Out of the Nest
By the time all the work on my desk was finally done and I was slumped in my office, drained and ready to melt into the chair, the finance director who held Black Cell’s purse strings had come looking for me.
But instead of calling me himself, he’d sent word through my junior, Amano.
I had no idea why.
Still, if the man paying the bills wanted to meet, I couldn’t exactly refuse. So I headed straight for the finance office.
Tap-tap-tap!
"You there, Assistant Manager? What happened to last month’s profit report?"
"Just finish up the section you’re in charge of, Section Chief Seo."
"S-sorry! I’ll get it written up right away!"
Even though it was already creeping toward midnight, the office workers were still stuck at their desks.
Most of them didn’t know the darker side of Black Cell, though, so even with exhaustion clinging to every face, the atmosphere was surprisingly bright thanks to financial treatment.
If you only looked at this place, you’d think it was just a normal company.
Of course, whether you were over here or over there, everyone still suffered under the black-company hell of it all, and that thought made a little melancholy rise in my chest.
Once I went farther inside, the office workers’ eyes all turned toward me, and a middle manager with the title of section chief came up to greet me.
"May I ask who you are…?"
"My name is Maxwell Gray. I was told the finance director wanted to see me."
"D-did the director say that?"
In most companies, the ladder went assistant manager, deputy manager, manager, and then section chief.
The top financial officer was even called the CFO, or Chief Financial Officer, and was considered one of the company’s three great posts alongside the CEO and COO.
The moment someone like that said he wanted to see me, the office fell briefly silent.
Then a senior manager—what this place called a department head—practically sprang out of nowhere to escort me.
Was my name really being tossed around this much in the office?
The department head, the very backbone of the company’s middle tier, was treating me with startling deference.
"It’s truly an honor to meet Maxwell Gray in person like this!"
"I’m also glad to meet the department head who oversees the finance office. Still, we work for the same company, and it feels strangely difficult to actually run into one another."
"Hahaha, Mr. Maxwell, you’re simply too busy. Please, don’t worry about the likes of us."
Even if I was one of the most important people on the field operations side of things.
Surprisingly enough, I was still technically junior rank.
And if the senior staff were acting that deferentially…
Then I could guess, at least roughly, why the finance director had called for me.
When I entered the director’s office, the finance director actually stood up from his seat to greet me.
"Mr. Maxwell, it’s been a very long time since then."
He immediately extended his hand, clearly expecting a handshake, and the bright business smile on his face told me everything I needed to know: this man was highly sensitive to the internal flow of power inside the company.
People often say that the seat makes the person.
But more often than not, it’s simply a matter of someone working hard and climbing all the way up to that seat.
This finance director, who had no powers at all, looked like the latter to me at a glance.
In any case, as soon as we’d exchanged greetings, he had me sit down, and probably to break the ice, he began by thanking me.
"Because of you, Mr. Maxwell, the company’s financial indicators have become truly healthy."
"I’m sorry, but all I’ve really done lately is look after the children."
"That is exactly the key point. Those little brats were more dangerous than anyone could have imagined."
The finance director let out a long sigh, activated some kind of device, and a strange barrier shimmered into existence around the room.
"It’s a device that prevents sound from leaking outside. And it also neutralizes any tiny listening devices like hidden cameras inside the room, so you don’t need to worry."
True to the saying about birds of a feather, the powerless finance director was as meticulous as the director herself.
Once he’d confirmed that the danger had been sealed off, he finally began to speak candidly about his troubles.
"There are quite a lot of lower-level managers who get killed by the test subjects in the underground complex. But do you know how many administrators those kids have actually killed?"
"I only heard the rough outline, so I’m not sure."
"If you do the math, it comes out to about one death a day. And when a lower-level manager dies, the family receives death benefits. Once you factor in the cost of keeping the whole thing quiet, we’re losing several billion won a day. On top of that, the special detention facilities are periodically—"
In short, he was saying that the children were burning through hundreds of billions of won a month.
