After a night meeting that left me with much to reflect on, the next day arrived.
I reported to Black Cell with a clearer sense of direction than before.
I made sure Gloria ate — she'd been letting her guard down around me more often lately.
But when she looked at me, something like puzzlement crossed her face.
"You seem to be in a better mood than yesterday."
"Do I?"
Was it because my goals had sharpened?
Or maybe it was because I'd stopped fighting the oncoming disaster and simply chosen to join it instead — that decision had lifted a surprising weight off my shoulders.
Either way, I still had a mountain to climb today.
Figuring now was the moment — with Gloria in the contented state of a well-fed predator — I floated a proposal.
"Would you be willing to meet Liberty again? The one you fought before?"
Liberty was the one who'd managed to scratch Gloria's enormous pride.
I fully expected her to hate the idea.
But to my considerable surprise, she gave a small nod of agreement.
She didn't say why. She just stared at me.
A silence settled over the cell for a moment, but I was genuinely relieved.
After that, Gloria flopped back onto her bed barely minutes after finishing her meal.
Watching her dangle her arm over the edge and swing it like a pendulum, I thought — yes, she's still exactly the same.
Even so, she didn't voice a single complaint when I sat down on the edge of the bed.
'So this is what they mean by deeply moved.'
It was something I couldn't have imagined when we first met.
Maybe the time had come.
I spoke to the impassive girl about a possible future.
"If you were to leave Black Cell someday, what would you want to do?"
"…Why are you asking that?"
"If things go well, I think you might be able to go outside — on the condition that you live with me."
The hand swinging off the bed stopped mid-motion, unnaturally still.
She was clearly interested, so I went ahead and told her about the outside world.
"There's so much beyond this cell. Forests, the ocean — all kinds of plants and animals, beautiful natural scenery everywhere you look."
And beyond that — phones, games, dramas, movies.
I described all sorts of entertaining things she could do.
But what came from Gloria's small mouth was a single question.
"How?"
"Could you be more specific?"
"You're at the bottom here."
"That's fair enough."
Honestly, it was a reasonable thing to wonder.
Until recently, I'd been looked down on enough that a walking corpse had tried to play politics with me.
But the situation had shifted dramatically.
"You know the director of Black Cell — the one with black hair and black eyes, Eileen? She's been actively backing me lately."
"So you're close with her."
"Close… I'm not sure that's the word."
I paused and let out a quiet sigh.
Then I looked at Gloria and gave a wry smile.
"There is no one in this world who actually likes their boss — especially not their top boss."
"………."
Gloria blinked at me twice, clearly unable to process the grievances of a salaried worker.
Her interest seemed to drain away, and she buried her face in her pillow.
Then she waved a hand at me — the universal signal for get out.
Gloria had talked quite a lot today.
**************
Regardless, Gloria had agreed to meet Liberty.
The vibe I got wasn't one of wanting to fight.
So I figured all I needed now was Liberty's agreement and a few small promises.
That turned out to be the harder part.
First, thanks to Victory, we'd formed a hypothesis: Liberty didn't regain her intelligence when she got angry — she was deliberately acting like a beast.
But whether she'd been faking it so long she'd half-convinced herself, Liberty kept making sounds that seemed genuinely incomprehensible.
"Whimper?"
"Yeah… I can see why you'd hate this."
"Woof woof!!"
Liberty had taken most of the hits in her fight with Gloria last time.
If I were in her position, I wouldn't want to see that person again either.
'If I'm not careful, I'm going to end up being the worst kind of teacher — the one who forces kids to make up against their will.'
I needed a way to get Liberty to agree to meet Gloria on her own terms.
It was a method I'd used before, but there was one option.
"Liberty."
"Pant pant pant! Woof!!"
"How would you feel about leaving this place and living with me?"
"…?!"
She was genuinely caught off guard — her tail and ears shot straight up, and she forgot her whole act entirely.
Anyway, I hadn't told her about the plan to live together before, since I'd thought her intelligence came and went. Now I laid it all out for her, with a little embellishment, going through the schedule step by step.
"…So that's why you met Victory last time."
"Whine… whine…."
Liberty, just like Gloria, scrunched her face in obvious disgust at the idea of being together with Gloria and Victory.
But the prospect of a level of freedom in Black Cell that was incomparable to before — and the fact that living with me apparently counted as a significant draw —
She let out a sound that meant she'd force herself to meet Gloria if she had to.
And so, in exchange for another set of tooth marks on my shoulder, I managed to arrange the meeting between the two of them.
Then I went back to check on the meeting space I'd used before.
"You're — you're saying to remove the shackles?"
"But the safety measures—"
"Those restraints aren't enough to hold Gloria's strength. And that reinforced glass might as well be a plastic bag to her."
The supply team members who'd just heard a rough summary of Gloria's abilities went momentarily speechless.
