The terrorist attack at the large shopping mall near the academy had been resolved, thanks to the efforts of the heroes and police.
But inside the mall, innocent people were still dying.
"Ugh… *cough*…"
"H-here!! We need support over here!!"
"Start CPR, now!!!"
"…This one's already gone."
The paramedics who had rushed in the moment the attack was suppressed — along with police, heroes, firefighters, and every other available hand — were doing everything they could to save those who had fallen victim to the terror.
Sadly, there was nothing I could do here.
But perhaps Baek So-a noticed the bitter look on my face as we surveyed the scene together, because she offered me words of comfort almost immediately.
"It's only this contained because of you, Maxwell."
"Ha… thank you for saying that."
A catastrophe no one had seen coming.
And yet, this would become an absolute case study for why heroes needed to exist in society.
Once the mall had been cleared to some degree, Victory and I received heartfelt thanks from the heroes and police on the scene.
"I heard you identified Air Bomb's weakness on the spot, Maxwell. Because of that, my people made it out alive."
"…One wrong move and far more lives would have been lost. And you — Victory, was it? I mean it when I say thank you."
"Being a hero doesn't make you immune to helplessness. Your help today gave the others something to stand tall about."
Not only had I managed to forge a meaningful connection with the forces of good —
Seeing how happy Victory was, it seemed she'd realized the outside world wasn't such a terrible place after all.
Though for some reason, the grip she had on me when she hugged me had gotten noticeably stronger.
She did calibrate her strength carefully enough not to actually hurt me, fortunately.
So at least I was spared any undignified sounds of pain.
With that, our group made our way back to the academy.
All that was left was the return trip, but —
"We've stayed far too late."
The sun was already setting.
I had told Gloria and Liberty we might be late, but figuring out how to face them was going to be its own challenge.
Victory, meanwhile, was loudly campaigning to make us even later.
"Maxwell! Since we're already late, let's stay out even longer!!"
"V-Victory?"
"Pfft. She really does adore you, doesn't she, Maxwell."
Baek So-a and her secretary watched us with warm, indulgent smiles.
In any case, the dean instructed her secretary to prepare something and told me to contact her whenever I had time.
I was handed her business card.
『 Seoul Hero Academy 』
『 Dean ☆★Baek So-a★☆ 』
Whether it was the magical girl in her or not, the card was remarkably flamboyant.
Baek So-a seemed well aware of how embarrassing it was, because she pivoted the conversation with impressive speed.
"Ahem!! Feel free to call me personally anytime — no need to stand on ceremony."
That meant she was open to unofficial contact at any time.
A solid bridge to the side of the righteous had just been built.
I felt a quiet satisfaction at the rope growing sturdier beneath me as I said my farewells to the dean.
Victory and I boarded our vehicle to head back to Pyongyang.
Unlike the early morning, Victory seemed to have shed much of her fear — she was lively and animated the whole ride.
"Victory, how was today's outing?"
"It was really, really great!!"
Then this trip to the graduation ceremony had been a resounding success.
The moment the vehicle pulled away, exhaustion hit me like a wave.
But before long, one of the bodyguards in the car received a transmission.
"…Maxwell, sir."
"Is that you, Captain?"
The bodyguards gave a quiet nod in response.
I let out a slow breath and looked out the window. The sun had already slipped below the horizon, and the moon had claimed the sky.
The eyes staring back at me from the car window were cold — cold enough that even I barely recognized them.
I reached over and gently stroked Victory's hair as she stared up at me, then opened my mouth.
"Driver? Please take us where the security team is directing."
"Understood. Fair warning — the road ahead won't be smooth."
Whether we were heading back to Black Cell or somewhere else entirely, it made little difference to me.
The vehicle turned away from Pyongyang and began moving toward a remote stretch of forest.
****************
While all of New Korea buzzed with talk of the shopping mall attack —
Time moved on, and night fell.
Somewhere in the hills far outside Seoul, a voice tore through the dark in anguished fury.
"Damn this rotten society!!! To hell with heroes!!!"
The named villain who had orchestrated the attack.
Air Bomb — the bat mutant — could not contain his rage.
His notoriety had grown considerably after today.
But he had lost every ally who had stood beside him.
Whether he could ever rebuild a group like that again was anyone's guess.
Still, thanks to the sacrifice of his last comrade, Air Bomb had been given a new opening.
"Never again… I will never move so recklessly again!!"
Even a vicious villain can learn from failure.
And for someone with as formidable a combination of abilities as his, there were other paths forward.
Multiple criminal organizations had already sent him recruitment offers — he could start over from scratch with any one of them.
And so, having conveniently forgotten the meaningless deaths he had caused —
Just as Air Bomb was steeling himself, chewing over nothing but his own defeat —
Rustle.
An out-of-place sound reached him.
Air Bomb, who could even manipulate ultrasonic waves, immediately registered that someone was nearby.
He had already decided to eliminate every witness until the investigation died down.
He lashed out with his telekinesis without hesitation, and a section of the forest was ripped clean away.
But something was wrong.
If there had been even a small creature there, something should have happened — like a blood sac bursting.
Where the sound had come from, there was nothing. Only shattered wood and overturned earth.
Air Bomb began to sense that something was off —
——————————SCREEEEEEEEEE!!!
"AAAAAAARGH!!!"
An enormous burst of noise erupted from all around him.
Being a bat mutant, he suffered far more than most would have — but the situation only deteriorated from there.
Rustle.
"Wh-who the hell are you people?!?!"
Unidentified soldiers materialized from the surrounding darkness.
Air Bomb tried to activate his abilities to deal with them —
But for some reason, he couldn't get them to fire at all.
