There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 222 - 216. Night of Contending Wealth (2)

Chapter 222: Chapter 216. Night of Contending Wealth (2)

The Earring of Still Water.

Hidden from the catalog, it was a surprise item that came up from the fourth floor of a tower. It was a small crystal, which upon closer inspection looked like it was filled with shimmering water. The property that came out after appraisal was simple; it provided a boost in mental capacity and protection against mental attacks.

Bassena abused the button on his numbered medallion even before the host opened the bid.

"Hey--easy there," Zein patted the back of the esper’s head.

Of course, he knew why Bassena was so anxious to get this piece of accessory. And he couldn’t blame the esper for reacting so strongly since he was the one who brought this worry in the first place. While Zein was quite sure he wouldn’t get into that deep of a void again, no one truly knew what the future might bring.

"No, I have to get this one," the amber eyes narrowed. "It even has your name on it."

"Such a nice coincidence, isn’t it?" Radia chuckled.

Everyone who knew the origin of Zein’s name would have the same thought; that the item belonged to the guide. The fact that it had a function closely related to a guide’s capacity made it even clearer who this item was supposed to end up with.

Now, since the item itself seemed to function better for a Guide, it wasn’t included in the main attraction. It was a hidden item of the second batch, and Bassena didn’t think he would get many opponents.

And he didn’t, at first. A few guilds bid for it, not necessarily for their guides. But no matter how much new numbers increased the price, Bassena pressed the button a second after. He was abusing the button so much that he receive a warning from the host because the auctioneer was getting confused.

"You should never act desperate in negotiation, Bas," Radia watched the frenzy esper in fun at first, but he shook his head later on.

"I don’t care," Bassena grumbled. "Why don’t those people stop pressing the button instead?"

But the new raising bid never did stop. There were three persistent bidders including Bassena, that raised the price of this single earring to unimaginable range.

"What the hell?" Bassena frowned in annoyance, and then changed the question. "Who the hell?"

It wasn’t about the price; Bassena didn’t mind burning however much for Zein. But he was getting impatient because he wanted to see the item in his hand already.

"Someone who will put that much money for a Guide must come from big guilds," Radia commented.

At that time, Zein’s commlink was beeping with a call. When he looked at the ID, his brow arched in surprise. "Hmm, like Azure?"

The others looked at him as he accepted the call, and Alcor’s grinning face came out on the screen in front of him. [Hey, is that your boyfriend treating the button like an arcade?]

"Why do you have his contact?" Bassena narrowed his eyes at that instead.

"Because Ren doesn’t have a commlink?" Zein shrugged. "You’re one of those, huh?"

[Yep]

"Drop it!"

Zein shoved the rabid puppy’s face away. "Are you trying to buy that for Ren?"

[Yes] he said, and Zein was close to telling Bassena to just let the earring go, since he didn’t have pierced ears anyway, but Alcor added right after. [He asked us to buy it for you]

Bassena looked at the screen with his thumb still pressing on the bidding button, flabbergasted. Radia, on the side, laughed out loud at the ridiculous situation of two sides bidding on an item to be given to the same person.

He leaned closer to Zein so he could be seen on the screen and asked the Azure’s Guildmaster. "You know who the other one is?"

[Yeah, guess who?] Alcor smirked, but Mizar from somewhere in the background tell him they had no time for dilly-dally, because...well, they were still in the middle of a bidding war. [I know, I know--it’s Celestia]

"The fuck?!"

"Language," Radia scolded the Saint-class lightly, before shifting his gaze back to the screen. "I don’t know Celestia cared so much for their guide."

"They might do it simply so I couldn’t get it," Bassena grumbled.

"Not everyone out to get you, Commander," Rina rolled her eyes at Bassena’s tantrum this evening.

[You know, we were asking them first earlier, and you know what’s funny?]

Radia arched his brow and immediately responded a second later. "They want to give it to Zein?"

[Yep]

"What the fuck?!"

Zein also frowned this time, because...yes--what the fuck?

"Anyway, drop the bid. It’s annoying," Bassena glared at the screen.

[How can you say that? This is a request from our beloved guide. What if we make RenRen sad because of it?]

"Buy something that doesn’t need to be attached to his skin!"

"That’s your problem??" the others looked at Bassena incredulously.

Alcor seemed about to say something on the screen, but he got shoved away by his more reasonable twin. [He’s just kidding. But that Verion is petty, you know, so are you just going to let him drive the price higher?]

"What’s his deal exactly?" Bassena grumbled, but they didn’t exactly have the time to leisurely talk because the auctioneer was still calling out the bid.

"Can you contact them again?" Radia asked the older twin calmly. "Tell them you’ll join us for the later bidding war if they continued."

They could see Mizar making a pondering face, before he shrugged. [Alright. I’ll do it since Ren likes your guide so much]

And with that last statement, the screen turned black. One of the numbers stopped bidding then, which certainly belonged to Azure Sky. They waited for a while, and still went through two more bidding rise, until the other number finally stopped bidding, and Bassena got the earring with a price that could be used to buy defensive armor from the fifth floor trial.

