There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 355 - 347. A Guardian Star

Chapter 355: Chapter 347. A Guardian Star

When he grabbed a bread knife and swung it to Han Joon’s neck, Radia was almost in a delirious rage.

They had been weaving dreams of making a guild together, a safe space for them, for Bassena, for Shin. It didn’t even matter if no one else became members. They worked on that promise right after they got their license, raiding dungeons so they had the qualifications for building one.

How many times had Radia talked about the future, and how many times had Joon promised that future? They still talked about it a week before Han Joon suddenly announced he would enter the military instead.

After three years of sweet talking, night after night of promise, that announcement uttered dryly and nonchalantly felt like an ultimate betrayal.

No one betrayed Radia Mallarc.

The strike, obviously, never intended to kill. Not even to harm, with Han Shin there. It was a declaration more than anything, that Han Joon had done something that would make Radia want to end his existence.

Still, when he stared at the blood splattered on his hand, Radia felt bile climbing up to his throat, choking him with burning pain as if a hot coal was lodged in his breathing system. His heart, for the first time, broke into a million pieces, and it broke even more when Joon refused to explain anything. For a week, he couldn’t do anything but fight the impulse to break the world in return.

For years, years--he was truly at odds with Han Joon. The love he had for the man turned into agonizing hatred.

Or so he thought.

In reality, he couldn’t. Every time he saw those black eyes with a hint of a twinkling star, he wanted to succumb. He wanted to ask why. He wanted to beg for the man to come back. Han Joon was his first love, his first worship, his first future.

But Radia Mallarc had his pride, and all the sweetness, the softness he gained when he was a lover evaporated when he was no longer one. So he treated his feelings with spite, and still...

Still, he waited.

It only took one cold touch to send the dying spark ablaze after nine years. But with no future to speak of, walls stood between them even as they touched each other again. Walls made of pride, anger, and pain that had been stretched for so long.

Hah...

What pride? What anger? What pain?

What had he been doing, when the love of his life, the man he had once hated with all his being and loved with all the cells in his body, threw away his youth to...

To keep him alive.

Once again, that burning sensation of a hot coal lodging in his throat assaulted him mercilessly.

"B-boss?" Masa scrambled to the summoner who suddenly doubled over with hands covering his mouth and clutching his throat, as if the man wanted to throw up and couldn’t breathe at the same time.

Perhaps he was.

Breathe...breathe!

Radia took a painful breath and forced his blurry eyes to focus. "The data...have you made a backup of it?"

"Y-yeah. I also made it so you don’t have to go through all the walls and decipher the code again," Masa gripped her sleeves--seeing Radia Mallarc like this made her quite shaken.

Wordlessly, Radia opened his palm, and Masa swiftly pulled out the black flash drive, putting it on Radia’s palm. She also took a small sealed box containing another flash drive, a chip, a disk, and an information capsule containing a copy of the flash drive’s content.

When Radia shoved the flash drive and the box inside his storage ring and stood up with a pale, grim face, Masa held his arm worriedly. "Uhh...are you well enough to go back on your own?"

"...I’m not driving," Radia replied quietly before walking out of the room. "I’ll settle your reward properly tomorrow."

"That’s not--"

Radia, however, couldn’t hear her anymore after he closed the door. But even if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to. He felt his ears ringing and his head throbbing. He couldn’t even manage to control his mana enough to call for a summon.

Thankfully, he had carved an automatic summoning array on his wrist, which was activated by sending just a wisp of his mana. The last thing he remembered was seeing Nyx materialize in front of him, and then he couldn’t remember much.

Which was something for someone with an eidetic memory.

When he came to his senses, he was already in his room, staring blankly at his commlink. What is it? What was he trying to do?

Radia had no idea. He felt lost. Just completely, utterly lost.

He knew he had to do something, because he realized what kind of dangers looming over Han Joon right now. He wanted to ask him why he had to do everything secretly, why he had never told him the truth, why, why, why...

But it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter if Joon wasn’t there to answer his question, so he knew he had to save the man first. His man. The man he didn’t even know the location was.

But he couldn’t think. He could barely breathe. He realized that he couldn’t see the commlink clearly because of his trembling hands. And with that trembling hand, he pressed the emergency call button.

