Despite Laila’s questions pouring down like a rainstorm, the man spread his hands in a relaxed manner. It meant to take things one at a time slowly.

As he smiled gently, Laila felt her heart flutter inexplicably in one corner of her chest.

“We’ll have to go one by one. First, my name is Eustar. As for where I came from… Well, since I arrived here after wandering around looking for you, it’s a bit difficult to pinpoint exactly where I came from.”

“I’ve never seen you before. And you’ve never seen me either.”

Laila retorted in a voice full of wariness. The man, Eustar, nodded slowly as if it was obvious and rested his chin on his hand.

“Of course, this is our first meeting. But to be precise, I’ve been watching you for a long time.”

Suddenly, she got goosebumps. Watching?

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean exactly what I said. Ah, don’t worry, when I say I was watching, I don’t mean I saw your every move. Rather, your… let’s call it life force. Your life force as a witch, and your power. That’s what I’ve been watching.”

He seemed to be trying to explain quite sincerely, but Laila’s mind was only becoming more and more confused.

So what had he been watching, and how had he been watching? None of her questions had been answered. However, Eustar seemed rather puzzled by the fact that Laila still looked bewildered.

“Don’t you understand what I’m saying?”

“Do you think I would?”

Eustar’s eyes blinked a couple of times. Laila’s image was reflected remarkably clearly in his clear, light green eyes reminiscent of a barley field.

Laila quietly averted her gaze from the ominous and eerie black hair and red eyes like drops of blood, which plainly proved she was not of human lineage.

“It’s a magical tool. You know what magical tools are, right?”

“I know that. But the only magical tool I know of just tells me tomorrow’s weather.”

“That’s…”

Eustar trailed off and gave a short laugh.

“You’re different from the witch I had in mind. Then what was that earlier about drying up my tongue?”

“That’s something I can do with tincture, not a magical tool. I just need to put one drop in the tea I serve you.”

“That’s more terrifying than magical tools.”

Eustar spoke as if joking, but Laila ignored it.

“Anyway, I don’t know what kind of witch you imagined, but at least my mother didn’t leave me any magical tools. Aren’t magical tools used by wizards in the first place, not witches like us?”

“That depends on how you think about it. In any case, I was able to find you thanks to this.”

After saying that, Eustar took out something round from his bag.

It was a red bead about the size of two or three grapes combined. Whether it was cracked or stained, thin white lines stretched here and there like veins…

The moment Laila reached out towards it, the bead resting on Eustar’s palm suddenly moved. At the same time, the surface split open like grape skin peeling, revealing a dark-irised eye that stared intently at Laila.

“This…!”

Unable to even scream properly, Laila jumped up, kicking the chair as she stumbled backwards. Seeing Laila’s face turn pale, Eustar nonchalantly grasped the bead and put it back in his bag.

Laila, her bloodless lips trembling, said:

“Just now… What was that? Is that a magical tool?”

“That’s right. Wizards call it a ‘Running Lore’, but we just call it an ‘eyeball’.”

“We?”

Eustar shrugged his shoulders and casually changed the subject.

“The chain you saw earlier is also a type of magical tool. But it’s a bit different from what wizards use. It’s consecrated… used to exorcise souls, magical beasts, things like that.”

“Are you saying you’re a magical beast hunter?”

“No, that’s not it. I don’t just hunt magical beasts.”

Eustar trailed off with a thoughtful expression and tapped the table, tap, tap. He seemed to be pondering something, or perhaps looking for an excuse after making a mistake.

“Laila, you know what a ‘sync’ is, right?”

Laila answered.

“You mean a black hole?”

“Is that what they call it here?”

“Most do. Is that what you’re talking about? Where ghosts are said to pour out from?”

Eustar tilted his head slightly and smiled. The weak sunlight streaming through the window scattered over his bright, long hair like glittering sand. Laila stared at him for a moment as if entranced, then shook her head.

“I don’t believe in such things.”

“You have those eyes yet don’t believe in ghosts? Interesting.”

“That’s not what I mean. I don’t believe in the black hole itself. You’re saying the ground suddenly caves in and ghosts jump out from inside? No, I don’t think so. Since you keep mentioning my eyes, let me tell you this – ghosts aren’t things that crawl out from underground. They…”

Laila’s shoulders trembled. Eustar could tell she was genuinely afraid.

