There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 294 - 286. Little Creatures

Chapter 294: Chapter 286. Little Creatures

Zein and Bassena immediately left the venue not long after the bouquet throwing, because guests had already posted something on their social links, and the venue manager had told them some reporters already spotted within the estate.

By the time they arrived in Eiyuta, pictures of them at the wedding venue had already circulated far and wide through people’s social links and news articles. Of course, now that they had a better, clearer picture of Zein, it was all people talked about.

"How could a random candid photo look like a magazine shoot?"

Or...

"If I have a partner that good-looking, I would tell them to hide their face too,"

And the opposite;

"If I had that kind of face I would never hide myself, ever."

It was good that Vallaria was still on probation because she definitely would throw a tantrum in the Temple when she heard about how people started comparing Zein’s visual to her.

"I understand now why the Serpent Lord chose him instead of the Saintess,"

"It pisses me off, but they do look good together,"

"Damnit—beutiful people shouldn’t be allowed to be together!"

But Zein had no leeway to think about all those news and reactions because he had a mission to accomplish—not that he would care either way.

The moment they entered the yellow-zone city, they immediately followed the map to the address of Lucia’s shared house thirty years ago. It was located in an unassuming neighborhood, almost at the edge of the city. Most of the houses had been inhabited since a long time ago, and were inherited by second or third generations.

Not the house they visited, however.

It wasn’t a big house, a bit smaller than Cohen’s. The place was dark, and from the unkempt yard, it seemed to be empty. There was a small iron fence they could easily bypass by jumping over it—which they did.

"Doesn’t seem like anyone has been here for a few months already," Zein muttered. "I was sure they were still here when Radia’s agent investigated my mother’s origin."

There was no way they could obtain the letters that Lucia sent to her friends otherwise. But Zein had told Radia to stop the investigation in this direction, so they had no idea what happened to the two friends ever since. He was kind of regretting it now.

"Should we check the house?" Bassena suggested.

"Inside? Wouldn’t that breaking and entering?"

"Not if it isn’t locked," Bassena shrugged with a grin, and Zein couldn’t help but chuckle as they climbed into the veranda.

The house looked abandoned, but abandoned house sometimes was left unlocked, so they were hoping they could gain some clue inside. Unfortunately, the front door was locked, so Bassena suggested they try the back door.

There was a small garden in the backyard and a small shed with a pile of unused stuff on the side. While Zein was trying the back door, Bassena checked on the small shed for something; a key, perhaps, or a clue to where the owner of the house might be.

Again, however, Zein had to sigh in disappointment as the back door was also locked. He knocked on the window and tried to peek inside, but it seemed like the blind was drawn, so he couldn’t even see whether the house had been emptied of furniture or not.

"Should we ask the neighbor—"

CRASH! CLANG!

"Aagh!"

Zein flinched when he heard a loud sound of things crashing down and bumping against each other, followed by a yell from his esper. His whole body tensed—because what could make the Bassena Vaski scream couldn’t be good news—but before he could turn around, a wisp of darkness arrived beside him and crashed into the wall.

Bassena materialized and immediately grabbed Zein’s arms, eyes wide and shaking. Zein turned around in alarm, but he couldn’t see anything in the backyard. An invisible enemy? Zein narrowed his eyes as he felt Bassena’s hand tremble.

"Zein, l-let’s get out of here f-aagh—!"

Again, Bassena yelped and pulled Zein in front of him, as if...using the guide to shield himself from the enemy?

Zein tilted his head. That wasn’t like Bassena at all. But then he saw something fleeting by. No—not just something, but several creatures, running away from the humans invading the backyard.

That’s...

Zein raised his brow and crouched down, catching one of the fleeting creatures in a flash by its tail. "Agh—fuck! Why are you touching them?!"

Bassena yelled again and actually blinked away from Zein—which was a first. Zein stared at the struggling and screeching rat in front of him. There were lots of them in the red-zone, and spotting them was a daily occurrence while he lived there because rats were resilient bastards, just seconds to cockroaches.

But Zein realized he never saw rats or cockroaches in the green-zone. Perhaps that was why Bassena was scared of them, just like how Han Shin was scared of, or rather disgusted with worms.

Chuckling inwardly, Zein looked at Bassena, who was grimacing and backing away from Zein—the mighty Serpent Lord who could even take care of a black dungeon’s boss by himself, was shivering from the sight of a simple rat that could be squashed with a flick of his fingers.