It took three rings before the call connected. [Sweety?]

"...Mother,"

Again, he stopped. That lump of hot coal was assaulting him again, and his tears fell before he could even utter a single word.

[Sweety, what happened?] his mother sounded more worried now. But as expected of Laurel, she immediately put two and two together. [Have you opened the data? Can you tell us what it is?]

With choked words and a trembling voice, Radia began to tell his parents about the content of the data. But even after he finished, he still had no idea what to do; recounting it just broke his heart even more. His head became dizzier just as his voice became fainter.

"What...what should I do?" for the first time in his life, Radia Mallarc felt so hopeless that he had no idea what to do. "I don’t know...I couldn’t think--I..."

[Sweety, listen to me] Laurel’s voice sounded both soft and firm, like a lifeline. [Right now, you shall not do anything. You will go to sleep, and you’ll think of what to do tomorrow. We will go back to Althrea, and if you need our help, we will provide it, alright?]

"...alright."

[And sweety] she continued softly. [Don’t think about doing it alone, okay?]

Laurel gave him more soothing words, and after taking a sleeping medicine, Radia heed his mother’s advice.

Right. He’d sleep for now, even if time was crucial. It wasn’t like he could churn out a plan with his messy head. He’d wake up the next day, and would do what he did best; thinking, planning, and turning what he wanted into reality.

And this time, that reality should include Han Joon in it.

* * *

Once again, he had to explain what was inside the flash drive. Fortunately, this time, he could do it calmly, even if the pieces of his broken heart were still scattering in his chest.

He had run a quick check on all the names, and most of them were espers who immediately got incredible results and came from reputable families. Not all were fighters--genius inventors, researchers, raiders with potential similar to Bassena.

In short, they were people who would have massive influence had they stayed alive. And from the look of it, although the data only listed up to fifty years ago, this operation might have been going on since way before. Radia wasn’t the only ’failed’ target, and there were also names with ’canceled’ attached. But around ninety percent of the list had been successfully ’removed’.

The attempt on Radia, however, was the only one with that many repetitions. The appendix showed that their attempts--ranging from planned traffic accidents to planned outbreaks near places he visited during field inspection--were thwarted by an ’unknown’ source or the order got aborted by malware.

There was no question on what--or rather who--this unknown cause was.

Radia had to sit down to convey everything, but at the end of his story, all three of the listeners were also sitting down. Bassena and Zein were silently frowning, eyes hardened and jaw clenched in anger. Han Shin, however, couldn’t afford to be so calm.

"What..." the black eyes shook, and they could see his knuckles turned pale as he gripped the edge of the chair. "Why does hyung..."

He couldn’t continue, widened eyes staring at the empty table. The first thing on his mind was why; why did his brother go so far as to spend the last eleven years of his life chasing an enemy alone? Of course, he didn’t say Radia’s life wasn’t precious, just...

And then it clicked. No one--Shin was sure that no one in this world would go that far if it wasn’t for their family or...lover. He looked up to stare at the person whose eyes looked even more miserable than him.

"Are you...does he love you?"

The crimson eyes closed, and the exhaustion was all over that face. "I love him."

If it was any other day, Han Shin would have just jumped happily and pumped his fist because his two brothers were together again. But right now, his mind constantly thinking of the worst, and in that process, it was focused on one single question.

"So--so he chose to go to the military...for this?"

"...I think so," the answer came in a shaken voice filled with repressed emotion. They didn’t have to look into Radia’s face to know what the man might feel now.

"But...how did...how did he know?" Han Shin frowned. "How did he know about this when you weren’t even..."

He stopped, and his whole body was shaking. A choked sound came out of his throat, prompting him to clasp his mouth tightly with both hands. Even then, they could still hear his frantic voice.

"No...No..." Han Shin shook his head. "I know he’s horrible but...oh, Gods..."

Zein frowned and turned to look at Bassena, whose eyes widened slightly as the implication of the healer’s words hit him.

How did Han Joon find out about this secret operation of culling certain people who would gain influence in the future? How did he know he could access and prevent the operation by entering the military?

The only possible answer for that was of course, through someone who was already a part of the military;

His father; Major General Han Gyeong.

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