There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 419

Chapter 419: Chapter 412. Somewhere Closer

The first time Zein came to the Temple of Frejya, he was whisked away instantly to the Sanctuary. This time, he had to use the normal channel.

Although they were using a private jet, they still had to make a transit in one of Northern Alliance’s cities, before flying again toward the safe-zone. Zein finally used his passport, and funnily enough, this small tidbit made it feel like he was there on vacation.

When they arrived at the safe-zone, a group of priests were already there to welcome them. Zein managed to remember one of them; one of the Templars; the same one who took him away from the street of Althrea right to the Sanctuary. Different from the flat-albeit polite--expression the man showed before, there was a smile on his face this time as he led Zein and Bassena to the car they had prepared.

Zein had gone through the scenery before, but perhaps because he was too concerned about Bassena at that time--and busy guiding the esper too--he didn’t observe the view much.

Ah...a safe-zone is a safe-zone. Just breathing the clean air made him feel like all the misery in the outside world like a fantasy. Perhaps this was why people who lived in the Temple were so...out of touch; like they didn’t believe there was something bad happening in this world outside of their bubble.

Not that Zein would accept it as an excuse.

His demand of making a rescue brigade and a sanctuary for those being rescued did not just come from fantasy. It was what the Temple of Frejya had been doing, although the orphanage and the asylum itself weren’t in the safe-zone. Still, they built and managed many safe houses all over the Northern Alliance, and employed a clan to act as the rescue brigade and protector--just like how House Ishtera used to do before the whole betrayal.

If it wasn’t for that, Zein wouldn’t have come here, even if the Goddess called him.

"It’s so peaceful," Zein muttered as the car drove through the only road connecting the airport and the Temple. "It’s too bad that others can’t enjoy it."

"If others could, then it won’t be peaceful anymore," Bassena replied with a cynical laugh. "You already know who will flock to have their residence here; what kind of people."

Zein chuckled. Yeah, he knew. It wouldn’t be people who really needed it.

It was hard, in the first place, to determine who could live there. People would keep on being envious of those who could live there, whether it was determined by wealth, by merit, or even by pity. In the end, it would become a source of conflict again.

How could they call it a safe-zone, then?

"I wonder..."

"Hmm?"

Zein leaned back and looked at a distant future. "I wonder; if we manage to collect all of the shards and create a fragment, would it become a safe-zone without any deity power to manifest?"

"Ah..."

Bassena looked at Zein in awkward confusion. There was no way he had an answer when Zein was the one who knew more about the shards between the two of them. But that guilty feeling of not knowing the answer eased the esper’s tense expression for a little bit.

Zein smiled and patted the bronze’s cheek. "Are you that nervous?"

Bassena looked down at a black marble he had been unconsciously playing between his fingers. "Kind of..." he bit the inside of his cheek. "I don’t know how long I would be staying there, or what kind of things I would face."

If Zein was there to answer the Goddess’s request of going back there before the reclamation project was underway, Bassena was there because he needed a safe space for his training.

The black marble in his hand was some kind of dimensional pocket imitating the Tower with a different time flow. The marble, however, wasn’t an indestructible object; if it got destroyed somehow, Bassena would be dead along with it.

Meaning, it was the most vulnerable Bassena would ever be.

And where else could he find a more secure place than a Temple’s inner sanctuary?

"What are you worried about?" Zein tilted his head.

"Well, I’m going to do the trial again, basically--but that’s not what makes it hard."

"What then?"

Bassena glanced at Zein and smiled wryly. "Because I don’t know how long it would take," he took Zein’s hand and fiddled with the guide’s fingers. "I don’t know how long I would be able to hold on without seeing you."

"Don’t be so dramatic," Zein chuckled.