There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 674: Side Story 3. Stellar Blossom - 9

Chapter 674: Side Story 3. Stellar Blossom - 9

When the morning came, and people gathered in the sitting room to get ready for breakfast, half of them either had red or swollen eyes.

Han Shin was easily the worst of all of them; he cried so much in his room that Reina, affected by her pregnancy hormones, also cried. Seeing his wife cry because of him made the healer feel even more guilty and cried even more that Zein even came to check on them because of the noise.

After throwing a comment that they were just like Kar and Asa that afternoon, the couple started calming down, and Zein came back to his own room to find Bassena hugging the twins with red eyes. The esper had been holding himself since the afternoon, and he could barely calm down by holding his sons and putting them to sleep.

And from how Radia looked that morning, Zein concluded that the night also wasn’t very good on that side.

The one who looked the best among them was actually the cause of all the emotional distress. Han Joon looked like his usual self, smiling at the twins who were no longer crying. Kar pulled on Zein’s hair so his Dada could bring him closer to his Uncle Joon and performed his own examination by touching the man’s forehead.

It was as cold as usual. Deeming it as normal, Kar nodded in satisfaction.

"Haha--you’re not upset anymore, little guy?" Han Joon ruffled the older twin’s hair, and then the younger one’s when Asa jumped in Bassena’s arms, asking for a pat.

"You look...like usual," Zein commented. "I have no idea if it was good or bad."

"Isn’t it good that I don’t get worse?" Han Joon said and, after reading the mood in the room, smiled before turning to the butler. "Let’s have breakfast outside. It’s nice and cool today."

"Yes, Sir."

The butler readily bowed and turned around to prepare the request, seemingly regarding Han Joon’s words the same as Radia’s. But then again, the summoner didn’t say anything. Zein realized it was Radia’s habit when he was sulking, which rarely happened unless Joon was around.

He felt guilty for thinking it that way, but...it was rather cute.

Han Joon himself definitely thought so, holding his husband’s hand and kissing it, before leading the man to the garden. Well, being upset was better than being angry, Zein thought. Since they had digested their shock overnight, they should be able to work on looking for a solution.

It didn’t seem right to hear what the doctor said without Han Joon’s agreement since, unlike Radia and Han Shin, both Zein and Bassena didn’t have family ties with the man. And so, once again, Radia and Shin had to hear what happened from Han Joon, and it was so...jarring.

The doctor had told them the news with caution and sympathy, even disappointment for his inability to do anything beyond keeping Joon’s condition in a status quo. But the person himself conveyed everything nonchalantly, like someone reading a report he saw one day on a television show.

It was uncomfortable, even more so because they knew it wasn’t because Han Joon pretended to be fine. He truly believed his condition wasn’t something that needed to be exaggerated.

Radia, who had turned hoarse from screaming ’you could die’ all night, had already resigned to the situation and silently sipped his coffee. He couldn’t change Han Joon’s disposition, which had been created from his childhood. All he could do at that point was try to find a way to heal his stupid husband.

"Can I..." Han Shin raised his face, which had lost all sight of his usual energy, and looked at his older brother. "Do you think I’ll be able to heal you if I raise my star--"

"No," Han Joon cut off his brother quickly and continued before anyone could make any rebuttal. "Do you think it’s easy conquering the last floor? How long did Bassena spend there? Do you think you can do it faster than him?" the black eyes, which were relaxed before, flashed sharply.

The atmosphere turned tense all of a sudden; Han Shin was frozen still, staring wide eye at his brother. It felt like he was being scolded, and even the babies were feeling it too. Asa was uncharacteristically quiet, holding Kar’s hand while the older twin clutched Zein’s finger.

Noticing this, Han Joon relaxed his expression. But his tone was still sharp when he spoke again.

"Reina will give birth to your child in five months--are you telling me you will leave them to do something that might not even be useful?"

The words uttered coldly carried the bitterness of someone who had lost his world during labor; the bitterness of someone whose father was never there during his and his brother’s birth. Han Joon took a deep breath, and, although his tone became much softer, the words were only growing sharper.

"I appreciate your concern, I do--but if you really do that, I’m going to cut ties with you."

Han Shin clutched his hands and bowed his head deeply. "I’m...I’m sorry..."

"Apologize to your wife."

"Noona..." Han Shin turned and closed his eyes, bowing his head even deeper. "I’m so sorry for being selfish..."

"It’s okay," Reina stroked the healer’s arm, telling him she was alright. "But I do wish you’ll be there when I give birth."

