Chapter 23

It was only when a colleague nudged his arm, hissing, “Hey, what the hell happened here?” that the last of Isaac’s strength drained away, and he collapsed onto the forest floor.

— “Hey, what is this? What in the world happened?”

Once the prince was truly gone, the tension in the group snapped. They abandoned the cleanup and crowded around Isaac, demanding answers.

Isaac remained sprawled on the ground like a cabbage pickled in a jar of salt, squeezing his eyes shut. Ah. I don’t want to think about anything. I just want to pull a blanket over my head and sleep for a hundred years.

Surrounded by men who looked ready to grab him by the collar and shake him until he spilled every detail, Isaac only prayed with fervent desperation that this nightmarish day would conclude and a peaceful dawn would follow.

But after an event of such unprecedented gravity, there was no chance for peace. Especially not when he was the sole witness to the circumstances. In the days that followed, there was arguably no one in the palace busier than Isaac. He could say with absolute certainty that no period of his life had ever been more chaotic.

The first to accost Isaac regarding the suspicious and dangerous incident—the intersection of magical beast corpses and a dead court official—was the Court Magicians’ Guild.

“Tell us exactly what transpired. If you saw it, omit not so much as a single blade of grass. If you heard it, leave out not even one breath.”

“Did Volkan truly say that? Words can be warped by the smallest inflection. Perhaps he spoke with a different intent, and your memory has misinterpreted the phrasing. In truth, is human memory not notoriously unreliable?”

“Can you swear under oath that Volkan summoned that beast? Did you explicitly hear Volkan declare, ‘I summoned that thing’? Why on earth would he commit such a folly?”

“You claim Lord Kaiyan cut Volkan down? Yes, that detail is sufficient. For whatever twisted reason, Lord Kaiyan dispatched him, then.”

Facing their relentless, calculated barrage of interrogation, Isaac had to weigh every word a hundred times before he dared to speak.

“Well, if you put it that way, I suppose one could interpret it like that…”

“Exactly. But why did he do that…?”

“Yes, well, that is how it appeared to my eyes.”

It had already been several years since Isaac began serving as a royal guard, long enough to witness the subtle, poisonous struggles that festered in the court. He had seen more than once how quickly men were destroyed after a single slip of the tongue.

The magicians were badgering him, desperate to uncover a narrative favorable to their guild in case their standing suffered due to the actions of one of their own. Isaac shielded himself with the most evasive, vague answers he could construct.

Only after Isaac had sweated through his tunic did the magicians withdraw, their faces twisted with dissatisfaction. Before his sigh of relief had even fully dissipated into the air, the court law officers came storming in.

“We understand the Magicians’ Guild has already been here. What did you discuss with them?”

“So, in other words, Court Magician Volkan summoned the beast specifically to target Prince Kaiyan. Regardless of what he may have said aloud, could we not conclude he harbored the intent to commit regicide?”

“Furthermore, when his treachery was on the verge of being exposed, he attempted to silence you permanently. Therefore, Lord Kaiyan had no choice but to eliminate him to preserve a human life, did he not?”

Still, having survived the first round of interrogation, Isaac had gained a cynical expertise in the art of being vague.

“Oh, this and that… essentially everything I documented in my official report.”

“Well, if you frame it like that, I suppose one could say…”

“I am not entirely sure. I honestly do not know why the situation escalated in that manner…”

The court law officers, who had always maintained a hostile relationship with the Magicians’ Guild—an organization that acted as if it were extraterritorial—pounced with predatory glee, attempting to seize this pretext by any means necessary.

Once again, Isaac had to cycle his thoughts through a hundred permutations to defend himself.

After the law officers departed, the final visitor arrived: a high-ranking legal representative acting on behalf of Grand Duke Granion.

“Volkan sought a private contract with Lord Kaiyan? How could a man already bound by contract to the grand duke attempt such a thing? This is a grievance that must be filed against the Magicians’ Guild, who orchestrated the original agreement! But before we proceed, your testimony is entirely truthful, is it not? There must not be an inch of error. You will testify for the grand duke’s interest when the time comes, will you not?”

“Well… that is how I recall it, yes. But as you know, human memory is terribly fickle and ambiguous, isn’t it? I trust my own recollection, of course, but whether it would be appropriate for me to provide separate testimony…”

Once Granion’s legal representative departed, the head attendant overseeing the Blue Shadow Palace arrived in person, intent on hearing the details of the incident firsthand. His visit marked the beginning of a relentless procession; shortly thereafter, the capital security officer appeared to verify the provenance of the magical beasts. The stream of visitors persisted, ranging from opportunistic political actors to scholars obsessed with the anatomy of beasts.

Isaac who found himself trapped with no avenue for escape, was soon shackled by the royal guard’s confinement order. This mandate actually prevented the city’s elite from summoning him at their leisure, forcing them to make the trek to his quarters instead.

There was no formal charge explaining his confinement.

It was merely a byproduct of the chaotic dispute Isaac’s report on the hunting tournament had ignited between the Magicians’ Guild and the court law officers.

The Guild, fearing they stood to lose the most from the revelations, initially dismissed the report as fabrications. They escalated their campaign by alleging a deep-seated conspiracy, suggesting Isaac was merely a puppet for unseen manipulators. As a result, the entire matter devolved into a morass of accusations that threatened to implicate anyone in the vicinity.

