Villain Retirement

"...Darkday is Riri's clone."

"How did you come up with that conclusion, Miss Pepondosovich?"

"It is very easy to tell if you just read the signs. And also…

…Darkday told me."

"...Oh."

There was a certain awkwardness that protruded the air as Esme just stared blankly at Miss Pepondosovich, even more blank than her usual stare. She was about to be very impressed at Miss Pepondosovich, but all of that went away completely.

As for Miss Pepondosovich, she just nodded to herself, before quickly dragging Esme away from the city as much as possible; deciding to just wait for Riley outside the city, away from all the stares the other gods were giving them. Miss Pepondosovich did not really want to help any of them — not at the expense of losing what she had with Esme and Riley.

She tries to be as good a person as possibly could be… as long as it of course would not take away anything from her.

"You know… I was not a good person when I was still back in my universe."

"Hm?" And as soon as they were out of the city, Miss Pepondosovich sighed before just suddenly telling her story out of nowhere; her eyes, glancing at the gods trapped in the city. Esme does not seem to mind, however, even seemingly welcoming it as she looked at her face.

"I was angry, very angry," Miss Pepondosovich closed her eyes while shaking her head, "And the worse part of it all… is that I did not care at all."

"What… happened?" Esme tilted her head and asked.

"My kind, my species — we lived on a very small… planet, and our population would consider us extinct. I didn't know that back then, of course," Miss Pepondosovich let out a very long and deep breath,

"We can't reproduce for hundreds and hundreds of years, and when we do, our offspring could number to a thousand. It was a weird society now that I've been exposed to other societies, but it was the only thing we know. My kind worked for something they did not even know or realize what for, but it did not matter for them as they were happy to just exist with one another. And then, somehow, somewhere, a woman gave birth to only 4 children — my mother.

And obviously, that caused my siblings and I to be much closer compared to the others… stronger too, a lot stronger. Our strength made us gods among our people — it turns out that our people hold a very special trait, the fewer one's children are, the stronger they will be; the strength and potential of a thousand, compressed into four. And my kind was already strong. But that is where it all went… wrong."

"Wrong how, Miss Pepondosovich?"

"Riri…!?" Miss Pepondosovich could not help but almost jump in place as Riley suddenly stepped out right behind Esme out of nowhere, "Since when were you there!?"

"We have been together since we walked out of the city, Miss Pepondosovich," Riley blinked a couple of times as he looked around.

"Wh—Never mind, where was I?" Miss Pepondosovich could really only sigh as she did not want to deal with Riley's antics anymore.

"Where it all went wrong, Miss Pepondosovich."

"Right…" Miss Pepondosovich closed her eyes as she let out a very long and deep sigh, "...When my and my siblings' presence became known throughout our entire planet, that is when a different civilization came down from the skies, predators. They hunted my siblings and me; our strength, completely useless against them since they had a device that could… depower us — this device, however, did not work on me for some reason… my brothers and sister were not so lucky. I was able to run away, hide myself for decades before they seemed to have finally grown tired of hunting for me. I was able to escape their pursuit even though my planet was small.

And then, a hundred years later, I met a man that would father my children… I gave birth to two beautiful sons, and I love them with all my heart and soul, so.. so very much. And one day, while I was out gathering some carrots for my babies to eat — I saw the hunters once again come from above the skies. They did not even wait, or talk… they just bombed my house.

And I watched… I…" Miss Pepondosovich's lips started to tremble as she tried her best not to let out the tears wanting to escape her eyes, "...I watched my husband carry our babies out of the house while… while they were burning. And at that moment, the only thing I felt was anger. Unrelenting, merciless. I leaped toward the ship and killed each and every last one of them, and the ship returned back its home. It turned out that… our planet was actually within another bigger planet, and they used us to farm, except we were that cattle. I found out we were quite expensive too, a delicacy in our entire universe where aliens from lightyears away travel just to get a taste of us. So I killed all of them…

…I did not even care if they were innocent or not, I killed them all. And when I was done, I set my people free, but I wasn't able to bury my husband and my family — I was taken to this place before I could do so."

"Your revenge was justified," the tone of Esme's voice was slightly meek; her hand, shaking for some reason, "You also saved your kind from their fate."

"It is, it was…" Miss Pepondosovich breathed in, "...But I wouldn't have done it if I knew I was not going to be able to bury my husband and my babies."

"It is a very good story, Miss Pepondosovich," Riley let out a small hum as he nodded and looked Miss Pepondosovich in the eyes, "But why exactly did you start telling it?"

"Because I know both of your stories," Miss Pepondosovich let out a small chuckle; sniffling as she brushed her nose, "And now that you know my stories, you could consider me your friend too."

"I do not think that is how it works, Miss Pepondosovich," Riley let out a small but very deep sigh as he started walking away, "But it was a beautiful story, nonetheless, thank you."

"Thank you for sharing it with me," Esme bowed her head, "It was tragic and cruel, but I learned a lot from it. I do not know what a friend is, but if it means this — what we have now, then I consider you my friend, Missus Pepondosovich."

"Miss Esme…" Miss Pepondosovich could really only smile as she heard the gentleness in Esme's tone, "Thank you…

...but please don't call me missus."

And with those words, the two once again made their way back to the harbor; leaving the mortal world completely different than how they found it… completely different.

***

"Ack, finally!"

And as Riley and the others returned to the land of the gods, Miss Pepondosovich did not even wait for the ship to dock; she just immediately leaped out — instantly turning smaller as she returned to her original form; her bunny ears, swaying with the wind.

"Should we rest first, or just go ahead and continue our adventure!?" Miss Pepondosovich then joyfully welcomed Riley and Esme as they stepped out of the ship as if she was not just puking everything inside her stomach earlier on the ship,

"We need to ask around first. So, why don't we go to one of the taverns?"

"There is no need for that, Miss Pepondosovich," Riley shook his head before stepping forward and raising his palm — and there, an eyeball was resting.

"What—Is that one of Edmund's eyes!?" Miss Pepondosovich once again almost puked there and then as she saw the eyeball moving on its own.

"Yes," Riley nodded, "He… voluntarily shared one of it after Darkday requested it from him, Miss Pepondosovich."

"... Right," Miss Pepondosovich squinted her eyes. Her disgust did not last long, however, as her eyes widened soon after, "Wait — did you bring that with you so that he would be able to see in the land of the gods!?"

"Yes."

"...But how are we going to know what he sees?" Miss Pepondosovich once again squinted her eyes as she looked at Riley.

"...I have my ways."

And as soon as Riley said those words, light began to project from the eyeball — showing where the ugly man currently is.

"That's…" A smile slowly started to crawl on Miss Pepondosovich's face as her eyes started scanning the projection, "...I know where he is, I could recognize that place even with my eyes closed."

"That does not make sense, Miss Pepondosovich."

"It does," Miss Pepondosovich scoffed as she waved her hands, causing the projection to disappear and wither away, "And let's not waste any time in this place and just go… just thinking about it excites me. But if he is there…

…then I have a very bad feeling about this."

"Where is he, Miss Pepondosovich?" Esme tilted her head as she noticed the excitement in Miss Pepondosovich's face.

"It's the place where we're supposed to go in the first place once we return here…" Miss Pepondosovich smirked as she pointed in a certain direction,

"...The City of Warriors, the Grandarena City!"