There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 624: Side Story 1. The Twilight Zone - 6

Chapter 624: Side Story 1. The Twilight Zone - 6

Bassena rarely cried.

He used to be a crybaby when his mother was still there to soothe him. He cried a lot during the hellish training period leading to his awakening. And then he stopped, because crying only made him beaten up even more.

After that, he never cried again. The emotions that used to trigger his tear glands shifted to anger instead, and that was how he became a wild beast that Han Joon and Radia needed to tame in the academy.

But he never cried again, even when everything felt so painful. He did not cry again even in front of his mother’s grave.

He did not cry again until he met Zein.

It was when he found out what happened to Zein during the kidnapping. And again, when Zein finally, for the first time, uttered that magic word; love. That he loved Bassena.

The tears came again when he heard the same word, in the same place, uttered with the same expression; serene and sincere.

It was like he reverted back to his childhood crybaby era. Strangely enough, Bassena did not feel embarrassed about it. It wasn’t cool, but Zein did not care about cool people anyway. If anything, in Bassena’s eyes, he could never be as cool as Zein himself.

Moreover...

"Pfft--what is this? Why are you crying?" Zein cusped the esper’s face and wiped the dripping tears with his long sleeve. The blue eyes softened and the pretty lips curled into an amused smile. "What a cutie..."

Zein liked how adorable Bassena was when he cried. Rather than the devilishly charming esper with a smile meant to seduce that used to fill the billboard, Zein preffered this messy hair and scrunched-up face wet with tears. The raw Bassena with no pretense and secured vulnerability.

With reddened eyes, Bassena buried his face on Zein’s lap, hugging the guide’s waist. "Gods...I am such a lucky bastard," he sighed, nuzzling the guide’s stomach. "I probably saved a civilization or something in my previous life to be rewarded with you now..."

Looking at the tousled platinum head on his lap, Zein tilted his head. "Bas..."

"Mm?"

"Why do you think I’m a reward for you?"

Bassena blinked and looked up. "Huh?"

Staring at the esper’s blank gaze, Zein frowned slightly. Something clicked in his head all of a sudden.

He realized that Bassena’s ongoing insecurity might stem from the fact that he rarely expressed how precious Bassena was to him. Their dynamic, unchanging, was an esper who persistently chased a guide he fell in love with. Everyone was probably seeing it similarly, and there was a sense as if Zein was the reluctant party that merely grew fond of Bassena.

Perhaps because Zein rarely showed it. Perhaps because people always called Bassena a ’lucky bastard’ because he managed to be ’accepted’ by Zein.

But Zein didn’t think he ’accepted’ Bassena. The only thing he accepted was his own feelings. Or rather, accepted the idea that it was okay for him to act on his feelings rather than burying them.

Holding the confused face in front of him, Zein asked amusedly. "Have you ever thought that...I am the lucky one to have you?"

"...huh?"

Look at that face. The thought had never even occurred in Bassena’s mind.

Zein let out a sigh. "You are such an idiot, Bassena Vaski."

"W-what?"

"No, Bassena Ishtera."

Zein clasped the surprised cheeks, squeezing them slightly and making the widened eyes become even rounder.

"For being persistent and staying with me, for giving me the guarantee I needed in life, and..." Zein smiled; blissfully, lovingly. "For making me realize that I want to keep living in this world where you’re on it."

The amber eyes, which had just started to dry, became moist again.

"You are the biggest reward I could ask for," Zein’s whisper sounded as if it was uttered through a megaphone in Bassena’s ears. "For everything I had to endure for the past three decades."

Gently, and filling it with affection, Zein leaned down to kiss the parted lips. He chuckled at the hiccup coming out of them, marveling at how cuter Bassena became even while nearing thirty. The esper’s cheeks were messy with more tears and red flusters, but Zein only felt affection toward such a sight, kissing the dripping tears and laughing at the saltiness.

"On that note, I told Reina I wanted to spend the day alone with you," Zein said as he pulled back, once Bassena had stopped shedding tears and the sky had darkened.

The esper raised his brows and, after taking a deep breath, exhaled slowly. "Phew..."

"What?"

Bassena looked down and asked in a serious tone. "Shall I slather myself in chocolate this time?"

"...you should have done that earlier," Zein muttered, lamenting inwardly about forgetting the ’chocolate day’ when he started groping the esper in the morning.

Bassena in chocolate...Zein was swallowing his saliva, but his back and legs scolded him harshly in the shower earlier.

Bassena smirked at the bobbing throat in front of him. "Why? You don’t have energy anymore?"

The blue eyes narrowed. How could this esper switch from a crybaby to this seductive asshole in a heartbeat?

Still, the image did something to his stomach; making it tingle. Lowering his gaze, Zein asked in a rather raspy voice. "What about on your chest?"

"Heh--you horny minx."

* * *

The leisure vacation filled with affection and lust, however, only lasted for two days.

