There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 297 - 289. Answer

Chapter 297: Chapter 289. Answer

"I meet these two handsome boys in front of your door," the grandma cheerfully told the three residents of the apartment unit. "This one said he’s the son of your friend--isn’t he talking about that beautiful lady?"

The Grandma pointed at the framed pictures of three young women on top of the cabinet near the living room as she walked inside. Indeed, one of them was a beautiful young woman with striking blue eyes and golden hair. It was the reason why the grandma easily believed Zein’s words, because she recognized the pretty blue eyes.

"Yes, I am," Zein replied to the grandma, looking at the framed pictures with mixed feelings.

"My, my--no wonder you’re so pretty," the grandma laughed while looking at the framed picture with Zein. Thanks to that, she did not catch the way the owner of the resident actually shaking in nervousness.

"I look like my father, though," Zein replied light-heartedly. "I only inherited her eyes."

The grandma looked at Zein with raised brows. "Your father must be a very handsome man."

"Thank you for the compliment," Zein laughed softly, eyes never leaving the framed picture.

His mother was even younger in the picture, smiling shyly at the camera as her two friends hugged her lovingly, cheeks stuck to each other. It was easy to see how close they were, almost like sisters instead of friends.

Well, at least he knew they still saw Lucia as their friend, seeing that her picture was mixed among the pictures of families. But it made him question the lack of response to his inquiry before.

"No wonder you’ve never replied to my mails, Aunty. It seems like they went to your old house instead," Zein said, looking at the two middle-aged women standing awkwardly in the room that Zein and Bassena had invited themselves in. "You should have told me if you’re moving out."

Bassena glanced at the guide, never thought he would see Zein acting so sad like this; must have been thanks to all of those PR training. "Well, it’s fine now that we found them, right? Ah, what should I do with this?"

"Oh my, I almost forgot. Hana, take this from this young man--if I knew you would have guests visiting, I would have made more," the grandma sighed, before clasping her hands. "Oh! Why don’t you all come over for lunch later, mm?"

"T-that’s..."

"That would be lovely," Bassena said while passing the dish to the girl who got paler and almost stuttered, smiling charmingly to the grandma, as he did in all those commercials.

The grandma laughed and clapped her hand shortly, genuinely looking glad that she could feed more people to her cooking. Zein shifted his gaze from Lucia’s picture and smiled sweetly at the grandma, who reminded him of the grandma who took care of him when he was a child.

"Thank you," he said softly, and the grandma pinched his chin like she would to her grandchildren.

"Such a pretty boy," she said with a soft laugh before leaving the apartment unit.

Bassena sent the grandma to the door, courteously saying he couldn’t wait for the lovely lunch, and closed the door softly behind her. His palm stayed for a few more seconds there, spreading his mana around the room to prevent any sound from leaking out.

Didn’t want to make the grandma worry and all.

He was right on time too, because the young woman in her mid-twenties, Hana, started to yell in both nervousness and worry, which made her voice even louder.

"Y-you can just do this!" she yelled from the kitchen after putting the dish safely on the dining table--thank Gods--and stomped out to the living room, putting herself in front of the two middle-aged women, one of whom was her mother. "You can’t just barge into someone else’s h-house, no matter how...how powerful you are!"

It was quite a ballsy move, seeing that she was not even an esper. Actually, she was only a civilian, so standing in front of a saint-class esper and a saint candidate must have taken all of her courage. Bassena wanted to commend her for that alone.

"Well, technically, we’re not barging in," Bassena shrugged, leaning against the wall beside the door. "We were let in."

The girl stuttered. "Y-you use trick!"

"Hana..." one of the middle-aged women, the girl’s mother, grabbed her daughter’s arm.

"But Mother--"

"Look," Zein sighed, raising his hands in front of him in an attempt to show them he didn’t mean harm. "We’re not here to hurt anyone. All I want is a reply, an answer. I just want to know what my mother was like when she was young, now that I finally found out who she was."

He looked at the two middle-aged women, Guide Ria and Sherri, straight into their eyes, and said with a softer, gentler tone. "I just want to see my mother’s best friends."

The three women fell silent. The two guides pressed their lips and lowered their gaze, as if they were afraid to meet Zein’s eyes. The girl was still looking at the two uninvited guests in caution, but there was also confusion in her eyes about what she should do in that situation.

