Rejected by Daughter’s Second Male Lead Chapter 94

The high priest had no reason to stop his esteemed guests from sitting next to each other if they insisted. Nevertheless, Marius nodded with a slightly stiffened face.

Acolyte priests pulled out two chairs to Marius’s right. Gillen promptly sat down next to Marius. Naturally, Yuan ended up sitting furthest from Marius.

“Your bond is truly as strong… as I’ve heard.”

Marius’s tone was as if he were speaking while swallowing down rising vomit. Gillen held back a laugh and linked arms with Yuan again.

“Well, that’s how it is. We are getting married, after all.”

“Cough!”

Beside him, Yuan let out a cute cough. Gillen pretended to be greatly surprised and offered Yuan a glass of water.

“Yuan, did you choke? Oh my, you must be careful. Here’s some water. Should I give it to you?”

“N-no… I’m fine.”

Yuan’s face turned pink. To anyone watching, he looked for all the world like a shy young man, so much so that even the acolyte priests standing behind them widened their eyes. To think the hero of the empire would become so soft after falling in love!

If even they reacted that way, there was no way Marius could let it pass calmly. He was now openly staring at Yuan. It was as if he were waiting for something, as if Yuan would send a distress signal at any moment.

“High Priest. You mentioned you were close with Yuan before, didn’t you? May I ask how close you were? I let it slide then, but mulling it over now, I find myself getting quite jealous. That my man was close to another man. Wouldn’t any alpha feel anxious in such a situation?”

“Pfft, pffft!”

Yuan, who had been sipping water from a glass next to him, spewed it out loudly. The acolyte priests hurriedly handed Yuan a napkin and wiped the table. Yuan’s face was now as red as a beet.

Gillen smiled magnanimously and patted Yuan’s back. As he did so, he looked at Marius challengingly.

“Well, you’re a beta, High Priest, so you probably wouldn’t understand an alpha’s feelings.”

One’s secondary gender didn’t matter when becoming a priest, but it was true that there was an unspoken rule. Most priests were betas. While the public tended to admire those with secondary genders or consider them of noble blood, within the temple, they were treated like primitive beasts swayed by desire.

Of course, there was no overt discrimination, but that was the general atmosphere in the religious world. This perception also played a large part in the poor relationship between the imperial family and the temple.

But for now, even Marius couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret about his secondary gender. Gillen was strongly tied to Yuan by his status as a ‘dominant alpha’. Because he was an alpha and not an omega, there would be things only the two of them could understand. Marius felt a new kind of jealousy. Gillen’s provocation had hit its mark perfectly.

“Sometimes… there are things one can only see by being different.”

Marius managed to reply this way, forcing a smile into his eyes. He deliberately swirled the wine glass in front of him to avoid falling for Gillen’s childish trick. As the rich, sour, yet sweet and bitter aroma rose, his mind calmed down a little.

Yes, in the end, whether it’s Duke Blake or Yuan, they are nothing but young and foolish non-believers to me. They are ones I must guide to the right path. Marius regained his composure and smiled. This time, it was a smile that truly came from the heart.

“As I’ve said before, we had a truly special relationship. I was saddened that Yuan couldn’t endure the temple’s education and ran away back then, and I’ve kept it in my heart ever since.”

Marius continued, his gaze lingering on Yuan.

“Yuan probably remembers too. We happened to run into each other on the street once… and well, Yuan got flustered, used attack magic on me, and ran away. I lost consciousness right there. Haha.”

Marius’s cheeks were slightly flushed as he said this.

Ugh, you pervert. He’s definitely a masochist. Gillen thought to himself, feigning a look of surprise. He was actually a little surprised. To think the two of them had met again after that.

“I took it as proof that Yuan had never forgotten me for a single moment… am I right, Yuan?”

Marius, who had only been conversing with Gillen until now, directed a question to Yuan for the first time. Yuan glared at Marius, his face pale with fury.

“Even the way you think is utterly repulsive. It’s just like you to interpret everything in your favor.”

“M-Marquis!”

“How dare you speak to the High Priest in such a manner…!”

The priests standing behind them jumped in surprise. To them, Marius was almost like a god. It didn’t matter if their opponent was the hero of the empire and a marquis; in front of the High Priest, he was nothing. They huffed as if they would use their divine power to knock Yuan unconscious at any moment.

