There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Chapter 2. The Red of the Bloody Road

"Why is there an Umbra's dog here?"

An agitated shout reverberated through the hill, pulling people's attention towards the guiding tent.

Zen, in the middle of walking out of the tent to take a breather, paused to look at the source of the voice. It had been a while since someone called him Umbra's dog, not since the guild raised to be one of the rulers of the red-zone.

He had expected to see someone he knew, probably one of the people who lived under the guild's oppression—which were a lot, honestly. But he didn't know this man, who looked like an Esper from the red-zone. Since all the guilds here were almost as shady as Umbra, Zen could only infer that he came from a mercenary group. One which wasn't Alma's.

Zen glanced at the mercenary guide who sat in the corner. She flinched at Zen's gaze, and he knew which group the agitated man came from.

"Fuck! Are you ignoring me?!" the man stepped even closer, stomping his feet on the ground as he walked. "What are you doing here, you piece of shit?"

Zen threw him a look. The man definitely tried to be intimidating, stomping his feet while his spear raised menacingly, as if he wanted to skewer Zen instead of the miasmic beasts.

How cute.

"Guiding, obviously," Zen answered nonchalantly, looking at the man straight in the eyes. He tried to remember who this man was, but he just couldn't. Zen wasn't good with putting names on faces in the first place, and he would only remember people that interacted often with him.

The man stopped a few steps in front of him, glaring. He was still young, probably no older than Zen. His gestures showed how he wanted to assert dominance, but it was quite hard since Zen wasn't small to begin with, even slightly taller than the Esper.

And the blue eyes were as deep as ever, unwavering.

The man frowned and then scoffed, before spitting out curses. "You dare to act as if you're helping people? It's your group that caused this mess in the first place!"

At this point, people have already trained their attention to them. The espers that were resting, the wounded people from the other tent, the agency workers fleeting about, the residents huddled together in the corner...they looked at the commotion caused by the loud shouting.

Perhaps still unsatisfied, the Esper spit out harshly again. "You Umbra's dog!"

Hmm, yeah, Zen still had no idea who this person was, but the man seemed to bore a deep grudge against the guild.

It wasn't Zen's first time receiving hate from his association with Umbra, so he just sighed inwardly, wondering what should he do or say to this.

But before Zen could retort, a loud, booming voice already cut at them. "Hey you brat, shut your mouth! Zen is no longer a part of Umbra, so get off!"

This loud voice that carried power was accompanied by glaring green eyes. The man frowned furiously and seemed to want to retort, but flinched when he saw Alma's hulking body walking at them. Soon, her tall, bulky figure loomed over them, way more menacing than the man ever dreamed to be.

"Alma..."

"Why are you defending him? You know who caused this mess!" the man took a step back, but not before shouting again. "Because of this, the leader's wife is—"

"I know! And I told you it's not him. He's not part of Umbra anymore!"

"But he used to be!" the man was adamant, and his voice just seemed to be getting higher. "That means he's just as scummy as them. He's just a rotten bastard but what? People are praising him and want to recruit him?" the man glared at Zen again and spat on the ground.

Zen narrowed his eyes; he wasn't sure anymore whether this man had beef with him or just...envious. But while he was just curious, Alma was seething. Her thunderous voice dipped low, meaning she was really angry.

"Hey, brat," she stepped between Zen and the man, green eyes piercing like daggers. "How long have you been living here? A year? What do you know about Zen, huh? What do you even know about us?"

"Hey, what is this?" a man in his late thirties suddenly came from behind the young esper. Zen vaguely remembered him as the vice-leader of one of the mercenary groups. It seemed like they belong to the same group, then.

Zen sighed. He hated it if things got escalated.

"Lamun," Alma shifted his gaze to the older man, still with sharp and annoyed eyes. "We give you a place to set up your group here because we thought you're a fun guy," she narrowed her eyes, and the man called Lamun sighed. "It surely not for your kids running around spouting bullshit."

"Alma, I'm sure he's not—"

"You brat," Alma ignored the older man and looked at the younger one again. "I heard about your blabbering before, all that stupid thing about setting the red-zone straight," she laughed mockingly. "You feel superior huh, coming here from a higher zone? You feel you are better than us? A fledgling that had only lived here for a year?"

Hmm...Zen tilted his head. Ah, now he knew why he couldn't recognize this man. He heard about a new group that settled in the red-zone last year. He heard they were funded by a charity foundation or something, to help the area become safer. The members obviously came from the safer zone, and most of them seemed to have this messiah complex.

Honestly, though, nothing had changed even after that. One group wouldn't be able to contend with Umbra and other rogue guilds, and there were already established mercenary groups that operated there and kept the place as safe as it could get. Perhaps that was why some of the members became quite a prick, carrying out a holier-than-thou attitude.

Well, anyone who came from outside the red-zone would feel like that after seeing the hell hole that is the red-zone. Throughout his twenty-four years of life, Zen had witnessed these kinds of people and organizations come and go in the red-zone where he lived. Thinking they'd make a change, but ended up in despair.

'I don't have time for this,' Zen shook his head and walked away, with Alma's voice still resounding on the hill.

"Hey, Lamun, do yourself a favor and educate your kids, mm?" she crossed her hand in front of her chest, her auburn hair dancing menacingly. "Tell them to stop assuming things about us red-dwellers. We're not living in a simple black and white like you privileged people are."

The younger esper frowned, but Lamun patted the man's shoulder and tried to appease the annoyed Alma. "I get it, I get it, so calm yourself. As you said, he's just a kid, so there are still a lot of things he needs to learn. I'm sorry, okay?"

Alma scoffed, and replied with a mocking tone. "It's not you who should apologize, and it's not me who should receive the apology."

"But the Guide is gone," Lamun smiled awkwardly.