There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 629: Side Story 1. The Twilight Zone - 11

Chapter 629: Side Story 1. The Twilight Zone - 11

"I haven’t seen you for a month and what? You’re imprinted, you’re engaged, and you’re pregnant?" Tian Yu raised his brow at the guide who shamelessly shrug as a reply. "Are you trying to speed running life or something?"

Zein leaned back at the desk chair on the artificial beach of a certain luxurious fishing resort in Rexon. "I mean, we’ve been delaying things while we’re in the Deathzone."

"Huh," the old man nodded. "Make sense."

Zein smiled and closed his eyes, continuing with his sunbathing while the old man stared at his fish lure bobbing up and down in the artificial sea. It would be better to do it in a real sea, but as of now, the beach was still in ruin and the fish were probably nonexistent, so they had no choice but to use this place in Rexon.

"Hmm...it’s not bad," Zein opened his eyes and shaded his eyes. Magic was truly great, and since Zein couldn’t see the flow of mana outside of someone’s body anymore, he could pretend that everything was natural.

There was a benefit to losing his mana, after all.

"So, when’s the date?" Tian Yu asked after casting another lure.

"Which date?"

"I heard the due date could change suddenly, so the other one."

Zein chuckled and took out an invitation. "Here, July thirteen."

"You make it fast," Tian Yu raised his brow. It was still April, but the invitation was ready? He stroked the thick card and beautifully embossed letters. It was well-made, too.

"Well, it’s a date and a place that we will never change, so..." Zein shrugged. "You’ve never been to the lake house, right? That’s where my parents married and lived briefly before the attack."

"Ah..."

Tian Yu’s eyes shook a little bit, thinking of what could become if he knew about Alteroan’s problem. Ah, well...there was no use thinking about it now. He looked at Zein and waved the invitation. "Were you planning to climb the mountain just for this? How reckless."

Initially, Zein wanted to come to the Iron Mountain’s abode. He kind of missed the serene atmosphere of the cabin in the middle of the mountain, surrounded by a forest that made him feel isolated from the rest of the world.

Naturally, both the old man and his fiance scolded him--and that was how they met in this fishing resort instead. They even saw Darleon Belthera briefly earlier, who was bowing so deeply to both of them, not at all looking like the formidable former guildmaster of Celestia.

"Well, it’s not just the invitation," Zein smiled. "There’s something I want to ask you, and I don’t think it’s something that could be asked through a call."

"Oh?"

Zein straightened his back slightly and looked at the old man with a deep gaze. "Would you like to walk me down the dock?"

* * *

The passage of time was often unrecognizable when one had a lot of things to do. With a single blink, the week had gone by, and then, a new month had arrived, and people couldn’t help but lament about having no time to rest.

Zein, too, had a lot of things to do, but surprisingly a lot of time to rest. Or rather, he was forced to rest.

Be it Bassena or the Iron Shield, they told him to stay put. It didn’t mean that they left him out of the business--which was impossible since he was the patriarch anyway--but they brought themselves to him instead. Be it the management of the foundation, the clan’s restructuring, the wedding, or their new territory in the Far East--everything was either done through conference calls or a visit to the penthouse.

Fortunately, Zein did leave his business to competent people before going to the Deathzone before, so all he had to do was listen to the reports and review them. In the first place, Zein didn’t know much about management or how to do business--considering he never attended formal schooling--so he was grateful that he was surrounded by trusty people.

Much had happened during his absence in the Deathzone. Celestia, after going through massive weeding and restructuring, had gone back to their roots and cemented itself as the sturdy umbrella that was the number one guild in the Eastern Federation. Naturally, profit was flowing to Iron Shield and Zein as the major shareholder.

With the money from Celestia, Iron Shield also grew as a company. If Mortix reigned in high-end equipment, the Iron Shield was the main provider for middle to low-rank ones. Without overshadowing each other, House Ishtera and House Mallarc continued to weave a strong friendship.

Thanks to the profit coming from both, Zein’s cherished academy and orphanage could proceed without worry. The Academy only received guides sent by other guilds, the military, and the government at first. But now that Zein was no longer in the Deathzone, they planned to open the Academy to the awakened guides who had yet to receive their license.

Expanding the school grounds was not an issue since the Horins acted like feudal lords in the surrounding area, so a lot of people just left, leaving their buildings open for rent or purchase. The orphanage, however, was a bit tricky.

