The small spark ignited by a walking corpse had dealt significant damage to Black Cell.
But just as Gloria and Liberty had been subdued by the special agents who appeared in the danger zone —
every escaped test subject was captured.
Fortunately, I was rescued immediately.
Victory, who had been with me, was taken away by the agents, so I walked into the shelter without a second thought.
"Wow… Mr. Maxwell, you're actually alive?"
"Even with that terrible luck of yours, you somehow manage not to die."
"I suppose this is what they mean by twisted fortune."
Basking in everyone's astonishment, I listened to the various accounts floating around.
"So there was a reason the special agents were late getting down to the danger zone."
"Ugh… don't even get me started."
"The test subjects in other areas were breaking out too — it was absolute chaos."
And yet, given that no one managed to escape from any of it, this really is a remarkable place.
As I sat there listening to the other researchers' stories, the time for cleanup arrived.
The escaped test subjects were, of course, all recaptured.
Even with the original cells destroyed, there must have been a considerable number of backup rooms.
Every single one was successfully reimprisoned.
The test subjects who had made a serious attempt at escape were restrained with double and triple bindings.
But the Director had made one rather unusual decision.
"You're not going to impose any sanctions on Gloria and Liberty for wrecking the danger zone?"
"Those two just fought each other. And shouldn't we be looking at the future rather than the present?"
"So basically, it's because of me."
The Director, having figured out why the dangerous young test subjects had fought, seemed to have decided to bet on their ceiling.
I was also ordered to submit a report on how I had built a relationship of trust with Gloria and Liberty.
She was probably planning to use my approach as a template for winning over other young test subjects.
Seeing the future clearly enough, I issued a warning on the spot.
"I have a feeling you'll be cleaning up a lot of unnecessary corpses. Are you sure about this?"
"Oh my? Maxwell, don't tell me you're actually worried about Black Cell? Don't worry — we have plenty of manpower to spare."
The way she talked about just recruiting more people when the current ones died — now that was the presence of a woman who truly led a villainous organization.
After that, the upper echelons of the organization began deliberating over what to do with the walking corpse — Marlon's successors.
Of course, the prevailing argument was that new recruits couldn't be expected to know any better.
So it was obvious no real sanctions would be handed down.
Still, some of them panicked and attempted to flee the organization.
And naturally, they were made into examples — then, as if that were something to brag about, word was spread throughout the organization.
Since I was busy congratulating my past self for not attempting to run, some good news also arrived.
"Senior Maxwell!!"
"Ms. Amano, I'm genuinely relieved."
Amano Yume, my junior, had survived that disaster.
But even after hearing that her colleague had been dealt with, she didn't seem particularly deflated.
"Don't worry. I made my peace with it the moment I joined."
"In that case, all I can say is keep at it. I'll give you a tip, though."
Never move in a hurry. Always move slowly, without exception.
This organization, as long as results come in, treats skilled personnel like us well — and gives us a very generous amount of time.
The prime example of that is me.
"So no matter what people around me say, I just focus on doing my own thing."
"The fact that you understood that immediately — I think you would've done just fine in the military, Ms. Amano."
"Pfft, what's that supposed to mean."
And so, Black Cell returned to its everyday routine — filled once again with the screams and wails of test subjects.
Honestly, it would've been best if this place had just collapsed entirely.
But apparently, something this minor wasn't nearly enough for that.
**************
The incident that occurred last time had brought significant changes to the young test subjects in my care.
First, Gloria appeared to have taken quite a serious blow.
She had dominated the entire fight, yet she hadn't been able to bring down Liberty, who possessed rapid regeneration.
Whether Liberty's claws had grazed her or not, there was a wound on her face.
Gloria, who already had an extraordinarily strong sense of self-regard —
had taken a deep scratch to her pride.
What was strange, though, was that she never told me to stop visiting Liberty's room.
There were probably several reasons for that.
'The moment she says it, she'd feel like she'd lost.'
From Gloria's perspective, Liberty was nothing more than a beast.
And she was going to let a beast get to her?
Her towering pride would never allow that.
Or perhaps she simply didn't want to take back what she'd already said.
"…………"
"Instead of staring at me like that, why don't you just say it?"
Whenever I tried to leave quickly, like before, Gloria would press me with a silent, pointed gaze.
On the other hand, she was participating in experiments far more actively than before, which suggested she'd developed at least a small drive to improve.
As a result, the time I spent with Liberty naturally decreased.
"Whimper…"
"Liberty, there's nothing I can do about this."
Liberty's wolf ears drooped so low she looked utterly dejected.
Still, it was a genuine relief that she showed no signs of trauma from the fight.
In any case, Liberty's muzzle and shackles were now removed.
Her cell had been moved to a better one as well.
She seemed quite pleased with her more comfortable body and the new room, because she became noticeably livelier.
