At around 7:40 in the morning on June 15, 1976.
The blizzard that had raged all night had caused the temperature inside the research building to drop sharply.
As my breath spread thinly across the window and vanished, the old radiator in the corner of the room rattled and kicked on.
All I could see outside was white snow, more snow, and a pale sky blurred by the storm.
When I saw it in the game, I had thought it was just an ordinary(?) secret research base of Umbrella Pharmaceuticals, but now that I was here in person, it was definitely the kind of environment that could drive a person insane.
Then again, they were a den of lunatics to begin with, so it made sense they would build a research facility in a place this remote.
Just as I was about to drift into thought, a small knocking sound struck my ears.
According to the schedule I had been reviewing, there were only two people who could be visiting me at this hour.
Researchers? No. Those people did not knock.
Security? Even less likely. Those bastards would already be inside the room before bothering to knock.
"...Come in."
The door opened just a little, and through the gap, two small faces peered in and watched me closely.
For the past four days since my possession, I had stayed shut in my room under the excuse of illness, spending my time figuring out the original owner of this body.
Alexander Ashford, the sixth head of the prestigious Ashford noble family and the son of Edward Ashford, one of Umbrella's co-founders.
He had once risen steadily thanks to the backing of being the founder's son, but after Edward's death his standing in Umbrella gradually declined. In an obsession to restore the fallen family, he extracted the genes of the first head, Veronica, and created genius children through artificial insemination.
And later, he would meet a miserable end, reduced to a test subject at the hands of the very children he had created.
That was all there was to him. In the game, he had only that much presence.
In the end, he was imprisoned for over a decade after becoming a mindless monster, and only after the game's protagonists appeared did death finally free him.
But more than simply knowing who the owner of this body was...the moment I first faced these children and unconsciously reached toward that small neck, that instant still would not leave my mind.
Maybe that sense of guilt and self-disgust was the real reason I had shut myself away.
And right in front of me stood [Alfred Ashford] and [Alexia Ashford], the twins who were both the seed and the result of all this tragedy.
They were much smaller than me, still with the faces of children, but their sharply cut sapphire eyes were colder and clearer than those of any adult.
"F-Father, did you sleep well?"
Alfred was the first to speak. He fidgeted with his fingers and tilted his head as if gauging my mood.
Alexia, on the other hand, said nothing at first, holding my gaze in silence before slowly opening her mouth.
"Good morning, Father. I heard you had not been feeling well. Is your health all right?"
The elegance and mature air that clung to every word and gesture nearly overwhelmed me instead, but I answered in the calmest voice I could manage.
"Yes, I'm fine now. I just needed some time to sort out my thoughts."
I answered naturally, but my hands, hidden behind my back, were trembling with tension and clenched into fists.
The only fortunate thing was that, because this was a matter of life and death, my acting skills were excellent.
"U-um..."
It was Alfred.
His clear eyes, those of a five-year-old child, had frozen as he watched my expression.
No, maybe he had been looking at his father with that same gaze for a much longer time already...
Through the sleeve of his clothes, I caught a glimpse of a blue bruise on the child's wrist.
The mark was too small to be from abuse, yet too deep to be from self-harm.
The cause of that bruise was probably...
"U-um... Father, are we getting the injections first today too?"
At the child's cautious question, I became certain.
[Veronica Test Subject 01, 02 - Weekly Blood Sample and Cerebrospinal Fluid Analysis].
What was written there probably meant sticking cold needles into those small bodies and carrying out all manner of experiments.
Alexia looked calm, but Alfred clearly found this time terrifying and could not hide the worry on his face.
Just from that reaction alone, I could imagine how horribly Umbrella and the original Alexander had treated these children.
So...because I could not bring myself to ignore the worried fear in this small child standing before me, I put on a smile that had not been planned.
And in an old human language Alfred could not hear, I added:
"No, this is breakfast time."
At the completely unexpected answer, Alfred's eyes widened, and Alexia raised one eyebrow.
"Have you eaten?"
The two children hesitated for a moment, then shook their heads.
"Then... let's go eat together."
When we stepped out into the hallway, the children followed behind me.
And so the footsteps in the corridor became three.
Two small, light ones, and one a little heavier.
Umbrella's Antarctic branch was a research facility, but at the same time it was also where the Ashford family's mansion stood.
It was a proper European-style manor house, with dark wood paneling and glittering chandeliers making a strong impression. Knowing the truth behind that mansion's structure made the place feel rather unpleasant to me, though.
It felt strange to have something like this in the middle of Antarctica, but aristocrats seemed to care about appearances no matter where they went.
One of the workers here was walking toward us from the opposite side of the hall. When he met my eyes, he bowed his head, and I gave a short nod in return.
Seen like this, it was just an ordinary morning.
At least on the surface.
'The problem is that taking those kids down to the dining room is already a conspicuous move...'
As I walked down the corridor, I quickly ran calculations in my head.
Had the original Alexander Ashford ever personally taken the children to meals?
Probably not often. To him, those children were not sons and daughters but projects.
Which meant even this small action could look strange to someone else's eyes.
Especially if I was carelessly skipping the usual schedule.
Umbrella was the kind of place that would never overlook a trivial change like that.
I had acted on impulse because of Alfred's fear, but I did not regret it.
If I left that child to the experiments just to secure my immediate safety...I was afraid I would end up infected by Umbrella's madness too.
'It was something I would have to do eventually anyway. So let's take it slowly, and carefully, just like I planned.'
I heard quick little footsteps behind me.
It was Alfred. Maybe because the hallway was long, or maybe because he felt awkward, he was half-running to keep pace with me.
Alexia remained silent beside him.
Still, I could feel that she had been staring intently at my back since earlier.
She was probably calculating the situation right now.
Why her father had suddenly changed, and what it meant.
That was not the kind of thought a five-year-old girl should be having, but this child was not an ordinary five-year-old.
So the way to avoid her suspicion was to give her attention while being as unconscious of it as possible.
The dining room entrance came into view.
I did not stop. I pushed the door open.
'All right, let's begin.'
And so my life of raising children, starting with my first meeting with these two, finally began.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register