"People with money are so ridiculous," Zein shook his head, as if he wasn’t one of those people with money. Whatever he said, Bassena was grinning and back to his jolly mood. It seemed like getting the item was more important than losing the money.

Thanks to the exhausting, unexpected bidding war at the end of the second batch, the organizer decided to have a little break before the last batch--the main event--began, so the bidders could take a breath and wind down from the aggressive bid earlier.

"Do you think it’s true? That Celestia meant to gift the earring to me?" Zein used the break time to ask Radia while Bassena made his payment, because it truly sounded ridiculous. "Why would they do that?"

"To entice you?" Rina offered the most plausible explanation, since it was in line with their attempt before. "They must have wanted you even more now after receiving your presentation material."

"Even after my aggressive speech?" Zein raised his brow.

It was a reasonable doubt. From his one-sided conversation with the esper girl from Celestia, and from the rumor he heard among the guides, Celestia wasn’t exactly a place that put the welfare of their guides as a priority. No--they didn’t see it as something important. While they paid guides at high rates, the guides themselves had no power of voice within the management.

Would that kind of guild really be that desperate over someone like Zein after his blatant display of defiance yesterday?

"Or, they just wanted to play with us," Radia smiled deeply. "They should know we will try to get that item for Zein, so it’s possible that they want to hinder us."

"By...letting Zein have it after?" Rina tilted her head in confusion.

But Radia’s smile only went deeper, the crimson eyes curled into bloody crescents. "But imagined how humiliating it would be, if they win something that we wanted to bid, only to give it to us after," looking at the hall that was filled with espers and journalists, he added. "How would it paint us, if they give it in front of the public?"

"It’ll seem like a charity," Zein replied. This conjecture was actually making more sense to him, who had a habit of seeing the worst in people. "If I accept, it will look like we are inferior. And if I decline, it will look like we’re being petty."

Radia responded with a smile, crossing his arms and leaning back to chuckle. "Ah...it’s good that Azure’s guide likes you, huh?"

"What the fuck?" Bassena still replied with the same reaction. "But that’s so Verion, though."

The other people in the room also had the same sentiment. They were annoyed, but not surprised, since Trinity had been in a bad relationship for so long with Celestia. It was still fascinating though, that all three sides were bidding for an item to be given to Zein, although the reasoning was vastly different between each other.

"Anyway, Bas," Zein suddenly called out for the esper who was happily waiting for the earring to be delivered to their room.

"Yes?"

"I don’t have a pierced ear, you know."

Bassena, who was full of smiles before, suddenly froze. He was so excited about getting the item that he didn’t realize that one important fact.

"Ah..." he blinked, at a loss for words as the others watched him with raised brow. Actually, some of them had realized this and were waiting for the esper to react. "Ah! Umm...ugh--"

In the end, Bassena just groaned and threw his head back, covering his face with his palm. Rina laughed from the side and Lex shook his head with a shrug as if he was already used to this kind of blunder.

But even Radia did not expect what came out of Zein’s mouth next. "What I mean is, you have to pierce me first."

Dheera coughed, and Rina almost slipped from her chair. Bassena fared no better, staring blankly at the guide. "...huh?"

With a nonchalant tone, while staring at the mass of people below, Zein explained. "You know I don’t like other people touching me, so you do it."

"...Oh."

"Get a room," Radia rolled his eyes. Of all things, he didn’t expect Zein to act like a lovebird.

"We are in a room," Bassena said defensively, finally waking up from the stun caused by Zein’s unexpected attack. "You told me not to stick to him outside, so I’ve been doing that."

"You have a date yesterday!" Rina pointed her finger at them, as if tattling about something scandalous to their Guildmaster.

"In a closed space!"

"People in the honeymoon phase are insufferable," Radia just shook his head and sighed.

Zein, who actually caused all of this, merely chuckled and muttered quietly. "Were you too?"

"Wouldn’t you like to know," Radia glanced at the guide that looked at him with a smirk, before shifting his gaze back at the venue below.

No, he wasn’t really looking at the crowd. His eyes had only been following the tall figure in a black military uniform who had been circling the perimeter during the auction.

Were they insufferable? Radia chuckled inwardly. How could they? They hide everything from the world. They even hide their relationship from Han Shin. No one knew when they got together for the first time, and no one knew why they were breaking apart later on.

It had been ten years since everything went wrong with them. Or was it even longer? Radia hated to count the days he waited anymore, for the future he was no longer sure they had. He hated how the man betrayed their future. And he hated how he couldn’t move on from wishing for that future.

Was that why he couldn’t shift his gaze from that figure? And it was why he could see the sudden frown and a glint of agitation inside the black eyes as Han Joon listened to something from his earpiece. As Radia raised his brow in surprise, the soldier raised his face and stared straight at their booth, mouthing something.

Radia stood up abruptly, surprising the others. "Bas, did you send your sentry around?"

"No? Why would I..." Bassena paused and stood up while frowning. "What happe--"

Before Bassena could finish, they suddenly felt a massive vibration, as if there was an earthquake. Actually, most of the people thought it was an earthquake. But those people didn’t have a natural detector.

Zein, who took a deep breath as he finally felt it, announce with a grunt. "It’s an instant outbreak."

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