There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 430

Chapter 430: Chapter 423. Steadfast

"Four days and that girl looked like she had known you for her whole life," Bassena commented as their plane took off. With his vision, he could see the girl who was still waving her hands with a sad face on the ground. "I almost thought I truly left for three years."

Zein smiled as he looked out of the window. He couldn’t see as well as Bassena, but he could still make out the shape of Elena and the templars who guarded her. She had insisted that she would go with Zein until the safe-zone’s airport.

"We did spend a lot of time together," Zein reminisced a little bit. "Since she was the only one with free time."

"Well, you do have a soft spot for younger kids."

Zein glanced at the esper and smirked. "Ah, that’s right. You’re no longer younger than me, huh? Technically," he leaned away from the stunned Bassena. "I wonder if you’re still the cute boyfriend I once had."

"Y-you said cuteness has nothing to do with age!"

"But the younger ones do look cuter," the guide shrugged.

"Ugh--"

Bassena couldn’t deny that, and felt a sudden crisis. The serious, panicking face prompted Zein to break his stifled laugh. "Pfft--this is why I told you it doesn’t matter. Would it change things if you were older?"

"Well...I just..." Bassena pursed his lips and slumped on his seat. "I just thought you’d see me less of a brat that way."

Zein laughed and patted the esper’s cheek with the back of his fingers. "Rest assured; I’ll still play with you even if you act like a brat."

"But will you still love me?" Bassena dipped himself lower to the seat, peeking at the guide behind his hiked collar.

"Hmm...at this point, perhaps I will."

Bassena blinked his widened eyes. It felt more and more real that Zein was truly going to let him imprint on the guide. He couldn’t help but let out a childish, unseemly giggle every time he remembered it.

And then his giggle stopped when he felt a slight tingle on his skin. He looked at his hand, where the feeling came from, and then at Zein, who was stretching out his hand a little bit.

"Is this what you told me? The long-distance guiding?"

"Mm," Zein nodded. "Tell me how you feel."

He had asked the espers he guided during the two days volunteering days, but they didn’t provide reliable information. In the first place, they usually get a guiding from low-class guides or apprentices, so they used to bad and at best mediocre guiding. No matter what, Zein’s guiding was a stark improvement and felt better than any guiding they ever received.

Moreover, Zein was wearing a high priest garb and was accompanied by templars as guards. Even if Zein guided them so awfully, those espers would still say it was the best guiding they ever had.

Bassena was the other way around--he had been used to Zein’s guiding so much that he couldn’t go back to any other guides.

"It’s definitely...slower and...not as smooth," Bassena said, closing his eyes. "If we’re using your term...hmm..." he tilted his head left and right, making Zein smile adoringly at the sight. "Ah, it’s like you’re taking water from a bucket and pouring it outside by scooping it bit by bi--why are you looking at me like that?"

"You’re cute," Zein said casually before mulling over Bassena’s words while the esper was dealing with the spreading blush on his cheek. "Anyway, it seems like the guiding came in intervals with a delay."

"Y-yeah," Bassena cleared his throat. "It’s not too much, just...if you do it in the middle of a fierce battle, it might break our concentration."

Day by day, people felt the impending journey looming closer and closer. The management worked hard to make the environment conducive, including controlling media exposure. They had to balance between letting the personnel have their training in peace, while also letting the general public know that they were confident in completing the reclamation before the stipulated time.

But perhaps because of the busy atmosphere, not many realized that someone notorious had been joining them lately.

Senia had only been in the guild building once before, because her activity was mostly done in the eternal dungeon to train with [Anzus] squad. Two days after Zein came back from the Temple, however, she came to the guild building because Zein had been too busy checking on his chicks’ progress.

It was safe to say that her appearance made an uproar on the seventh floor. So much so that the black-uniformed guides were hugging Zein and shielding him from her. _{ƒгeewebnovёl.com}

If it was Senia a month before, she would have stomped her feet and cursed everyone harshly, before attacking them with a wave of debilitating magic energy. But now, she only pouted and puffed her cheeks while Zein patted his kids to let him go.

"It’s fine, she’s the guild associate now," Zein explained to his guides. The way they raised their arms as if ready to deploy the shield while hissing was like that of a threatened cat. In a way, he was proud that they had grown so much to the point that they didn’t cower in front of a five-star esper.

"But, Captain--"

"Brisk, Dean; didn’t you tell them?" Zein looked at the Hagalaz’s guides who should know about Senia already since they attended the training sometimes.

"Ah, I forgot!" Brisk said cheerfully while sticking his tongue a little bit while Dean averted the Captain’s gaze with a grin.

Zein shook his head and flicked the mischievous guides on their forehead. After convincing them that no guards or espers on the floor below would let an enemy in, they finally let Zein go. What an adorable bunch.

He shook them off and told Senia to follow him to his office. The esper was strangely quiet, still pouting, but her gaze was on the floor. Zein wondered if it was shame he felt from the girl. She already had people talk shit about her more vocally, but to be challenged and looked at with a gaze full of disdain from a group of people she looked down on before must have been a stronger wake-up call.

"So, how’s your homework going?"