There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 237 - 230. A New Determination

Chapter 237: Chapter 230. A New Determination

Unlike the time they announced the establishment of new guide division, which was done vi a video conference, the announcement this time was made in person.

All of the guild members and management team were being called, no exception. Every hidden squad members were being pulled from their missions, and there was no paid leave being issued for this date, since the invitation had been sent out before the conference. It was the fullest Trinity compound had ever been, filling the biggest conference room of the second floor that was as big as the one the Association had.

It was the chance for the regular guild members and workers to chance upon the ’rare’ espers, like the squad members of [Anzus], who usually could only be seen once in a blue moon. In fact, some of them didn’t know those people existed of all, especially the one who still comparably new.

It was also the first time they saw the ’white’ and ’black’ divisions of the Guide Department sat together. Most were fascinated by how different those divisions looked from each other in just half a year. As if mirroring their leaders, the strike division’s guides looked sharper and had more edge, while the rest of the guides looked like their usual calm and relaxed self.

Or perhaps because the black-uniformed guides were just fresh out of their morning regime. Either way, it was fascinating.

Despite what he said in the plane, Zein still had a little bit of worry about the kids’ reaction. He gathered them yesterday to tell them about the project first, and how many of them would he bring there.

He had expecting some reservation, but it seemed like a couple of days were enough for these guides to already come to term with the whole idea. Conversely, it gave them even better understanding of why this division was established in the first place; why the training regime had been hard, and why Zein had never lessened them; why they had to go through challenging mental stimulation every week.

And then, there was something that Zein did not include in his calculation; his ’speech’. While Zein couldn’t care less about the things being said about him, his kids were following the articles closely, reading what the journalist sumarized from it, and then asking for confirmation from Dheera.

They were not stupid, and knowing Zein, they realized his emotion came from his own experience. They might not know what the guild’s objective in taking this difficult and deadly project, but they glimpsed on their Captain’s objective within his outburst.

So, when Zein gathered them to talk about the project, they listened to him keenly without making a fuss or protest. Of course, some of them didn’t want to go if they could, for various reason--such as being the only bread winner for their family. But when Zein told them he would take volunteers first--just as he did when the division was established--he easily got eight, including Dheera.

Zein needed more, but having eight volunteers was beyond his expectation, so he wouldn’t push it for now.

That was why, the black-uniformed guide didn’t look distressed when the Guildmaster made an official announcement regarding the project, as well as declaring their future directions. And looking at the calm guides, the espers couldn’t bring themselves to feel agitated because...well, pride.

"That went better than I thought," Zein commented in the executive meeting room after the conference ended.

It was ended for the regular members, but it was only the start for the executives.

"Because mandatory general meeting had been issued before we went to the Association," Bassena said. "When the Association’s announcement came out, they should already put the pieces together."

"Not everyone wanted to be a part of it, but even those people knew better than to raise an issue publicly," Rina added from the side. "They called us ’entertainment agency’, but we actually had less drama than other guilds."

"Drama?" Zein tilted his head. He had only ever in one guild, and it was chaotic in nature due to their status, so he couldn’t use Umbra as comparison to any decent guild.

But why would other guilds had drama?

"Politics, mainly," Bassena explained to the clueless guide. "Some guilds had different factions inside the management, especially those with sponsors. A lot of leaders create a lot of interests that bound to clash."

It was a classic thing within sponsored guilds; a conflict of interest between the espers that only wanted to do their job and those who wanted to gain as many benefit as they could. Different opinions would come from the espers who actually came inside the dungeon and the sponsors who only wanted profit.

"It’s not like we have no internal drama in each department," Abel chimed in, smirking as he recalled the tension between two guide divisions at the start. "But it would never be big enough to alter the overall management policy."

"Because of Radia?" Zein asked, and the others nodded their head.

"To be exact, it’s because we have an absolute voice of authority," Bassena said. "He’s the founder, the owner, and the sponsor, so no one had higher authority."

And that was why, many people simply called Trinity as Radia Mallarc’s guild. To be fair, though, the guild did established as an adjacent to Mortix Group--among other things.

"Of course, there’s people who hated authoritarian rule, but hey--" Rina leaned back and smirked as she crossed her arms. "I can’t object the one holding my salary."