Mischievously, Zein swung his arm and pointed the wriggling rat in Bassena’s direction, and the esper immediately backed away even more. "Zein, let that go! Don’t you know how many disease is in that thing?!"

That thing? Zein smirked and stepped closer until Bassena was up against the veranda’s railing. "But if I let it go, it might run to you, though?"

Bassena shook his head frantically, and Zein would have laughed if it wasn’t for the true terror in the esper’s eyes. "Zein, honey, throw it away...please?"

Ah, so adorable. Zein chuckled and threw the rat back to the yard, where it scampered off somewhere beneath the house. When he walked to the esper again, Bassena was cursing so much under his breath it sounded like he was exorcising the whole house.

"Did you just call me honey?" Laughing softly, Zein reached out his hand to pat the adorable esper’s cheek, but Bassena stepped away out of his reach again. Blinking, he looked at the esper who swallowed nervously, eyes on Zein’s hand.

"C-can you...w-wash that first? Perhaps with a potion?"

And in fascination, Zein watched Bassena taking out a bunch of anti-toxin serum, purification vials, health potions, and anti-bacterial wipes.

* * *

"I didn’t think Shin was telling the truth," Zein laughed softly when they arrived at their hotel room, somewhere downtown in Eiyuta.

"First; good job doubting that guy," Bassena huffed. He was still shuddering even while they were driving to the accommodation. "Second; I’m not perfect, okay?"

Zein laughed again, feeling good that he could finally take off his suit jacket. "Actually, that makes you even more perfect," he said, tapping the grumbling esper’s cheek, who finally accepted his touch again after Zein doused himself in all of those expensive healing liquids. "Adorable."

Bassena pressed his lips; he had no idea whether he should feel happy that Zein thought he was cute, or disappointed that it was caused by such pathetic reason.

Yeah, even Bassena thought he was pathetic for getting scared of such a small creature when he had already faced so many monsters and corrupted beasts. Just the sight of those scampering feet and worm-like tails made him forget he could kill those things with a snap of his fingers.

But hey—at least that didn’t make the guide liking him less.

"Why are you so scared of them, anyway?" Zein asked, still feeling ridiculous about it, but also intrigued. It even got him forgetting for a while about the disappointment of not finding his mother’s friends.

Bassena averted his eyes, looking nervous and hesitant. Zein chuckled and stroked the bronze cheek, kissing it lightly after. "Alright, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to."

"No, that’s...umm..." Bassena bit his lips, now looking worried if he was upsetting the guide.

But Zein did not look upset. He was genuinely smiling and looking at Bassena fondly. He meant it; because Zein also had things he still hadn’t told Bassena—or rather, couldn’t bring himself to. So he would understand if Bassena couldn’t say some things too.

Looking at the soft gaze inside the blue eyes, however, expelled the hesitation in Bassena’s mind. He sat at the edge of the bed and took a deep breath, holding Zein’s hand.

"So...when I was a kid—when Mother was still alive—I followed her to do this charity effort in an orange-zone city," Bassena started his tale, and Zein took a seat beside him, looking at the amber eyes keenly. "In the middle of the event, I slipped out to the toilet, and when I was doing my business...something fell on my head."

Zein blinked. "A rat?"

"Yeah," Bassena nodded and raised the hand he didn’t use to hold Zein’s. "It was so fat and big, and I got panicked and stumbled all over the bathroom floor."

Zein pressed his lips, holding back his laugh as Bassena continued. "Well, thanks to that, we also ended up taking care of the pest problem in that place." Bassena shrugged, and Zein patted the platinum hair.

That being said, the experience, though rather horrific, didn’t seem to warrant such phobia that made Bassena tremble all over. Was it because it happened when he was a child?

"I showed clear disgust and avoided that...animal, ever since," Bassena smiled wryly before continuing. "Of course, the Vaskis knew about it, and later, they used it every time they punished me."

Zein froze, staring at the esper unblinking as Bassena continued with his story; the hand holding Zein was tightening while digging into the memory. "They would put me inside a small...umm, box...and put those...creatures, inside, one every ten minutes until I gave up and begged for forgiveness."

Bassena bit his lower lip for a second while scratching his neck. "They also used it when I got stuck with my magic control—the sooner I hit the goal they set up, the sooner I would be freed of those things. Ah, they also said they did it to get rid of my fear, because it’s pathetic for a Vaski to be scared of something as puny as...uhh...r-rat—"

At that point, Zein had to grit his teeth to prevent himself from cursing out loud. Oh, that fucking Vipers!

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