Since all five element masters held teleportation stones connected to each other’s residences, they would certainly be able to move in and out easily.
Ordinarily, before using a teleportation stone, one was supposed to verify the usage with the head of the household at the destination, but both Blizan and Hayden were currently using the teleportation stones perfectly fine without any contact, so Teore had already abandoned hope on that front.
“But why are you calling the High Priest by his name?”
Hayden asked Teore, twitching an eyebrow as if something displeased him.
Teore answered with a natural expression, saying he called him that because it was worth calling him that.
“How am I supposed to interpret those words?”
“There’s no need to interpret it. It means exactly what it sounds like.”
“Don’t tell me, is the reason you practically kidnapped the High Priest to bring him here because you intend to monopolize him?”
“If you want to call it a monopoly, then it’s a monopoly.”
At Teore’s words, Hayden’s youthful face distorted into a harsh scowl.
“Just like Blizan did?”
“Don’t lump me together with that guy. That guy is someone who found Raha annoying the entire time—”
“—and he’s the guy who almost killed the High Priest.”
Hayden cut off Teore’s words, twitching one eyebrow.
Teore knit his brows slightly and let out a small, displeased click of his tongue.
“I didn’t particularly intend to kill him.”
Because Raha had been cursing and acting as if he would eliminate Edrion with a truly venomous expression, Teore had merely intended to shut that damn mouth of his for a moment.
So he had used his attribute just to give him a slight scare, but because it was the body of an exceptionally weak human, it seemed he had released an amount of power equivalent to when he fought monsters.
In any case, whether due to the remaining guilt, Raha hadn’t left his mind the entire time.
Since then, Raha’s vastly different attitude had turned his curiosity into interest, and that interest had soon evolved into a special emotion.
And right now…
“Killing someone and then saying you had no intention to kill them is the kind of thing trash does, Teore.”
In an instant, one of Teore’s eyebrows twitched upward at Hayden’s words.
“At any rate, I need to meet the High Priest again to finish the rest of my treatment. If you have nothing else to do, why don’t you look into why your long-time friend cannot use the light attribute.”
“Nothing else to do? What do you take the workload of the Grand Duke’s castle for?”
“That’s why you kept the most competent aide among us.”
Hayden pushed himself up from the sofa and continued toward Teore.
“For some reason, the High Priest says he performs the treatment using a much shorter time than before, so it shouldn’t take very long.”
Teore let out a small click of his tongue, his face twisted in displeasure at Hayden’s underlying message telling him not to barging in uselessly while someone was receiving treatment.
At any rate, since he couldn’t let the other guys burst into the Grand Duke’s castle like Hayden had, Teore decided he should at least contact Edrion first.
Pushing himself up from the sofa, he spoke to Hayden.
“Make sure you don’t do any touching other than holding hands, Hayden.”
“What on earth is that supposed to mean?”
Hayden, who had been heading toward the door, stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Teore, his face contorted in sheer disbelief.
“He’s a bit different from the Raha of before. I’m telling you this out of caution, so keep it in mind.”
Since both Blizan and he himself had fallen helplessly for Raha, Teore figured Hayden could very well do the same, which was why he gave the advance warning.
Of course, whether Hayden newly fell for Raha or not didn’t particularly matter to him.
He had no intention of sending Raha back to the High Temple anyway, and he was confident he could make it so Raha wouldn’t even think of going back.
As if reading Teore’s thoughts, Hayden tilted his head slightly and spoke to him.
“From what I remember, the High Priest was pathologically obsessed with Blizan until just a little while ago.”
At Hayden’s words, which were heavily laced with sarcasm questioning whether Teore would actually be able to keep him by his side, Teore let out a small, scoffing chuckle and replied.
“That is something you have absolutely no need to worry about.”
Seeing Teore’s deeply confident expression and tone, Hayden couldn’t help but wonder if Raha’s heart had truly moved from Blizan to Teore in that short span of time.
‘Certainly, he didn’t ask anything at all about Blizan today.’
Turning back around to walk out, Hayden wondered if the reason Raha had started looking different was because he had stopped liking Blizan and decided to like Teore instead.
Whichever it was, people blinded by love were just pathetic.
To be singing songs of love when monsters were constantly eyeing their territory at any given moment. Furthermore, from someone who had occupied the position of the sole High Priest until Edrion appeared.
Perhaps that was why.
Every single time he went to receive treatment from Raha, he used to think it would be great if that pathetic man came to the border region just once to see what fighting was actually like.
Of course, unless everyone had completely lost their minds, no one would ever think to send the High Priest, of all people, to such a dangerous place.
‘The others call me a man crazy for battle, but if they spent just a week in the border region, they would realize very well how endangered the Empire actually is.’
Hayden wore a worried expression as he recalled the recent situation, where a much larger number of monsters than before were attempting to break through the barrier at the entrance of the Monster Forest.
‘I need to finish the treatment quickly and return.’
In truth, he could have just stood in Teore’s bedroom and received the treatment until the very end, but for some reason, the moment Raha said it would be over soon and that he would let him return quickly, Hayden had let go of his hand without realizing it.
He couldn’t quite understand why he had done that himself, but on the other hand, if he hadn’t, he felt he would have spent the entire trip back questioning the sudden shift in Raha’s attitude.
He decided that during the rest of the treatment, he should ask why Raha had reduced the treatment time and why he was staying by Teore’s side instead of Blizan’s, just to keep his mind from being distracted by random thoughts.
In other words, Hayden himself hadn’t noticed at all that he was currently curious about things that the original version of him would absolutely never care to wonder about.
And the moment he stepped into the Grand Duke’s reception room where Raha was waiting, Hayden found himself catching his breath automatically upon seeing him sitting down, leaning his chin on his hand, and gazing out the window while dressed in a slightly loose shirt with a few top buttons casually undone and regular trousers.
Sitting against the backdrop of a large window where pure white snow was falling heavily, Raha looked so dazzling that it was almost blinding.
His bright golden hair, his fair skin that perfectly complemented it, and his blue eyes that looked like embedded jewels—everything belonged to the Raha he had known up until now, yet today, it all looked uniquely different, as if he were seeing him for the very first time.
“Have you come?”
Looking at Raha, who removed his hand from his chin and offered a polite smile to welcome him, Hayden stood frozen in place for a short moment.
“Margrave Your Excellency?”
Because Hayden had frozen with a stiff expression the moment he opened the door and entered, Raha became worried that something bad had happened to him.
However, flinching slightly at his call, Hayden quickly reined in his startled display from a moment ago.
He walked over as if nothing had happened and sat down on the chair opposite Raha.
“You… changed your clothes.”
Since he had never seen him in anything other than priest robes until now, looking at Raha sitting across from him in casual clothes felt entirely foreign.
Looking at Raha, who had now entered his field of vision with absolute clarity, Hayden thought it felt unfamiliar, yet fascinating.
He had never in his life seen a person shine so brightly.
Though he didn’t know why, Raha wearing a pure white shirt was exceptionally radiant.
To say it was simply because his bright golden hair and pale skin matched the white shirt, his priest robes were actually much whiter than this and were a garment that shone from the gold embroidery.
