The Deliberate Mistake
The night meeting, where I gained so much clarity, ended, and the next day arrived. Remembering the path that had become far more defined, I headed into Black Cell for work. As usual, I prepared a meal for Gloria, who had been showing increasingly unguarded sides of herself lately. But when she looked at me, a puzzled expression crossed her face.
“You seem to be in a better mood than yesterday.”
“Do I?”
Maybe it was because my goal felt clearer than before. Or perhaps because I had stopped resisting the coming catastrophe and simply chosen to join it. Either way, my mind felt considerably lighter. Still, today I had to cross another major mountain.
Seeing Gloria acting like a well-fed predator, I decided now was the perfect opportunity and made a suggestion.
“Would you be interested in meeting Liberty again, the one you fought last time?”
Liberty had wounded Gloria’s incredibly strong pride. I naturally assumed she would hate the idea, but to my great surprise, she nodded in agreement. Of course, she didn’t explain why. She simply stared at me intently.
A brief silence filled the detention room, but I was truly relieved. After finishing her meal, Gloria flopped back onto the bed as if it had been ages since she last ate. Soon enough, she was dangling her arm off the side, swinging it like a pendulum. She really hadn’t changed at all.
Still, when I sat on the edge of the bed now, Gloria no longer showed any signs of displeasure.
‘So this is what they mean by being deeply moved.’
It was a situation I could never have imagined when we first met. I suppose it was time.
I spoke to the indifferent girl about a possible future.
“If you were to leave Black Cell, what would you want to do?”
“…Why are you asking that?”
“If things go well, it seems you could go outside on the condition that you live with me.”
The hand swinging from the bed stopped unnaturally. It was obvious she was interested, so I continued talking about the outside world.
“Beyond this detention room, there are so many things. Forests, oceans, all kinds of animals and plants, and beautiful natural scenery everywhere.”
I went further, telling her about cell phones, games, dramas, movies, and various other fun cultural activities. But what came from Gloria’s small mouth was a single question.
“How?”
“Could you tell me what you mean by that?”
“You’re at the very bottom here.”
“That is certainly true.”
It was a fair thing to wonder. Until recently, I had been so thoroughly ignored that even a walking corpse had politically maneuvered around me. But the situation had changed dramatically.
“You know Director Aileen, right? The one with black hair and black eyes who owns this Black Cell. Lately, she’s been actively supporting me.”
“So you’re close with the Director.”
“Close… Well, I’m not sure about that.”
I paused for a moment and let out a sigh. Then I looked at her and smiled bitterly.
“I don’t think there’s a single person in the world who actually likes their boss—especially not one at the very top.”
“……….”
Gloria, having heard a salaryman’s complaint, clearly didn’t understand. She simply blinked a few times. Losing interest, she buried her face in her pillow. Soon after, she waved her hand, telling me to leave. She had spoken more today than usual.
Regardless, Gloria had agreed to meet Liberty. From the nuance, it didn’t seem like she wanted to fight. I thought that if I could just get Liberty’s consent and a few promises, everything would be set.
But the problem turned out to be on this side.
Thanks to Victory, I had formed a hypothesis: when Liberty got angry, her intelligence didn’t actually return. She was deliberately acting like a wolf. However, whether she had been pretending so long that she had become the real thing, Liberty kept responding with confused whimpers.
“Whine?”
“Yeah… I guess you really wouldn’t want to see her.”
“Woof woof!!”
The last time she fought Gloria, Liberty had mostly just taken hits. If I were in her position, I probably wouldn’t want to meet her either.
‘At this rate, I’m going to end up being the worst kind of teacher, forcing the kids to reconcile.’
I needed a breakthrough that would let Liberty willingly meet Gloria. There was one method, even if it felt a bit overused.
“Liberty.”
“Huff huff huff! Woof!!”
“If you could leave this place, would you like to live with me?”
“…?!”
She was genuinely shocked. Not only did her ears and tail shoot straight up, but she completely dropped her usual act. I hadn’t told her about the plan to live together before because I thought her intelligence fluctuated. So I slowly explained the future schedule, adding plenty of flavor.
“…And that’s why I met Victory last time.”
“Whimper… whimper….”
Liberty clearly hated the idea of being with both Gloria and Victory, wrinkling her face in displeasure. But the prospect of gaining freedom on a completely different level from what she had in Black Cell, plus living with me, must have been a huge merit. She let out a whimper that sounded like she would meet Gloria even if she had to force herself.
And so, today I managed to arrange their meeting without gaining any new bite marks on my shoulder. I double-checked the Meeting Ground we had used last time.
“Y-you want us to remove the restraints?”
“But the safety measures…”
“Those restraints won’t be able to hold Gloria’s power. That reinforced glass would be no different from a plastic bag to her.”
