There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 236 - 229. A New Direction

Chapter 236: Chapter 229. A New Direction

"Huh, your birthday is actually in spring, Captain?" Dheera asked in surprise as they were going back to Althrea.

"Presumably," Zein nodded, still feeling bloated from the cakes and meals. The delightful liquor also doing something for his nerves, because he felt so contended and relaxed--or was it because he actually felt happy?

"Oh--then we should do another one--"

"No, thank you."

Zein immediately raised his palm to stop Han Shin from making any wild suggestions. Yes, he felt it was nice having this surprise birthday party that he never thought he would ever experience, but he wasn’t really fond of repeating the process of becoming the center of attention in an event.

Or blowing twenty-eight candles. Once was enough.

The healer pursed his lips at the immediate rejection, crossing his arms and leaning back on his seat while making a sulking face. Well, at least Zein did not reject the birthday presents he received today. The guide looked like he would, but Bassena convinced him it would hurt the feeling of the gifters more if their heartfelt gesture were to go unappreciated.

Or course, Bassena had a clear agenda of making Zein used to receive presents so he could continue gifting his lover something. But the esper also wanted Zein to be able to accept something without thinking there were strings attached to it. Some people might come with that kind of intention, but there were also a lot of people in Zein’s life who did it genuinely.

He wanted Zein to know people care about him, so Zein would never forget that his existence was something precious. And not because he was the vessel of Setnath--because certainly, those people had no idea about this fact.

In the end, Zein came back with his dimensional storage ring full of gifts--including the one Azure Sky sent before they were out of the hotel. Bassena was sure there would be more waiting for the guide in the dorm room back in Althrea, but he refrained from telling Zein that because the man already looked uncomfortable.

Step by step; Bassena reminded himself as he looked at the guide with a smile. Step by step.

"Anyway, are we going to announce the Reclamation Project immediately once we arrived?" Zein asked the others to divert the topic so they would stop talking about his birthday which wasn’t really his birth-day.

"The invitation had been sent to all members of Trinity to gather on the third day," Radia answered from the seat diagonal to Zein, while reading another report as usual. "You should have one too."

Oh? Zein looked at his neglected commlink. It was dead last night--or this morning--as he was busy making a mess of Bassena, and he hadn’t turned it back on after being charged. Once it did, there were a series of notifications filling the screen.

A lot of congratulatory messages came, most of them from Trinity members--probably because his birthday as listed in the company profile was January 1st. He had some from the researchers in Mortix, as well as the people who took care of his orphanage.

Zein stared at all the messages with a dumbfounded expression. He knew most of these messages were formal congratulatory that people sent to their colleagues, but even then, he never thought people would stop and spend one or two seconds of their life to send him those. Most importantly, however, was that people who personally knew him would type a lengthy message wishing his good health and happiness.

There were Abel and the twin receptionist; the growing chicks from his division; Eugene, Anise, and Reina’s older sister. There was no need to mention the long essay that old man Senan and the Elder sent him, but he was rather surprised by the curt ’congratulation of staying alive’ sent by old man Dan from the dormitory--who had been taking care of his plants and fish while he was away.

Zein spent a while just staring at the screen, before turning it off silently. He looked out the window, at the cloud and the blue sky as the guild’s private jet brought them to Althrea. To those people who sent him those messages.

Home. Could he really start to think of the place as such?

Of course, as he looked at the reflection of the esper beside him, he already considered Bassena as his ’home’. With him, he could go anywhere with Bassena; they didn’t have to stay here or there, they could be staying anywhere and he would have his home.

But it was different from having a place; a community where he belonged. Where he felt belonged.

"Why?" Bassena whispered beside him, tilting his head so he could look at the guide better. "What’s wrong?"

Zein look at their reflection in the window and smiled, reaching up to scratch the esper’s jaw. Ah...he just felt really happy today. And he didn’t want to smear it by filling his head with complicated things. Just for today.

"Do you think they’ll take it well?" he asked.

"The espers? Well, they knew their job always contain dangers, so I shouldn’t think it’ll be any problem," Bassena shrugged, leaning closer so Zein could stroke him better. Tsk--he should request a couch seating or something for this plane. "I think you’ll have a more difficult time with your kids."

