I had somehow managed to clean up every mess I'd made.
But the experiments had stretched on for over two weeks, and I'd had no choice but to neglect the children.
"You're leaving already."
"Whimper… whimper…"
"Victory is… Victory is really, really sad."
They'd all turned sulky, as expected.
Since I'd had to keep advising Cain throughout his experiments, there was nothing I could do about it.
Still — hadn't we reached our goal?
When I told them things were back to normal, all three of them gave me a reluctant nod.
But Victory, who had shifted into her colder personality, went a step further and made a direct request.
"Maxwell, why don't you hurry up and arrange a meeting with that Gloria person?"
"Are you sure you'll be alright?"
"She's about the same age as Victory, isn't she."
Victory, who often referred to herself in the third person, wanted to start living with me sooner rather than later.
As it happened, I'd been planning to bring the two of them together anyway — this worked out perfectly.
And since I could simply reuse the meeting space I'd already modified, all I needed was Gloria's agreement.
I asked her about it directly, and —
"Fine by me."
Fortunately, Gloria gave her permission for the meeting with Victory as well.
All I had to do was set a date, and the two of them could meet right away.
And so, in less than half a year, I had nearly finished laying the groundwork for all of us to live together.
"Mr. Maxwell, the Chief Researcher is asking for you."
Dr. Cain, who had practically been forced into Black Cell's recovery ward after days of overwork, had finally returned.
But when I actually saw him, he was still brimming with the euphoria of having pulled off a landmark experiment.
"Maxwell!! Ha ha ha! Come in, come in!"
"Are you fully recovered now?"
"Of course!"
The excited Dr. Cain showed me the experimental data they'd obtained, explaining just what a monumental achievement we had accomplished.
"Until now, superpowers were understood at the level of 'they appear when you awaken.' But now that we've found this special factor, we'll be able to uncover the cause of their emergence, the mechanism of their growth, even their compatibility with one another!"
"As they say, well begun is half done — the secrets will start unraveling one by one from here."
"Exactly! Which means we're about to become scientists on the level of Einstein, Newton!"
The Chief Researcher looked genuinely elated at the prospect of going down in history alongside the greats.
But perhaps because I kept responding with such measured calm —
Dr. Cain thumped his chest in exasperation.
"Maxwell… are you really going to stay this humble even now, at this moment?"
"Ahaha, I'm truly sorry."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Too much modesty is its own kind of flaw. At least tell me — when can we expect the paper to be ready?"
"That would be —"
There was one enormous problem at hand.
I had no idea how to write a paper in the field of bioengineering.
And beyond that, internal power within Black Cell mattered far more to me right now than any external reputation.
Fortunately, the very person who could solve all of this was standing right in front of me.
I proposed another deal to Dr. Cain on the spot, and he was stunned.
"Y-you mean I can write the paper?!"
"That's right, Chief Researcher."
"No, no… this is your research, Maxwell —!"
"I only formulated the hypothesis. It was Dr. Cain who proved it."
I answered him firmly, and the doctor fell silent for a moment, sinking into thought.
Had he finally grasped what I truly wanted?
He looked at me with an expression that said he understood, at least in part.
"…You've had a hard time of it, surviving in this Black Cell."
"I'm genuinely grateful for your understanding."
"Yes… you've gotten deeply entangled with Director Eileen, so I suppose even you had no choice. From now on, inside the research complex, you won't have to deal with any troublesome matters. But I do have a conscience, so I'll make absolutely certain your name appears as a co-author."
It was rather absurd to hear a scientist who led inhumane experiments invoke his conscience.
But this meant the first-author credit on the paper about the superpower factor — an external reputation I had no use for — went to Dr. Cain.
I wanted my name removed from the paper entirely, but Dr. Cain stubbornly insisted on placing me higher in the author order.
After I kept pushing him to lower it, we settled on a compromise: not co-first author, not second author, but third author — and my standing within Black Cell rose considerably.
***************
The deal with the Chief Researcher had gone extremely well.
Thanks to that, not a single researcher in Black Cell could touch me anymore.
The days of a walking corpse picking fights with me were over.
The problem, if there was one, was that the newcomer had now completely dislodged the old guard.
In the end, people are the same everywhere.
No matter that I had a direct line to the Director, and no matter that Dr. Cain openly shielded me — the senior researchers were bound to be seething with jealousy.
I'd been planning to simply observe the internal dynamics of the research complex for a while, but…
"Why is everyone looking at me like that? Like they feel sorry for me?"
"Ahem…"
"W-well, you see…"
"It's nothing!"
Far from jealousy, everyone in the research complex was staring at me with an almost unsettling degree of pity.
I was more baffled than anything, trying to make sense of it, when — while I was eating lunch in the cafeteria — Amano approached me from across the room with a look of grim resolve.
Behind her, the new recruits and other researchers were hiding and cheering her on.
