There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 425 - 418. The Future Saintess

"Oh, I know that! I watched that once in a movie when I was still in the orphanage," Elena clapped her hands. "I’ve never seen one directly, though."

Zein chuckled and raised his upper body too, careful to cradle the sleeping white rabbit in his arm first. "Wouldn’t it be bad if you saw one directly?"

"Oh, you’re right!"

Elena laughed and took Cloudy from Zein’s arm, cradling the white rabbit gently and rocking it like a baby. Zein took a candy from his pocket, and suddenly remembered the little girl he saw on the bus the first time he visited Althrea. That was his first time seeing a child laughing that cheerfully, and looking at Elena now, he was filled with hope that the orphanage that he built would help those children laugh like this too.

"Elena..."

"Mm?"

"Are you going to be the Saintess?"

Elena tilted her head in confusion at first, because...of course she would? But then she recalled Zein’s conversation with the Saintess, that she could refuse to be one if she didn’t want to, just like Zein. Just like Zein’s ancestor.

"Hmm...yes, I don’t see why not," she replied after mulling about it for a while. Her tone was light, but Zein could see it wasn’t an answer that came without any thought behind it. "You see...I’ve been watching Grandma work all this time. Do you know she checks on orphanage reports regularly?"

"Is that so?"

"Mm!" Elena nodded and continued with solemn excitement. "You see, if I become the Saintess, I’ll have the authority to watch over the orphanage too! I can easily trace where the kids who used to be with me back then go. I will be able to see where the younger kids go too--and, and...if they awakened, I can bring them under my wings!"

She spoke with a wide smile and a pair of sparkling eyes. The orphanage where she came from was filled with kids who were rescued from shady places like the slum; kids of guides who were not so lucky to be rescued on time. Sometimes, there were also kids whose guide parents couldn’t take care of them--mainly from the mental burden of guiding.

In other words; some of them would end up as guides.

Elena did not have outrageous goals or great expectations. She just wanted to have the power to help those who she held dear. It was an innocent wish, which interestingly, wasn’t so different than Zein’s--even if they would use a different path to achieve it.

"That’s nice," Zein nodded in agreement while savoring the candy that somehow tasted sweeter this afternoon.

"Umm..." Elena peeked at Zein and suddenly scooted closer. She leaned slightly and lowered her voice to a whisper. "This is a secret, but...I have...I kind of want to do this Saintess thing differently."

Zein raised his brow and tilted his head, whispering back. "Like what?"

"Like...I don’t want to only stay here," she glanced at the inner garden and the door, before lowering her voice even more. Thankfully, Zein could enhance his hearing with mana to catch her words. "I want to go around, you know? Like what you and the other priests do in the outpost?"

Oh? Zein looked at the girl amusedly, who continued to whisper her future plan with suppressed excitement. "I think only guiding in the Temple would be too boring, no? Shouldn’t we go to places with outbreaks or where guides are rare? That way..." she suddenly giggled and this time, whispered directly in Zein’s ear. "I can also visit many places with the Temple’s money."

Zein pressed his lips to stifle a laugh. He looked at Elena’s widely grinning face which resembled the Goddess’s cheeky expressions very much.

"Do you think...do you think Lady Frejya would mind?"

Ruffling the girl’s soft curl, Zein smiled gently and gave her a confident answer. "I don’t think so," he said. "Why don’t you tell her about it the next time you talk to her? Except for the ’using Tempe’s money’ part."

Elena giggled and covered her mouth like a naughty girl getting caught saying something bad.

Hmm...yes; whatever her motivation was, Zein thought that a Saint or Saintess should be like this. To confine themselves in a safe place wasn’t Zein’s style--at least, not when there were still places where he could be useful.

"...ah," Zein rubbed his lower face.

"Hmm? What is it?"

To be where he was useful...

Zein felt his lips curled. How funny; he used to think he did everything for survival. Since when...when did he start to think that this was a duty? a responsibility?

Was it since he found his ’family’ again? Or...

No. That contributed as a reason too, but the biggest one was simpler;

He used his guiding as a means of survival before. Then the reason it changed was easy; because he was no longer only thinking about survival. Survival was important, but now he could survive even if he stopped guiding.

Because he was safe now.

He felt safe.

"Zein?"

"Ah, sorry. It’s nothing," he shook his head. "I just realized I had changed."

"For better?"

Zein smiled and patted the twitching white rabbit in Elena’s arms. "I think so, yes."

Thanks to him. Thanks to his esper.

