When Raha finally managed to lift his heavy eyelids, an entire day had already passed.
‘This is insane…’
From the moment he had been practically dragged out of the High Temple to the Grand Ducal Castle, he hadn’t eaten a single thing for a full twenty-four hours; he had done nothing but engage in non-stop sex.
Teore had pounded into him so relentlessly it felt as if his entrance might be permanently torn apart.
The endless ordeal had only concluded when Raha, unable to endure any further, lost consciousness entirely.
‘How on earth does that bastard possess such an inexhaustible sex drive?’
If he hadn’t passed out and had remained gasping beneath him, the act might still be going on right now.
‘Usually, after a man ejaculates, doesn’t it take some time before he can get hard again…?’
Granted, his own member had hardened quickly during the first few rounds immediately following ejaculation, but as the session dragged on, his erections became slower and slower to return.
By the end, he had been completely flaccid, reaching a climax solely from the friction against his walls.
At any rate, Teore was proving to be a certified lunatic in every sense of the word, entirely fitting for a character from this novel.
“Ugh…”
As he slowly tried to sit up, a sharp, unfamiliar ache rippled through his entire body.
There was absolutely no strength in his legs, and his bones felt as fluid as jelly.
It felt as though he had been submerged in a massive amount of thick, warm fluid and then fished back out.
Steeling himself, Raha sat up as much as possible, leaning his back and head against the headboard of the bed, and looked out the window.
Because they had taken each other’s bodies in such a frantic rush, this was his very first time actually appreciating the view from the Grand Duke’s bedchamber.
“Wow…”
True to the reputation of the North, the snow-covered estate was breathtakingly beautiful.
His body and mind were still completely exhausted, making it difficult to fully process the scenery, but the view outside Teore’s bedroom window was spectacular enough to make him forget his discomfort for a brief moment.
As he stared blankly, captivated by the winter view, the door clicked open without a knock.
Turning his head, he saw Teore walk inside, looking infuriatingly neat and refreshed.
“You’re awake.”
“…”
“I’ll have a meal prepared.”
Raha turned his head back slightly, staring intently at Teore as the man ordered the food.
‘Why does that bastard look so perfectly fine?’
‘?…’
A sense of defeat accompanied the question, swelling into a wave of profound injustice.
They had clearly engaged in the exact same act, yet here he was, unable to lift a single finger, while Teore looked more energetic and refreshed than ever. It was entirely unfair.
Watching the aggravatingly handsome Duke walk toward him after ordering the meal, Raha spoke up, his voice laced with resentment.
“My body… I can’t find any strength…”
Raha cut himself off, his face instantly flushing a violent crimson.
The voice that had just tumbled from his lips was terribly cracked and hoarse—the inevitable consequence of the frantic screams he had let out the night before.
“Your throat is hoarse.”
‘And whose fault is that…?’
Raha quickly cleared his throat, turning his gaze back to the window to hide his burning face.
Watching him, Teore rang a small bell to summon an attendant.
The moment a servant entered, Teore instructed them to bring a tea that was good for the throat.
“Your strength will return once you eat and rest. I did push you far too hard yesterday.”
At the very least, he seemed aware of his excesses.
Hearing a hint of genuine apology in Teore’s voice, Raha’s head instinctively turned back toward him.
As their eyes met, Raha felt his heart give a strange, fluttering thump.
Instinctively averting his gaze, Raha simply gave a small nod in response.
“It was my first time, so restraint was difficult. From today onward, I will properly regulate the frequency, so…”
“Excuse me…?”
Caught completely off guard by the statement, Raha looked back at him, his expression filled with bewilderment.
Regulate the frequency from today onward? What exactly was he planning to regulate?
“I… I need to return…”
“Where?”
Raha forced out the words through his strained throat, but Teore cut him off instantly, a single eyebrow arching upward.
“To the High…”
“There is no reason for you to return to the High Temple. Edrion will be there, so the duties can be left to him.”
“…What?”
‘What on earth is happening now…?’
Raha’s eyes widened in sheer panic.
First Blizan, and now Teore—both were acting completely out of character compared to the original novel.
A cold shiver ran down his spine.
Granted, through a bizarre twist of events, he had ended up taking the virginity that Teore was supposed to give to the main protagonist.
But he had never imagined that the grand narrative would warp to this extent.
“From now on, this place will be your residence.”
“B-but…”
Raha was utterly bewildered, especially since Blizan had already declared that he would arrange a residence for him within the Imperial Palace.
“There is no need for you to worry; I will speak to the Crown Prince separately regarding this matter.”
“Furthermore, now that things have turned out this way, let go of your lingering feelings for the Crown Prince, Laha.”
Teore brought up Raha’s long history of desperate schemes to win over Blizan.
He pointed out that despite everything Raha had done, Blizan found him nothing short of an annoying nuisance, so it was time to give up.
Then, he delivered a line that made Raha’s eyes nearly pop out of his head in sheer astonishment.
“Of course, you do not have another choice to begin with. As of right now, you are confined within this castle.”
After eating the meal that had been brought up to the bedchamber together with Teore, Raha bathed thoroughly with the assistance of the maids assigned to his care.
With a full stomach and a clean body, a wave of lethargy washed over him, and his eyes began to grow heavy.
There were still so many things he needed to think through, so Raha forced himself to snap out of it, blinking hard to keep the sleep at bay.
Since the word ‘confinement’ had directly left Teore’s mouth, it was clear he was currently a prisoner here.
Yet, at the same time, it seemed he could leave the bedchamber whenever he pleased.
According to the attendant assigned to him, the Grand Duke had explicitly ordered that if Raha grew bored, he should be escorted to the castle library or the greenhouse behind the detached palace.
If he was only restricted from leaving the castle grounds but free to roam anywhere within them, this situation was practically a luxury vacation.
Raha wasn’t the type to wander around anyway; as long as he had something to occupy his mind, he could happily stay cooped up in a room for days on end.
However, his original plan had been to maintain a proper distance from the other male leads he was supposed to heal, slowly lowering their guard against him while extracting money from them.
This sudden disruption threw a massive wrench into his calculations.
Once the romance between Edrion and the five male leads officially began, Raha—in his position as the villainous secondary sub-character—would inevitably become an eyesore to them even if he did absolutely nothing.
Therefore, even if this comfortable confinement kept him safely out of the High Temple for now, he couldn’t afford to let his guard down.
Teore was the exact character who had brutally murdered the original Raha.
Staying here while the plot unfolded was the equivalent of walking straight into a tiger’s den and lying down belly-up.
‘How do I get out of here?’
He had never anticipated being locked up, and according to the original setting, Teore had never confined Edrion either.
He had absolutely no idea how to resolve this situation.
More than anything, he couldn’t fathom why these unprecedented events kept occurring back-to-back, leaving him agonizing over what mistake he might have made.
Raha leaned against the headboard, staring out the window as the snow began to fall again.
“I will return as quickly as possible, so if you require anything, simply call for the attendant I assigned to you.”
The memory of Teore’s face as he departed for his office lingered vividly in his mind.
