There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 49 - 48. An Old Acquaintance

Han Shin had been staring at the screen in front of him with squinting eyes, brow knitting at the latest article on the Serafi Continental Journal when his office intercom rung.

[Sir, a call from Miss Abe] came from the speaker and made him shift his eyes.

"Naomi?" Han Shin pushed the connecting button and heard the representative’s voice flow through the speaker. "What’s up?"

[Sir Han, I just received notice that a Mortix travel permit was used at the gate of Althrea]

"Hmm, yes? What’s about it?" Han Shin leaned back on his swivel chair, and tilted his head in confusion. Mortix had subsidiaries in almost every zone of the Eastern Federation, and at least one in every other area. Mortix staff traveling to Althrea, where Mortix Holding was situated, wasn’t really something weird.

And why was she reported that to him, a shareholder, instead of the one working in Mortix?

[Every travel permit from Mortix is equipped with a unique code that contained information about the permit’s origin. The said permit was coming from Area 14 headquarters]

"And?" Han Shin frowned at the ceiling, still confused.

[And no staff from here have a travel schedule to Althrea this week]

"What? So someone forges the permit or something?"

The voice paused for a bit before continuing in a careful manner. [There was a permit granted to someone that wasn’t a Mortix staff, Sir]

"Huh? You granted someone a—" Han Shin, who was leaning far into his seat, almost toppled forward from sudden movement. "Zein?!"

[It’s the only plausible reason, Sir] she replied. [Which is why I’m contacting you, since I couldn’t reach Sir Vaski...]

Han Shin had an inkling that rather than couldn’t be reached, Naomi was just too scared to talk to Bassena directly. But that wasn’t important now.

[I don’t have the authority to check the screening detail of Althrea gate, Sir, so my report ends here]

"Uh, yeah, thanks anyway. Good job!" Han Shin swiftly ended the call and called his secretary and assistant, which immediately peeked inside his office. "Aurel, can we get a recording of the visual screening from the gate? I need a picture of someone using Mortix’s travel permit this morning."

"It’s possible if it’s just that one person, Chief, I’ll get to it right away," the secretary swiftly turned back to her desk, and Han Shin shifted his gaze to his assistant.

"Wanho, where’s your hyung right now?"

The assistant glanced at his commlink for a bit before answering. "Ah, today is the guide’s re-assessment and measuring day, so Minho-Hyung is probably in the office screening for potential recruits..." his voice trailed when he saw Han Shin’s lips parted open, looking dumbfounded.

"Today is...what?" Han Shin blinked, scenarios fleeting inside his head. It was just a coincidence, right? "Call...no, let’s go down to the HR," he stood up and hurriedly walked away with his confused assistant in tow. "Aurel, send me the picture as soon as you get it!"

As a healer, Han Shin wasn’t the athletic type. It could even be said that he was quite lazy. But now, he was racing through the elevator and Trinity’s stupidly long hallway down to the HR department while pressing the button on his commlink.

"Ah geez—where is that bastard?" he turned toward Wanho and asked in a hurry. "Where’s Bas?"

As expected of his all-knowing assistant, Wanho answered immediately. "The Vice Guildmater entered the isolation training chamber ten hours ago."

"What the hell—is he a monk or something?" Han Shin grumbled. He entered the HR floor with a frown, and went straight to Director’s office. "Minho-Hyung, can I talk to the staff you stationed at the Agency—"

"Stay there and keep an eye on him! What do you mean he’s—the hell is Celestia doing there?! I’ll go there myself so just hang tight and look for him! You’ll be dead if he comes out with Celestia!"

Before Han Shin could hope to be heard, he was getting blasted by the HR Director’s loud, agitated voice. The man was fussing over the screen and the documents in the other staff’s hand, and only lifted his head after hearing the healer’s footsteps.

"What—oh, Shin, good timing! I just got word from our agent at the Central. There’s a new A-class guide coming out of today’s measurement, and he’s unaffiliated to boot. So—"

"What’s he looked like?" Han Shin cut the excited Director, staring at the man anxiously.

Minho looked at the rare expression on Han Shin’s face, before relaying what his staff told him earlier. "Black hair, blue eyes, SavAsh black combat unit...ah, we don’t know what he looked like because he wore a mask, but it doesn’t matter...right?"

The Director and the staff all stared at the healer that suddenly crouched down on the office’s floor with an agonized groan, a message from his secretary containing a picture of certain someone blinking in his commlink.

