Chapter 78

“…Does blood really taste different?”

A cow’s diet shifted the flavor of its milk, so it was hardly impossible that a human’s constitution altered the taste of his blood. After all, there were pigs raised on green tea and cattle fed on wine. The comparison left Isaac feeling strangely bitter. He raised his bleeding wrist and examined it. The wound was not particularly deep; if left alone, the bleeding would likely cease on its own.

“Where are the cats?” Kaiyan asked.

“Playing somewhere, I expect,” Isaac replied.

“They should lick it,” Kaiyan stated flatly.

“They aren’t the sort to come simply because I call,” Isaac answered casually, though he found himself wondering if his blood truly possessed such a distinguished flavor. He gave his wrist a tentative lick, only to find the taste purely metallic. The action merely made the wound sting.

What pleasure does he find in this?

Kaiyan watched Isaac smack his lips, then rose from the sofa. Retrieving the half-empty bottle of wine from the table, he walked toward the window and tapped the glass twice with a single fingernail.

Tap. Tap.

Before the second note had fully faded, three cats materialized on the windowsill like summoned spirits.

「Is that for us? You’re giving it to us, aren’t you?」

Their eyes shone with such brilliance that they looked prepared to riot should Kaiyan deny them. The prince glanced down at the felines, then toward Isaac, who was still licking his wrist. At once, the cats sprang upon him.

「Oh, our poor Muddlehead is hurt!」

「Come here. We must heal you immediately.」

「Indeed. We cannot allow even one drop of such precious blood to go to waste.」

They swarmed his wrist with such enthusiasm that Isaac briefly feared they might bite the limb clean off. Yet within seconds, the wound disappeared without a trace. The moment it healed, the cats abandoned him, flying back to hover beneath the wine bottle.

Kaiyan poured wine into an empty saucer.

Lap. Lap. Lap. Lap.

The cats plunged their faces into it in delight.

“…Thank you,” Isaac murmured, uncertain whether he had truly been helped or merely used. Kaiyan offered no answer, settling into a chair beside the window.

Gratitude was one thing, but there was still a matter Isaac needed to address. “About the food…”

“Your pronunciation has become considerably clearer,” Kaiyan interrupted. “Does eating still hurt badly?”

“…It throbs, but I can tolerate it.” Isaac paused at the unexpected question, finding it exceedingly strange to hear Kaiyan express such concern.

The prince looked back at Isaac, who studied him as though he had become some unfamiliar creature. “I will tell them to reduce the portions,” Kaiyan stated. “But you are not permitted to skip meals.”

A royal pardon had descended. Isaac’s expression brightened. “Thank you,” he said, bowing deeply.

Had he been forced to eat lunch in his current state, his stomach would surely have torn open. Alongside his relief came a firm resolution never again to show even the slightest sign of skipping a meal in Kaiyan’s presence. Still, why would a prince who took no interest in a mere guard’s meals suddenly intervene?

As Isaac remained bowed, he noticed a small cloth pouch beneath the sofa. “What is this?” He picked it up. It was a perfume sachet, emitting the same sweet fragrance that had trailed behind the lord’s daughter when she passed earlier. “The lord’s daughter must have dropped it.”

Kaiyan’s eyes flickered to the object in Isaac’s hand. Hearing the explanation, he looked back out the window with immediate disinterest. The sachet remained perfectly intact, with neither cord nor fastening broken. She had likely left it behind intentionally, as women sometimes did to manufacture an excuse to return.

“She was lovely,” Isaac murmured, inhaling the fragrance. “She seemed good-natured, too.”

Sensing Kaiyan’s gaze slide toward him, Isaac looked up. The prince extended an empty hand, his expression blank. Isaac stared at it in confusion for a moment before approaching and placing the sachet into his palm.

“Is she to your taste?” Kaiyan asked, casually tossing the sachet into the air and catching it again.