It seemed Amano, being considered the person closest to me, had been volunteered to ask a particular question on everyone's behalf.
But what on earth could they possibly want to ask?
The moment I started talking with Amano, though, a flash of understanding cut through my mind.
"Are you alright, Senior Maxwell?"
"Please don't beat around the bush. Just get to the point."
"W-well… your paper… was taken from you…"
What does a paper mean to a scientist, generally speaking?
It's essentially their child — the product of every ounce of passion and years of their life poured into it.
And looking at the current situation from an outside perspective…
'I look like a graduate student whose thesis was stolen by his supervising professor.'
And it wasn't even an ordinary discovery — it was a genuinely monumental one.
Now I finally understood why the researchers had been looking at me the way they had.
After that, Amano hesitantly relayed a stream of questions from the other researchers.
"I heard that the reason this experiment succeeded so spectacularly was because Senior Maxwell built the entire hypothesis and experimental methodology from scratch."
"Dr. Cain was the one who proved it."
"But in the end, he just swooped in at the last moment."
As she continued, Amano found herself getting angry on my behalf.
It looked like my junior was about to get on Dr. Cain's bad side, so I deliberately put on the air of someone with a grand plan.
"Amano, I don't concern myself with something as trivial as that."
"T-trivial?!"
"Because there's still so much more to find ahead of us. Far more than you might think."
And so I treated the paper Dr. Cain had taken as nothing more than a single step forward.
In doing so, I earned the respect of the new recruits and the other researchers alike.
********************
Black Cell now had a top-priority objective: unraveling the secrets of superpowers.
Naturally, all other ongoing research was suspended indefinitely.
The test subjects being held there were left in limbo.
They were useless for the time being, and difficult to manage on top of that.
Talk did surface about simply disposing of them —
"Each one of those is worth several billion."
"Since each of them is a uniquely powered individual, their value must be quite high."
"That's not all. According to the Security Director, transporting them is an absolute nightmare. Anyway, Maxwell — can you tell me what you'd like to do with them?"
"Of course…"
According to Dr. Cain, test subjects were extraordinarily difficult to obtain, even when smuggled in from countries where human rights were virtually nonexistent.
I advised that the test subjects be kept alive, and fortunately, their lives were spared.
In any case, this discovery prompted all of Black Cell's core executives to convene for an emergency meeting.
Of course, I now had Dr. Cain as a formidable shield.
And there was no reason to summon a junior-level member — barely more than a foot soldier — to a meeting of that importance, was there?
Thanks to that, I felt quite at ease.
I was spending time with the children, just like the old days, when —
Beep beep!
"Huh?"
"Hmm?"
I was with Victory when a call suddenly came in.
I checked who it was — it was Secretary Min Chae-rin.
A wave of dread washed over me, strong enough to make me not want to answer at all.
But there was a CCTV camera in Victory's cell, which meant deliberately ignoring the call would be on record.
In the end, I answered and found out what it was about.
[Mr. Maxwell, I'm so sorry to interrupt while you're working.]
"I'm just spending time with the children, so it's fine. What is it?"
[The thing is — they're looking for you in the Central Strategy Conference Room.]
I failed to keep my expression neutral for a moment.
Victory, apparently seeing that kind of reaction from me for the first time, stared at me intently.
I was genuinely relieved she hadn't gotten angry, and I asked why they were calling — but even the human lie detector didn't know the specifics.
"So I'll only find out once I get there. Do I need to leave right now?"
[All the executives are waiting.]
"…Understood."
The news that I had to attend yet another meeting gave me a headache.
************
I had no idea why they kept summoning a first-year junior to meetings like this, but —
Victory, who was with me at the time, was in her gentle personality, and she seemed to sense that the meeting was something significant. Rather than sulking, she cheered me on.
"Victory will be waiting for Maxwell!"
"Thank you. That actually helps a little."
"Hehehehehe!"
By now, regardless of which personality she was in, Victory almost never showed any violent tendencies toward me.
Though at the moment, she was wrapped up head to toe like a cocoon, which looked incredibly uncomfortable.
'Since I have to head to the conference room anyway, I should ask the Director to lower Victory's restraint level.'
I parted ways with the cheerful Victory and trudged off, but I apparently couldn't even make it through the walk — Secretary Min Chae-rin was already searching for me in the distance.
"The fact that you're out here looking for me suggests I'm running a bit late."
"No, it's fine. Shall we head to the conference room now, Mr. Maxwell?"
"Let's go."
I followed Secretary Min Chae-rin straight to the Central Strategy Conference Room, where she finally filled me in on what made this meeting unusual.
"The — the Chairman came?"
"Given the scale of the discovery, it seems he stopped by to verify things personally."
The chairman of Black Cell's parent company. The head of the entire group.
The patriarch of the Blackrock Family had appeared.