There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 425

Chapter 425: Chapter 418. The Future Saintess

"Oh, I know that! I watched that once in a movie when I was still in the orphanage," Elena clapped her hands. "I’ve never seen one directly, though."

Zein chuckled and raised his upper body too, careful to cradle the sleeping white rabbit in his arm first. "Wouldn’t it be bad if you saw one directly?"

"Oh, you’re right!"

Elena laughed and took Cloudy from Zein’s arm, cradling the white rabbit gently and rocking it like a baby. Zein took a candy from his pocket, and suddenly remembered the little girl he saw on the bus the first time he visited Althrea. That was his first time seeing a child laughing that cheerfully, and looking at Elena now, he was filled with hope that the orphanage that he built would help those children laugh like this too.

"Elena..."

"Mm?"

"Are you going to be the Saintess?"

Elena tilted her head in confusion at first, because...of course she would? But then she recalled Zein’s conversation with the Saintess, that she could refuse to be one if she didn’t want to, just like Zein. Just like Zein’s ancestor.

"Hmm...yes, I don’t see why not," she replied after mulling about it for a while. Her tone was light, but Zein could see it wasn’t an answer that came without any thought behind it. "You see...I’ve been watching Grandma work all this time. Do you know she checks on orphanage reports regularly?"

"Is that so?"

"Mm!" Elena nodded and continued with solemn excitement. "You see, if I become the Saintess, I’ll have the authority to watch over the orphanage too! I can easily trace where the kids who used to be with me back then go. I will be able to see where the younger kids go too--and, and...if they awakened, I can bring them under my wings!"

She spoke with a wide smile and a pair of sparkling eyes. The orphanage where she came from was filled with kids who were rescued from shady places like the slum; kids of guides who were not so lucky to be rescued on time. Sometimes, there were also kids whose guide parents couldn’t take care of them--mainly from the mental burden of guiding.

In other words; some of them would end up as guides.

Elena did not have outrageous goals or great expectations. She just wanted to have the power to help those who she held dear. It was an innocent wish, which interestingly, wasn’t so different than Zein’s--even if they would use a different path to achieve it.

"That’s nice," Zein nodded in agreement while savoring the candy that somehow tasted sweeter this afternoon.

"Umm..." Elena peeked at Zein and suddenly scooted closer. She leaned slightly and lowered her voice to a whisper. "This is a secret, but...I have...I kind of want to do this Saintess thing differently."

Zein raised his brow and tilted his head, whispering back. "Like what?"

"Like...I don’t want to only stay here," she glanced at the inner garden and the door, before lowering her voice even more. Thankfully, Zein could enhance his hearing with mana to catch her words. "I want to go around, you know? Like what you and the other priests do in the outpost?"

Oh? Zein looked at the girl amusedly, who continued to whisper her future plan with suppressed excitement. "I think only guiding in the Temple would be too boring, no? Shouldn’t we go to places with outbreaks or where guides are rare? That way..." she suddenly giggled and this time, whispered directly in Zein’s ear. "I can also visit many places with the Temple’s money."

Zein pressed his lips to stifle a laugh. He looked at Elena’s widely grinning face which resembled the Goddess’s cheeky expressions very much.

"Do you think...do you think Lady Frejya would mind?"

Ruffling the girl’s soft curl, Zein smiled gently and gave her a confident answer. "I don’t think so," he said. "Why don’t you tell her about it the next time you talk to her? Except for the ’using Tempe’s money’ part."

Elena giggled and covered her mouth like a naughty girl getting caught saying something bad.

Hmm...yes; whatever her motivation was, Zein thought that a Saint or Saintess should be like this. To confine themselves in a safe place wasn’t Zein’s style--at least, not when there were still places where he could be useful.

"...ah," Zein rubbed his lower face.

"Hmm? What is it?"

To be where he was useful...

Zein felt his lips curled. How funny; he used to think he did everything for survival. Since when...when did he start to think that this was a duty? a responsibility?

Was it since he found his ’family’ again? Or...

No. That contributed as a reason too, but the biggest one was simpler;

He used his guiding as a means of survival before. Then the reason it changed was easy; because he was no longer only thinking about survival. Survival was important, but now he could survive even if he stopped guiding.

Because he was safe now.

He felt safe.

"Zein?"

"Ah, sorry. It’s nothing," he shook his head. "I just realized I had changed."