Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 165: Must... Protect... Loli!

It took some effort on her part, but the girl ultimately sat down at the table across from Zane in an empty seat. She could barely even look at the man. Though Zane now had quite the attractive appearance, he was at the end of the day a man with a cold and outright hostile personality.

Zane, however, demanded an introduction as he genuinely had no idea what to call the girl who he suspected was several years younger than him.

"Alright, what's your name, kiddo?"

The moment Zane mistook her as a child, the girl immediately pouted, her cheeks puffing up like a chipmunk as she looked away from Zane. Though Zane did not know why the kid was pouting, she eventually told him in a not so polite tone.

"My name is Lily! Lily Arbor! And for the record, I'm not some kid you can make fun of. I'm eighteen!"

Zane was not the only one with a dumbfounded expression when he heard the girl say this. She looked way too young to be eighteen. Elena and the others also looked at the girl with suspicious glared. But it was ultimately Zane who demanded evidence.

"Prove it…"

Lily immediately became flustered. Prove she was eighteen? Why? Wasn't it obvious! I mean, sure, she might be a on the smaller side in terms of physique, but how was there any question about her age!?!

But judging by the glares she was receiving from not only Zane but the multiple beautiful women surrounding him, she was forced to sigh as she reached into her back pocket and pulled out a small wallet. Which contains her government issued driver's license. It had just recently been renewed prior to the beginning of the apocalypse, specifically for her 18th birthday.

Considering it was impossible with current technology to replicate these things, and there was really no purpose of having a fake ID that said you were eighteen in the days prior to the apocalypse, what with the legal smoking age having over the past few years raised to 21 as well. Zane was inclined to believe it was genuine.

Still, he carefully looked at the picture of the girl who looked way too young to be eighteen, and then back at the girl, only to shift again towards the license. The fact that his eyes kept shifting, and those of the women next to him, who were all curious if the girl was telling the truth or not, only further added to Lily's pouting as she demanded her ID back.

"Okay, enough! You have seen it right! So give me my license back!"

Zane was about to refuse to do so when Angelica grabbed hold of his hand and nodded at him. Evidently, she had been using her special ability to detect lies to confirm whether or not the girl was telling the truth.

No matter how hard it was to believe, Lily, who looked like she was about the age of a middle school student, was actually a fully grown adult. Thus, Zane nimbly shifted the ID between his two fingers before handing it back to the girl as he sighed heavily. Apologizing for calling her a kid, considering she was basically his age.

"Alright I'm sorry, it's just you really don't look your age… I can't be the first person to tell you this, right?"

Lily's face once more flushed in embarrassment. Of course, he was not the first person to tell her this. She had grown up hearing how adorable and cute she was. Even after she turned eighteen, all anyone ever said was that she looked too young to be eighteen. It was utterly humiliating and because of this, she couldn't help but feel she was once more being mocked.

Her reactions, of course, only furthered Zane's suspicions as he raised his brow, just about to ask her if she was really eighteen again when she voiced her thoughts on the matter in a voice so low it was almost a whisper.

"Of course you're not the first to say that…"

Zane immediately understood he was dealing with the fabled Legal Loli, a creature he didn't expect to actually exist in any world other than fiction. But the only evidence he had at this moment supported the idea that this was the case.

As a man of culture, Zane's initial instinct was to protect this girl at all costs. And his thought process was so deeply engrained in him that he instinctively looked around for potential predators lurking around the corner. His shifting eyes did not go unnoticed by Elena, who pinched Zane's cheek and dragged him back to reality in response.

"And what perverted thoughts are going through your mind right now, mister!?!"

Zane winced in pain as he struggled to say defend himself against the accusations due to the fact that his cheek was currently being grabbed onto.

"Must… Protect… Loli!"

When Elena and the others heard that Zane's mind had immediately gone into overprotective mode, despite the girl in front of them clearly being an adult woman, they all broke out into laughter. Which was only further compounded by Lily's own personal protest at being called a loli.

"I'm not a Loli!"

Even Zane's usually cold demeanor was suppressed by his own sense of joy as he broke out into laughter, making fun of the girl for how adorable her protests were.

"You're right! I'm sorry, you're not a Loli! No, you are something else entirely! You are a legendary legal loli! I can't believe they actually exist!"

Lily simply harrumphed and pouted as she grabbed Zane's liter of beer and drank from it, silently waiting for the man and the girls by his side to cease their laughter. Of course, this had the opposite intended effect.

After all, she had never tasted beer before, and the moment the bitter flavor of hops touched her tongue, the girl instantly spit the drink out in a way that made everyone else laugh at her again.

It would be some time before Zane and the girls finally calmed down enough to the point where they were able to effectively communicate how the system works to the newly awakened survivor.