There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 258 - 251. Thorny Roses

Chapter 258: Chapter 251. Thorny Roses

"I’m--"

The Saintess pressed her lips to stop her own outburst. No, she shouldn’t be the one who lost control; she should stay dignified and charming.

She took a deep breath and leaned back against her chair to achieve relaxation. Relaxing her shoulder, she reached out to take her cup and wet her dry throat slightly, letting the warmth calm her nerves. When she opened her mouth again, her face already returned to the calm and elegant visage she usually wore.

"I merely said I wasn’t sure. Surely you know there’s a lot of words going around that it’s hard to know which one is the truth and which is a mere rumor," she smiled sweetly, charmingly, with a dash of silly naivety of a sheltered princess living in a gilded palace.

"Yes, you are right about that," Bassena also decided to turn down his aggressive tone, leaning back into his chair and tapping on the armrest. "Which is why I’m rather perplexed."

The teacup paused midair as her arms stopped moving. She tilted her head and looked at Bassena inquisitively.

"When I said that our guide was in trouble, logically, someone who lived in the Temple, who supposedly dedicated themselves to the well-being of guides, would have asked about the guide’s condition, or offered help for the guide," Bassena said, stroking his chin and narrowing his eyes. After pausing for a few seconds, the amber eyes flicked to stare at the Saintess, brow arched in challenge. "You did neither."

The teacup found itself on the saucer rather harshly, with a clanking sound that could be heard clearly within the pavilion. The hazel eyes stared hard at the rippling surface of the tea instead of the handsome esper. "What...are you trying to say?"

"Hmm," Bassena muttered with a slight sneer in his low voice. "Perhaps what my guide said is true after all,"

"What--"

"That the Temple truly does not care."

"How dare you!" the table rattled as the Saintess’s delicate hand slammed the marble surface. "It’s not enough that you are slandering me, now you’re slandering the whole Temple?!"

The calmness she had painstakingly gathered instantly shattered As she stood up and glared at the esper. But Bassena barely reacted, just looked at her without any apparent expression.

"Isn’t that right? The Temple didn’t seem to care about a guide’s predicament," Bassena sneered. "The first thing in your mind is not to help a guide in trouble, but to replace said guide’s position? Is this just you, or the stance of the whole Temple?"

"Bassena Vaski! Do you not know what kind of repercussion you would get from making such an assumption?"

"Of course, I know," Bassena answered calmly and stood up with such relaxed air as if he hadn’t just challenged the Saintess and the institution in the heart of the Temple’s inner sanctuary.

Instead, he neatly arranged the chair he sat on back in its initial position. Straightening his back, the esper’s tall figure looked as imposing as he was outside, even though they both knew an esper could not use any skill or move their mana inside the inner sanctuary of the Temple.

When the Saintess looked into the amber eyes, they were blazing quietly. In a firm tone, he spoke. "I know what kind of repercussion I...we, might receive," Bassena said. The trickiest part about challenging the two pillars wasn’t just public sentiment, but also the patron deity’s wrath.

However, Radia had told him something;

--I truly hope it’s not true, but if it is, well...we never left our people behind

"But whatever repercussions we would have to receive will not hinder us from seeking justice for our guide," Bassena declared confidently, just like how he confidently said to Zein that he would fight the deity who wanted to take him away.

"What justice!" the Saintess snapped. She truly had abandoned her facade now--what use it would be anyway, when she could see the stubborn affection clearly in the esper’s eyes and voice. Jealousy and disappointment turned into boiling anger. "He’s just a lowly guide from a dirty place who’s been doing dirty things!"

"Saintess," the husky voice dipped low, and Bassena grabbed the chair hard, purposely positioning himself behind the furniture to control his anger. He might no longer move his mana here, but he could still snap an adult’s neck if he so wished. But he preferred not to--if he could. "I would have to ask you politely to refrain from saying such false things about my guide."

"What false things? I said nothing but the truth!"

"Vallaria!"

The esper’s voice roared loudly inside the rotunda, amber eyes blazing in palpable fury. But the Saintess, who was safe under the protection of the sanctuary, had no fear of the mighty esper. Instead, she laughed bitterly.

"Now you use my name?"

Bassena looked at the mocking face and listened to the bitter laugh with regret and sadness. Perhaps a little bit of guilt.