“Pardon? I’m not sure. Strictly speaking, I’m usually drawn to more striking, vivid faces. For example…” Isaac stopped with his mouth still open. One person with an exceptionally striking and vivid appearance immediately came to mind. Perhaps it was best not to provide that example. He carefully turned his eyes away from the man directly before him. “Though there is nothing wrong with a modest, pleasant-looking beauty either,” he added quickly.

If she looks beautiful to me, then she is beautiful. Why classify it?

As Isaac mumbled, Kaiyan flicked his wrist and hurled the sachet out the window. It sailed far into the distance, disappearing from view.

“Ah.” Isaac let out a small, stifled sound.

“A witch has no business coveting what lies beyond his station,” Kaiyan declared.

“…Yes.” Isaac gave only the briefest of replies. The prince’s indifferent voice seemed unusually cold, pressing down on his shoulders. Slightly dejected, Isaac stood in silence while Kaiyan leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes. His face remained as expressionless as ever, yet he appeared displeased.

Isaac’s gaze traveled from the faint crease between Kaiyan’s brows to the rest of his face. The prince’s complexion was poor because the new moon was approaching. The closer it came, the more desolate and dangerous Kaiyan became, like a freshly honed blade.

Even so, he was better than he had once been. The servants who had worked at Blue Shadow Palace for years had whispered about it in wonder; recently, even near the new moon, the prince no longer exuded the same suffocating aura of terror. The change coincided precisely with the period when Kaiyan began drinking Isaac’s blood.

Then that is fortunate, Isaac sighed inwardly. Naturally, the new moon still frightened him, hurt him, and plunged him into melancholy. Yet if sacrificing his body saved many others from fear, that offered some measure of comfort. Besides…

“…”

Kaiyan had always lived amidst battlefields. This was true not only on the frontier, but also before he ventured there and after he returned to the capital. If Isaac’s blood could quench the thirst of a throat parched by those battlefields, even for just a sip, Kaiyan would offer it without hesitation. Perhaps leaving the capital and spending some time in Haylen was the right decision. Isaac, too, welcomed the opportunity to leave Blue Shadow Palace. He had never been comfortable with the cautious glances people directed at him simply because of his employment there. Moreover, staying in the palace while the memory of the massacre remained so vivid weighed heavily on his heart.

Every time Isaac walked through its corridors, passed through its doors, or met someone new, he was reminded of the familiar faces that were now gone. At least he could stay away until those memories, however slightly, began to fade. That thought provided a sense of relief.

Isaac sat on the edge of a large stone pedestal, observing Kaiyan. The prince sat by the window with his eyes closed, appearing as though he was taking an afternoon nap. The breeze gently stirred his hair, whispering like delicate threads of gold.

It would be nice to stroke it, just once.

「Don’t, don’t. You’ll lose your wrist.」

「Can’t you see he’s in a foul mood? Murderous energy is pouring off him.」

The cats had apparently finished every drop of wine. They now sat in a row along the back of the sofa, busily licking their front paws. Isaac had repeatedly told them not to read human faces, yet they ignored everything he said.

“You can see things like that?” Isaac asked.

「You can’t?」

「Oh, what are we to do with Muddlehead? He can’t drain vitality, and now he can’t even see a person’s aura. How will he survive this cruel world? He’s like a child left beside deep water.」

「This is precisely why he cannot manage without us.」

They chattered with enormous satisfaction, leaving Isaac too tired to argue.

“Enough of that,” he said, clicking his tongue. “Why is Lord Kaiyan in a bad mood?”

「How would we know? He seemed happy while drinking your blood, then suddenly his mood soured.」

「His emotions have been leaping up and down lately. Has something happened to him?」

「Perhaps Muddlehead’s stupidity is finally driving him mad.」

「That sounds plausible.」

「Very plausible.」

I was a fool to ask them. Isaac glared at the felines with narrowed eyes, then turned away. At that exact moment, he met Kaiyan’s gaze. The man who had appeared to be napping only seconds ago was watching Isaac with his head still resting against the sofa.

