“Why are you calling Raha by his name?”
“Why? Is there a qualification required to call someone by their name? Even if there were, it’s not like I would lack it.”
“Ha. What kind of confidence is that?”
“The confidence of being one of the Empire’s five attribute users?”
Teore raised an eyebrow at that with annoyance, but he didn’t say anything specific.
He just glared at Grey with a displeased expression.
Certainly, all five attribute users possessed unique powers, creating a dynamic where even those of the same status couldn’t treat each other carelessly.
That was likely why even Blizan, the Crown Prince and next Emperor, didn’t find the other attribute users difficult to deal with.
Raha felt that this was probably why Teore hadn’t been overly furious yesterday when he found him rolling in bed with Grey.
“Raha will live in my castle, only performing my treatments.”
Teore said, rubbing Raha’s lips gently with his thumb.
“By whose authority?”
When Grey asked with an expression of disbelief, Teore answered while keeping his gaze fixed on Raha.
“By my authority.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Teore. He is the Empire’s only High Priest.”
“There are two.”
“High Priest Edrion can’t use his power right now.”
“He will soon.”
“Even so, you can’t just monopolize Raha alone…”
Suddenly, Teore grabbed Grey by the collar and pulled him close to his face.
“I found him first.”
“…?”
“Raha.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Since I found him first, I won’t let anyone take him.”
Teore let go of Grey’s collar and said. Grey’s face contorted as he asked,
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of doing something strange?”
Teore looked at Grey with a cold expression for a brief moment.
As Grey’s face turned deathly pale, Teore took his eyes off him and looked at Raha.
“If you guys just behave and receive treatment from Edrion, it won’t go that far.”
“Teore!”
Grey shouted his name, his face still pale.
Raha looked back and forth between the two, bewildered and unaware of why they were acting like this.
“Just what on earth…!”
Grey shouted at Teore with a terrified face, but Teore answered him with a calm yet chilling expression.
“It is a problem that you all simply need to receive treatment from Edrion so that I don’t have to go that far.”
“How are we supposed to receive treatment from someone who can’t perform it?!”
Grey shouted with an expression of utter disbelief, but Teore spoke with a firm, resolute tone.
“I will fix him.”
“And if you can’t?”
“I will make it happen by any means necessary.”
“No, what kind of…”
Grey frowned, utterly baffled.
He had been about to ask how Teore could possibly find the cause for the sudden disappearance of an artificially manifested light attribute, but he suddenly remembered the Grand Duke’s castle, which held all the ancient texts of the Empire, and clamped his mouth shut.
‘That must be why High Priest Edrion is currently at the Grand Duke’s castle.’
If there were separate ancient texts regarding Edrion’s condition, he would be able to find both the cause and the solution.
The Grand Duke’s library contained every ancient text written from the beginning of the Empire to the present. There were even precious texts there that even the Imperial Family hadn’t seen.
Because there existed a ‘Dark Space’ that only those with the dark attribute could open.
It was common knowledge that since the previous generations, the heads of the dark attribute families had stored important texts in the dark spaces they summoned.
Therefore, there must be many rare and precious texts, and there would surely be records of someone like Edrion who had artificially manifested the light attribute, as well as the reason why such a person’s attribute had suddenly disappeared.
Grey let out a short sigh and looked at Raha.
Teore was so resolute that if he and the other attribute users didn’t receive Edrion’s treatment, the repercussions would fall on Raha.
‘He’s really planning to imprison him.’
Grey’s face stiffened.
Teore was trying to hide Raha in a ‘Dark Space’—a place only dark attribute users could access—to possess him all to himself.
‘Dark Space Summoning.’
That ability was a different concept from the ‘spatial separation’ used by other attribute users.
The space, usable only by dark attribute users, was so disconnected from reality that it was often called an ‘Otherworldly Space.’
It was also a space that only the dark attribute user and their chosen companion could enter.
If Teore was truly determined to lock Raha away there, there would be no way for them to find him. Grey looked at Raha with a stiff expression.
He was shining brilliantly, as if he had absorbed all the light pouring in from the window.
He looked so ethereal that Grey thought if God were to send a messenger in His stead, they would surely look like this.
‘How could I have failed to notice such a beautiful and noble figure until now?’
Grey felt incredibly confused, as Raha looked completely different from the High Priest he remembered.
‘I can’t lose him.’
Certainly, he couldn’t afford to lose someone like Raha.
He truly, absolutely didn’t want to lose him.
No, he needed to take him before he lost him.
To do that, he needed preparation.
Unlike Teore, he didn’t have a space where no one could find him, no matter how much the other attribute users rampaged.
“Anyway, that’s a story for when High Priest Edrion has fully regained his power. So, keep that kind of talk for after he’s recovered.”
Grey told Teore, his brow slightly furrowed, before turning his gaze to Raha.
“I’ll come to see you again soon, Raha.”
“What did you just take my words for?”
Teore snapped, his eyebrows arching in irritation.
Grey lightly brushed off Teore’s remark and turned to leave.
Teore kept a sharp, intense gaze fixed on Grey until he vanished from sight, then turned his head to look at Raha and asked, “Are your injuries all right?”
“Ah, yes. It was just a light graze…”
It was a much deeper wound than a light graze, but he deliberately pretended it was nothing.
He didn’t want to make him worry, and he was also cautious because he still didn’t know the exact reason for Edrion’s behavior.
“That’s a relief.”
Teore nodded once and turned his gaze out the window.
For some reason, the sight of his sunken expression stirred a sense of guilt in Raha.
It was clearly because he seemed hurt by the kiss with Grey.
“Are you… angry?”
Raha asked cautiously.
Teore’s gaze, which had been directed outside, returned to Raha.
For some reason, his eyes were widened ever so slightly.
“Do I look angry?”
Fortunately, there was no edge to his voice in the counter-question, and Raha let out a deep sigh of relief without realizing it.
Then, suddenly, his expression stiffened, not knowing why he felt relieved.
‘Is this something to be relieved about?’
In the first place, he was a person who was going to leave this place, so he shouldn’t be forming deep bonds with anyone.
He felt that he would likely avoid the “death ending” even if he stayed here for a while, but that didn’t mean he had any desire to keep living here.
Isn’t that right?
Eventually, all five attribute users would be living under Edrion’s feet, craving only his attention.
That was to be expected as he was the original main protagonist, but Raha didn’t think he needed to stay and watch that.
Honestly, it was unlikely he would be unaffected seeing it.
