There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 413

Chapter 413: Chapter 405. Climbing Out of the Well

Around dinner time, when Bassena was about to ask Zein what the guide wanted to eat, their commlink rang.

A series of text messages with colorful chat bubbles and full of emoticons came up on the screen. Just by looking at it, they knew it was Reina--or probably Han Shin using his fiancee’s account. Before they could look at the message, however, the door to the executive lounge they were in opened.

Radia walked inside, and Senia flinched for no reason but unexplainable wariness. Perhaps it was those unreadable crimson eyes. "Hmm? You’re done with the test?"

"More or less," Zein turned on his chair to look at the summoner who was still in his three-piece suit. "I didn’t know you were still here."

"I just got back from Mortix," Radia approached the small table where his secretary was making him a cup of tea. "Reina said she finished the new version of the guide uniform, so she said she’ll come to let you see it."

Huh...was that what those messages were about?

"And you want to do quality control while at it?"

"Save time," Radia shrugged before accepting the cup given by Nyx, to which Zein responded with a chuckle.

Zein looked at his commlink and finally read the incoming messages; seemed like she was sending it to all three of them. The top message was asking where they were, but it was followed immediately with a statement saying she knew they were still in the office--probably from Han Shin. And so she told them to stay where they were, and then asked what dinner they should have while inspecting the uniform later.

"What a storm-like girl," Zein shook his head. "You decide the menu, Bas."

Bassena hummed and obediently started to text Reina back with a cheerful smile, and then Zein added. "Hers too," the guide pointed at Senia with his chin, before standing up to approach Radia.

Immediately, the smile vanished from Bassena’s lips. He might become less hostile toward the girl, but it didn’t mean he could just shed his annoyance. Aside from the fact that Senia used to be Varion’s people, he was also displeased with the prospect of sharing Zein with yet another esper.

Still, Zein told him to, so he looked at the girl who had been quiet after being told off by Zein earlier. But Senia wasn’t looking at him; she was looking at Zein and Radia with a dumbfounded expression.

"You’re...uh...still working?" the girl asked with a dazed tone, as if the concept of working overtime was so foreign to her.

And indeed, it was. She only raided dungeons on her own terms, and she recalled that Varion hated it if he was getting a call after work hours, and would send his aides to deal with it instead. She certainly didn’t think a young master of an Old House would still working until the evening.

Actually, she didn’t even realize she had been staying here until evening...

"I have a whole group and guild to take care of," the summoner simply replied before sipping on his tea.

"Oh..."

Radia observed the girl that got back to sit quietly, except for the time Bassena asked her what she wanted to eat for dinner, and they kind of started bickering quietly through hisses and glares--as if they didn’t want Zein to know.

The summoner chuckled and cocked his chin toward the couch. "It doesn’t even take you a day, huh?"

"The higher someone’s rank is, the more they should realize the value of a guide," Zein grabbed a bottled water from the table, drinking it while glancing at Senia. "She just needed to be shown that value."

Radia smiled in agreement. It was truly comical that people thought the guides in the Temple were worthy enough to be paid an exorbitant amount, while at the same time treating the rest of the guides like an afterthought, although they functioned the same.

The reason was simple though--it was because those staying in the Temple had the backup of the Goddess. So it was merely a matter of espers thinking they could act superior in front of people without any backing, because then...there wouldn’t be any consequences.

But giving the guides a backup wasn’t the solution--well, it wasn’t the optimal solution. As long as the espers only saw guides as a tool--just like Senia this afternoon--things would only change on the surface.

That value...yes, it was the view that needed to be changed. Including the guides’ own view that they were an inferior being to the espers.

It was hard though; both Zein and Radia knew this. So, at the very least, they would become the power behind the guides that worked for them. The guide institutes also needed to start teaching the guides to stop lowering their own value, and that was what Zein wanted to do in the academy he was going to make.

Still, the biggest issue was probably the crime around using guides as commodities.

Zein let out a long sigh as the problem seemed to be endless. Perhaps if he didn’t have this huge mission in front of him, he could dedicate himself to trying and fix those problems. Too bad.

"Are you going to have dinner here too?" Bassena approached Zein and Radia while tapping on his commlink--seemed like he had finished the fierce discussion about the menu with Senia.

"Already ordered some," Radia told him. "How’s she?"

Bassena pressed send on his message and twisted his lips. "Are we seriously going to take her in? She’s--"

"She knew nothing about what Varion did to Zein," Radia said, knowing full well what issue was causing this bitter sentiment. "She entered a closed-door training right after the announcement of Celestia’s loss."

Bassena frowned slightly. "To...vent?"

"Probably," Radia shrugged.

"Sounds familiar," Zein chuckled and glanced at Bassena.

There were only two months on their calendar. _{frёeweɓηovel.coɱ}