The feeling of envy and jealousy toward the bond they shared, knowing an Anelli he did not.
‘……This is difficult.’
He couldn’t gauge at all how far he was allowed to ask, how much he was allowed to desire.
Was first love supposed to be this difficult from the start?
In the end, Xenon, who had sat back up, roughly splashed water on his face with both hands.
Anelli, who had woken up a few hours ago, said everything had ended well. Seeing Samuel’s relieved expression and the other Dullahans fidgeting, it seemed her words were correct.
So now it was time to let her rest deeply. Anelli had returned home and was probably in bed by now.
‘If I contact her, I’ll just wake her from her sleep for no reason.’
Unable to bring himself to activate the ring, Xenon merely fidgeted with it before finally getting down from the bed.
Crossing his arms, he glanced at the pitch-black outside the window and aimlessly paced the room.
He wanted to ask what vision she saw from that final attack, why she woke up so late, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so in front of her exhausted face.
Somehow, he had a foreboding that even if he asked, he wouldn’t get a proper answer.
So would it be any different now? There was no way her fatigue would have dissipated in just a few hours. It was better to let it pass for today and ask subtly later when there was more leisure.
Even as he thought that rationally, Xenon kept placing his hand on the ring.
‘Even if it’s just a vision… No. I don’t even know what she’s doing now, I can’t just recklessly project an image.’
What Anelli needed was quality sleep. A dreamless slumber, not one featuring that trash of a fiancé.
Xenon had already asked his teacher if there were any aftereffects from the Rusalka’s attack and received the answer, “There are no physical aftereffects.”
So, that means… but.
“If there are no physical aftereffects, does that mean there are mental ones?”
His pacing steps came to an abrupt halt. Xenon turned his head to look out the window. Perhaps because of the pitch-black outside, his own pale face was reflected with peculiar clarity in the glass.
Come to think of it, this was an inn in the capital. Not the imperial palace where people would cause a commotion if magic was used.
And Xenon was a mage. The successor to the Tower Master, a mage of considerable skill.
His judgment was swift.
“……I just need to quietly check if she’s alright. There’s no need to contact her through the ring, right?”
He had been to Anelli’s room once, so he could find it. Pulling up his hood, Xenon resolved.
He would just go via the balcony, very quietly, just to see her face and come back.
* * *
Fatigue weighed down my entire body, but I couldn’t close my eyes.
‘In father’s study, my whole body felt so heavy as if I might collapse at any moment.’
But now that I tried to sleep, I couldn’t even lie down comfortably.
Pressing my throbbing temples firmly, I sat leaning haphazardly against the bed and glanced up.
Normally, I kept more than one Dullahan by my side, but I left the bedroom empty when sleeping.
Yet today, this silence felt grating. Would it be better to call someone in?
Zigore or Tristan, or even Minte or Mori.
Thinking of the Dullahans I could have in the bedroom, I let out a long sigh. Having Dullahans nearby didn’t seem like it would suddenly make me sleepy.
As I stared dully at the empty bedroom, I suddenly looked down at my palm.
Clenching and then opening my hand, a green energy shimmered in my palm.
‘Authority.’
The authority reclaimed from the Rusalka. The power the former Captain had given to Mori was now in my hand.
Staring at the faint green light, I recalled what had happened earlier.
The final attack the Rusalka, fused into a massive form, had launched at me. The vision I saw through that final attack.
In it, there was no Maxel who had become Emperor.
‘To attack like that…’
Showing similar visions repeatedly at the beginning seemed to be an intention to lure me into carelessness while simultaneously exhausting me.
I had to admit it. I had underestimated the Rusalka too much.
“In the end, I won though……”
Even if I said it was fine because I won, I couldn’t shake off the vision I had just seen from my mind.
The beginning was ordinary. Just a blue grassland.
The high sky, a faintly rustling breeze, warm sunlight, and the fresh scent of flowers.
Even though I had already been attacked several times and fallen into visions, I was almost fooled by the vivid sensations.
「It seems they put some effort into preparing this time.」
Even so, Maxel as Emperor would probably pop out from somewhere and spout nonsense again.
Standing idly in the grassland, I muttered indifferently and took a step. As I walked, I thought. Somehow, the scenery felt familiar.
Even though all I could see was sky, grass, and trees.
There was no sign of Maxel, who I expected to appear immediately, nor the bothersome courtiers of the imperial palace, nor noblewomen fluttering fans or pompous gentlemen.
「What on earth is this?」
Since showing me anything wasn’t working, were they just going to abandon me in this desolate plain?
Around the time such doubts arose, something popped out from between the bushes.
「……Tristan?」
A black bumblebee. That was Tristan. Tristan buzzed around me.
A little later, this time, something like a black earthworm passed by my feet. It was Mori.
