There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 107 - 103. Undefined Relationship

Chapter 107: Chapter 103. Undefined Relationship

After the chaotic birthday party, life was back to the usual routine. Bassena took Zein and Selena to the Mortix, following them to the lab and lounging there for a bit until lunch. Zein had to suffer Selena’s constant teasing remarks about his supposed relationship with the Serpent Lord.

Which was intriguing, since not even Zein knew how to define his relationship with Bassena.

They weren’t quite lovers yet, and they hadn’t gone as far as sex to be called fuck buddies. Zein wasn’t really rejecting or accepting Bassena, cruel as it might be. He enjoyed the esper’s company, and felt a certain level of affection toward the younger man.

But he, who was still shackled with uncertainty about his identity, who dragged around heavy baggage, who couldn’t even like himself enough, couldn’t give anyone the suffering of sheltering his heart.

He, who couldn’t even dare to think about what tomorrow might bring, shouldn’t shackle another person with a cruel future.

Still, he indulged the younger man, and Bassena indulged him. For now, that was the kind of relationship they had.

Anyway, he didn’t really mind--or more precisely, not really care--that people had been speculating about his relationship with the Serpent Lord. It was apparently a constant topic during lunch break among the workers, or so Abel told him.

Apparently, there was even a group chat that was made strictly to discuss the Serpent Lord and the Guide Captain.

Bits and pieces from guild members who witnessed their interaction were gathered inside the group chat. From guiding, outing, dungeon raid, or just them simply going down together to buy coffee. Stolen photos, videos, even theories about their meeting, and speculation about the progress of their relationship.

When Abel told him about that while laughing his ass off, Zein felt that it was absurd and made no sense. But he quickly factored it into the green-zone dwellers having too much free time on their hands, and that it was futile for him to try to understand them.

And so he let them be. Who was he to prevent people from having fun? Since it wasn’t really hurting him anywhere.

Unchanging and unbothered, Zein just went through his schedule without caring about people’s gaze on him.

If there was something that changed, however, was that now he took those public relations lessons or whatever. It wasn’t like he had any intention to be surrounded like that time again, but he should still know how to handle it if the same thing happened again. From how he should react, how to decline politely, how to indulge at a safe level, and what he shouldn’t do.

It was quite peaceful, honestly, as they entered the season of falling leaves. The guides of the new division had been totally used to the training regime that Zein rarely had to whip them out anymore. They could even teach each other now, especially those that already entered the dungeon. Zein no longer gave routine long exams after training--much to Alice’s disappointment--but would sometimes throw random questions in the middle.

He felt like he could start to teach them how to handle weapons after the new year.

But for now, he just ground them on their stamina and reflex more, also focusing heavily on their mental capacity. It was a prejudice that the guide’s class was unchanging. Well, it was true that the vessel rarely changed unless some unique cases like the blessing from the temple. But the guide’s mental capacity was more important for Zein than the vessel.

So what if one had a big vessel? With poor mental capacity, the guide wouldn’t be able to guide effectively and efficiently. It would take a long time for the guide to absorb the esper’s corrosion, and it took longer to recover from a full vessel.

Even guides with small vessels--the medium to low classes--would be able to guide a lot if they had strong mental capacity and skills. With faster and more precise guiding, they saved a lot of mental energy, and would be able to digest the corrosion quicker, and thus able to guide even more espers.

Between the low classes that could guide more espers a day and the high classes that could barely cleanse one, guilds and squads would rather have the former. Not to mention that faster and more precise guiding felt better on the espers too.

So Zein sent them often to the simulation chambers, as well as having them do some meditation. The guides still had their regular cleansing schedule, and Zein would be there too, training them through the process just like how he did during the dungeon raid.

It helped his busy schedule that apart from the guildmaster, the other 5-stars were more often the ones who came to him for the guiding, so he didn’t need to make the journey to wherever they were. It became a usual thing now, seeing Rina Solstice and Ashur Iddina on the seventh floor. Han Shin was there regularly to play from the start, even when he didn’t have a guiding schedule.

