There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 317 - 309. Rotten Roots

Chapter 317: Chapter 309. Rotten Roots

"Can I see you again?" Xue Ren stared at Zein with sparkling eyes, although he managed to hold back from holding the older guide’s hands—their espers had been busy making sure there was at least a meter of space between them during luncheon.

"Why not?" Zein shrugged. "Maybe after everything’s over."

"It’s a promise!" Ren pointed to the older guide, and repeated once again before being ushered inside the car.

Zein watched the car leaving the guild compound and chuckled when Bassena waved at it, looking happier about their departure than their arrival, even though they were basically allies now.

"Why are you still getting jealous?" Zein asked during their journey back to the top floor, and Bassena pursed his lips as he replied quietly.

"...because you think he’s cute,"

Zein raised his brow and tilted his head. "Even though I already confess my feelings for you?"

"Th-this and that is different!" Bassena pressed his lips and turned his face away in clear embarrassment.

"How?" Zein grabbed the esper’s jaw and turned the man back to face him--half because he wanted to see Bassena’s flustered face. "Is there a need for you to feel insecure?"

Bassena pressed his lips tighter, which made his pinched face look funny. "It’s just...reflex?" the voice that came out tapered out into a pitiful squeak so Zein let the esper’s face go. Bassena bit his lips and, two seconds later, groaned loudly inside the elevator. "Agh! I just couldn’t help it, okay? It’s just happened!"

Looking at the mighty Serpent Lord buried his reddened face in his palm, Zein couldn’t help but roll his eyes and sighed. "It’s good that you’re cute, so I don’t have to feel like hitting you."

"Cuter than that guide?" Bassena peeked out behind the curtain of his fingers. Zein chuckled and grabbed the esper’s jaw again to pull the man closer and kiss him right as the elevator arrived at the top floor.

And so, they had their kiss cut short by a certain Crimson Summoner yanked them off each other so the man could walk between them, out of the elevator. "Just go home if you want to flirt."

Zein and Bassena looked at each other with raised brows at the annoyed tone in Radia’s voice. It was rare for the man to do that, after all, since Radia usually just treated them like a bunch of kids with belated teenage hormones.

Bassena, who suddenly recalled the short anger Radia showed him during his outburst the other day, scurried over to the summoner. "Hey, about Joon—"

"I don’t want to talk about it," Radia cut him off immediately.

Zein looked at Bassena and asked in surprise. "What? You know about them already?"

Bassena opened his mouth to reply, but paused immediately, blinking and staring blankly at the guide. "...you knew?!" his mouth hung open for a few seconds as his mind tried to put things back in order. "Since when?!"

"My first week here," Zein told him casually.

"What?! And you didn’t tell me?!"

"It’s not my secret to tell," Zein shrugged, before patting the esper’s cheek with a smile on his face. "And it’s kinda fun seeing you getting jealous of Joon."

Bassena parted his lips, looking scandalous. He started to recall the time he got jealous—or rather, insecure—about how Zein looked rather close to the soldier. He recalled the time he said he had no confidence in contending with Han Joon in that regard, and...and Zein said he already knew, during all those times, that Joon and Radia had some kind of relationship?!

What kind of betrayal is this?

Ignoring his shocked boyfriend, Zein walked alongside Radia. "Anyway, he’s still MIA?"

"Mm,"

"Is he not contacting Shin either?" Zein asked, to which Radia simply answered with a shaking head and furrowed brows. "Have you tried other sources? The military perhaps?"

"No," Radia paused for a bit, jaw clenched and frown deepened. But he took a deep breath and in the next second, his face returned to his usual, casual expression. "We are never to get close to any military stuff, ever—that’s the only thing my grandmother is very adamant about," he shook his head as they entered his office. "We don’t even supply equipment to them."

Zein wanted to ask more about the Mallarcs’ apparent feud with the military, but Radia already closed the door to this topic. "Haa...let’s just talk about what’s important."

And what was important right now was to get to the bottom of the abduction case. So Zein let it go because Radia had started to light his golden needle and it was a signal for them to shut the fuck up.

"Is that all you want to do? Cutting the rotten fruit?" Zein asked.

"Of course,"

"Do you think it’s enough?"

