There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 213 - 207. Announcement

Chapter 213: Chapter 207. Announcement

There were roughly 192 registered guilds in Eastern Federation, and even more mercenary groups--some registered, but more were unknown.

Not every guild and group was invited to the annual gathering. But what that meant was that not everyone could come inside the conference room. The association building itself was free to be visited by anyone, so even those who weren’t invited could come.

For these people, and those who come with the invited groups but had no quota to sit inside, a screen was available outside the conference hall for them to spectate.

Those who got invited were given two seats each inside the conference room. Unless you were a sponsor, then the quota was doubled. Trinity, or rather, Mortix, was one of those, so Zein could come inside. Rina was already there, waving cutely at them to come and be quick about it.

"There’s a lot of people asking for you," Rina whispered once Zein sat down. "I guess it’s a wake-up call to our Commander that he can’t keep getting jealous--unless, you know, he obliterated the entire population."

"What people?" Zein asked, stealthily stroking Bassena’s hand below the table.

"There’s a son of House Arok, the daughter of House Lima, and I can’t remember it, but someone who comes as a proxy for...was it the minister, or...ugh whatever, anyway they’re lots," Rina shrugged in the end. Since it happened during the short time she was free from an interview until the conference hall was opened, she only remembered it in passing. "Oh, the journalist asked me about you too, and--" she shifted her head slightly, looking somewhere not far from them--to the right and behind a little bit. "People from Azure."

Zein raised his brow. "Not Celestia?"

"No, no--they’re not trying to recruit you," Rina chuckled. "This sounds weird, but I quote them; they wanted to look for a ’playmate’ to their guide."

"Weird indeed," Zein shook his head in confusion. Why would a grown-ass person need a playmate? Or was it a new trick to bait him?

"Well, they don’t mean anything bad, I’m sure," Rina smiled as she saw Zein’s dubious expression. "I knew them from the academy days, and the twins were not bad people, I believe. They’re just...eccentric."

"Eccentric how?"

"Uhh...just," Rina shrugged, laughing awkwardly. "Anyway, you know they both share an exclusive guide?"

"I don’t, but continue."

"Alright, so they shared an exclusive guide, and that guide is just as mysterious as you, but for a different reason. The guide rarely goes in public, and when he did, it’s always under strict protection, like...no one is supposed to come close to him."

Zein felt like he heard something about it before from Abel. While there were still many people who thought guides were inherently below an esper in status, there were also people who lived at the opposite end of the spectrum; an extreme reverence for guides that led them to lock away the guide because they felt the world was too filthy to see or be seen by their guides.

Ah, right. They felt like what the Templar of Arms Master in his head was before meeting those people in Mimera. People who worshipped a guide.

"But they want me to meet that guide?" Zein tilted his head in confusion.

"Yeah, I don’t know what’s their deal, but they said it’s fine even if you meet in our hotel,"

"Even though they are so protective of him?"

Rina shrugged, glancing in the direction of the Azure guild. Zein followed the line of sight, and caught the grey eyes of one of the twins, who smirked and waved at him as if the man had been waiting for it.

"What’s your take?" he asked Rina, who knew the twins personally.

"I’d say just do it, and see what they want," she said. "You can just do it in the hotel too if you want to be safe."

Zein turned to the other side, looking at the man who had been keeping silent for a while. "Bas?"

"It’s your choice," the esper shrugged, but his tone was still filled with tension.

"Yes, but what do you really think?"

Bassena, who had been staring hard at the podium for no apparent reason, turned to look at Zein, somewhat in a daze. It was like the man purposefully detached himself from the surrounding so he didn’t have to hear people talking about their interest in Zein.

But the amber eyes slowly regained their focus in front of the keen gaze of the guide. He felt the thumb patiently stroking the back of his hand, and realized this was Zein’s way to make him feel...secure.

Blinking slowly, Bassena finally replied in a quiet voice. "If it’s just the guide, and in our place..."

"Alright, we’ll do that," Zein said, with a soft tone that surprised Rina. Bassena had already heard that a lot, but others were still unaccustomed to this side of Zein. "You can tell them that," the guide shifted to Rina, who just nodded blankly from getting stunned.

But she didn’t have to stay frozen for long, because the door near the podium was opened, and the rest of the people--the important ones--entered the venue. Top guilds’ Guildmasters, the representatives from Great Houses, people from the main headquarters of the association, government officials, and even the military.

"They weren’t fighting there, right?" Rina whispered as their eyes caught the captain of Mobius, walking at the very back, and standing by the door after everyone entered the conference room.

