Chapter 74

Isaac rode past the brush and blinked in disbelief at the slow-moving white figure ahead. Unmistakably the prince’s horse, the magnificent creature could never be confused for any other. A beast of such stature would not simply wander off on its own; it stood at the stream, drinking deeply from the clear water. When Isaac loosened his grip on the reins, his own thirsty mount drifted toward the water as if drawn by instinct. Kaiyan’s horse flicked a glance at the newcomer, then returned to its drink without interest.

“Why are you here by yourse—”

He stopped. It couldn’t possibly be alone.

Confirming the horse’s identity, Isaac scanned the immediate surroundings and found Kaiyan seated in the shade behind a tree. The prince had likely just released his falcon. He had been watching the sky, but now lowered his gaze toward Isaac.

“Lord Kaiyan!” The name leapt from Isaac’s lips before he could stop himself.

His eyes softened, and the corners of his mouth curved upward in a natural, unguarded smile. Delight surged through him at the unexpected encounter. He had assumed the prince was already far ahead, making this meeting feel like stumbling upon someone he had thought long gone.

“I thought you’d be much farther ahead by now.” As Isaac closed the distance, he realized Kaiyan’s dark eyes were fixed firmly on him. The prince’s gaze traveled slowly over his curved eyes, lifted cheeks, and smiling mouth, as though he had never seen such an open expression before.

Isaac’s smile faltered under the scrutiny. He tilted his head, mirroring the stare with quiet confusion.

“You’re faster than I expected,” Kaiyan said at last. His tone carried a trace of surprise, as if he hadn’t imagined Isaac would reach this place so quickly. Yet the scattered chicken bones and vegetable scraps nearby revealed he had been resting here for quite some time; Isaac had caught up only after the prince had eaten and relaxed without hurry.

“Yes… I probably won’t catch you again after this,” Isaac admitted with a small sigh. Once they parted ways, he doubted he would see Kaiyan until they reached Haylen. Still, this brief encounter eased a heaviness he hadn’t realized he was carrying.

Isaac watched his horse lower its head for another drink, then sat at the edge of a small pool and dipped his feet into the cold water. He glanced back at the prince. “Did you send the falcon on an errand? I noticed something tied to its leg.”

Kaiyan only stared at him in silence.

Well, it’s none of my business where he sends it.

A raptor said to cross thousands of miles in a single day could reach nearly anywhere. Besides, why would the prince share the details of his private affairs with a witch of questionable loyalty? Isaac began to turn away.

“The frontier,” Kaiyan said.

Isaac blinked, his mind going blank for a moment. The frontier was a desolate, barren expanse where Kaiyan had lived until the previous year. Although the prince had personally slain its most fearsome monster, the region remained infested with lesser magical beasts and hounded by barbarian tribes, demanding the presence of brutal, battle-hardened soldiers.

Isaac almost asked why Kaiyan had sent word there, but swallowed the question. He had no right to pry into his prince’s decisions. Instead, he gave a brief nod.

Kaiyan’s brow lifted in a faint, mocking curve, as if to say, At least you know when to keep quiet.

“Are you feeling all right?” Isaac shifted the topic toward the worry gnawing at him.

The new moon was approaching quickly, and Kaiyan had seemed weakened the day before, a state that had hardly improved since they left the Blue Shadow Palace that morning. A journey like this could not be easy for him.

He meant the question sincerely, but Kaiyan looked at him as if he had overstepped.

“I don’t believe you’re in any position to ask.”

“Pardon? …Ah.” Isaac followed the prince’s cold, sweeping glance downward and saw his own reflection in the pool.

A gaunt, haggard young man stared back at him.

He rubbed his face slowly. He had barely eaten since the day before yesterday and had been driving himself to exhaustion since dawn. No wonder he looked half-dead.

“I just haven’t had much of an appetite, so I haven’t eaten. I’m fine.”

“You need strength, not less of it. Yet you choose to starve yourself?”

“It hurts whenever I put anything in my mouth.”

Because Your Highness crushed my tongue. The unspoken truth lingered heavily between them.

Kaiyan’s mouth tightened, showing no hint of remorse. He clicked his tongue in irritation but said nothing further.

Isaac had no intention of voicing an accusation, yet there was a strange comfort in the prince’s silence. A faint, almost reflexive laugh slipped from his lips.

Kaiyan’s eyes immediately snapped to his mouth, demanding an explanation for the laughter. Under the weight of that gaze, Isaac quickly wiped the smile away.

“Come to think of it, Haylen…” He started to speak just to change the subject, but his voice trailed off.

Kaiyan’s abrupt decision to retreat to Haylen had stirred subtle chaos in the court, and among the murmurs, one reaction had stood out sharply: Relief. They had been relieved that the suffocating, nameless fear finally departed with him. Isaac swallowed the bitter taste rising in his chest, one that had nothing to do with blood.

“…I heard witches once lived in Haylen.”

