[FF7] Those things after marriage

Esther woke up from the cold.

The slightly damp cool air slowly entered her body, giving her the urge to wrap her arms around herself.

It's so strange, she was lying on the meadow enjoying the sunshine, how could she feel cold...the temperature is just right?

Wait, where's the sun?Is it cloudy?

Unaware of the warm sunlight that still seemed to be shining through the eyelids, Esther frowned and opened her eyes with difficulty.

However, what greeted her was not the warm sunshine of her hometown, but the darkness of a room.

She was lying on a thin blanket with the cold floor beneath it—no wonder she had felt so cold before.

Esther opened her eyes and closed them several times, and it took a while for her eyes to adjust to the dim surroundings.

Even if she was dull, at this moment she also realized that she must have encountered something not wonderful before.

Just as she cautiously put her arms on the ground and planned to get up and observe the surrounding situation, she suddenly heard a familiar voice.

"You're awake, Esther."

The young woman with wheat blond hair suddenly turned her head when she heard the words, squinting her eyes and trying to see the person who made the sound clearly.

"... Angel?"

Although it was not very clear, the voice she heard earlier and the vaguely visible outline of a robust physique made her immediately think of the other party's identity.

Esther sat up facing Angel, but couldn't help rubbing her arms with her hands. Although she woke up, the cold feeling before had not disappeared.

"Long time no see, Esther."

Angel's vague figure first took a few steps to the side, and then walked towards Esther, and then he covered Esther with the blanket he just got.

Esther subconsciously grabbed the edge of the blanket and wrapped it tighter towards herself.

"Where is this? Wait, if you are here, does it mean that Genesis is also here? You...I..."

"Genesis is not here now, and we didn't take you here." Although he knew that the other party couldn't see clearly, Angel shrugged, "It's just that we took you from someone and brought you here."

"As for this, this is Nibelheim."

Nibelheim...

The name immediately woke her up.

She knows the place.

Although this is not something she should be exposed to, she did see records about this place when she was sorting out the information last time.Those records made her break out in a cold sweat with just a few words.

The Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim is the last place where there are records about Jenova and the ancient species.

And this place is also the last place where Director Gast worked before Hojo.There are not many records about Dr. Gast in Shinra's database. I don't know if they were erased artificially, or they were all sealed up secretly.

Obviously, he used to be the research director of Shinra Corporation, but not many people know him now.

To be honest, this was one of the places she had marked in her heart that she least wanted to come to.

"Sorry, Esther." Angel sat across from Esther, although Esther couldn't see his expression clearly, she could hear the slight tiredness and apology in his voice, "I never thought of involving you Come in, but... I can't let you go now."

"When everything is over, I will find a way to contact your family and let them come to pick you up."

Esther squinted her eyes, trying to see Angel's expression clearly, but she couldn't.She didn't have the eyesight of a special soldier, so she couldn't tell the other party's mood at this time from his expression.There is no way to know whether the other party is treating him like this, whether it is a trick or sincerity.

"...Why, didn't Sephiroth come to pick me up?"

In the end, she only said such a sentence.

"..."

Angel didn't answer right away, just when Esther thought he wouldn't answer herself, he spoke again.

"Esther, you should go back to your own world. Don't... stay with us monsters anymore."

This was the first time Esther heard Angel, who had always been stable and reliable, and who was like a big brother, had such a lonely voice.

"Genesis and I are destined to fight Sephiroth. In the end, which side will survive, or both will die together, no one knows."

"This is our fate."

Angel reached out and stroked Esther's hair lightly.Like a gentle brother stroking his sister's hair.

"But Esther, you are different. You are a good girl and should not be involved. Leave Shinra early and go back to your family is the next thing you should do."

Fate, she is really tired of this word now.

Beria told her it was fate, Randy told her it was fate, and even Angel said it was fate.

What is fate? Why do these people always attribute everything to this one word?

Just when Esther opened her mouth to refute him, Angel's hand on her hair left, and then she didn't know what he did.Esther fell down again.