The logistics personnel, who had only heard a rough outline of Gloria’s abilities, were momentarily speechless. Soon, everyone except me wore the face of someone who had just realized a giant monster lived in the company basement. But honestly, what choice did we have? They simply showed that they would diligently carry out their duties.
While preparations for the two girls’ meeting were proceeding step by step, a familiar voice called out.
“Maxwell, working hard again, I see?”
“Hm? Director, what brings you here?”
“Just taking a walk because I felt a bit stuffy.”
The Director, who had come out for a brief inspection, walked over with Secretary Min Chae-rin.
Lately, it felt like I was seeing the Director quite often. The moment the nearby staff saw her, they practically jumped out of their skins.
“D-Director Aileen! Good day to you!!!”
“I know you’re in the middle of work, so don’t mind me. Just keep doing what you’re doing.”
“Yes, ma’am!!”
It was like a division commander showing up at a military base. The extremely tense staff hurried back to their tasks, clearly hoping the woman would just leave. Instead, she stayed right here to watch, and kept talking to me.
“So who’s meeting who this time?”
“Gloria and Liberty.”
“Those two are meeting? It feels like they’ll start fighting the moment they see each other, just like last time.”
“I’ve already secured their promises.”
“Hmm… I don’t really understand, but if you say so, I’ll trust you.”
The moment she heard my answer, the Director’s face lit up with intense interest. Unlike that energetic sociopath, however, Secretary Min Chae-rin standing right beside her had massive dark circles that even makeup couldn’t hide. She probably couldn’t leave work because she had to stay with a workaholic. Yet after receiving financial compensation beyond imagination, she didn’t seem to have any intention of quitting. I was silently praying she would just resign when the Director suddenly let out a small laugh.
“Looks like you’ve made up your mind?”
“Was it that obvious?”
“You seem much more relaxed than before. Right?”
“I agree, Director Aileen.”
Since even those two had noticed, it seemed my atmosphere really had become calmer. The Director then asked what had changed my mind yesterday.
“You want to know why my attitude changed?”
“You hated the idea of being the face of the company so much that you outright refused last time. I’m curious what caused the shift.”
“I simply didn’t want to be the fool who resists an approaching natural disaster.”
At that moment, Secretary Min Chae-rin leaned closer to the Director. I hadn’t expected her to run a truth check even on casual conversation, but the changed signal must have satisfied the Director greatly. Her expression became very pleased.
“A fool, huh… There are certainly a lot of idiots like that in the world.”
“It just means the sky is that vast. Anyway, has your curiosity been satisfied?”
“It’s overflowing, so don’t worry.”
Then please, go somewhere else. But the sociopath who couldn’t read people’s hearts seemed to want to keep talking with me.
“Maxwell, later on—if you end up living with those kids, how about you all act together as a unit?”
“I didn’t know you had Nazi tendencies, Director.”
“Did you really think I said that because I enjoy massacres? I just want to turn uncontrollable disasters into controllable assets. And while we’re at it, we can conduct research too.”
She added that there was even a perfect place for the children to run wild.
“There’s an old coal mine in North Hamgyong Province. It used to be a political prison camp for the former North Korea.”
“It sounds like you’re talking about the Aoji Coal Mine. Is that correct?”
“You seem to know a bit about Korean history.”
“Only roughly.”
The Director said that Chinese companies had latched onto that mine. There was a reason so many companies were clustered in such a place.
“The intelligence says that grotesquely mutated monsters are living and breeding there.”
“The special agents must have gone through a lot. But what does that have to do with the children?”
“In a place where the current Korean government’s influence can’t easily reach, it seems the Chinese companies are going to make a very big mistake.”
She spoke as if she was completely certain. Of course, since she didn’t possess any prophetic abilities, I could roughly guess why she was so confident.
“It would be good if there were no civilians near that coal mine.”
“The Chinese companies hired mercenaries to drive everyone out, so there’s no need to worry.”
“That’s a relief, at least.”
From what I heard, the Aoji Coal Mine appeared to have been a biological experimentation site for the old North Korea. They had surely conducted experiments on espers and mutants as well. It seemed the Director wanted to obtain that research data. But she would never use peaceful methods.
‘I hope a post-apocalypse doesn’t break out in North Hamgyong Province, right?’
Just as the Director had said, the Chinese companies would make an extremely—almost certainly intentional—mistake, causing all the monsters inside to burst out. That mistake would definitely be a deliberate one.
After roughly explaining how the corporate war would unfold, the Director finally seemed ready to leave.
“Ah, that’s right! Maxwell!”
“…What is it now?”
“Were there any decent mutants at the academy?”
It looked like my suggestion from the last meeting had been adopted. Now I could sponsor the future top hero, Red Cat, with someone else’s money.
“I’ll write up a report and send it over later.”
“The way you say that makes it sound like you already have someone in mind. I’ll leave it to you.”
And so, the company employee defeated the Demon King. The staff around us, their tension finally released, all collapsed to the floor.