The stories were more like folktales than history. While new roads had connected the region to the rest of the world in recent years, the ancient landscape of jagged mountains and wild rivers had once isolated it completely. Perhaps that enduring seclusion explained why its oral legends brimmed with fairies, monsters, and all manner of uncanny beings far more than any other land.

In recent times, Haylen had gained a reputation for its hauntingly beautiful women. Local lore claimed that any foreign man passing through would inevitably fall victim to their charms, sparking the old joke that witches must surely dwell there.

“Haylen women must really be that enchanting. One of my fellow guards passed through once, and over drinks he always said he could never forget the woman he had a brief affair with there. We all swore that when we finally got leave, we’d travel to Haylen together and have some fun…”

Thud.

Isaac abruptly fell silent.

Kaiyan studied him with a strange, almost consuming intensity. His face remained a mask of indifference, but his eyes carried a flicker of something far more complex. Mockery, confusion, and genuine intrigue all tangled together beneath the surface.

“So, even a virgin takes an interest in women. You want to know about them, yet you remain a virgin…” The prince spoke as if the two remarks were one and the same, though the latter struck Isaac’s pride like a blade.

“There is nothing wrong with me… Anyway, why did you suddenly decide to head to Haylen, Lord Kaiyan?” Isaac pivoted the conversation quickly, knowing that defending his honor against the prince was pointless. He couldn’t understand why Kaiyan’s otherwise impassive face looked so perversely satisfied.

“Haylen has a wealth of records on witches. At least a few sources there should be inaccessible in the capital.”

The reasoning was sound. Isaac nodded, only for Kaiyan to continue in that same casual, detached voice.

“Besides, the palace will calm down far faster if I leave for a while.”

Isaac fell silent. Kaiyan knew. He had realized that his very presence froze the court in paralyzing fear. A man as perceptive as the prince could not fail to notice the chill he cast wherever he went. Even so, he spoke as if none of it troubled him in the least. Isaac lowered his gaze to the ground in quiet acceptance.

“That expression.” The abrupt interjection jolted Isaac into looking up.

The prince’s eyes fixed on him again, heavy and searching, as if trying to decode some puzzle hidden in his every micro-expression.

“My Lord?” Isaac rubbed his face, confusion coloring his movements.

Kaiyan drifted into thought. His silence lingered for long seconds before he gave a slight, dismissive wave of his hand. “Never mind.”

He offered nothing more, as if unable to reach any firm conclusion about what he had just seen. For a brief moment, a faint crease appeared on his otherwise impenetrable brow, the look of a man trying to solve a riddle without a single clue.

“Where do you think that witch is now?”

The question snapped Isaac’s mind back to the architects of their recent horror. Neither the witch nor her accomplice had left a single trace since the massacre, and the passing days without another incident only made him more uneasy.

No, that wasn’t exactly true. He was afraid because he suspected the silence was deceptive, a lie waiting to shatter.

“Until recently, she was likely somewhere near Ulpine.”

Kaiyan delivered the answer with a calm that sent a chill down Isaac’s spine.

Isaac’s expression sank. The Magicians’ Guild had received a confidential report the night before from the Ulpine region west of the capital. Someone had discovered a corpse shriveled into a dry, hideous mummy.

Near a hunter’s cabin at the foot of the mountains, investigators found dangerously toxic herbs alongside bloodstains smeared across the floor. The markings suggested someone had first drawn, then frantically erased, a diagram.

Even a novice in magic would suspect forbidden black magic had been at work. Anyone with real knowledge would understand that no ordinary magician could have wielded such power. Reading the report had finally allowed Isaac to grasp how the magician had remained so active during the previous full moon. On a night when the witch’s consciousness should have been at its weakest, the man had surrendered his body and mind entirely to her, moving with a dreadful, unnatural vitality.

Despite surrendering all that he was, the magician must have clawed to preserve the last shreds of his mind for as long as possible. He had likely sustained himself by feeding on the vitality of others through forbidden rites. There was no way he could still be considered human, not in body, mind, or soul.

“If that was truly what he wanted, he shouldn’t have made the contract in the first place…” Isaac muttered bitterly.

No. Please let me be wrong. He prayed his assessment was wrong, prayed the man wasn’t still out there consuming the living in that same horrific way. Isaac clenched his teeth so hard he didn’t even notice the sharp tang of blood as his lacerated tongue began to bleed.

Then a firm hand gripped his jaw.

“When will that atrocious pronunciation finally become clear?” Kaiyan forced Isaac’s mouth open, his piercing blue eyes glaring down over his hand.

“It can become… clear… immediately.”

If only he could bear the pain and push each word out with deliberate slowness, yet the syllables still spilled in a distorted slur against the prince’s fingers.

Kaiyan peered into his mouth, examining the mangled tongue for a long moment before releasing him with a sharp flash of irritation.

“Do not interfere again without necessity.”

“…I will avoid it whenever possible.”

The unspoken unless I have no choice could hardly have escaped Kaiyan’s notice.

Kaiyan stared, but Isaac kept his eyes lowered, quietly turning his focus elsewhere.