Radia sat on his armchair and leaned back, staring at one of the potted plants inside his office. "When we cut a rotten fruit, in the process of doing so, sometimes we will find the cause of the decay," he took a deep drag and blew the odorless smoke in a long exhale. "Who knows, perhaps we can even find the rotten roots."

Zein tilted his head as he took a seat in front of the Guildmaster’s desk. "Roots?"

Radia tapped on a button in his desk, and a few screens hovered between them. "The hooded person, the one who managed to breach your security system..."

They looked at the screen that showed the grainy image of the mysterious esper from the CCTV. Zein frowned slightly at the image; although the person left right away and was not involved in the physical assault toward him, the person was still the one who allowed everything to happen, being the one who breached the barrier and everything.

But Zein couldn’t help but feel thankful for the person’s early departure. If that esper was still there with the others, Zein wasn’t sure he would be able to do what he did.

"Have you found that person?" Bassena asked.

What made him still so cautious to this day was that this mysterious person was still out there. As long as that person still walking free, no place would be safe enough. Bassena felt he understood how Zein’s father would have felt back in the day. Right now, he too, felt like he wanted to stay in a secluded part of the world with Zein so he could guarantee the guide’s security better.

Unfortunately, Radia shook his head. "No, and that’s where it gets interesting," the summoner said. The crimson eyes narrowed at the cloaked figure, gleaming eerily behind a wisp of smoke. "That person is nowhere to be found, and no one knows their identity, even in the underworld and inside the dark web. Isn’t it weird?"

Zein took a few seconds to digest that yes, of course, Radia would have connections in the underworld and the dark web.

"Someone with that kind of skill could only work in two places; the underworld, or..."

"A clan," Bassena finished the summoner’s words. "An unregistered dog for a clan."

"Yes," Radia nodded, glancing outside the window. "Like most of my shadow guards,"

"Or the Vaskis’ cleaners," Bassena added, the amber eyes darkened for a second. "So you think that Belthera bastard worked for someone else?"

"He won’t employ someone like that barrier breaker otherwise," Radia sneered. "The man is too damn proud of himself."

And if that kind of prideful character resorted to kidnapping using outside resources, it could only mean that someone above him in authority was telling him to.

"So...one of Celestia’s backers?"

"Maybe, we don’t know yet," Radia shrugged. "But I don’t think it’s a simple thing like...poaching. It doesn’t make sense for him to kidnap Zein and expect him to work as Celestia’s guide," he looked at Zein then, who seemed to be thinking hard on his own. "Zein is too high-profile right now, so unless he could bring Zein to Celestia through the front door, there will be a lot of backlash."

Zein wasn’t just a part of Trinity, he was already known to have a romantic relationship with Bassena. So people would have a lot of suspicion if Zein suddenly became Celestia’s guide. The only way was to either coax Zein or brainwash him into joining them. And yet, the abduction was done crudely, with a half-baked plan that only happened because of an aligned opportunity; an incomplete plan that gave Zein a chance to fight back and Trinity to pick him up before worse things happened.

Not that it wasn’t worse enough already.

But seeing all those conditions, the kidnapping seemed to be done with another objective in mind.

"Could it be to hinder the reclamation project’s progression?" Bassena guessed. If it was someone above the guildmaster, the best possibility was a shareholder, who saw profit in acquiring a newly opened land.

"Could be, who knows," Radia shrugged again. "And that’s why I have to speak with the former Guildmaster."

"Will he cooperate, though?"

"We just have to make him."

"How?"

Radia smiled deeply. "That’s my business."

Zein and Bassena looked at each other, and then shrugged. "Oh, alright then."

"You’re very trusting so suddenly," Radia smirked, and Zein leaned back to let out a sigh.

"Not like I have other ideas."

Bassena tapped on the desk and, with hardened eyes, asked the summoner. "About those people that we caught..."

"They’re not talking yet," Radia shook his head.

Surprisingly, those espers knew loyalty. But then again, perhaps that was why they were the ones chosen for the mission. Most likely, they were part of the Guildmaster’s loyal faction—by how filthy they acted, Radia wasn’t so surprised.

"But well, let’s see how long they can hold on," Radia smiled calmly, the red glints in his eyes akin to a blaring alarm.