There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 169 - 164. The Perfect Human

Chapter 169: Chapter 164. The Perfect Human

"So they bonded for convenience," Zein sneered. But why then, the Elder looked as if he was trying to convey some great love through the story?

"I wouldn’t deny that," the Elder smiled. But it was a calm and warm one. "It was never an outcome we ever predicted, and while we get to bring Lady Lucia home, they were quite awkward with each other."

That being said, Roan Ishtera was a responsible man. And he was the Paladin, so by nature, he treated Lucia like a princess.

A shy, sheltered girl who was recluse in nature due to the fact that she was a Carrier and shouldered a great responsibility for it; Lucia was scared of men from the start, and it wasn’t easy for Roan to open her heart. Especially at the start, when they had to be careful and hide from the other faction, Lucia couldn’t even reach out to her housemates, and it stressed her greatly.

It took months until Lucia could talk freely with Roan, and even then, she only talked with Roan. Perhaps being imprinted on each other had a factor, but it was also Roan’s persistent and patient attempt that bring down the shy guide’s wall.

"It was a gradual attempt, and watching them from the sideline was quite frustrating," the Elder let out a chuckle for the first time that day. "But once Lady Lucia opened her heart and started to embrace us as her new family, it was easy to see how lovely she was, and it was easy to see the growing affection between them."

Slowly, but surely, they fell in love. Whether it was due to the imprinting, or natural affection and attachment that grew with time, it was undeniable that they loved each other. Zein couldn’t help but recall the bright expression in that photographs; the sheer happiness, the love.

And Zein felt that it was..preferable, to a fairytale-like story of love at first sight, or attachment devised by fate.

"She started to write to her friends again, but unfortunately, we couldn’t let her travel far because those traitors had found us once."

For that reason also, Roan and Lucia started to move from place to place. Part of it was to delude anyone chasing them, and part of it was because Roan wanted to show Lucia the world. But they couldn’t do that forever, especially, because Lucia became physically unable to do so.

Because she got pregnant.

Bassena had never let go of Zein’s hand since the first time, and now, he could feel the guide’s pulse spiking. The time he spent with Zein told him enough that the guide was tensing, even while the pretty face was without expression. Hearing the story behind the imprinting was one thing, but hearing about the period that would lead to their death was probably much more stressful.

"You okay?" Bassena whispered. Even though he was the one who pushed Zein to not run earlier, he didn’t want to do it at the expense of the guide’s mental health.

To Bassena’s surprise, Zein reacted by shifting his hand so their fingers slipped and intertwined, while he told the Elder to continue.

"They settled in a lakeside cottage and we took turns taking guard. Lady Lucia was...surprisingly the cheeriest, the happiest of everyone. They were happy, we were happy," the Elder said with the warmest smile, which suddenly turned into gloom. "We were so happy that we even forgot about the fact that she was supposed to be the Carrier, our Saintess. She just felt like a family, you know...a part of us,"

And that made them careless. So careless that they didn’t realize one of the household members betrayed them. The person told the other faction about the pregnancy.

At first, that wasn’t a bad thing. The other faction didn’t want the bother to handle a pregnant woman, so they decided to just wait until she gave birth and took the child. Because obviously, once the child was born, the seed fragment would be moved to that child. And stealing a child was way easier than kidnapping a pregnant woman. So the clan could even enjoy a period of calmness where Lucia managed to get ample rest, and they could even go out go town and have a proper examination with doctors.

That was, until they found out the baby would be a boy.

"What’s that supposed to mean?" Bassena tilted his head. "Why did Zein being a boy mattered?"

"Because there was never a boy born from the Carriers," the Elder told them with utmost seriousness. "The Carriers had always been women with healthy wombs, so they could preserve in their mission of carrying the seed through generations, no matter if they awakened as guide or not."

"So it’s logical to think that a baby boy signified something different," Senan added. "Especially...if that boy also awakened as a guide."

Bassena raised his brows, and the Elder answered the wordless confusion. "It had been forgotten now, but back in the day when everything was still in chaos and human just started to build civilization again, there was a specific phrase used for male guides, which was rare, to begin with."

"What phrase?"

The old man stared at Zein, the only male guide in the room, as he uttered it. "The perfect human."

The blue eyes narrowed and twitched, and Bassena could feel his fingers getting gripped tightly.

"Because male guides had a physique where they could give their seed and also receive seed from others, and nurtured it into life," the old man explained further. "They could create life, in any way they preferred. Like a God."

Because they had wombs, Bassena realized. He heard that at the beginning of time, all male guides had wombs, which helped with the population too. But after centuries, not every male guide manifested one, and it became less common as time went by.

Speaking of that...Bassena remembered that Zein had said he had no womb while they were in the Deathzone.

