Even If the Sky Falls, There's Always a Way Out
After the chaotic hero welcoming ceremony finally ended, the next day dawned. I genuinely didn’t want to go to work, but I hadn’t managed to see Liberty or Victory yesterday. Even though I’d left word, I had promised to meet them soon, so I needed to check on both of them this morning without fail.
After feeding breakfast to a drowsy Gloria, I headed for the detention room that held the other child. This time, thanks to the Director approving the suggestion I’d made, I went to Victory first instead of Liberty.
But the moment she saw me, instead of looking happy, she started shedding fat tears.
“M-Maxwell, sir… I thought you’d abandoned me…”
Victory had definitely heard I wouldn’t be coming yesterday and had even answered that she understood. Yet the current Victory didn’t seem to remember any of it. Was memory sharing between personalities not working properly?
I comforted the sniffling Victory first.
“I’m truly sorry. I got held up far too late because of some work.”
“Hic… W-work…?”
The instant Victory heard my words, her face went completely blank.
“…Is that work more important than me?”
A frigid voice rang out, and the space itself seemed to freeze. It was clearly her extremely ferocious personality, but I had a prepared answer just in case.
“It’s related to you, Miss Victory. I received word that resolving yesterday’s matter would let them lower your restraint level.”
“What!? T-that—?!”
Of course it was a blatant white lie. But the moment Victory heard the excuse, she became incredibly flustered. Her face flushed bright red as she fidgeted, completely at a loss.
Afterward I stroked her head until she calmed down. When I operated the equipment inside the detention room, Victory—released from midair—plopped onto the bed. Her arms and legs were still bound, so she looked like a giant cocoon, but she immediately stood up straight—
——Zipzipzipzip!!!
She can move that fast with rabbit hops even with her legs sealed?!
Apparently Victory could use her acceleration ability even while restrained. In any case, she leaped high toward the ceiling right in front of me. It was obvious what she wanted, so I stretched out my arms and caught her. Victory ended up in a princess carry.
“Uhehehehehe…”
“Are you that happy, Miss Victory?”
Instead of answering, Victory buried her face in my chest. Seeing her become so ridiculously happy over something so small was truly pitiful.
After that, I sat on the lone bed inside the now-empty detention room and quietly stroked the head of the Victory nestled in my arms. Since I had to stop by Liberty’s before lunch, I eventually set her down. She was obviously very disappointed, but her anger seemed fully resolved and she looked satisfied now that she could move somewhat again.
After parting from Victory with smiles, I immediately went to see Liberty. Had she memorized the sound of my footsteps? The moment I opened the detention room door, Liberty was wagging her tail like crazy.
“Papa!! Papa!!”
“Hahaha… Liberty, have you been well?”
“Woof!!”
Liberty greeted me with explosive joy the moment she saw me. Just like before, she climbed my body and shoved her face into my neck. Thinking how comfortably simple Liberty was, I started heading farther inside. The instant the detention room door closed, however, the kid suddenly acted strange.
“Sniff sniff!! Sniff sniff!!!”
“Liberty?”
She wrinkled her face as if she’d caught a bad scent. My heart sank at the all-too-familiar situation, but eventually Liberty spoke.
“Papa… This smell. Who is it?”
Not you too, Liberty!
I have a set order for visiting the young test subjects.
GLORIA → LIBERTY → VICTORY → GLORIA
Normally we followed that sequence, and I changed all my clothes before meeting Gloria, so Liberty never caught Victory’s scent. Today, however, I had visited Victory first. The black wolf who smelled the white rabbit on me clearly wasn’t happy.
Last time I’d met them without precautions and Gloria and Liberty had fought. I had planned to slowly explain Victory to them, but the intense stares demanding an immediate answer left me no choice but to tell Liberty everything.
“So that’s pretty much how it is.”
“Grrrrrrrr…”
“Uh… Liberty?”
The moment she heard the story, she openly displayed her displeasure. The now-ferocious Liberty turned my clothes into a drool-soaked mess. The fact that she was only making beastly sounds now suggested that when Liberty gets angry, her intelligence reverts to its original state.
Since situations like this would probably keep happening, I’d have to request a lot more clothes from Black Cell. While I was patiently enduring Liberty’s complaints and grumbling, a phone call suddenly came in.
"Ah, Maxwell! Are you busy right now?"
“I’m with Liberty at the moment.”
"Then it’s perfect. After you meet Gloria, can you come see me?"
Was she going to give me another job? Fatigue hit me like a truck. Liberty’s ears perked up the moment she heard the Director’s voice—
“Woof woof!! Woof woof!!”
