There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 54

Chapter 54: Chapter 53. A Heavy Leash

The dorm wasn’t as tall as the Guild’s building, which actually looked like a tower. But Zein reckoned it was as tall as the Borderland’s watchtower. Even from here, he could see the garden of the large open hall on the fifth floor.

As usual, Abel kindly explained everything to him. "The people residing here are mostly civilians, since it was relatively safer here, and the low-level members, since they didn’t have enough financial leeway to purchase their own residence," of course, the low-level here, which was 2-stars and C-classes, would be considered average in other guilds. "I mean, they could rent some space outside, but I guessed it’s cheaper to just stay here and save their money to buy a better place. Or you know, invest in better equipment."

"Well, I can understand that," Zein shrugged. That was what he did with his money anyway, buying survival tools.

"But there are some high-ranking members here too, for various reasons," Abel laughed. "Oh, Sir Han also keeps a room for himself. He sleeps here sometimes."

"Huh..."

That was unexpected. But then again, Han Shin was kind of a weird one, so Zein didn’t think too much about it. They entered the building without a fuss using Abel’s badge, and Zein was faced with another lobby and what looked like a receptionist desk, although the sign on it spelled ’residential manager’.

The old man manning the desk wore no uniform, though, and Zein could see he was an esper from the flow of magic energy. The flow was chaotic though, probably due to some kind of internal injury.

’A crippled esper," Zein thought as he followed Abel to the desk.

"Uncle, you should receive the notification already, right?"

Abel asked amiably, but the man answered with a grumble. "Yeah, making me work hard so suddenly. Do you know how large the high-floor room is?"

The guide just laughed at that. "But you did it anyway. Do you have the key?"

"I don’t want to get fired yet," the man muttered while pursing his lips. He glanced at Zein, who watched the exchange quietly, and raised his brow a bit at the guide’s mask. "Here," he put an electronic card embossed with Trinity’s emblem in front of Zein. "As requested, the corner room with a direct view of the garden and the park on the sixth floor."

"I didn’t request anything..." Zein took the card with confusion.

He didn’t even know the layout, so how could he make any request? The one most likely of doing that was probably...

"Bassena?" he tilted his head.

"Probably," Abel chuckled, getting even more amused and intrigued at what kind of relationship those two really had. They clearly weren’t mere acquaintances, but also didn’t seem like lovers...yet. "Uncle, give him the guidebook too. Zein, you can look for Uncle Dan if you need something while living here,"

The man only replied with a grumble, which reminded Zein of the elder in the red-zone. Even the kind grandma who took care of him never cease her grumbling. They grumbled whether they were upset or happy, only the intonation changed. It was quite funny, actually—and nostalgic.

Zein smiled without realizing it, the sharp, phoenix-shaped blue eyes soften into beautiful curls. Even without taking off his mask, people could tell that there was a pretty face hidden beneath.

"I’m Zein," he said while putting the card in his pocket.

The uncle put a small guidebook atop the desk while staring keenly at Zein. "Where are you from, boy?" he asked suddenly.

Zein raised his brow slightly, didn’t really expect the man to ask him any questions. He was about to say he came from Borderland, but his instinct told him that wasn’t what this uncle asking from. And it was just so that he recalled the old days as he looked at the old man.

"Araka," Zein answered shortly, truthfully. It had been long since he uttered it, the name of his hometown—if he could call it that.

Abel looked at the taller guide with widened eyes. He already knew that Zein came from the lower region, but he never expected it to be a red-zone. The most problematic red-zone in the entire Eastern Federation, no less.

But the uncle let out a smirk instead. "Figured," he shoved the guidebook toward Zein. "Nalhem," he added, and Abel blinked repeatedly. After three years, it was the first time the guide found out that this caretaker uncle came from the red-zone too.

Actually, it was the first time he saw the grumpy uncle make an expression other than irritation.

"Thanks," Zein took the guidebook without any more pleasantry. Now that he knew the uncle was another end-dweller, Zein concluded that all elders from the red-zone acted the same, which meant the old man would also hate idle courtesy. So he turned the stunned Abel and cocked his head upward. "Let’s go?"

Thankfully, Abel had used to dealing with unexpected situations, so he quickly recovered and put on his usual smile. If anything, today he learned something new; how amazing people who came from the red-zones were.

"I’ll see you around, Uncle!" he waved to the old man and took Zein to another elevator. "Mm, I think you’d do just fine even here since Uncle Dan liked you."

"You seem familiar with him, do you live here too?"

"I used to," Abel replied as he pushed the button to the sixth floor. "But my girlfriend asked to live together, so..." he smiled sheepishly, though Zein wasn’t the type who teased people because of that. Still, the smaller guide coughed awkwardly before hurriedly changing the topic to the dorm. "Ahem—I don’t know if you can see earlier, but there’s a cafeteria on the left side of the building. They provide free breakfast and dinner, but not lunch, so please keep that in mind."

Zein held in his chuckle and just nodded. It was understandable that the lowest members preferred living here. After all, lodging and meals usually sucked most of the people’s salary. Surely, with that kind of benefits, Trinity could demand the best from his workers. Zein had heard that Trinity’s annual entrance test was as popular as other big guilds.

"Up to the fourth floor were the regular dormitory rooms, and the fifth-floor kind of acted as the buffer zone," Abel continued his explanation, as usual. "You can access the garden we saw from the outside earlier through there, and there are a gym and pool, as well as a PC room and library there—you can find out the detail in the guidebook."

Zein turned around, and Abel had thought he would look rather touched or something. But he chuckled instead, as if he already knew it. "How cute," he muttered, softly, like an afterthought. And then he faced Abel again, eyes already turned flat. "Is there a guide I can read about how to keep all of these alive?" _{fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓}