Road To Revenge: Obtaining a villain system

003. The Job

The sky was heavy with gray clouds when Niccolo walked out of what used to be his home. The house he bought with the last of his savings. The house he had once filled with dreams, late night conversations, and the scent of fresh coffee on Sunday mornings. Now it stood behind him like a ghost, empty of meaning, stripped of warmth. Kimberly hadn’t even flinched when he took his duffel bag and left. Her only words had been, “Leave the keys on the table.”

Niccolo had no idea where to go.

He walked aimlessly for blocks, ignoring the ache in his legs and the pit growing in his stomach. The world looked different now. Colder. Louder. Less forgiving. He thought about calling someone— anyone —but the truth was, he had no one. No siblings, no cousins he was close to. His mother had passed away when he was twelve, the victim of a freak car accident on a rainy evening much like this one.

His father had never been in the picture.

Niccolo had been on his own ever since.

He’d bounced between foster homes until he was sixteen, then dropped out of high school to work. He started with fast food, then construction, then eventually became an Uber driver. It wasn’t glamorous, but it put food in his belly and gas in the car. And it was during one of those late night rides that he met Kimberly.

She had slid into the backseat in a red silk dress that clung to her curves and smelled like perfume from a glossy magazine. She was loud, tipsy, and impatient, but she’d smiled at him —and that smile changed everything.

She asked if he always drove Uber, and he admitted he was between dreams.

She laughed. “At least you’re honest.”

They talked all the way to her apartment. By the time she stepped out, she’d given him her number and a wink that kept him up all night.

Four months later, Niccolo had used every cent he had saved to buy a small house in a quiet neighborhood. Kimberly said she liked stability, that she couldn’t be with a man who didn’t have a vision for the future. So he made sure he had one. He traded in his Uber license for a job at Phoenix Corp. Gregory had hired him as a janitor and errand boy, with the promise to upgrade his position after a while. It felt like fate.

They married in a modest garden ceremony with barely thirty guests. Niccolo wore a secondhand suit and Kimberly wore a simple white gown she had altered herself. It wasn’t much, but to him, it was everything.

And now— three years later— he was walking the streets in the same clothes he wore to work that morning. No job. No wife. No home. Just the weight of betrayal pressing against his back like a boulder.

Rain began to fall.

It started in gentle droplets but quickly escalated into a full downpour. Niccolo didn’t bother running for cover. The rain felt almost poetic, as though the sky itself was mourning his losses.

He passed cafés, bookshops, and restaurants. Places he and Kimberly used to visit. Her favorite salad bar. The gelato shop she’d dragged him to even in the dead of winter. All of it felt like pieces of a life that didn’t belong to him anymore.

As he turned a corner, cold and soaked, he saw a lit sign outside a shopping mall. It was big, blocky, and hard to miss:

NOW HIRING: SECURITY GUARD NEEDED – IMMEDIATE START

His first instinct was to keep walking. They might not want someone like him since he had no experience as a security officer.

But then he remembered Gregory’s smug face. Kimberly’s laughter. The clinking of wine glasses as Layla toasted to his humiliation. And he realized —he had nothing to be proud of anymore. Nothing to lose.

He pushed the glass doors open and walked into the mall. The lobby was warm and smelled of cinnamon and floor polish. A janitor gave him a side glance but said nothing. Niccolo approached the information desk, where a young man with braces directed him to the management office upstairs.

The elevator creaked as it ascended.

The moment the doors opened, he found himself standing in a minimalist office with glass walls and a long white table. At the far end, a woman stood flipping through a folder.

She looked to be in her late thirties or early forties, but her presence was magnetic. She wore a sharp gray pantsuit with the sleeves rolled just slightly, exposing a gold bracelet on her wrist. Her black heels clicked softly against the tiled floor as she walked toward him. Her hair was pulled back into a low bun, and her features were defined— strong cheekbones, almond shaped eyes, a gaze that seemed to read more than it let on.

Niccolo opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, she raised a hand.

“You’re here for the security guard position?”

He nodded.

She glanced down at his soaked clothes and duffel bag. “Name?”

“Niccolo Morandi.”

Her eyes lingered on him for a moment too long, then she nodded. “You’ve got the job.”

His brows furrowed. “Don’t you want to ask me anything?”

She gave a half smile. “I’ve already asked everything I need to.”

He hesitated. “I don’t have any experience in security.”

“You have eyes. You have a body. You’re breathing. You’ll learn.” She turned and walked toward a side room. “Come on.”

Still stunned, Niccolo followed.

The side room was small but clean. A bunk bed in the corner, a mini fridge, a locker, and a fold out table. It looked like it hadn’t been used in a while.

“You can sleep here for now,” the woman said, gesturing around. “Shifts are from 07:00 AM to 11:00 PM. Walk the grounds. Watch the monitors. If anything feels off, call me or mall security. I’ll get your badge and uniform sent in by tonight.”

Niccolo turned to her, soaked to the bone and trying to hold back the flood of emotions in his chest. “Why me?”

She paused in the doorway. “Because I see someone trying not to fall apart. And I like hiring people with something to prove.”

He swallowed. “Could I be so bold to ask your name?”

She smiled at his question. “Aria. Aria Vale. I’m the operations manager here.”

“Thank you, Ms. Vale.”

She looked back over her shoulder. “Don’t thank me yet. The night shift can be lonely. Let’s see if you make it through one.”

Then she was gone.

Niccolo sat down slowly on the edge of the bed. He looked around at the tiny room, the beige walls, the humming fridge. It wasn’t much. It wasn’t anything close to the life he had tried to build.

But it was something.

He peeled off his wet shirt, wrung it out in the sink, and changed into an old T shirt from his bag. He opened the fridge and found a bottle of water and an apple. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was until that moment. He devoured both in silence.

When 08:00 PM came, a uniform in his size arrived in a plastic bag. It was basic— navy blue slacks, a black polo, and a badge stitched with the mall’s name: Clearwater Galleria Security.

He put it on, took one last look at himself in the mirror, and stepped out.

That night, Niccolo walked the halls of the empty mall, the sound of his boots echoing across the tiles. He watched the monitors, checked the fire exits, and kept a small notebook in his back pocket where he jotted down things he noticed —light bulbs that flickered, a vending machine that kept humming strangely.

As the night stretched on, he began to feel something he hadn’t felt in a long time: a sense of clarity. The quiet let him think. Let him breathe. No one was watching. No one was laughing.

No Kimberly.

No Gregory.

Just him, the dark, and the beginning of something new.