

“What?”

「The second. You are required to strike it twice.」

The cat perched on the right side of the bed pointed a single, heavy paw at the steel in Isaac’s hand. Still scanning the room for the vanished titan, Isaac struck the flint against the steel twice in bewilderment.

CLICK

CLICK

As the small sparks flew, the cat on the right ballooned into an immense creature. It appeared slightly larger than the first, and its eyes were undoubtedly massive—dizzying, swirling orbs that resembled windmill wheels.

「What is it that you desire?」

Once again, that cavernous, subterranean voice rolled over Isaac. He stared blankly into those immense eyes, watching as the massive head tilted with a strange, predatory curiosity. Then, a sudden, helpless laugh bubbled up from his chest.

What kind of absurd dream was this? Still, it lacked the malice of a nightmare, and he found himself oddly entertained. Yes, it was just a dream. What did the consequences matter?

“Uh… right. I’m famished, so… give me a magnificent feast.”

Isaac spoke with uncharacteristic boldness from his rickety wooden chair, but no sooner had the words vanished into the air than the room warped around him.

Before him sat a vast, opulent table, groaning under the weight of extravagant delicacies from both land and sea. There were dishes he had craved for years but never possessed the wealth to sample, alongside exotic, unidentifiable wonders that smelled so divine they made his mouth water. Fragrant, spiced wines and fruit liquors glinted in the light; cakes that promised to dissolve upon his tongue sat beside frozen confections sparkling like polished jewels.

It was not merely the food.

Isaac’s humble room had undergone a complete transmutation; it now possessed the regal air of an imperial private chamber. The peeling wardrobe and dilapidated bed were gone, replaced by ornate, heavy furniture and carpets so vibrant and plush they seemed to absorb the very lamplight. Even the chair beneath him had shifted into a velvet-clad throne.

“…Whoa…”

What on earth was this? He had no inkling of what bizarre, otherworldly realm he had stumbled into.

As Isaac stood there, gaping at the banquet, his eyes caught the beast’s gaze. It stood guard beside the table, watching him with an expectant, almost curious air.

「Please, partake.」

The beast spoke with a layer of chillingly deliberate politeness.

Isaac nodded with a dazed, reflexive “uh” and turned his attention to the feast. The intoxicating, mouthwatering scents assaulted his empty stomach, and although he harbored a lingering, melancholy regret that this was all a fabrication of his sleeping mind, he reached out and snatched a roasted turkey leg. Who cares if it’s a dream? It’s a spectacular one. If I must wake, I hope it is only after the last crumb is gone.

With that resolve, Isaac began his assault on the parade of plates. The dream was so vivid he could taste every spice and savor every texture. He was busy marveling at the authenticity of the experience when his head suddenly snapped upward.

“Wait… Does this mean it’s actually going to deliver the most beautiful beauty in the kingdom?”

「The third? You are required to make the third wish as well.」

The final remaining cat ignored his question entirely. Swept along by the momentum of the situation, Isaac struck the steel three times. The cat swelled instantly, its head brushing against the ceiling as it stared down at him with tower-sized eyes.

「What is it that you desire?」

“Uh…”

Isaac hesitated, his mind a total blank. More than that, the thought that had surfaced a moment ago refused to fade.

Was he truly about to spend the night with the kingdom’s greatest beauty? Even if it were a dream, what was he supposed to do if a breathtaking woman were deposited in his room? Was he permitted to indulge in a fantasy this elaborate? Perhaps, he realized, he would wake the second she materialized. But he was eating this feast right now—there was no rule stating the beauty part couldn’t occur as well. If the dream persisted, and events took an improper turn…

Isaac’s chest tightened, and his pulse quickened. Compared to his fellow soldiers, he led a life of restraint, but he was still a young man, and his desires were very much alive. As Isaac flushed with a sudden, shy intensity, the beast loomed closer, watching him with the weary, all-knowing look of an entity that had seen every human failing under the sun. It pressed him again.

「I asked what it is that you desire.」

Because no sensible, rational wish came to mind, Isaac fumbled for an answer.

What should I wish for? Right, if a beauty is arriving, I should at least have jewels or flowers to offer her.

Having committed to that decision without deeper thought, Isaac began haltingly, “Then something that would make her happy—”

CRASH

The window burst open.

A violently powerful gale stormed into the room, tearing through the space like a freak typhoon, whipping the curtains into a frenzy and sending his new belongings fluttering. Isaac ducked low, shielding his face with a desperate hand.

