There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 625: Side Story 1. The Twilight Zone - 7

Chapter 625: Side Story 1. The Twilight Zone - 7

Zein might not have mana anymore, but he was naturally agile even before his awakening--perhaps because he had to keep running away from the bullies in the red-zone--so before everyone realized it, he had already disappeared inside the mansion.

"H-huh?"

Bassena, who finally woke up from his stupor, immediately chased the guide inside. The house staff readily gestured toward the nearest bathroom before Bassena even asked, and thanks to that, he arrived swiftly without needing to search for a single man in this castle.

So he managed to see Zein throwing up into the toilet bowl.

For a few seconds, Bassena’s vision darkened. Memory brought him to the night Zein poured the content of his guts and his tears; the coldness, the pain, the agony of that retching sound invaded his mind and made him stiffen at the door.

When he came to, Zein had already flushed the toilet.

"Ze-Zein?" Bassena flinched and swiftly approached the guide in front of the sink. "Honey, are you okay?"

Zein splashed cold water onto his face and took a deep breath before replying. "...yeah."

"Are...are you sure? What’s wrong?"

Looking at the shaken esper in the mirror, Zein smiled lightly as he felt a trembling hand on his back. He took another deep breath and touched his solar plexus, before nodding and replying in a firmer tone. "I just felt...nauseous all of a sudden."

Bassena blinked. "All of a sudden? Why?"

He scrutinized the guide’s face, but there was no resemblance with that night. He also couldn’t think of any issue that might cause distress to the guide. If anything, they had just solved every known issue between them and had been feeling very blissful this past week.

Was it physical then, not psychological?

"Is Zein alright?"

A knock was heard on the door, and they could see Han Joon leaning on the door frame.

Bassena glanced at Zein, who nodded after turning off the water. "He felt nauseous," Bassena explained while a house staff readily offered a face towel for Zein on their way out of the bathroom.

"It’s better now after I threw up," Zein said, shrugging nonchalantly.

From that response alone, Zein didn’t look sick at all. A bit pale, but not really like someone who had just abruptly thrown up.

"As I thought--you didn’t look good earlier," Radia frowned slightly.

"Hmm..."

Before knowing it, more people had followed inside to check on Zein, including Ludya Mallarc, who was waiting in the drawing room leading to the patio where they were before. Radia’s parents were also there, looking at Zein with concern, even after Zein told them he was alright.

Well, that wasn’t bad--Zein truly felt fine after throwing up, and he had learned to enjoy the affection that other people gave him.

Still, the matriarch turned to her grandson. "Radia, call Hadlab here."

"Already did; he’ll be here in ten minutes," Radia said, before pointing at the couch with his chin. "Let’s sit for now," he said commandingly, which Zein followed as a habit even though he was no longer the man’s subordinate. "But why did you suddenly feel nauseous? Did you eat something bad?"

"I don’t know," Zein shook his head nonchalantly while sitting down. The sensation came so fast that he barely knew what happened to himself. As he tried to recall what made him feel nauseous earlier, his face scrunched almost automatically. "It just...smelled fishy earlier..."

"Huh? You mean the seafood?" Han Shin tilted his head while munching on a shrimp from a familiar plate in his hand.

Reina sniffed the plate and, just like Han Shin, tilted her head. "It smelled alright, though? Smelled like barbeque..."

Bassena frowned at the plate, which he had brought for Zein earlier, but ended up in the couple’s hands. "Why do you have that?"

"Well, you just left it there," Han Shin grinned. "You took all the big shrimp earlier--I wanna eat them too!"

That...Bassena was indeed guilty of that blatant preferential treatment, so he could only grumble quietly.

"Hmm...there are people who are sensitive to smell, even if others can’t smell it," Han Joon said.

"But..." Bassena glanced at Zein, who was frowning slightly at his own realization that he got repulsed by a fishy smell. "Zein...loved seafood..."

"Huh?"

The others blinked in confusion, even Zein. Bassena recalled how the guide devoured the huge spread of fresh seafood in that seaside restaurant when they were in the Southern Kingdom. "He also ate raw fish before..."

"Huh?"

"...mmh," Zein chewed the inside of his cheek, feeling weirded out.

Indeed, he loved seafood. But even if he didn’t, thinking that he felt repulsed by the fishy smell was absurd. Ridiculous.

Zein had lived in the red-zone for more than two decades. It was a melting pot of rotten smells. From the meat and food that quickly went bad, the rancid smell coming from the black ravine, or the fishy scent of blood and sticky sweetness from rotten corpses. Zein had lived through those kinds of smells that he wouldn’t retch even on the most gruesome battlefield.

If anything, he should have the strongest stomach among everyone there, who was born and raised in the comfort of the green-zone.

"I think you’re really sick," Radia narrowed his eyes. "Maybe your appetite changes because of that."

Zein tilted his head and nodded. Eh--perhaps he had been too used to live in comfort? Or maybe his body changed so much after losing mana?

Thinking that he couldn’t eat seafood anymore was saddening though...

Looking at Zein’s dejected face, Calix chuckled. "Haha--it reminds me of Laurel in the past."

Radia’s mother raised her brow and pointed to herself. "Me?"

"Yeah--remember how you suddenly hated meat when you were always looking for it at every meal?" Calix looked at his wife with a grin.

"Ah! You mean when I was pregnant with Radia?" Laurel snapped her fingers.

"That’s right, that’s..." Calix paused and tilted his head. "Huh?"

