There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 437 - 430. The Final Date

Zein barely left the end-zone for the first twenty-seven of his life, but he had visited two foreign countries in this past year.

What an abrupt development; just like everything else in his life.

From having a boyfriend to having a family; from being penniless to getting headaches from processing taxes and making a will; from not knowing who his parents were to burry them in the same urn...

Zein unconsciously smiled as he reminisced about the things that had happened in the past year. At around this time last year...ah, yes--he was preparing to leave the borderland unit; to go to Althrea at the end of the month. Yath was sulking, and the other guides were groaning because they wouldn’t have someone to cover for their outpost shift anymore. Ron was giving him a long instruction about how he could reach Althrea and what he must do and remember so he wouldn’t attract too much attention. Agni...well, the Captain was just enjoying the chaos as usual.

Soon, a year after he left, he’d return there with a whole troop. He could already imagine the Captain’s laugh and Ron’s rolling his eyes. Something about he came back too soon or whatever--even though Zein knew Ron wanted the project to be completed as soon as possible so the Captain could be freed from his punishment.

Hmm...it wasn’t too bad, going back.

Especially because instead of misery and sorrow, he came with hope and determination.

"You looked pleased," Bassena stroked the guide’s chin. "Are you excited because you’re going to the sea?"

Zein leaned his head back and closed his eyes. "No," he said. "I mean, that too--but for now, I’m just feeling pleased with the journey I made since I left the borderland."

"I’m included in that, right?"

Zein chuckled and shifted his head to lean on the esper’s shoulder. "How could you not?" he exhaled slowly. "You’re half the reason I left the borderland in the first place."

It was Bassena who told him to try leaving the end-zone so he could find out what he wanted to do with his life. To find out what it meant to live his life. To find out the reason for holding on to his life. Ron and Agni nudged him out of the gate, but it was Bassena’s words that brought him into the gate itself.

So yeah...it could be said that it was thanks to Bassena’s persistent sales pitch that he finally left his murky, stagnant pool of water. It didn’t matter even if the esper said what he said and did what he did just to have Zein going up and becoming his guide. In the end, it was Zein who decided to grasp the hand reaching out to him, pulling him from the brink of the abyss.

"Only half?"

"Be grateful you even reached half," Zein scoffed and shifted further, laying on the esper’s lap. "I’m going to sleep for a bit."

Bassena laughed and patted the guide’s thigh. "Alright, I’ll wake you up before we land."

"No; wake me up when the landscape is visible," Zein muttered drowsily. "I want to see it from up here."

"Yessir!"

Zein lightly smacked the esper’s side before crossing his arms and falling asleep. The youngsters of the clan were busy talking and hanging out until dawn, and Zein stayed listening to them so he could find out what the future of his clan was thinking about. They were quite fascinating, and Zein ended up dreaming about the silly little things those kids imagined--like going to space or invading other dimensions through the dungeons.

Silly kids. They could barely stave off invasions on their own planet...

But it was children’s privilege to dream, so no matter how silly it was, everything sounds beautiful and plausible. In his dream, Zein saw a kid with bright hair sitting on what he presumed to be a plane, although when he looked outside the window, everything was dark, except for a hovering ball that looked blue and green and black and weird all over.

But it wasn’t as weird as the moment the kid turned around with a bright smile and a pair of blue eyes that sucked him inside, and propelled him to a swirling gate, not unlike the dungeon gate he was familiar with. There was another kid there, stretching a hand inside the swirling portal; dark hair swayed in the wind created by the mana pressure, and a pair of fiery golden eyes glinted sharply.

Zein woke with a start, blinking at the plane’s ceiling. His mind was both in a daze and alarmed--however weird that was. Perhaps he was still in a dream?

But then he realized his commlink was vibrating--what actually woke him up from the strange dream. He realized he was no longer sleeping in Bassena’s lap, but a pillow. Faintly, he could hear voices from the plane’s kitchen, which he reckoned coming from whatever Bassena was doing over there.

