Chapter 165 President Nicole 1 (2/2)
*Knock*
*Knock*
”Come in.” Nicole said as soon as she heard someone knocking on her office's door.
”Excuse me, Mrs. President.” Nicole's secretary slightly opened the door and carefully looked over the middle-aged woman behind the desk, ”Esther Bright wishes to see you.”
”Esther?” Nicole lifted her eyes from the monitor and looked over the secretary at the door, ”Let her in.”
”Yes.” The secretary bowed and silently left the room.
Nicole dropped down what she was doing and stared at the door that was once again being opened.
The person that entered this time was a old woman with gray hair.
She was slowly approaching Nicole with her hoverchair, since this woman has lost all movements in the legs.
The one that just came in was, of course, the previous Grand Protector, Esther Bright.
”Long time no see, Nic.” Esther smiled as soon as she got closer to Nicole.
”It has been a while... Esther.” Nicole greeted Esther with a wide smile on her face that turned slightly hideous because of her injury that covered half of her face.
”I haven't seen you aver since you left Earth.” Esther shook hands with Nicole before she retreated a little and maintained a certain distance from her, ”Back then you were still a young girl. Although smart and a good soldier, still had the nativity of youngsters. Look at you now, successful in both military and politics, it seems.”
Nicole chuckled in response to Esther's reminiscing about the past, ”You taught me well, teacher. I'm what I am because you were my teacher back when the UEG's army was making some training collaboration with the Terrene Protectorate.”
Esther smiled as her eyes clouded and her mind travelled to the past, ”Yes...good times...” She soon recovered and looked at the injury in Nicole's face, ”Looks like your time at the military weren't smooth sailing.”
”Oh? This?” Nicole touched the burnt mark that covered half of her face, ”I have more than enough money to fix it, but I left it there. It reminds me to never underestimate my enemies.”
”What happened?”
”The usual, my squad invaded a planet that was being run by a militia. We defeated them, and decided to not kill everyone. After arresting some of the soldiers, we called it a day and went back to our spaceships, but just when he got boarded, one of the handcuffed militant broke free and threw some kind of acid in my face. They gave up pretty peacefully, so we underestimated them and we gave them better treatment than we usually give. This led to them breaking free and almost slaughtering the entire squad. I was lucky to have survived.”
”That's unfortunate...”
”Not really. Like I said, the injury reminds me to never have pity, underestimate and neither mercy with my enemies. I guess is true what people usually said thousands of years ago, what doesn't kill you make you stronger.”
Esther forced a smile as she cautiously scanned the woman in front of her.
The innocent and naive girl at the training camp has turned in this merciless and cold-hearted woman.
Conflict and war really change people...
Esther sadly sighed.
As a Grand Protector she tried everything in her power to stop wars but she never got near to her objective.
She partially blame herself, that's why she decided to carry the burden of saving the universe from the Ruin on her own back.