In an inconspicuous corner of Ayideen City.

“Hey, hand over your damn money. I’m borrowing it!” The blond-haired boy punched the wall, a blade of grass hanging from his mouth as he spoke with a swagger.

Cowering in front of him was a small, timid boy.

The little boy pressed himself tight against the wall, his big, watery eyes brimming with tears of hurt. He clutched his satchel with both hands and kept his head down, not daring to look at the blond boy’s vicious face.

“B-but this is the money I need to buy breakfast…” His voice was barely a whisper, and he seemed so timid that anyone could pick on him.

“Quit whining and hand it over! Or I’ll beat you to a pulp!” The blond boy threatened him, fist raised high.

This wasn’t the first time he’d done this. Pick on the weak, and all it took was a couple of threats to make the spineless wimps he targeted hand over their money without a fuss.

As far as he was concerned, anyone who didn’t fight back was a spineless wimp.

Even under threat, the little boy clung to his satchel and refused to let go.

The blond boy raised an eyebrow, grabbed the satchel in the boy’s hands, and gave it a hard yank.

The sudden pull threw the little boy off balance, and he fell to the ground. The satchel ended up in the blond boy’s hands.

Clink, clank—

The blond boy turned the satchel upside down and let everything inside spill onto the ground. Only when it was empty did he stop, then toss it onto the little boy.

He bent down and picked up a few copper coins, looking disgusted.

“This is all you’ve got?”

After all that effort, this was all he’d gotten? He was furious. But there was nothing he could do. The other things that had fallen from the satchel were just books and such, and they weren’t worth much either.

He’d just have to call it bad luck.

The little boy was gathering his things while sniffling. The blond boy spat out the grass in his mouth and cursed at him. “Get lost! Quit standing there and getting in my damn way!”

The copper coins clinked against each other in his palm. Their clear, pleasant chime made him grin like an idiot. Once the little boy had left in disgrace, he started imagining all the things he could do with the money.

Just then, a hand came down on his shoulder from behind.

“Who’s that?” he snapped, impatiently brushing the hand away as he turned to look.

The sight that met his eyes made his butt clench. He sucked in a sharp breath.

The newcomer’s body blocked the sunlight, and his solid muscles stood out even more in the shadow. Dark circles ringed his eyes, deep enough to suggest he hadn’t slept in several nights.

Most importantly, the guy was wearing nothing but a pair of black shorts.

He raised a hand and shoved the blond boy without a hint of courtesy, sending him crashing into the wall the little boy had been leaning against.

“What the hell are you—”

Before the blond boy could finish, the nearly naked man punched the wall beside his ear. A faint crack sounded right next to him. He stiffly turned his head and saw a web of cracks spread across the solid wall.

His mouth filled with saliva, and he began to tremble.

“Hey, hand over your damn money. I’m borrowing it.”

“Ah…” The perverted naked guy had said something awfully familiar. The blond boy froze for a moment and was just about to speak when the man cut him off again.

“Quit whining and hand it over, or I’ll beat you to a pulp.”

The naked man gave his fist a little swing. The blond boy’s knees shook, and he nearly wet himself.

He didn’t think his head was any harder than the wall.

Trembling, he held out his palms and offered up the few copper coins he’d stolen from the little boy. When he saw the naked man’s expression growing darker, he hurriedly fished a few more coins from his own pocket and handed them over too.

“This is all you’ve got? Get lost! Quit standing there and getting in my way!”

“Y-yes, sir.”

He let out a long sigh of relief. As long as the guy let him leave, everything would be fine. He could make back the money he’d lost by picking on a few more wimps.

“Hold it!”

But before he’d even gotten all the way out, the naked man suddenly called after him. A pair of perverted eyes gave him a thorough once-over from head to toe.

His butt clenched again. He had a very bad feeling about this.

…

Carlisle tugged at his ill-fitting pants, leaned against the corner wall, and stuffed the copper coins he’d just gotten into his pocket.

The clothes were a little too small. The pants had been fairly loose on the skinny blond boy, but on Carlisle they were practically skin-tight. As he walked, they outlined both hemispheres of his butt perfectly, much to his embarrassment.

“Sherry, Sherry!” He spat out the name through gritted teeth.

If that sly, treacherous, despicable Witch hadn’t tricked him, how would he have ended up like this?

“I can’t believe you got played by some little Witch.” A thumb-sized head eerily poked out from the base of his neck and mocked him with its toothless mouth.

An ordinary person who saw this would probably faint on the spot, but Carlisle was long used to it. After all, the thing had been inside him since he was born.

Aside from speaking and poking out through his skin, it couldn’t do anything at all. It was like a spirit living inside him, so he’d named it Ghostling.

“Sometimes things don’t go as planned.” Carlisle clasped his hands together, and purple spell energy slowly appeared on the backs of them. “But she’d better hope I don’t catch her. If I do, I’ll strip her naked and smack her ass red!”

He was still hung up on being stripped naked, and his gaze was naturally full of menace.

“I heard the Witch’s poison also took away your ability to be a man?”

Ghostling’s words interrupted his spellcasting. Carlisle lowered his head, looking dazedly at his lower half as if lost in thought.

After a long pause, he said, his lips dry, “…If she has a poison like that, she must have an antidote too.”

“Not necessarily. A lot of a Witch’s potions are discovered by accident.”

“Then she’s dead meat! Once I catch her, I’ll lock her away in a lightless dungeon and make her brew an antidote! If she can’t do it, heh… she’ll find out exactly what a ruthless man is like!” He angrily shoved Ghostling’s head back inside his body, then clasped his hands together again. Purple spell energy blossomed in his palms, forming a beautiful butterfly.

The Scent-Tracking Butterfly could follow the fragrance he released and lead him to his target.

Back under the tree, he’d rubbed the fragrance onto Sherry’s ankle. Even though a day had passed and much of the scent had faded, he should still be able to find Sherry’s general location.

The Scent-Tracking Butterfly fluttered its wings twice, circled in the air, then slowly flew off in a particular direction.

“You’d better pray I don’t catch you, you vile Witch.” Muttering under his breath, he followed the butterfly’s trail, his gaze cold as it settled on the church attached to the giant eagle’s foot.