Chapter 81: Preparation, and Krauser’s Arrival

"Strange, the car is here, where did the person go?"

Aiden circled around the car once but didn't see a single person inside or outside the vehicle. Then, he touched the engine area with his hand, only to find there wasn't the slightest bit of warmth, clearly, it had been parked here for a long time.

"A shot was fired just now, clearly there was danger, but even if they were escaping, four wheels should be faster than two legs."

While talking to himself, Aiden expanded his search range a bit further around, and then heard Roberta shout, "Aiden, come here for a second."

Aiden looked up and saw Roberta and Manuela crouching by the riverside.

"Did you find something, Roberta?" Aiden ran over and asked.

"Look, there's blood here." Roberta lifted up her skirt, pulled a tactical knife from the sheath strapped to the outer side of her thigh, and lifted a patch of grass from the ground.

"And the blood hasn't clotted yet." Roberta added, "That person should still be nearby."

Just as she was saying that, Aiden noticed drag marks on the grass, and the direction of the marks extended straight to the nearby river.

So, Aiden followed the trail to the riverside, where he found a Glock pistol on the shore. There was no warmth on the gun's surface, but Aiden took a sniff and still caught the lingering scent of gunpowder from the barrel.

"The shooter must have been dragged into the river by something." Roberta walked over, glanced at the gun in Aiden's hand, and came to a conclusion.

"What do you think it was?" Aiden asked her, "A python or a crocodile?"

"There aren't such large pythons or crocodiles around here, this isn't deep rainforest." Roberta had lived here for a long time and had never seen a python or crocodile capable of dragging a person away.

"If it's neither, then there's only one possibility." Aiden looked at Manuela. "A B.O.W. appeared nearby."

"B.O.W.? Could it be sent by Javier?" Roberta was stunned at first, then her expression turned serious.

"Other than him, no other forces should have access to B.O.W.s around here." Aiden said with certainty, "It must be him."

"But why would he do this?" Roberta was confused. Although the Lovelace family was also a mafia family, after its decline, they focused on running plantations. They had no conflict of interest with Javier, who was known as the biggest drug lord in South America.

"Who knows." Aiden shrugged.

But in his heart, he already had the answer. Just like in the original story, Javier did this on purpose to force his daughter back to his side.

This guy, driven mad by his twisted fatherly love, in order to keep his daughter from running around, not only used B.O.W.s to massacre several villages, but also released water from a reservoir infected with the T-virus, causing many innocent villagers to turn into zombies after drinking it.

"No, I must go back immediately and inform Master and the others." Roberta said anxiously.

"Then let's hurry." Aiden said as he pulled the absent-minded Manuela along behind Roberta.

In fact, the answer in Aiden's heart wasn't completely accurate, because Javier wasn't sure whether Manuela was actually at the Lovelace family estate.

But one thing was certain: the appearance of B.O.W.s near the estate was indeed connected to him.

As the three of them crossed the bridge again, under the bridge, a monster resembling a prehistoric plesiosaur was quietly lurking in the water.

After Aiden and the others crossed, the monster surfaced, swam to the shore, stretched its long neck, and dumbly stared at Manuela, who was being pulled along by Aiden.

Only after Manuela's figure disappeared completely into the moonlight did the monster slowly submerge again, but a strangely human-like expression of sorrow appeared on its terrifying face.

———

On their way back to the estate, the three unexpectedly ran into Leon.

"What happened? I just heard gunfire." Leon had heard the gunshot while contacting Krauser. But since he couldn't pinpoint the direction, he wandered around the estate with his handgun.

"There might be a B.O.W. nearby." Aiden replied briefly.

That alone was enough to make Leon serious. He asked, "Was it Javier?"

"Unless something unexpected happened, it should be him." Aiden replied.

"Did you run into those B.O.W.s?" Leon examined Aiden and Roberta but didn't see any signs of combat on them, so he quickly said, "So those monsters are hiding?"

"That's exactly what worries us." Aiden said. "God knows when or where they'll launch an attack."

"Looks like we need to go back first." Leon also understood how serious this was. Unless absolutely necessary, he didn't want to go looking for B.O.W.s in the pitch dark countryside.

"That's what we're doing. We need to regroup and plan." Aiden said.

