While it was flustering enough that Hayden had suddenly stopped the treatment when it was almost finished, Raha was even more surprised by the suggestion to sit down and talk calmly.
After all, the Margrave was fundamentally not the type of personality to sit back leisurely, drink tea, and converse with someone.
Though Raha had no idea what kind of sudden whim had brought this on, Hayden turned around and headed toward the door, as if he had no intention of waiting for an answer.
“Your Excellency?”
When a flustered Raha called out to him, Hayden spoke without looking back.
“Since I came to the Grand Duke’s castle without permission anyway, I need to have a conversation with the Grand Duke as well. Let’s resume the treatment after that.”
‘No, it’s almost over, so we could just finish up before you go meet him…’
As if reading Raha’s thoughts, Hayden stopped opening the door and turned his head to meet Raha’s eyes.
Then, showing a barely perceptible smile, he spoke.
“Knowing the Grand Duke’s personality, he will burst in here soon, so it won’t be good for the High Priest either to be seen in that state.”
Only then did Raha realize he was standing completely naked, relying on a single blanket.
Raha quickly wrapped the blanket tightly around himself and stared at the spot where Hayden had already vanished.
‘What on earth is this…?’
Following Blizan and Teore, now even Hayden was acting strange.
‘He definitely smiled. I didn’t missee it.’
The man who was indifferent to everything and rarely showed interest in anything had smiled for the first time.
‘A pretty boy’s smile could honestly melt someone.’
It was a smile that passed by in a mere flash, but even in that split second, his beauty radiated so much that an exclamation of awe escaped Raha naturally.
To stand at the vanguard of the battlefield, commanding knights and taking the lead in protecting the border region with an appearance like that—as a fellow human being, Raha couldn’t help but find him incredibly cool and impressive.
Looking around to find something to wear, Raha instinctively admired Hayden’s beauty once more.
Even in the original novel, Hayden’s appearance was praised with descriptions of a face full of youthful charm, but Raha hadn’t expected him to possess a face that managed to be all at once so young-looking, cute, pretty, and handsome.
In particular, the unfamiliar interest directed at him left Raha flustered in many ways.
As his gaze swept back and forth, he noticed something on the nightstand—perhaps a servant had come in while he was asleep.
Neatly folded there was a set of unfamiliar clothes he had never seen before, rather than his priest robes.
Wondering if his priest robes had been taken away to be washed, Raha picked up the clothes and began putting them on.
The white shirt with a fairly loose fit and the black trousers felt much more comfortable than expected.
Teore was much taller and more well-built than him, so these clearly didn’t belong to the Grand Duke; they seemed to have been purchased fresh for him.
Since he had never worn anything other than priest robes since entering the High Temple, this was his first time wearing regular clothes after his reincarnation.
Standing in front of the mirror, Raha adjusted the fit of his shirt and trousers while looking at his own face.
‘I shouldn’t be talking about other people…’
Suddenly, looking at the beautiful reflection of himself in the mirror, an exclamation of admiration slipped from his lips without him realizing it.
He had already known that the original Raha possessed truly beautiful looks.
Perhaps due to the aura of the light attribute he had held since birth, his face possessed overall soft lines and a delicate feel, even though he was a man.
Of course, it also helped that his large, deer-like eyes, distinct nose, and thin yet well-shaped lips harmonized beautifully together.
‘To think he foolishly hung his whole life only on the Crown Prince while possessing a face like this…’
If Raha had looked like this in his original world, he certainly wouldn’t have lived a pitiful gay life spent entirely on one-sided unrequited loves.
However, since he had grown up hearing that he looked pretty enough to be mistaken for a girl even in his original world, he figured the reason he had been single for all twenty-four years of his life wasn’t solely due to his appearance.
‘In any case, because this is a novel, every single one of them is incredibly handsome.’
Fixing his slightly disheveled hair with his hands in front of the mirror, Raha wondered if the remaining master, Gerard, would also match the description from the original work.
The Marquis who held the water attribute was written to have jewel-like blue eyes and blindingly radiant blue hair.
In his original world, Raha had deeply liked a certain celebrity, and that celebrity’s blue hair dye had been his absolute favorite, so he held quite a bit of expectation for the blue-haired Gerard’s appearance as well.
As he tidied up his reflection this way and that, Raha thought that, at the end of the day, the one closest to his personal preference was still Teore, who possessed black hair and black eyes.
All while completely unaware of the reckless remarks Teore was currently making after meeting Hayden.
“He can’t perform the treatment?”
“That’s how it seemed. That’s why it was difficult to wait until I received permission.”
“Even so, you just barge into his bedroom recklessly?”
“If your servant hadn’t kept me standing there to attend to other matters, I would have waited too.”
Hayden explained that because the situation was urgent and the servant was busily preoccupied with other work, he had no choice but to seek out Raha on his own two feet.
“If I had been any later, I would have been bedridden for half a day due to the pain.”
“…”
Teore also knew that delays in the treatment timing resulted in that much pain, so he didn’t press the matter further.
“So, is the treatment finished?”
“Not yet. We just put out the urgent fire while standing.”
“If the urgent fire is out, you should go back. Why are you still here?”
“Since I’ve already come all this way, I ought to receive proper treatment.”
Because Hayden raised an eyebrow with an expression that asked if he was stating the obvious, Teore knit his brows slightly in displeasure and headed toward the sofa by the window.
Hayden naturally followed him to the sofa and sat down across from him.
“The new High Priest. I heard he has a fairly long history with you.”
“Yeah. The connection between my father and Viscount Havigael goes back quite a ways.”
“Then it seems best for you to meet with him separately.”
“Why? Because he became unable to perform the treatment?”
Nodding once at Teore’s question, Hayden said that there were many parts that caught his attention, in one way or another.
“Should I say I couldn’t feel anything, or that it felt completely hollow? At any rate, something was a bit strange.”
“Edrion didn’t cross over into this world possessing the attribute power from birth like Raha or us.”
Teore still couldn’t fully understand how Edrion had come to possess the light attribute power.
The powers of fire, wind, water, earth, and darkness were abilities passed down through generations within the imperial family and specific noble lines, which meant only those five families had used them from the very first human who manifested the attribute until now.
In contrast, the High Priests who manifested the light attribute had emerged from various families, though until now, they usually only came from households of a Marquis status or higher.
Raha, too, was the young master of the Count Shiar family.
However, Edrion belonged to a Viscount family, and on top of that, his manifestation was post-birth, leaving more than a few questionable points.
Even so, having two High Priests in a single generation wasn’t exactly a disadvantage, so Teore hadn’t particularly pried into that aspect out of curiosity.
‘But if an ability that was once there has disappeared and cannot be used, it’s a matter that requires checking into various things.’
For Raha to continue staying at the Grand Duke’s castle like this, Edrion needed to treat all the remaining element masters.
Otherwise, just as Hayden had burst into the Grand Duke’s castle today, the others could drop in and out like they were visiting their own homes.
