I'd even gotten to make a donation using someone else's money, courtesy of the Academy.
Thanks to the one-on-one meeting, it seemed like I'd be able to maintain a solid connection with Red Cat going forward.
All that was left now was to hand this briefcase over to Dean Baek So-a, and I'd be done.
Fortunately, not many VIPs had attended this graduation ceremony, so I was able to meet with the Dean right away.
"You've truly worked hard today, Maxwell."
"The Dean and the Academy staff handled all the preparations — I don't feel like I did much of anything, really."
"How kind of you to say so. And…"
Twitch!
"That rabbit mutant girl — Victory, was it? Nice to see you again."
"Oh, h-hello…"
Victory was still visibly shy around strangers, squirming with the same bashfulness as ever.
But standing next to ten-year-old Victory, I couldn't help but notice how the Dean's frame stood out even more than usual.
Honestly, she looked less like a dean and more like a sister who was three years older than Victory at most.
Of course, her girlish appearance was a massive complex for her.
I had no intention of poking at the sensitivities of a powerful magical girl.
Click!! Click!! Click!!
Suddenly, the sound of a camera shutter came from somewhere nearby.
I turned toward the source, wondering what on earth was going on.
The Dean's secretary was photographing the Dean and Victory with her phone, wearing the most sly expression imaginable.
I shot her a look that said, *what do you think you're doing*, but the secretary just smiled back cheerfully and replied.
"It's fine — we're all women here."
"Ah… right…"
I already knew she was like this.
Seeing it in person, though, was somehow deeply unsettling.
Was it because she had a secretary she'd be mortified to show anyone?
Tiny, glittering stars trailed along the Dean's fingertips, then shot straight toward the phone in the secretary's hand.
Crack!!
"No, nooooo!!!"
"I'm so sorry, Maxwell. Secretary An seems to be in quite a state today."
"I could tell the two of you are very close, so it's fine. More importantly — was that magic just now?"
Superpowers were one thing.
But witnessing magic — the very pinnacle of the unscientific — right before my eyes was genuinely fascinating.
Victory's eyes sparkled too, clearly captivated by the Dean's ability.
"W-what was that just now?"
"Are you talking about this?"
Whoooosh!!
Whether she saw it as the perfect chance to bond with Victory and her Acceleration Ability, the Dean immediately put her dazzling magic on full display.
Tiny stars streamed from her small hands, drifting one by one to the walls of the office, until the entire room transformed into something like a pocket of outer space.
The gravity inside the office seemed to vanish, and our bodies floated gently upward.
Surrounded by that brilliant cluster of stars and a sweeping Milky Way, Victory's face broke into a radiant smile.
*It looks like an illusion-type magic for now, but she hasn't even transformed yet and it's already this impressive…*
Just how powerful was a magical girl in reality, outside the pages of a comic?
It was a genuinely intriguing question.
*************
Things had taken a brief detour during my meeting with Dean Baek So-a.
But Victory had been absolutely delighted, so that was more than enough.
The Dean, for her part, immediately apologized for letting her own desires eat into my time.
"I'm sorry for taking up your valuable time."
"Not at all — I genuinely enjoyed getting to experience magic firsthand. Shall we get back to business, then?"
"Of course. Secretary An, you heard?"
"Yes…"
The secretary, thoroughly deflated over the destruction of her phone and its trove of photos, brought tea and refreshments.
We settled into the Dean's office and began a simple conversation.
The magic had done a lot to ease the atmosphere, so I didn't drag things out — I pulled out the document box right away.
"Maxwell, this is…?"
"Do you happen to remember the field survey I conducted during the entrance ceremony?"
The moment the briefcase snapped open, a stack of cards announced their presence.
Dean Baek So-a's eyes went wide as she read the text printed on them.
"I never imagined Black Cell would run a discount campaign of this scale. But why are you showing me this?"
"I intend to give all of these cards to you, Dean Baek."
"Is — is that really true?!"
Dean Baek So-a reacted exactly as CFO Park and I had predicted — with pure, undisguised delight.
With this, the Dean could distribute the discount coupons directly to active heroes, strengthening her standing in the hero world.
The heroes, in turn, would gain access to Black Cell's wide range of pharmaceuticals at significantly reduced prices.
And Black Cell, even absorbing a modest loss, would move far more product than before.
Add in the image boost on top of that, and it was a win for everyone involved.
*Besides, I still have half of those discount coupons with me.*
Before coming to the Academy, I'd followed CFO Park's advice and split the cards in the briefcase down the middle.
With those wild cards still in hand, I'd be able to maintain even better connections with other heroes down the line.
After all, give-and-take is the basic currency of society.
Dean Baek So-a cut straight to the point and asked what I wanted in return.
"I doubt you're giving me something like this out of pure goodwill. Would you be willing to tell me what you're after?"
"When injuries occur at the Academy, I'd ask that you give our treatments priority consideration. And when new drugs are introduced, I'd like to hear direct feedback from active heroes."
A clean, simple proposal — the kind anyone could make.
And easy enough to agree to. Dean Baek So-a's expression shifted into one of measured understanding.
"If you place Black Cell's products here… are you trying to cultivate the students as future customers?"
