There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 138

Chapter 138: Chapter 133. Pride and Vanity

"It’s not our monthly assembly yet, but let me hear what has been happening in my absence," Zein wasted no time inside the conference room.

Thanks to the guildmaster, he was banned from receiving any news related to work, and whether his account was banned temporarily, or the guildmaster told Alice not to contact him, Zein’s commlink had been quiet.

Rather than making him calm, however, it made him anxious to know nothing about the state of his division after leaving it for more than a week. With six days in the dungeon, and three he used to rest, Zein had left the guild tower for almost ten days. It was good that he had a reliable assistant like Alice, but this unexpected incident made him realize he needed to establish some kind of emergency procedure.

This was no longer the end-zone, and he was no longer a lone guide that only needed to care for himself. He was a leader of a division inside a guild; he had a responsibility toward the people who paid him and the kids who worked under him. With his position, and the unique situation he was facing, there were bound to be more unexpected situations in the future, so he needed to make a contingency plan in advance.

Well, that could wait. For now, he needed to catch up with the situation at hand.

Not every guide from his division was present, but the available ones should be enough to give him an update. It didn’t show blatantly, but he could feel a bit of tension in the air when he stepped inside the seventh floor earlier. And there was something more within the joy and relief that the kids showed him that wasn’t just caused by him surviving the black gate.

"Hmm, nothing much..." Dheera, who seemed to finally regain her composure, answer him with a rather annoyed tone. "Just that some kids from the regular division talked shit about us when you’re not here, Captain."

At her prompt, the other guides made uncomfortable expressions, and Zein finally found out the source of the tension. He wasn’t really surprised though--he knew conflict would surface eventually. He was actually more surprised that it only happened now, although he supposed Abel must have done something about it.

But Zein being trapped and presumed dead inside a black gate changed things, it seemed.

"Yeah, nothing much," Brisk, who had been always quick to whine, responded swiftly in a sneering tone. "Just a bunch of people who were supposed to be worried about their colleagues but chose to be salty instead!"

Perhaps because he was also part of the people getting trapped inside the life-and-death situation of the black gate anomaly, his bitterness was rather stronger than the others. He had heard about it from other guides and had been in a sour mood ever since. This response, in turn, created a string of debates.

"Agh--they’re too much, really!" another guide chimed in loudly.

But not all members of the strike division viewed it the same way. Some sighed and gave a reasonable explanation. "It’s because some of you bragging too much about your bigger paycheck..."

"So what? We’ve earned it fair and square! It’s not like we received it just because we’re donning the black uniform--we worked hard for it!"

"That’s right! What’s wrong with showing off to those people who made fun of us and saying we are foolish for joining the division before?!"

"But you don’t need to always rub it in their face every time!"

"Yeah, it’s fine to just do it moderately. You’re creating unnecessary hate!"

"But--"

CLAP!

The guides, whose voices had grown higher and higher, pressed their lips together, and the room grew quiet as if a mute button had been activated with a single sound of clapping hand. They turned their head timidly at the head of the conference table, where a pair of piercing blue eyes stared at them sharply.

"Did I ask for an update, or for a fight?" the question was asked in a low and flat tone as usual, but it was enough to make the guides shrink back to their chair while fidgeting in embarrassment and guilt.

Right--why were they fighting in front of their fresh-out-of-the-hospital Captain? It was then that the meeting room’s door creaked open and Alice walked inside with Nadine, who looked at the guides’ wry expression with a raised brow. Zein sighed inwardly and leaned back in his chair while crossing his arms.

"So did you fight with them?" he asked, further confusing the newcomers.

"...no?" Dheera squeaked a reply quietly.

"Verbally?"

"Well..."

It was then that Alice and Nadine realized what was going on, and they made the same exasperated sigh as Zein. "I was about to wait until later to tell you about it, Sir, but..." Alice huffed and put the tablet in her hand in front of Zein, swapping the screen. "The content of the verbal confrontation and the ones who were involved."