BL999DP

Chapter 29

Something was amiss. That's what he thought as he approached the room where the butler was being held.

So Rostin almost ran to reach his destination.

And what he saw there was worse than he could have imagined.

"Ah! Your Excellency, Duke Wintersnow. Long time no see."

Spotting Rostin, the High Priest greeted him with his usual gentle smile.

However, Rostin couldn't return the greeting, for the butler behind him did not appear to be alive.

Ignoring the High Priest's greeting, Rostin quickly checked the butler's condition.

Sure enough, he wasn't breathing; his heart wasn't beating at all.

The thoughtful doctor attempted to revive him, but there was no improvement in the butler's already departed soul.

"...High Priest, what is going on here?"

Rostin turned to the High Priest with confusion in his eyes, his voice low.

With a deceased man in front of him, the High Priest shrugged lightly.

"Well, it's not a particularly strange situation; I'm just here at the request of Duke Rubellite to treat his butler."

"Treat him? But he's dead now, isn't he, and surely he was fine until a moment ago."

Frostbite and torture had taken their toll, but not enough to kill.

Reina had warmed him with her flames, and he had been making progress in his recovery, actually getting better.

But to die suddenly, while being healed by the High Priest.

At Rostin's incomprehension, the High Priest shrugged and scratched his cheek.

"Ah, that's... so I didn't mean to kill him, but I made a mistake."

Accidentally killing someone, the High Priest?

He wasn't as skilled as Reina, but he could bring warmth to Luca as snow, if only for a moment.

He could wield magic powerful enough to end the northern summer forever.

And a mistake? A ridiculous mistake that could get someone killed?

Rostin's expression sank coldly. He opened his mouth, which had hardened.

"I've never heard of the High Priest making a mistake before."

"I'm glad you see it that way, but I'm human, and sometimes I make mistakes."

The High Priest folded his eyes into a half-moon and smiled. It was an ironic response. Surely, he didn't think it was a compliment. No, he didn't. He was a perceptive man.

The High Priest was older than Rostin had expected.

He looked about his own age, but that face had been the same five years ago, ten years ago, fifteen years ago.

Heck, it had probably been the same before that.

Everyone who met the High Priest was struck by his unchanging face, even the elderly.

It was strange, Rostin thought, weighing the High Priest's righteousness in smiling in the face of a dead man.

Strange, and frustrating because he couldn't pinpoint exactly what made it so.

Meanwhile, Duke Rubellite, after confirming once more that the butler was indeed dead, bowed politely to the High Priest.

"High Priest, since your duties are complete, why don't you move on to the next location? And I will escort you."