There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 420 - 413. Upper Sanctuary

Chapter 420: Chapter 413. Upper Sanctuary

Being called Zein’s ’special esper’ made Bassena generous enough to let Elena occupy one of Zein’s hands as they climbed the stairs to the Upper Sanctuary.

As for the white rabbit...well; it wasn’t like he could fight a Goddes’s pet.

The little girl bounced happily while holding Zein’s hand. "Grandma told me you’ll come here again, but I don’t know it’s today!"

"Who’s ’Grandma’?" Bassena asked in a whisper.

"The Saintess."

"Oh," Bassena glanced at the little girl. "I see...so she’s the Saintess candidate."

Elena looked at the esper with a grin. "That’s right! I’m the same with Zein!"

Bassena wanted to scoff, telling her Zein wouldn’t be a Saint, but he reckoned that would be too childish, and Zein already scolded him once about acting bratty in front of Senia, so he held it in.

And she said he was Zein’s special esper.

Bassena hazily recalled, during his moment of distress while waiting for Zein in this Temple before, a small figure that kept on watching him from afar. Perhaps it was this girl. Zein did say she was the one who told the guide about him being here, so...

Well, alright; she could have her moment with Zein.

"Where are you taking us, Elena?" Zein asked when they passed the Lower Sanctuary.

"Grandma and Big Sis are having teatime right now," the girl said while shaking Zein’s arm. "Let’s join them."

"Are we allowed to do that?" Zein glanced at the Templars, who were their actual guide.

The Templar he was familiar with glanced at Bassena briefly before nodding. "We are meant to bring you to meet the Saintess and the Medium right away, Sir."

"Well, that’s good," Zein looked up, at the underside of the Middle Sanctuary where Bassena was stopped before. That was where the higher-rank espers getting treated, and no esper had gone up except for Bassena--due to the special circumstances at that time.

And it seemed like this time too, it was considered to be a special circumstance. Perhaps because they considered Bassena as Zein’s partner--almost like an imprinted esper. Naturally, when Bassena was seen entering the staircase leading to the Upper Sanctuary, people in the waiting room were looking at the group weirdly.

"Feeling special?" Zein chuckled when he saw Bassena’s little smirk.

The esper coughed a little bit, feeling flustered about being caught acting childish. "No?" he defended himself. "I’m going to disappear in a few hours anyway."

"Right," Zein laughed softly, feeling a tingle in his fingers when he realized he couldn’t use his hand to pat the esper’s cheek because they were all occupied.

Hearing the soft, melodious ring, Elena looked up at the softened curl of the brilliant blue. "Zein, you don’t wear your mask anymore."

It was said with an awed realization, as if she had just remembered that Zein used to wear one, even though they had walked together for quite some time.

"Yeah, I don’t need it anymore," Zein replied with a smile. "Except when I’m in dungeons."

"Hmm..." Elena kept observing the guide’s face even while they were climbing up the stairs. Fascinatingly, she had never tripped even once. "Is it...because you’re no longer afraid?"

Zein--and Bassena too--looked at the little girl in surprise. Elena, feeling that she should explain further, added while moving her head side to side, recalling her own experience in the orphanage.

"You see, I had this friend who always brought her blanket around because she said it was what kept her from the nightmare, and...and, there this one boy who always wore a helmet and never took it off, even while eating!"

"Helmet?"

"Yeah!" she laughed fondly at the memory, using both her hands to imitate a helmet on her head. "He said he does it so no one will be able to hit his head anymore--oh, he said he was in the orphanage because his father used to hit him in the head all the time."

"Ah..."

Zein rubbed his mouth; his lower face, which used to be hidden under the mask. Hid from the world that seemed always so eager to destroy beautiful things. It was just a girl’s innocent remark, but it was accurate.

He looked down, at the girl who was waiting for an answer, and he smiled. "You’re right; I’m no longer afraid."

Elena grinned and skipped joyfully, taking Zein’s hand again. "I see! I’m glad, Zein!" she glanced behind, at the only esper among them, and pulled Zein down to whisper. "Is it because of him?"

Zein wanted to laugh at this nosy little Saintess, but he replied genuinely. "Well, there’s a lot of reasons, but...yes, most of it because of him."

