There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 305 - 297. Treasure Box

Chapter 305: Chapter 297. Treasure Box

The first thing Zein noticed was that Nayla called the esper ’Sena’, the name that was also used by Svadiva.

The second thing was that even though Bassena was sweet and innocent, he was also mischievous in an adorable way.

"Young Master Sena used to be very tricky with what he ate. He liked snacks more, and always wanted to copy what the Madam ate, so the Madam could no longer eat anything spicy."

"He didn’t want to use the child utensil, insisting on using the one for adults."

"When the Madam looked away, he would pour the vegetable he didn’t want to eat to the Madam’s plate."

"Every time Madam had to go away, Young Master would make a lot of reasons to delay her departure. He wouldn’t throw a tantrum, but he would suddenly say he wanted to go to the bathroom, or he wanted to draw with the Madam, or he would ask the Madam to read him a book; anything to make the Madam stay."

Zein listened to the story while the nanny made him a lunch of Salisbury steaks. He had to hold back from laughing while listening to her, feeling the familiar trait persisting even until now; especially the low spicy tolerance and the habit of prolonging departure.

"Did he also do something like hiding her suitcase?" Zein asked after finishing his lunch.

"Oh, how do you know?"

"Just a guess," Zein chuckled, before thanking the nanny for the lunch.

He was about to climb the stairs back to the living room to rest when Nayla called out for him. "Thank you," she said, adding when Zein looked at her in confusion. "To bring Young Master Sena back."

Not the esper Bassena Vaski, but the sweet and innocent Young Master Sena--her smile seemed to tell Zein that. Well, he didn’t particularly feel like he did anything worthy of praise, but he was also glad that he could meet this side of Bassena.

Leaning back on the sofa and watching the fish swimming around the tank, Zein suddenly recalled a vague dream about living in that lakehouse, where his parents were well and beautiful and alive. Where everything was perfect.

Well, almost. It would be perfect if Bassena was there.

He started to wonder about what possible scenario could happen that would allow him to meet Bassena in that other, perfect world. There was a possibility that they might meet in the academy, because guides from the temples had practical training in Esper’s academy.

Now that would be interesting. A teenage Zein with a happy childhood, and a teenage Bassena that only started to calm down after constantly being taught a lesson by Joon and Radia. Would they get interested in each other like they do now? Would they end up going home with each other’s link account? Would something spark between them?

Oh, it was fun thinking about that. Thinking about adolescents’ love, where the feelings were pure and they only thought about getting together without being scolded by their parents--or, in Bassena’s case, by his clan.

But it wouldn’t be fair if it was only Zein’s parents that got revived. What if Svadiva was also alive? What if she could get away from the Vaski and take Bassena away? The sweet, innocent Sena.

Sena...it felt good on his tongue. Zein wondered what Bassena would say if he started calling the esper that.

Would they still meet in that situation, though? Faraway in different places. Rather than meeting as an esper and a guide, there was a high possibility of them meeting as the heir to an Old House and the prince of the Southern Kingdom.

Zein smirked--what a fairy tale.

Ah...thinking about all of those possibilities was fun, but also made Zein miss his esper. Looking down at his soaked clothes from all the sweat he excreted thanks to the medicine, Zein went inside the bathroom and decided to have a real warm shower, and rummaged through Bassena’s closet to look for the esper’s shirt because he missed his boyfriend.

"Oh?" Zein raised his brow when he took a look at the corner of the closet. There was a box there, a familiar one, which was his. The box that was filled with his family’s keepsakes, both the Ishtera and the twin.

What attracted his attention was another box tucked behind his. It was smaller, like a big jewelry box, made of precious metal and exquisite engraving. Different from his box, which only being locked by a normal padlock, this smaller box was locked with a sealing formation. If Zein wasn’t mistaken, it was made so that only certain people with registered mana sequences could open it.

"Must be his," Zein muttered. Well, who else would own this kind of secure, expensive box?

If it was Bassena’s...Zein wondered if the content was similar to his own box; keepsakes. Perhaps things that were left behind by Svadiva. Zein chuckled and reached out to caress the box, and heard a whirring sound--like gears moving and clicking beneath the lid.

"What--"

Zein retracted his hand in surprise, blinking at the sound he heard from the box. Could it be...?

