There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 537

Chapter 537: Chapter 530. Call of the Wind

It had been more than a year since they found the gorge separating the Castle area from the plains. The bridge was already finished, and it even had a lift function to break off the way in an emergency. Rather than crossing the plains and conquering it, however, they preferred to sail through the river and tried to see if it really connected to the sea.

For that, Mortix had been building a ship for the past year.

And no--of course they couldn’t just use an already available ship that wasn’t meant to withstand the Deathzone’s harsh condition. They had to design it from scratch to maximize protection and resilience, using the data about the fragments and the shards to create the best materials.

They also had to make sure it wasn’t too big to move swiftly, but still sufficient to sail the sea if there really was one. Above all else, it would need to be equipped with enough weapons and support, including a railgun, a wide area radar, and three kinds of communication devices.

And, as a bonus, Radia had to use his family’s dimensional storage bo--one of the only three dimensional storages with that large of space in the continent--to move the ship from Mortix’s warehouse to the Deathzone, with two squads of House Mallarc’s agents as a bodyguard for said box.

The ’unboxing’ process was, naturally, nothing short of a spectacle. Those who had no guard duty came to see it, even if they had to walk on their own through the underground tunnel.

Except for Han Shin, who begged Bassena on his knees to teleport him.

Not even a supership could break his oath to never step foot inside the underground tunnel again.

"Ooh! She’s not very big, but isn’t she a beauty?" Han Shin whistled once the agents took the ship out of the dimensional storage.

As Han Shin said, the ship wasn’t very big; only around fifty meters long. But it was sleek and strong, with gun turrets and a tinted command cabin. Four purification devices were installed inside the ship, not to create a barrier, but to generate fuel by recycling the miasma into mana.

"We can’t make her too big, since she should be able to turn around in the river itself," one of the agents that House Mallac sent, Egar, approached the espers.

Bassena shook the agent’s hand, who would assume the position of the ship’s Captain. "How many people can embark?"

"I’ll take five of my own to man the ship, so there’ll be room for twelve more."

"Understood. Please continue," Bassena nodded, and the Captain returned to finish deploying the ship into the water.

Eastern Federation did not see a lot of sea, or used much of their river for transportation. For anyone coming from there, the view was fascinating. They watched the ship getting slid carefully into the water while having a picnic on the cliff.

"Whoa...I thought it’d be bulky and ugly like a warship, but this kind of looks like a yacht, isn’t it?" Senia sounded uncharacteristically cheerful; eyes bright and face full of smile.

"Do you like it?" Bassena asked the girl.

"Well, of course?"

"Good," Bassena nodded, before adding nonchalantly while patting the girl’s back. "Because you’ll be living there from now on."

Senia paused and parted her lips dumbfoundedly before letting out a hiccup. "...me?"

"Yes, you," Bassena smirked--still patting the girl’s back. And no--he didn’t do it because he wanted to get rid of Senia or anything. "The ship would be more or less stationary in the river while getting attacked. We need someone who can attack from a distance like you."

"Oh..." Senia patted his cheeks to hide her grin. "’kay..."

"Don’t worry, I won’t send you out alone," Bassena chuckled. Naoya would come back soon from the Tower, and no one doubted the archer would reach five-star this time, so he could spare more manpower. "I’m going to send the hunting squad and another five-star--let’s see..."

He swept his gaze across the lounging espers and when he stopped for a few seconds in Zhan’s direction, the spearman crossed his arms in front of his face. "Nope!" Zhan refused strongly before the request even left Bassena’s mouth. "No way! I can’t just stay in one place--do you want my bike to accumulate dust? I’d rather you send me across the desert!"

Bassena couldn’t even get pissed at that strong rejection. Zhan was scowling and pursing his lips as if he was going to sulk for eternity if Bassena confined him in a ship--but while hiding behind Zein.

Thankfully, Bassena didn’t need to think much about the replacement, since someone already volunteered. "I’ll go," Gus raised his hand while chuckling at Zhan’s adamant refusal.

"Oh, would you?" Bassena nodded. Well, Gus and Zhan were the people who got along best with Senia, so was going to ask the swordsman to do it anyway. "Alright, I’m going to send hunting squad three. Zein will give you two guides, so you pick the rest."

"When will we depart?" Gus glanced at the ship, which was already in the water. The crew was in the middle of turning the purification device that would change the miasma into energy.

"She’ll need to charge to full power first, so I won’t make you go immediately."

"Well...it’s not like we need to say goodbye or anything," Gus shrugged.

"Why don’t you go when the Guildmaster is here, then?" Zein suggested. "Didn’t he say they’d be here after their honeymoon? And it’s only right for the Supreme Commander to be here for the first sail."