She giggled, just like any early teenage girl giggled at someone else’s love story. Zein was glad at this nosyness; at her ability to observe things beyond a surface level, at her curiosity, and at her bravery. She didn’t seem to be someone who would live in a bubble of the Temple, and it became another future he thought was worth looking for.

Zein glanced at Bassena, who was surely listening with his enhanced hearing. As expected, the esper was coughing quietly, hand covering his reddened cheek.

Stifling his laughter, Zein continued his climb following the little guide, who was excitedly explaining everything on the way; pointing at a building, telling them about the garden, even exposing some secret path that made the Templars rather panicked.

Thankfully for the Templars, they soon arrived at an open pavilion hanging on a branch. It almost looked like the small building Zein used to converse with the Medium before, but this one was devoid of a wall, making it seem like they were on a flying platform.

"This whole place is not designed for people who are afraid of height," Bassena commented.

"Oh, there’s a High Priest who refused to live in the Upper Sanctuary because of that!" Elena told the esper with a giggle. "Some priests lived around the Roots because they couldn’t bear the height."

"I bet you like it."

"Of course!"

"You shouldn’t shout when talking to others, Elena," the soft voice of an aged woman greeted them when they stepped inside the pavilion.

Just like the room where Zein conversed with the Medium before, this pavilion had a table in the middle. Two people were already there; the older Saintess, and the younger Medium. This time, the Medium’s eyes weren’t glowing, meaning it was her and not Frejya in the room. A set of teacups and cakes had already been served, with three empty chairs waiting for the guests.

"I’m sorry, Grandma," Elena covered her grinning mouth and scurried over to the table, taking a seat on an empty chair and smiling sweetly like an innocent child.

In Zein’s arm, the white rabbit finally wriggled and popped its head to look at the table full of food, before jumping out of Zein’s embrace to the young Medium’s lap, demanding to be fed.

"It’s been a while, Luzein," the Saintess greeted the guests, including the esper who felt out of place in the middle of these guides. "And you, Sir Vaski."

"Thank you for having me?" Bassena bowed his head politely before pulling back a chair for Zein to sit in.

"There’s no need to thank me," the Saintess smiled with a mysterious twinkle in her eyes. "Shouldn’t we feel safe in the presence of a powerful esper?"

"That’s how it should be," Zein muttered with a deep smile.

Yes, that was how it should be. In the ideal world, the presence of powerful espers should provoke a sense of security instead of fear, and guides shouldn’t have to be afraid of stepping into the world without protection.

But the world is never an ideal place.

Bassena looked at the warm tea that had just been served in front of him. "Ah..." he let out a soft sound that he himself did not realize. He was so used to being looked at with fear and apprehension. Even his friends and colleagues, he knew, had a certain level of fear toward him.

Zein...Zein was an exception. It was a part of what made him fall in love with the guide.

But he realized that he was now being surrounded by people who were not afraid of him. Unconsciously, the slight tension he still felt from having to enter the hyperbolic time chamber vanished completely.

Ah...this place was truly a Sanctuary.

But that didn’t mean he would have agreed to have Zein serve as a Saint here.

The Saintess chuckled at the constant change in Bassena’s face in the span of a minute. "I had heard from Luzein, but you’ll be undergoing some kind of training while you’re here?"

Bassena snapped from his thought and nodded. "Ah, yes..." he took out a black marble from his inventory. "My patron God gave me this; a dimensional pocket where time flows differently. I need this to be stored in a safe place while Zein is with the Goddess, so..."

"I see," the Saintess leaned slightly to look closer at the black marble. "A relic of Ophiucus, yes. I could hold it while Luzein is in the Sky Garden."

Zein raised his brows in surprise. "You would do that?"

"Why not?"

They were thinking of asking for the black marble to be put in a secure vault inside Zein’s temporary residence here, but if it were to be in the hand of the Saintess, then...

"There’s no safer place to be," Zein looked at the Saintess with a smile. "Thank you."

The Saintess lifted her teacup and replied nonchalantly. "It’s nothing. Aren’t you basically a family already?"

"Urk--"

"She’s just teasing, Bas," Zein chuckled and patted the esper’s thigh as if pacifying a child. "Just teasing."

Bassena saw the Saintess’ little mischievous smile behind the teacup, and planted his forehead on the table in embarrassment as Elena laughed at his honest reaction.

Well...he could just hope that it was truly nothing but a teasing remark.

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