They weren't far from the estate, so they arrived in less than ten minutes.

Roberta naturally ran upstairs and downstairs to notify Garcia and Diego. After a short wait, the two came downstairs.

"Roberta said you ran into those monsters Javier made?" Diego asked directly after coming down.

"Actually, we didn't encounter them, but someone else was attacked. They left traces behind, and we suspect it was done by Javier's B.O.W.s." Aiden briefly explained what they found.

"That's troublesome, the estate has no means of defense." Diego glanced at Roberta and Fabiola. Even though the two maids were strong fighters, he didn't think they could handle those monsters.

"Then you all need to leave." Leon said.

"Now?" Diego was taken aback. "Traveling at night isn't a good idea. This is the countryside, no street lights. The estate only has a horse carriage and an old Volkswagen Beetle from the 60s, not enough to carry everyone. Even if we wait till morning, we still won't reach the town by then."

"If that's the case, we'll have to wait until daylight to leave." Aiden said, frowning.

"Then let's leave tomorrow." Diego agreed, then asked, "Why would Javier come after us? We don't have any conflicts of interest."

"Who knows." Aiden repeated what he said to Roberta earlier.

But right after he spoke, Manuela suddenly said, "Maybe... it's because of me."

"You?" Everyone looked at Manuela.

Manuela nodded and began telling them her story, especially what her father had done in order to save her.

"So the fifty-some missing girls... it was your father's doing?" Garcia said in shock after hearing everything.

"I couldn't stand what my father did, that's why I ran away." Manuela said painfully. "If I hadn't escaped here, maybe he wouldn't have attacked you. This is all my fault."

"It's not your fault, Manuela." Aiden patted her head. "Blame your father. He's too selfish. Even if you weren't sick, with his personality, he'd still end up doing those things sooner or later."

Although Javier used the virus with the excuse of saving his daughter, based on everything that followed, even if Manuela hadn't been sick, once he tasted the power of the virus, he would have done those atrocities anyway, because his nature was evil. He was, after all, the biggest drug lord in South America. No excuse could wash away his crimes.

Even though Aiden said that, Manuela's mood didn't improve. Her face still showed deep pain and guilt.

"Listen, Manuela, if you want to feel better, tell me where your father is." Leon, whose mission was to take down Javier, finally said what he had wanted to say.

"He must face justice, both legal and moral."

Hearing that, Manuela struggled inside. Javier was her father, after all, and everything he did was for her. But Manuela was a kind girl. Everything her father had done tormented her every moment.

After hesitating a while, she finally nodded. "I can tell you where he is."

"He's at the very upper reaches of the river, there's a dam there..."

After learning Javier's location, Leon didn't act immediately. Not just because his partner Krauser hadn't arrived yet, after all, Aiden was here, along with two strong maids.

More importantly, there were still non-combatant civilians in the Lovelace estate. Aiden and the others decided to stay the night and make sure Garcia and the others were safe before going after Javier.

Although the Lovelace family had declined, they were once one of South America's thirteen mafia families. And with someone like Roberta, a ruthless veteran from the Colombian Revolutionary Army, the estate didn't lack weapons. There were not only standard rifles, but even grenade launchers and rocket launchers.

Once properly armed, Leon felt very confident, this was much better than when he was shooting Tyrants with a pistol in Raccoon City.

Since there were four main fighters, Aiden suggested they take turns keeping watch at night.

Roberta and Fabiola took the first half, Aiden and Leon the second half.

Everyone agreed, it was the best plan.

Soon, the night passed. And contrary to their expectations, there were no attacks. It was a very quiet night.

The next morning, Diego and Garcia, having packed up, took the non-combatant servants and headed to Sena Town.

Now, only Aiden, Leon, Roberta, Fabiola, and Manuela were left in the estate.

Of course, there was also Krauser. He had contacted Leon an hour earlier, saying he was almost there, and that he'd met Garcia's group on the way.

By around noon, Krauser finally arrived at the estate.

Just like the scene Aiden had seen in the CG cutscenes, Krauser was a standard white muscular man, wearing a tight short-sleeved red shirt, though perhaps it only looked tight because of his bulging muscles. He had camouflage pants on his lower half, and a jungle camouflage backpack slung over his back.