"That's good then." Aerith let out a breath of relief, then gave Aiden a smile, but Aiden was burying his head in eating and didn't notice.
Aerith immediately became dissatisfied, and under the table, kicked Aiden with her foot.
"Ah! What's wrong?" Aiden lifted his head and looked at Aerith in confusion. "Didn't Miss Elmyra already agree?"
"Idiot." Aerith angrily took a few big bites of food, then threw down her spoon and said to Aiden.
"Hurry up and eat, we still have to go to the church to pick flowers later."
"Mhm mhm!" Aiden nodded forcefully, then like a whirlwind swept the food into his mouth from the plate, chewed a few times and swallowed it, then said to Elmyra, "Miss Elmyra, I'm full, I'll go first."
"Be careful on the road." Elmyra said with a smile.
"Don't worry, Mom, we'll be careful." Aerith, already holding the flower basket, said to Elmyra at the door.
———
After picking out the flowers to sell in the church, the sky had gradually darkened, and Aerith and Aiden each carrying a flower basket boarded the city train heading to the business district.
Inside the train carriage, quite a few people going to the business district for night shifts curiously looked at Aiden.
All these years, they had only heard of a flower girl, but this was the first time they saw a flower boy.
Even though Aiden's face was considered relatively thick-skinned, under the gazes of so many people, especially when some eyes kept moving between him and the flower basket, he still felt awkward.
"Aerith, I really want to get off the train." Aiden said softly to Aerith sitting next to him.
"Nope." Aerith of course noticed the stares around them. Looking at the extremely embarrassed Aiden, she was actually happier than anyone else.
"You promised me, you can't give up halfway." Aerith added.
Aiden could only sigh, then hang his head and stare blankly at the train floor.
Luckily, Midgar's city train was fast, and Aiden's torment in the carriage didn't last too long. As the train entered the business district station, Aiden let out a long breath, then continued lowering his head, following behind Aerith.
After walking several streets with Aerith, he heard her say, "Aiden, you stay here, I'll go over there." She pointed to the opposite street.
"Around ten o'clock, we'll meet up here again." She added.
Aiden nodded, then watched Aerith leave.
The business district where Aiden and Aerith were located was near Mako Reactor No.1, and this was also where this story arc began.
But because it was the business district, the huge flow of people made it extremely lively, and Aerith's figure was soon drowned in the crowd.
Aiden carried the flower basket and aimlessly wandered around the streets. Selling flowers was out of the question, he couldn't bring himself to promote them to others. Anyway, he had already exchanged some money from the system store. Later, he'd just give away some flowers and give the money to Aerith, claiming it came from selling flowers.
With this mindset, Aiden naturally felt no pressure. Holding the flower basket in one hand, he walked toward another street in the opposite direction.
As he walked, Aiden admired the street scenery of the business district. After all, this was where the story began. Once the Mako Reactor explodes, he might not get to see it again.
Though, to be honest, even though the business district was bustling, compared to a real-world city's business area, it was still lacking. After all, no matter how prosperous, this was just a small part of the upper levels.
Of course, Aiden still watched with great interest. After all, Midgar had a strong punk vibe, something you couldn't see in reality.
'Worth the ticket, totally worth the ticket.' Aiden sighed in his heart as he looked at the dense neon advertising signs on the streets.
After looking around, Aiden felt he shouldn't go further and prepared to turn back. But before he could lift his foot, he saw a crowd gathered outside a station not far away.
'Is there something exciting happening?' Aiden instantly got interested and carried the flower basket over. But the street was already jammed with people, and Aiden couldn't get through. He could only stand on the outer edge, tiptoeing to look inside.
Although he was fairly tall, the crowd watching was just too packed. No matter how much he stood on his toes, all he saw were dense heads.
Left with no choice, Aiden tapped the shoulder of the person in front of him.
"Yes?" That person turned around. Seeing it was a stranger, he frowned in annoyance and asked.
"Friend, what's going on inside?" Aiden pulled out a few bills and stuffed them into the man's hand while asking.
That man stared blankly at the money in his hand. Seeing the basket of flowers Aiden held, he muttered, "Selling flowers earns this much?" Then finally answered Aiden. "I'm not too sure either, but I heard people up front say that Shinra Company seems to be transporting cargo robots."