As expected, leaving the civilization for almost three years meant there were lots of things waiting for both of them to do, which couldn’t be solved in just a few days. Not to mention, new things they had to do in the aftermath of their operation in the Deathzone started to come up.

No, no--the Far East District.

Technically, on paper, it should be part of Area-14. But it was too large of a territory to be stuck on an existing administrative Area. Rather than making it complicated, the government decided to designate the former Deathzone as a Special Area called the Far East District.

Deciding an administrative name was one thing, but finalizing the administrative status was a battle that heated up the meeting room in the Federation Palace. With the Houses, the guild representatives, and the conglomerates present to put pressure on the government, the idea of designating the Far East District as a white zone was scrapped.

In the first place, the Great Tree was neither a Temple nor a Tower. There was a need to keep the area around the Great Tree sterile, but designating it as a white zone meant lessening a cultivable area for development. Zein, the only one who knew about the ’guardians’, reached an agreement to keep the island off public and set the surrounding valley as a conservation area.

It was Zein’s first time getting involved in a national administration matter, and he felt more tired than the entire time he spent inside the Deathzone.

Still, Radia insisted on him to be there so they could fight their front. The contract gave Trinity and Mortix ten percent right to the new district, but the moment the Fallen Star clone came out, Radia threatened his way to make the government change the clause from ten percent to thirty--which they settled on twenty-seven. This means the holder of the contract was eligible for twenty-seven percent of the tax, and had the right to own twenty-seven percent of the land.

Zein was only interested in the hill and the cliff, but he was glad that it seemed Radia would be able to cover the assets he burned to pay the Iron Mountain and the Eastern Sun.

What he didn’t expect was the fact that seven percent of the twenty-seven belonged to him--or rather, to House Ishtera.

"It’s time your clan has a territory, and it’s better to have it in a district where no other Great Houses reigned over," Ludya Mallarc told him casually when Zein and Bassena visited the Peak at the end of February for Radia’s non-existent birthday. "But why are you surprised? Didn’t my grandson tell you? He should have included such a clause in a contract he made with you."

Was there such a thing?

"Not with you," Radia chimed in and took a seat across Zein on the patio. "I gave you another contract before starting the operation, remember? The one included the Iron Brigade and House Ishtera."

Zein blinked. "Oh..."

Radia raised his brow and cackled loudly that the people who were barbequing in the yard turned toward the patio. "You just skimmed it over, huh?"

Zein closed his eyes to swallow his embarrassment. There were just too many things happening around that time, and too many documents to be handled before their departure. Well, that and Zein’s overall aversion to desk work.

"Let’s just say it was proof of how much I trust you," Zein bluffed through his blunder.

"Even though I told you to never trust me," Radia smirked, and Zein just shrugged in defeat.

Well, who cares since the outcome was good anyway.

"Since you have nothing to do now, just stay here to learn from me," Ludya said casually before sipping her tea, prompting Zein to stiffen and Radia to laugh again.

"Stop that, Grandma. Look how scared he is," Radia snickered, and Zein was tempted to take off his slipper and flung it across the table.

He wasn’t scared per se--but the thought of learning about clan management all day from the Ludya Mallarc sounded more daunting than facing the Fallen Star again. Zein preferred the chaotic meetings in Rexon, actually. At least there were some silly, entertaining moments there.

"You still need to study, since you’ll be active as a clan patriarch from now on," Ludya looked at Zein.

"Yes..."

Zein replied listlessly, lamenting inside. Radia was tempted to laugh again, but he tilted his head after observing the guide more keenly. "Are you alright, though? You looked tired."

Zein raised his head in ponder. "I didn’t feel sick," he said. But he did feel a bit tired. He felt like his body was more susceptible to exhaustion these days. "Maybe because I no longer have mana."

"Ah..."

In the past, Zein always covered himself in mana as protection, so he was comparatively stronger than a normal human. It also boosted his stamina and physical immunity, so it made sense for him to have reduced performance after losing that booster.

Well, it was normal. If anything, he was rather abnormal before.

"Right, you better do some medical checkup since your body is basically new now," Radia nodded. "Grandma has all kinds of supplements for daily use, so you better consult her on that front too."

"I can give some recommendations," Ludya nodded. "But eating well is the most important thing."

"That’s right," Bassena’s cheery voice came to them along with a plate of the first batch of barbeque--the one that hadn’t disappeared inside Radia’s nieces and Han Shin’s mouth anyway. "In that case, please enjoy to your heart’s content~"

Bassena placed the plate carefully on the table, cheekily closer to his fiance than the owners of the mansion. He had carefully put the less fatty meat and grilled a lot of seafood that Zein loved, cheerfully placing a fork on the guide’s hand.

But the fork clanked to the ground when Zein abruptly stood up, looking pale and nauseated. "I...need to use the restroom..."

And then he bolted, leaving them blinking in surprise.