New chapter is live.
Settle in, take your time, and let’s see what waits in the dark 🖤
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Snow drifted through the dark beyond the window, catching the lights of Loplers as it fell.
Even a garbage heap like Loplers changed a little during Christmas.
A city full of people who would never pray to God still used the holiday as an excuse to indulge themselves.
In lives that might collapse at any moment, even villains needed something to hold onto.
Somehow, that made their rough little rituals feel more sincere than the polished celebrations outside the city.
Adrian had prepared a table full of food.
Not only because it was Christmas, but because an unexpected guest had come to the office.
Chris Redfield, ace operator of the BSAA, had not spent Christmas with family.
Instead, he had come to Loplers, a place that looked fundamentally wrong under holiday lights.
In the year and change since the Loplers incident, Adrian and Chris had not met in person.
Chris contacted him occasionally, mostly to confirm T-Lilith’s physical condition and sometimes to probe for useful information.
Adrian had never expected Chris to show up at his door without warning, on Christmas of all days.
When Adrian opened the door, he froze.
T-Lilith froze too.
Out of reflexive hospitality, Adrian invited the stone-faced wall of muscle inside.
Chris actually walked in without even pretending to refuse.
That was not the most shocking part.
The most shocking part was that after Chris drank an entire bottle of the harshest liquor Adrian owned, the iron-hard man started crying.
Because he had lost the partner he trusted most.
Jill Valentine.
The woman who had survived the Spencer Mansion incident with him and later joined the BSAA at his side had gone down with Wesker to save him.
No body had been found, but the fall was high enough to kill a person several times over.
Even so, Chris was clearly clinging to the smallest possibility that she had survived.
“You think Jill’s alive, don’t you?” Chris demanded, drunk and desperate.
“You know something.
Say it.
Say something!”
Adrian sat at the dinner table, looking at Chris as the man swayed and rambled, then at T-Lilith.
Her face was blank, but her eyes were full of impatience.
Adrian sighed.
He wanted to spoil the answer for Chris.
He really did.
But he could not.
‘Spoilers are obnoxious for a reason.’
In the end, Chris passed out face-first on the table while muttering under his breath.
Adrian used an absurd amount of effort to drag the heavy man onto the couch.
Then he turned to T-Lilith with an awkward smile.
“Christmas with only T-Lilith and Adrian…”
“Let it go,” Adrian said, waving a hand.
“He’s had it rough.
He’s different from people like us.
We work because we need to eat.
People like him work because they want the world to be better.
Even if, right now, it doesn’t look like it’s helping much.”
T-Lilith’s expression tightened with displeasure, and she clearly did not listen.
She muttered something about a promised candlelit dinner, video games, and what was supposed to happen after.
“It’s fine.
We’re on vacation for a few days.
We have plenty of time.”
Adrian pulled T-Lilith into his arms and rested his chin on top of her head, lowering his voice.
After returning to Loplers with T-Lilith and resting for a few days, Adrian’s life had gradually settled back into shape.
Now he had a terrifyingly strong partner working under him.
T-Lilith shot well, hit hard, and had inhuman strength.
Before long, word spread that Loplers now had two Mad Dogs.
His fees went up.
Business improved.
The only thing giving Adrian a headache was T-Lilith’s fighting style.
She had a bad habit of charging through gunfire with no concern for her own body.
Every time Adrian had to treat her wounds, his heart nearly twisted itself apart.
“If you keep doing that,” he had warned her, “you stay home next time.”
After that threat, T-Lilith restrained herself a little.
Between Adrian’s habit of working hard and spending little, the two of them soon saved a large amount of money, enough to live comfortably for years.
Recently, Adrian had been considering taking T-Lilith to another country for a vacation.
She had been born in a lab where no one treated her as a person, then dropped straight into Loplers, a nest of killers and scum.
That was a terrible foundation for anyone’s view of the world.
Adrian felt he needed to show her what the world was really like.
After clearing away the dishes, Adrian looked at the couch Chris had occupied and decided video games were not happening tonight.
The new Xbox 360 was only a few days old.
Adrian could live with that, but T-Lilith had fallen in love with it.
She spent enough time holding the controller that she was showing worrying signs of becoming a shut-in gamer.
T-Lilith sat on the windowsill with her arms folded, displeasure written across her face.
Her look demanded that Adrian make it up to her.
He checked his watch.
It was almost eleven.
Adrian walked over, scooped her into his arms, and murmured, “Don’t be mad.
Let’s go to bed.”
Deep into the night, a hand in a black leather glove pushed open the door of a local Loplers inn. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
Behind the counter, the owner was looking at an adult magazine and pleasuring himself.
The door startled him so badly he slammed the magazine facedown onto the counter.
He had not even managed to pull up his pants before he lifted his head, furious at whoever had ruined his mood.
Then he froze.
The person who had entered was a stunning woman with smooth black hair cut short.
Large sunglasses hid most of her pale face.
Her red lips carried the faintest hint of a smile.
She wore a beige coat, with long legs in warm black stockings visible beneath it, and black heels on her feet.
A large black leather case hung from one hand.
One glance told the owner she was trouble and temptation in the same package.
He leaned forward just enough for the counter to hide what his pants did not.
Then he gave her what he clearly believed was a gentlemanly smile.
“Ma’am, how can I help you?”
“A room,” the woman said.
“A clean one.”
She emphasized clean just enough to irritate him.
In his mind, he immediately crossed off several rooms where he had secretly installed cameras.
Then he handed her a key and quoted a slightly inflated price.
The woman did not care.
She paid without hesitation.
She went upstairs.
The sound of her heels on the stairs made his pulse jump.
The middle-aged man pulled up his pants with a leering smile, tossed the magazine into the trash, and thought for a moment.
Then he took out a glass, poured juice into it, and sprinkled in a little white powder.
He chuckled to himself, set the tainted juice on a tray, carried it upstairs, and knocked lightly on the woman’s door.
The door opened only a crack.
Through it, he saw she had already removed her coat.
A red bodysuit outlined the perfect lines of her figure.
Her sunglasses were gone now, and her dark eyes looked at him with mild curiosity.
Forcing himself to keep his composure, the owner smiled kindly and offered the glass through the crack.
“Complimentary.”
“Oh?” The woman smiled as she accepted it.
“How thoughtful of you.”
She looked up at him, amusement flickering in her eyes.
“Tonight is going to be long.”
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Want to keep going?
I hope this chapter gave you another reason to stay with the story.
There’s still plenty ahead, and things are only starting to unfold.