There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 458 - 451. Tracing Steps

"Phew--now I can make dinner without worry," Bassena let out a breath of relief and tapped on Kei’s shoulder, who was wiping the cold sweat on her forehead. "Talk with Ron and send tomorrow’s planned route to HQ."

"Yes, Sir."

Bassena stretched out and walked away to the camp’s makeshift kitchen with Naoya. It was kind of funny that the one in charge of kitchen duty was the Commander, but Bassena wouldn’t let Zein eat something below his standards, so it was a win for the whole squad.

While waiting for the food, Zein used the time to guide the espers, including Naoya, whose kitchen duty was done after he finished preparing the ingredients for Bassena to work on.

"Aah...direct guiding is still the best," Zhan exhaled slowly and closed his eyes in delight as the soothing sensation washed over him, calming all of the tension caused by adrenaline pumping non-stop for the whole day.

"I know you can do it, but...it still amazed me to this day that you can really guide us all even with Commander on the line," Gus said. "Regardless of the size of your vessel, are you not tired, Zein?"

"It’s fine as long as I’m not fighting directly," Zein said. "A lot of guides don’t realize this, but physical stamina correlates greatly with mental capacity."

"Oh, oh--I know that!" Zhan snapped his fingers. "A healthy mind comes from a healthy body!"

Zein raised his brow in contemplation. "I don’t know that idiom, but well...if your body is low in stamina, you get tired easily. And tired people get cranky easily."

"I can vouch for that," Gus smirked while glancing at the spearman.

"What?"

"Whatever. So you meant to say that if guides don’t get tired easily, they’ll be able to guide more, right?" Gus looked back at Zein.

"Of course," the guide nodded. "It’s the same as you, right? Just the other way around--your body gets sluggish when your mind is tired from the corrosion."

The espers nodded their heads like a bunch of school boys. "So...you weren’t sending them to the gym every day merely to be able to move with our pace, huh?"

"Naturally? If it’s just that, I wouldn’t make the training regime mandatory for the whole department."

"There’s still so much we don’t know, huh?" Gus laughed. "It’s good that you make that school, then. Although you won’t be able to see how it proceeds until everything’s over."

Zein shrugged. "I have trusted people over there."

Zhan blinked and suddenly perked up. "Talking about that--I thought you were supposed to come with a whole bunch of bodyguards? Iron Brigade or something?"

"From the Iron Shield?" Zein leaned back and reflexively looked to the west. "They’ll come with the mercenary group later."

"Why?"

"Because we’re not supposed to come with a lot of people at the start, stupid," Gus bonked the spearman’s head with the book he had been reading while waiting for his turn to be guided. "Not until we find a big enough plot of land to make our first command base."

Zhan clicked his tongue and snarled at the swordsman. "If you know I’m stupid, stop hitting my head and make me dumber, stupid!"

"Are you just casually agreeing that you’re stupid?"

"What’s wrong with being stupid? I just need to be strong!"

"...stupid."

Zein chuckled at the banter that always made it feel like he wasn’t on a highly dangerous mission. Well...with Bassena and these people around, it just felt like a regular dungeon so far. The simulations he always took together with the other guides made him get used to the perpetual darkness faster too.

And that was one of the reasons why the Iron Brigade didn’t come yet. Aside from other tasks Zein still had them doing back home, there was no point in having them here when the advance troop was just going through the same path as last year’s excursion. A waste of resources, and more burden for the guides.

But later...later when they had established the base; that was when the unknown danger would start, and the brigade would be needed to protect Zein and the shards--just as what House Ishtera was originally created for.

* * *

"Did you find something?" Zein asked right away after entering Han Shin’s tent. The healer was hunching over his research table, checking the little dark purple shards found in the Cerberus’s mouth.

"Just that it seems to have a similar energy pattern with Scepter," Han Shin replied while huffing. "But it’s faint, kind of like..." he moved his head left and right in contemplation. "A diluted version of it?"

Zein narrowed his eyes and took a seat on the bed, frowning. "Is it possible to find out if it’s natural or intentionally created?"

"Not with just shards," Han Shin shook his head. "If we can find an intact one, then..."

"The other hounds didn’t seem to have it, so it’s definitely not something any beast could have."

"And nothing from the beasts we encountered along the river too, so..." Han Shin closed the tube of the purple shards again. "Maybe if we encountered a commander-type."

Zein nodded in agreement and stood up. "I’ll tell Bas to keep an eye out. Good night."

"Good night," the healer yawned and waved his hands. "Please refrain from shagging when your tent is next to mine, okay?"

Zein chuckled and stepped out of the healer’s tent. It wasn’t hard to spot the bright platinum hair in this safe zone, sitting on a chair by the riverside, watching the dark jungle on the other side. There was an empty chair beside the man, as if waiting for him.

"Do you have a candy?" Zein asked while taking a seat there, and the esper unhesitatingly opened his palm with several pieces of Zein’s favorite plain candy on it.

"This is a different candy than the last time," Zein smiled and took a piece.

"I didn’t know which one you liked back then," Bassena laughed at the memory of probably their first real talk. Just like this, watching the dark jungle and black river.

This was where Zein told Bassena he had no womb, and where Bassena told him it didn’t matter. Exactly a year later, Bassena found out the truth, and two months later, they were here again.

Everything felt so different, and also stayed the same. Aside from his feelings. Zein of last year would never even thought he would be falling in love this hard with someone, thinking about the future, even...thinking about what could have been. And yet, if he closed his eyes and opened them a few seconds later, he felt like he could pretend nothing had happened; that the past year was merely a dream he had when he had unknowingly fallen asleep.

"You should get inside and rest."

Zein opened his eyes, which he didn’t realize had closed. Gentle fingers stroked his cheek lightly, brushing his hair and tucking some loose strands behind his ear.

"You’re going to patrol the whole night?"

Bassena just smiled, which told Zein everything. He took the esper’s hand on his cheek and held it, shifting his gaze back to the dark river. "Just a little bit."

Bassena chuckled and shifted in his chair, leaning his head on the guide’s shoulder. "Just a little bit, then."

"Shin said we shouldn’t fuck next to his tent."

"Heh," Bassena smirked. "I want to do it just to spite him."

Zein wanted to laugh, but he kind of believed Bassena would really do that just to be mischievous. He wasn’t saying no, though.

"Will we reach the core tomorrow?" Zein asked while drawing circles on the back of the esper’s hand with his thumb.

Bassena glanced at their intertwined hand with a slightly raised brow. "If we go with the same speed, then yeah. It’s a new path, however, so we never knew what might happen."

"Hmm..."

Bassena arched his brow higher. He raised his head and leaned closer to the guide. "Why? Do you want to do it the lake? How perverted," the esper whispered. "I’m not going to reject it, though."

Zein flicked the smirking face on the forehead. Bassena laughed and laid his head on the guide’s shoulder again. Using the same path meant they would revisit most of the place they had been before; most of the place where the initial sparks between them flickered.

Just like this moment where they sat by the riverside facing the darkness.

Perhaps it would be fun.

"We only kissed back then," Zein said. "So another kiss is fine."

Bassena tilted his head so he could see the pretty face that was so hard to chance upon last year. "Will tongue be allowed this time?"

"Sure," Zein shrugged.

"Heh—at this point, you’ll let me fuck you in that ruin again."

"Sure."

Bassena blinked and raised his head, looking at the guide with parted lips. He patted his ear to make sure he heard it correctly.

Instead of correcting anything, Zein added.

"And I won’t tell you to stop or reprimand you for coming inside this time."