There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 423 - 416. Bare Minimum

Chapter 423: Chapter 416. Bare Minimum

"Ah, right; have Mago contacted you?"

It took Zein a while to collect himself from his new gift before he realized the Goddess was asking him something. "Huh? Ah, yes...the priests visited me."

"And?"

Zein patted his knees and stood up, feeling slightly wobbly. He shook his head to regain his balance before replying. "I gave them some demands as a condition for me to forgive their Saintess."

To Zein’s surprise, the Goddess laughed. "Good, you do that," she nodded. "She shouldn’t let Her children go around irresponsibly in the world--at least, I won’t let Her children disrespect mine."

"Am I yours, now?"

The Goddess just smiled cheekily and turned around with hands stretched behind her back.

"Anyway, I’ll talk to Mago about telling those children of Hers to agree to your demands."

Zein raised his brow as he followed her back to the garden. "Do you even know what my demands are?"

"I don’t need to," she glanced back with a smile. "I know you enough."

Zein had no idea if that statement was supposed to be reassuring or alarming, considering that they had only ’met’ two times thus far. Sure, it was almost on a spiritual level, but...

Oh, whatever. He just got a ’little’ gift, after all.

At the edge of the inner garden, she suddenly paused and turned around. "I don’t know if I can come down again before you return," she said, reaching out to brush Zein’s hair from his sweaty forehead. "Good luck, my child. You’re doing something good, so there’s no need to be doubtful or hesitate."

Zein didn’t say anything, just blinked and looked at her with a clear, firm gaze in those brilliant blue eyes. She smiled and nodded, before turning around and continuing walking. The moment She stepped out of the inner garden, Zein immediately knew it wasn’t Her any more.

* * *

"Here you go, it’s getting bigger."

Zein received the black marble from the Saintess. It was only as big as the marble children usually play with--as big as a grape, at most. But now, it has expanded--not too much, just as big as a plum, but it was still weird that it became bigger.

"It’s probably going to get bigger and bigger with time," the Saintess added.

Zein already knew that the inner garden had a different flow of time than the rest, which was why not even the Saintess could go there without the Goddess’s permission. By the time he came out of the garden, a whole day had passed by, even though it only felt like half an hour long at most. Most likely, time passed the most when he was in front of the altar receiving the gift.

During that one day, the black marble had grown in size. As he cleaned himself in the suite provided for him--the same room where he stayed the last time--Zein wondered how much time had passed inside. A month? A year? It couldn’t be more, like? He frowned as he felt an uncomfortable twist in his stomach.

It felt weirder because, for him, it only felt like an hour since he saw Bassena enter this marble. The sheer thought of the time discrepancy between them right now was unsettling.

And how much he would need to wait until Bassena came out?

They had planned to stay in the Temple until Bassena came out of the marble, so Zein needed to look for something to do while he was waiting for the esper--a distraction. The first thing he did was ask for link access.

A priest and a templar were assigned to him during his stay there. They took him to a special room in the Middle Sanctuary where the residents of the Temple could use their own commlink or access the link through the computer provided there. Thankfully for Zein, they also had a private chamber where he could call Radia to give him the information that the Goddess had provided.

When Zein told the summoner about the state of the marble, Radia told him not to worry. [Items like that usually have a limit. He won’t be able to stay more than the maximum provided time even if he wants to. The only place where people could use the hyperbolic time chamber indefinitely was the Tower]

"Because it needs deities’ power?"

[Of course] Radia shrugged. [No humans have the ability to control time. Anyway, just treat this as a small rest. You’ve never spent time among the priests, and you seem to feel that annoyed in that Temple]

Zein chuckled and was about to end the call before he thought of something. "I want to test this new blessing She gave me. Will it be a violation of the contract if I guide people here?"

[As long as you don’t take any fee, it will be considered voluntary work]

"Alright, thanks."

He ended the call and right away asked the Saintess if he could train his guiding. This is when he found out that the Temple had a post where they provided free guiding for low-income, low-ranking espers at the outskirts of the yellow-zone. It was a place they used for their young priests’ real-life practice. Naturally, it wouldn’t be as comfortable as a full-fledged licensed guide doing it, but hey--it was free.

Obviously, Zein asked if he could join one of the posts for a day. It wasn’t only for practice, but also because he was curious. He thought it might be a good idea to employ it in his guide school.

Of course, the Temple had no reason to refuse a professional guide volunteering to work for free in one of their causes. They flew Zein to the nearest post, and Elena came with him too. The Saintess deemed it would be good for her to start observing what the Temple did outside--as long as she promised to stay calm and not run around by herself like in the Temple.

They left the Temple with Cloudy aggressive protest, but there was nothing the rabbit could do, since it couldn’t even leave the Tree Island. For the first time, Zein could see other parts of the Northern Alliance aside from the airport. However, in the modern world, there are hardly any distinctive differences between the buildings. Everything was made with the same anti-miasma materials and techniques to withstand outbreaks.

If there was something different, Zein felt like they integrated the building with the environment better in the Northern Alliance. There was no clear division between the urban landscape and the surrounding nature; less protective walls too. He had no idea if it was limited to the area he passed through with the helicopter, but he felt like there were fewer people here than in the Eastern Federation. The housing wasn’t so tightly packed, and there was less vertical housing too.

He wondered if it contributed to the fact that trafficking people--especially guides--were harder to do here. The more people they were in a place, the easier it would be to hide the rotten part. This might be true, but he also realized there was another, bigger reason for that;

It was the presence of the Temple.

When he arrived at the post, he asked the management there a few questions--for his future school’s sake. He found out that this kind of post was spread all over the Alliance, and, not only functioned as a free clinic, the posts also became a hub for the Templar’s rescue squads.

Since the post was where the transportation from and to the Temple happened, they would send the rescued guides from the post. The newly awakened guides could also go to the Temple from here, free of charge. In the end, the post wasn’t just an outpost in a yellow-zone outskirt, but a main hub between the Temple and the outside world.

A presence. It gave a sense that the Temple was present in many parts of the Alliance. Like small streetlights that prevented thieves from passing through the area, the existence of these posts alone suppressed the number of crimes against guides.

Additionally, it served as a watching eye for other establishments that the Temple had, especially the orphanage, like the one where Elena lived before her awakening. It ensured the orphanage ran as it was intended, instead of becoming another source of crimes.

Zein had to swallow his sigh repeatedly while he was listening to the energetic manager and made his own conclusion while training his long-distance guiding. Not because this new way of guiding was less effective than before--it felt weird at the start, and the speed of absorption made him feel like he was sixteen--but because it made him realize how messed up the condition in the Federation was.

He saw what could have been, and lamented at why it couldn’t be the case. His deep disappointment overshadowed the fact that he found out he could guide more than two espers at once now.

If the betrayal didn’t happen, and House Ishtera was still in the area, Zein would probably stayed in the Northern Alliance. He wouldn’t be so bitter about the state of the guides, because although it still wasn’t perfect--there was still unfortunate discrimination and under-appreciation--it was still way better than the situation in the Federation.

But then again, he might end up thinking like those people in the Temple; that there was nothing wrong with the status quo. He wouldn’t have the desire to fight for it, because he wouldn’t know what happened to other guides in other parts of the world.

In the end, it seemed like everything did happen for a reason.

He was only there because the Goddess told him to, but the journey ended up providing more insight than he expected. Now, at least, he had a clear view of what he should strive for; the bare minimum he needed to achieve. A few small steps now, but he hoped that someday, the Federation could look like the Alliance in its guide scheme.

Now, if only he could see his esper soon.