There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 732: Side Story 4. Endless Journey - 15

As the flower bloomed around the cliffs and the hills, the blessed baby inside Zein’s belly grew nicely. She enjoyed her time alone there, unlike the twins, and was very gentle to Zein.

There were no complications, nothing uncomfortable, no weird cravings, and even Bassena’s proxy morning sickness disappeared entering the second trimester. She grew bigger than her brothers, probably because she was alone, and Zein’s womb had more experience carrying fetuses.

And said brothers were elated. The little knights loved to follow their fathers to the ob-gyn and took the ultrasound pictures to their room. They were full of gasped and wonder when they saw the little blob moving inside their Dada’s belly. Especially after the shape looked more and more like a baby instead of a blob. At home, they would compare their sister’s ultrasound pictures with their own.

Thankfully, rather than feeling jealous because her knight had another princess, Nari was as excited as the twins to welcome the sister. The little girl had told Zein that she wanted to have matching dresses with the baby and helped the two fathers choose the baby’s paraphernalia.

After all, a little girl would be the best curator for another girl’s room, wouldn’t it?

And as expected of Reina’s daughter, her taste was immaculate--even for Zein, who knew nothing about taste.

When the weather started to get warm and a little bit humid, the new nursery had been set up, and a labor room had been reserved. The only thing left was... choosing a name.

Yeah--even at the end of his pregnancy, Zein still couldn’t decide on it.

With a swollen belly and an inescapable back pain, Zein lounged on his favorite spot on the patio. Unfortunately, Bassena got rid of the hammock. The bright side? Zein had a new, comfortable lounge chair that felt more like a small bed with a canopy. He had spent countless mornings enjoying the sunlight while thinking about a name for their daughter there.

And he ended up falling asleep there before deciding on one.

See? He was bad with names. He couldn’t even remember most of the names of the people he had met. If they weren’t close to him, chances were low for Zein to remember even the first letter of their name.

Even for his brothers. The damn parents did not bother to tell him the children’s names--and both of them had a speech delay, so Zein couldn’t even know the babbling version of their names--so he picked things out randomly somewhere. Was it from a book? A flyer? He didn’t even know from where.

He wasn’t proud of it, so he didn’t want to do the same. But he also didn’t want to just name his daughter with his mother’s name. Just like how he wanted his twin sons to be different from his twin brothers, he didn’t want his daughter to be treated as a replacement for his mother.

Granted, the piece of her ’soul’ had been passed through generations of his mother’s ancestors, but...

Oh?

Suddenly, Zein got an idea. He called Senan and about an hour later, the clan’s new Elder arrived with Cohen.

"Young Master, I got the record here!" Senan went straight to the patio from the backyard, waving a book in his hand.

"I told you to stop calling me that," Zein clicked his tongue. It couldn’t be helped with the other household members, but it felt distant when the family’s Elder called him that, so he had been asking Senan to just call him by his name--at least in a private setting.

"Haha--forgive me," Senan scratched his head and grinned before handing over the book to Zein. "It’s hard to get rid of the habit."

This was why the others were so stiff.

Cohen, who had a bundle of folders on his hands, spoke. "The second quarter report, Patriarch."

Like this man.

"Haa..." Zein sighed and chuckled. He thought Cohen would ease up more after steadily going on a date with Rina, but...didn’t seem so.

"Give it to me," Alice took the folder from Cohen. "I’ll process it and give you the summary this afternoon, Boss."

Zein smiled gratefully. Radia had lent Zein’s old assistant after he entered his third trimester, which was a big help. Even after years, Zein still hated desk work. Unfortunately for him, it was the majority of his work after he left Trinity. While he had some assistance from the household, Alice knew him best after his family, so he was glad for her help. She even moved in so she could help the busy patriarch better.

"Why don’t you just work for Zein already?" Cohen told the girl.

Alice turned toward Zein instead. "Would you like me to?"

"Why wouldn’t I? I told you I’d die if you weren’t there when I was a Captain," Zein shrugged. "But I also knew you were raised and trained to work for the Mallarcs, so I refrained from saying anything."

"...okay," Alice nodded after staring at Zein in contemplation for a while. "I’ll talk to Young Master Radia and come back to you."

Cohen laughed at that, because even he knew the twins’ godfather wouldn’t say no if the girl herself showed willingness. "That is like a confirmation already. But why do you need this record, Zein?"

"I’m looking for names," Zein replied while opening the book. It was an archive journal being passed on from Elder to Elder, who had the duty of preserving the clan’s factual history.

Among the archives were notes about the people carrying the mark of Setnath--the people that House Ishtera protected. The last entry was Zein’s own name, and before that it was Lucia. It went all the way back to the Age of the Apocalypse.

Senan raised his brows. "Names?"