“I apologize. They must be disturbing you.” Isaac frowned at the cats. “You little bastards, go outside.”

「What? We healed your wound, and now you throw us out?」

「Ingrate!」

“You didn’t come to heal me. You came for the wine.”

「We healed you anyway! We healed you!」

「And you didn’t give us the wine. The handsome one did!」

Isaac decided to seize them by the scruffs and throw them out the window. As always, the cats had no intention of allowing themselves to be caught. They darted behind Kaiyan’s sofa and peeked over the backrest, meowing taunts with only their heads visible. They were unbearably irritating.

Then, Kaiyan lowered an annoyed gaze toward them and leaned aside. His movement looked languid and slow, yet somehow, his hand was suddenly closed around the scruff of one cat.

“…”

Both Isaac and the cat blinked in stunned silence, looking as though they had been bewitched.

A heartbeat later, the cat began twisting violently and yowling loudly. Kaiyan lifted the creature in front of his face and examined it with a detached demeanor. The animal fell silent immediately, slowly turning its head toward Isaac to let out a soft, whimpering plea for help. Despite knowing how manipulative the beast could be, Isaac felt a sudden pang of pity at the miserable sound. He couldn’t completely harden his heart against such a wretched display.

“You brought them all the way here,” Isaac noted, gesturing to the cat. “You must be rather fond of them.”

“I didn’t bring them, actually…”

Indeed, even tying them to a doorknob by the neck wouldn’t stop those creatures from wandering wherever they pleased. Isaac approached, bowed politely, and held out both hands. Kaiyan watched him briefly, then dropped the cat into his palms.

The beast immediately burrowed into Isaac’s chest and began wailing in earnest. Isaac patted it, exhaling a long, weary sigh. “That silver cage really was useful. Do you suppose the High Priest might lend it to me again?”

The cat, which had sounded pitiful only an instant earlier, bristled at once and hissed.

“Temperamental little monster,” Isaac muttered, lightly tapping its nose with one fingernail.

Kaiyan watched them, his expression vacant as he spoke, “I believe there was a chain for restraining monsters in the storehouse.”

“Pardon? The storehouse? Such a rare and excellent object?” Isaac asked, his eyebrows rising.

“Mm. I think it was in the underground storehouse beneath the inner palace.”

I should have someone bring it. Kaiyan spoke as casually as though he were discussing nothing more important than household rope. Isaac fell into a sudden silence as a realization flashed through his mind.

“Could that possibly be… the storehouse said to contain mountains of strange and precious treasures?”

“Treasure? I am not sure. There are a few unusual objects, certainly.”

“The one His Majesty guards like an iron fortress in the deepest part of the palace? The treasure vault where a subject must render some extraordinary achievement merely to receive a single item?”

“It is protected by three layers of guards. When Father wishes to grant a particularly great reward, he apparently gives objects from inside it,” Kaiyan spoke as though describing a shed full of straw, then turned his gaze toward Isaac.

Isaac sat utterly still, his eyes wide as he stared at the prince. “I heard His Majesty treasures everything inside it greatly. Can you simply remove things whenever you please? What if he discovers it later and becomes furious?”

“He told me to take whatever I need whenever I need it.”

Isaac lost his voice again. His heart began to hammer against his ribs. He had unexpectedly encountered news of the treasure vault, a secret he had briefly forgotten amidst the chaos.

More importantly, a path leading into it stood directly before him. A path into the treasure vault.

“A subject that seems to interest you greatly,” Kaiyan murmured, his blue eyes narrowing faintly. “I have never seen you show such interest in anything.”

Isaac flinched as though drenched in cold water. Instinct sounded a sharp warning in his mind. He could not afford to reveal too much.

“You did say that you wanted to earn distinction and receive a reward,” Kaiyan continued. “Is there something inside that storehouse you desire?”