"We are, at the end of the day, a profit-driven organization."
"I never expected that quiet little pharmaceutical company to start actively expanding its slice of the pie."
"They say even mountains change in ten years. We're simply moving in step with the times."
The adult conversation continued to flow back and forth, and Victory, watching from the sidelines, had long since gone cross-eyed.
The Dean seemed to pick up on this quickly and didn't press any further with her questions.
And as the saying goes — what goes around comes around.
"Maxwell, would you be interested in visiting the Hero Association with me?"
"The Association, you mean?"
"Honestly, the Hero Association is where Black Cell's powerful treatments are needed most."
The stage I'd been hoping for had just been set.
From here, I could use Dean Baek So-a's connections to extend my reach deep into the Hero Association.
And the Dean would gain the justification of having partnered with Black Cell to broaden her positive influence — once again, a perfect win-win where both sides got exactly what they wanted.
With all my objectives accomplished.
I reached over and ruffled Victory's hair — she was still spinning in dizzy circles — and the Dean began pulling out snacks she clearly knew children would love.
But then the bodyguards stationed in the room suddenly stirred.
I was about to wonder what had gotten into them when —
BEEP BEEP BEEP!!! BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!
An emergency alert blared from the phones in the office, signaling that a disaster had occurred.
The Dean and I checked our phones immediately.
[ A terrorist organization has launched an attack on a large shopping mall. ]
[ All citizens in the vicinity are urged to evacuate immediately. ]
[ Citizens currently inside the mall must not resist the attackers……… ]
Of all the days for this to happen.
Once again, an incident had broken out right on cue.
Most likely, one of the many criminal organizations had timed their attack to coincide with the Academy's graduation ceremony — sending a message to society.
And they'd chosen a large shopping mall right near here to do it.
In other words, it should have been a simple matter of Dean Baek So-a stepping in to end it — not really my concern.
But the Dean answered a call, and her expression turned grave.
After a long moment of deep thought, she turned to me with a word of caution.
"Maxwell, I think it would be best if you delayed your return for now."
"Could you tell me why?"
"The one leading this attack is a villain who's recently made a name for themselves."
This was more serious than I'd expected.
****************
Back at the entrance ceremony, when we'd been returning to Black Cell, we'd been targeted and attacked by mutants.
The special agents had handled it well enough, and the situation had been resolved one way or another — but it seemed Dean Baek So-a was trying to prevent a repeat of that kind of incident.
Since I had no idea what might happen, I pressed the device to summon the special agents, just as I had before.
*This will get Black Cell's special agents moving into Seoul.*
Not long after, the head of security gave me a small nod — the summons had gone through.
With some measure of safety now confirmed, I stroked Victory's head and asked about this named villain.
"If there's anything Black Cell can do to help, we'll do everything we can. Could you share what you know?"
"Ahaha… I'm truly sorry for showing you such a grim side of things. I think it's best you're informed, so I'll tell you."
The moment Dean Baek So-a signaled to her secretary, a tablet was brought over and handed to me.
I was able to get a look at the named villain behind the attack.
"The alias he's been given is 'Air Bomb.' He appears to possess a superpower that detonates the surrounding air."
"From the way you're describing it, it sounds like you haven't even determined whether this bat mutant is Manifestation-type or Manipulation-type. Am I right?"
"Embarrassingly, that's correct."
The mutant on the tablet — a grotesque, bat-headed figure — was a villain I knew well from the comic.
*If I remember right, he had a broken combination of telekinesis and compression.*
You could essentially think of him as someone who could fire invisible bombs at will.
And since his base form was already a mutant, he was fundamentally Superhuman-type as well.
Taking him down in a single blow with anything ordinary would be next to impossible.
"If anyone provokes him carelessly, every civilian in that shopping mall is going to be slaughtered."
"…A great many people have already died, apparently."
"Don't tell me the villains came armed with firearms as well."
Dean Baek So-a let out a long sigh and nodded.
Word had even come in that the heroes dispatched to contain the situation had already failed in their initial suppression attempt.
"Fortunately, the heroes who responded haven't been killed. But Air Bomb and his followers are riding high on their momentum."
"Heroes who operate with the goal of subduing rather than killing — that puts them at an inherent disadvantage."
Under normal circumstances, he'd be the type to get shut down in an instant by the protagonist's Ability Seal.
But when you tried to engage him head-on, he turned out to be far more difficult to handle than anyone could have imagined — a reminder, once again, of just how absurdly overpowered Ability Seal really was.
I glanced meaningfully at the Dean, who was capable of wielding magic.
"I've said this hundreds of times in every possible setting, but magic is not omnipotent. That holds true even when I transform."
One small mistake and the entire shopping mall would go up in a massive explosion.
With the risk of that kind of catastrophe looming, it made sense that Dean Baek So-a — with far too much to lose — was moving with extreme caution.
The silver lining was that I knew his abilities and his weaknesses.
The problem was figuring out how to explain that knowledge in a way that would actually be believed.
A method came to mind.
I could use this to neutralize a genuinely dangerous villain ahead of time.
And extend a hand of goodwill to the hero faction in the process.
I reached out and offered my help.
At that, every person in the office turned to look at me.