There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 451 - 444. For Freedom

"Look, look--it’s really Zen!"

"Zen!"

"Come here! Come here!"

As expected, a shout welcoming an old-timer could be heard the moment Zein--and the other members of Trinity--came inside the mess hall for their joint dinner. Even though a year had passed since they last saw the guide, they acted like Zein only went for a short vacation.

The most excited among them all, naturally, were the guides, who even jumped on their seat to call for him. It was a guide-only table, so Zein took his six new kids to be introduced to his...well, old kids.

But not before Bassena glared at the young guide who jumped and hugged Zein without reservation.

"Why did you never write to me? You only write to Ron! It’s unfair!" Yath whined and pursed his lips right after the energetic greeting.

"I don’t have anything to talk to you about," Zein replied nonchalantly, and continued walking toward the table while Yath clinging to him.

"Ah, how cold," the young guide sighed. "But you’re getting even more handsome so it’s okay."

Zein chuckled and flicked the young guide’s forehead in warning. Yath giggled and stuck his tongue out at Bassena’s sharp glare. "He’s scary, but he’s handsome too. I wonder--"

"Wanna die?" Zein remarked in a casual tone and a cold smile.

Yath covered his mouth and let out a low snicker. "Look at you~" he elbowed the older guide’s side and curled his eyes into a pair of crescents. "You denied it before, but what is this? You treat him like his your exclusive esper or something."

"A lover should be exclusive, no?" Zein shrugged.

Yath laughed and slapped the guides’ table. "See this?" he pointed at Zein’s face--which was unmasked already--while facing the other guides from the Unit. "This is what that esper did to Zen!"

Again, Zein flicked the younger guide’s forehead, and the other guides laughed at the grumbling Yath.

"Still can’t believe it when someone brought the news about it," someone commented. "I mean...it’s the Bassena Vaski, so it’s not like I don’t understand, but still..."

"It’s Zen!" another one cackled. "You left this place and all of a sudden catch a boyfriend!"

To that, Zein only replied with old wise words. "I’m also just another human."

"So you are," they laughed and patted his arm as if welcoming him back. "So...this is your new kids?"

At that question, the eyes of the Unit’s guides shifted toward the six black-uniformed guides. They exchanged stares, scrutinizing each other--and suddenly, a staring contest happened with Zein in the middle as Yath grabbed one of Zein’s sleeves and Dheera clutched Zein’s other arm.

A few tables away where the Unit’s officers were sharing a meal with some of Trinity’s espers, the Captain chuckled while observing Bassena’s face, who hadn’t been able to take his watchful eyes off the guides’ table.

"Popular as usual," Agni made a remark, and Ron would grumble saying he should watch his mouth usually, but the scout was also intrigued about this relationship that he had witnessed the beginning of--so he just let the Captain be.

The one who replied to the Captain’s remark, however, was Han Shin. "He must be wondering which ones Zein had slept with in this hall."

"And how many," Kai added, while Gus and Zhan whistled.

They could literally see Bassena’s clenching jaw and curling fists. Still, the Captain cackled and provided the juicy information. "Eh, don’t worry," he waved his hand, and Bassena finally shifted his gaze from the guides’ table. "All of them were just fuck buddies, anyway--just physical, you know?"

That wasn’t exactly a ’don’t worry’ situation, Captain--Ron let out a sigh, and Han Shin buried his face in his hand to stifle a laugh that threatened to come out.

"I know that," Bassena hissed through his teeth, and then, to everyone’s surprise, took a deep breath to relax himself. "I know that."

Ron raised his brow and a smile crept into his face. "He promised you something, huh?"

Bassena just shrugged, and he finally stopped looking in Zein’s direction. For five minutes. Before he started to look again.

Well, this and that were different matters!

Agni almost choked from holding back his laugh--since Ron was stepping on his foot to stop him. To distract himself, he stood up and clapped his hand loudly so the rest of the mess hall turned their attention to him.

At that moment, the grinning, easy-going Agni Khan was gone. The man was the Captain now, and he looked at the room--his subordinates and the guests from Althrea--with a serious gaze and a casual smile that had become his signature.

"A little attention, please."

He spoke normally, but his naturally big voice reached the whole wide hall without any problem.

"You already know that the guests from Althrea have come, and more will be coming from now on," he started, nodding to the advance troop and the support group--and winked to the guides’ table. "You also already know what they are coming here for, and some of you have decided to join their cause."