Then, just as abruptly as it had begun, the wind vanished. The objects in the room remained undisturbed, resting exactly where they had been, as if the intrusion had never occurred.

And there, in the middle of it all, Isaac saw something that had not been there before.

A large beast stood in the center of the room.

The black beast, whose eyes were as large as teacups, was the same one that had appeared and vanished when Isaac struck the steel once. Now, it carried a person on its back.

“…”

It had brought the beauty.

Isaac understood that instinctively.

The beauty seemed unconscious.

Since it was already the middle of the night, it would not have been strange if she had been carried here while asleep. She lay draped across the beast’s back, limp and motionless. The beast’s long black fur hid her from clear view, but Isaac could at least see hair spilling down, shining as brilliantly as fine gold thread.

It was hair more beautiful than any he had ever seen. If the owner of such hair was not beautiful, that would be the impossible thing. Isaac pressed down on his violently pounding heart and found himself springing up from the table, walking toward the beast and the beauty.

At that moment, perhaps sensing Isaac’s presence, the beauty seemed to stir faintly. Though the small movement stopped midway, Isaac realized that she was not asleep. She was conscious.

Was she frightened? Of course she was. She had been abruptly carried here on a giant beast. She must be afraid.

Feeling sorry for her, Isaac spoke carefully, “Beautiful lady, don’t be frightened. As for me…”

Isaac was about to say, manfully and with dignity, that he was a young man of clear identity working for the royal guard and would never do anything to harm her. Before he could, the beauty slid weakly from the beast’s back and tumbled straight onto the carpet.

“Hey! Are you all right?”

Startled, Isaac ran to her side and knelt. The beauty sprawled face down on the floor, breathing with difficulty as if in pain and trembling in thin, intermittent spasms.

“No, wait, where does it hurt—”

Isaac froze halfway through his question as he gathered the beauty into his arms. Her thin robe was soaked through and clung to her body as if she had just come out of water. Apparently, she had been wearing only that single robe over her naked body, and every contour beneath it showed. Isaac blushed despite himself and turned his head away.

…But.

“…”

Wait. Something had felt strange just now. What was strange was…

Frowning in confusion, Isaac whipped his head back around. At that exact moment, the beauty reached out and seized his wrist, and Isaac flinched, his gaze dropping there.

He was startled.

The force gripping his wrist was shockingly strong. The hand itself was unexpectedly large, larger than Isaac’s own. But more than anything, that hand was drenched in reddish fluid.

And not only the hand.

Now that he looked, the beauty’s entire body gleamed with that reddish fluid.

What’s this…? This thin, red liquid that smells faintly of blood…

“…Sweat mixed with blood…?”

No sooner had Isaac murmured than the beauty gripping his arm slowly lifted their head. Disheveled blond hair clung to a sweat-soaked face. Through that hair, he saw eyes flickering somewhere between consciousness and delirium, and the instant his gaze met those terrifyingly blue eyes—

“…”

Isaac’s heart stopped.

He knew this person.

This was someone Isaac had never wanted to meet in such a private place. No, someone he should never have met like this in his entire life.

Prince Kaiyan.

Outside the window, the new moon had swallowed the night.

From inside the room, with its thick silk curtains, nothing could be seen. Beyond them, however, stars must have been shining ominously in the moonless night sky.

The new moon, when witches gained their greatest vitality.

And here, in Isaac’s room, was the man fated to writhe in agony through every new-moon night under the witches’ curse.

Indeed, Kaiyan seemed to be in dreadful pain. He could not even release a proper groan, could hardly move, and only shivered and convulsed from time to time. Blood-tinged cold sweat seeped reddish over his body, and bluish veins bulged across every rigid limb. Even his breathing seemed difficult; the occasional breaths that burst from him were rough and urgent, as if someone were strangling him.

The sight was so terrible it seemed to choke the viewer as well.

Isaac had been staring in blank shock. He came back to himself only when the prince’s hand tightened around his forearm.

“Ugh…”

The grip was powerful enough that it would not have been strange if his bones snapped. Isaac’s face twisted in pain, and only then did his senses return all at once. He jerked his head up toward the black beast standing proudly right behind them.

“What the hell is this?”

Isaac shouted the question, and the beast, which had looked extremely proud and triumphant, stared back at him as if he had said something absurd.

「The most beautiful beauty in this kingdom.」

“When did I ask you to bring him?”

「But he is the greatest beauty in this kingdom.」