While Bassena...well, Bassena was the one who had an irregular schedule. With the Serpent Lord, Zein just guided him about anywhere; in the car, in the office, during lunch, while watching his fish swimming about...

Yeah, Zein could see now how people would speculate. They weren’t even totally wrong about it--that there was something between them.

What he didn’t expect was for this speculation to get carried away outside the guild. Whether it leaked from the group chat, entertainment and gossip sites suddenly started to talk about their ’dating’ scandal too, with pictures that clearly belonged to the group chat.

Again, Zein was confused.

Zein had no idea why it should be called ’scandal’. It wasn’t like he or Bassena currently had significant other. It wasn’t like they were banned from dating by the law or the guildmaster too.

"Well...it’s probably because Sir Vaski is more or less--no, he certainly a celebrity. So, you know..." Abel shrugged, but Zein tilted his head with more confusion.

"No, I don’t," he responded with a deadpan face.

"Oh, yeah, you wouldn’t know..." Abel laughed awkwardly, forgetting that Zein came from the endzone. "Hmm...well, basically, a celebrity’s private life is food for the masses, especially for someone like Sir Vaski--handsome, rich, powerful--that had been known to be single. The romantic aspect of his life is of interest to most people."

"I still don’t understand why it’s called a scandal..."

"Wouldn’t that be because Sir Vaski had several rumors in the past about his involvement with Actress A and Supermodel M?" Alice offered her boss an explanation. "It seemed that some in the entertainment circle believed he actually had a relationship with one of those two."

"How do you even know that?" Zein narrowed his eyes at his assistant, who only answered by looking at him nonchalantly with prideful eyes, as if saying this is my power.

Cute brat.

"Also, there’s a rumor about you and the Steel Blood," Abel added as a reminder.

Zein tapped his armrest while shaking his head. "So they think each of us betrayed our respective ’partner’ or something like that?"

"Bingo!" the Chief Guide shot him a finger gun.

"Rather than that, Captain," Alice pulled their attention to her by putting a stack of printouts on the table. "Shouldn’t you be more curious about the one who leaked these pictures? They were clearly taken inside the guild,"

Zein glanced at the picture then, which was actually nothing sort of scandalous or controversial. It was just him and Bassena getting coffee, of them guiding, getting in Bassena’s car, of them conversing in random places. It was mundane activity between two guild members.

Except for the way Bassena looked at Zein--with softness and palpable affection that spelled lovestruck.

So that was how the esper looked at him, was what Zein thought as he looked at the pictures. But then he saw a picture where they were just talking. He didn’t even remember what they were conversing about, but Zein was looking at the esper then.

And he could see his own eyes. The deep gaze which gleamed in momentary softness.

Oh, so he looked at Bassena like that sometimes.

"Is there anyone bold enough to do something like this in the guild? I mean...against the both of you?" Abel shook his head while looking at those pictures. "I don’t think the guildmaster would look kindly at this."

"Except if he’s the one who plans all of this," Zein smirked behind his mask. If it was Radia, he didn’t think it was impossible. "Only, it was

too sloppy for him."

If it was Radia, he wouldn’t use the pictures that were clearly taken from the building. He’d use pictures of them outside, which would make them look like they were on a date.

Besides, Zein couldn’t think of how this would benefit Radia.

"At any rate, someone from intelligence should be on the move to investigate it," Zein shrugged. "You too, aren’t you?" he glanced toward his assistant, whose impassive face cracked for a second.

Alice smiled then, covering her mouth with the printouts in her hand. "So you knew," her eyes curled, for the first time breaking her act of that robotic, expressionless assistant.

Abel blinked then, and parted his lips for a bit, before pressing them tight. "I shouldn’t hear about this."

"Well, you know better than to speak about it," Zein shrugged, before suddenly looking up, brow raised as he felt a familiar presence exiting the seventh floor elevator.

The exclaims and greetings came before the man himself, like usual. And soon, the platinum blonde hair peeking into the room, glancing at the printouts on the desk, and smirking.

"I come to kidnap you, boyfriend."