There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Chapter 11. Inquiry

Reno and Hyde, the espers on sentry duty that day, were just on their way back to the outpost from the regular patrol when the detection device gave out a warning signal.

The device was made to detect miasmic beings, be they wraiths or beasts, up to a kilometer radius. It would send out an alarm and mark the location of the appearance. What made them temporarily freeze was that the warning signal beeped repeatedly.

Which meant there were multiple appearances of miasmic beings all at once.

"What, is it a horde? A stampede?" Reno took out the beeping device and they look at the screen closer, and felt goosebumps.

There were dozens of red dots on the screen, jumbled up so much that it painted the section where they gathered in a big glowing red circle. But what drained their blood was that those pulsing red dots were covering the area that was supposed to be their outpost.

They were so stunned that they stood rooted to the ground for a second, before immediately bolting to the outpost.

"Shit! What the hell is this? Do you receive any distress signals from Zen?" Hyde cursed. As much as they believed Zein had what it took to be considered an ability holder, there was no way he could face dozens of wraiths on his own, if even the two of them wouldn't be able to.

"No," Reno still stared at the device's screen even while they were running. "Should we send one—"

Suddenly, Reno stopped, which prompted Hyde to halt his step. He frowned at his partner, but upon looking at Reno's widened, astonished eyes, Hyde decided to save his scolding.

"What? Why are you stopping?"

Reno lifted his head, and answered with a confused voice. "It's gone," before Hyde could sound his own confusion, Reno showed him the screen. The red dots already vanished, leaving only a pulsing green—the mark of their outpost.

"What?" Hyde snatched the device from Reno's hand, and frowned even deeper. "Was it an error?"

"Let's just hurry," Reno shook his head, and started running again. Whether it was an error or not, the answer could only be found at the outpost, where hopefully their prized guide still safe and sound.

It took them less than a minute to finally had the outpost in their sight. Fortunately, the sentry box was intact, so they began to think that it was a device error—which would mean a problem in itself. But as they got closer, that theory was demolished by the leftover drying corpses of dozens of wraiths, leaving behind the reddish-black cores strewn around the sentry box's pillar.

"What the hell..."

While they were sinking into an equal mix of confusion and astonishment, they could hear a conversation from the sentry box, which meant their guide wasn't alone. Figured, since there was no way Zein could do all this with his strength alone.

So they climbed the outpost hastily, and saw their guide talking with an esper who was definitely not a borderland dweller. It was quite jarring, looking at a three-piece suit being worn in a sad, desolate land of the borderland.

"That's not up to me," they heard Zein speak dryly with his arms crossed. "Mission goes through the Captain."

The esper made a humming sound. "So if the Captain gives you the mission, you'll come?"

"I'm a mercenary," Zein shrugged, "it'll depend on the pay."

At that, the esper smirked. "That's even easier," he said, which made Zein roll his eyes. And then the esper turned toward them, commenting in an obviously not-so-pleased tone. "Your colleagues are here."

This time, they got stunned for a different reason. "Wha—"

"The Serpent Lord?"

Zein raised his brow at Reno and Hyde's reaction, watching the two scoot closer carefully, eyes wide and unblinking. They only walked as close as the pantry, however, as if they were too afraid to close the distance. It was quite funny seeing borderland mercenaries who walked a tightrope of death and wouldn't even flinch at dungeon outbreaks being so careful and nervous around someone.

Even Reno, who was known to be one of the calmest members, looked nervous. "Excuse me, but...you're Esper Bassena Vaski, right?"

'So that's his name?'

Zein tilted his head, glancing at the man, who looked at him with a smug, smirking face as if telling him: 'See, other people recognize me, unlike you!' which made him almost feel childish. Zein almost chuckled at that, thinking the man had an adorable side despite being so powerful and overbearing.

His face immediately hardened at the thought of calling an esper 'adorable'.

"Hmm, yes," Bassena answered with a better tone than before, but tilted his head after. "But why are you leaving a guide alone in an outpost?"

The two espers stammered. "Oh...uh, that..."

It wasn't like they were doing anything wrong, but explaining to an outsider that a guide had the capability of low-star esper was quite difficult. And that was why it was the guide that stepped up.

"It's how we do it here," Zein gave out a curt explanation, which actually explained nothing. He just effectively said 'it's not an outsider's business' to the face of the strongest esper there. "Don't make presumption."

It made Reno and Hyde quietly gasp. If the information they had was correct, then Bassena Vaski, as much as he was strong, was also that much rude and petty, not to mention cruel. The man wasn't the kind of celebrity esper who would try to maintain their image. He was someone who drove his own family to the brink, pushed them into bankruptcy, and threw them into jail. Rumors also said that the family members who were considered to be missing were actually dead by his hand.

That was why they were being so cautious before, because mere 3-star espers like them couldn't afford to offend someone like Bassena.

And yet their guide talked to the man nonchalantly.

To be fair, Zein talked like that—with hardly any interest nor consideration—to everyone. It was refreshing usually, since people could see he carried no bullshit or lies. And being Zein, he probably had no idea of who this esper was and how much influence he had on the Eastern Federation's sentinel community.

But really, Zein should learn how to be more tactful, sometimes—the two espers thought.

They looked cautiously at Bassena's face, ready to somewhat defend their guide should the 5-star esper take offense. Contrary to their worry, however, Bassena didn't look angry. The amber eyes just narrowed a bit, before he shrugged.