At that moment, Zenon recalled a conversation from the not-so-distant past. When he had suddenly warped to the Imperial Palace to meet Annelie.
He had said the same thing to Annelie, whom he hadn't seen in a long time.
That she seemed to have lost weight, asking if the Imperial Palace food didn't suit her taste.
He couldn't know if Annelie was asking with the same feelings he had back then. But just the fact that she asked the same question made his heart go soft.
However, he couldn't remain intoxicated by this feeling for long.
Zenon cleared his throat and regained his reason.
"Flowers need sunlight to bloom, so I suppose not getting any sun has made me look gaunt."
At his grumbling, the worry in Annelie's eyes faded. Perhaps thinking he was relaxed enough to joke, she let out a relieved sigh.
Well, it wasn't exactly wrong. He had been anxious all this time because of Annelie, and now the person in question had appeared right before his eyes.
With his only worry resolved, it was only natural that he had the leisure to pretend otherwise.
"What is this place? Why is my magic being dispelled?"
Annelie looked around the room late and frowned. Samuel, who was similarly inspecting the interior, answered in a blunt voice.
"It seems they've placed a nullification spell on the room."
"They must have put some thought into imprisoning a mage."
When Zenon shrugged and added an explanation, Annelie narrowed her brows.
"Is this really something to take so calmly? Why exactly are you under suspicion?"
She must have heard the general situation from Heinrich.
Zenon laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.
"It's the karma of having an unworthy older brother."
That alone seemed to be enough for Annelie to deduce many things.
Zenon, who awkwardly avoided looking at Annelie's coldly settled face, changed the subject calmly.
"But how did you get in here?"
"As a Holy Knight's squire."
Hearing Annelie's light reply, Zenon involuntarily looked back at Samuel.
Come to think of it, Samuel's armor was practically screaming 'I am a Holy Knight.'
That meant Annelie had come in pretending to be Samuel's squire.
'Is everyone blind?'
Where in the world would you find a squire standing with such elegance and grace?
"......You think they believed that? No, before that. How did you apply the appearance alteration magic? You'd get caught using that in the Imperial Palace, wouldn't you?"
"I temporarily paused the Imperial Palace barrier."
Zenon let out a low sigh. It seemed Annelie no longer cared about the Emperor or anything else in her sight.
He could do such things trusting the Magic Tower, but the only things Annelie trusted were her lofty reputation and the Dullahan who could transform into animals....
While immersed in regret, Zenon suddenly realized that Annelie might actually have more reliable backing than he did.
'Depending on the situation, the Dullahan army might be more impressive than the Magic Tower's forces?'
While Zenon marveled at his trivial realization, Annelie looked around the room where Zenon had been imprisoned.
At first glance, this room looked similar to the guest room Zenon had stayed in before, but looking closely, it had less furniture and was bleak.
Annelie must have noticed this too, as her face showed dissatisfaction.
"Can't even communication magic tools be used in this room?"
"Unfortunately, no."
Zenon answered briefly and subtly furrowed his brows. For some reason, he felt like he was admitting defeat to this shoddy nullification barrier, so he added an explanation.
"Of course, this barrier is no problem for me at all, but if I used magic while ignoring it, I'd get caught. So I was watching and waiting for now."
"Are you sure it's no problem?"
"Of course!"
Annelie still looked unconvinced. Seeing him imprisoned so helplessly like this, she seemed to have thoroughly misunderstood.
And he couldn't even prove it.
Zenon clicked his tongue and swallowed his lamentation. Annelie, who examined every corner of the room regardless, asked with a serious face.
"But if you're imprisoned like this, what about our Nadav?"
"Ah."
So it finally came.
Zenon moistened his dry lips with his tongue and took a deep breath. Then he explained the situation as objectively as possible.
"Actually, that horse abandoned me and ran off."
No, was that objective?
Zenon realized only after speaking, but struggled to maintain a serious expression. Actually, it wasn't wrong, was it?
From Zenon's position where he couldn't communicate with Nadav, he couldn't explain it any other way than that the horse had abandoned him and suddenly run off.
"What does that mean?"
"When the monsters attacked. Suddenly that horse started bucking and incited the other horses around, then threw me aside and ran off."
Not only Annelie but even Samuel looked at Zenon with absurd expressions.
With her eyes round, Annelie in particular couldn't speak and just moved her lips for a while. Then she finally squeezed out a question.
"Did you just abandon Nadav and come?"
"No, I didn't abandon him, he voluntarily...."
Betrayal rippled in her wide violet eyes.
At this moment, it was clearly conveyed that Annelie was more worried about the Dullahan who had transformed into a horse than him.
