There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 413 - 405. Climbing Out of the Well

Chapter 413: Chapter 405. Climbing Out of the Well

Around dinner time, when Bassena was about to ask Zein what the guide wanted to eat, their commlink rang.

A series of text messages with colorful chat bubbles and full of emoticons came up on the screen. Just by looking at it, they knew it was Reina--or probably Han Shin using his fiancee’s account. Before they could look at the message, however, the door to the executive lounge they were in opened.

Radia walked inside, and Senia flinched for no reason but unexplainable wariness. Perhaps it was those unreadable crimson eyes. "Hmm? You’re done with the test?"

"More or less," Zein turned on his chair to look at the summoner who was still in his three-piece suit. "I didn’t know you were still here."

"I just got back from Mortix," Radia approached the small table where his secretary was making him a cup of tea. "Reina said she finished the new version of the guide uniform, so she said she’ll come to let you see it."

Huh...was that what those messages were about?

"And you want to do quality control while at it?"

"Save time," Radia shrugged before accepting the cup given by Nyx, to which Zein responded with a chuckle.

Zein looked at his commlink and finally read the incoming messages; seemed like she was sending it to all three of them. The top message was asking where they were, but it was followed immediately with a statement saying she knew they were still in the office--probably from Han Shin. And so she told them to stay where they were, and then asked what dinner they should have while inspecting the uniform later.

"What a storm-like girl," Zein shook his head. "You decide the menu, Bas."

Bassena hummed and obediently started to text Reina back with a cheerful smile, and then Zein added. "Hers too," the guide pointed at Senia with his chin, before standing up to approach Radia.

Immediately, the smile vanished from Bassena’s lips. He might become less hostile toward the girl, but it didn’t mean he could just shed his annoyance. Aside from the fact that Senia used to be Varion’s people, he was also displeased with the prospect of sharing Zein with yet another esper.

Still, Zein told him to, so he looked at the girl who had been quiet after being told off by Zein earlier. But Senia wasn’t looking at him; she was looking at Zein and Radia with a dumbfounded expression.

"You’re...uh...still working?" the girl asked with a dazed tone, as if the concept of working overtime was so foreign to her.

And indeed, it was. She only raided dungeons on her own terms, and she recalled that Varion hated it if he was getting a call after work hours, and would send his aides to deal with it instead. She certainly didn’t think a young master of an Old House would still working until the evening.

Actually, she didn’t even realize she had been staying here until evening...

"I have a whole group and guild to take care of," the summoner simply replied before sipping on his tea.

"Oh..."

Radia observed the girl that got back to sit quietly, except for the time Bassena asked her what she wanted to eat for dinner, and they kind of started bickering quietly through hisses and glares--as if they didn’t want Zein to know.

The summoner chuckled and cocked his chin toward the couch. "It doesn’t even take you a day, huh?"

"The higher someone’s rank is, the more they should realize the value of a guide," Zein grabbed a bottled water from the table, drinking it while glancing at Senia. "She just needed to be shown that value."

Radia smiled in agreement. It was truly comical that people thought the guides in the Temple were worthy enough to be paid an exorbitant amount, while at the same time treating the rest of the guides like an afterthought, although they functioned the same.

The reason was simple though--it was because those staying in the Temple had the backup of the Goddess. So it was merely a matter of espers thinking they could act superior in front of people without any backing, because then...there wouldn’t be any consequences.

But giving the guides a backup wasn’t the solution--well, it wasn’t the optimal solution. As long as the espers only saw guides as a tool--just like Senia this afternoon--things would only change on the surface.

That value...yes, it was the view that needed to be changed. Including the guides’ own view that they were an inferior being to the espers.

It was hard though; both Zein and Radia knew this. So, at the very least, they would become the power behind the guides that worked for them. The guide institutes also needed to start teaching the guides to stop lowering their own value, and that was what Zein wanted to do in the academy he was going to make.

Still, the biggest issue was probably the crime around using guides as commodities.

Zein let out a long sigh as the problem seemed to be endless. Perhaps if he didn’t have this huge mission in front of him, he could dedicate himself to trying and fix those problems. Too bad.

"Are you going to have dinner here too?" Bassena approached Zein and Radia while tapping on his commlink--seemed like he had finished the fierce discussion about the menu with Senia.