"Yeah, for my daughter," Zein flipped the older pages carefully. "I thought I would have an idea if I looked at the ancestors’ names."

"Oh, that’s a good idea," Senan clapped his hands in agreement. "There’s a pattern among your mother’s lineage."

"Yeah," Zein looked at the registry and chuckled. "Lucia, Luciola, Lumerta, Lucian..."

"Luzein," Alice muttered.

Zein smiled and leaned back, tapping on his cushion. "Since Bas told me to name our daughter this time, I was thinking of preserving the tradition."

He closed his eyes to think, muttering to himself. "Hmm...Lucre...Lucre...was it because Setnath’s human name was Lucre?"

"Most likely," Senan shrugged.

"I think the first one was also--"

Suddenly, Alice let out a sharp gasp, and Zein opened his eyes in surprise. "Alice?"

"Ah...umm..."

How weird; it was so rare for her to show this kind of reaction to anything. That was why Zein knew it must have been something shocking.

Beep

At that moment, a notification sound came from Cohen’s commlink, and the defender looked at the screen. He froze for a second before exclaiming softly. "Ah..."

Zein frowned and Senan arched his brow curiously. "What’s wrong?"

Wordlessly, Alice showed the article on her tablet to Zein. It was a headline from an entertainment media who loved to seek celebrity scandal. Naturally, Zein never read their article--although he heard Bassena was featured quite a lot in the past, when he was still active in talk shows and advertisements. This time, however, he couldn’t help but take a look.

Because he recognized the one being headlined this time.

In the article that Alice showed him, Zein could see a spread of photographs--clearly taken secretly from a distance. It reminded him of the time he was photographed with Askan after his night run a long time ago. This time too, it was photographs of two people; talking, eating in a fancy establishment, and entering a car. There was no overly intimate moment, but the captions used the term ’on a date’ a lot.

Which wouldn’t concern Zein at all if it wasn’t because one of them was Rina. The problem was...the other person with her in that article wasn’t Cohen. It was the son of a famous doctor and a hospital director in Rexon or something. Not the one owned by Mortix.

"Huh?" Zein narrowed his eyes. "I thought--"

He looked at Cohen; everyone looked at Cohen--even the house staff. It was not a secret that Cohen and Rina had been seeing each other a lot. They hadn’t made things official, but they had gone through all kinds of dates--including babysitting ones. Rina was already considered a regular in Ishtera Hills, despite spending most of her time in Althrea.

Their relationship--or rather, situationship--looked stable and without any problem. They had a bit of an age gap, but it seemed to complement them rather than a hinder. It was just a matter of time, they thought, but...

Zein observed Cohen’s hardened eyes as the man read the article. Articles--since other media started to follow on the allegation. "What are you going to do?" he asked.

Cohen did not answer for a while. He kept reading the articles with a frown, before finally straightening up his expression.

"...I want to know if it’s true," he replied at last.

"Then ask," Zein shrugged.

"Yes?"

The guide stared at the blinking Cohen and repeated. "Just ask."

"...right," it took Cohen about five seconds to decide and pressed on his commlink. "I’m not sure she’ll pick up, though. She must be busy with all kinds of inquiries--"

The ringing sound stopped after only five seconds.

"She picks up," Zein shrugged.

Cohen talked to the receiver in a slight daze. "Rina?"

[...did you read it?]

"...Yes," Cohen paused for a few seconds. What should he say next? Why was he calling again? Ah. "Is it true?"

[No!] the reply came as a shout, loud enough for Zein to hear even though it wasn’t in a loudspeaker. [I--I know what it looks like, but--]

Cohen almost couldn’t suppress his smile. "Okay."

[...Okay?]

"I trust you," Cohen said gently. "And I’ve been hoping that it’s not true."

Zein arched his brow. That went beyond just ’asking’ for confirmation, but well...about damn time.

[...really?]

"Yes."

There was a rather long pause that Cohen did not disturb. He waited patiently until Rina spoke again. [Can you...can we meet?]

Cohen frowned slightly before turning toward Zein. "Patriarch--"

"Just go," Zein waved his hand. He couldn’t hear what Rina said on the call, but it was clear enough for anyone what Cohen wanted to do. At any rate, Rina wasn’t a stranger. She was an esper he used to guide and his friend. It wasn’t someone else’s business. "Don’t come back until you sort it out. Use the portal in Trinity."

"Thank you, Sir."

Without hesitation, Cohen moved quickly, leaving Senan with an arching brow. "He never moved that fast for the other girls."

"Then it means she’s not any other girls," Zein smirked while stroking his slightly swollen belly. "How exciting--don’t you agree, girl?"

In response, a particularly hard kick assaulted Zein’s stomach.

"Oh--I’ll take that as a yes," Zein chuckled, before pausing and sighing. "...and I need to pee."