"Ugh?!"
Liberty let out a roar loud enough to shake the entire detention room and thrashed wildly in my arms. Fortunately the Director seemed to immediately recognize Liberty’s displeasure.
"Sorry for interrupting your time together!! See you later!!"
Click!!!
The Director hung up. Liberty finally quieted down, but she stared at me with a face full of resentment. By the end of the day my body had even more bite marks than before.
Liberty’s dissatisfaction ran deeper than I’d expected. Still, by moving quickly I barely managed to arrive before Gloria’s lunch time. When Gloria saw the numerous bite marks covering my body she let out a hollow laugh and said something completely unexpected.
“…Do you have any reason to keep visiting that dog bastard?”
This question had clearly come after a lot of internal struggle. If I brushed it off carelessly I would suffer greatly later, so I revealed part of the plan I had in mind.
“It’s all for you, Miss Gloria.”
“What the hell does that…”
“There’s a saying in the world. A journey needs a traveling companion, and life needs recognition.”
In the end, it meant people cannot live alone. To the puzzled-looking Gloria I added more.
“I’m evaluating Liberty as a companion who will walk the path forward together with you, Miss Gloria.”
“What? That beast mutt?”
“It’s not unreasonable for you to react that way. Although the first impression was terrible… since you’ve already fought her, I think you’ll understand.”
Liberty might not be able to win against Gloria, but she would never lose. The same could be said for Victory. Thanks to her acceleration ability she could dodge Gloria’s frontal attacks. The reason for tying the three of them together was simple. The future Gloria at least acknowledged opponents qualified to fight her. This was personnel selection that took that tendency into account.
Having realized my intention, Gloria quickly made a pouty face and thrust out her lips. She looked like she wanted to say something, then threw a pillow at me.
Poof!!
“Get out.”
“Hahaha… Then I’ll see you at dinner time.”
“Don’t come then either.”
Apparently quite displeased, Gloria declared she would skip dinner tonight.
After getting hit by the pillow Gloria threw, I stepped outside. But because Gloria possessed a truth-detection ability, she had probably sensed my sincerity to some degree. Afterward I went to see the Director as planned. I wondered if she would give me another strange task, but—
“Maxwell, you haven’t taken a single day off since joining, have you?”
“Um… That’s true.”
Because I had to stay with the kids every single day, my life was practically that of a slave. The Director, as if truly pitying me, made a suggestion.
“This time I’ll send you on a dispatch mission as a sort of vacation, so go with an easy mind.”
“Director, how is that a vacation?”
As expected of an evil organization, Black Cell displayed an entirely different level of corporate bullshit. The Director in front of me was a sociopath who couldn’t understand human emotions.
“Hey~ It’s a real vacation, I’m telling you. And I think you’ll like the location too?”
“Where exactly are you sending me?”
“The Hero Academy. They’re holding the entrance ceremony soon.”
Since I’d only stayed inside Black Cell, I hadn’t realized how much time had passed. It was also one of the stages for the original protagonist and supporting cast, so visiting once didn’t seem bad. But our Director still hadn’t given up on turning me into Black Cell’s public face…
Ah, no. Let me rethink this for a moment. To survive later on, I needed to maintain close connections with the heroes. The Hero Academy was literally the cradle of the forces of good. It was the perfect place and time for me to expand my network. Moreover, although the students currently had rock-bottom grades, if I invested in advance in those diamonds in the rough who possessed brilliant futures? It would be fine to aim for that rosy high point.
Even if I had to temporarily borrow the dark prestige of Black Cell, the calculation showed it wasn’t a bad equivalent exchange. I quickly composed myself but, of course, showed every possible sign of reluctance as I accepted the Director’s proposal.
“Good!! You thought about it really well!!”
“Director, aren’t you a little too happy about this?”
“It’s because it’s far better than sending those subtle kids. Of course there are many other reasons, but this is also a golden opportunity for you to learn how to handle the special agents.”
“It’s true I don’t know what level those people are at.”
“Then for now, Maxwell, I’ll reply to the academy that you’ll attend the entrance ceremony.”
And so it was decided that I would attend the Hero Academy entrance ceremony—or more precisely, the special invited guest seat. From the Director’s reaction today, however, I could confirm a rather uneasy detail. That sociopath was pushing me with unusual enthusiasm. If I mishandled my career navigation, there was a high chance I would end up as a high-ranking official in Black Cell.
Reminding myself of the saying that even if the sky falls there is always a hole to escape through, I had to find a way out somehow.