There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 419 - 412. Somewhere Closer

Chapter 419: Chapter 412. Somewhere Closer

The first time Zein came to the Temple of Frejya, he was whisked away instantly to the Sanctuary. This time, he had to use the normal channel.

Although they were using a private jet, they still had to make a transit in one of Northern Alliance’s cities, before flying again toward the safe-zone. Zein finally used his passport, and funnily enough, this small tidbit made it feel like he was there on vacation.

When they arrived at the safe-zone, a group of priests were already there to welcome them. Zein managed to remember one of them; one of the Templars; the same one who took him away from the street of Althrea right to the Sanctuary. Different from the flat-albeit polite--expression the man showed before, there was a smile on his face this time as he led Zein and Bassena to the car they had prepared.

Zein had gone through the scenery before, but perhaps because he was too concerned about Bassena at that time--and busy guiding the esper too--he didn’t observe the view much.

Ah...a safe-zone is a safe-zone. Just breathing the clean air made him feel like all the misery in the outside world like a fantasy. Perhaps this was why people who lived in the Temple were so...out of touch; like they didn’t believe there was something bad happening in this world outside of their bubble.

Not that Zein would accept it as an excuse.

His demand of making a rescue brigade and a sanctuary for those being rescued did not just come from fantasy. It was what the Temple of Frejya had been doing, although the orphanage and the asylum itself weren’t in the safe-zone. Still, they built and managed many safe houses all over the Northern Alliance, and employed a clan to act as the rescue brigade and protector--just like how House Ishtera used to do before the whole betrayal.

If it wasn’t for that, Zein wouldn’t have come here, even if the Goddess called him.

"It’s so peaceful," Zein muttered as the car drove through the only road connecting the airport and the Temple. "It’s too bad that others can’t enjoy it."

"If others could, then it won’t be peaceful anymore," Bassena replied with a cynical laugh. "You already know who will flock to have their residence here; what kind of people."

Zein chuckled. Yeah, he knew. It wouldn’t be people who really needed it.

It was hard, in the first place, to determine who could live there. People would keep on being envious of those who could live there, whether it was determined by wealth, by merit, or even by pity. In the end, it would become a source of conflict again.

How could they call it a safe-zone, then?

"I wonder..."

"Hmm?"

Zein leaned back and looked at a distant future. "I wonder; if we manage to collect all of the shards and create a fragment, would it become a safe-zone without any deity power to manifest?"

"Ah..."

Bassena looked at Zein in awkward confusion. There was no way he had an answer when Zein was the one who knew more about the shards between the two of them. But that guilty feeling of not knowing the answer eased the esper’s tense expression for a little bit.

Zein smiled and patted the bronze’s cheek. "Are you that nervous?"

Bassena looked down at a black marble he had been unconsciously playing between his fingers. "Kind of..." he bit the inside of his cheek. "I don’t know how long I would be staying there, or what kind of things I would face."

If Zein was there to answer the Goddess’s request of going back there before the reclamation project was underway, Bassena was there because he needed a safe space for his training.

The black marble in his hand was some kind of dimensional pocket imitating the Tower with a different time flow. The marble, however, wasn’t an indestructible object; if it got destroyed somehow, Bassena would be dead along with it.

Meaning, it was the most vulnerable Bassena would ever be.

And where else could he find a more secure place than a Temple’s inner sanctuary?

"What are you worried about?" Zein tilted his head.

"Well, I’m going to do the trial again, basically--but that’s not what makes it hard."

"What then?"

Bassena glanced at Zein and smiled wryly. "Because I don’t know how long it would take," he took Zein’s hand and fiddled with the guide’s fingers. "I don’t know how long I would be able to hold on without seeing you."

"Don’t be so dramatic," Zein chuckled.

"I’m serious!" Bassena twisted his lips. "It might be only a day or two outside, but it could be one or two years inside."

Zein raised his brow. He knew it was a hyperbolic time chamber, but he didn’t think the time would be inflated by that much. And then, something funny occurred to him. "If you spend that much time...would that mean you become older than me?"

Bassena blinked twice. "Oh..." he widened his eyes a little bit. "Oh!"

Zein looked at the lips that slowly stretched into a grin. "What? You’re that excited to be older than me?"

"...no?"

"Liar," Zein flicked the esper’s forehead, before giving the man a little peck on the lips. "But you’re cute so I forgive you."

Bassena chuckled and finally fully let go of his anxiety. "I’ll use that as motivation."

"Mm,"

On that cheery note, they could finally see the giant tree clearer. It finally dawned on Zein how big Freyja’s Sanctuary was. The lake around the tree was sparkling as it reflected the sunlight, giving them the illusion that the tree was surrounded by diamonds.

They changed from a car to a boat and crossed the lake to reach the Giant Tree. Zein stared at the clear water and the floating glowing water lotuses. "Didn’t you tell me before that you’d bring me to this Temple?"

"Yeah," Bassena twisted his lips. "They beat me to it."

Zein laughed and patted the platinum hair dancing in the wind. "Then bring me somewhere else," he said. "Somewhere no one had taken me yet."

Bassena leaned closer and whispered playfully. "Like the future?"

"Not that pilosophical," Zein scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Somewhere closer."

"Ah--a request for a date," Bassena grinned and bowed in courtesy. "How can I refuse?"

Once again, Zein rolled his eyes. He knew though, that Bassena would really take him to a place he had never been before. It wasn’t hard; there were a lot of places Zein hadn’t visited in this world. Whether they could do it before they marched to the East, however, was another matter.

But now wasn’t the time for that kind of thought. Zein found that nowadays, he started to be more...optimistic. Rather than thinking about how things would go wrong, he thought about what he wanted to do after they finished this big assignment. Just the fact that he could think about this trip as a vacation--albeit briefly--was enough proof that he was a different person than the jaded man that he was, toiling in the borderland wondering if he should end his own life.

"We’ve arrived," the Templars told them as the boat pulled over to the dock.

"Hmm...I think we should build a boathouse," Bassena muttered.

"Not a bad idea," Zein nodded and made a mental note to tell Senan about it.

Hmm...yeah, like this. Thinking about mundane things like a boathouse felt normal now. He alighted from the boat with a subtle, amused smile, and was greeted with a loud shout.

"Cloudy!"

Following the shout was a flash of white furball moving faster than even Bassena could react, crashing Zein’s chest and burrowing itself there as the guide reflexively cradled the little creature. The long ears moved in contentment as Zein patted the snow-white fur.

"What is this white rabbit?"

Before Bassena could get his answer, the owner of the loud voice earlier showed herself, wheezing after working hard chasing the naughty rabbit. "Wha...why are you...oh!" her round eyes widened as she caught the sight of Zein, and the surprised expression shifted into a joyous one in just a second. "Zein!"

And just like the white rabbit, she too, jumped into the guide, so now Zein had his hands full of the two little things.

Bassena could only blink dazedly. A part of him felt annoyed that his boyfriend was so popular everywhere, but his rational mind told him it was pathetic and embarrassing to be jealous of a little girl and a freaking white rabbit.

"These two are the residents of the Upper Sanctuary; Cloudy and Elena," Zein told the confused esper. Despite being here before, Bassena wasn’t in the right mind before--not enough to recall much of the things around him. "She’s the one who told me that you were here last time."

At Zein’s words, the little girl raised her face and peered to look at Bassena, blinking. "Ah!" she pointed at the Saint class. "Zein’s special esper!"

The corner of Bassena’s lips twitched. Oh, the girl’s not so bad, after all.

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