[ The silence that resounds for a few moments while Magilou ponders that is likely more telling than anything she could say. She has to think about it, and if she thinks about it, then she doesn't truly believe it in her heart. How can she say definitively that it's not an illusion? This might not be what her heart truly wants - she has things she still has to say to Melchior, for one, and a bet to collect with Velvet - but how can she say that the goal isn't to lull her into a false sense of security first? Give her a place where she can make new friends, more recruits to her Menagerie, a reason to stick around, and then rip it away when she's happy?

...But it wouldn't do for her to go through life thinking everything is fake. She needs to be less cynical than that. ]

I think he'd get tired way before we got to this point. He's too old to have much stamina these days. Not that you'd ever really know for sure with him, but... I don't think he'd stage dragon attacks or dryad kidnappings unless it was in pursuit of his goals. Luckily, I'm not really part of his goals these days.

[ Past the stupid nagging thought she gets once in a while, it wasn't that long after arriving that she started to believe this world to be reality. Chroma has an unmistakable and unique way of keeping her complacent without giving her everything she wants. It's not full of cold, manufactured love like Melchior's tricks would be. ]

Around the dragon attacks, probably. That was way too obvious to be something of his.