"Ah, you got lucky" Ludwig said as Adam washed away all the fortune on the table like an ocean wave with both hands.
"you said the same thing for the last hundred times too old man" Adam used to get cocky after each win and by now every devoted player knew it, some liked it about him some hated it.
"No, this can't be true he is cheating I think we all can agree on that. this ridiculous win streak! How?" Erron as always was envious and sure about killing Adam right where he sat on this very table.
Even though the final battle wiped out almost all the civilization on earth and turned it into a land filled with all sorts of freaks, here in the city of Vina law was still respected in a way and stopped kinds of Erron to do whatever they wished.
"Don't worry Erron I'm going to spend all your money on Lilith and buy her all she likes" Adam said then he kissed Lilith passionately as he gazed upon Erron to be sure he was turning red from anger. perhaps before all the sex and money and living the luxurious life Adam mostly enjoyed rubbing off his winning prizes on Erron's hateful face.
"ok love go to our room and make sure the bed is warm enough for when I come back," Adam said looking at Lilith's green eyes.
She got up from his lab and left the game table with a lustful smile.
"oh fuck this I'm going to get you, tomorrow bastard, just you wait" Veins on Erron's face bloated almost ready to explode. He cursed Adam and left the game table to drink himself to death as he always does after a lost game and before his rage makes him do something stupid that he won't regret.
Adam got to the balcony and looked at the shining crowded city beneath him even in the latest hours this city still makes a lot of noises.' it's good that most of the cities have run out of fuel after the war or the vehicle sounds just would make this city unlivable' Adam thought as he was enjoying his shitty cigarette.
Ludwig came next to him the old man looked like a dwarf next to Adam, fat as a pig and partly bald with a thick mustache.
"you know; you remind me of myself when I was young," he said breathing heavily.
"Sure, if my legs were chopped off in the war and I ate like a pig then I could imagine it"
Adam's jokes always made the old man laugh however harsh they were.
"Thanks for the compliment but I mean you know how to enjoy life even in these dark days," Ludwig said as he wiped up his sweaty face with his handkerchief.
"Just like everyone else in here. I mean we all know one day the wild world outside the city walls may come and turn Vina to ashes too" Adam said and threw his cigarette bot out on the street.
He looked at the shining city of Vina again, full of lights and life the city of love and lust they called it made by the richest for the richest, the only place where gold and money still had value protected by the veterans and ex-soldiers of war to keep the poor in line.
"Is it that horrible outside? You said you were on the road for how long? Two…three years?" Ludwig asked.
"Two and depends on which kind of life you are used to but I guess the horrible part is because of endless possibilities out there" Adam however young had experienced eyes that witnessed bitterness and sadness, agony and savagery, and more.
"by the way, most of you had all the money in the world, so please explain to me how you ended up having only the cheapest cigarette brand in your stock?" Adam asked trying to change the subject.
"We had more coffee addicts at the time so we had to buy more of that I guess," Ludwig said and continued
"ok I'm going back inside and you should too, trust me memories are deadlier than bullets and fortunately here we have drinks enough to dodge all its bullets"
He was right, Adam thought and followed him back inside to the hall where people were drinking and eating the best foods on earth flirting with each other like a bunch of teenagers all this put the natural smile back on his face but before he called it the night Adam sat next to drunk Erron not to mess with him or anything it was just all the seats were taken.
"Aaaaaah you bastard aaat u wan now? mo money?" Erron could barely talk
"no Erron I want to know what YOU want for a change" Adam for once really wanted to know the reason behind his hatred and drinks made most of the bastards honest for a while and maybe he could find something to rub on his face tomorrow after a nice win.
Erron smirked "I… I tell you a sec…ret" Constant hiccups made it even harder to understand what he was mumbling
"I'm a sin…I'm a fu…king sin I aant waat u have I want aat eve…ry one has"
"I'm the god…amn Envious Erron"
Adam looked at him the way people look at retarded people with sympathy and feeling a bit sorry for him and being sure of Erron's craziness "Yes you are" Adam seconded the fools' words.
"you are the sin of losing" Adam smiled and took a sip of his drink then headed to the stairs and whispered to himself "This idiot… I love it"
Before he goes back to his room he looks at the Riches' hall as if it would be his last time. rich people who survived the war in their fancy clothes and the way they talked as if they forgot the rough world behind these walls. Tables full of foods that people can't even dream about having nowadays. For a moment Adam felt superior to them but then he remembered how he looted the dead for years just to be part of this society and his bitter sense of guilt made him feel lower than the rest again.
He looked at the marble naked statues that were probably thousands of years old, he wished that they could talk and tell him if he was worse than the people here or not, with the things they might have seen they could judge him honestly.
Adam smiled as if he was sure he was getting crazy just like Erron.
'Guess it's the side effects of playing cards with madmen' he thought, then took the stairs as his heart started beating faster.
He couldn't wait any longer to see his love his lust his comfort the reason he woke up with a smile after his nightmares each night, Lilith that fine woman of his. Adam opened the wooden door of his room and there she was in the soft bed with a purple silk blanket partly covering her naked body.
Lilith with her hair red as the flames and her skin white like the pearls one can find deep in the ocean. Adam always thought she probably stole all the remaining beauty of the world for herself.
Time would pass fast as the light in her arms, the only place that Adam could forget about all he was and all he is.
She was the remedy to his darkened soul, a reminder of goodness, or perhaps all of it was his pure lust and love for her.
Lilith as she was gently moving the tip of her finger on Adam's hairy chest and his head lying on her belly said "You shouldn't walk around and make enemies for yourself in here. Adam, I know what these people are capable of" She worried about him and always warned Adam about this place.
"These people saved thousands of girls from war to be their toys so don't get bored in here, their cozy huge hall so don't expect me to act as I like them cause I can't," Adam said and turned sour in seconds just by thinking about the true face of this place. In this beautiful city people were slaves not by chains and force of the guns perhaps but with gold and cash which the rich always had and others didn't and how they enslaved the people of Vina with invisible collars of their pockets.
Lilith tightened her arms around Adams's body and tried to calm him "I'm sorry I shouldn't have brought it up I just don't want to lose you"
Adam kissed her hand "You won't"
What was worse was that Vina with all the bad things about it was the last artifact of the civilized and good old days of the life
before the final war Adam as someone who traveled from the western empire to the east knew it better than most and that fact annoyed him more than anything and all the sex and drink and gambling couldn't clear that from his head.