Zein didn’t think Radia would be foolish enough to have a lover spat in the middle of a high-level gathering, but who knew if they were going to use it to make people think they were truly nemesis? So he just shrugged, but raised his brow at Radia, who finally joined them.

"I’m not having you teasing me today," was the first thing Radia told Zein the moment he caught the playful gaze.

"Fine," Zein chuckled. He kind of regretted not going with Radia earlier, but upon catching numerous pair of eyes looking at him with piercing gazes, that thought was vanishing.

One of the most notable ones came from someone who got Bassena almost growled; an even more intense reaction than having Zein talking with his ex-fuck buddy. So Zein knew immediately that the man was none other than the Guildmaster of Celestia.

Staring back at those cold and piercing eyes, Zein patted Bassena gently. He still didn’t know what kind of attempt that man had done to get him, but it was more important for them to get the project. That, after all, would be the best retaliation.

"Azure withdrew their proposal," Radia told them as the older twin of the Azure Sky guild, Mizar Marici.

"Huh--why?" Rina widened her eyes, before narrowing them as she looked at Zein. "Is this have something to do with their request?"

"About Zein meeting their guide?"

"Yeah,"

"Maybe so," Radia chuckled, leaning back and crossing his arms as the host started their greeting. "The older twin said their guide doesn’t like them going to dangerous places."

"A valid reason," Bassena, who had regained his calmness, replied. As someone who would do whatever Zein told him to, he understood the Marici twins well.

"Are you going to meet the guide?" Radia asked.

"Might as well," Zein shrugged. They did sound harmless enough.

"I’ll prepare a private dining room,"

The reply came as if Radia already knew they would do it in the Mortix’s hotel. Zein didn’t even feel surprised at this point.

But not so with the rest of the room, which was now filled with the sound of exclamation as the government official and the association announced the Reclamation Act. The journalist, especially, had become loud and shouting for more information.

"I’m actually surprised they managed to keep it a secret for this long," Rina commented. "You would think with the top guilds working on it already, they would have sniffed something and made a rumor."

"The media affiliated with top guilds and their sponsors might already know," Radia said. "But the guilds would gatekeep it, since there’s no benefit in letting others know in advance. Besides, the one who leaked it would receive federal charges, so..."

"Still..." Bassena looked around slightly--about two-thirds of the people in the room looked flabbergasted. "I thought more people would know."

"Does it matter for us?" Radia smirked. The association representatives just followed the announcement with the news that they had already conducted a preliminary assessment. "The important thing is getting this project, and for now, we only have one enemy."

At that, the other two espers responded in unison. "Celestia."

And just in time, the representative announced the guilds who had passed the initial assessment, which had down to two candidates; the massive Celestia and the wealthy Trinity.

A fight between numbers and capitals.

"People will riot," Zein muttered with a subtle smile. And true to his thought, the conference room was once again filled with loud sounds of yells and protests.

Particularly, people questioned the fairness of having a close-door preliminary assessment where the only ones who knew were the big and wealthy guilds. Zein could almost hear the typing sounds of the journalists rapidly writing articles on this. And he could clearly hear an even more uproar outside the hall, from the people who watched the conference through the screen.

"There will be some who left the conference after this," Bassena predicted. "Those who have no plan for the auction and the exhibition would go."

"Because they’re angry?" Zein replied. "It’ll be more peaceful, then?"

"You wish," Radia chuckled. "Since it is down to two groups now, people will take sides, trying to see if they can gain something by joining a faction."

"Or there might be a new faction--you know, the one filled with protesters," Rina chimed in. "They’ll band to have a chance making a ruling."

"Let them be," Radia smiled. "They’ll realize it’s not a feasible thing without ample resources."

Spoken like something coming out of a golden-spoon baby--Zein chuckled. "I don’t think there will be lots. People from lower regions wouldn’t want to think about crossing the borderland."

"That might be so,"

There were two types of people who understood the most about the difficulty of navigating the end-zones; the ones living close to the end-zones, and the ones that had been spending time making an action framework for the reclamation.

Someone like Alcor Marici.

"Ah, you’re all so loud!" the more temperamental twin shouted, straight up using a voice amplification spell so his voice sounded like a roar that drowned the others. "Loud and stupid! It’s not like you lot have enough resources to do this project anyway!"

The words were as harsh as they were true. Azure Sky might have withdrawn voluntarily, but a part of the reason they did so was because they knew their framework would not best Celestia and Trinity--something that Glasswing already knew from the start. The only reason the other two guilds and one large mercenary group still going forward was due to the pressure from their sponsor.

But they knew--they knew how impossible this project looked the more they worked on the framework.

Rina whispered with a giggle. "The truth had been spoken."

And this loud, short speech effectively shut the rest of the disapproving noises.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.