There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 332

Chapter 332: Chapter 324. Wavering Pillar

"He just does everything, doesn’t he?" Zein glanced at Radia, who was printing the contract he drafted for Darleon so the Iron Shield could peruse them and see if there was something they wanted to change.

"He always does," Bassena shrugged. "The only thing he couldn’t do much about is anything about Joon."

Zein turned to face Bassena with a smirk. "Now that you know, you can’t stop talking about it, huh?"

Bassena groaned slightly, burying his face in his palm. "I can’t believe I couldn’t see it!" he grumbled. "Now that I know, I feel like I should have known, especially back in the day."

Although he knew Radia and Joon spent a lot of time together, often having a sleepover, he didn’t think much about it. Well, there was also the fact that he was only a naive teenager obsessed with getting stronger, but...to think he also couldn’t catch it after becoming an adult.

"Have they been acting that well in public?" Zein asked. "I really couldn’t figure out why they needed to act like they were nemesis in front of others."

"I know, right? It’s weird," Bassena rubbed his chin. "I mean...Radia was angry, so I used to think it was natural for him to act coldly at Joon every time they crossed paths. But..."

"Joon didn’t have to?"

"Yeah," the esper nodded. "You would think someone whose neck was getting sliced would feel angrier, but I saw it, although it was brief," Bassena narrowed his eyes a bit as he tried to look at his memory. "He was smiling."

"...that is...creepy?" Zein grimaced, unconsciously rubbing his neck. His mind wandered to the scar across the soldier’s neck, and then recalling the man’s core. "But for some reason, I feel like it’s so him."

Bassena chuckled in agreement, before sighing. "Anyway, Joon never showed that he was angry or anything, but for some reason, he played into the ploy as if they were an enemy—you know, countering Radia’s banter with coldness," the amber eyes dimmed, and the esper’s tone turning low; sad and regretful. "I thought it was really bad back then, and I believed there was no hope for them to have a good relationship anymore. Radia never talked about making a guild with us again, and I had no courage to even mention it since he turned really scary if I did."

Zein pressed his lips, hiding the chuckle he wanted to make. Bassena looked like a child caught up between his parents’ divorce, and it was quite funny—not the divorce thing, but the fact that the ’parents’ were only five and six years older than him.

And then, the regret turned into irritation. "But now that I know they are together, what is this? What’s all my sadness for? This feels like a betrayal!"

"To be fair, I don’t think they’re exactly together," Zein couldn’t hide his chuckle anymore this time. He patted the confused esper and looked at Radia with a sigh. "I don’t know what happened with them, but...while they loved each other, Joon said they can’t be together yet."

"Wait...you talked to Joon about this?" Bassena looked even more betrayed now.

"I’m curious," Zein shrugged.

He contemplated whether he could tell Bassena about what Joon told him before. But he didn’t remember the soldier telling him it was a secret exactly, and now that Bassena knew about those two, what difference would it make?

"He told me that he entered the military so they could be together in the future," Zein said quietly, glancing at Radia across the room. "I think he tried to protect Radia from something, but I don’t know what."

The low, solemn tone that Zein used piqued the esper’s interest. He lowered his head and whispered his response. "Do you think there’s a connection between that and his disappearance?"

"That’s what I think," Zein nodded. "But from the way Han Joon keeps it from Radia, I don’t think we can share this."

The amber eyes narrowed, and it was clear that Bassena felt conflicted about it. Zein understood though; for Bassena, Joon and Radia were his older brothers, the family he didn’t have. So thinking that one of them—or probably both—was in danger...it would weigh his heart.

"But if it looks like it steers into dangerous territory in the future, we’ll tell him," Zein added. Bassena still looked like he swallowed a whole sweet potato, but the esper nodded in the end.

"Let’s hope that’s not the case," Bassena sighed, just in time because Radia had finished his talk with Senan regarding the contract.

Zein should be reading them too, but the content was too technical for him to understand fully, especially the part about payout and whatnot. He just let Senan and the Elder gramps peruse it and told him what they were thinking.

"Why do you look so gloomy suddenly?" The couple walked back to where Radia and Senan were, and the summoner tilted his head at Bassena’s expression. "You’re already pessimistic or something?"

Bassena opened his mouth, but he felt like he would blurt out what Zein told him earlier if he said anything, so he just closed it again and shrugged, averting the crimson gaze by hiding behind his guide. Zein held back from laughing and decided to give the esper a bit of leeway.

"Would you like to meet Arlo?" Zein asked Senan. "Bas can take you to him."

"Oh, would that be alright?"

"Yes, let’s go. He should be in the arena right now," Bassena nodded and walked away before Senan could even say anything in response. But the middle-aged man followed the esper after looking at Zein’s subtle smile, leaving the guide alone with Radia.

Radia crossed his arms, crimson eyes narrowed. "He acts so well in front of the camera, but otherwise..."

"He can’t lie in front of people he cares about," Zein chuckled. "Adorable, isn’t he?"

"Ugh," Radia rolled his eyes and walked back to his desk, taking out a new golden needle box and opening it, only for Zein to push his hand down, closing the lid.

Right—Zein remembered that the man was also Shin’s horrible father.