“Brothers. Please step outside for a moment.”

It was Marius who stopped them. He sent the acolyte priests out with a calm and benevolent smile. They looked as if they wanted to get a round of revenge on Yuan before leaving, but they didn’t dare disobey the High Priest and immediately left the dining hall.

Now, there was no one left in the dining hall except for the three people sitting at the table.

“Show your true colors now, old fossil. There’s no one here who doesn’t know what’s under that rotten skin.”

Yuan sneered sarcastically. But Marius didn’t suddenly turn dark and tie Yuan up or attack Gillen. He was just smiling gently with the same calm face as before.

“What are you talking about, Yuan? I have been expressing my true feelings all this time. I cherish you, Yuan. I sincerely hope that you will return to the embrace of Lady Retina.”

As he spoke, he elegantly cut his steak.

“It’s absurd for someone who should be serving a god to have a lover of his own and pour his love elsewhere. Didn’t I tell you that several times before?”

“Was it while you were hitting me with a thorned whip? Or was it when you locked me in a coffin for over eight hours and made me recite the entire holy book? Ah, no. It was when you tied stones to my body and kept dunking me in and out of the lake behind the temple. I remember now.”

Yuan retorted calmly. However, Gillen was horrified by the content, and felt a pang of sadness at the very slight tremor at the end of Yuan’s words.

“I’ve never seen such a crazy bastard… You did that to a child?”

A wave of anger-laced pheromones rose from Gillen’s body. It was like an instinctive explosion that he couldn’t control. Of course, Marius, being a beta, couldn’t detect it, but Yuan, sitting right next to him, could tell how angry Gillen was.

And that fact was a great comfort to Yuan. That this man, who usually laughed everything off, was this furious over his pain.

“A strong trigger and faith are originally necessary to convert magical power into divine power. It is the work of priests, so Your Grace the Duke may not be familiar with it.”

“Even if I’m not a priest, I know very well that that is child abuse. How could a person who is a High Priest do such a thing in the name of God? Could it be that such things are still happening now? In the basement here?”

At Gillen’s mention of the word ‘basement’, Marius raised an eyebrow.

“Oh my, Yuan. How much of our secret have you told? I’m upset.”

“Should I be glad that you at least recognize that it’s something that should be kept a secret?”

Gillen blocked Yuan with his body so that Yuan couldn’t see Marius. Because their height and build were similar, when Gillen deliberately blocked him, Marius was hidden from Yuan’s view.

Yuan’s gaze was stolen by the back of Gillen’s head, the veins bulging and moving on his neck, and the neat collar of his shirt. It was truly strange. Normally, he would have flared up at Marius’s words and retorted, or stormed out of the room for fear of hyperventilating, but now, his mind was filled with nothing but Gillen.

Gillen was protecting him. His pheromones were surging with anger. Those pheromones, which should have been stinging and unpleasant to Yuan, a fellow alpha, were so refreshing and cool. They were so sweet that his mouth watered. He felt like knocking Gillen down and entering him right now, to hell with Marius and everything else.

Yuan realized it once again. He was no longer alone. Therefore, he too could not go back to being the Yuan of the past.

Yuan slowly wrapped his hand around one of Gillen’s shoulders, as if massaging it. Gillen didn’t look back, but he could feel his pheromones gradually subside starting from where Yuan’s hand touched.

This was their connection, which no one could interfere with. It had become so strong and solid that there was no room for old scars or tears from the past to squeeze in.

“Old fossil.”

Yuan, who had been mostly silent, calmly opened his mouth. He slowly rose from his seat and looked down at Marius.

“Let’s go to the basement.”

At Yuan’s words, Marius’s and Gillen’s expressions changed in stark contrast. Marius’s face lit up, while Gillen was horrified.

“Yuan!”

Gillen stood up and grabbed Yuan. The grip of his hand was quite strong. Yuan patted the back of Gillen’s hand reassuringly.

“You come with me too. That solves it, doesn’t it? Surely you don’t think I’m going to lose? This Yuan Hampton?”

“But…”

“Lead the way, old fossil.”

Yuan said to Marius, as if declaring war.