There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 588 - 582. Reflection

Chapter 588: Chapter 582. Reflection

It took another tea-brewing process for Zein to tell the old man about himself; about Lucretia, his ancestor, the one who carried the seed of Setnath--and the brief history of House Ishtera. He also told the old man about the first time he ’spoke’ with the core fragment and found out that he was a fragment.

Zein answered Tian Yu’s inquiries about many things, including more details about House Ishtera. But when he told the old man about what becoming the fragment of Setnath initially meant, the old man fell silent, looking at him with shaken eyes. Even after Zein finished explaining the ’agreement’ he had with Setnath, the old man did not say anything for a long time.

"...huh," was the only thing coming out of the bewildered old man.

Zein sipped the newly brewed tea while Tian Yu processed the information. He knew it was too much to hear about everything all at once, unlike the others who discovered things gradually along with him. Even Zein, when laying it down, felt it was unbelievable.

His life, so unchanging for twenty-seven years that he became numb, suddenly flipped upside down. And because of it, in just a year, he got out of the lower zone, experienced love, and earned a family. Of course, there were hardships too, but...compared to what he gained, the hardships felt like nothing. Just a bit of a spice in a hearty curry Bassena often made him.

It was funny to think that despite the misery he experienced because of this seed of Setnath inside of him, he also received a lot of blessings because of it. Talking about the whole situation from start to finish made him realize how unbelievable it was if it wasn’t his own story, but also...

How nice.

The most important thing he gained out of this, aside from meeting Bassena, was finding his own purpose. To feel proud of doing something as a guide, as a human. To be able to think about tomorrow and the far future. To be able to do what he wanted to do.

And when he met his little twin brothers sometime in the future, among the many stars in the sky, he would be able to hold his head and tell them he was grateful to be alive a bit longer. And when he said he was sorry, it was because he would have liked it if he could experience those blissful things with the twins, not regretting it because he experienced them instead of the twins.

Ironically, by becoming the fragment of this Celestial Being, Zein was able to become a human.

He let out a small smile before drinking more of the fragrant tea.

The old man, meanwhile, seemed to finally digest everything as calmness settled in his eyes. He finally took his lukewarm tea and drank it in one go.

"Does everyone know?" he asked while placing his empty cup down. "I mean, I’m sure your boyfriend and household members do, but the others seem to be used to it."

"No," Zein shook his head. "Radia and Shin know, which means Joon probably knows too," he chuckled. "But the others are..."

Zein paused as he recalled what Shin told him circulating in the guild’s many different group chats, and smiled in amusement. "From what I heard, they think it has something to do with my family--which is not exactly untrue."

"Huh..."

"Some others think it’s because I’m a Saint Candidate," Zein shrugged.

"Oh, look at that," the old man blinked. "Both theories actually make sense."

And that was why Zein just kept the theories afloat and circulated. "Because people don’t think a fragment of a Celestial Being could be inside a human."

"True..."

Well, Zein also didn’t think it mattered much for the others. So far, they kept their curiosity about Zein’s ability for themselves and never hounded the guide about it. They were just glad that Zein was there to help them--and so did Zein.

He never thought he would feel a sense of belonging in a guild, but there he was, adopting a bunch of chicks under his wings.

"But...are you sure Setnath will keep his word?" the old man returned the serious tone, looking at Zein keenly with a clear concern in his eyes.

It wouldn’t be funny if this young man he considered his grandson suddenly ceased to exist just after they met for a few months.

Zein leaned back to ponder, staring at the floating tea stalk that made the tea surface look like the lake. He smiled. "Honestly, I wasn’t a hundred percent sure before today."

"Today..." the old man tilted his head slightly. "Ah, do you get some assurance when you’re in the Sanctuary?"

"You can say that."

"That’s good," Tian Yu took a deep, long breath. "Yes...that’s good."

