There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 340

Chapter 340: Chapter 332. Ropes

"What is the last memory you have?" Zein asked the esper.

Varion immediately became defensive. "Why would I tell you that?"

Zein raised his hand and Varion winced in reflex, flinching back slightly. The esper stopped when he heard someone scoff and in embarrassment, realized that the guide wasn’t about to hit him. Zein tapped his commlink, and the screen appeared in front of Varion.

On that screen, Varion could see himself mumbling something that couldn’t be caught by the commlink’s audio system. But it was clear enough that he didn’t look like himself, with eyes that sometimes moved wildly and sometimes became void. He was restrained with a chaining spell, but he wasn’t moving in the first place; shoulder dropped and limbs slacked.

That was...him? Varion watched the recording with widened eyes.

As if answering his unworded question, the guide spoke. "This is you when you were brought here," Zein let Varion digest his words for a few seconds before grabbing the esper’s hair and forcing the man’s head to turn toward the small puddle of black liquid on the floor.

Varion belatedly realized that it was the substance he vomited when he came to, just before he received the first slap.

"And that is the cause."

"...what?" Varion looked at the guide incredulously. What kind of nonsense was that? In the first place...what was that black substance?

Zein let go of the hair and grasped the man’s jaw with a crushing grip. "That’s what made you act like you lost your mind, a malice in your brain," he spoke flatly, like someone simply reading the news. "You’ll probably lose yourself completely by tomorrow and...well, you wouldn’t die, but you’d never wake up again."

"Lies!"

"No, we already have someone experiencing that," Zein said coldly; his heart felt heavy for the researchers who got afflicted by the Specter’s core. One of them still hadn’t woke up, the brain completely corroded by miasma.

Over in the ’seating area’, Darleon turned toward Radia with eyes open wide. "Is...is that true?"

"Yes," Radia answered briefly, a layer of grimness could be heard in his voice.

"Aren’t you lucky that you have someone to heal you before it’s too late?" Han Shin sneered; the mockery and anger were palpable in his tone.

Varion blinked repeatedly as he stared at the guide in front of him, beautiful and cold, rough and merciful. The sharp, melodious voice spoke again. "You’ve been influenced for quite some time, but whatever put you in this state must have been recently inflicted, so I’ll ask you again," the blue eyes glint in piercing light. "What is your last memory?"

Varion pressed his lips and closed his eyes, brows furrowed deeply as he fell into deep contemplation. But he wasn’t given time to manage his mind, since he heard his father’s voice.

"Rion, please cooperate," Darleon spoke softly, the voice of a desperate father. The old man gripped his armrests tight, two summoned phantoms still standing guard behind him. "They won’t help you. They already set on killing you, son, cutting their tail loose," the old man said further, trying to convince his son. "They knew their agents were already compromised, but would never speak about the clan, so...the next liability is you."

"Unfortunately, you are a bit more famous than their dogs, so they had to do some elaborate tricks to end you," Bassena added, making sure the fact shoved deep inside Varion’s head. "So fess up quickly why don’t you; I’m losing patience here."

Having Bassena Vaski say he was losing patience was honestly scary, even for someone as arrogant as Varion. But still, deep inside, there was a part of him who wanted to believe that it wasn’t the clan who did it to him, that everything was a ploy made by Radia Mallarc and this guide as revenge. Then...then he could hope that they would save him.

What caused such hope was his pride. His pride couldn’t accept that after everything that he did, after running around doing what the clan wanted him to do, after years of hanging by the opportunity to be a part of an Old House...his pride couldn’t accept that everything was for naught. That it could be erased just because of a single failure.

Varion couldn’t see how ironic his train of thought was, seeing he was the type to fire his people for something as simple as failing to book him a flight. But it couldn’t be helped, since there was too much on his mind right now. His heart couldn’t help but reach out for denial.

"It can’t be...I...I am his grandson..."

Darleon clenched his jaw and took a deep, regretful breath. He looked at the summoner beside him, pleading wordlessly. Fortunately, this time, Radia permitted him. Darleon immediately crossed the room to reach his son.