Very soon, Tifa came out after changing clothes.
"Roberta, I'll trouble you to take care of them."
Before leaving, Aiden gave Roberta a word of instruction.
Because his workplace was very close to where Aiden lived, he didn't buy a car and had always walked to and from work.
After leaving the residential area, Aiden didn't take a cab either and walked towards the office with Tifa.
It was Tifa's first time going out in this world. She felt both excited and nervous, tightly holding Aiden's arm, curiously looking around.
But apart from some differences between the real world and the Final Fantasy world, everything else was pretty much the same. So soon, Tifa's nervousness faded and she returned to calm.
Then she started asking Aiden about things to be careful of in this world.
Originally, Aiden had planned to talk about everything after they got home, but thinking Roberta was at home and would probably explain things to Aerith and the others, he started answering Tifa's questions.
With questions and answers exchanged, the two soon arrived at the entrance of Aiden's workplace.
His workplace wasn't an important place. It was located in a quiet courtyard, without even a gatekeeper, and naturally, there was no need to sign in or register as a visitor, so Aiden simply took Tifa inside.
"It's so quiet here." This was Tifa's first impression upon entering.
"Of course. This place mainly just handles recordkeeping and archives, it's basically a peaceful place for retirement." Aiden opened the fingerprint lock and walked with Tifa toward his office.
"Then how did you learn all those skills of yours?" Tifa asked again.
"I used to be in the military, and later encountered some things… sigh, hard to explain." Aiden took out his key to open the door, then continued, "Originally, after being discharged, I was assigned to the police station, but due to some reasons, I was transferred here. But it's fine, this place is idle, and I'm satisfied."
While talking, Aiden had Tifa sit to the side, then took paper and pen from a drawer and started writing his resignation letter.
The system had granted Tifa the ability of language proficiency, so she could understand the content Aiden was writing, but she didn't care about that. Instead, she was wondering in her mind why Aiden brought her here.
Before she could figure it out, the office door opened again and a middle-aged man walked in.
"Aiden, why are you here so early today… oh, who is this?"
When he saw Tifa sitting beside Aiden, the middle-aged man froze for a moment, his eyes full of disbelief.
'That's… Tifa? No, no, she just looks like her… but if you don't look carefully, it really feels like Tifa appeared in the real world!'
This middle-aged man was Aiden's director, also a middle-aged man who liked playing games and watching anime. In his early forties, he had been into the hobby for more than twenty years, so when he first saw Tifa, he immediately recognized her.
However, because of the system's effects, when the director looked more closely, he felt she only looked 70–80% similar. Hence the following words.
The director was a kind-hearted man. He quickly moved his gaze away from Tifa's face, then waved to Aiden.
"Aiden, come out for a bit. I have something to say to you."
Aiden put down his pen and said to Tifa, "Wait for me here," then walked out of the office.
The director handed Aiden a cigarette, lit one himself, took a puff, then said, "Is that your girlfriend? The blind date one?"
"Yeah." Aiden nodded. He already guessed what the director was going to say next, as he had caught all the expressions on the director's face earlier.
"Has anyone told you that your girlfriend looks like a game character… Oh right, I forgot you play too, so I'll say it directly, your girlfriend looks a lot like Tifa. At least 70–80% similar. If she put on makeup, it'd be a 100% match." When the director said this, his expression was very complicated, envy, jealousy, amazement, and suspicion, all tangled up.
"Lots of people say that." Aiden replied, but silently added in his heart, That's because they really just came to this world.
"Then you better watch out. A girl this beautiful will surely attract attention. Don't let someone snatch her away." The director patted Aiden's shoulder.
'Regretfully, I snatched her from someone else.'
But Aiden definitely couldn't say that, so he just said, "Don't worry, Director. We're mutually in love, no one can take her."
"That's good then." The director said that with his mouth, but in his heart he thought, 'I hope so…'
"Right, you came this early today, don't tell me it was just to show her off to me first?" After another puff of smoke, the director asked suspiciously.
"Heh heh." Aiden didn't say anything, just laughed twice. The meaning was self-evident.
"You little brat." The director punched Aiden's shoulder, then said, "But if it were me, I'd do the same. You'll make those otaku in our circle die of envy and jealousy."
As he said that, he sighed again, as if remembering those friends who were still single.
