"Do you know much about the team members he's currently working with?" Christian asked, and when his sister shook her head, his grin deepened.
"Well," he said, amusement lacing his voice, "the four of them make such an eccentric group that if someone told me they were shooting a movie together instead of working on taking over some companies to make connections, I'd believe it without question."
"All their personalities are so interesting, after all, it's hard to take them seriously sometimes."
He raised one finger.
"First, the team leader, Zero. An android."
"Next, the one in charge of legal matters. A shady lawyer who'll do absolutely anything for money. And I do mean anything."
"Then there's the gangster. Looks like your typical reckless brute, but in reality, he's so cautious that even I got frustrated reading about how he operates."
And finally, his eyes gleamed with mischief as he held up a fourth finger.
"But the most interesting one… is the only woman in the group. A regular female office worker in her twenties."
Christian leaned back slightly, the amusement never leaving his voice.
"At first glance, you'd think she was the quiet, dependable type… polite, reserved, someone who does her job and goes home. But in truth, she had one of the wildest private lives I've ever read about."
"She used to sleep with at least three different men every week. That was her normal."
Annabelle blinked, clearly surprised.
"But then…" Christian continued, "she met Zero. And, somehow, fell head over heels in love. And just like that, she stopped seeing anyone else."
He let out a soft laugh and shook his head slightly.
"You wouldn't believe how shocked I was when I read her file for the first time."
"Someone who clearly didn't want to be restricted by relationships, who always preferred something casual, suddenly changing all of that… for Zero!"
"Is he really that charming? Or is it her taste that's just… strange?"
"I honestly couldn't tell," Christian finished, his voice filled with genuine intrigue, as if he were describing some fascinating, unsolved mystery.
And just as he expected, his sister was also equally curious, about this woman, or perhaps more so, about Zero's love life. Her curiosity only deepened when she remembered one particular detail.
"And… is he also sleeping with her?" she asked, her tone hesitant, yet undeniably interested. After all, Zero was an android.
Christian nodded, already prepared for the question. "That's another thing that astonished me," he said. "Because yes!"
"He is sleeping with her."
Then, a faint laugh escaped his lips.
"But the thing is… because of the way I built him, as in due to the current limitations in my skills, while he can go through the motions of sex, it's not perfect. There are still definite limits."
"So with someone like Mina, who had such a… wide history, you'd think she'd never be satisfied with just that."
"But… she actually is."
"And for the first time, I really got to witness just how powerful love can be."
Annabelle looked fascinated, deeply absorbed in this story that crossed not only boundaries of circumstance but even the boundary of race itself. A woman and an android… it was something she just saw in movies, after all.
But then, something occurred to her. She sat up slightly, eyes narrowing.
"Wait, does she even know? That he's not human?"
"Naturally, no," Christian said calmly. "It's a rule I set for him. Zero would never break it."
Annabelle frowned slightly as she asked, "And… you don't plan on changing that?"
"Who said that?" with a smile of his own, Christian asked.
"If he were to come to me one day, and tell me himself that he wanted to reveal his true identity… I think I'd probably agree."
Yes. Without hesitation.
Because if Zero were to truly ask for that… ask to reveal the truth, then that would mean he had developed genuine feelings. And to Christian, that was something deeply important.
Besides, if it was just about Mina… Christian had already dug into everything about her. And somehow, he felt he could trust her.
After all, she was a woman who had thrown away her entire lifestyle, everything she once believed in, for Zero.
Her feelings toward him… even felt a little scary.
Because what made her even more intriguing… was that she was too competent. So competent, in fact, that when Christian first saw her listed as an ordinary employee in the company, his first thought was that something is wrong. It just didn't make sense.
But then he found out, that she was actually hiding her ability.
She deliberately kept her performance at the bare minimum, and would never go beyond what she was directly assigned, even if she could surpass it with ease.
Why would someone so capable deliberately hold themselves back like that?
Christian, feeling strangely obsessed by the question, dug deeper into her background.
He searched, hoping to find the root of it… thinking maybe it was linked to her parents, her upbringing, or something from her childhood.
But it turned out… she came from a normal family. And her childhood, too, was completely ordinary.
So how did she turn out ?
It remained a mystery. One that Christian couldn't stop thinking about.
Even as all those thoughts swirled through his mind, he continued the conversation with his sister… who, for her part, felt a quiet relief. It was comforting to know that Zero could have a life of his own, if he ever chose to… no, if he ever developed the desire for it.
"Then, what do you think about his current course of action, right after he failed with his last attempt?" Annabelle asked, satisfied with the topic of Mina and now turning her attention back to Zero's progress in the task her brother assigned to him.
Christian replied with confidence in his tone, this time. "Naturally, he'll succeed."
And so, he began to explain the previous events, the situation surrounding Zero's failure during the attempt against Rhyven Holdings, and what came after.
But maybe she was already too tired. Or maybe this topic simply wasn't as captivating as the last.
Because in the end… his sister fell asleep quietly in his arms.