There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 432 - 425. For The Future

"All of them, huh..."

Zein leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms, observing the priests’ and the templars’ sparkling eyes. He had an idea of where this suspicious reaction came from. frёewebnoѵēl.com

"Did the Goddess say something?"

Instantly, the already sparkling eyes of the priests brightened up even more. "Yes, Sir!" they replied simultaneously.

"The Goddess told us that we should listen to you," Agatha said with a smile. "She will not appoint new Saintess unless we do so."

Zein raised his brow. "Appoint new Saintess?"

The priests nodded with a solemn look. That was drastic, but then again...it was already proven that the previous Saintess lacked the grace and emotional maturity of someone bearing the title of a Saintess.

Hell, even Elena acted more ’saintly’ than her.

"I guess Frejya did talk to your Goddess."

The priests flinched at Zein’s casual mention of the Goddess’s name. But their curiosity exceeded their caution, because the younger priest leaned forward and asked in a lower voice. "It’s...it’s true, then, Sir? That you...went to Northern Alliance to talk with Lady Frejya?"

Zein wasn’t one to brag, usually, but in this case, he saw the need to put his position above the Temple Management, even if he wasn’t a Saint.

"She invited me over," Zein said nonchalantly, as if being invited by a deity was just a casual Friday.

"Oh..." the priests sighed in admiration. They had never ’talked’ with the Goddess, who was somewhat detached. She only announced her decree through the Medium once in a while--and by once in a while, sometimes they would hear nothing from Her for years.

They told Zein about this, and he wondered if this was why the Temple management and the Elders had free reign over the Temple of Mago, unlike in the Temple of Frejya where the Goddess frequently possessed the Medium and talked to the high priests. She even let Elena play in the Sky Garden.

Perhaps it was a difference in personality, or perhaps this Goddess wasn’t so attached to Earth unlike Frejya. From what Zein understood, these deities watched over several dimensions after all.

If he had to guess...maybe Mago couldn’t be bothered to give detailed instructions of what the staff of Temple should do. As Frejya had said, the deities were not rulers--they were only there to give the humans tools to combat the miasma.

And now that detailed ’instructions’ came in the shape of Zein’s demands, she took it as a chance to say ’yes, that--I want you to do just that’ and left again.

Zein shook his head. Thinking about the whim of Celestial Beings was a useless thing to do.

"Alright. Are you only here to inform me of that?" Zein tilted his head slightly. Surely they could do it through a simple phone call, couldn’t they? "Or do you need some verbal and written statement from me that I accept your apology?"

"Ah, about that..." the male priest pressed his lips nervously before speaking again. "We...would need a written statement in a magic scroll with your blood stamp on it, would that...be alright?"

Was it so the Goddess could know if the statement was truly from him? Well, he had no qualms about shedding a drop of blood, so he nodded.

"Ah, but that’s not what we come here for, Sir," the female priest, Agatha, glanced at one of the templars, who immediately put a stack of documents on the table between them. "Certainly, we didn’t think you would agree without reviewing what we had planned to do to follow your demands."

"Of course," Zein nodded. "I won’t write the statement without a proper contract."

What being around Radia had taught him was to never make a deal without a proper contract.

He was rather surprised, however, seeing the stack of documents. Did they make this in such a short amount of time? It had only been a little more than a week between their previous meetings.

Seeing the inquisitive look on Zein’s face, Agatha explained with a wry smile. "There are people inside who already thinking of a change," she looked at the documents and caressed the top one. "We just...couldn’t put it out before."

Ah...

So, just like Celestia, no tree was completely rotten, especially if it was established with good intentions. There would always be a budding sprout hidden in the shade of the old foliage, waiting for a chance when the sunlight would properly shine upon it, giving it a chance to grow.

"We tried to incorporate your demand into the existing...proposals," she continued. "We hope you will peruse them and provide us with some advice, Sir Ishtera."

