There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 380 - 372. Behind the Curtain

Chapter 380: Chapter 372. Behind the Curtain

Ludya stared at the scar in Radia’s throat.

She did wonder about it yesterday, when she saw the bandage on him. But the fact that it left a mark meant it was intentional. Just like another scar embedded in someone else’s neck.

I’ll take care of it on my own.

She recalled the young man’s answer when she said she couldn’t prevent Radia from falling in love. Indeed, such confidence did not come from appearance alone. She understood now, that the young man was the reason for her grandson’s change during his teenage days; the reason Radia stopped being a mischievous incubus.

Haa...

Ludya let out a sigh. Couldn’t these youngsters love each other normally?

But well...perhaps it was this abnormality that allowed a young man to sacrifice everything for the sake of his beloved. A young love that was filled with obsession and recklessness.

"You’ll put a hole in my throat, Grandma," Radia said casually, before sipping on his tisane.

"When will you give us some explanation?"

"When everyone’s here," Radia glanced at the other tables. "I don’t have time to repeat everything again later."

Zein turned toward the entrance of the greenhouse. "Are we waiting for Shin?" he asked. "How did he fare last night?"

"Pretty well," Radia shrugged. "Confused, naturally. He never knew that he had a sister, so he said it almost felt like a stranger. He was angry for a moment, but he couldn’t get angry at Joon, while getting angry at his father is...well, useless now."

"Mm,"

Just like Shin, Zein never met his father, and couldn’t remember his mother. He had wondered if they would feel like strangers, should he find them without ever hearing their story.

While he pondered about it, Han Shin came wobbling in, eyes half open from drowsiness, muttering about why people want to function so early in the morning--even though it was past eight already. Calix, laughing softly, brought him to sit beside Bassena, who immediately flicked the healer’s forehead to wake him up.

"Why are you here if you don’t want to wake up?" Bassena rolled his eyes.

"But I want to hear it!" Han Shin protested while rubbing his forehead. "I don’t want to hear it from a second-hand report again--ah, lots of sugar with my coffee, Mr. Hamish, thank you--how could Zein stay with a violent guy like you?"

"Because I never get violent with him?" Bassena shrugged without denying that he was indeed prone to violence.

"Ergh--"

"Alright, that’s enough," Radia clapped his hands to stop them. "All of us have lots to do today, so let’s get straight into it."

The house staff, as in automatic, bowed and one by one left the greenhouse. The only one who stayed was the Head Butler, who continued to serve breakfast, along with Calix.

"I want to hear it from the start, Radia," the Matriarch said. "About how they came to this wicked power."

"Ah, about that," Radia took a slice of toast and started to slather some butter. "I can’t find any record of that in the evidence, but I did manage to have Baaleon talk. That being said, he just told me what he heard from the Patriarch. Mind you, only he knew about this story--as the heir--and he shall pass it to his successor."

"Is it not believable?"

"That wasn’t it, just sort of..." Radia twirled his toast on his fingers as he looked for a word. "...vague."

"I see," Ludya shook a salt shaker in her hand, smiling. "Continue."

Radia, in his cheeky way, finished his toast first, as if to make sure everyone’s attention was on him. Only after he washed his throat down with a glass of fruit juice did he continue.

"It began with Torodeo’s grandfather," he said.

"Good Gods--how far back is this thing?" Radia’s father exclaimed while placing a plateful of food in front of his wife.

"Eh, not too far," Radia waved his hand. "As you know, House Horin is known for its archival study. They are interested--and funded--anything related to the history of the Old Age. Torodeo’s grandfather just happens to have an ambition most dangerous."

Han Shin paused his hand and asked with a sneer. "Conquering the world?"

Radia chuckled. "Not quite," he shook his head while slicing the omellete in front of him. "He merely wants to be the first one to discover the civilization buried in the Deathzone. As you know, the Eastern Federation has no material for the anthropological study of coastal life in the East."

Only the Southern Kingdom has the privilege of having its entire coastal site free of dungeons, thanks to the tower coming out of the sea. But the other three had none. None of them probably knew exactly that feeling of obsession about an unknown field of study, but one thing was for sure;

"That’s quite...innocent," Zein spelled out what was in the other’s mind.

