Villain Retirement

1028  Chapter 1028: Another Mega Mistake n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"What… do you mean by that?"

"Lucifer!"

The shock on Aerith's face was already evident from the way her breath just stopped there and then. But perhaps even more perturbed than her was Renna, as showing themselves truly was not part of the plan — they were only supposed to eavesdrop. But alas, the only thing she could do was completely take off their camouflage as Lucifer removed parts of it, revealing themselves to Aerith and Arthas,

"Lucifer, we should let them—"

"No," Lucy did not let Renna pull him away as he approached Aerith and Arthas, "What do you mean we're not real, Arthas's mother? What do you mean by that?"

"That…" Aerith looked at Lucy and Renna back and forth, her lips seemingly trying to find words to utter, "...I meant you're not Arthas's real siblings, only… half."

"Now I know where Aunt Silvie got her sense of lying from," Lucy's eyebrows lowered as he looked Aerith in the eyes, "You're both extremely bad at it. What do you mean we're not real?"

"Lucifer," Renna grabbed Lucy's arm, "Do not talk to our aunt like that. This is our first time meeting her, you should set a better first impression."

"We didn't meet her, dear sister," Lucy shook his head, "She was hiding from us and we found her. Arthas, what does she mean we're not real?"

"I… have no idea," Arthas, who was as confused as everyone there, very slowly backed away from his mother while looking at her from head to toe, "They're real, Mom. What are you saying?"

Arthas then poked Lucy's face, and Lucy just pointed at his cheek where Arthas poked him while nodding his head at Aerith.

"Are you saying we are androids?" Lucy squinted his eyes as he looked at his hand, "I've already seen what my insides look like, Second Mother — it is unlike an android."

"I… think it's best not to talk about this anymore," Aerith just let out a small breath before her feet started to leave the ground, "You can stay here if you want, Arthas. I'll just… please return."

"Where do you think you are—"

Lucy tried rushing toward Aerith to grab her, but she already disappeared into the expanse of space in less than a millisecond.

"What… was that all about?" Lucy grabbed the dust and empty air before blankly looking at Arthas, who only just shrugged his shoulders as he truly did not know what was happening,

"Why would she tell you we're not real…? Does your mom hate us since our father impregnated another woman?"

"...No," Arthas shook his head, "She's never been like that with Karina. And she's not the type to hate people."

"Then what was that all about?" Lucy repeated his words before turning to look at Renna, "What do you think, dear sister? Why would she—"

"This has been fun, Arthas — let us do it again sometime." And before Lucy could even finish his words, Renna opened a portal beneath her feet and left the two just like that.

"Did… she just leave us?" Arthas blinked a couple of times as he stared at the space where Renna was previously at.

"That she did," Lucy let out a small sigh before placing his arm over Arthas's shoulder, tiptoeing to reach him, "Anyway, shall we partake in the pleasures of the city some more, my dear brother?"

"We're… still hanging out?" Arthas looked at Lucy with wide eyes, "Aren't you… curious about what Mom said?"

"Why would I be curious about things that are out of my control?" Lucy raised an eyebrow as he gently pushed Arthas away, "I would rather taste those that are within reach of my tongue, my dear brother. Come, let me introduce you to the more… dubious parts of the city."

"Dubious… parts?"

"Indeed, my brother. Indeed. A place where I get to live out my fantasies of violence and romance."

"Violence…? I don't like that."

"It's just pretend — otherwise I might gravitate to the real one and actually start killing people for real," Lucy let out a small chuckle as if he did not just say something morbid.

"You have thoughts of killing people!?" Arthas's eyes once again widened as he walked beside Lucy and he started stepping out from the alley and into the light.

"Just thoughts — I roleplay to get it out of my system," Lucy shrugged, "My dear sister was the one who taught me how to repress it and turn my ugly feelings into art…

…She introduced me to theater. That is why I talk to myself in mirrors, which I can literally do and my reflection answers back, it's so dramatic."

"Huh…" Arthas blinked a couple of times, "...Renna really knows a lot of things, huh?"

"You do not know the half of it, my ogrish brother," Lucy let out a long and harmonious hum as he patted Arthas's back, "She was part of the theater once too, you know?"

"Oh, what happened?"

"No idea, she lost passion for it…

…I suppose?"

And while Arthas was being dragged away by Lucy devil knows where, Renna emerged from the shadows of her room — well, most of her room was shadow.

Her room was incredibly dim, with only lines of light seeping out from the curtains; dancing across the walls and floors as the wind from the portal escaped into her room. But as she closed it, the room became calm, incredibly so.

And since Renna breathes in a way that no one could hear her at all, it was almost as if the room was… dead.

"Not… real?" Renna then let out a small whisper which echoed through her isolated and seemingly boxed room. And very soon, as she took a step, a small crumpling noise could be heard rustling beneath her feet.

She looked at the dark floor for a few seconds before light started to veil the entire room spherically, revealing it bit by bit — what was first revealed by the fading darkness, however, were pieces of paper on the floor, scattered everywhere. And soon, they crawled along the walls, and even onto the ceilings… and even on her bed.

Most of them were news of the past, cutlets, printed, and some even from books. There were red threads everywhere, almost like a web that filled half the room as it connected everything; one could barely even walk through this mess. Renna, however, could literally just phase through it as her eyes widened and widened while she approached her wall which was filled with cutlets and photos of… Riley.

"Father, Dear Father…" Renna then clasped her hands together as her breaths started to cause the stuffy air to visualize, "...Why did she say that? Why would she say we are not real? Are we not real to you, Father?"

Renna then gently placed her palm on the wall, brushing her fingers along the photo of Riley's face,

"But we are real, we came from you. You gave birth to us, we are real. We are."

Renna's face then very slowly started to crease as an awkward, and incredibly wide smile crawled on her face; her breaths which were ever silent, now almost a moan as tears began trailing from her cheeks.

Soon, however, her eyes then turned toward a corner of the room. Which had different photos of different people, perhaps thousands of them, and the only thing they had in common was that Renna marked all of them with an 'X'.

"Real…" Renna then whispered out as she glanced back to her bed before just running toward it and pushing all the cutlets and papers aside until she found what she was looking for, a book—no, a collection of news articles bound. She then started violently turning the pages; her eyes, moving erratically along with her heavy breaths — the cutlets also had something in common with each other…

…they were news articles of people just disappearing out of nowhere. Not just fading away, but disappearing in plain sight.

"People… people disappearing," Renna whispered to herself as she continued to scan the binder, "Even in the earliest conception of New World, people were already disappearing. And it is possible it was already happening before that. The girl, Aunt Aerith mentioned a girl…"

Renna then threw the binder away before running toward her desk, which was just a mountain of cutlets on top of each other. And soon, she found a photo that was neatly kept inside a frame — a photo of her mother's variant, Lucifer's mother.

Katrina was with Hannah, along with some other people. Renna's eyes, however, only reflected a single face.

"...Paige Pearson," Renna then started biting her lip before biting her nail, "Illusions… Illusions are real to her. Is she? Am I not real? Are we not real…?"

Renna then let go of the frame as she started clasping her head, "Am I… am I not real? Am I just… Father… please… please, please, please… please… please, don't tell me I'm just nothing."