There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 675

Chapter 675: Side Story 3. Stellar Blossom - 10

The atmosphere seemed to turn nicer, and people were blushing or laughing. But the topic at hand was still too heavy for breakfast, so Zein decided to send the twins to the nannies in case something shocking came out again.

And from what had been swirling in his head, there would be.

Using excuses that they had already finished eating their fruit and yogurt, Zein sent Kar and Asa to the prison of the huge playground Radia made on the first floor before returning to the garden.

When he arrived, Han Joon was in the middle of teasing Radia about the slip earlier, looking really happy while doing so. While, it wasn’t like Zein didn’t understand the glee of seeing something so put together like Radia getting flustered.

So he felt kind of guilty about popping the happy bubble created painstakingly.

He considered asking it later in private, but he had learned enough that Han Joon was so good at hiding things if he wanted to. After weighing stuff in his mind, he decided it would be better to just ask it out in the open, rather than causing more heartbreak later.

"Joon, I’m sorry, but...can I ask you something?" Zein asked before he sat down.

Something had been bothering him since earlier, a gut feeling ever since Han Joon said he ’knew’ about the experiment. There was a possibility that he found out about the experiment while investigating the military about Operation Kronos, but there was something about his explanation regarding the experiment that made Zein think the man knew too much.

Too much if it was only something he found out in passing.

Han Joon probably could see the suspicion in Zein’s expression, but he replied positively nonetheless. "Sure."

Bassena tilted his head curiously, and he became even more curious when Zein held his hand while staring at Joon. "When you said the military was interested in the research, did you mean they also participated in it?"

"...yes."

"In what way?" Zein narrowed his eyes slightly. "Like...sending people to experiment on? There must be something like that, right? They must need a non-awaken to test the result of their research."

Han Joon did not reply for a while, and around twenty seconds passed in silence before the corner of his lips lifted slightly. "You’re sharp, aren’t you?"

It was uttered in a rather cold, but also amused tone. The light atmosphere that had been painstakingly created started to crumble again.

"What...what is this?" Han Shin turned his head back and forth between Zein and his brother. "I don’t like where this is going."

"Well, I didn’t like it too," Han Joon chuckled bitterly.

Radia grabbed the man’s hand, frowning deep. He wasn’t stupid--he knew where it was going the moment Zein asked about it. "Joon--"

"You’re right," Han Joon patted Radia’s hand, stroking it gently. While he was answering Zein’s question, his gaze was on the shaking crimson eyes. "I am one of the experiment."

Once again, it was chaos. Plates and utensils clanked as the table shook from how abruptly Han Shin and Bassena stood up. Immediately, Zein pulled the hand he had been holding since earlier, knowing very well this kind of reaction would come.

That was why he sent the twins away first.

"But, Hyung...you’re--"

Han Shin looked at his brother with widened eyes. Naturally, he would be surprised. After all, his brother awakened naturally. Granted, he was still a child when it happened, but he was big enough to remember the moment when Han Joon’s body glowed from the formation of mana core.

"Obviously, it failed," Han Joon raised his hand to calm the agitated younger brothers. If it worked, that method would already be widely known. "I awakened in the middle of the experiment, but it was clear that I awakened naturally."

Radia grabbed the hand that was patting him. "Did it have something to do with your condition right now?"

"Well..."

"Joon!"

Han Joon couldn’t help but smile wryly. It seemed like his decision to hise his condition had erased his darling’s trust in him. Well, it was his fault anyway, so he accepted it easily.

"I don’t know for sure, I still don’t," he shook his head, still staring at the crimson eyes so his darling knew he wasn’t lying or dodging. "Scatach said my core had already been damaged, and that’s why I’ll never be able to reach my full potential. But I had no idea if the damaged core was caused by the experiment or other things."

"Was there even other things to consider?!" Radia glared impatiently. Just from the timing, wasn’t it pretty obvious?

Unless...

"Well..."

"Oh, my Gods--Joon!"

One again, Han Joon patted his darling while smiling sheepishly. Realizing it would be hard to use his charm against his darling anymore, he let out a sigh. "Han Gyeong did give me all kinds of stuff to make sure I was awakened quickly."

He didn’t remember everything, but he remembered being made to eat weird things, calling it medicine. That was also the method that the Golden Viper used on Bassena, although it failed because there was nothing Han Joon feared other than his father. If he recalled correctly, Han Gyeong also brought him to a shaman or something, sitting him in the middle of a spell formation.

As the son that Han Gyeong had been waiting for, he was supposed to be perfect. That would mean awakening quickly; a sign of geniuses. Like Bassena or Radia. But Han Joon wasn’t one, and his father became impatient when he had yet to awaken after his tenth birthday.

"Oh, that son of a bitch!" Radia lost all of his self-restraint. It felt like he didn’t even know his husband properly. He knew they decided to let go of the past, but this...this wasn’t something to let go of easily. It was only after letting out all kinds of curses did he realized that the person he had just insulted was his husband’s father. "Sorry--I know he’s your father and all, but..."

"It’s fine," Han Joon chuckled coldly. "If anything, he was nothing more than a sperm donor."

Reina coughed--not because she was surprised, but because she was laughing while drinking her juice. Han Shin even raised a thumb of agreement while stroking his wife’s back and cleaning up the mess.

"Perhaps it was something like helping a butterfly out of its cocoon?" Reina explained after she stopped coughing.

"Huh?"

"You know that butterfly came from a cocoon, right?" she raised her finger. "I heard that if you ’help’ the butterfly to come out of the cocoon instead of letting it do so naturally, the butterfly would lose a necessary development that gave it the strength to fly."

"Ah!"

Hmm...that was a good lesson for the twins later--Zein made sure to commit it to memory.