Han Shin bit his lips and nodded profusely, holding his wife’s hands tight apologetically. Zein glanced at the older brother, who was calmly drinking his silver needle instead of the usual morning coffee. He considered himself a strict one, whether as a brother or a parent; he certainly had scolded the twins--all four twins--a lot of times too. But even he felt a bit tense from that gaze and tone, and when he glanced at Bassena, the esper just smiled wryly before whispering.

"I told you he’s scarier than Radia."

At that moment, the second scariest person opened his mouth. "What’s going on with the place you visit in Shiroin?"

"As you’ve heard, it’s someone who actively researches Esper’s core," Han Joon replied. "Actually, they are researching the method for artificial awakening."

"...what?!"

"It was something that the military take an interest in--you know, they can benefit a lot by recruiting citizens and gain a lifetime contract from awakening."

"Disgusting to the end," Radia muttered. His hatred for the military would persist so long he still drew breath.

"Would someone really do that?" Reina asked with a grimace. "I mean...would they agree to that kind of contact to become an esper?"

Zein chuckled; sometimes, his friends were so adorably out of touch with the reality of lower-class citizens. "There are a lot of people who are desperate for any chance to improve their life. People who lived witnessing how even one-star esper could get a better life than them would jump for whatever chance, even if it is a malicious one."

"Oh..."

"But what are you doing there, Hyung?"

"The research itself wasn’t bad," Han Joon said. "At least, it wasn’t made with a bad intention. We don’t know how long the dungeons would keep spawning, but we also never know if we’ll run out of esper one day--it was research made by a bunch of paranoid people like that. I wasn’t necessarily opposed to the research itself."

"Again, the military was the disgusting one."

Han Joon chuckled and draped his arm across his darling’s shoulder, patting the angry man. Ultimately, everything bad that happened to Han Joon was caused by Han Gyeong and the people behind Operation Kronos. In other words: the military.

Since his husband had told him not to blame himself, Radia decided to focus his hatred on the military instead. After all, that Horin scum was already dead. Han Gyeong too. He was tempted to search for a necromancer in the dark link just so he could kill them once more but then remembered that Han Gyeong perished inside the facility explosion in that dungeon.

So, once again, the target of his hatred was the military.

"So, what are you doing there?" Zein repeated the question.

"Since they are researching Esper’s cores, I thought they might have an answer as to what I should do with mine," Han Joon stroked his chest. "As you know, the source of my problem is the cold core from the trait."

"Can’t you...cancel the trait...or something?" Han Shin asked carefully.

The stroking fingers moved to the upper left slightly, stopping above the black streak. "It’s not something I can take back," he smiled. "In the first place, I shouldn’t be able to have this, as someone who had yet to conquer the top floor."

Like Bassena, the Saint classes were usually the ones carrying the deity’s stigma. The Iron Mountain had it on his back, and the Eastern Sun had a flaming streak along her arms. Certainly, by that standard, Han Joon wasn’t ’qualified’.

"The Goddess was just taking pity on me," he chuckled at the memory. "She warned me that it could never be erased, even if..." he stopped for a second, but under the stern gaze of his darling, he continued with a smile. "Even if I destroy my core."

"What? Why?!"

The reaction was immediate chaos that startled the twins. They looked around in confusion, thinking that someone collapsed again because both Uncle Shin and their Baba were standing up abruptly. But Uncle Joon looked fine, and no one was falling, so they got even more confused.

"Destroying the core will only make the cold energy spread all at once," Han Joon said calmly, gesturing for Han Shin and Bassena to sit down. "So it’s actually more dangerous to do so."

"So what are you hoping to find in that place?" Radia frowned.

"Hmm..." Han Joon leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms to ponder. "I wanted to see if they know how to seal the core."

If destroying the core would kill him, how about isolating the core? That was what he thought. But no one in history had ever done that, so he had no idea where to look for a way until he remembered a bitter memory from the past. That place in Shiroin.

Han Shin blinked and stared at the air blankly. Surprisingly enough, Radia did the same, looking uncharacteristically foolish. Han Joon raised his brow and looked at the summoner, tilting his darling face curiously. "What’s with that face?"

"Huh?"

Zein, who was swaying the twins in his arms to calm them, chuckled from the side. "I think they were under the impression that you had no intention to get better and you were doing nothing at all to find a cure."

Radia turned his head away; the tip of his ears reddened in embarrassment as if fusing with his hair. There were two seconds of silence until Han Joon broke out laughing, so loud and full of amusement that Asa laughed in response, brightening up the previously gloomy