Again, Bassena could feel Zein’s tight grip on his hand. He could see how much Zein holding back from leaving the room just by watching from the side. There must be so many things swirling in that pretty head. Confusing things.

"But that wasn’t all..." the old man continued.

"Because Setnath was a male when he was human," this time, it was Zein that gave the answer.

"Yes," the Elder gloomily responded. "And that changed everything..."

Finding out that the fetus was most likely would be the vessel of Setnath, the other faction decided to take action as soon as possible. They had no idea when the power would manifest, and for all they knew, it could very well be since birth. So they decided that they had to have Lucia before she gave birth, and they could let the baby, the vessel of Setnath, thinking that they were his real family. For that, they decided to hire help from another force; the Golden Viper.

"When we discover the traitor, it was already too late," Senan gritted his teeth as he retell the story. "There was not much time to plan a clean escape. Master Roan had to employ a trickster’s service to hide Lady Lucia, and the only way there could be enough time for that was to face the Golden Viper himself."

The elderly and the children were sent to the emergency shelter, which was the factory complex in Mimera, while Lucia was supposed to be hidden while erasing her trace with a small squad of protectors.

"We told Master Roan that we would be the ones buying times, and he should be with Lady Lucia instead, but..." Senan gripped his knees as he recalled the past, anger and sorrow seeping from every word. "But he knew we wouldn’t be good enough. He was the Paladin, the defender, he was the strongest among us. He..."

Senan lost the words in a choke, and it was the old man that continued. "Master Roan...knew...that he might not be able to get out of that alive. He told us countless times, that we should protect Lady Lucia. Protect her and their son. But we...we failed even that..."

The Black Viper division called for reinforcement when they realized Roan Ishtera was more than they could handle, and some of this reinforcement managed to attack Senan’s group, who should be protecting Lucia as she fled with the trickster. Because of that, Lucia’s whereabouts was obscured even from those who were supposed to protect her.

The silence that followed after the two seniors finished relaying the story was prevalent. It wasn’t just Zein and Bassena; the young members of the organization like Arlo, those who were born after the event, or were too small to understand what happened then, also listening to the story for the first time.

These people had only been told stories of old age, about the Savior, and their duty to search and protect the ’One’. They heard stories about Alteroan Ishtera, that this place belonged to him, that he was their true Master, dead as he might. That they had to find his heir.

But they were never told this part. The exact part that made them hide like this, of that love story, of that betrayal, and the agony of the older generation like the Elder and Senan, and those who had passed during the last twenty-eight years. They only heard legends, and were told about their duties. And for someone like Arlo, who was born later, everything sounded like bullshit.

At least, before today, he thought so.

"Ah," suddenly, as everybody was mulling in silence, the Elder spoke, looking up at Zein. "Would you like to see their picture? Cohen, please fetch it from the safe, the one in the protective case."

As the policeman hurriedly went out of the room, the Elder shifted his gaze back to Zein, who was still in silence. "Much has been lost in that incident, but we managed to preserve the most important one; their wedding picture."

"They’re married?" Bassena raised his brows.

"Of course, they are!" the Elder, somehow, looked offended by the question. "Master Roan wasn’t an irresponsible man who would defile a woman who wasn’t bonded by law to him!"

Bassena pressed his lips and nodded. "O...okay..." he replied awkwardly, for some reason feeling as if that ’irresponsible’ word was being thrown at him.

Fortunately, the policeman came back in record time, bringing something carefully encased in a glass frame. It wasn’t big, an 8R photo size that seemed to be treated very carefully. It was clear that the photograph was old, but the color was still preserved and the image was clear, just like the small photograph of Bassena’s mother in Seven Ether.

A bride with a bright, albeit shy, face. A groom with a gentle smile filled with affection, and a pair of eyes akin to a stormy skies. They didn’t wear anything fancy, but their beauty was more than enough to fill the frame and more. Especially with how happy they looked in that picture.

Truly, they were such a beautiful couple that even Bassena almost forgot to breathe. He understood how Zein could get his unparalleled beauty; he already had the genes, and his guide ability only enhanced it further.

"It was a spring wedding," the old man said with a fond smile, and a soft sigh escaped his lips. "And she got pregnant in August."

Oh? Oh! Wouldn’t this be a clue to find out Zein’s actual birthday? Bassena excitedly turned to look at the guide, and froze.

Zein was looking at the picture, hard, but there was nothing joyful in his eyes. He looked as if he was suffocating instead, like he was choked, like he just saw a vision full of nightmares.

The old man, who didn’t seem to realize Zein’s condition, asked innocently. "Ah, would you like to have this, Young Master? I would give you the original, but I also would like to make some copies fi--"

"No," Zein answered flatly, with a heavy voice that clearly didn’t come from a good place. "No."

The blue eyes stared hard at the picture for the last time, before he abruptly stood up and stormed out of the room.