* * *

[Fucking finally!] Gus’s voice could be heard by the speaker after Han Shin’s constant effort to tweak the watchtower’s beacon for hours. [Phew--I thought we were going to get stranded]

"How’s your situation?" Bassena asked urgently. He was feeling rather anxious about the team he sent to go to meet the ship.

He had forgotten about it due to adrenaline before, but after he had time to think, he realized that the team might encountered dungeons on their way--perhaps even dungeon breaks. Just like the ship team, he hadn’t heard from them due to poor connection. But at least, with the ship, there was a whole fortress and two five-star espers to warrant survival.

And indeed--Bassena’s concern was right on the mark. Gus reported that several dungeon gates had appeared around the ruin of the port city. Initially, due to the lack of personnel, they had planned to let the dungeons break so they could wipe everything in one go. But then, they received a distress signal from the team sent to meet them.

[So we split to rescue the team and clean the dungeon gates at the same time]

"Any casualties?"

[No, don’t worry. But because of that, we didn’t have the chance to look for the shard yet. Sorry, Zein."

"It’s fine," Zein told them clearly. "Your own survival comes first."

[Thank you for saying that. For now, we will--uhm, wait--] Gus’s clear voice suddenly tapered out, and they could hear some noises in the background.

The people at the camp almost thought that the ship was being attacked, but they soon heard Gus’s and Senia’s voices in the background. Things like "Why are they making a ruckus now?" and "They heard Zein’s voice" along with several beeping sounds.

"That sounds like the translation device," Zein commented.

Two seconds later, Gus confirmed this. [Ah, sorry about this--Zein’s kids were suddenly running around after hearing his voice]

Pfft--the people at the command tent couldn’t help but chuckle. Even Zein, who knew enough of how energetic the twins could be.

[But they aren’t making much sense] Gus sounded confused. [The translation before was always full of jumbled words, and this time it was only brotherbrotherbrotherbrother...like that]

Zein pressed his lips to hold back his laughter. "Ah, it’s probably because they had been talking about different things at the same time. The machine was not taught to decode two overlapping magic waves."

[Ah...but it could read them now because they basically only say one similar thing] Gus laughed at the conclusion. [We’ve been thinking that the machine broke all this time]

"I should have told them to only speak one at a time before sending them off; sorry about that," Zein chuckled. He could understand the twins even while they were yapping together, but the machine wouldn’t be able to. But he heard more irregular beeping sounds, so he felt like the twins wanted to tell him something. Unfortunately, he couldn’t understand them without feeling their energy wave, so he had to rely on the machine’s translation. "Ask them to speak slowly and one at a time."

[Well, you heard him!]

They laughed again at Gus simply letting the shard hear Zein by themselves. After several beeping sounds that lasted for five minutes and three error attempts, they finally had a better line.

[Hmm, let’s see...it’s said move, move...sibling move everywhere...?] Gus, who read the translation, sounded as confused as those who heard it in the base.

Zein grabbed the table housing the communication device. "The shard?"

"What?!"

[What?!]

Again, both sides were confused. But Zein ignored their surprised look for now. "Is it moving underwater?"

Another beeping sound ensued and Gus read it immediately. [Yes!] the swordsman seemed to mimic the tone too. [Wait...it could do that?]

Zein had no idea, honestly. The shards so far seemed to need some root to attach themselves onto, like a specific chamber. Once they moved from that specific place, they rarely roamed around by themselves. They might move around a small area no more than several meters in radius, but so far, they only moved around by attaching themselves to Zein as an anchor.

Still, it wasn’t like Zein knew everything about the shards. "Is it fast?"

[...like ship--is what they said] Gus told them.

This time, Bassena took the microphone. "The sea--didn’t you say it was cleaner than you thought?"

[Well...] there was a slight pause before Gus spoke again. [Yeah--at least, we haven’t faced any boss-class creature so far]

"So..." Zein had no idea if he should feel relief or confused. "It had been cleaning the sea?"

It might sound like a good thing but...

The shards...had never possessed any ability to attack.

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