As Fargo went out toward the entrance of the greenhouse to get the tea he had ordered, Raha smiled softly at Edrion and said to him.
“Um, I’m not usually this picky, but the tea at the Grand Duke’s castle is exceptionally sweet.”
“It’s tea that only goes out to guests. It’s a consideration that because the North is cold, sweet drinks are better for outsiders.”
At Edrion’s words, Raha nodded, “Ah.”
Come to think of it, his words made sense.
Since the North itself was a place where it snowed all four seasons, sweet tea would be more helpful than tea that only contained fragrance.
“You know a lot. I guess it’s because you’ve been friends with His Highness the Grand Duke since you were young.”
It was just a sincere exclamation without a hint of sarcasm, but as expected, Edrion misunderstood that Raha was being sarcastic to him.
Because he was already misunderstanding Raha, thinking he had intentionally shown him the affair with Teore, Edrion came to regard every action Raha took negatively.
“Well, I’ve come here often.”
“Aha.”
He intended to say it to annoy Raha as much as possible, but Raha simply let out a short exclamation and just nodded.
Although it was a bit bewildering, Edrion soon thought that Raha was intentionally pretending to be unaffected.
A smile naturally spread across Edrion’s lips at the thought that although Raha looked fine on the outside, he must be seething with rage on the inside.
He then smoothed out his expression as much as he could, turned his head, and began to slowly look around the glass greenhouse.
He had turned his head to hide the smile forming on his lips from Raha, but he soon found himself briefly mesmerized by the beautiful interior of the greenhouse.
It was the Grand Duke’s castle, a place he had frequented quite often since he was young, but excluding the one time in his early childhood, this was his first time in the glass greenhouse.
It was partly because Teore wasn’t the type to go all the way to the glass greenhouse for tea when he had a reception room next to his office, and also because, as a friend who had been with him since he was very young, he probably didn’t feel like a guest.
‘I didn’t know it was this beautiful.’
He had once had tea here with the previous Grand Duke when he followed his father as a child, but back then, he hadn’t had the luxury to look around.
Sitting on pins and needles, all he could do was steal glances at Teore, who shone brighter than anyone else despite having pitch-black eyes and hair.
Now that he thought about it, he had already been harboring a one-sided love for Teore since then.
“It really is a beautiful place, isn’t it?”
Suddenly, Raha asked.
“…It is.”
For some reason, it felt like Raha’s tone implied that he was the owner of this place, so Edrion nodded with a slightly displeased expression.
Of course, Raha had no such intention, so he wasn’t even aware that Edrion was thinking such things.
“Ah, how long do you plan on staying at the Grand Duke’s castle?”
At the sudden thought, Raha asked, and Edrion’s expression changed subtly.
It was clearly a look asking, “Why are you asking me that?”, but because Fargo was pushing a tray filled with tea and cookies into the room at that moment, Raha didn’t see Edrion’s expression.
Edrion looked at the tea and cookies being placed on the table, ruminating on the words Raha had uttered without much thought.
It seemed Raha was indeed the reason Teore had tried to send him to the Duchy without a moment’s hesitation.
He suspected that Teore had spoken in such a way in front of Grey because Raha had made a scene, demanding that Teore send him away to either the Duchy or the Great Temple as quickly as possible.
Therefore, he concluded that everything—the loss of his light attribute, and his belief that Teore’s feelings toward him had changed even though they hadn’t—was all a scheme orchestrated by Raha.
Because of this, thinking he needed to put his plan into action as soon as possible, Edrion deliberately dropped his teacup to the floor the moment Fargo disappeared with the empty tray.
Raha was startled by the teacup shattering with a loud noise, and he rose from his chair and approached Edrion.
“Are you okay?”
“Ah, I’m sorry. My hand slipped by mistake.”
Edrion said, picking up the shards of the broken teacup from the floor.
“Be careful with your hands.”
Raha crouched down in front of the spot where the teacup had shattered and began to clear away the debris.
Edrion’s eyes widened; he hadn’t expected Raha to crouch down in front of him to help clear the shards.
His plan was to pretend to clear the pieces, get a slight cut, and when Raha approached him to check the cut, he would pretend it was an accident and slash his arm with a shard he was holding.
However, the stupid Raha, not worth the trouble, was busily gathering the teacup shards into one place right next to him, saying he would help pick them up.
Edrion flashed a victorious smile to himself and tightly grasped a relatively large and sharp piece among the shards.
Then, the moment Raha turned his back to reach for a shard lying further away, Edrion stretched out the hand holding the shard and swung it toward Raha’s arm.
“Ah!”
“Oh, High Priest! Are you alright?!”
At Raha’s scream, Edrion feigned surprise, acting much more startled than he actually was as he reached out his hand.
Blood vividly stained the elbow where the shard swung by Edrion had made a long cut.
“My goodness!”
Raha, who had been suspicious of Edrion’s frantic behavior—acting as if he didn’t know what to do when he was the one who swung it—was about to laugh awkwardly and say he was fine, when suddenly, Edrion wiped the blood away with his hand.
“Ugh.”
“Ah, I’m sorry. My handkerchief…”
Perhaps embarrassed that he had touched and wiped the wound directly with his hand, Edrion began to move his head here and there, looking for a handkerchief.
But in reality, he was trying to secretly take out a glass bottle to collect the blood he had just wiped off.
Raha told the flustered, bustling Edrion that he was fine, then rang a golden bell to call Fargo.
“I need to go get this wound treated first.”
He added that it would take a little time for Fargo to arrive, so he would go first, and since Fargo would clean up here, Edrion should also stop cleaning so he wouldn’t get hurt.
Raha watched Edrion, who nodded once as if he understood, and then pointed to the tablecloth when he saw him holding his blood-stained hand carefully.
“You could wipe it on this…”
“No! It’s alright!”
Raha’s eyes widened at Edrion’s reaction, as he shouted while cutting him off, his expression overly rigid.
Edrion told Raha that he was fine and urged him to go quickly and get his wound treated.
As Raha turned his body, nodding, Edrion also turned away, then took out the glass bottle he had hidden at his waist.
