Villain Retirement

More hours passed with Riley and the others waiting inside the confinement bay for any reinforcements of the assassins that may come. But there was nothing; the only thing that came to visit them was the awkward silence that came after the prince's revelation.

His sister, princess of the evaniels and future ruler of their realms, was coming to Earth as a sort of envoy to fix the friction that Val might have created between them and the humans. But that was where the problem lies— there were other factions lurking inside the ship. Factions that would not hesitate to kill the prince to sow discord for whatever reason with the humans.

Whatever the true goal of this secret faction was, Val's sister was no doubt also in danger. No— perhaps that was their goal in the first place, to draw out the princess and kill her in a faraway and secluded galaxy.

All of this information, however, was not the reason why everyone was so quiet; it was the other information they received from Val regarding the princess' coming.

Since it became known to the Queen that Riley held a certain status not only to the people of the new planet but also held enough reputation to be singled out by Aerith, and is also known to be friends with her, the princess wasn't just here to mend whatever was broken between the new relationship of the humans and evaniels… she was also here to build a relationship solely with Riley Ross.

Paige and Tomoe asked what kind of relationship, even though they already somewhat knew what Val actually meant— a potential for marriage.

Paige wanted to react at first; but after thinking about it for like 2 seconds, it made sense. For royalty, marriage was only a tool, a duty. It was probably the same even with an entirely different race from another planet.

"..."

"..."

"How does that even work?"

And finally, after a few more minutes of silence, Paige could no longer help herself as the words she'd been wanting to ask escaped her small lips,

"Interspecies marriage? Isn't that like… considered sodomy? Granted, you do look like us except the whole deal with the anime hair and magic tattoos— but you're still a completely different species," Paige then asked; her words, almost like a torrent with how fast she was talking,

"...We don't even know if you have the same organs as us."

"What are you asking the little boy?" Tomoe was the first one to answer her as she let out a small sigh; her eyes, however, did not leave the door of the confinement for even a single moment, "He probably still doesn't know anything about all of that adult stuff."

"I know!" Val quickly raised his voice as soon as he heard Tomoe's somewhat mocking words, "That's… that's basic biology, duh. Although, I wouldn't understand a primitive species like yours to understand."

"..." Paige quickly covered her mouth as she looked at Tomoe, almost letting out a teasing giggle as the prince returned her jeers.

"You're the same species as me, Paige."

"...That–"

"Can you elaborate on that, Prince Val?"

And anyone else could talk, Riley joined in on the conversation as he finished… compiling all the evaniel corpses inside Voris's cell and arranging them in some sort of theatrical way— the others didn't really ask about it.

"That…" Val was a bit hesitant to answer Riley until he remembered what he just did to the other evaniels, "...Although it's not usual, it's also not uncommon for other humanoid races to have children; especially the ones from the Higher Races like us."

"Hm," Riley only nodded as he gestured to Val to continue.

"There are actually also Themarian and Evaniel children, but non-pure Themarians don't inherit anything from their parents other than their physical appearance… my great-grandparent is actually half themarian."

"Hm."

"What do you mean 'hm'!?" Prince Val could not help but raise his voice from the humans' lack of response to his words, "I have Themarian blood in me! Do you know how rare it is for Themarians to have children with other races!? They can only have children once every thousand years or so, so they are actually somewhat forbidden to pollute their bloodline!"

"We have two here, Prince Val," Riley only shrugged his shoulders, "Aerith's son, and my sister."

"...What?" Prince Val widened his eyes in shock as he let out a loud gasp, "...Wait, you're half-themarian!?"

"No," Riley quickly shook his head, "My sister is."

"..."

"I was adopted, Prince Val."

"...Oh, that makes se— but wait, your race has two half-themarian children!? And with royalty!?"

"I would hardly call the two of them children, but yes. I thought you were briefed by Aerith about the situation on Earth?" Riley asked.

"N… no," Val shook his head, "I only received instructions and information from Commander Voris."

