There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 747: Side Story 4. Endless Journey - 30

At the end of summer, their little family made another journey to Projo.

This time, they weren’t just looking around the Academy, but escorting the twins for their first dorm life. Fortunately, the academy provided an esper-guide dorm beside one only for espers and one only for guides. After all, the academy’s goal was to foster a good and equal relationship between espers and guides from an early age.

Thus, the twins could secure the same room for them to live.

It was better than living separately in two different buildings, and Zein could breathe a little easier. Like any parent, he always thought his children were good and sweet children. But he also knew they had a mischievous bone--like any children their age. The cave incident was the proof. Being together, the twins would be able to remind each other to be careful and most certainly, they would take care of each other well. As always.

Bassena, however, couldn’t take it no matter what. He hated being away from his family. Just like how he hated being away from Zein, he didn’t like the thought of his baby boys living on their own so far from home. What if they felt lonely? What if they got bullied? What if they weren’t fed well?!

"You’ll have to call us every day, okay?" Bassena grabbed the twins’ shoulder. "E-ve-ry-day!"

"I got it, Dad," Kar rolled his eyes. "Asa will call you in the morning and I’ll call you in the evening."

"If something happens, you have to tell Einar and Arnar, okay? You know you can find them in the guardian room, right?"

"We know..."

"Don’t hide anything, okay? Tell me if the meals are not good--tell me if anyone disturbs you, okay?!"

"Yes, yes--we got it, Dad!" Asa clapped his hands.

Bassena looked at his boys, his babies, his young men...oh, why did they suddenly look so mature?

"Can you...call me Baba just once?"

The twins sighed and hugged their father, patting the esper’s back. "We’ll be fine, Baba."

"Yeah, you’ve taught us a lot, so don’t worry."

"Ugh--my boys!"

Zein, carrying his daughter, watched his husband being all dramatic--again--while rolling his eyes. But, well...that dramatic act always made Zein calm down in return. Lucy, however, stayed fussy.

She refused to get down from Zein’s hold, and didn’t even want to hug her brothers. The girl buried her face in her father’s shoulder, pursing her lips when they entered the dorm building. She was still laughing when she thought they were going for another family vacation, but the reality dawned on her when they entered the dorm and the twins’ stuff--including the suitcases she chose for them--were put inside the dorm bedroom.

Kar and Asa had to go through a lot of coaxing just to see their sister’s smile one last time before they started their dorm life.

"Princess, we’ll come home often, okay?" Kar said, kissing his baby sister’s hand.

"We’ll go home for our birthday, okay? Or--or, you can visit us here, Lu! " Asa offered a compromise. "People here will be okay with you around, so you can play lots!"

"...really?" she looked at their fathers.

"Sure," Bassena caressed his daughter’s hair. "We’ll borrow Uncle Dia’s portal to go quickly."

"Really?" the girl jumped. "Every day?"

"...not every day, Princess."

Lucy pursed her lips. "Every week?"

"Your brothers need to study, baby," Zein rubbed the pursing lips. "Let’s not bother them too often, or they might get bad grades and have to stay during a long holiday instead of going home."

The little girl gasped and clasped her mouth, shaking her head in horror.

With that, a concession was made and they had one last hug before leaving--of course, Lucy gave her prettiest smile to her big brothers. Still, she sobbed on their way home until she was exhausted and fell asleep. When they arrived at their big house, Bassena couldn’t help but sigh.

"It’s so quiet..."

* * *

Life without the twins needed adjustment. They were energetic, they were boisterous--even the self-proclaimed calm son Karna. They filled the house with sounds and laughter, even when they were fighting with each other.

Even Ayya forgot sometimes and still prepared the boys’ breakfast and after-school snacks, only to realize there were no recipients to enjoy them. Zein and Bassena still checked on the boys’ room before going to sleep, forgetting that they just had a video call with the boys a few hours ago. And Lucy...Lucy was still calling for them sometimes when she wanted to play, and she would sulk right after, asking when she could see her brothers again.

