There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 286

Chapter 286: Chapter 278. Invitation

Zein had never seen someone look so happy and miserable at the same time.

He had no idea what it felt like, to fall in love with someone for decades, falling so deep that even with all the fighting and separation, that feeling did not wane. In a sense, he was envious; to have that much faith in one’s own feeling that even misery couldn’t erase it.

But he certainly did not envy the way those two went about their relationship.

Zein sighed as he let go of the summoner’s hand. Why did he have to get stressed over someone else’s relationship anyway?

"Just so you know, you should never use us as a model," Radia said with a chuckle, taking out another stick of golden needle and putting it in his mouth. "Even I know how messy we are."

"I do think I can take some points," Zein shrugged, standing up to take a bottle of water from Radia’s mini fridge.

"Like what?"

"Like not acting like the both of you," Zein answered cheekily, smirking as he cracked the bottle open.

"Pfft--quite right," Radia lit up the golden needle and took a long drag, leaning back to let the mana smoke swirl inside his system. "Well, Bassena is too pure for that. He’s not deceptive enough to act like me, let alone Joon," he looked at the guide with a fond smile; a brother smile. "He only knows one way to love someone, and that is to do it sincerely."

"I know that," Zein muttered. Bassena never hid his feelings, the man couldn’t try even if he wanted to. Everything shown on his face; the affection, the jealousy.

Sometimes Zein was envious of that. He wanted to be able to firmly express his feelings too. He wanted to be brave enough to keep no secrets from his partner.

Sighing, he tapped on the top of the mini-fridge. The mini fridge was located beside a window, and he could look at the guild compound, all the way to the aircraft hangar. He was just there earlier, bidding goodbye to Bassena who begrudgingly had to fly for his talk show or whatever. Zein chuckled inwardly at the memory of the pursing lips and the frowning brows.

"Speaking about him, is there anything fishy about the black gate?" Zein turned around and leaned on the window sill.

"It’s an anomaly, alright," Radia opened his commlink, and after moving his fingers for a while, sent a compressed file to the guide. "But so far, we haven’t found any connection between the dungeon and the cult."

Certainly, a red gate in the middle of a green-zone city was already enough to raise concern. But for it to turn into a black gate instantly after a scouting team came inside was technically a national crisis. Should that gate break, it wasn’t just a matter of safety--it was a matter of faith. The green-zone should be the safest place there was outside the safe zone, so if it were to be overrun by an outbreak...it would result in mass panic across the continent.

And that kind of thing seemed to be in line with terrorism efforts.

"That being said, if that cult is behind this, they will most likely make it known that it was theirs--that’s how terrorism operates," Radia continued.

And yet, there was no sign of those people’s involvement to this day. In the end, it was concluded as a regular anomaly, and Bassena received his achievement medal as well as getting bumped up in ranking to the top five in the Eastern Federation.

"Hmm..." Zein exhaled heavily, recalling the dreadful feeling of that day waiting for Bassena. "So it’s just a coincidence?"

"It could be a warning, just like the instantaneous dungeon break," Radia shrugged. "It could also be that whatever force made it happen felt like the human cult was too...unreliable," he smirked.

"Ah..."

Seeing how badly they screwed up during the conference, the force of the Deathzone probably felt like it would be no difference if they just did it themselves. Although they still couldn’t be sure if the black gate last week was caused by the force of the Deathzone, the sheer fact that such high high-ranking gate should never get spawned inside the green-zone was fishy enough.

"Well, we’ll only know after we manage to crack them down," Radia sighed, letting out a smoke between his lips.

"You haven’t?"

"No," he shook his head. "Not me, not the association. And we can’t spare any more resources that way."

"Right," Zein nodded in understanding. While the cult was important, their priority right now was to secure the reclamation project. "Ah, the Goddess said I have to go back there before we ’march to the East’,"

"...huh," Radia, who was about to get up from the sofa, paused his movement and a second later, just sat back while blinking at Zein dazedly.

"That’s a good sign, right?"

"You only say that to me now?" Radia looked at the guide incredulously, as if he wanted to demand compensation for all the tension he felt these days.

Zein just curled his lips and asked again. "Why do you think she wants me to go there again? I already rejected the candidacy..."

"How would I know," Radia scoffed, clearly feeling petty about the fact that Zein forgot to tell him that one crucial piece of information. "I just hoped it’s not to forcefully make you stay there."