There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 99

Chapter 99: Chapter 96. Rumors and Scandal

This was something new for Zein.

He never thought that a simple night run would turn into this. He was surprised enough that people recognized him outside, and seemed to be excited at the prospect of seeing him in the flesh.

But having paparazzi took pictures of him to be used as news...it dawned on him that he was now considered a public figure.

It could be said that this was his fault too. Disregarding his fame, he showed up in a civilian area, garnering attention. There were a lot of pictures of him in the convenience store going up on social media through those civilians. And the circulating pictures gave clues to news hunters.

Perhaps one of them got lucky and found Zein and Askan during the mere few minutes of them talking to each other.

Anyway, he couldn’t really blame anyone now, and had to quell the news himself.

When he walked through the lobby, he could hear murmurs and whispers. They would glance at Zein, and avert their gaze when the blue eyes caught them. The content of their conversation was obvious, and Zein didn’t blame them.

After calming Dheera and the other guides in the dorm, Zein searched for the news himself, and despite his annoyance, had to praise the photographer and the news writers.

He had no idea where they spied on him from, but it must have been quite far, if neither he nor Askan realized it. Despite the distance, however, the pictures were quite high quality, showing that the devices they used were top-tier.

In fact, it was so high-quality that they captured his face perfectly--or, his eyes, rather. And they chose the ones that sparked questions; when Askan bought Zein the water, when Askan whispered close to him, when they shook hands, when Askan laughed joyfully, and Zein’s blue eyes didn’t spark murder.

The choice and composition really made it seem like they were having a really friendly talk. It didn’t matter in any other setting, honestly, but with the background being almost midnight, and that it was an esper of Celestia guild who was known for their aggressive scouting, well...

Even if the writers didn’t make an elaborate prediction in their columns, people could easily make a speculation. Zein was a hot topic anyway, and everyone ate up news about him easily.

But that wasn’t the extent of the articles. Somehow, news outlets and media that liked to stir things excessively even twisted the situation so much more. Rather than about possible pouching, those gossip columns made it seems like a romantic scandal of some sort, that Zein was having a night intimate rendezvous with an esper. They even went as far as calling it a forbidden love, since the esper was a member of a rival guild.

That, for some reason, felt more uncomfortable than the scouting rumors.

There was a nagging voice in his head telling him to call Bassena, and he’d been doing it on the way to the tower, and then again on the way up. But the esper, strangely, did not answer. Rather, the call didn’t get through at all, and it made him quite anxious.

But his mind soon got busy with something else.

Zein should be visiting Mortix today, but he had to tell the researcher that he couldn’t come. Fortunately, the researchers weren’t the type to frequent news outlets, so they didn’t make a fuss about anything. Now his morning, which should be filled with talking to the shard, was used for talking with the PR department.

They were going to make an announcement countering the news, stating that the two were just an old acquaintance and that the rumors about Zein jumping ship were false or something to that effect. They called the guildmaster, and Zein heard Radia laughing out loud for the first time.

[Did he not scout you at all?]

"The guild did..."

Another laughter, and Radia’s voice came with joy. [Oh, this is nice. I’m going to have a good night’s sleep imagining Varion Belthera’s sour face]

"...if you say so,"

[The guards stay on from now on, by the way, you have no excuse this time, Zein] the guildmaster’s mirthful voice switched to a serious tone in a second, although the smile was still etched on his face.

Zein didn’t tell him about Askan’s warning, but it seemed like Radia understood the opponent more than Zein. "Fine,"

[I won’t restrict your movement, but I believe you understand now that there are consequences for it. Just...get used to it] Radia laughed again before ending the connection.

After making sure that he was fine with the draft that the PR team would use, Zein went to the seventh floor because Alice had been informing him that the strike guides were being restless. Although he had explained that the news wasn’t true to the guides in the dorm, it seemed like the other kids wanted to hear it from him straight to put their minds at ease.

"Do you think Captain would really break his contract like that? Don’t you know that Trinity had one of the harshest penalties for contract breaching?"

"But, if it’s Celestia..."

"Yeah, if it’s Celestia, they might be able to pay for the penalties aside from offering bigger benefits,"

"Bigger benefits for guides? In Celestia? Are you kidding me?"

"Well--they might be treating Captain differently since he’s special, you know..."

"That’s--!"

"That won’t happen," Zein said calmly at the congregation happening in his office. It seemed like Alice told them to wait there rather than make a scene in the guide’s lounge.

The guides turned their head toward the entrance and exclaimed; "Captain!" and flocked toward him like literal chicks.

Most of them were youngsters in their early twenties, but some were more or less Zein’s age--and yet they were all acting the same. Perhaps it was due to his disposition, but they seemed to regard Zein as their big brother or something like that, even though they had only worked together for two months. Especially the dorm’s residents, who spent more time with him than anybody else.

The only one who didn’t clamor upon him was Nora, who calmly stood in front of Zein’s desk, shrugging. "I told them there’s no way you’ll break a contract."

"Well, I was sure about the contract, but what about the other one?" he asked with narrowed eyes and a mischievous smile that reminded Zein of the red-zone seducer he once was.

Zein sighed, remembering how the gossip article focused so much on the picture of Askan lowering his face to whisper at him. From the angle of the photo, it did seem like they were standing awfully close, and might be perceived as being intimate.

Zein had thought that, just like how the chick acted, Bassena would come like a storm, demanding an explanation. He actually thought Bassena would call him first. But not only was Bassena nowhere to be seen, he was also unreachable.

"So you haven’t seen the news at all?" _{freeweɓnovel.cѳm}