Who knew that such a sinister operation started with a simple thirst for knowledge?

"Yes, surprisingly so. Innocent and naive," Radia smiled. "He went there on an expedition, but well..."

"It’s not going well?"

Radia stabbed a small slice of omellete and twirled it in the air, before bringing it to his mouth. "Only his notebook came back."

"How?" Zein frowned and tilted his head in confusion. "The rule in the Deathzone is norescue--that, if he came through the borderline unit at all."

"He had a skill--teleportation," Radia said. "Just for small to medium-sized goods. The notebook found its way into his room," his lips curled, "along with something else."

Zein’s frown got deeper. "...a Specter core?"

Those who were in the middle of eating paused their movement to look at Radia.

"Yes. And the one who found it was Torodeo’s father, Lehman Horin."

"And it began?" the Matriarch asked coldly.

An innocent thirst for knowledge; a gift that came to the wrong hand. For all they knew, there was no mention of the existence of Specter’s core before, which meant Lehman and the Horins were keeping it a secret. Even now, Radia still shielded the fact that Mortix had the Specter’s cores in their basement.

"Lehman Horin, at that time, was not the heir," Radia continued.

"But he saw an opportunity to be one."

"Exactly," he plucked a grape from the fruit bowl, rolling it between his fingers. "I don’t know how he found out how to use the core, but he used it to control the Patriarch back then to make him the heir. The Patriarch at that time died a few years later and Lehman took over the House."

Radia put the grape into his mouth. "And that was the start."

Breakfast was abandoned as everyone leaned themselves toward Radia’s direction, staring at the summoner keenly as he continued.

After managing to control and disturb the mind of the Patriarch and the Elders, Lehman became the Patriarch himself. But he didn’t feel satisfied with it. The world, which was rapidly going forward to reach a new technological height, did not care much about the past. House Horin’s fascination with the era before the apocalypse wasn’t truly being appreciated. The only reason people still respected them--at least in front of them--was because they were an Old House.

So he wanted people to respect them more, and he hated people who were being praised as the ’future’. He wanted to control them, and if he couldn’t, then killed them. That being said, it was impossible for him to meet all of those people alone just so he could use the Specter core. So he reached out to his friends, who were in House Chodjim and House Nalaaka.

The result of that meeting was...an idea. An idea that resulted in them contacting a corrupt military general, and taking in investors with all ambition to beat the wealth of the Mallarcs. An idea that resulted in operation [Kronos], a system to calculate netizen’s potential, and put them as a target for elimination if they were deemed ’bad’ for their interest.

"How they managed to do it was not known to Baaleon, unfortunately," Radia sighed and took a drinking break, his face shouting annoyance at how useless the man was. "But if I have to make a guess, he received help from the other side."

"From the Deathzone’s force?"

"Yeah. You told me that it might act like a communication device, didn’t you?" Radia looked at Zein; the only person who had ’communicated’ with the core.

Zein recalled the way he could see what happened there, and how someone--some entity--managed to find his uninvited presence. He nodded with a restless feeling in his heart.

"So, there was a chance of that happening. As we predicted, the other Specter core came to them from a dungeon anomaly, and it let them do more than just extract energy from the miasma," Radia put his glass down. "Opening dungeon, summoning corrupted beasts..."

They fell into silence for a while. The very thought of someone thinking it was a good idea to use such power...

"How foolish," Ludya put her fork down rather harshly. "They knew they could control someone’s mind with the core, but they didn’t think the core might control their mind too someday?"

"Oh, they thought about it," Radia smiled. "At least, Torodeo did."

"Explain."

"The power he got from the core made him obtain a stronger body, but he could feel his mind being swayed bit by bit. He relied on tonics and all kinds of medication to keep himself sane and prolong his lifespan," Radia glanced at Bassena and Han Shin. "And that was how he got obsessed with gaining a deity’s power. Because if there was a power that might offset the effect, that would be a power from the Celestial Being."

He shifted his gaze toward Zein. "Your power."