Dazai opened the door, it was a not-surprising big dining room, the table already filled each corner with food. Akutagawa thought to himself, ‘If the Beast has so much food, why does he require a human sacrifice every few decades or so?’. Perhaps the look on his face made it obvious, or the other 20-ish sacrifices had the same thing to say, because Dazai answered-

“We never really asked for offerings, as we had much to eat already. But it would be rude to refuse a gift, especially if it has become a tradition. Or so the Prince says~” Dazai’s reply made Akutagawa form more questions in his head, what exactly did he mean?

”What do you mean by ‘never asked’?, the people in the town say they must sacrifice something so the beast will not devour the village.” Akutagawa asked

”Oh? So this whole offering thing was because they thought that prince would devour innocent beings like them?” Dazai chuckled and sat Akutagawa on one of the high chairs, “That prince could never.” Akutagawa looked at him in confusion, so was the whole thing a misunderstanding? It was too early too assume, Dazai might have been bluffing.

The tall brunette looked at Akutagawa’s face and knew what he was thinking. “I suppose you don’t trust me that much quite yet,” He sighed and smiled. “I’ll go get the prince.”

Akutagawa sat there, closing eyes until the beast came, maybe the beast would bite his head off a starter-snack before breakfast.

After just a few minutes or so, the large door’s were opened, and so were Akutagawa’s eyes.

Dazai was walking in front of the probably-beast or prince to the table, he was sitting at the very end, so he would see the beast if he was going to be sitting on the only other chair.

Finally, he came to sight. He turned around, and Akutagawa was certainly not expecting the beast to be actually prince-looking.

His hair was a silver, and black tips at the end. It was like Akutagawa’s hair, but reversed, and a very more obviously stylish haircut fit for a royal.