Chapter 6: A Dying Villainess’s Marriage Request
Theo was literally jumping down the stairs to save time. If he could, he would have jumped through them to reach the ground floor faster.
He hit the lowest floor and still had two streets to cross before the drug store. On the way, he questioned himself even as he ran.
’What am I doing? All I wanted was a way to strike a marriage deal with her and give her half the money.’
He frowned and pushed his legs faster.
’I don’t know what her circumstances are, but I can’t let that woman die. That’s not what my dad taught me.’
Eventually he reached the store and set the paper on the counter.
The attendant yawned and looked down at the paper, moving so slowly that Theo slammed his hands on the counter and yelled.
"Someone is dying, get me the damn drug!!"
The attendant, startled, almost staggered backward, but quickly regained his composure.
"Okay, okay, bro, I heard you."
He said, muttering the drug name off the note as he walked away.
"Midazolam... midazolam, where did he put it again."
He scanned the shelves. Behind him, Theo was already going red with anger when the guy suddenly shouted.
"Yes, found it!"
He pulled the drug, packaged it, and slid it across the counter. Then he logged it into the monitor. Theo saw what it cost, and his jaw went slack.
"Hey! Since when do drugs cost that much?!"
The boy leaned on the counter and answered in a bored tone.
"Since people started going into the Tower and getting rare elixirs and medicine for themselves. It means whatever’s left on this side has to be overpriced, because we’ve got to make a profit too. Don’t you think, bro?"
Theo looked down at the phone’s cracked screen.
{Available Balance: $739.98}
’If I buy a drug worth $720... damn it, I won’t even have twenty dollars left.’
Theo sighed and paid up immediately, without a second thought. He wasn’t looking to curry favor or anything. This just felt like the right thing to do.
He yanked the drug off the counter and bolted.
"Thank you very much. Make sure to come again!!"
Theo didn’t bother answering and just ran, already dreading the battle back up the stairs. One could say those very stairs were the reason he’d become a Neet in the first place.
After several moments, a panting Theo reached Thaleria’s door and handed her the drug. He gently helped raise the lady’s head while Thaleria administered the drug, tucking it between the woman’s cheek and gum.
After a few seconds the seizure stopped, and the lady went still on the ground. Thaleria’s shoulders dropped and she nearly fell, but Theo caught her instantly. She stayed there a moment, just leaning on him, and maybe she even wished she could lean on him forever.
But the moment that greedy thought set in, she pulled away.
The lady on the ground was already resting, asleep. Thaleria stepped into the next room and came back with a blanket, which she laid over her.
Then she sighed and stepped outside with Theo.
Theo watched as she sat down on the bench outside, her face tired. The landlady was a beauty that must have been carved from the clouds, with an emerald set of eyes that glittered like timeless jewelry.
Her skin was smooth, and loose strands of hair fell across her face as she stared into the distance. She wore a gown that hugged every line of her figure, drawing taut as she settled onto the bench.
She was not ordinary in any way. She didn’t look ordinary either.
’I probably shouldn’t pry too much.’
She glanced towards Theo, a somber look in her eyes, and lowered her head politely.
"I’m sorry for misjudging you, room 23. Thank you."
Theo stepped closer, folding his arms.
"Can I ask a question?"
She looked at him, then nodded.
"Is she your sister? What happened to her?"
Thaleria was silent for a moment, then she sighed and closed her eyes. A green aura poured off her and she began to float, her brown hair flushing into green. Armor woven in a pattern of leaves, edged in brown, formed over her body, revealing her cleavage and stopping above her mid-thighs. A transparent linen flowed down her body.
"Do you recognize this form?" she said as her feet touched the ground.
He stared and blinked several times.
"Aside from the fact that you look like a gorgeous and wicked villainess out of the tales of the Green Leaf, I have no idea who you are."
Thaleria laughed, then immediately coughed up blood, and her form came apart, back into the gown she’d been wearing. Theo caught her and helped her sit, offering her a colored handkerchief he usually carried to shield himself from the air.
’That’s the last one... I don’t even have money for a nose mask.’
After Thaleria wiped away the blood, she said with a thin smile, "Room 23, it seems you’re a Neet to the core. You don’t even know about the Yggdrasil that destroyed Liberty City."
Theo tilted his head, thinking about it.
"I did hear about the destruction of Liberty City and its heroes, ten years ago, but I was only eleven. I didn’t care about information like that at the time."
Thaleria smiled.
At the same time, Theo frowned.
"Wait... you are... Yggdrasil?"
Thaleria chuckled weakly.
"Well, I used to be. Now I’m just a dying aunt... as you can see." She looked at him. "I have a Grade-S mana core cancer, and it’s slowly killing me. My friend in there, the Frozen Empress of Niflheimr, was imbued with a Grade-SSS curse that’s slowly frying her brain. And Estea, the Fire Dragon... she’s crippled."
She sighed.
"We were all villainesses who served the Association. We were the necessary evil, both inside the Tower and outside it, until we hit our forties and the Association started demanding we retire and make room for younger girls to take over as villainesses, even though they were half-baked and weak."
She clenched her fist angrily.
"We... and the other villainesses, refused. They never made that proposition to the male villains. Why did it have to be us?"
Her face went dark.
"Then we were sent on a dungeon exploration... one that was rigged from the beginning. Those bastards wanted to kill all of us. But me, Sesan, and Estea managed to escape. They hunted us down again and offered us a deal: stay silent if we wanted to live. He was the one who procured this place for us and gave us the legal right to one room’s rent. It wasn’t until after that that our bodies began to deteriorate."
Her shoulders shook.
"Most of us gave our lives to the evil we are, to the things we believed in. We have no life outside here. The three of us were never the best of friends. We were rivals. But we needed to care for each other. I needed to make sure they wouldn’t die. So someone could care for them."
Then she raised her head and looked at Theo intently.
"I can see that beneath all that indecency, you’re a good man. So I have a request to ask of you, Theo."
She paused.
"Please, will you marry Estea and Sesan?"