There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 54 - 53. A Heavy Leash

The dorm wasn’t as tall as the Guild’s building, which actually looked like a tower. But Zein reckoned it was as tall as the Borderland’s watchtower. Even from here, he could see the garden of the large open hall on the fifth floor.

As usual, Abel kindly explained everything to him. "The people residing here are mostly civilians, since it was relatively safer here, and the low-level members, since they didn’t have enough financial leeway to purchase their own residence," of course, the low-level here, which was 2-stars and C-classes, would be considered average in other guilds. "I mean, they could rent some space outside, but I guessed it’s cheaper to just stay here and save their money to buy a better place. Or you know, invest in better equipment."

"Well, I can understand that," Zein shrugged. That was what he did with his money anyway, buying survival tools.

"But there are some high-ranking members here too, for various reasons," Abel laughed. "Oh, Sir Han also keeps a room for himself. He sleeps here sometimes."

"Huh..."

That was unexpected. But then again, Han Shin was kind of a weird one, so Zein didn’t think too much about it. They entered the building without a fuss using Abel’s badge, and Zein was faced with another lobby and what looked like a receptionist desk, although the sign on it spelled ’residential manager’.

The old man manning the desk wore no uniform, though, and Zein could see he was an esper from the flow of magic energy. The flow was chaotic though, probably due to some kind of internal injury.

’A crippled esper," Zein thought as he followed Abel to the desk.

"Uncle, you should receive the notification already, right?"

Abel asked amiably, but the man answered with a grumble. "Yeah, making me work hard so suddenly. Do you know how large the high-floor room is?"

The guide just laughed at that. "But you did it anyway. Do you have the key?"

"I don’t want to get fired yet," the man muttered while pursing his lips. He glanced at Zein, who watched the exchange quietly, and raised his brow a bit at the guide’s mask. "Here," he put an electronic card embossed with Trinity’s emblem in front of Zein. "As requested, the corner room with a direct view of the garden and the park on the sixth floor."

"I didn’t request anything..." Zein took the card with confusion.

He didn’t even know the layout, so how could he make any request? The one most likely of doing that was probably...

"Bassena?" he tilted his head.

"Probably," Abel chuckled, getting even more amused and intrigued at what kind of relationship those two really had. They clearly weren’t mere acquaintances, but also didn’t seem like lovers...yet. "Uncle, give him the guidebook too. Zein, you can look for Uncle Dan if you need something while living here,"

The man only replied with a grumble, which reminded Zein of the elder in the red-zone. Even the kind grandma who took care of him never cease her grumbling. They grumbled whether they were upset or happy, only the intonation changed. It was quite funny, actually—and nostalgic.

Zein smiled without realizing it, the sharp, phoenix-shaped blue eyes soften into beautiful curls. Even without taking off his mask, people could tell that there was a pretty face hidden beneath.

"I’m Zein," he said while putting the card in his pocket.

The uncle put a small guidebook atop the desk while staring keenly at Zein. "Where are you from, boy?" he asked suddenly.

Zein raised his brow slightly, didn’t really expect the man to ask him any questions. He was about to say he came from Borderland, but his instinct told him that wasn’t what this uncle asking from. And it was just so that he recalled the old days as he looked at the old man.

"Araka," Zein answered shortly, truthfully. It had been long since he uttered it, the name of his hometown—if he could call it that.

Abel looked at the taller guide with widened eyes. He already knew that Zein came from the lower region, but he never expected it to be a red-zone. The most problematic red-zone in the entire Eastern Federation, no less.

But the uncle let out a smirk instead. "Figured," he shoved the guidebook toward Zein. "Nalhem," he added, and Abel blinked repeatedly. After three years, it was the first time the guide found out that this caretaker uncle came from the red-zone too.

Actually, it was the first time he saw the grumpy uncle make an expression other than irritation.

"Thanks," Zein took the guidebook without any more pleasantry. Now that he knew the uncle was another end-dweller, Zein concluded that all elders from the red-zone acted the same, which meant the old man would also hate idle courtesy. So he turned the stunned Abel and cocked his head upward. "Let’s go?"

Thankfully, Abel had used to dealing with unexpected situations, so he quickly recovered and put on his usual smile. If anything, today he learned something new; how amazing people who came from the red-zones were.

"I’ll see you around, Uncle!" he waved to the old man and took Zein to another elevator. "Mm, I think you’d do just fine even here since Uncle Dan liked you."

"You seem familiar with him, do you live here too?"

"I used to," Abel replied as he pushed the button to the sixth floor. "But my girlfriend asked to live together, so..." he smiled sheepishly, though Zein wasn’t the type who teased people because of that. Still, the smaller guide coughed awkwardly before hurriedly changing the topic to the dorm. "Ahem—I don’t know if you can see earlier, but there’s a cafeteria on the left side of the building. They provide free breakfast and dinner, but not lunch, so please keep that in mind."

Zein held in his chuckle and just nodded. It was understandable that the lowest members preferred living here. After all, lodging and meals usually sucked most of the people’s salary. Surely, with that kind of benefits, Trinity could demand the best from his workers. Zein had heard that Trinity’s annual entrance test was as popular as other big guilds.

"Up to the fourth floor were the regular dormitory rooms, and the fifth-floor kind of acted as the buffer zone," Abel continued his explanation, as usual. "You can access the garden we saw from the outside earlier through there, and there are a gym and pool, as well as a PC room and library there—you can find out the detail in the guidebook."