One by one, the things revealing themselves were my Dullahans.
Thanks to that, I could tell this vision wasn’t a dream I might have had before my neck was cut. Things like Maxel as Emperor wouldn’t appear.
「But something feels a bit off.」
Staring blankly at Nadav, who was tilling the soil, I turned my gaze to Pallides. Pallides, clad in black armor, stood motionless like a doll.
A strange sense of incongruity washed over me. I looked closely at each Dullahan that had appeared, examining them in detail.
It didn’t take long to realize the source of the incongruity.
「This is… rather unpleasant.」
The Dullahans weren’t speaking. Not a single word.
Considering how noisy and chaotic these guys usually were when gathered, this current scene was not just strange but downright unpleasant.
In the quiet, the occasional sound of grass rustling underfoot as Dullahans moved could be heard.
‘Wasn’t it supposed to show a dream you don’t want to wake from?’
I had been certain the Rusalka’s method was to tempt the target with a dream they desperately desired, one they absolutely didn’t want to wake from.
But the scene unfolding before me now was strange in some way. It wasn’t a situation filled with such happiness that you wouldn’t want to wake.
Rather, the emotion I felt now was……
‘Annoyance?’
Yes, it was closer to annoyance.
I could talk to the Dullahans whenever I wished, and the Dullahans had always shown me absolute favor.
Even Mori, who had been defiant toward me at first, had gradually begun to lower his head, hadn’t he?
Yet in this vision where I should be happy, I felt instead that the Dullahans were treating me distantly.
「What is this?」
Even knowing it was a vision, a sharp question escaped me.
Pallides stared at me like that, then slowly stepped back. Pallides, who would usually reply brightly, saying he was glad to meet me, was putting distance between us.
「Pallides?」
It wasn’t just Pallides. Zigore, who had been circling me, Tristan, Mori, Ganik, Minte, Bark, even Nadav……
Unthinkingly, I reached my hand toward them. Then Mori, who was nearby, noticeably avoided my touch and quickly disappeared into the grass.
Calmly turning my body to grab another one, Minte leaped away in a parabolic arc. Following that, the heavy-bodied Bark moved away, then Ganik, Pallides, even Tristan.
Watching the Dullahans turn their backs on me without a word with bewildered eyes, I let my arms hang limply.
Now, only Zigore and Nadav remained before me.
Still, the two said nothing.
「What kind of nonsense……」
What kind of vision is this?
The moment I spat out the trailing words as if crushing them, Zigore flew high up and disappeared into the sky. Now, only a single black horse remained before me.
Smoke rose from the motionless horse. It soon enveloped Nadav’s body, and the Dullahan clad in heavy black armor revealed himself.
「Nadav.」
My first meeting with Nadav came to mind.
Nadav, who had said he was pleased to meet the Captain, stood motionless before me in silence. He looked down at me like that, then slowly drew his sword.
He intended to swing that at me.
I was so startled I froze, unable to even think of dodging, when someone grabbed me firmly from behind and pulled me back.
「Lady Anelli!」
The heavy greatsword narrowly grazed the tip of my nose before plunging into the ground. *Thud.* The reverberating sound sent cold sweat trickling down the back of my neck.
With no time to feel relief at having my life saved in an instant, Nadav, who had been before my eyes, became engulfed in flames.
「Nadav!」
Nadav writhed as if in agony. I wanted to go to him, but the force gripping both my arms from behind instead pulled me farther away from Nadav.
「What is this, let go……!」
Shaking off the hands firmly holding my arms, I turned around and stopped dead in my tracks.
「……Xenon.」
At my murmur mixed with a groan, Xenon before me smiled with a pale face.
「I had no choice to protect Lady Anelli.」
Staring blankly at Xenon’s face as he said he had to kill Nadav for my sake, I gritted my teeth.
「You are a fake.」
「Those things are monsters in the end. Your companionship with them has a predetermined end.」
「You are not Xenon.」
Nadav, engulfed in flames, was writhing and dying, and the one who burned Nadav to death was Xenon. No, the one with Xenon’s face……
From the beginning, all of this was entirely a vision and a falsehood. The Dullahans who left, the dying Nadav, even Xenon with that unfamiliar expression.
「But Lady Anelli, you are a monster too.」
Even though I knew it was all fake, my breath caught in my throat.
「Stop with the pathetic imitation.」
「Because I am human. How could I be with a monster?」
「Give me the pendant and get lost.」
「Poor Lady Anelli.」
Xenon opened his mouth wide and laughed. Deep within his gaping throat, I could see a familiar light faintly seeping out.
「A pitiful woman who, unable to escape even in death, became a living corpse and is being used!」
I realized. This was not a dream too happy to wake from, but a nightmare too vicious to break free from.