"Wanho, go to the training chamber and tell Bas to come out right this instant," Han Shin said with a sigh.

"What reason should I give him, Chief?"

Han Shin exhaled and got up slowly. "Tell him his precious Guide is about to get stolen by Celestia," he heard a slight gasp followed by hurried footsteps, and then turned his gaze toward the HR Director. "Bas will get that guide here even if he has to raze the Central building to the ground. Just ready the conference room and..." he started to type in his commlink, before grimacing toward the HR staff. "The Guildmaster will be here today,"

* * *

It was funny how he had a whooping seventeen years of career without ever having been measured once. Zein had tried to imagine the process when he had planned to take an official license four years ago, but the real thing turned out to be... anticlimactic?

When he entered the building, he followed the line of people and ended up at a registration desk. The worker asked for a document, which was supposed to be either a temple’s certification of awakening, or an associate guild’s introduction letter. Fortunately, the Captain’s recommendation letter worked as a legit document, so Zein found himself holding into a numbered badge and sitting in the waiting room.

He spent about two hours observing the people around the waiting room. The sitting area was obviously filled with guides, but there were people in suits or wearing guild badges standing around the hallway outside of the waiting room. Just like in the Towers and Esper Association building, agents from guilds and mercenary groups were diligently scouting for new recruits.

Some of the guides, however, already came with a guild staff, or already wearing guild badges and uniforms. These guides were either already contracted to a guild or here for reassessment—to see if their vessel managed to increase or not. Someone who came for measuring and was still unaffiliated like Zein could be counted with two hands.

And among those eight, Zein couldn’t help but stand out with his branded combat uniform. Not to mention his rather tall and buff physique for a guide. He looked more like an edgy assassin-type esper with his mask and all-black appearance. His observing, deep blue eyes only made the other guides flinch and scooted away from him. Almost two decades of blood and death made him full of sharp edges—something that was common in the end-zone, but made him feel like a manic killer in this part of the continent.

Not that Zein never killed someone before.

When his number was called and he stood up, almost all the people around his bench flinched and looked down. They were all unlicensed guides that had never seen a battlefield or touched miasma before, so it felt quite funny for Zein, like seeing his ten-year-old self navigating through a rogue guild.

The government agents in charge of the measurement also froze when Zein came inside. They had to double-check his application form and the copy of the recommendation letter, even asking him if he was really a guide and not an esper in the wrong building.

After that fiasco, in the end, he only needed to stand on a pedestal and put his hand over the measuring tablet.

It was the replica of the measuring tablets used in the Temple, since in the old time, all matters regarding guides were under the authority of the Temple. It changed after the charter regarding Guide’s rights and protection was established, and the World Government enacted centralized data on all guides. So while the Temples held authority over the guide’s awakening certification and guide’s training course, the government hold the authority to measure and license the guide.

Zein observed the tablet keenly, trying to see if he got the same feeling as touching the shard of Setnath’s fragment. But probably because it was a replica of the original, the only thing he felt was the tingling of being probed. The process itself wasn’t very long, and after five minutes, the light around the measuring tablet blinked and died down, and he turned around to make sure it was okay for him to take his hands off the device.

What greeted him, instead, were stunned agents. Only after he coughed loudly that they woke up from their momentary stupor, and told him in stutter to go to the next room. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com

There, he was photographed for the database and the card, twice—with and without his mask. It also took a while for the officers in charge to snap out of their daze, before they continued with the data input regarding his name and career. Since he never legally registered, there was no helping it about losing all his seventeen years of experience and being written as a newbie.

Zein didn’t really care, though.

All in all, it only took about thirteen minutes for the whole process and he was told to wait in the waiting room for his result and license card, which he used to read the free magazines and books available in the waiting room.

His license card came with a beautiful lady dressed in what Zein presumed was an expensive suit. He was confused at first because the other guides before him received their cards from another officer dressed in Central uniform. The presence of the beautiful lady also garnered attention from the other people in the waiting room, and those agents lurking in the hallway.

"Mister Luzein?" the lady called his name with a polite but bright smile, and handed his license card inside a protective case like it was a precious thing. "Congratulation on your A-class awakening. Welcome to the Sentinel World."

She proceeded to bow politely after Zein took the palm-size protective case. Inside was his first legal, official guide license card with his picture, his name, his guide serial number, and a bold ’A’ letter in deep red color. The card itself, different from his fake one, was framed in a gold line and felt luxurious.

Huh. Zein raised his brow. After seventeen years of becoming a guide, he finally knew his class.