Before falling into a coma, she vaguely heard Angel's last words:

"Sorry, Esther, you can sleep a little longer."

Then, she didn't know anything.

When she woke up again, she was no longer in the original room.It looks like a converted study into a bedroom.Next to the single bed she was lying on was a bookcase full of books.There was a lot of food and water beside the bed, and at a cursory glance, the food was enough for her to last for half a month.Looking to the other side, there is a small room that looks like a bathroom.

This really has it all.

Esther lifted the quilt and got out of bed, twisted the door handle hard, and pushed it a few times, but the door didn't move.Looking higher up, there are also iron bars sealed outside the windows, and the thickness of the iron bars cannot be broken by a girl like her.

Esther took a deep breath.

"Angel? Genesis?"

While shouting, she continued her exploration.It wasn't until she searched carefully and found that there was really no other exit, and no one responded to her cry, that Esther was finally convinced that she was indeed under house arrest.Like Angel said.

No matter how unwilling she was, the only road ahead of her seemed to be 'waiting'.

Esther sat back on the bed, pulled the quilt over herself, and curled herself up.

This is a habit she has had since she was a child. Whenever she feels that she is not doing well enough, she will do this.

Until now she has no idea what happened.

It just feels as if everything has been messed up since the day Belia was stabbed.

She wanted to straighten out all the messy things, but found that she couldn't do anything.I can only passively walk forward step by step, but even if I keep walking, I don't even know where the destination is.

So now I can only shrink myself into a shrimp here.

Waiting for others to arrange their own future.

It took Esther a day to calm down, and then another day to get a handle on the situation in the house.On the third day, she was finally able to sit down quietly and read a book...but it was not so much a book, but rather a record left here by the previous people.

At any rate, she was the person who had sorted out most of Shinra's information, and she knew a lot about the logs and records that were disguised as books.After spending the whole morning picking and picking, she finally managed to find some 'books' that she had actually memorized.

Genesis should not be aware of these little tricks of Shinra's old employees, otherwise she wouldn't be locked up in such a place so easily.

Although most of the information exists on machines of various ages, most of the things recorded by the machines in these abandoned institutions have been deleted and modified.There are even some that are simply a bunch of wrong information, designed to mislead those people or organizations who try to get Shinra information from these places.

Shinra has been playing with great proficiency in espionage warfare.

For so many years, Turks has not been eating for nothing.Although it is more internal now, when Shinra made countless enemies back then, they were the second sharpest blade of Shinra besides the special forces.

It is also because of the importance of Tux that the leader of Tux has always been the most trusted right-hand man of the president.Although the current leader of Taxes, Zeng, is not usually showy, but two consecutive generations from the old president to the new president have trusted him so much, which is extraordinary.

In Shinra Corporation, the trust of the president is more important than ability most of the time.

For example, Baojo, the former director of the research department, is a typical example.

Because the president trusted him, Dr. Gast's disappearance and Holland's ambitions came to naught.In the past twenty years, no one in the entire research department can surpass him.

Although she used to shy away from these things, for fear that her life would be messed up if she touched them, but now, she can't do without them.It's here anyway, the current situation... can't get any worse.

Even if you die, you have to let yourself be a sensible ghost.

After figuring this out, Esther also calmed down again, and began to sort out the information about the Nibelheim mansion in her mind.

Shinra's mansion in Nibelheim was abandoned about 20 years ago.Although the specific reason for the abandonment was artificially erased later, it should be that a rather serious problem occurred... and this 'problem' is probably related to Dr. Hojo.

After all, it was since then that he officially secured the position of 'director'.Before that, although Dr. Gast 'disappeared', his influence still remained in Shinra's research department, so there were many people who refused to accept Hojo.However, after the Nibelheim mansion was closed, Hojo, who had been questioned by many parties, instead secured his position and was favored by the president.

As mentioned earlier, the trust of the president is more important than ability most of the time.

If nothing happened, no one would believe it.

Esther looked down at the thick 'book' in her hand, and unconsciously exerted force on the hand holding the book.

Maybe this time...she can find the truth of the year from these things.