Thanks to his esper who still hadn’t come out of the marbles even after it grew to the size of a pomegranate the next day.

"It almost looks like a magic orb that magicians use to amplify their magic output," Elena made a serious comment as she stared at the black marble in Zein’s hands keenly.

It had been four days, and Zein had no mood to train his new skill anymore. The moment he realized he couldn’t help but stare at the black orb every few minutes, he knew he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything that day.

And so, he decided to just stay in the Temple while digesting the corrosion he absorbed for two days. He wanted to be empty when Bassena came out, just in case.

He knew, of course, that the training room would not affect Bassena’s corrosion level--otherwise, there was no way the esper could train there for days, months, or even years without stopping for a cleansing. It was another benefit of using a divine artifact with a deity blessing; naturally, it had the effect of preventing corrosion.

But still, just in case...

"How do you know about magician orbs?" Zein asked Elena to distract himself from continuously thinking about Bassena. He had tried to read books and watch recorded videos in his commlink, but his mind would keep wandering to the pulsing big marble in his possession.

Even Cloudy was sulking because Zein couldn’t concentrate on playing with the rabbit; his caressing hand would repeatedly stop when his mind wandered to what happened inside the training space.

"Hey, don’t underestimate me! I also watched some espers’ videos every time I was allowed to access the link," Elena told him.

"I see..." Zein nodded dazedly.

"Hmm...do you think he’ll come soon?" she tilted her head and poked the black orb. "I think he’ll come out soon."

Zein chuckled at the way she corrected herself. Well, he did wish Bassena would come out soon. He understood well the esper’s anxiety before entering the space now, and feeling stupid for calling the man being dramatic.

How much time had passed? How many months? How many...years?

Zein glanced at his commlink, where he secretly counted the time. "It’s been more than four days..." he muttered. Counting from the time Bassena entered the black marble, it had been ninety-eight hours.

"Oh...it’s almost a hundred!" Elena peeked at Zein’s timer, before gasping. "Do you think he’ll come out when it reaches a hundred?"

"That’s--"

"Make sense," the Saintess commented from the side.

They had just finished their dinner and were lounging in the open pavilion they used the first day Zein came. The Medium was there too, so only Bassena was absent from the original lineup.

"Is it really?" Zein looked at the Saintess.

"An item always has a limit," she replied calmly, reminding Zein of what Radia said. "It makes sense to have it capped at a hundred."

Zein exhaled slowly. Honestly, it wasn’t like he hadn’t thought of it, but...he didn’t want to hope. Unknowingly, his bad habit of seeing the worst in things came up again--perhaps because Bassena wasn’t there.

Seeing Zein’s dispirited face, Elena clapped her hand and brought over a box. "Zein, Zein--let’s play this!’

"What is this?"

"What? You’ve never played a board game before?"

Zein peeked at the stuff that Elena laid out and shook his head. "Not this one," he said. It wasn’t in the game Han Shin and Reina brought over the other day--and those were the only games Zein knew. But he reckoned it would be better than just dazedly waiting. "Sure, let’s do it."

And the game proved to be a good way to spend time, even though Cloudy slammed itself on the board a few times during its naughty streak. It got rather interesting when the Saintess and the Medium joined in, and the young, quiet Medium suddenly became vicious and aggressive. But thanks to that, Zein’s mind was busy enough from the thought of Bassena.

"No! Big Sis--how could you give me this card?!" Elena clasped her cheeks in lament while the Medium hid her smirk behind her cards. Zein felt like he finally understood why this girl became Frejya’s Medium now. "Aah--I was so close too--huh?"

Elena blinked and stared at Zein; more precisely, at the slightly trembling orb in Zein’s inner pocket. It wasn’t just her; everyone, including Zein--especially Zein--looked at it too.

Swiftly, Zein looked at his commlink, where the timer was flashing a repeating number of 100.

He grabbed the trembling orb, then, which was shaking more and more. It really had a hundred-hour limit? Zein looked at the orb in his hand dazedly for a few seconds, before swiftly standing up as she felt the vibration from it getting harder and harder.

Zein stepped away from the other three, who were also stepping back. The Templars outside the pavilion were coming in to protect the Temple’s three most important personnel, observing the black orb in Zein’s hand with caution.

The vibrating sphere, meanwhile, was getting heavier and heavier that Zein had to let it go of his hand. Instead of falling to the ground, however, it floated in the air, letting out a buzzing sound as it vibrated hard--

--and cracked.