After a few days, the girl memorized the time when her brothers would make a call to Dada’s commlink, and would already wait eagerly to be the first one to greet them. She would even ask for her Dada’s commlink so she could be the one to press the ’accept’ button on the incoming calls.

Sometimes, her Dada and Baba were busy with something and she had the privilege of talking with her brothers by herself. She especially liked it when she could talk with them a lot on the weekend, although it made her jealous that they seemed to be doing fine over there. Well, it was okay--Baba said he was jealous too.

The twins would also send their pictures to Baba’s commlink, and Baba would print them out so Lucy could enjoy them without having to stare at the commlink for a long time. Dada said it wouldn’t be good for her development.

But one day, Lucy saw the picture of her Brother Kar training using a wooden sword, and she gasped. Her baby brain suddenly recalled something and she immediately ran toward her Dada.

"Baby, what did I tell you about running inside the house?" Dada looked at her sternly, but Lucy was on one track mind at that time, so she ignored his warning and hurriedly climbed onto her Dada’s lap.

"Dada! Dada!" Lucy waved Kar’s picture in one hand. "Lu remember something!"

Zein glanced at the printed picture and caught his daughter so she wouldn’t fall from too much excitement. "Remember what?"

"The dream! Lu’s strange dream!" she clapped her hands. "Lu remember a bit! There’s sowrd--"

"Sword."

"Sword! Many sword! Lu use them to fight monster!"

Zein raised his brows and straightened her back. "You fought monsters in your dream?"

"Ung! With sword and spear and--and--pointy stuff, thin..."

"Arrow?"

"Arrow!" the girl nodded energetically. "Monsters everywhere, but Lu go swush swush and make them disappear!"

Zein blinked as his daughter copied the movement she had inside her dream, narrowing his eyes as all kinds of possibilities swirled inside his head.

"Do you remember what the place looked like, baby?"

Lucy stopped slashing her arms around and tapped on her lips while thinking. "Ngg...not really," she nodded. "But Lu remembers lots of rab...rabbrrr..."

"Rubble?"

"Rub-brr!" she nodded and clapped her hands.

Immediately, Zein revisited one of the visions he received from the shards in the past. It was the only vision he received not from Setnath, but Lucre. The human before receiving godhood. The human who fought monsters just like them. In another world, another time, maybe.

He remembered what Lucre was looking at at that time. An urban landscape; some places still standing, some already turned to rubble. Was that what Lucy saw in her dream? Her previous life’s memory?

"But it’s weird, Dada..." Lucy frowned a little bit. "Lu feel bigger, taller...stronger! Like grown up!"

"Is that so?" Zein smiled, stroking the platinum hair gently. It seemed like she did dream of her previous life.

Why? Zein frowned slightly. Was the memory and the personality trying to break through? What would happen if those memories come back? Would Lucy still stay Lucy, his lovely daughter? Or would she turn into Setnath?

"Dada?" Lucy pressed her fingers in the middle of Zein’s knitted brows. "What’s wrong?"

"Nothing," Zein closed his eyes for a second and when he opened it, he was already Lucy’s darling Dada. "Thank you for telling me, baby."

"Unh!" Lucy nodded and grinned widely. "Because Dada say Lucy should tell Dada!"

"Good girl," Zein pinched the pink cheeks. "Do you have those dreams again these days?"

"Mm..." the platinum hair bounced around as Lucy tried to remember. "Lu don’t think so..."

"Do you remember when it started?"

"Hospital!" this one, Lucy remembered. "When brothers in hospital!"

Ah...was it triggered by the twins’ awakening? Zein observed his daughter’s face, trying to find anything different with her. From the look of it, however, Lucy didn’t seem to be disturbed by those dreams. If anything, she looked happy that she was doing something similar with his brothers--even inside a dream. Her blue eyes were sparkling brightly, unlike Lucre’s tired ones. And as she waved her hands as if using a sword, she laughed happily, heartily.

That smile alone erased the worry Zein had.

Why should he worry about some conjecture? The last thing he wanted to do was treat his daughter differently just because he thought someone else would take over his daughter’s body.

Let’s think about things when it actually happened, not before.