"Hmm..."

He did have that thought. The guides were still getting used to diving into dungeons, so telling them they would be sent to the Deathzone might be a challenge. Dheera told him that the group chat--the one Zein wasn’t a part of--was pretty chaotic. So, while Radia would make an announcement to the whole guild the day after tomorrow, he would still need to give them some explanation before then. Just so they weren’t panicking too much.

That being said, Zein had faith in his kids--which, by itself, was something that surprised him even more. "They should be alright," Zein said with a smile. Maybe not all, but he thought he would have enough willing volunteers to be sent to the Deathzone.

Bassena was staring at him wordlessly for a while, so Zein finally turned his head to face the esper. Immediately, Bassena curled his lips at Zein’s questioning eyes, and gave the guide a light peck on the lips.

"You trust them very much," the esper said with a chuckle, grinning that Zein wasn’t flicking him for the mischievous kiss in front of others.

"Well, they’ve been following me obediently this far," Zein shrugged, and then suddenly recalled something. "Ah...don’t we have a guild’s open recruitment in the second week?"

"Yeah. We will be opening registration starting from tomorrow for a week," Bassena nodded, shifting back to sit in his seat properly instead of putting half of his body over Zein’s. "The admission test and interview will be done in the second week. You should be doing it together with Hertz, I think."

Zein leaned back and crossed his arms, mulling over the recruitment. Like any other prominent guild, rather than always lurking around in the tower or guide central, Trinity would open a recruitment session, which others always dubbed as an audition, in line with the mockery that Trinity was an entertainment agency.

"But do you think people would want to be in the guild?" Zein asked in doubt. "I mean, after the news about the Reclamation Act."

Logically, who would want to be a part of what seemed to be a suicide mission? Sure, for the higher-ups of the guild, liberating the Deathzone brought immense benefit since they could acquire the land and the rights over its management. But for the ’soldiers’? Except for--probably--higher salary and good insurance, there was no real advantage.

Would people really want to be a part of such a guild?

Bassena, however, answered confidently. "On the contrary, there would be even more people than last year."

Raising his brows in surprise, Zein stared inquisitively at the esper, who immediately explain.

"Because we have a good reputation."

"Is that...enough?"

Bassena laughed. "No, no, I don’t mean they come to Trinity because it’s a good place," he shook his head. "But your conjecture about people’s reluctance to join us came from the thought of those people thinking they’d be used as a ’meat shield’ or a ’bait’, right?"

"Ah..."

"But we have a reputation that pretty much the opposite of that, since we treated the members like precious ’commodities’," Bassena grinned. "You know, like celebrities."

Zein nodded, but he still didn’t see what that got to do with anything.

"See, with our reputation, people didn’t think we’ll recruit new members just to throw them into the fire. Naturally, they thought we would only send the members that had been part of the guild for long," Bassena continued. "In that case, wouldn’t the guild become an empty house when we start the project?"

"Ah!" Zein exclaimed quietly, finally understanding what Bassena was implying.

People would think the new recruits would be stationed at the guild compound to make up for the absence of the one being sent to the frontline. Because, of course, the guild would still need to operate as the core of Althrea’s security.

"Also, they might think we would never be able to compete with Celestia in this matter, looking at the size difference," Bassena shrugged. "We might win in capital, but Celestia easily had thrice the manpower all over the Federation."

"Alright, I got it," Zein nodded. "But was that really the case? Are we only going to send the old members?"

"Actually, yes," Bassena shrugged. "It’s not like we have a lot of time to train the new recruits to follow our battle patterns and routines."

They would still leave some prominent members in the house, of course, but most of the experienced ones would be sent to the Deathzone. They needed a lot of trust there after all. It was why they tried to outsource some force, so they could leave some people behind in Althrea.

Including Radia.

The big boss would be controlling the project from a safe place, because they needed him to stay alive and showered them with supporting facilities. The on-field command, as usual, would be in Bassena’s hand. After all, it was originally his mission.

"What about the guides?" Zein asked.

"That..." Bassena held Zein’s hand and planted a kiss there, amber eyes twinkling within the evening glow, "...would be up to you."