The orphanage was built in the red-zone. The erasure of red-zones to the beacon synchronization, however, made the area complicated. Naturally, they needed to be integrated into the adjacent district, but it was not an easy thing for people who had been used to living on their own without the government muddling their neighborhood. Integrating them into society was also challenging, and many decided to flee the area.

The situation was more or less the same in Araka. It was a welcomed situation to breathe fresher air, but also...confusing. The orphanage, amidst this confusion, was akin to a ship getting rocked in a turbulent sea.

"Scarlet Moon and Araka’s residents will move to the Far East, so we’ll build a new orphanage there," Zein decided. "We’ll still use the old one after the area is registered to a district, and let the children choose where they prefer to live."

In the end, the red-zone residents chose to migrate to a completely new area. The idea was thrown by Zein in the meeting with the government. As someone who grew up in the red-zone, Zein knew how hard it would be for the residents to juggle among the people of the higher zones. Conflict would definitely arise, so it would be better to separate them.

Where else would be better if not the new district where they needed people for labor? The residents could get money to start their new life, and the developers gained a labor force with high tenacity used to hard work in the wild. Win-win.

Somehow, Zein also ended up taking care of many things aside from his businesses, including the matter of former red zones and the newly restructured Temple of Mago. Surprisingly though, Zein could do most of them from the comfort of his living room.

The only time Zein wasn’t in their penthouse was when Bassena had to leave for more than a day. Since he didn’t want to leave the guide alone, Zein would stay in the Mallarc’s House, and use the chance to learn one thing or two from Ludya about managing a clan and navigating high society.

Of course, Zein would also leave the house to visit some places because he had no plan to live like an invalid, but that was a rare occasion--especially after he was swarmed by reporters one day after having a meeting with the new Saintess of Mago.

In the end, unless it was something urgent, he voluntarily stayed inside.

Adapting to a peaceful life after staying on the field all this time was quite hard for Zein, but they didn’t lack documents to peruse and plans to be made, so...whether it was indoors or outdoors, his days were still filled with busy schedules.

No matter how busy they were, however, Bassena never forgot to bring Zein for his routine check-up. On every date of a hospital visit, it wouldn’t just be the highlight of the day. It would be the only plan of the day.

If people wanted to meet them on that day, Bassena would reject them. Even if Ludya Mallarc asked them to come, Bassena would reject it. Zein and the hospital visit would be Bassena’s top and only priority.

Honestly, it was very cute of him. Zein couldn’t help but praise the esper’s dedication. There was a pile of books on pregnancy on the bedside table and the living room, most of them never even touched by Zein because they were always in Bassena’s hands. Zein just knew that the moment he gave birth, more books would join the pile--on parenting this time.

The esper did not kid when he said he’d study. Bassena probably had more calls with Radia’s parents than Radia himself.

Thanks to that, Zein was having a rather smooth early-stage pregnancy. He had some bad morning sickness and cramps, and it was annoying how he got tired faster than usual--but looking at Bassena running around hastily, trying to alleviate any inconvenience that Zein felt, made him feel better.

And then, before knowing it, May came. It was time for them to check on the baby’s gender.

"They are twins."

Doctor Nam said calmly, moving the monitor so both Zein and Bassena could see the ultrasound together. Honestly, it didn’t look like anything to their untrained eyes, but if the doctor said it...it should be true...right?

Bassena blinked and stared hard at the wriggling blobs in the black and white screen. One was already miraculous, but...

"T-twins?" he asked in a daze, swallowing his nervousness as he looked at the doctor in bewilderment. "Two?"

"Yes," the doctor moved the wand over Zein’s still-flat stomach, showing a different angle that didn’t look very different in Zein’s and Bassena’s eyes. "Ah, and they seem to be male--both of them."

Again, Bassena could only blink in a daze. "M-males? Boys?"

"It’s rather hard to see in this position, but we’ll be able to see better on the next ultrasound."

"Oh..."

Bassena nodded in excitement. He couldn’t see it now, and he had no idea if he could see it then, but those wriggling blobs were his children. His sons. The sons he had with Zein. Male twins with his and Zein’s ge--

Wait.

Bassena stiffened and turned to Zein, who had been quiet ever since.

Male twins. Male twins like Zein’s deceased brothers.

Would Zein...be alright with this?