He wouldn’t have this kind of thought before, but after experiencing such a blissful life with his guide, it was easier for him to sympathize with people. It was easier for him to see the world in a lighter shade when he no longer felt like he struggled alone inside perpetual darkness.

So he could see that the Saintess, Vallaria, was just like him; obsessing and chasing over someone who didn’t want it. He was just lucky that he managed to change his beloved’s mind. Of course, it also lay in the fact that he came to truly love the guide, not just an obsessive infatuation over unhealthy possessiveness.

But still, he could try to reign his emotions, if only she did not continue attacking his beloved guide.

Taking another deep breath, Bassena asked sincerely. "Tell me the truth," he looked into the hazel eyes keenly. "Is it you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The one behind all of this," Bassena narrowed his eyes. "The one who ordered people to dig up my guide’s past and slander him in those articles."

The Saintess raised her brows, and, surprisingly, let out a loud snicker. "Pfft--now you also use the word? Why are your words not slander to me, but theirs are slander to your..." she paused, the corner of her eyes twitching in irritation, "...that guide."

"Because all I did was tell the truth based on my experience as a client," Bassena sighed. "What they did was web lies from a half-truth."

"What lies?" she crossed her arms; now that she knew Bassena wouldn’t dare to do anything in her territory, she became more brazen. "Are you going to tell me that it’s a lie he worked for a rogue guild?"

"He wasn’t doing it willingly!" Bassena hissed through his gritted teeth, the fury creeping back into his voice.

"So what?" she laughed, freely, no longer pretending that she didn’t know what Bassena was talking about, but also not giving him any confirmation of her role in all of this. "He might not enter willingly, but who’s to say he didn’t come to embrace the dirty rogue life? After all, he was born there," she sneered, lips twitching in disgust. "Who knows what kind of parents--"

"Vallaria!"

"Now," before Bassena could fully yell at the Saintess, a voice already cut him off. Low and melodious and familiar. "I wouldn’t really care if you just want to slander my name,"

Bassena, who was almost flinging the chair aside to step forward and reach for the Saintess, froze at the voice coming from the path leading to the rotunda. He turned to the source, unblinking, spine crawled with shivers.

The Saintess wasn’t so different, looking at the figure climbing up the spacious rotunda with eyes widened in shock.

"But dragging my acquaintances and my parents..." the newcomer stopped right at the top of the steps, addressing the Saintess with piercing blue eyes, "...is a different story."

Even Bassena found his throat restricted when he called out to the man in surprise. "...Zein?"

* * *

"Zein?"

He heard Bassena calling for him, and it warmed his stomach, calming whatever it was somersaulting there before. But Zein didn’t look at the esper--his esper--and just focused his gaze on the Saintess, who was looking at him with wide, unblinking eyes.

"Y-you! How did you get here?!"

"By walking, obviously," Zein replied nonchalantly with a shrug, the words and the tone felt like a mockery, as if the man’s existence hadn’t been a thorn enough for the Saintess.

"Lies!" she yelled loudly, the end of her wide sleeve hitting the table as she turned and started looking around, perhaps to see if there was a breach on the sanctuary’s magic.

"It’s the truth, although not entirely," Zein just replied in a casual tone, before dropping his tone in an even more blatant mockery. "Might be a familiar sentiment for you."

Bassena blinked, still processing how Zein ended up here right now. But the how or why could wait for later. The fact that Zein was here, and the way he talked to the Saintess was proof enough that Zein knew what was going on, and bore the same suspicion in mind.

Suspicion that by this point, they knew was true. It was just that the Saintess hadn’t admitted to anything yet. Bassena was in the middle of trying to get that spoken confession, but before he could do that, Zein was here and...

As he looked at the two guides, Bassena stepped back slowly, quietly, keeping his vision filled with the sight of his beloved but putting himself out of the way.

He knew it was no longer his battle now. It was Zein’s, so Bassena would let the man handle this in the way he saw fit. Unless Zein asked for his help, he would stay in his lane.

But he believed Zein wouldn’t need his help. His guide was marvelous like that.

"So it’s true?" Zein tilted his head when the Saintess did not respond to his question, repeated it with a firmer tone. "Are you the one behind all of this?"