There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 145

Chapter 145: Chapter 140. Keeping the Ship Afloat

Maybe...maybe?

Bassena froze, eyes staring wide at the lips that just let out that simple, quiet word. He couldn’t register anything that the others were discussing right now, because...maybe?!

Did he hear it right? Did Zein--the Luzein--just admit that he grew feelings for Bassena?

Of course, Bassena knew that Zein treated him differently than other people. After all, he was in the business of desperately seeking a signal of progression in their relationship. The gentle taps, the hair strokings, and the soft gaze that Zein sometimes gave him were filled with an affection that the guide did not provide to others. And Bassena was proud of it.

But even though he could see the trace of affection in Zein’s gesture, it was a different matter hearing the guide admit to it. Because it meant Zein was admitting that his attraction to Bassena was no longer a mere physical thing. Because it meant that Zein was starting to open the gate to the stone wall surrounding his heart.

And Bassena didn’t even know what he did to warrant such progression.

"Can you...say that again?" Bassena whispered softly, with a slight tremble in his voice.

Unfortunately, the blue eyes blinked once and Zein reapplied his defense, again putting on that cold, nonchalant face as if that two seconds of tenderness were a lie. "No," the guide averted his gaze and leaned back on his chair, putting distance between them and crossing his arms, as if erecting a defense inside his heart.

Bassena had no idea whether he wanted to laugh or cry.

"You’re flirting is cute, but please do it later, yes?" Radia tapped the table suddenly, prompting Bassena and Zein to focus on him. "We’re not done here."

"I thought you’re doing well there without me, Boss," Bassena grinned, and Radia almost threw his pen to the unruly kid.

"Enough--focus now," the crimson head shook and sighed, before shifting his gaze back to the tablet in front of him. "I’m going to assume that the government will decide to speak about the reclamation act during this meeting."

"Would that be bad for us?" Zein tilted his head with a slight frown, and Radia raised his brow in response, smirking at the word ’us’ coming out of the guide’s mouth. Thinking back to the day Zein was so reluctant to be part of Trinity, the guide seemed to change a lot these days--in a good way.

"Not really," Radia shrugged. "I don’t believe that we are the only ones who knew about this plan. Big guilds like Celestia and Azure Sky, or those who had connections with the government probably knew about it already, so it’s just a matter of making it ’officially’ official," he let out a sly smile, tapping the armrest while contemplating further. "But that is precisely why we need to keep beneficial information to ourselves. Things like Specter cores and the shard, obviously, shouldn’t be known to anyone, and that includes any device and research derived from those two."

However, it was also imperative for Trinity and Mortix to show their willingness to cooperate with the government by providing data. After all, they should show them that they could be trusted with the reclamation project, and that they had enough knowledge and prowess to go with it. Feigning ignorance and pretending as if they knew nothing about the anomalies and the outbreaks would hurt their credibility too much.

"It doesn’t matter to say that we were lucky with the outbreak, since it’s true," Bassena shrugged. "We were coincidentally there when it happened. Zein was the one who sense it first, but they won’t question it even if you say I’m the one who found the breaking gate instead."

"But we still need to raise awareness about the Deathzone, no?" the Chief Secretary responded. "Can we do that without revealing too much?"

For that, Zein readily gave a solution. "You said they might ask about the black gate incident too, right? In that case, you’ll probably provide the video recording of the raid."

"Of course,"

"Then, let’s just say that the miasmic energy that I feel during that sudden outbreak is similar to the one coming from the Specter," Zein tapped Ron’s letter--the one written for him, not the report--with his palm. "You can use this too if you want, emphasizing that I had used to specter’s presence in the borderland." _{ƒreewebηoveℓ.com}

Ron had written about mundane things that the unit members were doing in the past few months, including whining about the increasing specters within the jungle periphery. Of course, the specter that they talked about was the low-level ones, not the ones with the core like what they faced deeper in the Deathzone. But no one else needed to know about that.

"Even if they checked with the unit, nothing about the high-level Specter would come out, since only Ron and the Captain knew about it there," Zein shrugged. "And then you can use it as a pretext to request an official permit for stationing our agent there."

The people around the table raised their brows, and Radia smirked at that. "For someone who seemed to want to warn the world so much earlier, you sure are quite shrewd, Mister Guide."

Zein just rolled his eyes in response. Well, as much as he felt like they played interests and politics too much above people’s safety, Zein was also quite a pragmatist. He was already in Trinity’s boat, so he might as well keep it afloat. Rather than putting the chance in another’s hand, who might botch the project altogether, he much rather put his trust in Mortix and Trinity--trusting Radia’s unscrupulous mind and Bassena’s prowess.