Villain Retirement

Chapter 1181: Chapter 1181: A Choice

My people had been peaceful for more than a million years—my grandmother, her grandmother, and so on and so forth. Tens of thousands of generations before me, we were peaceful.

For war with us would lead to the destruction of the universe. At least, that was what my mother told me.

The evaniels, descendants of Van, an existence far beyond the very concept of life and death.

And I am the queen of my people, was the queen.

Some queen I am now, the last of my kind—and my people, my family fought for a world that would soon forget us.

But that was alright, we did not do it for recognition. We did it for survival, of us, of everyone else.

My people, my family, fought for the world.

My people, my family...

...but not me.

I didn’t want to break our oath.

I wanted to keep our peace, even as the war against the gods waged on.

I didn’t want what happened to our ancestors to happen again.

I didn’t fight the gods.

I, Queen Vania, descendant of Van, chose not to fight.

I, Queen Vania... I let my people die.

It was me.

It was my fault. I could have ended those gods, I could have ended that war in a single day. And yet,

I made a conscious choice not to, not until it was too late.

It was my fault.

My fault, all of it.

"Oh."

"Why did you stop!?"

Queen Vania screamed, her voice pulsing across the colorful expanse of the Grand Triangle.

No. That was wrong too. The Grand Triangle have completely lost all of its color—the trees, the flowers, and everything else in it have lost their glow.

How could it not, when Riley made it their battlefield?

He made sure that the fight was kept just inside it.

There was a quiet rule in the Grand Triangle that one needed to follow a certain path unless one wanted to die and forever get swallowed by its luminescence.

It was filled with all sorts of creatures, some larger than planets and stars by themselves.

But that rule doesn’t apply to beings like Riley and the queen of evaniels at all.

They’ve razed the color out of the Grand Triangle, erasing its glow with their violence.

Fortunately for the inhabitants of the Grand Triangle, in their perspective, their death came instantly.

Riley and Queen Vania fought without care at all. Vania didn’t care for the people of the Grand Triangle—she knew about their nature, after all. Lawless, cruel.

And so, she fought with all of her might.

But without Fate, or an absolute rule to tie down Riley... all of her might was not enough.

Vania ran through him, and Riley turned colossal so that she would have a bigger target to hit.

She grabbed her by both feet, and he grew two more to kick him.

She split him in half, and Riley also split himself in half and then multiplied a million times.

It was as if the thing she was trying to fight was insanity itself—no. It was as if she was fighting her own madness.

"Why did you stop!?"

And right now, Riley was holding her by the leg, about to snap and break it in half.

I killed my people, and now this is my punishment—to die by the hands of the worst creature that has ever existed.

"Why did you stop!?" Queen Vania repeated, again and again.

How could she not—when Riley had suddenly frozen in place?

He wasn’t fighting anymore. He wasn’t even moving. He was just... staring at her face.

She opened her mouth to shout again, but then—she saw it.

A smile. Crawling onto Riley’s lips.

And then, he let go of her leg.

"So that is why," he whispered. "You are trying to pull a suicide by Riley, Your Highness. That is... interesting."

"You—" Queen Vania’s eyes widened as she immediately blinked away, appearing several meters from him, hovering in the void. "You read my mind!? Do you have no shame!?"

"Well, this is your fault too, Queen Vania," Riley tilted his head, still smiling faintly. "How could I not want to read your mind, with a face like that?"

"What!?" Vania flinched, stepping back and glancing over her shoulder—toward the afterimage she left behind. And when she saw the expression frozen on her face...

A sharp gasp escaped her. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes, and she quickly wiped them away.

The droplets floated freely in the dead expanse of space, like tiny glimmers of grief.

"Wh—"

Before she could say another word, those tears suddenly exploded.

She didn’t even blink. She just watched them erupt, wanting to reach her face—but she could probably explore the entire universe before they even moved a single centimeter.

"More of your games?" Her voice twitched. "Just end me already and be done wi—"

But she was once again interrupted before she could finish her words.

Not because of another explosion.

Not because of another attack.

No—this time, it was because her daughter was suddenly standing beside Riley.

Her daughter. The daughter who had died fighting the war she should have fought.

And beside her... her son—the first to die way before that. The one Riley himself had killed.

"Mother!?"

Both Princess Vera and her brother rushed toward her, calling out, and the queen broke all the facade and stretched her arms to meet them.

And yet, she couldn’t touch them. Not at all. Her gentle fingers that wanted to caress and brush their hair, not feeling a single thing at all as they went right through them like they were smoke—no. Not even.

At least with smoke, you could somewhat feel the subtlety they held. She couldn’t feel anything, not even a hint of their warmth.

"Why... why can’t we touch you, Mother!?" Vera gasped, trying to catch her mother’s hand. Her brother said nothing, simply wrapping his arms around the air—desperately seeking the comfort of an embrace that no longer existed.

Queen Vania trembled, helplessly reaching again and again, her hands slicing through ghosts.

And then, she looked at Riley.

His smile was gone now.

Only emptiness remained once again.

"What... what are you trying to do?" she asked, her voice cracking, her arms still reaching for her children.

"A chance, Your Highness," Riley said softly.

Then he snapped his fingers. And as he did so, millions of evaniels suddenly appeared right behind him—out of nowhere, without rhyme or reason.

No, Queen Vania knew the exact reason. Riley summoned them. Created them.

...But for what?

Much like her children, all of them were confused, looking at themselves.

These weren’t just illusions, they were real.

She knew that.

So why? Why are they here?

Riley let out a long, quiet breath. His clothes began to shift—his white hair suddenly growing down to his waist, glowing, imitating the ethereal strands of the evaniels.

"If they manage to kill me," he said, spreading his arms wide,

"Then I will make it so you can touch them again."

"N... no..." Vania whispered.

"It is not just for them," Riley continued. "It is for you too. This is your chance—to fight alongside your people...

...or to watch them die again."