There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 262 - 255. Yellow Hyacinths

Chapter 262: Chapter 255. Yellow Hyacinths

Bassena looked at the guide who walked briskly in front of him. There was pressure on Zein’s every step, trailing leftover anger and new confusion. Enough to make Bassena feel a bit scared.

He wanted to call for the guide, he wanted to hold the clenching fist, he wanted to embrace the tense shoulder. He wanted to soothe that quiet rage and disappointment, and kissed away any discomfort.

But he couldn’t right now.

They were still inside the Temple’s compound, and making intimate skinship would just result in another scandal, another topic for articles that would only add to the headache Zein already had right now.

Bassena was used to a widespread scandal and slander about him, but Zein was new to this side of the world, to this life where he was a public figure and object of interest. Bassena knew that even now, while he was suppressing his emotion, Zein was worried about what today’s event would bring to the guild and the reclamation project.

And as if that wasn’t enough, he suddenly heard a clue about his mother.

While Zein already found his father’s roots, Lucia’s history was still a mystery to him. They knew nothing about her before she met Roan. How she ended up there, where was his family...nothing came up. Her two friends claimed they knew nothing about Lucia before they became housemates, and so far, they didn’t made any response to Zein’s mail.

Even Radia couldn’t find out more, and as he said, he had a limited influence in Northern Alliance. He couldn’t just use his usual way inside this closed-knit, fairly homogenous region.

Unless he risked international conflict, but Zein wasn’t that crazy yet.

He thought it was alright, since he found his father’s trace anyway. But recently, when he was standing in front of the res-zone memorial stone, he was filled with regret for not having his brothers’ remains. It brought his mind toward his mother.

His mother, who disappeared after bringing him to Araka.

His mother, whose fate was obscured.

It was unlikely that she was still alive, but if she was dead, then where did she lay for the last time? Where was his grave? Did she even have any grave?

These questions had been swirling inside his mind on that sleepless night in the red-zone. He was reminded of that cemetery on the hill, the beautiful and tranquil place where Bassena’s mother rested. How nice would it be, if he could leave the twins’ remains there? How nice would it be, if he could find his parents’ bodies and bury them side by side...

"The Northern Lake..." Zein muttered.

"The lake in this Temple was an artificial one," Bassena told him quietly, as they walked through the busy lobby. The conversation was a nice distraction from people’s shocked gazes as they watched Bassena and Zein walk past. "The one in the Temple of Freyja was real; a large lake with an island in the middle of it. The Temple is located on that island."

"Temple of Freyja..." Zein repeated, eyes glowing deeper and fist clenched tightly.

"You’ll need to apply for an entry permit first if you want to go there," Bassena informed the guide, whose brows furrowed deeper because of it.

But Zein immediately closed his eyes, and after taking a deep breath, his expression returned to the usual nonchalant one. "I see," he said flatly.

Bassena couldn’t say anything after that, so they walked in silence through the outer sanctuary and the front lobby. Again, people were looking at them in surprise and some had to do a double-take. But they seemed to know better than to approach the two, except for a plain-looking man who walked close to them.

The man looked as if he just wanted to get out of the Temple fast, which was why he didn’t give a shit about walking along the Serpent Lord and his guide. He didn’t even turn his head to look at them, as if he didn’t care.

Except that, once they arrived at the corridor leading to the exit, the man walked parallel to the guide, matching Zein’s steps.

"Thank you," Zein took out a token from his pocket; it was a formation plaque that cast a barrier spell on him. The spell had been broken the moment he stepped into the inner sanctuary, but the plaque itself was still reusable after getting charged again, so he had to return it. He put the token on the plain man’s palm. "You can go back now."

The man simply nodded, and without looking at each other, the man made a turn in an intersection, and vanished without a trace inside the dim corridor. With Bassena there, they had no need for guard duty anymore.

"Is that...a shadow guard?" Bassena asked with a raised brow.

"Mm,"

Bassena was quite surprised. In all the years he knew Radia, Bassena only met the shadow guards during the Golden Viper raid. They were the ones who helped him eradicate the Vaskis. To think that Radia moved them now...it was either this matter that important, or Radia pulled out an Old House privilege on Zein.

"This robe..."

"Radia took it from the mansion,"

"Huh..." Bassena raised his brow. Even opening the family vault, huh? Either the Mallarc wanted to adopt Zein or the guide was really, really convincing. "Radia truly went all out, huh?"

"Yeah," Zein admitted, feeling both grateful and guilty at the same time. He was grateful for Radia to do all of this for his selfish objective, and it made him feel even more guilty about the potential harm he might cause.

