There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 166

Chapter 166: Chapter 161. Woe of Believers

When they stepped inside the factory complex, It was more ordinary than Zein thought.

Perhaps he was imagining some mysterious secret base like the one in the movie Han Shin gave him to watch when he got bored during Bassena’s absence. But this one had nothing of the dark-looking castle of halogen light along a technologically advanced building.

It was just...well, an office building.

They first stepped into the parking lot, and in front of them was a regular-looking management office. He could see the taller building of what he assumed to be a worker’s dorm, and the actual factory behind a steel fence.

A weapon factory. He found out before coming here that their base was a legit weapon factory. It wasn’t anything big like Mortix, of course, but they supplied low-budget weapons for espers in the lower zones. He found it kind of fitting, honestly, for a cult worshiping Setnath, since the deity was known to be proficient in handling all kinds of weapons.

"O-over here," the guard guiding them inside went through a small path next to the office, which bring them to the dorm building Zein could see from the outside.

But the guard didn’t stop or went to the dorm, but continued walking along the concrete path all the way to the back of the complex. Zein tried to recall the vision of the complex from the air, and remembered there was a separate two-story house in the corner of the factory complex.

It was a plain-looking residential house that didn’t match the factory complex. It wasn’t luxurious, but it was big enough to hold a big family meeting, the kind of house that had a lot of rooms and one big living room combined with a dining room. There was a small, empty lot of garden beside the house, which Zein easily imagined would be filled with vegetable seeds once spring came. The rest of the lawn was filled with trees that had started to lose their leaves.

While Zein was busy observing the vicinity, he suddenly heard a commotion from the house. The voice traveled from a slightly opened door, and he stopped in his track.

"You can’t even walk well, old man, let’s just be patient. They’ll arrive soon!" a youngish voice came from inside, followed by a spiky older voice.

"You imbecile! How dare you make him come to us?! I’m the one who should run to him!"

"Say that after your legs stop trembling!"

Zein raised his brow and turned to look at Bassena, who tilted his head and shrugged in response.

"Should we hurry...?"

"Umm...y-yes, please," the guard, who had been stuttering since earlier, scrambled toward the front porch. Zein had no idea which one the man was afraid of; Bassena or him.

He followed the man and climbed the front step. The voice from inside grew louder as they get closer and the guard opened the door wider. But as the door made a creaking sound, the voice suddenly disappear, and only the sounds of two pairs of shoes could be heard against the hardwood floor.

After he crossed the entrance’s threshold, Zein stopped and properly take a look at the great hall where he ended up in. The first thing he noticed was an old man, probably well over seventy, with a cane in his hand and looking at Zein with widened eyes. The old man was being supported by a middle-aged man and the policeman from Neyta. Around the rather spacious hall, there were about nine other people; four of which Zein recognized from the investigation. All of them were espers, with various degrees of mana-core level. They were all looking at him, frozen, so quiet that it seemed like no one was even breathing.

When Zein wondered what he should do or say, the old man suddenly jerked, as if something struck him, and he surged forward, getting away from the two men holding him.

"Elder!"

Startled, Zein almost stepped forward to catch the stumbled old man, but thankfully, the men were quick to catch the old man again. But the grey eyes were already transfixed toward Zein, and with trembling lips, the old man spoke.

"May...may I see your face?"

Zein stood there and stared at the old man for a while. Of all the things, he didn’t expect them to ask for his face first. He thought it would be about his mother, or the stigma in his nape. But Zein looked at the shaking eyes and trembling limbs and...damn, he was weak to kids and the elderly in the first place.

"Alright," he said finally, but of course, the esper tailing him wouldn’t like it.

"Zein--"

"It’s fine," Zein raised his arm, and then glanced toward the frowning esper. "It’s fine. You’re here, aren’t you?"

"Not fair..." Bassena grumbled, but he just clicked his tongue and chose to observe the other people instead.

With his raised hand, Zein pressed the button on his neck to retrieve the mask back, revealing his face to the occupants of the hall.

Zein was used to people gasping at his face when he took off his mask, but it was the first time he found someone crying at it. The old man, who seemed to never blink as he stared at Zein, started to drip tears after heartbreaking tears from his blurry grey eyes.

"Oh..." the sound of weeping filled the hall as the old man kneeled on the ground, and it was because the middle-aged man who was holding him was too stunned and shook to keep supporting the old man.

Zein, of course, frowned at this, unconsciously stepping back from the teary elderly. He felt Bassena protectively held into his waist, whispering in concern. "Isn’t this a bit too dramatic?"

There, mounted on the wall in a silver frame, was a portrait of someone who bore so much resemblance with him it was as if he looked into a mirror. Beneath the portrait, a name was carved on a silver plaque; Alteroan Ishtera. _{freёweɓnovel.com}