章 3: Chapter 2. The Red of the Bloody Road

"Why is there an Umbra's dog here?"

An agitated shout reverberated through the hill, pulling people's attention towards the guiding tent.

Zen, in the middle of walking out of the tent to take a breather, paused to look at the source of the voice. It had been a while since someone called him Umbra's dog, not since the guild raised to be one of the rulers of the red-zone.

He had expected to see someone he knew, probably one of the people who lived under the guild's oppression—which were a lot, honestly. But he didn't know this man, who looked like an Esper from the red-zone. Since all the guilds here were almost as shady as Umbra, Zen could only infer that he came from a mercenary group. One which wasn't Alma's.

Zen glanced at the mercenary guide who sat in the corner. She flinched at Zen's gaze, and he knew which group the agitated man came from.

"Fuck! Are you ignoring me?!" the man stepped even closer, stomping his feet on the ground as he walked. "What are you doing here, you piece of shit?"

Zen threw him a look. The man definitely tried to be intimidating, stomping his feet while his spear raised menacingly, as if he wanted to skewer Zen instead of the miasmic beasts.

How cute.

"Guiding, obviously," Zen answered nonchalantly, looking at the man straight in the eyes. He tried to remember who this man was, but he just couldn't. Zen wasn't good with putting names on faces in the first place, and he would only remember people that interacted often with him.

The man stopped a few steps in front of him, glaring. He was still young, probably no older than Zen. His gestures showed how he wanted to assert dominance, but it was quite hard since Zen wasn't small to begin with, even slightly taller than the Esper.

And the blue eyes were as deep as ever, unwavering.

The man frowned and then scoffed, before spitting out curses. "You dare to act as if you're helping people? It's your group that caused this mess in the first place!"

At this point, people have already trained their attention to them. The espers that were resting, the wounded people from the other tent, the agency workers fleeting about, the residents huddled together in the corner...they looked at the commotion caused by the loud shouting.

Perhaps still unsatisfied, the Esper spit out harshly again. "You Umbra's dog!"

Hmm, yeah, Zen still had no idea who this person was, but the man seemed to bore a deep grudge against the guild.

It wasn't Zen's first time receiving hate from his association with Umbra, so he just sighed inwardly, wondering what should he do or say to this.

But before Zen could retort, a loud, booming voice already cut at them. "Hey you brat, shut your mouth! Zen is no longer a part of Umbra, so get off!"

This loud voice that carried power was accompanied by glaring green eyes. The man frowned furiously and seemed to want to retort, but flinched when he saw Alma's hulking body walking at them. Soon, her tall, bulky figure loomed over them, way more menacing than the man ever dreamed to be.

"Alma..."

"Why are you defending him? You know who caused this mess!" the man took a step back, but not before shouting again. "Because of this, the leader's wife is—"

"I know! And I told you it's not him. He's not part of Umbra anymore!"

"But he used to be!" the man was adamant, and his voice just seemed to be getting higher. "That means he's just as scummy as them. He's just a rotten bastard but what? People are praising him and want to recruit him?" the man glared at Zen again and spat on the ground.

Zen narrowed his eyes; he wasn't sure anymore whether this man had beef with him or just...envious. But while he was just curious, Alma was seething. Her thunderous voice dipped low, meaning she was really angry.

"Hey, brat," she stepped between Zen and the man, green eyes piercing like daggers. "How long have you been living here? A year? What do you know about Zen, huh? What do you even know about us?"

"Hey, what is this?" a man in his late thirties suddenly came from behind the young esper. Zen vaguely remembered him as the vice-leader of one of the mercenary groups. It seemed like they belong to the same group, then.

Zen sighed. He hated it if things got escalated.

"Lamun," Alma shifted his gaze to the older man, still with sharp and annoyed eyes. "We give you a place to set up your group here because we thought you're a fun guy," she narrowed her eyes, and the man called Lamun sighed. "It surely not for your kids running around spouting bullshit."

"Alma, I'm sure he's not—"

"You brat," Alma ignored the older man and looked at the younger one again. "I heard about your blabbering before, all that stupid thing about setting the red-zone straight," she laughed mockingly. "You feel superior huh, coming here from a higher zone? You feel you are better than us? A fledgling that had only lived here for a year?"

Hmm...Zen tilted his head. Ah, now he knew why he couldn't recognize this man. He heard about a new group that settled in the red-zone last year. He heard they were funded by a charity foundation or something, to help the area become safer. The members obviously came from the safer zone, and most of them seemed to have this messiah complex.

Honestly, though, nothing had changed even after that. One group wouldn't be able to contend with Umbra and other rogue guilds, and there were already established mercenary groups that operated there and kept the place as safe as it could get. Perhaps that was why some of the members became quite a prick, carrying out a holier-than-thou attitude.

Well, anyone who came from outside the red-zone would feel like that after seeing the hell hole that is the red-zone. Throughout his twenty-four years of life, Zen had witnessed these kinds of people and organizations come and go in the red-zone where he lived. Thinking they'd make a change, but ended up in despair.

'I don't have time for this,' Zen shook his head and walked away, with Alma's voice still resounding on the hill.

"Hey, Lamun, do yourself a favor and educate your kids, mm?" she crossed her hand in front of her chest, her auburn hair dancing menacingly. "Tell them to stop assuming things about us red-dwellers. We're not living in a simple black and white like you privileged people are."