Fearing that the fallout might damage the royal guard’s reputation, the captain ordered Isaac to remain in his room indefinitely. Consequently, Isaac endured a state of constant agitation, besieged by a revolving door of intrusive guests.

“The tide is finally starting to recede, at least. It has been a fortnight, hasn’t it? I half-expected the doorframe to wear away from all the foot traffic,” Horden hummed, his attention absorbed by his reflection in the mirror.

Having washed and groomed himself immediately upon returning from his afternoon shift, he clearly had an evening appointment with his lover. Following their torrid romance, they had finally settled on a wedding date just three months away.

“Must be nice. You look happier than words can express.”

Whether Isaac sounded like a jaded old man bereft of joy or not, Horden merely offered a breezy reply. “Hm? I suppose I have been savoring life lately—ha, ha, ha!” he chuckled, meticulously trimming his mustache and adjusting his hair.

“Some people are gifted with that kind of happiness, while others…”

Life is inherently unfair, Isaac thought, pulling his limbs inward and curling tightly against his knees. Satisfied with his appearance, Horden finally turned from the glass.

“Don’t say that. If you truly analyze your position, you’re the one who hit the jackpot in life. Who is luckier than you? You survived that nightmare!”

“…”

I wish I could refute that, Isaac thought, but the words withered in his throat.

Horden’s assessment mirrored the popular consensus; even amid his current misery, Isaac found no sympathy from anyone.

Everyone insisted that he should have died at the hands of the magician, the beast, Lord Kaiyan, or any of the others involved. It was a miracle, they said. A classic case of poison curing poison. They marveled at his luck as if it were a divine gift.

Isaac felt a crushing sense of injustice and suffocation, yet even to his own mind, his survival felt like a statistical anomaly. It was a situation designed to kill him a hundred times over, and yet he had emerged without so much as a fractured bone.

“If I had escaped death with such preposterous luck, I would smile and endure a little harassment.”

“You wouldn’t say that if you were the one actually living through it.”

“No, I truly would. Let us set aside the magician and the beast for a moment. But how did Lord Kaiyan happen to spare you?”

Most viewed that prince as something far more dangerous than a wild beast. Isaac, however, having met that hollow, indifferent gaze up close, finally understood. The prince had not spared him. The act of killing him had simply become too tedious to the former. The prince was a man to whom the entire world had grown utterly meaningless and dull.

Isaac stared into the empty air for a long moment, then sighed, his shoulders sagging with defeat. “Fine. I suppose I should consider myself lucky. The visitors are finally becoming less frequent, in any case…”

At least compared to that man, my life remains somewhat tolerable, Isaac mused, scratching his head before turning his attention back to Horden.

“Are you staying out again tonight?”

“Indeed.”

“Are the wedding preparations proceeding well?”

“Everything is running smoothly.”

Humming a cheerful melody, Horden even sprayed a touch of perfume. He caught Isaac’s gaze in the mirror and added, “Even after your big brother moves out to start his own home, I will still drop by to visit, so do not get too lonely without me.”

“What nonsense are you spouting on a full stomach? Just hurry up and leave.”

“Why are you so embarrassed? You were so desperate for company that you started raising three cats.”

“I am not raising them!”

Isaac shouted, but Horden ignored the outburst. He patted the trio of cats resting by the door—they had finished a piece of fish and were busy grooming their paws—before slipping into his shoes.

No matter how securely Isaac bolted the room, the creatures would materialize like ghosts. After spending weeks chasing them out only to find them back inside by morning, Isaac had finally conceded defeat.

“Goodness, little ones. Are you feeding them too well? Their coats are absolutely glossy.”

“It’s almost the new moon.”

“Hm? What was that?”

“Nothing. Just hurry and go,” Isaac muttered sulkily, waving him away.

As he tied his laces, Horden glanced back at him. “You should take a look at yourself. You complain about being confined and claim it is all unfair, but this rest has worked wonders for your complexion. You are practically glowing.”

Isaac suppressed the urge to reply that his health was merely a side effect of the approaching new moon. At the very least, the lunar cycle left his body in peak condition. Even after being dragged to the edge of the grave, he had defied the odds.

“Are you returning tomorrow morning?”

“No. I will go straight to work from Aire’s place. I am on duty until the afternoon, so I will not be back until evening. I might head straight back to her house afterward as well.”

“You certainly seem happy. Where is your post tomorrow?”

“…The Blue Shadow Palace.”

For the first time, the smile evaporated from Horden’s face, which had been radiating contentment only moments before. At his friend’s grim admission, Isaac felt his own mood darken in sympathy.

“That place… Well… Nothing of consequence ever happens there, does it?”

“One can only hope. I am off.”

With a shrug, Horden checked his appearance in the mirror one last time, waved a final goodbye, and departed. His humming returned as he walked down the corridor, his happiness restored as if the mention of the palace had never dampened his spirit.

Left to the silence of the room, Isaac sat motionless for a time, eventually turning his gaze back to the window. In the front yard, the line of graves sat bathed in the peaceful, moon-dim darkness. No matter how shadowed the world became, that small corner remained an oasis of tranquility.

Just like the Blue Shadow Palace.

***