It was like someone pressed a pause button in the drawing room. Everyone, even Zein, seemed to froze. Han Shin’s shrimp stopped in the air, forgotten as he looked at the blinking guide.

"Zein..."

Bassena snapped. "Wait--"

"Could you be..."

Reina clasped her gasping mouth and widened her eyes. "Pregnant?"

Zein stirred slowly, more confused than anyone present in that room. "Huh? That’s..."

"Wait, wait--but that’s impossib--"

Radia quickly cut Bassena’s words, staring sharply at the guide. "Zein, you haven’t done any check-ups ever since you came back from the Deathzone, have you?"

"Well...yeah," Zein replied in a daze.

"Where are you going with this?"

"Bas, you use your [Second Skin of Immortality] on him, right?" Radia turned toward the esper sitting on Zein’s armrest.

"Huh? Yeah, but what..."

Bassena paused, eyes flickered as lips pressed tightly as realization started to dawn on him.

"Isn’t it a blessing that reconstruct your body and heal any kind of wound?"

"Oh..." Zein exclaimed softly, and Bassena clasped his mouth as he started to hiccup.

"Wait--what have you been talking about?" Han Shin put the plate in his hand on the table, looking at Radia confusedly before turning to Zein. "Also, I just remembered, but I thought Zein didn’t have a womb?"

"Well..."

Radia looked at Zein; this matter was the guide’s secret, so only he had the right to divulge it. Facing the intrigued eyes, Zein realized he didn’t feel particularly mind explaining about it anymore, so he did.

He told the clueless people how he realized he had one during his first bleed, and destroyed it right away. As he told the story, Zein realized that Bassena’s blessing could heal his womb too. It was only a month ago, so if he was indeed pregnant, he wouldn’t realize he had healed it since, well...there was no bleeding period to tell.

"Oh, my Gods--Zein..."

"It’s fine," Zein shook his head dismissively. "It happened a long time ago."

He was more fascinated by the fact that neither he nor Bassena thought about this. They had been so used to the idea that Zein’s womb was non-functional that even the owner forgot about its dying existence inside.

"Anyway, have you been having unprotected sex?"

Calix gasped. "Radia!"

"It’s a medical inquiry," Radia rolled his eyes. They were all adults anyway.

Zein smiled wryly; the memory of his increased sexual drive for the past couple of weeks flashed through his mind. "Well..."

"Seems like you did," Radia smirked, glancing at the stunned Bassena. "Probably a lot too."

"Oh, my..." Laurel covered her smiling lips.

"Ugh..."

"Well, since we’ve called our family’s doctor, we might as well check it out," Radia shrugged. "It’s more accurate to check it through blood than a pack, right?"

"...I guess," Zein nodded.

If it happened while they were home, Zein would probably dismiss it as him eating something bad, and they wouldn’t find out until Zein did that medical check-up or showed more extreme symptoms. Perhaps it was the best that he threw up during Radia’s birthday lunch.

Ah, way to steal someone’s thunder. He glanced at Radia, but the summoner merely looked at him amusedly, smirking.

The result, thanks to the advance of magical technology, came in a matter of minutes after the Mallarc family doctor drew Zein’s blood.

"Yes, it’s unmistakable," the doctor showed the result on his kit.

It was a screen that showed everything that could be shown from Zein’s blood, and beside the table of pregnancy, it showed a green check mark.

"Sir Ishtera is indeed pregnant," the doctor stated further. "Perhaps a few weeks along. I couldn’t be sure unless we check with the proper equipment."

"Huh..." Zein blinked in a daze. "So my womb...is really healed?"

He looked down, touching his abdomen unconsciously. It was a weird feeling, not being able to scan his own body because he didn’t have mana anymore. Perhaps if he did it when he just woke up, he would know. But at that time, his mind was preoccupied with the shards and subconsciously, he had erased the womb’s existence from his mind. And when he lost the ability...well, there was no way to know anymore.

"You should check with your own doctor after this, but based on my scan, your womb looked healthy," the doctor, who was awakened as a scout but had a passion for medicine instead of dungeons, nodded. "You may double-check with a test pack, but the blood test is more accurate anyway. Especially with the exhaustion and nausea."

"Ah..." Zein nodded slowly, muttering to himself. "So I really am pregnant."

That kind of explained a lot--he thought. The doctor returned, and Radia made Zein book an appointment with his doctor--the only doctor who knew about Zein’s womb for the next day, thinking that Zein would just postpone it otherwise.

Well, it was kind of true--Zein chuckled, and the room instantly stirred. Seeing the slight smile on the guide’s face, Reina and Han Shin clapped their hands.

"Wow!"

"Umm...congrats?"

"Ah," Zein smiled a bit wider. "Thank you."

Radia, Han Joon, and Radia’s parents followed by their own congratulations. Ludya smiled calmly and nodded at Zein. "Congratulations," she said solemnly. For a clan head like her, Zein’s pregnancy meant so much more than a simple blissful occasion.

It meant House Ishtera’s future was safe.

But that was a topic for another day. For now, she was genuinely happy for the young man whose life had been a series of hardship upon hardship.

"Wow, Bas!" Han Shin smacked the esper’s back with a laugh. "You’re going to be a father!"

Bassena, however, remained quiet. In fact, he had been quiet ever since the doctor confirmed Zein’s pregnancy.

His eyes, staring blankly at the empty air, were slightly shaking.

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