"The benefit is we won’t have confusion about the line of order," Bassena said as he put his pen in a vertical position atop the table. "But if Radia crumble..."

He let go of the pen, prompting it to fall down and rolled out of the table. Zein let out a long sigh--this was why Radia would not be in the frontline during the Deathzone raid. Suddenly, he was being reminded of Han Joon.

Protection. What kind of protection did the soldier had been doing for the past ten years? Who exactly was the enemy? Radia’s enemy.

Ah, it was truly frustrating being the only one who knew about them. And it was frustrating because Zein couldn’t exactly said he knew what happened between them. It made him itch with curiosity, even though Zein wasn’t typically a curious person when it came to someone else’s relationship.

"I wonder how many shadow guards he put on himself," Zein muttered, to which Bassena responded with a chuckle.

"He’s a summoner," Bassena smirked. "He has a whole army of guards in his repertoire," and then, as Zein’s brow arched with interest, he added in a whisper. "The one you always see around him was only a small fraction of his summons."

Zein swallowed unconsciously. Granted, he didn’t know much about summoners since they were rare. But from the few that he personally knew, he understood enough that summoning magic used so much mana since the esper basically feeding the summon’s energy with their own mana. So typically, depending on size and prowess, a summoner only have three to five fixed summons in their repertoire.

But Radia always had three to five around him in daily basis to do his chore.

"His main strength is not mana capacity," Bassena added, since Zein was looking into his core--which was the largest Zein had even seen. Radia had quite a huge core, but it still incomparable to Bassena.

In that case...

"Mana regeneration," Zein concluded.

Bassena nodded with a smirk. "He’s the best among other people I ever met."

"Better than you?"

"I’m actually sucked at that, because...well..." Bassena shrugged.

"Because you never needed it?" Zein scoffed at the grinning, boasting esper. With such a large reserve of mana, Bassena could solo any dungeon under black gate if he pushed himself.

Although he would come out on the verge of erupting, most likely. The downside of it was the difficulty of guiding--before he met Zein anyway.

"I guessed nothing in this world is perfect," Zein concluded with a shrug just as the meeting room opened to Radia walking in with a document in is hand.

"We got East Wind," Radia threw the document on the table as he took a seat, didn’t bother with anymore greeting. "A one-year advancement contract. Even if we don’t get the project, the contract will still be in effect."

"But we’ll get it, right?" Zein raised his brow. His own contract said that he worked for the reclamation project, not the guild itself. So if they lost the project, the contract would be void.

"Of course, we will."

Radia replied with a smirk, in an unbending confidence that Zein could not fathom but still willing to trust. He had learned to never put himself in Radia’s shoes because he could never. The kind of world they saw and gripped in their hands was of different kinds. At this point, he was too afraid of asking Radia what kind of things he had done to make sure they got the project because he felt like he would find some illegal shits.

"And the others?"

East Wind was one of the mercenary groups they had been eyeing to be contracted for the reclamation project. One thing that Trinity lacked was definitely manpower, but rather than using new recruits which lacking group unity, using mercenary teams that had been going together for years would be better. That was what the member of [Anzus] had been doing; surveilling mercenary groups and scouting them.

"Still in negotiation," the head of external department replied. "About Scarlet Moon..."

Radia shifted his gaze to Zein then, who was suddenly feeling rather guilty. He was supposed to talk to them, but he kept missing the timing for various reason; meeting Xue Ren, the guide conference, the outbreak-cult fiasco...

"I’ll go to Araka after the recruitment session," Zein said, prompting Bassena to look at him with widened eyes. Even Radia looked rather surprised.

"Are you sure?" the Guildmaster asked in a rare tone of tenderness.

It was a concern that could only be understood by those who knew Zein’s whole story. While he did build an orphanage there, it was also a place that was causing all of his suffering.

But the guide smiled subtly behind his mask; the blue eyes looking as calm as a serene lake. He might not be able to if it was last month, or even last week. But standing beneath those fireworks made him realized that he was no longer blaming himself. And he had learned now that it was better to face those bitterness rather than running away from it.

Of course, he knew it might be painful once he was there, but he might also find peace. Who knew? He would know once he was there.

"Yes, I’m sure."

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