He felt funny suddenly, and almost let out a chuckle, but suddenly got goosebumps. His instinct blared, and when he lifted his head, he realized that everyone—from the guides to the guild agents, even the government workers—was staring at him.

"Ah..." it was then he remembered that the A-Class guide was the five-star esper equivalent of the guide’s community. They were so rare that on average, only one would emerge in an area.

And suddenly, before he could even fathom what being an A-class guide entailed, he was surrounded by people. It was clear from his appearance and the fact that he was alone, that he was an unaffiliated individual.

Which meant, he was up for grab.

A high-class guide was already rare, but an unaffiliated one was akin to a miracle. Even people who came to accompany their guide flocked to him, and even though the Central’s security team made an effort to shield him, those people still managed to break through.

Zein was thoroughly flabbergasted by the sudden attention. He couldn’t even hear those people clearly, whose shouts and yells clashed against each other. He couldn’t even try to escape since those people were standing between him and the exit door.

"Ahem!"

Suddenly, a loud—no, thunderous—cough resounded within the hall, enough to make the chaotic people stop and turned. When they saw the tall, bulky man walking toward them, they frowned and made a sulking face, but slowly retreated.

The man stepped toward Zein, parting the mass casually, and stopped in front of the guide. "Long time no see, Zen."

Finally managed to recognize the man, Zein raised his brow in acknowledgment. "Ah, you’re...Askan?"

The Steel Blood, Askan Bellum.

The esper that helped him rescue his brothers, although it ended up in vain anyway.

"I’m glad you still remember me," the man smiled amiably, a contrast with the cursing sound behind him.

"What the hell—if Celestia steps forward, there’s nothing our guild could do..."

"Damn it! They already have a bunch of A-Class guides, can’t they just let us smaller guild have a turn?"

"Shit—I don’t care whether it’s Blue Moon or World Ash, just don’t let Celestia get another one!"

The grumbling and curses were delivered in whispers, but an esper like Askan Bellum had good hearing, and Zein had a high sense in the first place, so they heard them well enough. The esper smiled awkwardly, scratching his neck in embarrassment.

"Umm...I hope you don’t misunderstand. I just thought you looked quite overwhelmed back then, so..."

Zein nodded. "I appreciate it," he glanced at the sour faces of the others, and looked at the esper in front of him. "It doesn’t matter if you do it to make an offer too."

"Really?" the esper perked up, his complexion brightened considerably.

"Doesn’t mean I’ll accept it though," Zein made a half step back and shrugged.

Askan didn’t seem to be disappointed, however. "But it means I can still try, right? As I said before, Celestia is certainly happy to receive someone of your caliber. I promise I’ll see to it that you receive the best contract," the esper smiled widely, his bright and gentle demeanor never changing from how Zein remembered it four years ago.

It was a face and gesture that sow trust and security, which was probably why he was sent as a scouting agent despite being a high-star esper. Too bad though...

"Hmm...I’m afraid I have to—"

SLAM!

Before Zein could finish his word, the entrance of the waiting room was slammed open. For a second, it was as if the world had turned dark, and what was left after that was nothing but dread. Even someone like the Steel Blood paled for a second, feeling as if blood was drained from his body. All the people, especially the civilian workers and the guides, were flinching.

But not Zein.

Because from the moment he felt that split second of darkness, he already recognized the owner. Even before the heavy footsteps reverberated in the room, he knew.

Unlike before, there was no whisper, no cursing, no pursing lips and sulking gestures. Everyone seemed to be collectively frozen in place, as the tall, imposing stature walked at a fast pace. Maybe because the man also had a menacing, sharp glare and tightly clenched jaw as he crossed the room toward Zein.

"The Serpent Lord?" Askan muttered under his breath, and Zein shifted a bit so he could see the man clearer. It seemed like he came to the building in a hurry, since he only had a coat over a training shirt instead of his immaculate suit.

Askan Bellum was a big man, but Bassena treated him like air, shoving the man rudely aside as his amber eyes blazed with the reflection of a single man.

"Why—"

Bassena paused before he could let out his second word, as Zein placed the back of his fingers across his lips. "Don’t get agitated," the deep blue stared straight, drowning the flame of the blazing amber. "I won’t come if you don’t calm down."

The silence enveloping the large room was almost deafening. It took a few seconds for the fiery eyes to dim, and the deep scowl to unravel. Wordlessly, Bassena took the guide’s hand and pulled Zein away, across the room toward the exit.

Ignoring all the probing eyes.