Villain Retirement

"Oh my, why would he do such a thing?"

"Really, what possesses a man to murder his own family?"

"Oh, fuck. I know that man. He was in the bar last night complaining about being underpaid. He's… a Handler, I think?"

"...A Handler? Why would he kill himself if he has such a good job? They barely do anything and still get paid, I heard most of them are pocketing money too."

"Shh, it's not good to insult the dead."

"I'll insult him as much as I want. Have you seen the bodies? I heard there was a little girl, that poor baby."

Somewhere in the city of Arunafelt, a large crowd was gathered in front of a house; completely blocking the wide street as everyone just stopped to see what the commotion was about. But of course, it was a small city—everyone gathered here already knew what was happening; they just wanted to see.

"Look, they are bringing them out now!"

"Move, I—I can't see!"

"Where—oh… what the fuck."

"...Hm," Riley was also there, blending in with the others as they watched as the city guards dragged what was left of the family. They were covered by hay or cloth; but even then, it was obvious what was underneath.

The crowd was told that the mother and daughter's corpse were completely mangled, but they didn't expect they would see two stretchers covered in cloth that seemed to just have a lump of meat inside.

And soon, they saw a stretcher that was cleaner than the first two being carried outside the house—and without being allowed to be dragged away, the people started whispering louder and louder, until their words became shouts of disdain and disgust.

"...Oh," as for Riley, he couldn't help but let out a small chuckle as he realized something—he returned to the scene of the crime. He had read and watched many documentaries about murders and serial killers returning to their so-called 'murder site', but he never thought he would do it himself.

After all, back on Earth…there was almost never a place where it wouldn't be considered as his murder site. And now that he was here witnessing his crime scene firsthand just hours after it happened, it sort of feels… fun.

"Pft."

"..."

And as soon as he couldn't contain the chuckle from escaping his lips, the people around him started backing away from him; their eyes, looking at Riley from head to toe, wondering where this weird guy suddenly popped out from.

As for Riley, he just nodded to the people and left—after all, he didn't want to garner attention to himself right in front of his murder site. And so, he quickly made his way to the city's Hunter's Guild.

When he first entered the guild, there were a lot of eyes on him; judging his every step as he made his way to the counter to register as a Porter. But today, everyone was just busy talking at their own tables. It would seem that even here, the news of the murder reached—but then again, a member of the guild was involved.

"Ah, Riley! Here!"

"..." And before Riley could even make his way to the counter to accept a job, Lilly of the Leville party waved at him—calling him to join them at their table.

"..." Riley looked at them for a few seconds, before proceeding to just make his way to the counter and ignoring them.

"W—Riley! We already booked you as our Porter today!" Lilly stood up from her seat, her decently-sized bosoms, slightly jiggling and causing Roan to nod his head several times.

"..." Riley then once again turned to look at the Leville party's table, before bowing his head and making his way to them—and seeing as there was already an extra chair there, it would seem they truly were expecting Riley.

"So… have you heard?" Roan then quickly leaned closer to him and whispered, "The handler that took your money is dead. Turns out the guy murdered his family."

"I am aware, Roan," Riley nodded, "May I ask what quest you accepted, Leville party?"

"Let's discuss that later. We should talk more about the handl—Agh!"

"I'm sure he's had enough listening to that," Bert lightly hit Roan's head.

"Right," Lilly didn't really have a chance to take another seat as she nodded, "Let's just discuss this on the way, we're already constrained in time as it—"

"Last one to the carriage buys dinner later!"

"!!!"

And before Riley could even figure out what was going on, Roan, Bert, and Lilly rushed out of the guild… leaving him there alone.

***

"The last one was also a shared dungeon, correct?"

"Y…yes. We're just a 1-Star team, so we can only accept the lowest dungeons."

The noise coming from the wheels of the cart; the trotting of the birds' feet, and even the wind were completely drowned by the sound of the sighs of the Leville party.

Even Riley, who wasn't riding on the cart, could hear their sighs more than the gallops of his mount.

"None of us know any magic, so we can really only rely on getting stronger but…" Lilly continued to sigh as she lay her back on the cart bed; her brown eyes, squinting as the light of the sky reflected on them, "...we can't hunt enough to even get a whiff of power stones. Everything goes to the guild."

"We have been trying to rank up so we can have access to dungeons with more monsters, but as you already know…" Bert also sighed; his eyes, focused on the road ahead as he gripped the reins tightly, "...we're too slow."

"It's… my fault," Roan also joined the two as he shook his head; leaning his head over the cart and looking at the field of grass being pressed by the wheels, "Yesterday was supposed to be our chance to rank up, but I just can't seem to track—Ugh! Fuck, let's talk about something else….

…Where are you from, Riley? You don't seem to be from around here."

"I'm from far away, Roan," Riley answered quickly.

"You must be from the North?" Lilly sat up as she looked at Riley, "The Pokku Snowfields?"

"No," Riley shook his head, "Farther. I arrived here from a portal a year ago, but even before that, I came from farther away, I am an alien," he then said as he pointed up toward the sky.

"..."

"..."

There was a silence after that—but it did not last long as Roan and the others started bursting out in laughter—even their bird mounts were laughing.

"So…" Roan took in a deep breath as he tried to speak, "...You're like what, a dragon?"

"...A dragon?"

"Yeah. They're creatures from up there, from… what do you call that again?" Roan snapped his fingers several times as he looked at Bert.

"The Cosmos," Bert answered as he too, let out a long and deep sigh as he recovered from laughing, "Wait… you don't know about dragons?"

"As I said, I came from far away."

"...pft!"

"..." And while the Levill party once again burst into a fit of laughter, Riley could not help but place his hand on his chin.

Dragons—they were mentioned in passing in the book he was reading.

Is it possible they were also from a different part of the Universe? If so, perhaps they know how to navigate the expanse of space?

…But where exactly would he find one?