Villain Retirement

[The Krukux race vs. The Strays!]

And as Ahor Zai's words and the large hologram floating above their heads confirmed it, the smile that was crawling on Queen Adel's face grew even wider. She thought that there would never be a time that she would consider herself to be on Riley's side.

After all, no matter what anyone says, no matter what the jury says, even if he himself did not actually pull the trigger on the event that killed the youth of her people, he still instigated and planned for it.

Of course, she still was not on his side and never will be. But in this instance, she was looking forward to what he was going to do to these… octophoids.

[The match will start once this light disappears,] Ahor Zai raised her hand, and as she did so, a ball of light resembling a blue star appeared above her head, [When it disappears, the champions will immediately be transported back outside. Like the previous round, this will be another team match—5 champions going against 5 champions at the same time—and of course… we will be able to see it all in the comfort of this hall.]

Ahor Zai clapped her hands, and with the hall trembling as she did so, it was becoming clear to everyone that she had full control of the interior and the entire hall. Large screens started emerging from the walls, with images and live footage of different angles of the flat planet being shown on all of them.

[And while we wait for our combatants to fight for glory…

…we feast!]

Ahor Zai once again clapped her hands, causing several silhouettes to emerge from the floor; individuals that looked exactly like her, except they were completely gray—a reflection of Ahor Zai's previous color.

These… clones all had plates and dishes on their hands which they carefully and meticulously placed on each of the tables. And as the champions took a sniff of the food placed in front of them, they all uttered exclaims of jubilance; slightly shocked that their favorite meal was being served to them individually, in abundance at that.

For the others, however, they could not help but slightly squint their eyes as they stared at Ahor Zai, whose innocent smile was not fooling them at all.

Ahor Zai was making a statement, a testament. They knew she was secretly telling them all that she knew about all of them; their names, down to their favorite meal of the day. They wouldn't be surprised if the Codex even knows of their favorite color.

[We were initially going for a buffet,] Ahor Zai let out a long and very deep sigh as she once again started walking around to check on the tables, [But we opted against it to avoid too much competition from all sides. And you do not have to worry, you may request any food you want, any drinks you want—you could even do so while watching the other champions fight for their spot. Enjoy!]

"It's losing control," Queen Vania quietly leaned closer to Bernard, lowering her voice as much as possible, "You're supposed to be the smartest being in the universe, correct? Fix it."

"Since when was I anything like that?" Bernard's helmet unfolded to show his mouth.

"Since you solved the Warp problem, since you created a portable version of the portals," Vania whispered.

"Even if I was, I don't think there's anything to fix," Bernard started eating the food given to him, which was smoked pork ribs.

"It—"

"Can you stop calling her 'it'?" Hannah, who was within earshot of their… quiet conversation, joined as she chewed on her food, "She's definitely sentient now."

"Stop interrupting an adult's conversation," Princess Vera, who was chatting with Tempo, also joined in on the conversation, "And it is cute that you feel that way, but it is still true that she's not, in a sense, organic."

"The norinlads are organic," Hannah looked at the norinlads' table, "And yet they act less—"

"Everyone!"

And before a philosophical debate could happen at the Human-Evaniel table, the one leading the champions of the Krukux race, Jakol, raised his limbs and voice as he walked to where Ahor Zai was standing before and also stood there.

"First of all, I would like to thank Ahor Zai for giving us this chance to reveal the truth!" Jakol said as his limbs flayed around, "Thank you, Ahor Zai."

[Huh…?] Ahor Zai pointed at herself, slightly confused as to what Jakol meant.

"Look at this, my brothers and sisters—even the Codex is with us," Jakol raised his voice further as everyone was now focused on him, "She matched my race with these so-called Strays, ordering us to show the world that the Common Council have been lying to us for more than a million years about the strength of these… oppressors!"

[I didn't do anything like that…?] Ahor Zai blinked a couple of times as she saw the other champions looking at her in appreciation.

"All these lies they have been feeding us to keep us in line. The Cherbi…?" Jakol pointed at Riley's table, "Has anyone here actually witnessed what this supposed living calamity could do?"

"..." Most of the people all looked at each other, shaking their heads, if they had heads.

"No! No one! Everything we know of the Cherbi has been fed to us from the media. The Cherbi, absorbing a star. The Cherbi, annihilating an entire civilization," Jakol started speaking in a mocking tone, "And Pirate Queen Xra!? If she truly is as scary and as dangerous as everyone says she is, why is she with us here right now!?"

"That's right!"

"The Common Council should have arrested her already! She should not be standing here!" Jakol almost started squirting ink from how excited he was, "Makes you think that her bounty is just some ploy by the Common Council to incite the bounty hunters, so they could lessen the work they need to do!"

The other races that still did not have expressions of doubt on their faces were now almost non-existent; all of them agreeing to Jakol's words. With some even standing up and knocking on their tables.

Seeing the masses support him, Jakol's limbs started shaking in excitement.

"Ah! I remember who that creature is now! Raleerus!" One of the champions that stood up suddenly pointed at Riley, "He's the one that's supposedly responsible for the deaths of the other Elders! It was all over the news before it was suddenly erased!"

"See!?" Jakol further emphasized, "They erased any trace of the news because all of it is just propaganda. And when they realized they had gone overboard and it was starting to become unbelievable, they erased any trace of it! In fact…

…how could a team that's supposedly consisting of the world's living calamities be deadlast in the preliminaries!? They were the last ones to win!"

"..." Riley blinked a couple of times; his head tilted to the side as he heard his name being called. But after a few seconds, he just shrugged his shoulders and continued to… break down and de-meat a whole Alaskan king crab.

The others were, of course, visibly confused with this. While everyone was already eating their meals, Riley and his table were… cooking and preparing theirs. Riley was now chopping and making garlic puree, throwing all the waste to Cherbi, who was absorbing everything with his body.

As for where exactly the ingredients were coming from, well… Delivery seems to be getting them from somewhere. As for Gracy and Xra, they were grilling what seemed to be steak.

"Now, remove it from the heat now!"

And with Xra's words, Gracy immediately removed the steak from the grill; making sure to let it rest calmly.

"This…" Jakol was slightly unnerved from seeing Riley and his team completely ignoring him. But after a few seconds, a scoff once again escaped his mouth, "Look at them, none of them could even refute our words!"

Most of the other races started clapping, either knocking on their tables or raising their food in the air.

"Oh my god… how could someone be so wrong about everything?" Silvie has been watching the entire scene unfold, and could no longer help herself from wincing from everything she has heard.

"You grew up on Earth, Silv," Aerith sighed, "You should be used to people like that."

"...True," Silvie raised her eyebrows, "But still… they don't know anything?"

"You have personally traveled across the expanse of the universe–you should know how big it is."

"Hm."

"Most of these people…" Aerith started looking at the people from the Normal Races, "...If they were not actively gathered here because of the Tournament, none of them would even know the others exist even after a million years."

"Shouldn't…" Silvie looked at Jakol, then toward Riley who was just casually preparing his meal, "...we say something?"

"W—"

"No." And before Aerith could even say anything, Queen Adel lightly slammed her palm on the table, "Let them wag their mouths that look like assholes."

"Kh," Silvie almost choked on her food as she heard the Queen's words.

"Let them discover on their own why they are at the bottom of the food chain."

"..."

No one really said anything about the issue anymore, with all of them just peacefully eating and talking with each other…

…until the blue star disappeared along with the Krukux race and the Strays.

Everyone immediately turned their heads to the walls… and not even a minute later, they finally realized why Riley and his team were the last to win the preliminaries…

…and it wasn't pretty.