Once again, he put his palm on top of the box, and the same contraption was activating again. This time, Zein let his hand there until he could hear a louder clicking sound, and the box’s lid twitched.

"This brat..."

Zein had no idea whether he should laugh or scold Bassena for registering Zein’s mana sequence for this box. It felt good being trusted like that, but Zein wished Bassena said something about it before.

Well, since it happened already...

Zein took the box and slowly opened it. Different from its look, the box itself felt light. There weren’t a lot of things inside, however; another, smaller box that had another seal put into it, a small, empty bottle of what looked like a cheap regenerative serum, and a piece of paper.

The box looked old, but had a similar style to the Seven Ether’s box, so Zein guessed it was something that Svadiva had made in her artisan day and left for Bassena. This time, the seal couldn’t be undone by Zein’s mana sequence, so he left it alone. The curious things were the other two anyway.

Why would someone like Bassena keep something that only a poor, low-star esper would carry around? Not to mention keeping it in such a special box like it was a treasure. In this apartment alone, there was a fridge only filled with the highest-grade regenerative and rejuvenation serums--what people like to call potions.

So what is this?

Zein took the empty bottle to look at it closer. It was quite familiar to him, because he used to carry this kind of serum when he was in the red-zone. Although, even with his savings, he only managed to get two of the cheapest ones. So he had never used the serum unless it was an emergency. He recalled using one when he was stranded in the Deathzone for three days during that mission that killed two of his teammates, and the other one...

Zein blinked, rolling the empty vial dazedly on his palm.

The other one...he gave to the injured esper he met in a certain cave.

"Is this...from that time?" Zein widened his eyes. This cheap, lowest-grade regenerative serum probably only managed to heal five percent of Bassena’s injury at that time. Zein only gave it to the esper so Bassena could at least reach the nearest town and find something better. And rather than helping the esper, he only did it so he didn’t have to feel guilty about leaving an injured person alone.

But did this man have been treating this insignificant thing as...treasure?

Carefully, Zein put the vial back in the box, feeling weird and in a daze. He looked at the piece of paper, that seemed to be torn from a notebook. It was rather dirty, stained with red dirt that Zein believed was coming from the Redridge Plains. Now that he remembered the vial, he also recalled giving the esper a simple direction to the nearest town.

Now, that paper from five years ago was being laminated to preserve it. On one side of the paper was the map that Zein had drawn, as well as his rough handwriting to mark a few places. On the other side of the paper, in the empty space, was another handwriting belonging to Bassena.

I want to see him again.Not in my dream, but in person.

Zein took a deep breath and put the laminated paper back inside the box. A box from his mother, and two worthless things from his first love--that was the entirety of Bassena’s treasure.

It was something that he should just throw away after finishing using it, but Bassena had been keeping it all these years, preserving it carefully as if it were an important relic.

Truly, one man’s dirt could be another man’s treasure.

For Zein, the one who only gave away these things without much thought, it was nothing. It was like giving candy to a child, or offering coffee to a coworker. It was just something normal to do.

But for Bassena, receiving kindness from someone who did not even know him, who expected nothing in return, was something he rarely experienced. Especially receiving it from someone who clearly had it rough--it had never happened before.

Bassena Vaski, who always received people’s demands and expectations, for the first time, experienced unconditional gifts, and it was shaking his very being. It freed him from the view that the world was only a cold and harsh place. It changed him.

And he fell in love, just like that.

Zein gripped the box and slowly closed it, lowering his head to press his forehead against the box. "Ah, damn it," he closed his eyes tightly, feeling his heart full of tender feelings, and empty of his esper’s presence. "What should I do with you, baby?"

As he whispered against the box, he suddenly regretted sending Bassena away. Perhaps he should have just said yes when Bassena offered to cancel the talk show. It might hurt his pride, but it would soothe the ache from missing his esper.

Speaking about Bassena, it should be the time of his live talk show in a bit. But, hmm...he might have a chance to call the esper and speak with the man for a minute or two. Zein looked at his wrist with a smile, but realized that he left his commlink in the living room.

The thought of hearing Bassena’s voice for a bit refreshed him again. He put the box on top of his own box and closed the drawer, before walking out of the closet to fetch his commlink. Opening the door lightheartedly, he was suddenly face to face with a masked stranger and a palm reaching out to cover his face.

And everything turned black.

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