There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 230

Chapter 230: Chapter 223. Night of Sparkling Lights (1)

"You really pierced your ear?" Rina parted her lips, looking even more excited than Bassena, who technically owned the earring that was placed there.

Instead, Bassena kept staring at his hand and looked as if he was traumatized. Not that things went wrong--in fact, it was done superbly that Zein didn’t even feel pain except for the initial sting. Since it was done by pure magic energy, there was no risk of infection, and the wound healed fast. It only stayed red for an hour, and Zein already put on the earring when Radia and Rina came back from the emergency meeting.

Bassena, however, swore to never inflict any harm on Zein’s body again, ever. He only pierced the guide’s ear, by request, and he was horrified.

The Serpent Lord, who had no qualm smacking other espers in friendly training.

While Bassena still had a mental breakdown of ’hurting’ Zein, Rina held her commlink and, with sparkling eyes, begged the guide. "Please please please, let me take a picture!"

"Why?"

"Just because!"

Zein stared at the widely smiling tanker and turned his face away. "No," he said.

"Aww, come on!" Rina stomped her feet like a child about to throw a tantrum.

"We’ll have a picture later anyway," Zein gave her a reason.

The banquet of New Year’s Eve functioned as the peak of the annual gathering, the closing ceremony. There would be tons of journalists, and since it was a party, Zein was told there would be pictures to be taken.

"But you always refused those!" Rina pursed her lips, and Zein kind of thought that perhaps Dheera had rubbed too much on her--perhaps because the girl was a guide for Rina’s squad. "And I want to have a personal picture, personal!’ _{fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓}

Zein shook his head and sighed in resignation. He was truly getting soft. "Later, before the banquet."

"That’s a promise!" Rina pointed at him before walking away with a giggle, back to the girls’ villa.

Again, Zein sighed and took a seat on the couch where Radia was smoking his golden needle. While patting the dazed Bassena, he asked the Guildmaster for an update.

"So, what did they tell you?"

"Nothing we don’t know already," Radia shrugged. "There’s nothing they can get from the interrogation, and they still trying to figure out what group are those people belonged to."

"They are that loyal?" Zein raised his brow.

Radia smirked. "That’s how these people usually are; cult and such. Thanks to you finding the exploding formation, we can rule out simple robbery from the equation."

Zein leaned back and closed his eyes, although his hand still move to caress the platinum hair. Cult...it reminded him of the Templar of Arms Master. Sure, it turned out that they weren’t actually a cult, but the loyalty that those people showed, the dedication, it was almost eerie and burdensome.

And that was only a loyalty toward someone; their Savior.

What level of loyalty would those people who came from a real cult with real faith show?

"This is my first time knowing there are people who prefer the world to be covered in darkness and death," Zein opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. He, who had been tasting the brilliance of the blue sky for months now, could not fathom wanting to be enveloped in those sinister gloom where death whispered from every corner.

How many people had wanted to escape that kind of place? Had they ever tried living within those suffocating pressure and blinding darkness? What kind of mindset one would have to be in, to desire such a thing?

Perhaps that was why he never knew such a group existed. People who had been living in the red-zone or the borderland wouldn’t want to be a part of such a group. Even the rogue guilds that became the king of the red-zone, would prefer to live in a place where they could drink alcohol and eat good meals lavishly. Things they would never be able to enjoy if everything turned into a Deathzone.

Leaning close to the hand caressing his head, Bassena looked at Radia with narrowed eyes. "But we’ll still investigate this on our own, right?"

"Of course," Radia scoffed, stating that Bassena was mentioning something so obvious. "We can’t interrogate those people ourselves, but there are still ways of tracing their movement once we found out their individual identity."

"Whether it’d a cult or a group or even a guild, it’s weird that they knew where the outbreak would be..." Bassena said again, before tilting his head to look at the Guildmaster better. "You have some theories, at least, aren’t you?"

"Hmm..."

Radia didn’t answer right away. He took his time to finish the golden needle, fingers tapping on the armrest. The summoned secretary, the one called Nyx, brought him a drink and a tablet containing a report--and only then did he speak.