As sheer terror began to close around him —
Thunk!!!
"Gkh?!"
The silent soldiers drove something into his body.
Whatever cold, spike-like object had been rammed through him sent Air Bomb thrashing in agony.
A faint electrical current ran through the spike, and his body stopped obeying him.
Completely subdued, he was dragged away.
Air Bomb fought to find some way out through his rapidly dimming vision.
But the world had no more chances left to offer him.
The sound of a vehicle approached from behind. The soldiers hauling him snapped into formation.
Someone stepped out of the vehicle and walked slowly toward him.
"Maxwell, sir. The target has been successfully subdued."
"You've done excellent work, Captain."
The one who emerged, receiving the crisp salutes of the assembled soldiers, was none other than Maxwell.
Air Bomb, who had had no idea what was happening behind him, stared in bewilderment.
Maxwell confirmed that all of Air Bomb's abilities had been neutralized, accepted something from the security captain, and began walking slowly around to face him.
"The sonic frequency around you has been lowered just enough for you to hear me. But as you're already aware — between the sound waves being emitted around you and that spike lodged in your body, you won't be using your abilities."
"Who — who the hell are you?!"
"Me? Simply someone who wants to hold you accountable for what happened today."
Maxwell called Air Bomb to account for the massacre of innocent civilians.
But even in the depths of his agony, Air Bomb refused to acknowledge any fault of his own and began laying the blame elsewhere.
"Who are you to tell me to take responsibility?! Everything that happened to me is society's fault!! All of it!!!"
"Hmm… I see. I generally make it a firm policy not to engage with fools, but I'll make an exception this once."
Maxwell accepted one more item from the security captain at his side and continued.
"You just asked what right I have to speak of responsibility. The reason is simple — because I carry the same sins you do."
"Wh… what?"
"But there is one critical difference between us. Have you ever heard this said?"
With every right comes responsibility.
With every opportunity comes obligation.
With every possession comes a price commensurate to it.
If you wield power, then the consequences of that power must also be yours to bear.
Maxwell looked down at what he held in his hand, and a bitter smile crossed his face.
"Of course, what I'm doing here is nothing more than self-satisfaction. And no one knows what waits at the end of this twisted, warped road. But just as we continue to wear the Black Cell emblem — we simply keep moving forward. We do not run from the responsibility for what we have done."
Click.
"And you have reached the end of the line. So now… it is time to face what you owe."
"What did I even do wrong!! Is it a crime just to be born a mutant?! Is it?!?!"
Maxwell said that those who lived in darkness had all the more reason not to flee from their sins and their debts — and raised the pistol in one hand.
Air Bomb, who refused to the very end to accept any responsibility and kept screaming blame at the world, thrashed violently.
The special operatives around him pressed down harder.
And then —
Bang.
A single lead round was fired somewhere in an unnamed stretch of hills.
The space had been sealed off from the outside world by the operatives' abilities and Black Cell's equipment.
Only the memory of someone's final, desperate struggle sank quietly into the stillness.
*******************
Maxwell had returned far too late, and was currently on the receiving end of a pointed look from Gloria —
When the one who had served as his security captain slipped into the Security Director's office at Black Cell.
"Director Yoon, reporting the security team's return."
"I heard what happened. Good work out there, Deputy Director. Were you made?"
"Honestly, he doesn't seem particularly concerned about our identities."
The security captain was, in fact, Yoon Carter's most trusted subordinate — planted by the Security Director himself to watch over Maxwell.
His reasons for doing so were straightforward enough.
"Is that so? And the others still have nothing but good things to say about him."
"Ha… well, of course they do."
He simply wanted to understand what kind of person Maxwell Gray actually was.
The Deputy Director recounted everything that had happened and let out a long sigh.
"The things he said out there in those hills — it almost felt like he was comforting us. He really is someone who has no business being in Black Cell."
"Coming from you, that's saying something. And yet… I find myself agreeing entirely."
Listening to the Deputy Director's account, Yoon Carter argued the opposite — that Black Cell needed someone exactly like Maxwell.
"You know the saying about one mudfish clouding the whole pond?"
"Of course. But you're saying the reverse is true here."
"Exactly. He's like a lotus."
A lotus doesn't magically purify the murky water it grows in.
But it slowly revives the water around its roots —
And carries within it the power to breathe life back into a stagnant pond.
"He's also precisely what Lady Eileen needs most."
"…That, I cannot argue with."
As members of the Blackrock Family, both Yoon Carter and his Deputy Director had been entrusted with guarding Eileen Blackrock.
They knew the Director's temperament better than almost anyone —
And since Maxwell's arrival, they had both noticed how much gentler she had become.
The Security Director, looking forward to what lay ahead, smiled quietly and slid a document across the desk to the Deputy Director.
"This… this is?"
"The Chief Researcher has been making quite a fuss."
"I understand why — Dr. Cain absolutely despises having to meet with Lady Eileen — but isn't this too fast? He's barely been here a year, and they're talking about *Deputy Director*?"
Dr. Cain had submitted a petition to the senior staff requesting that Maxwell be elevated to the position of Deputy Director.
If approved, it would work both ways — just as Dr. Cain had become a shield for Maxwell by defending him from outside scrutiny, Maxwell could become a shield for Dr. Cain, who was terrified of Director Eileen.
The Security Director had, of course, already signed the document long ago.
"Deputy Director — aren't you curious? About what Black Cell is going to look like from here on out."
Black Cell was, even within the Group, a particularly dark and dirty organization.
Yoon Carter hoped that Maxwell might serve as a kind of landmark — that the organization might improve, even if only by degrees.
The Deputy Director found himself nodding along without a word of protest.