There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 165

Chapter 165: Chapter 160. Suprise Visit

"Why are we treating this like a dungeon?" Bassena rolled his eyes, but then grinned in the next second. "But I’m always down for that."

"Well, it’s ultimately your choice," Radia looked at Zein, who was still staring at the profile of some of the members they managed to find; mostly in their thirties.

The new generation--if their conjecture was correct. Those people should only be children, toddlers, and babies, when the fight happened. There was a probability that they knew nothing about the Paladin--that, if they were truly from the orthodox clan, and not the other one.

"Is that the only approach we could have?" Zein asked finally, after contemplating in silence for a long minute.

"We can wait until they approach you," Radia shrugged while twirling his small fruit fork around. "But who knows how long it would take. You’re not exactly someone easy to meet, so they probably cooking up some elaborate plan first."

And who knew how long it would take--Zein caught the unspoken words. He had gone and done that interview despite his aversion to public exposure because he wanted things to move faster, so it would be counterproductive if they did the waiting game now.

So, while using the term ’raiding’ seemed a bit excessive, it was indeed the best course of action to get down to business as quickly as possible. Now that they were in their ’base’, now that they were together.

"Is it possible to arrive there while the meeting still progressing?" Zein asked the guildmaster.

"We can use an aircraft and drop there directly."

Bassena tilted his head at that. "Wouldn’t that be an illegal trespassing, though?"

"We’ve been doing all kinds of illegal things just to arrive at this point, kid."

"Ah..."

Just by stalking the policeman and tracing his correspondence, they had already breached a few laws. It wouldn’t be a problem if it was a criminal group, but the Templar was just a regular organization--a cult, maybe, but there was no law against a cult unless it partook in shady business.

Zein bit his cheek for a bit while mulling over the situation. The best course of action would be if those people let them in to have a nice, diplomatic conversation. But there was no way they would let a squad of high-star esper come through their doorway like a lamb asking to be slaughtered. Even if Zein was there, they would probably only let him in and not the others.

If it wasn’t a squad, though...

"Bas," Zein turned to look at the esper, who only needed to catch his stare for a second before smiling widely.

"Sure," the man answered cheerfully.

"You’re talking with your eyes, now?" Radia scoffed at their interaction, before tapping on his commlink. "Alright, you go first. The others would be on standby as close as they could, but they won’t move unless you give the signal."

Swiftly, Bassena finished off the last of his meal to get ready. "What about you?" he asked Radia while changing his travel-worn coat to a fresh one.

"Me?" Radia leaned back on his armchair, gesturing toward the screen. "I’ll be watching you."

* * *

Mimera, Area-12 orange-zone.

Cohen stared at the recording that had been playing in loops since earlier. Staring at the piercing blue eyes shining like a pair of jewels. There were similar kinds of eyes he’d been looking at since he was a child, regularly, as the elder told them stories of old ages and showed them old pictures. So old that it felt like it came from a different era.

He never thought he’d been so close to the owner of those eyes; just a few buildings away. He recalled the day a chaotic fight broke out in Neyta, and spotting Bassena Vaski from one of the windows. He was too preoccupied with the esper’s presence that he only vaguely realized there was another person watching the fight from the window; a black hair, a black mask.

That should be him, right? The man on that screen.

Cohen stared at the screen again, before asking the man beside him. "Where’s the elder?"

"Upstairs," the man sighed. "The old man was too excited that his blood pressure spiked again. We’re all here but he can’t even come down."

"So, are we really sure that’s the ’One’?" someone else chimed in suddenly, a young woman in baggy clothes.

"That’s for the elder to decide."

"But seeing as we are being called, and how the old man almost fainted from excitement, it’s safe to assume so, right?"

At that time, a spiky voice from a spiky-looking young man in his early twenties chimed in from the stairs. "But what exactly are we going to do with it? All this...mission...do you think it’s still relevant? We’re no longer living in the old age, you know. Dedicating our life to someone else who doesn’t even know we exist--"

"Don’t let the Elder hear you say that, Arlo."

The young man clicked his tongue, and was about to argue when someone burst into the room, panting with widened eyes. It was one of the household members in charge of guarding the perimeter today, and it got them all tensing in reflex. Even the people that were talking in another room came out in surprise.

"What--"

"Let’s just wait,"

"Hmm...if I knew it would be like this, we should have gone with a car," Bassena threw one last look toward the guard above the gate, who was flinching and averting his eyes, before following Zein with a chuckle. "We’ll at least have a place to wait comfortably then..."

Zein just hummed in response. There was nothing uncomfortable about waiting in nice, warm clothes for him, although it could be different for the Young Master, who looked at him with narrowed amber eyes. "Aren’t you cold?" the esper asked suddenly.

"No,"

"Are you sure? It’s been getting colder these days..." Bassena pursed his lips, walking closer to the guide.

"It’s not even winter yet."

"But it’s cold,"

Zein stared at the esper, squinting his eyes dubiously at the man that had been fiddling with his sleeve. Bassena tilted his head, with a whimsical twinkling in his warm ambers that tempted Zein to stroke the cheek underneath.

In the end, Zein let out a soft chuckle and a sigh. "Fine, it’s cold."

"Right?" like a child, the esper grinned and shifted to envelop Zein with his coat--and himself. Circling his arms around the guide’s waist, he laid his head on Zein’s shoulder, muttering softly. "I’ve missed you."

’I’m not the one telling you to get away,’ was what Zein wanted to say. But he realized that it was his own action that drove Bassena to take distance for a bit, so Zein just took a deep breath and leaned against the esper. _{ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm}

"What are you going to do after we go in?" Bassena moved his head slightly so he could look at Zein’s face while still laying on the guide’s shoulder.

"I don’t know..." Zein looked up, at the building peeking out from the gate’s outline. He didn’t actually know what he wanted to do here. The more he knew about what happened in the past, the less grudge he felt toward this organization. "I guess...I just want to know what exactly happened to my parents. How they met and..."

Yeah...for now, he just wanted to know about that. He didn’t care what these people wanted to do to him, and...

"I won’t let them take you," Zein heard the firm whisper against his neck, and a smile blossomed on the lips behind the mask.

"I know," Zein patted the platinum strands tickling his cheek, just as the guard who had been watching them awkwardly from the sentry box jumped down and opened the gate.

Wordlessly, the guard gestured for them to go in, and Bassena grumbled for a bit as his little session of cuddling had to be cut short.