There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 269

Chapter 269: Chapter 262. A Second Chance

Under the third basement level of the guild building, there was a place that only executives knew and had access to. This was the detaining floor.

It wasn’t truly filled with cells like jail. It didn’t even have an eerie atmosphere. The lighting was nice and bright, and each room was furnished well. It was more like a hotel room where the occupant couldn’t get out. The one who guarded this place wasn’t the active espers in charge of raiding dungeons, but part of the intelligence department that was almost as mysterious as the shadow guards.

Before having his promised lunch with the other guides, Zein went down to this place. Two rooms were occupied, but he only visited one. When the guard opened the door to the room, Nora was reading a book on the desk. It took the other guide a while to digest the fact that Zein was there, and when he did, he stood up so fast that the stuff on the desk was clattering to the floor.

"Hey," Zein greeted him casually, looking around the room.

It looked quite nice, with a bed, a neat desk, and a sitting area. There was also a comfortable bathroom and a simple pantry. They also got regular meals from the restaurant up there. Well, it wasn’t as if they were treated as a criminal.

"Zein..." Nora was standing frozen in front of his desk, watching Zein take a seat on the couch. He looked at the blue eyes for a second, and in the next, he lowered his head. "I’m...I’m sorry."

"It’s fine, I heard it enough from your voice message already," Zein said simply, leaning back on the couch and continuing to observe the other guide.

"Still...I want to say it to you directly," Nora said quietly.

The man looked nervous, just the way his voice sounded in the message. He also looked like he couldn’t sleep well; the dark circles apparent beneath his eyes.

"Haa..." Zein didn’t hide his sigh. "You’re an idiot."

Nora blinked his eyes in surprise. He knew Zein enough to tell that Zein actually didn’t get mad at his action. Zein would act cold if he was angry or annoyed, instead of giving him this look. He knew this look; he had seen it before in Araka, when Zein heard about his younger brothers getting into trouble because of a brawl.

Nora couldn’t help the bitter smile on his face. "I know..."

"You should’ve told the guild right away,"

"...yeah," the nagging almost put Nora in tears, so he just lowered his head more. "I realized it too late."

"Just sit down," Zein said, and he kept his silence until Nora finally sat down a minute later. The man still had his head down, avoiding looking at Zein’s eyes. "The Guildmaster told me to do whatever I want."

"You should," Nora smiled wryly. "Even if you fire me without any recommendation, I can accept it."

Zein frowned and let out another sigh. "Aren’t you doing this to survive? Why are you being such a defeatist all of a sudden?"

This time, Nora chuckled softly. "It’s not that I gave up," he said, fingers fiddling atop his lap. But slowly, he lifted his head to look at Zein as he continued. "I just think...the way I go about survival had been wrong, and...it only lead me further away from survival,"

Zein stared at the other guide; while the dark circle was still there, and the nervousness was still prevalent, the voice didn’t sound as weak as before. "That’s good..." he muttered. He didn’t know how much he could trust this statement, but the realization was a start. "Can you promise me that?"

Nora blinked once, and then he looked down again. Not to well up in his guilt, but to ponder about Zein’s question. It took him a while, and Zein waited patiently. In the end, he lifted his face and shook his head. "I won’t," he said, to Zein’s surprise. "There’s no use for words between end-dwellers isn’t it? I’ll just show you."

Zein curled his lips behind the mask. "What do you plan to do?"

"I’ll just try applying to a Center somewhere, I think. In the lower zone, maybe, they won’t reject a C-class guide," Nora shrugged. It seemed like he had already thought about the worst outcome. Well, one could only plan the next step while they were confined for days in this place. "And if they do reject me...well, perhaps the borderland Isn’t that bad?" _{freēwēbnovel.com}

Nora laughed wryly, but there was a firmness in his eyes that told Zein the man might really take that step if nothing else worked. Perhaps as some kind of atonement. Zein swallowed his sigh and straightened his back. "If you are prepared to go that far..."

Nora frowned slightly as he caught the glint in the blue eyes. It wasn’t the ’tame’ gaze Zein had these days as his life was starting to be filled with happiness. It was the eyes of the red-zone dwellers.

"Is there something you want me to do?" Nora asked immediately. "Say it, I’ll do it."

"It might put you in trouble," Zein said flatly, which prompted Nora to chuckle.

"You said that when I always put you in trouble?"

Zein let out a chuckle on his own. He took something from his pocket and put it in the middle of the table between them. "Here,"

"What is...this?" Nora took the small paper, where an address, a name, and a date were written. As he read the content of the paper, his eyes started to widen.

"You can go there, I’ve talked to the one in charge," Zein told the man.