Then every face in the room — except mine — took on the expression of someone who had just realized there was a giant monster living in the basement of their office building.
Honestly, what could they do?
They just showed me they'd do their jobs as best they could.
The preparations for the meeting were proceeding steadily when —
"Maxwell, working hard again, I see?"
"Oh? Director, what brings you here?"
"Just felt a bit cooped up. Taking a look around."
The director had stepped out for a brief inspection and was walking over with Secretary Min Chae-rin at her side.
************
I felt like I'd been running into the director a lot lately.
The moment the team members nearby spotted her, they nearly jumped out of their skin.
"D-Director Eileen, good day!!!"
"I know you're in the middle of something, so don't mind me — just keep doing what you're doing."
"Yes, ma'am!!!"
It was like a division commander had shown up on a military base.
The team members, visibly tense, went back to their work — and while they probably wished she'd just move on, she stayed right here, watching with interest, and kept talking to me.
"So who's meeting who this time?"
"Gloria and Liberty."
"Those two? They'll start fighting the moment they see each other, just like last time."
"I've already gotten a promise from both of them."
"Hmm… I don't quite follow, but since it's you saying it, I suppose I'll trust it."
The moment she heard my answer, the director's expression turned one of keen interest.
Anyway, unlike the high-energy sociopath beside me —
Secretary Min Chae-rin had dark circles under her eyes so deep that no amount of makeup could hide them.
Probably because working alongside a workaholic meant she never got to leave on time.
But whatever financial therapy she was receiving seemed to be well beyond imagination, because she showed no sign of quitting.
I was privately praying she'd just quit already, when the director suddenly let out a small laugh.
"Looks like you've made up your mind about something."
"Was it that obvious?"
"You seem more at ease than before. Right?"
"I think so too, Director Eileen."
If even those two had noticed — beyond Gloria — then my demeanor really must have settled.
The director then asked what had been going through my head yesterday.
"You want to know why I changed my mind?"
"You hated it so much you turned down the figurehead role to my face. I'm curious what shifted."
"I simply didn't want to be the fool who tries to fight an oncoming natural disaster."
Secretary Min Chae-rin moved closer to the director for a moment.
I hadn't expected even casual conversation like this to get a truth check —
But the director, receiving whatever signal she got, looked thoroughly satisfied.
"A fool… there really are so many of that type in the world."
"Which means the sky is wide enough for all of them. In any case — has your curiosity been satisfied?"
"More than enough. Don't worry."
Then please, by all means, move along.
But the sociopath who couldn't read a room apparently still wanted to keep talking to me.
"Maxwell — later, when you're living with those kids, would you consider acting together with them as well?"
"I didn't realize you had a thing for Nazism, Director."
"Do you really think I said that because I enjoy mass slaughter? I just want to turn an uncontrollable disaster into a controllable asset. And do some research on the side."
She mentioned there was even a suitable place for the kids to run loose.
"There's a coal mine in North Hamgyong Province — used to be a political prison camp back when North Korea still existed."
"That sounds like the Aoji Coal Mine. Am I right?"
"You know your Korean history."
"Only in broad strokes."
The director said Chinese companies had been clustering around that mine.
There was a reason they'd all gathered in a place like that.
"There's intelligence that grotesquely mutated monsters have been breeding inside."
"The special agents must have had a rough time. But what does that have to do with the kids?"
"It seems like the Chinese companies are about to make a very big mistake — somewhere the current Korean government's reach doesn't extend."
She spoke with complete certainty.
Of course, she didn't have any prophetic ability.
So I had a fairly good idea of why she could say it with such confidence.
"I'd hope there are no civilians near that mine."
"The Chinese companies hired mercenaries to drive everyone out, apparently. So no need to worry."
"That's a relief, at least."
From what I was hearing, the Aoji Coal Mine looked like it had been a biological experimentation site for the old North Korea.
They'd almost certainly run experiments on ability users and mutants there too.
The director wanted to get her hands on that research data.
But she clearly wasn't going to do it through any gentle means.
'Surely we're not about to see a post-apocalypse unfold in North Hamgyong Province.'
Just as the director had implied — the Chinese companies were going to make a very, very big mistake, and whatever was inside would come pouring out.
A very deliberate mistake, no doubt.
Having given me a rough outline of how she intended to handle the corporate war, the director finally moved to leave.
"Oh, right — Maxwell!"
"…What is it now."
"Were there any promising mutants at the academy?"
So the proposal I'd made at the last meeting had been approved.
Now I'd be able to sponsor the future top hero Red Cat — with someone else's money.
"I'll write up a report and send it to you."
"The way you say that, it sounds like you already had someone in mind. I'll leave it to you, then."
And so the office worker defeated the demon lord.
The team members nearby, tension finally draining from their bodies, all sank to the floor where they stood.