"And the last two floors?"

The elevator stopped and the door opened to a hallway leading to a small sitting area. Different from the dorm that Zein was familiar with, the door lining the U-shaped hallway had significant distance between each other.

"The sixth and seventh floor was for the executives," Abel replied while walking toward the left side. "It’s mostly empty, since most of them already have their own home, but there are at least three staying on this floor, if I recall correctly—ah, here we are, room number four, right?"

Zein nodded, and Abel thought him how to use the key card. With a beeping sound, the door opened to a large room—well, large for Zein anyway. Largest he ever had. Larger than his old home in the red-zone.

It even had a foyer, with a closet for traveling coats and shoes, and potted plants along the way. Inside, the place could be divided into three areas. There was a seating area with a set of couches and coffee tables in front of an electric fireplace. And then what looked like an office with a large desk, empty cabinets and bookcases, as well as a pantry complete with a coffee machine. The last area was partitioned by an elevated platform where the largest bed Zein had ever seen so far lay there. A bit away from the bed were two doors that seemed to lead into the en-suite and the closet.

"By the way, Zein, I don’t see your luggage," Abel suddenly realized that the taller guide was empty-handed all this time, which was uncanny for someone traveling for days. "You wouldn’t say you don’t bring any bag, would you?"

Although for some reason, Abel thought it could be the case if it was Zein.

"I did bring one," Zein answered, to Abel’s relief. "Although I left it in the Center’s locker since I got kidnapped so suddenly," he shrugged, and walked toward the seating area, looking down at the sofa. "But somehow it’s already here..."

Abel also stared at the backpack lying there wordlessly, wondering which one should he question about; the fact that Zein only bring a small backpack worth of ’luggage’, or the fact that Bassena Vaski was so meticulous about his pining. He looked around the room and was pretty sure the many potted plants and flowers inside the room and on the balcony weren’t included in the original interior design.

He understood now why Uncle Dan said it was hard work to set up this room. When exactly the order to prepare this room was given, he wondered. Must have taken hours to clean the room and set all of these potted plants.

No way—Abel gasped—from the moment Zein stepped into the compound?

As he looked at Zein, who was staring at the balcony filled with greenery and the garden below with beautiful, sparkling blue eyes, Abel thought that the Serpent Lord really knew what he did.

"It’s nice," Zein muttered as he placed his hand on the glass wall, serving a clear view of the garden and the park, and the majestic Trinity Tower on the other side.

Abel chuckled and gave his two bits, thinking of helping the pining man a little bit. "Yeah, it’s nice—it’s nicer than my old room...I didn’t have all these plants in my old room," he touched one of the plants beside the sofa. "Sir Vaski must cherish you a lot..."

Zein turned around, and Abel had thought he would look rather touched or something. But he chuckled instead, as if he already knew it. "How cute," he muttered, softly, like an afterthought. And then he faced Abel again, eyes already turned flat. "Is there a guide I can read about how to keep all of these alive?"

Laughing lightheartedly, Abel beckoned the taller guide to come closer, showing the man how to navigate the commlink further, including accessing the Trinity guild’s app and archive center. "Here, since this is the latest series, you should be able to scan your room card—yes, like that—now you can access the door with your link. You can widen the interface screen if it’s too difficult to read—ah, right! Here, use this if you want to hide your screen from others, and use that one if you want to make it visible, try it—mm, like that..."

It was honestly quite difficult for Zein to operate this technology when he had never touched one in his twenty-eight years of life. Thankfully, his tutors were teaching him patiently, and let him know the most essential things first. "I’ll get the hang of—oh..."

Just as Zein tried to access the library, a message notification popped up, with a bold, short sentence:

[Have dinner with me]

He didn’t even need to open it to know who the sender was, for the cute little snake on the sender’s icon was flashing adorably. Zein almost let out a chuckle, but managed to suppress it with just a subtle smile hidden beneath his mask.

"Whops—seemed like that’s my cue," Abel laughed softly at the animated little snake that couldn’t be farther than how Bassena Vaski usually acted. "I’ll pick you up tomorrow so we can go to the guide floor together—no need to see me out," he walked away with a little wave and a little grin, leaving Zein to reply to the message on his own.

"Well..." Zein looked around, took his backpack, and climbed the slight steps leading to the sleeping area.

With a rare exhausted sigh, he threw the backpack and himself to the mattress. He lay still on his stomach, before bursting into a muffled laugh and cursing at the same time.

Oh, how absurd.

He did come to Althrea on his own, but he felt like he’d been dragged around since the afternoon. And suddenly, after twenty-eight years of living in the end-zones, and seventeen years of operating as a guide illegally, he became an executive of a prominent guild with an unimaginable payout. He even had to make a new bank account within the next three days so he could receive the down payment safely.

"Ah, fuck—even the bed feels heavenly..." he mumbled into the fresh, clean sheet that smelled of something comfortable. He felt like he would fall asleep easily just by laying his head there.

Sleeping in a secure place where there was no miasma around and no imminent danger abound.

"What a luxury..."

He rolled to his back, and retracted his mask, staring at the high ceiling that glowed in a soft light.

Yes, what a luxury. A large room, a soft bed, and a secure place. Accessible food he could get for free, knowledge he could reach just by clicking a few buttons...everything he ever wanted was here.

And yet...

And yet, he felt his chest tighten.

The beads on his necklace felt incredibly heavy.