Of course, he was also talking about himself, even though the Captain would not move until the last phase of the Operation--which was the slaying of the Fallen Star. Some of the battle maniacs, bored espers, or those who truly see the reclamation project as their way out, had been drafting themselves. Naturally, after a scrutinizing process by the Captain himself.

Agni swept his gaze across the room. "Is it for a righteous cause? Perhaps," he shrugged. "Is it for the good of humanity? Maybe. But does it matter?"

The Unit’s personnel looked at each other and smirked. Even those who just arrived here this year knew their Captain enough to know he wasn’t the one to dwell on complicated reasons.

"No," the man continued as expected. "The reason doesn’t matter. What matters is that if they succeed, we’ll gain our freedom!"

A cheer broke out from a few tables.

"We can go out of this dreary place!"

Another cheer filled the hall; this time from every table, filling the room with a vigor that wasn’t even there in the New Year dinner feast.

"And for that, we will pray for their success!" the Captain raised his glass, filled to the brim with the alcohol that came from the Mortix. The Unit’s personnel raised their glass with a grin, even the guides. And Zein, for an old time’s sake. "For our freedom."

Following those words was a slam of the glass bottom to the table, and the Captain drank the content in one gulp. Simultaneous sounds of slamming and clanking could be heard as the personnel followed their Captain and drank their own drink.

Zein smiled as he sipped just a bit of the drink before putting it down. It was nostalgic--the rough and raw festivities with just an existence of better food and drink. And now, they even received better equipment. Truly a bunch of people that were easy to please--Zein thought fondly.

He was in this place for three years, and while the conditions of the environment were even worse than in the red-zone, it felt kind of homey after he got used to it. Perhaps...if he wasn’t so jaded before, he would have enjoyed it more.

The people from Trinity, including Zein’s new kids, seemed to be taken aback by the atmosphere. It seemed like they had thought the place would be grim and gloomy--and to some extent, they were right. The place was grim and gloomy, and the personnel would either have a sour look or dead eyes.

But there was a feast lay in front of them, which they usually could only enjoy in the New Year. And within that feast also lay hope for the end of their dreary life. Why would they keep their dreary countenance then, on such an exciting night? Instead of a bleak future, they had something to look forward to now, just like Zein.

And perhaps, more than anyone, the Captain would be the one who got truly freed from this place. The shackle of law that confined him here as long as the Borderland existed would be shattered when the Deathzone got eradicated.

"Look at him go," Zein scoffed at the Captain who was already on his third glass before even touching his food. "He just wants a reason to drink as much as he wants."

It wasn’t just the Captain, though. Everyone was drowning themselves in the fun except for those who needed to be on duty the next day. Ron was one of them, who would accompany the advance troop to the underground ruin before going back. He slipped out of the room after a while, and it was only near midnight that the feast was done. He got one drunk berserker barging into his room as a result.

"Rooon..." the man slurred as he wobbled toward the bed where the scout was reading his own log.

"Hmm?"

Agni slumped to the bed--or rather, to the scout--while kept calling the younger man’s name. "Rooon...Ronaaaan..."

"What?" the scout replied casually, one hand patting the drunkard’s head and another still scrutinizing his scouting log for tomorrow.

"What will I do without you?" the Captain mumbled. "What will become of me if you’re not here?"

Rom raised his brow. He had no idea if this was the Captain’s appreciation of what he did to send Zein to Althrea, or the Captain’s worry about tomorrow.

"What if you die, huh? What should I do if you die?"

Oh, so it was the latter. "Then you choke on something and follow me to the afterlife."

Despite being drunk, Agni laughed as if he heard the reply. Perhaps he was. "Do you really need to go?" the man, who looked like he was raring for a new adventure earlier, grumbled. "Can’t you just go with me later instead?"

"You’re the one who said we do this to gain freedom."

"You’re the one who said it," the berserker grumbled. "I’m just parroting you for a speech."

Ron chuckled and put his log down. "We’ve talked about this; they can move faster if I guide them through the path. And the faster they finish this operation, the faster we’ll get our freedom."

"...I’ve already freed, though?" the Captain mumbled against Ron’s side. "I’m free when I’m with you."

Ron closed his eyes. Yes. Despite the obvious shackle, Agni had never whined about being confined here, in the prison called duty. It was he who felt it wasn’t enough; that it wasn’t fair. The one who got angry and wanted this berserker to get better things.

With a heavy sigh, Ron stared at the black cloud outside the window; the black could that was darker than the night.

"No one said we can’t aim to be freer," he said. "Even more than now."