The younger esper frowned, but Lamun patted the man's shoulder and tried to appease the annoyed Alma. "I get it, I get it, so calm yourself. As you said, he's just a kid, so there are still a lot of things he needs to learn. I'm sorry, okay?"

Alma scoffed, and replied with a mocking tone. "It's not you who should apologize, and it's not me who should receive the apology."

"But the Guide is gone," Lamun smiled awkwardly.

"What?!" the younger esper startled, only then realizing that Zen had slipped away.

"Of course he has. Why should he stay and listen to your kid's idiotic rumbling?" Alma clicked her tongue, and started to walk away too. But after a step, she turned her head and stared at the younger esper. "And just so you know, your leader is not the only one who has their loved one impacted by this, so be more careful with that mouth of yours."

With the last sentence uttered in a hiss, Alma walked toward the southern barricade, where he saw Zen strolling in the direction of the fence.

"You better not ponder about that brat's words," Alma walking beside the younger man, whose blue eyes were almost covered by darkness.

"I was thinking that maybe there wouldn't be a dungeon break if I accepted the job," Zen muttered, maybe more towards himself than her.

"Or you could get killed there and the break still occurred and we'd be sort on one reliable Guide and everything turn out messier," Alma shrugged.

Zen chuckled, if only to rid himself of the heavy feelings from the uncertainty of his brother's fate.

"Why don't you go back there? The other guides are still out of commission,"

"Nah," Zen shook his head. "The atmosphere is already tense there. It would've been worse if I stay."

He already saw it, the uncomfortable look from the people there. "I'm guilty by association," Zen shrugged, his tone was flat and uncaring, as if talking about someone else.

The dungeon break might not be his fault, but as someone who had worked for Umbra, it'd be easy to just pin the blame game on him. Not that Zen cared what people thought of him, but there's no use staying there just to turn up the tension.

"Rather than that," they stopped in front of the fence, and Zen turned his head to look at Alma. "Can you get me inside?"

"They haven't found your brothers?"

"Would I do this if they have?" Zen muttered, and immediately closed his mouth when the agency's espers guarding the barricade came forward.

"Are you going back inside, Ma'am?"

Alma nodded, and gestured at Zen. "Yes, and I'm taking him inside."

"Pardon? But...I'm sorry Ma'am, I'm not allowed to let people other than espers inside. You know how hectic it is there—"

"It's precisely because I know that I do this," Alma put her arm around the agency esper's shoulder. She stretched out her other arm towards Zen, as if she was introducing a display's good. "Look here, this man is an excellent Guide. With this chaotic situation, don't you think it'd be helpful if we bring one Guide to do on-site guiding to reduce the need of going back and forth to the base?"

"Well, if you put it like that..." the esper glanced at Zen, pondering. Honestly, it was indeed a hassle having to go back into the base to decrease the corrosion level. It was particularly high during a dungeon break, since there was no time to rest. "But still, taking a Guide inside..."

Alma patted the esper's back, probably for reassurance, although it resulted in the poor man coughing harshly from the impact. "Don't worry about that! This man is actually pretty strong. I'll also take care of him, and I'll take the responsibility if there's something wrong, okay?"

'How strong can a Guide be?' the man wanted to argue, but he was busy coughing from the strong hand smacking his back. "If—cough—if you'll go that far, then..."

"Good man! Haha, let's go Zen!"

Zen would feel bad for the man if it was any other day. But right now, he just wanted to go inside quickly and find his brothers. So as soon as the fence opened, Zen wasted no time idling around and just ran straight in the direction of his brother's building.

"Zen, I know you're in hurry, but be careful, yeah?" she warned while running alongside him. "I'll take you to the western district, but I got to meet with my group afterward."

"I'll be fine—" Zen spoke, but immediately ducked and threw himself sideways, rolling to hide behind a wall, as Alma took out her claymore that looked more like a giant club and swung it towards a miasmic beast that suddenly jump at them from a rooftop.

Zen carefully peeked out as the claymore cleaved the beast into two. 'As brutal as always' he muttered inwardly, lamenting about his knives that were still on the blacksmith.

"You're okay?" Alma asked, scrutinizing him.

"Yeah, thanks," Zen nodded, looking in the direction where the beast coming from. "I'll take another route. You don't have to come with me, Alma, you have your own thing to do."

"Hey—"

"I won't fight. I'll just run, I can do that much. Besides..." he stared at the road on his left. It was empty, but there were corpses of miasmic beasts strewn here and there along the road. "...this path already being cleared."

Alma swung the claymore that was as tall as Zen into her back, frowning for a bit, before nodding. "Fine, but be careful."

Zen nodded wordlessly, and immediately ran through the left path. It was a little bit roundabout, but this was also a road leading to the western district. He'd reach a field which usually used by the children to play, took a right turn, follow the road, and he'd reach his brothers' building after a winding alley.

What he worried about right now, however, was the number of corpses along the way.

And it wasn't just beast corpses.

He saw bodies. Of humans. Limb strewn about, lifelessly laid on the ground, or buried beneath a beast corpse.

It was a lot.

It was a lot more than he thought.

The road was filled with corpses and debris.

And blood.