Slowly, he sat up and opened his commlink. There was a message from Senan, who was on the way back to Althrea. As he read the rather long report, Bassena was coming back to the lounge with a tray full of food.

"Oh, you’re awake. I reckoned you’d be hungry when you do, so--what’s that?" Bassena tilted his head as he watched Zein read the text keenly.

"Hmm? Ah, nothing--" Zein cracked his slightly stiff neck. "Senan just send me an interesting report."

"About?"

"It seems like that girl is using her vacation well," the guide chuckled. "Celestia Guildmaster told Senan that she came to the guild again to apologize in person. Seems like some of her past victims are finally willing to hear her out."

"Hmm..."

"I must say she looks pretty sincere and persistent. She has changed a lot from last month."

Zein pulled the tray closer to him and took a small slider that Bassena had prepared despite the existence of a full staff. He glanced at the esper who was now busy mixing drinks from the bar.

"That’s rare," Zein raised his brow at the esper’s nonchalant expression. "You’re not making any comment."

Bassena just smiled without taking his eyes off the drink. "I understand the feeling of desperately trying to change to gain approval from my favorite person."

"Favorite person, huh?"

It wasn’t like Zein did not realize it. He knew Senia was changing because she wanted to receive guiding from him, even if the change seemed genuinely affecting her core and had the potential to be permanent.

But that was why it felt weirder that Bassena looked this calm when he had been actively jealous and on guard.

"Well, I’m fine since you’re here with me," Bassena shrugged. "I’ll probably get annoyed if I see her, but since she’s not here..."

"Look at you being mature," Zein received the drink that Bassena mixed for him; a refreshing and sweet one.

"...I had talked to her," Bassena confessed as he took a seat on the couch again, which was still warm from Zein’s body heat.

The guide raised his brow. "When is this?"

"When was it...around the time after she saw us cuddling?" Bassena grinned. "I asked her what she wants from you."

"And?"

"Hmm..." Bassena crossed his arms and tilted his head in contemplation. "It’s unclear. It’s just that...she saw you as her guide--not the cleansing kind, but...you know...like a life guidance or something?"

"I see..."

It was easy to see, though. Zein was probably the first one who made her fix her behavior and told her to own up to her past. He was the only one with the power to do so, because the only thing that could tame someone like Senia--so arrogant yet so desperate--was someone who held her life and death.

"That kind of feeling can develop into a lot of things," Bassena exhaled long. Naturally, it could be anywhere from dependency to love. She might end up seeing Zein as a big brother--like his chicks did--or end up falling in love. "But she also knows you’ll never fall for her in any scenario."

Zein chuckled. Well, he did make a pretty clear declaration that he was only attracted to males.

Well...for now, he was only attracted to Bassena.

"Who would have thought something like this could happen when I met her in that studio," Zein smirked. "I didn’t remember much, honestly, but I do remember thinking she was weird. In a bad way."

Bassena chewed the inside of his cheek and glanced at the guide. "It kind of scares me to think that I might ended up like her--or worse--if I didn’t meet Joon and Radia back then."

Zein almost choked when he tried to stifle his laugh in the middle of swallowing his food but ended up letting the laughter out anyway once he stopped coughing. He tried to recall how conceited and entitled Bassena was during their first meeting--although they could also chalk it up to Bassena feeling woozy from the heavy injury and the leftover sensation of near-eruption plus sexual guiding.

"Hmm...yeah, you weren’t cute back then, so you’d be even less cute," Zein gave his final verdict.

"I shall be filial to Joon for the rest of my life."

Zein laughed again and stopped midway when he saw the cloud parted and they could finally see the Southern Kingdom from the window. "Is that--"

"Mm," Bassena nodded, pulling Zein closer to the window and pointing in a certain direction.

Zein couldn’t see it well, but he could vaguely make up a line of sparkling blue at the furthest point of the continent. Unconsciously, he held his breath as his mind conjured up the picture from the link that he had been secretly looking at for months now.

The Cerulean Sea.

"That’s the site of our final date." ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com