"Cargo robots?" Aiden got even more interested. He knew Shinra's technology was very advanced, at least twenty years ahead of the real world. Otherwise, how could they control all of Midgar and even win a war against the Five Great Nations?
"Yeah, heard it's their newest model, meant to be tested in the business district." The man added.
"Ohh~" Aiden nodded repeatedly and kept trying to tiptoe to see, but all he could still see were heads.
He couldn't help but feel regret. As a man, he couldn't resist robots, especially if it was a large cargo robot.
With a slight sigh, Aiden turned around in disappointment, ready to leave.
But just then, the crowd suddenly became chaotic. Someone shouted "Run!", and immediately the whole group started frantically pushing outwards.
Hearing the commotion behind, Aiden turned to look. Just as he was confused, a string of gunshots rang out from inside the station, causing the chaos to intensify. Amid the piercing screams, some unlucky people got trampled underfoot as the crowd surged.
Seeing this scene, Aiden paused, then frowned.
'Could it be Avalanche is attacking? But that can't be. Cloud hasn't appeared yet, and Marlene just went home. Barret wouldn't act now, right?' Aiden thought.
While he was confused, the fleeing crowd had already reached him. But Aiden's physical strength far surpassed ordinary people. He stood unmoving like a nail in the ground amidst the chaos.
"I want to see what's really happening." Aiden said, then casually stopped one person and asked, "What's going on in there?"
That person, panting heavily, had a pale and distorted face from fear, made more eerie by the street's neon lights.
"The robot… the robot went out of control." The man, although clearly displeased about being stopped, still answered.
"Out of control? No way, this exciting?" Aiden froze, about to ask more when the man tore his clothes, broke free, and kept running.
Aiden looked at the man's back, tossed aside the piece of cloth, and kept watching the station.
By now, since many people had run off, Aiden could finally see the situation clearly.
Inside the station, a massive robot, several meters tall, was swinging huge arms and attacking nearby Shinra soldiers.
Even though the soldiers were armed, as a new model cargo robot, its body was frighteningly strong, bullets bounced off its armor.
Each swing of the robot's arm smashed several Shinra soldiers into pulp. Gradually, some soldiers couldn't take it and ran with the crowd.
"You bunch of bastards, get back here and think of a way to stop it!" A furious mature woman's voice rang out in the chaos, but was quickly drowned by the screaming.
"Run, Minister!" a soldier shouted.
"Damn it, it can't be helped." The woman's voice came again, then vanished.
And Aiden, at this moment, was charging against the flow of the crowd toward the station.
Because the out-of-control cargo robot, after killing the Shinra soldiers nearby, had begun attacking the ordinary people who hadn't managed to escape.
Those were all elderly and children. During the escape, they were no match for young adults and were still stuck in the station.
Aiden wasn't a great saint, but he didn't want to see those people slaughtered before his eyes. And since he had some ability, he decided to do something.
He didn't draw a gun, just ran straight at the robot.
At that time, the robot was chasing a woman in a red dress.
Because the woman in red dress was wearing high heels, she couldn't move quickly and could only dodge clumsily. The long hem of her dress also tripped her several times.
When she tripped again and tried to get up, the robot's massive arm was already smashing down.
Seeing she was about to become a pile of meat, the woman in red felt despair. She wasn't afraid of death, just didn't want to die this way.
'I'll look so awful after dying like this. Maybe the company will need a shovel to collect my remains. That's bad. I hope they hang the photo on my office desk during my memorial.'
Staring at the mechanical arm coming down, her mind flashed with countless thoughts. Then she gave up and closed her eyes, waiting for death.
But at that moment, she felt a strong arm around her waist, and her body was lifted into the air.
"Eh?! What's happening?" She opened her eyes and saw she was being held under the arm of a black-haired, running wildly out of the station.
'I'm saved!'
A gleam of excitement flashed in her beautiful eyes. Just as she was about to thank him, Aiden set her down. Before she could stand firm, Aiden shoved the flower basket into her hands.
"Hold this for me." Aiden said, "Don't lose it."
The woman looked at the basket, then nodded hard. "I'll take good care of it."
Aiden nodded to her, then rushed back into the station to save more people.
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