"Director, I actually came early today for another reason." After a while, seeing the director had sighed enough, Aiden spoke again.
"What is it? Want to take leave? That's fine. Just say how many days you need, I'll approve it. There's nothing much going on in the office anyway." The director had a "Just ask and I'll approve" look on his face.
This made it harder for Aiden to open his mouth. He awkwardly looked at the resignation letter on the desk, thinking how to phrase it.
Seeing Aiden's troubled expression, the director thought he wanted to take a long leave, so he said, "Too long won't work. One week max, or others will complain. Also, we've got an inspection next week."
"I don't want to take leave," Aiden said.
"Then what is it? Borrow money? Oh! Right, you've got a girlfriend now, expenses must've gone up. How about this, just say it. Three to five thousand is fine." The director was already pulling out his phone.
Aiden, "…"
'How am I supposed to say it now?' Aiden was speechless.
After taking a deep breath, Aiden directly said, "Director, I'm planning to resign."
"Oh, not borrowing money, resig… What? Resign?" The director didn't react at first, then suddenly widened his eyes.
"You're resigning? Why?" The director looked confused.
"I want to spend more time with my girlfriend," Aiden said honestly.
"Really? If it's just that, I can totally reject your resignation letter." The director clearly didn't believe him.
"Fine, it's mainly a money issue. You know what our salary's like, just fixed pay. Even with bonuses, it's not much a year. It's okay to support one person, but feeding a whole family is too difficult." Aiden began lying, though it was partly true, there were nine mouths at home, and that salary wasn't even enough for food.
"Our salary's low, sure, but if you save, you can still support a family." The director tried to persuade him, as that's how he had made it work himself.
"It's not because of her, right? One of those gold diggers? But she doesn't look like that." The director continued, even though he thought she only looked 70–80% like Tifa, he didn't want to ruin the perfect image of Tifa in his heart.
"Of course not. I just want to give her a better life." Aiden said stiffly.
"Sigh… alright then." The director regretfully patted Aiden's shoulder. He could hear the determination in Aiden's tone.
"But think it through, this isn't a private company. It's easy to quit, but hard to come back if you regret it." The director gave one last effort.
"I've thought it through." Aiden nodded firmly.
"Alright then." The director sighed. "Hand me the resignation report later. I'll handle the procedures for you. You don't need to come to work these next few days. I'll call you when it's done."
"Thanks, Director." Aiden said gratefully. "How about dinner tonight?"
"Forget it, better spend time with your girlfriend." The director glanced at Tifa and left with a sigh.
After watching the director go into his own office, Aiden also returned and continued the resignation letter he hadn't finished.
"That person is really nice to you." Tifa rested her chin on her hands, watching Aiden.
"He's just a nice guy. Otherwise, he wouldn't still be just an average director after all these years." Aiden felt it was a pity. The director was capable, but not ambitious, and too kind, he had given up promotion opportunities several times.
"Alright, let's stop talking. I've finished the report." Aiden put down his pen, picked up the finished letter, and left the office.
After submitting his resignation letter, Aiden chatted a bit more with the director. During the conversation, the director tried to persuade him again, but Aiden didn't agree.
Then, Aiden returned to the office. By then, Tifa had grown bored and started flipping through the comics Aiden had left in the office.
Fortunately, due to work, only regular manga were left in the office. If she had found the other ones Aiden bought through "special channels" at home, that would've been something.
After a short rest, Aiden began packing his personal items. Thanks to the system's storage space, he didn't need to use a box like people in dramas. He just stored them directly into the system space.
"Are we going straight home?" Tifa leaned on the table and asked after Aiden finished packing.
"No, we're going to buy some essentials for you all first. Toothbrushes, towels, that kind of thing. Oh, and I need to get each of you a phone too." As he spoke, Aiden took out the ID cards the system had prepared for them. "When we get back, we'll gather Aerith and the others and go out together to get SIM cards."
There were phones in the Final Fantasy world, so Tifa just responded with "oh" and didn't say anything else.
Before leaving, Aiden said goodbye to the director again, and under the director's yelling to get lost, he and Tifa left the workplace.
Afterward, Aiden took Tifa to a nearby mobile phone store. Too lazy to order online, he didn't care about the price and bought five phones identical to the ones used by Roberta and the others.
Then the two went to a supermarket, bought some daily necessities, food, and drinks, and finally took a cab back home.
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