There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 481

Chapter 481: Chapter 474. Fragmented Memory

"Are you sure you don’t need another guiding?" Zein asked for the third time as he walked Ron to the edge of their base’s safe zone--two hundred meters away from the stadium complex’s ruined gate.

"I shouldn’t get too used to your guiding now," Ron shrugged. "I won’t be able to get it so frequently again, after all."

"Hah..." Zein chuckled and stared at the darkness beyond the safe zone. "Be careful on the way."

Sure, if the scout followed the original path, he wouldn’t encounter a lot of beasts--perhaps even none, since the brigade and Senia had just passed the route. That being said, he would be alone, and if he were to be ambushed...

"Who are you talking to?" the scout raised his brow. "Don’t tell me spending time with elites made you forget who I am."

Zein blinked twice before smiling. Right--Ron was a four-star esper; the best pathfinder the Borderland had for the past five years, with one of the greatest stealth abilities utilizing shadow. Outside, it might have a lot of limits, but in the Deathzone...he could hide everywhere.

"Here you go," Bassena handed over a sealed box containing the physical copy of the operation’s recording so far. "Thanks again."

Ron put the box securely inside his coat and looked at Zein wordlessly for a few seconds. "Hey, about that team you’re going to--"

"No," Zein cut the scout sharply. Ron raised his brow, and the guide shook his head. "I already owed you and Agni too much. Just go back and get laid or something."

"Hah!" Ron scoffed and laughed right after. "Well, you’re the boss anyway."

"Mm," Zein nodded and crossed his arms, as if banning Ron from involving himself further in danger.

The scout didn’t waste more time and bid him goodbye. Unless something unexpected happened, they would only meet again when Zein went to the Borderland, or if the Agni finally made his move inside the Deathzone--meaning, the attack was in full force.

That was, when both of them were still breathing at that time.

But just like last year, they didn’t have long goodbyes, nor a sappy one. In a way, it was as if saying they would meet again soon, so there was no need to act like the goodbye was forever.

Watching the scouts disappear into the darkness of the ruin, Zein let out a scoff. "He always said the Captain is too much of a battle frenzy, but..."

"Only another battle frenzy can accept a battle frenzy in their life," Bassena chuckled. "Especially if they are in such a long relationship already."

"Or he just bored," Zein shook his head and chuckled, turning around to return to the stadium. "There’s only so much you can do in the Borderland."

"True," Bassena laughed. But that was why Ron could fit in their squad well, despite it being filled with people who always jump headlong into a battlefield.

Honestly, that was why Bassena wanted to recruit the scout too at first. Too bad; he was already bound by another contract--one made with his heart, and utterly unshakable.

"Alright," Zein stretched his arms a bit before quickening his pace. "Let’s go find Senan and we’ll talk about the vision."

* * *

Among everyone joining the Operation, the ones who knew that Zein was the fragment of Setnath were only Bassena, Han Shin, and the members of the Iron Brigade.

The rest of them thought that Zein’s power to subdue the Fallen Star’s fragment came from Frejya’s blessing--since he was Her Saint candidate and all--and Zein intended to keep it that way. At least, until the day came when he could unite all of the shards into one complete fragment, no one needed to know the truth.

And so, for this meeting, there were only Zein, Bassena, and Senan inside the Commander’s personal tent. Han Shin was out there babysitting Zein’s kids--or they were probably the ones babysitting Shin, who knows. It would be ideal if they could have a video call with Radia, but unfortunately, the Guildmaster was not in the borderland headquarters as of now.

"The Fallen Star’s fragment..." Senan massaged the bridge of his nose, holding back the sigh that wanted to jump out of his lungs. "Do you think there will be a lot of them?"

"I hope there will be lots," Zein said, to Senan’s surprise. "We need to take away the Fallen Star’s power as much as we can before facing it."

"Ah..." the middle-aged man nodded. "Young Master, when you said vision, could it be you were talking about the fragment’s memories?"

Zein nodded--well, all visions had always been fragments of memories, since it was a part of an entity’s existence. Except for the Scepter’s core, which wasn’t a fragment in the first place.

"Did you see something about the Fallen Star itself?" Bassena asked while placing a tray of coffee cups in the middle of the table.