Zein held himself from wincing, swallowing the sigh that wanted to come out. More and more documents. He hadn’t even finished the one piling on his desk.

He turned to look at Alice, who only smiled sweetly at him while taking those proposals closer to him.

Ah...sometimes, this girl could be scarier than Radia.

* * *

For his sanity, Zein did not peruse the document in detail and just told the priests to explain those programs to him. He then proceeded to give them a simple instruction; to look at the available example.

He told them about the outpost on the Temple of Freyja, and suggested that they contact other Tempe Management to see their system as guidance. For the rescue attempt, he told them to contact Azure regarding the guild’s cooperation with the government in the past when they were raiding the slums.

Rather than doing it alone, he suggested making a joint effort with larger guilds. Zein recalled Senia; a case of a talented person with potential being distorted because of the abuse received there. He was sure there were many more people with great potential born there, but they had no choice but to become wicked to survive. If only they received the right guidance, they could become a good asset for humanity rather than against it.

In the end, after picking a few proposals that talked about the rescue brigade, the establishment of Temple’s outpost and safe houses, as well as a change in the education curriculum, Zein told them to go back and come up with a detailed, revised proposal and a written integrity pact for him to sign on when they visited him next.

"Oh, you’re not done yet?" Bassena raised his brow when he visited the lounge after training the other espers in the afternoon.

"We’re about to leave," Agatha bowed politely as she stood up. "Good day, Sir Vaski."

"Alice, go see them off."

"Understood."

After all of the Temple’s entourage left the lounge, Zein let out a long groan that he did not usually make, letting his body hit the couch. Bassena couldn’t help but laugh at how much talking about policy drained the guide, when the man could raid a dungeon for days without any problem.

Zein did not have many weaknesses, but he shivered at the sigh of documents these days.

Narrowing his eyes at the laughing esper, Zein dragged a cushion to be used as a pillow. "Shut up and come here."

Bassena raised his brow at the sharp tone that did not match the way Zein beckoned him with a stretched arm. Lips stretched wide into a grin, Bassena followed the call of those arms and nuzzled into the guide’s neck. The small couch wasn’t made for two adults with their build to lie down on together, so they practically had to entangle themselves and lie on top of each other.

Perfect.

Zein rarely indulged in this kind of intimacy within their workspace, so Bassena was rather surprised--especially because Zein was the one who initiated it. It wasn’t a guiding too, so that was a bonus. Zein wrapped his arms around the nuzzling esper and buried his face in the fluffy platinum hair.

"You’re kind of clingy these days," Bassena chuckled joyfully. "I like it."

"Mm," Zein did not argue. He just continued to inhale the esper’s presence to soothe his tired mind.

He was also completely aware of it. Just like he told Elena; his feelings were like an avalanche. Bassena might fall first, but Zein caught up to the esper’s feeling like a rolling snowball. If it wasn’t for the Deathzone...

Yeah, if it wasn’t for how his guiding was still needed for the reclamation campaign, he would have agreed to get bonded with Bassena.

Such a drastic change of heart felt weird for him, who only last year still thought there was nothing worth living for in life; that there was nothing worth looking for in the future. But the moment he felt the beating heart and the pulsing mana core of his esper, that sense of oddity vanished like a lie.

"You just need to endure for another month," Bassena muttered against Zein’s collarbone. "We’ll get all kinds of actions for years after that."

Zein had no idea if he had to groan or chuckle at that. "A month, huh..." he looked up at the ceiling. "There’s a lot to do in that month."

He had to make sure all of the guides were ready; he had to make sure the foundation could function without his constant instruction; he had to make sure the clan did not lose its way when he was gone. Now he also had to make sure that the Temple of Mago made adequate programs for the change they promised.

And above all else, he had to make sure everything would not crumble even if he was gone.

He had to make sure that the future he had painstakingly drawn would hold.

"A will..." he muttered.

"Huh?"

"I need to make a will."