Villain Retirement

Riley, Esme, and Miss Pepondosovich could not mistake this human who was groveling on the floor in pain for someone else. How could they?

When they saw the drawing of the current holder of the book, they thought no one could actually look like that. Even when the god with the hundred eyes showed them the vision of the man, they still found it hard to believe that someone with a face like him could exist.

He wasn't even deformed, he had no obvious physical defects — his face was just… none of them could really explain it.

And now, that face was currently writhing in pain on the ground.

"...I kinda want to kick you in the face."

"Please, Miss Pepondosovich," Riley raised his hand as he blocked Miss Pepondosovich's path, "It is not right to hurt anyone with disabilities, just kill them in one swift motion. But if you do want to hurt him, then just let him continue living — his disability is painful enough."

"...He's not disabled, Riley," Marleen could really only sigh as she heard Riley's words. Although she practically knows everything about him and could even somewhat guess what he is going to do or say next, Riley still finds ways to be unpredictable in the most predictable way — what he said was such a Riley thing to say, but then she didn't think he would say it now in this situation.

As for the man, he quickly turned to look up at Riley and the others as soon as the pain in his shin started to alleviate. He then quickly covered his head with a hood and just started crawling before sprinting away, all without even a single word, just whimpers.

Unfortunately for him, Esme suddenly blocked his path — and like hitting a steel wall, the man's entire body bounced back; blood, just violently spraying out of his nose as his face hit Esme's hard abs.

The man could really only just look up at Esme, before the whites in his eyes made themselves known and he fell with the back of his head hitting the hard ground first.

"I think you killed him, Miss Esme!" Miss Pepondosovich pointed at Esme, causing Esme to quickly shake her head vehemently as she approached the man.

"I did not mean to do that," Esme quietly said, but as soon as she heard him still breathing and his heart still beating well, she just let out a subtle sigh of relief and returned to being completely stoic.

Miss Pepondosovich, Esme, and Marleen then started looking at each other back and forth before turning their focus to Riley.

"...What do we do with him, Riri?"

"Why are you asking me, Miss Pepondosovich?" Riley tilted his head to the side, "You and Miss Esme are the ones that knocked him out."

"You're the expert in hiding bodies!"

"I do not hide bodies, Miss Pepondosovich," Riley shook his head, "I lay them out and present them nicely for everyone to see. And unfortunately for this disabled man, he is still alive."

"He still looks like a corpse! We should hide him either way!"

"No, he looks to be in a rush to go somewhere, Miss Pepondosovich. It is not right to block a disabled person's path."

"...Seriously?" Marleen did not really want to hear wherever the conversation was leading to as she let out a long and very exasperated sigh before approaching the unconscious man and carrying him over her shoulders,

"I think the two of you are completely missing the point here. You just mentioned having the book right in the palm of your hands, and now, the owner of the book is here — there is absolutely no denying that you are latching onto Riley, and you are latching onto him hard…

…just accept that you and Riley's paths are closely intertwined now."

"That—"

"And before you start anything, we should probably get this man back to my building…" Marleen's eyes started to dart toward the other gods who were starting to become curious as to what was happening near them, "...We're fortunate enough that there aren't any other gods close to us — but then that also makes it even more stupid that this mortal actually bumped his shin on Pepondosovich's arm…

…talk about rigged luck."

***

"What the—!!!"

The ugly human violently screamed as he was woken up by his own snore — and it wasn't because his snore was loud, not at all. It was because his nose was completely broken. He did not really have time to endure the pain, however, as his adrenaline instantly rose up as he realized several gods were currently staring at him.

That was all he could really see, he didn't even realize that Marleen and the others rested him comfortably in his own deluxe room, the only thing he could see was them. For Riley and the others, the other gods were just… people. But for the ugly man, they were beings that could probably accidentally crush him just by breathing.

He couldn't even muster up the courage to speak or plead for his life.

"Relax, human…" Miss Pepondosovich shook her head and sighed, "...Any damage we could do, it's already been done to your face."

"I don't think that's going to help him," Marleen could not help but raise an eyebrow, "Seriously, I'm the one who should be the most eccentric here since I'm the oldest by a mile—but why does it seem like I'm the most normal one?"

"Because Miss Pepondosovich, Miss Esme, and I are on the spectrum, Miss Marleen," Riley nodded.

"I'm not on the spectrum, Riri. I'm like so far from you and Miss Esme."

"It is called a spectrum, Miss Pepondosovich — there are a lot of types, most unnoticeable."

"We're losing track again, okay…" Marleen once again sighed as she just approached the man as calmly as she could, but even then, the man could not help but jolt in place,

"No one here is going to hurt you, okay? Look, we even brought you here instead of just leaving you out there. You have my word."

"You're…" And finally, albeit cowering, the man spoke up as he looked at Marleen, "...I don't have the book. Please, please just let me go."

"We're not after the book."

"We're not…?" Miss Pepondosovich squinted her eyes as she looked at Riley, "...That's literally why we're even climbing the tower in the first place. Let's just get the book from him and get out of this place, I still haven't explored Riri and Esme to my other favorite city…

…the City of Dream."

"Pepondosovich, can you not?" Marleen almost growled at Miss Pepondosovich, "Can you just let me speak to the mortal, please?"

"...Fine," Miss Pepondosovich scoffed as she gestured to Riley and Esme to follow her to the corner of the room, "Let's leave this to our elders."

"If… if you're really not after me," the man breathed out as he practically groveled on the bed; kneeling in front of Marleen as he pleaded for his life, "Then please, just let me go."

"We will. I just have two questions I need you to answer, and we will even personally escort you where you need to go safely."

"P…please, ask," the man bowed down as he showed his palms to Marleen.

"We are going to keep you safe, I promise," Marleen sighed, "I just want to know what exactly you are doing on the 91st floor, and how exactly you got here in the first place."

"I was brought here by—"

"!!!"

And before the man could say what he wanted to say, half of the entire room suddenly disappeared—no, it was cleaved away by some sort of violent wind. Esme, Riley, and Miss Pepondosovich could really only look at Marleen… as the man disappeared with half the room right after she promised they would keep him safe.

"...I guess there's only one god of luck here," Miss Pepondosovich shrugged as she stepped near the ledge of the cleaved floor. She then turned to look at the distance, only to see a silhouette carrying the poor ugly man at a speed he probably wouldn't survive for long,

"So…are you going to keep your promise, or not?"

"Tch," Marleen could really only click her tongue as she disappeared from her spot. Miss Pepondosovich and Esme quickly followed behind her without a word, as for Riley…

…he just stared at the door of the room which was surprisingly still intact even though it was in the other half of the room that was cleaved away.

And very soon, a low-pitched whistle whispered in the air as the door very slowly opened… and there stepped out a face extremely familiar to Riley, to the point it caused him to almost take a step back in surprise.

"...Sister?" Riley breathed out as he looked at the person from head to toe. But as he looked up at her face again… she now suddenly resembled Aerith.

"Sister…?" The woman who looked eerily similar to Hannah chuckled And even though there was no floor beneath her feet, she still casually started to approach Riley,

"Is that who I look like to you?"