"So, you were used from that start," Tomoe's sighs whispered in the air as she looked at Val; her head, subtly showing her sympathy, "I heard you also snuck aboard, that's why you're here in the first place?"

"Y… yes."

"I am taking a guess here, young prince. But could it be Voris that let you in?"

"...Yes," Val could really only lower his head as he realized what Tomoe was telling him. He was the prince, and yet he was currently being played by someone from their race… which leads them once again to one of their very first questions— why?

Why would someone even want to sow discord with a new species, and in front of a Themarian? The alliance between the Higher Races was almost inviolable, strengthened through hundreds of thousands of years— if one were to break it, then it would surely cause a stir that was enough to crack the entire universe.

Even Val, who was young to the call of politics, knew this. No one, absolutely no one would benefit from this.

"It… would seem we involved ourselves into something weird," Paige forced a chuckle as she scratched her cheek, "Earth is just on its way to intergalactic trade and diplomacy, and yet we're already in the middle of some sort of civil war."

"W… We're not in a civil war!" Val once again raised his voice, "Our… our species is the most peaceful amongst the Higher Races, we… we're above wars!"

"There are 11 reasons in this room that proves you are not, young prince," Tomoe said with a straight face as she looked at the corpses that Riley so finely arranged,

"There are two possibilities I can think of here. Either someone wants to besmirch the name of your family, or there's a faction out there that wants to ignire conflict amongst the Higher Races— if it was the latter, then most likely other species are involved."

"..."

"Is there a private organization out there that… has all sorts of species under it?"

"...Many?"

"Which one is wealthy enough to fund a war?"

"...I don't know."

"...I suppose it doesn't matter for now," Tomoe could really only sigh, "There's no use in thinking about it. We're just a small and insignificant species. If it's the latter, they probably do not even have their eyes set on us."

"..."

"When will your sister be arriving?" Paige then changed the topic to relieve the tension in the air.

"She… should actually be here right now."

"...Already? Isn't your planet like billions and billions of kilometers away?"

"Trillions. She's moving through hyperdrive…" Val was going to stop explaining, but then noticed the slightly confused expression on Paige's face,

"...It allows our ships to travel in a single direction faster than the speed of light."

"...What?" Paige's eyes started to widen as she looked at the others; who also had a somewhat curious expression on their stoic faces, "That's possible?"

"It… was made by the Anavi with the help of themarians. I… I forgot when," a small smile slowly crawled on Vals' face, "It's just common knowledge, really."

"Is that how you got here?"

"...No," Val breathed out, "It's too risky for a ship this large to jump through uncharted territories like this galaxy. We did jump to the nearest station, however. I know all this because they let me inside the control room. I'm the prince, after all."

"Hm…"

"My sister should be using her personal ship, she has a racer. It's small enough to go through hyperdrive without any risks," Val nodded to himself, "She lets me pilot it sometimes, maybe I'll let you try it once she's here. She wouldn't mind since—"

[I would actually do mind, my dear brother.]

"...Vera!?"

And before Val could finish his words, a voice sounded reverberated throughout the entire confinement bay,

"You… you're here!?"

[I just arrived. We've been watching you for a few moments now.]

"W… wait, we're innocent! These guards tried to kill me!"

Riley, Paige, and Tomoe could really only look at each other as they tried to search for where the cameras could be.

[Yeah, well— the surveillance footage has been deleted. All we can really see was one of you… playing with corpses.]

"That…" Val looked at Riley as soon as he heard his sister's words, "...He's Riley Ross. They're in disguise because of a mission given by Princess Aerith! They didn't do anything wrong, I was with them the whole time!"

[...Oh?]

"Vera?"

[...]

"Are you still there, Ve—"

And once again, before Val could finish his words, he was interrupted. This time by the sound of the door confinement bay door opening.

"So, you're Riley Ross."

And without the door even fully opening; an unfamiliar silhouette was now standing a few meters behind Riley and the others; her hair, almost as green as a luscious forest, "You…

…look weird."