Should she call the police? Would they even do anything in front of the Serpent Lord and the Head of House Ishtera? But they said they didn’t mean any harm, and certainly, they didn’t look like they came with vengeance.

Looking at their reaction, Zein couldn’t help but sigh and massage his temple. "I truly have no idea why are you reacting like this. If you don’t want to talk, fine," he threw his hands exasperatedly. "Can’t you at least tell me why you never replied to my mails? If you just told me to never write to you again, I would have stopped."

At first, Zein thought that his letters never came to them. But when he checked the house, there was no sign of his letters there. If it wasn’t sent because no one could acquire it, the letters should come back to him as unsent. But since nothing of the sort came to him despite his clear address, there was only one explanation; someone took the letters away.

And he had a strong guess that it was taken by Hana to be delivered to her mother and aunt.

Ria flinched at Zein’s words, which were uttered with slight impatience. No matter how much Zein willed himself to hold back and approached this gently, the way the two women avoided him caused an irritation inside him to bubble up. For all he knew, aside from the Ishtera household, they were the only people who knew his mother. Thinking that those two didn’t seem to want to share anything about her was just...upsetting.

"Are you truly going to keep your sile--"

"I’m sorry!"

Zein couldn’t finish his words, because Sherri, who was staying at the back all this time, suddenly rushed forward and kneeled in front of Zein, even going so far as to bow down and pressed her forehead to the floor.

"What is--"

"Aunty?" Hana widened her eyes, and before she knew it, her own mother joined the friend in bowing on the floor toward Zein. "Mother?!"

"I’m sorry! I’m sorry!" the two of them, again and again, apologized miserably, until they could hear the sound of their choked, painful sob. "Please forgive me...I’m sorry..."

The girl immediately crouched beside her mother and aunt and shook them. "Mother, Aunty--what are you doing? Come one up!"

"I’m not here for this," Zein looked at the two guides with a frown. "I’m not here to hear you apologizing to me when I don’t even know what you’re apologizing for--because I don’t think you’re doing this just for a few unanswered letters."

Again, the two guides on the floor twitched. They stopped their wailing apology, but not with their tears, which flew unbidden from their eyes. Zein crouched in front of them, and the two guides flinched as they lifted their upper body, face wet with their tears.

Looking straight into their eyes, Zein asked without hesitation. "Do you know that she died?" they didn’t answer, but the quiver of their lips gave Zein enough confirmation. "Did you kill her?"

"No! Never!" they shook their head, looking genuinely horrified. "We could never do something like that to her!"

"Excuse me? What kind of question is that--"

"Please shut up," Zein shifted his gaze briefly to the girl, the piercing blue eyes instantly silenced her. "I’m asking my mother’s friends about something that happened before you were even conceived, so please, for fuck’s sake, shut up."

Bassena sighed, moving away from the door to approach the messy group. He knew it might make them even more scared, but Zein was getting rather emotional in his approach--which, of course, Bassena understood well.

Zein was soft on those weaker than him, but when he was pissed, he could get even colder than Bassena. Right now, Zein was anxious, exasperated, impatient, and would not appreciate the fact that the conversation kept getting interrupted.

"Alright, so you don’t kill her," Zein got back to the two guides. "But you know she was dead..." he took a deep breath and asked the one question he wanted to ask the most. "Are you there when she died?"

Again, Ria and Sherri did not answer--at least, they did not answer with words. But they let out another choked sob and nodded their heads, faces scrunched up in pain and sorrow.

The pain and sorrow that was reflected in the blue eyes in front of them.

Gently, Bassena lowered himself and touched the clenched fist on Zein’s knee, holding them tightly inside his warm hand. Zein lowered his head and closed his eyes; there was a part of him that felt relieved for the answer he had been looking for, but there was also unexplainable bitterness, as well as fear of knowing what truly transpired during his mother’s last days.

Why did she leave him? Why did she go all the way to Eiyuta while leaving Zein all alone in the red-zone?

Looking at the frown deepening on Zein’s forehead, Bassena tightened his grip on Zein’s hand and looked at the three women. "We’re not here to persecute anyone, we’re not even here to blame anyone. I can make a tower pledge to never hurt you if you want," he said, as gently as he could. "Zein just wants some answer after twenty-eight years, so...can you at least give him that?"

Slowly, still with tears on their faces, Ria and Sherri nodded.