"Already ordered some," Radia told him. "How’s she?"

Bassena pressed send on his message and twisted his lips. "Are we seriously going to take her in? She’s--"

"She knew nothing about what Varion did to Zein," Radia said, knowing full well what issue was causing this bitter sentiment. "She entered a closed-door training right after the announcement of Celestia’s loss."

Bassena frowned slightly. "To...vent?"

"Probably," Radia shrugged.

"Sounds familiar," Zein chuckled and glanced at Bassena.

"Hey!"

Zein laughed a bit louder and patted the esper’s cheek. Just like Bassena used to say, he actually had a lot of similarities with Senia. It was just that the girl did not meet proper mentors like Han Joon and Radia for Bassena. The fact that she got pretty mild like this--compared to how feisty and haughty she was at the start--told them she wasn’t completely helpless.

She was a frog living in a luxurious glass well, and perhaps it was the time for that glass to be shattered.

She was still young anyway; younger than Bassena and Han Shin. It wasn’t too late for her to change, and who knows...if they could really tame her, she could become a good asset.

Radia was definitely eyeing that.

"I won’t take her as a guild member, however," the summoner said, despite his palpable desire to add more power to their lineup.

"Oh?" Zein raised his brow, and Bassena perked up slightly.

Radia glanced at the girl who was in the middle of browsing the link--probably to find some articles about Zein. "It might ruin the guild’s cohesion too much, especially because she doesn’t seem to know how to cooperate with others."

Zein nodded. The reason why he sent Nora to another place instead of keeping him in the guild was this; the girl was just too notorious, especially for guides. It might worked if they still had a lot of time to train, acclimate, and eventually change Senia to be better, but...

There were only two months on their calendar.

"What then?"

* * *

"I can’t let you into the guild," Radia said while giving Senia a contract. "Not yet, anyway."

Zein glanced at the contract, wondering when exactly the summoner prepared it.

"What you will be is an affiliate, and we shall have the contract purely for the reclamation campaign," Radia continued. "In other words, you’ll become some kind of mercenary."

Senia bit her lips. "Mercenary..."

"What? Are you looking down on mercenaries too?" Zein tilted his head. "My father was a mercenary--"

"No!" she shook her head quickly. "No...it’s just that..."

She didn’t continue and sighed, taking the contract on the table and started to read it.

"What you want is a reputation as a member of the campaign anyway," Radia smirked; taking the girl in didn’t mean they would forget her initial arrogance.

Besides, they should never go the soft route with a spoiled brat like Senia, or the girl would revert back, thinking that she had done enough for praise.

"Ugh--fine," Senia grumbled and started skimming through the contract. She rubbed the paper and raised her brow. "This is enchanted..."

"Of course; we do that with all of affiliate contracts," Radia replied. "We can’t afford our partner to leak anything to outsiders."

Senia blinked in another bout of awe. Enchanted contracts were made of paper infused with mana. An invisible formation of a binding oath was drawn on each page with specialized enchanted ink. The point was...the stuff was hella expensive.

But he said he used this kind of contract with all affiliate partners?

How much money does this man have?

"So...I’ll be an individual affiliate?" Senia looked at Radia, before glancing briefly at Zein. "What about, umm...guiding?"

"All of our five-star espers will be guided by Zein," Radia held back his smirk, just to not aggravate Bassena. Ah...the effect Zein had on espers...he knew he could trust the man.

As the summoner thought, Senia’s face lit up the moment she knew Zein would be the one to cleanse her. Without reading the contract further, she went straight to the last page and took the special pen with mana ink the summoned secretary gave her.

Bassena watched the girl sign the contract with twitching eyes, and his annoyance went higher when Radia told him to train Senia in cooperation with the [Anzus] squad.

"Do you have a place to stay?" Radia asked.

"Don’t insult me," Senia pursed her lips. "I have enough money to purchase a house here."

"That’s good," Radia nodded.

And then Senia turned toward the Saint-class that was still seething inside. "Hey, where do you li--"

"There’s no vacancy in our building," Bassena replied sharply, to which Senia responded with a pout.

"So stingy..."

The simple conversation would probably have escalated to a whole bickering if it wasn’t for the door abruptly opening with a bang, and the storm girl Reina stood there with a big grin on her face and a throng of waitresses behind her. "Dinner’s here!"

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