Clearing his throat and subtly averting his gaze, Zenon spoke in a serious and grave voice.
"I think there must be a reason he ran off. After all, that fellow isn't an ordinary horse."
The horse Annelie was so worried about was a monster.
Not just any monster, but a Dullahan with enough power to protect itself anywhere. Honestly, a Dullahan horse that was surely stronger than ordinary monsters.
Honestly, if Nadav and the other Dullahans didn't put on an act in front of Annelie, if you released them into the wild, ordinary monsters would surely tuck their tails and run.
Zenon, who was going to subtly emphasize that point, just gave up.
'It's not the first or second time she's cherished those Dullahahan.'
Rather, he should be grateful that she didn't ask about Nadav's safety the moment she saw his face.
"I guess he reacted to the monsters."
"Monsters?"
"Yes. The monsters that attacked us."
"You think that's a monster? The Emperor thinks it's magic. Hearing the circumstances, I also found it difficult to conclude it was a monster."
At Annelie's words, Zenon shook his head.
"It's definitely not magic."
Magic that leaves no magical reaction couldn't exist, so it wasn't magic.
The Emperor probably thought the Magic Tower was an amazing group that could cast magic without even using magical power.
But magic was still magic, and regardless of skill, any mage would naturally recognize it.
"If it were magic, the Imperial Palace mages would have noticed long ago. I believe it's a monster."
At Zenon's answer, Annelie's expression grew serious.
"You're concluding this so definitively means you have some idea."
Zenon didn't answer immediately. It had happened so quickly that he hadn't seen it properly either. However, he could guess based on the Empress's symptoms of collapsing.
"Perhaps...."
Since it was uncertain information, Zenon's voice lacked confidence.
"I think it might be a fallen fairy."
"......A fallen fairy? That's the name of a poison."
"Correct. But not the poison, an actual monster. Originally, that poison was named after the monster."
A poison that assassinates people by putting them to sleep. There was indeed a poison called fallen fairy, but this case was different.
If it were poison, the Imperial physician wouldn't have failed to detect it.
"I'm seeing it directly for the first time too, so I can't be certain."
Originally, beings called fairies didn't reveal themselves to human eyes. Because of that, opinions varied among people, but the commonly cited characteristics were unrealistically beautiful forms and mysterious power.
That's why they often appeared as regular material in fairy tale books.
"You know the fairy tale where a fairy appears at the bedside of someone who can't sleep and gives them happy dreams, right?"
"Yes."
This was a story handed down for so long that the original creator was unknown. A fairy tale parents often read to children who couldn't sleep.
A romantic story where when someone sighs in distress from being unable to sleep, a fairy appears and guides them into happy dreams.
And it was said that the next day after having that dream, one could obtain special good fortune.
"The fairy that appears there, if it becomes corrupted, becomes the 'fallen fairy' I'm talking about. Actually, I don't know if it's truly a corrupted real fairy, but it's named that for now. Like the origin story that a Holy Knight's soul becomes a Dullahan, it's a theory that can't be proven."
Annelie made a subtle expression. With furrowed brows, she parted her lips as if to say something, then closed them again.
Instead, she nodded as if to tell him to continue the story.
"There are almost no records about this fallen fairy. But fortunately, I've read a bit about it."
Fortunately, the Magic Tower had a great many books. Naturally, there were also books about monsters.
A fairy that tried to give happy dreams to a sleepless human, but was instead captured by humans and, unable to return to the fairy realm, cried and despaired until it eventually fell into corruption.
The origin of the fallen fairy contained such a story.
However, regardless of what the origin story was, the fact that it was a somewhat rare monster didn't change.
"According to the records I saw, fallen fairies steal human consciousness and put them into eternal sleep."
Zenon rubbed his forehead and tried to recall the contents of the book he had read.
"However.... The book said fallen fairies aren't that aggressive. I don't know if they're violent enough to suddenly attack people. Originally, it's a monster with almost no research done on it."
Throughout listening to Zenon's explanation, Annelie's expression hardly changed.
With a calm face, Annelie, who listened to the story to the end, rubbed her lower jaw and fell into thought. Then she raised her gaze and asked in a clear tone.
"Anyway, so it's a monster?"
"Yes, that's corr.... Wait a moment, you're not planning to go there, are you?"
Zenon, who had inadvertently been about to nod, jumped up and asked back. At his reaction, Annelie looked at him with rather puzzled eyes.
"Yes, I'm going."
"It's dangerous!"
Where did the words about falling into eternal sleep go?
Despite Zenon's stern expression, Annelie replied very rationally and calmly.
"You said it yourself, an unresearched monster. Since no one would know the treatment method for its attacks, I have no choice but to ask the person directly."