The one peculiar thing, as ever —
"Papa!! Huff huff!! Papa!!"
"There, there, I'm right here, so don't worry."
Was it because I was the first being to ever show her affection?
It seemed Liberty had come to recognize me entirely as a parent.
Now, whenever I entered her cell, she clung to me tightly —
and if it wasn't time to separate, she stayed attached to me the whole time.
The strange part was that she had been speaking, however haltingly, before her fight with Gloria.
But now she was back to her old feral self —
and every so often, she bit me.
Crunch!
"Ow!!"
"L-Liberty?"
It didn't hurt, but my body was covered in Liberty's bite marks.
I decided to start working on breaking her of the habit — like correcting a puppy or kitten that nips — while also running experiments to improve her abilities.
Previously, the experiments had been aimed at amplifying Liberty's wild nature, which had actually degraded her intelligence.
It was later determined that approach had produced no meaningful results.
Which meant all those prior experiments were essentially pointless —
so I needed to take a completely different approach.
I had no clear idea how to go about it yet, but there were reports that Liberty's bones were quite exceptional —
and she was someone who, simply by existing, belonged among the strongest in this world.
"So from now on, drink lots of milk."
"Slurp slurp slurp slurp!!"
The truth is always close at hand.
Instead of nutritional porridge or the like —
I decided to feed her plenty of high-protein, high-fat foods like meat and milk, and think it through slowly from there.
***************
Between keeping an eye on Liberty and Gloria, time passed quickly.
But then the Director called for me urgently, out of nowhere.
I wondered what it could possibly be —
and sure enough, someone had tried to copy me and caused an incident.
"It's a good thing we tried the Lower-level Managers before the high-value researcher staff."
"What exactly happened for you to say something like that?"
"Just picture an entire cell block drenched in blood."
"Good lord…"
I genuinely felt sorry for the manager who died this time.
In any case, the Director was quite capable, yet she couldn't pinpoint what the difference was between me and the manager who had just died.
'Children pick up on other people's feelings and thoughts faster than most people realize…'
Explaining this to a sociopath with no capacity for empathy would be pointless — she'd never understand.
So I left her to figure it out on her own and moved on to other matters.
"I doubt you called me in just for that. What kind of work do you have for me?"
"Ah, right — I'd like you to go to the site where the incident happened. I'll say this upfront: I'm not sending you there to die."
She was sending me to a place where a human being had been turned into ground meat, and she expected me to believe that.
But the test subject who had killed the manager this time was someone I had encountered before.
"You know Victory, right? It's her."
"Ah, so that's why you called me…"
The rabbit mutant with the Acceleration Ability from before.
I had saved Victory, hadn't I?
That was why the Director had ordered me to go meet the white rabbit —
and I listened to the full details.
"She tried to escape the organization, so we had her double-restrained. But she was throwing a violent fit."
"The way you're saying that, it sounds like there was something unusual about it."
"Victory kept asking to see you, Maxwell."
"Me?"
When the special agents had come down, they had rescued me by name.
Victory had been there at the time, so it wasn't strange that she knew my name.
"She was always an incredibly quiet one. So to calm her down, we sent a Lower-level Manager to try what you did, but…"
"It turned out the way you described earlier."
"Exactly. She smashed her restraints entirely."
"What's her current state, now that she's been subdued again?"
"Picture it like Gloria back in the day — suspended in midair, thrashing around."
So she's in a secured state, then.
The Director's reason for calling me in this time was reasonable —
and since I had been planning to meet Victory eventually anyway, I accepted the proposal without hesitation and prepared to face her.
First, I reviewed Victory's file.
[ Name: Victory ]
[ Age: 10 ]
[ Gender: Female ]
[ Ability Type: Manifestation-type, Superhuman-type ]
[ Acceleration Ability, Physical Enhancement, Rabbit Mutant ]
[ Incident Record: Suddenly went berserk and killed multiple managers and researchers. ]
[ Personality: Mentally highly unstable — assessment not possible. ]
She was certainly the youngest of the young test subjects I had encountered so far.
And like Liberty, she was a mutant —
so it was obvious she had faced considerable discrimination and persecution even before being brought here.
Like Liberty, mutants tend to take on certain traits of their corresponding animal to some degree.
The claim that rabbits die of loneliness isn't actually true —
but beast-type mutants feel loneliness far more acutely and are extremely vulnerable to stress.
And as it happened, Victory wanted to see me — and we were already connected as benefactor and rescued.
If handled well, we could become close very quickly.
Of course, even with her fully bound, letting my guard down was out of the question —
and in the original story, Victory operated as a direct agent of the villainous organization, standing in opposition to the protagonists.
I had no idea how much she would open up to me, but for now, I decided to focus on what needed to be done today.