“…They just exist there. In the place they’re supposed to be, or the place they’re fixated on. They don’t appear by digging through the ground like moles. They don’t sprout up like mushrooms either. Just… Just when you turn your head, they’re there. When I wake up in the middle of the night, there’s a woman with her neck bent sideways standing at my bedside, looking down at me. My mother said she was one of my ancestors. Someone who was hanged for being a witch.”

Eustar gently interjected as Laila’s words became increasingly agitated.

“You’re right. Ordinary ghosts exist like that. It’s just that people who can see them are extremely, extremely rare. But a ‘sync’ is not like that. Laila, you seem to think of a sync as… something like the ground splitting open as if in an earthquake, but that’s not how syncs are created. And that’s not their form either.”

At this point, Laila realized she needed to ask an important question.

“Even if everything you say is true, why do I need to know this? What’s the reason you used that… eyeball or whatever to watch me?”

A smile appeared on Eustar’s lips. His gently curved eyes and lips following his smile, and his light green eyes staring straight at Laila were terribly captivating. For a moment, it was as if she was looking at a being other than human.

‘What’s been going on since earlier? I feel strange…’

Laila sat back down in the chair, holding her forehead. The old rocking chair creaked as if even her slight weight, like that of a withered tree, was too much for it to bear.

Then Eustar said:

“I suppose it would be better to show you directly rather than explaining with words.”

“…Show me what?”

“Everything. What’s happening in this village isn’t an epidemic. There’s no such thing as a disease where only the eyes melt away cleanly. You thought so too, didn’t you?”

Laila’s lips pressed tightly together. Eustar added with another leisurely smile:

“I’m sorry, but would it be alright if I imposed on you here until tonight? It’s much easier to find at night.”

Laila clenched her fist as she leaned back against the old backrest. At some point, she had started rocking back and forth, and the creaking noise continued in time with her movements. Just like when her mother was alive.

She stared intently at Eustar and said:

“If we wait until night, can you cure this strange disease?”

“Since it wasn’t a disease to begin with, the term ‘cure’ isn’t quite right, but yes. That’s what it amounts to. We’re going to eliminate the source of the problem.”

The source of the problem.

The villagers believed that the children’s eyes melting away like soft mud was Laila’s fault. When the first two children died, their parents almost broke down Laila’s front gate.

And that wasn’t all. Every time another child died after that, the villagers tried to invade Laila’s house like wild beasts, baring their teeth and carrying sickles and pitchforks.

After the number of dead children exceeded ten, they seemed to lack even the presence of mind to blame her, but…

Laila took a deep breath as if she had just finished running a race.

“Alright.”

Laila, who had been biting her lips, tightly gripped the round ornament on the old armrest.

“Alright, I’ve been curious about what this cause is too.”

* * *

It seemed like music was playing from somewhere. Like an old music box turning, a rusty metallic sound interspersed between the melodies.

What was this song again? Laila thought. She had definitely heard it somewhere before, but she couldn’t remember where.

Her mother had never sung a lullaby to Laila. She was someone who cried often rather than singing.

—His face is…, and he is…

Someone was singing along to the tune. The sound of the old music box grew louder and louder, and for a moment, it felt as if Laila’s body was floating.

“Wake up, Laila!”

There was a bang! Her eyes flew open at the shock, as if a balloon had burst inside her head.

She looked around, panting. It was pitch dark. Not a single candle was lit. It seemed she had fallen asleep while watching Eustar, who was sitting unnaturally relaxed, like a breathing statue.

“…Has night fallen? How long did I sleep?”

“Quite a while. Let’s get up. It will be troublesome if we delay any longer.”

Eustar’s tone sounded more commanding than it had during the day. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant change, but Laila got up impassively.

Just before going outside, Eustar glanced back at Laila’s chair and said:

“It would be best to refrain from falling asleep in that chair from now on.”

Laila’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Why?”

But Eustar just smiled faintly without answering.

The two went outside and walked somewhere along the dark mountain path. Laila, who had been walking without much thought, grabbed Eustar’s shoulder as if sensing something strange.

“Wait a minute, this is the road down to the village, isn’t it?”