And Bassena could see it simply by the change in Zein’s eyes. "Don’t worry," he said. "Radia always has a way out."

Zein chuckled quietly. Trust. He knew Bassena had a massive trust in Radia, and the more he spent his time with the man, Zein thought he did too.

"I guess," he sighed. "You came here with a chopper, right?"

They were outside the Temple now, walking toward the helipad at the edge of the parking field. Obviously, the helicopter Zein came in--the plain one--wasn’t being parked there. But Bassena came here in broad daylight, so it was out in the open.

"It doesn’t matter anymore whether I hide or not, so let’s just go home."

Bassena tilted his head. "To the dorm?"

Zein turned and looked at the esper unamusedly. "Are we not living together anymore?"

Bassena almost stumbled on nothing in the concrete path to the helipad. "O...oh..."

He pressed his lips, cheeks reddened both in embarrassment and delight. He fought the urge to pull on the guide’s arm and kissed the man all the way to the helicopter. But in the next second, the amber eyes glinted sharply, and he turned around, staring dagger at a place quite far away, almost at the other side of the parking field.

"Oh, shit!"

On that other side of the parking field, a man crouched down instantly behind a van, tapping his chest which had been thumping so much since half an hour ago. He turned the camera hidden in his glasses toward himself. "Sorry guys, can’t record anything anymore. I don’t want to be killed by the Serpent Lord."

[sbas0910: You’re gonna be hunted by the Temple anyway]

"Don’t jinx it! They won’t know if you don’t tell!"

[rottenwoman: they always know, idiot]

[sooXtine: it’s fine even if you’re dead, you’ll still be remembered for this legendary footage]

The man chuckled even as he ran for his life away from the Temple and the Serpent Lord. "I know, right? I don’t want to die, but even if I got sent to prison, it’s so worth it!"

The man continued to laugh quietly, all the while his live recording footage of what transpired inside that garden circulated in the dark web.

* * *

The perk of living in a penthouse was that they had access to a private helipad on the roof.

They came straight to the apartment after informing Radia briefly. Both Bassena and Zein were mentally exhausted from the exchange they had today. They didn’t even converse much on the way back, because Zein also seemed like he was still in a bad mood.

The guide looked better once they arrived, though. Perhaps because he was finally somewhere he considered ’home’ after days. His tensed shoulder seemed to relax, and he let out a long, heavy sigh of relief.

"Umm...Zein?" Bassena finally felt it was safe enough for him to start asking some questions as the guide crouched down to take a bottle of water from the fridge.

"What?"

Watching the man who was leaning on the kitchen counter while drinking the water, Bassena asked carefully. "Why were you in the Temple?"

Zein blinked, and slowly put down the bottle of water. But he didn’t answer the esper’s question, even averted his gaze slightly, prompting Bassena to frown slightly.

"Radia should tell you I was already on it, and you still need to hide," he confronted the guide. "Did you...not trust me with it?"

"No, that’s not it," the answer came swiftly, unhesitatingly. Zein even shook his hand to strengthen his point.

That didn’t chase away the confusion and suspicion, however. "So?"

Bassena saw the blue eyes look at him for a bit, before Zein turned around to face the kitchen, reaching for another bottle of water and cracked it open.

"...I’m going there to see you," the guide said finally, in a rather quiet voice that made Bassena move closer.

"In the Temple?" the esper tilted his head. Going all the way to another area just to see him? Even though they could see each other right after Bassena came back from the Temple?

Bassena found this hard to believe. He knew Zein had been more open and frontal about his affection, but even if the guide truly, truly missed him, Bassena didn’t think Zein would go all the way to the Temple when he was still deemed as its ’enemy’ for that. He knew Zein, and he knew Zein was wiser than that.

But the guide responded defensively. "Why? I can’t?"

Bassena, who was walking closer so he could see the guide’s expression, stopped at the sudden harsh tone. "No, that’s not--"

"Would you rather be left alone with her?"

"...what?" Bassena shook his head in disbelief. What with this spike that suddenly prevalent in the guide’s voice.

"I don’t like it," Zein continued, hunching slightly over the kitchen island. The shoulder that looked so wide and imposing in the Temple earlier suddenly looked vulnerable.

"Don’t like...what?"

"You’re meeting another guide without me knowing."

Bassena blinked, lips parted in a flurry of emotions that made his stomach churn and his heart lurch.

"Zein..." the esper tried to swallow the air through his dry throat. "Were you...jealous?"