The Grand Duke’s glass greenhouse was vastly larger and more beautiful than Raha had imagined.
Snow drifted down onto the thick glass roof, only to scatter into nothingness the moment it struck, neutralized by magic stones infused with a portion of Grey’s wind attribute.
Because of this, instead of a roof blanketed in white snow, one could witness the striking spectacle of falling snowflakes dissolving into thin air just before impact.
Raha stood at the entrance, gazing up at the sight for a long time.
Pago, his attendant, wheeled in a tray laden with tea and cookies.
Seeing Raha standing dazed at the entrance staring at the sky, Pago followed his gaze upward.
“Wow.”
An exclamation slipped from Pago’s lips. Raha turned his head away from the ceiling to look at him.
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
“Is this your first time here too, Pago?” Raha asked, stepping deeper toward the center of the garden.
When Pago had followed him here, he mentioned being shown around various parts of the estate to prepare for his duties.
Pago confirmed it as he followed with the tray.
“Yes. Only the servants who manage the glass greenhouse and those involved in its upkeep are permitted inside.”
He added that while the estate staff could enter solely to deliver tea and desserts for guests, Teore had not brought a single guest to the greenhouse since becoming the head of the house.
At that, Raha stopped dead in his tracks.
“Not a single one?”
“Yes. So when the head butler gave the order to serve the High Priest in the glass greenhouse, everyone fought over who got to come. That’s why the butler ultimately assigned it to me, since I’m already your designated attendant…”
Pago offered his thanks, mentioning that thanks to the High Priest, he got to see the inside of the glass greenhouse before he died.
He had also previously expressed how happy he was to leave the High Temple behind.
After being brought to the Grand Duke’s castle in a manner akin to a kidnapping, Raha had specifically asked Teore to bring along the attendant who used to serve him at the High Temple, remembering Pago’s past complaints about how suffocating the temple felt.
Raha smiled warmly at Pago, telling him to sit down and share a cup of tea since he was already here.
“Oh goodness, you say the most terrifying things. How could I possibly dare to sit down with the High Priest?”
“What’s wrong with it? Sit. It’s boring to drink alone, so keep me company. We can look around together.”
“The Grand Duke will be arriving shortly. That’s why I brought the tea and cookies in advance.”
“His Grace? He seemed quite busy today…”
When Raha had encountered him in the drawing room with Edrion, Teore had explicitly stated he still had work left and needed to head back up to his office.
It was highly unlikely he had cleared his entire workload in such a brief window.
‘So he’s taking time out of his schedule specifically because of me…’
While it wasn’t strictly necessary, the fact that Teore was carving out precious time from his busy schedule to come see him did feel a bit burdensome.
Then, a sudden thought flashed through Raha’s mind: it would be excellent if Edrion could be summoned here as well.
He figured it was best to keep the two glued together as much as possible during Edrion’s stay at the castle.
“Pago, in that case, could you go find the new High Priest and send him here too?”
“A new High Priest?”
“Yes, I heard he will be staying at the Grand Duke’s castle for the time being.”
“Ah, I see. I heard he needs to use the Grand Duke’s library.”
Fargo spoke while nodding his head, causing Raha to stop dead in his tracks.
“The library?”
“Yes, because the Grand Duke’s library has every single ancient book in existence.”
At Fargo’s words, Raha muttered an “Ah,” and started walking again.
He began to wonder why Edrion was looking for ancient books.
‘I don’t remember him looking for ancient books in the original story…’
Then again, in the original story, there was no episode where he became unable to use the light attribute either.
Raha thought that by possessing this body, he had twisted parts of the original story, causing the content to differ little by little.
Anyway, since he knew the future, he had absolutely no intention of just sitting around and accepting a dead end.
He had no heart to feel flustered just because the original story had changed a bit.
“I see. Anyway, I want to have tea with him. Could you tell him to come if he can?”
“Understood.”
Fargo gave a nod and quickly pushed the tray toward the sofa table visible in the distance.
Stopping the tray at the spot he ran to first, he quickly set the tea and cookies on the table.
He then walked out, saying he would bring the guest quickly.
Raha smiled as he watched Fargo, who was surprisingly nimble despite his large build, and sat down on the table chair.
Thanks to Fargo, who thoughtfully poured tea into the cup so he could drink while waiting, a small laugh escaped Raha’s lips again.
Holding the steaming teacup, he slowly looked around the glass greenhouse, which was much wider and had far more plants than he expected.
The glass greenhouse, which brought spring to mind, was surprisingly similar to a regular outdoor garden in other regions, except it lacked a pond.
Thinking that it must have taken a lot of time and effort to build a greenhouse of this scale, he wondered why there was no mention of such a nice greenhouse in the original story.
Anyway, just as he was thinking it was a perfect cafe to pass the boring time while staying at the Grand Duke’s castle for a while, Teore walked in.
“Have you been waiting long?”
“No, I just took a sip of tea.”
“I am glad I did not keep you waiting.”
Teore smiled as he sat on the chair opposite Raha.
“Are you not busy?”
“I am busy.”
“Then why…”
“Because joining you in your leisure is more important than being busy.”
Somehow, the thought that Teore might already love him made Raha feel a little scared.
It wasn’t because of the fanatical obsession Teore showed toward Edrion in the original story.
In fact, his own preference leaned toward being obsessed over rather than not, so that wasn’t the problem.
‘The problem is…’
Raha met eyes with Teore, who was looking at him with an unusually loving gaze.
If this man was truly looking at him with love and not just interest, it was a problem in many ways.
In the first place, his plan to run away from here, and his plan to sleep with the rest of the dukes, including Hayden, before running away, were all highly likely to fail.
In particular, after falling in love with Edrion, there was an episode where Teore showed a fanatical obsession and confined him to keep him all to himself.
If that target became Raha, he would be completely bound to Teore without any escape.
‘In fact, the current situation isn’t much different from confinement anyway…’
Looking at Teore, who was staring at him with a pleasant smile, Raha thought he should bring Edrion and Teore together as soon as possible.
“Do you like the glass greenhouse?”
“Yes? Ah, yes. I was surprised because the scale is much larger than I thought.”
Raha said as he looked around.
“The previous head of the family put quite a lot of effort into this place.”
“Do you come here often?”
“Not really. If you come here often from now on, I will come often too.”
At Teore’s words, Raha stared at him for a moment and then smiled faintly.
As expected, if he dragged this out any longer, his feet would surely be tied to Teore without any escape.
“Ah, I called High Priest Edrion. I thought it would be nice to have tea together…”
“Why?”
In an instant, Teore’s eyes grew frighteningly cold.