And instead of trying to be stingy and simply refusing to pay, they were following the company’s internal system to the letter.
It really hammered home the fact that this was still a comic-book world.
Right. This is fake dystopia.
A real dystopia was the kind where men like the finance director did next to nothing useful, yet still wanted everything under the sun.
Watching someone competently oppress and control the public through an actually functioning system made the whole thing feel almost impressive.
After that, the finance director apologized for letting the conversation drift and handed me his business card.
Black Cell
Finance Director Park Tae-sung
"From now on, we’ll be seeing each other often, so please, speak casually with me."
"Thank you for your consideration, Director Park."
Park was making it clear that he was not my enemy, merely an ally.
He was a businessman through and through, and easy to deal with for exactly that reason. I was just thinking that when he seemed to decide it was time, and showed me the real reason he’d called me here.
"I heard you’ll be heading to Hero Academy in a little while."
"I’m thinking it’ll probably be around just before the academy’s summer break."
"Hmm… then I suppose that means you’ll be delivering sponsorship funds at the closing ceremony."
Park rose from his seat, fetched a briefcase, and opened it for me to see.
There were a lot of stiff-looking cards inside.
And I could immediately tell what they were for.
Black Cell Special 50% Discount Coupon
Black Group Product 30% Discount Coupon
"They’re discount coupons?"
"Hahaha, if you want to call them that so affectionately, I don’t mind at all."
"Then why are you showing these to me…?"
"First of all, it is absolutely not an instruction to go out and sell them."
The finance director handed over the briefcase full of discount coupons and made a bold decision: he was entrusting everything to me.
"Is that really all right?"
"Since you’ll be the one going out publicly the most anyway, Mr. Maxwell, it doesn’t matter."
Soon after, Park gave me a smile that said, You know what I mean, right?
And just like that, I had been handed a wildcard that could help me make a far better impression on the heroes.
Park also gave me several warnings and practical tips.
"First, about half of these should probably go to the Hero Academy’s dean."
"That’s perfect for making an impression. And if they handle the rest themselves, it’ll save me the trouble."
Not only would that put the dean in my debt, but the benefits would naturally flow down to the students as well.
"And if the story ever comes out that you’re discriminating against certain heroes, you can use this action as your shield."
This man really was good.
Wanting to strengthen our relationship even further, he then gave me some extremely important information.
"The head of the Black Group sent people to you, didn’t he? Would you be able to tell me roughly what happened back then?"
"Luckily, it was only a probing move."
"Then I suppose that’s fortunate. However, because of the chairman’s actions, the other subsidiaries of the Black Group are now looking at you. Especially… some people it’s a bit awkward to even mention."
So even Nathan’s other children might come looking for me?
Until now I’d mostly only seen competent people because of the director, but there were plenty of shameless, overbearing bastards inside the Black Group as well.
Just thinking about a horde of giant trash bags coming my way made me sigh.
"That… is rather unsettling."
"Still, since you’re within Chairman Nathan’s line of sight, they won’t be able to move so easily. Especially with Director Eileen here."
Like the director, the chairman was a sociopath, so no matter what his children did, he didn’t particularly care.
And if they didn’t help the group, he treated them worse than animals.
But since I was responsible for the group’s future, the director’s advice was that I’d likely be treated almost like the eldest son of the family.
That was enough for us to solidify our alliance.
Yoon Carter, the security director who handled Black Cell’s combat force.
Cain Kreuz, the chief researcher responsible for the underground research complex.
And finally Park Tae-sung, the finance director who was practically the money hose and the patron backing all of it.
The people I’d received business cards from were certainly an impressive bunch.
So had I finally gotten myself somewhat established?
But the road ahead was still brutally long, and that realization suddenly made my stomach tighten.
Still, the timer keeps ticking.
Right now the test subjects weren’t being used for much because the highest-priority research was taking precedence.
But Black Cell was still dragging in more subjects just in case.
Some of the veteran researchers were even handling their original projects alongside the new ones, so although the pace had slowed, bodies were still piling up.
And now there was a new threat on top of everything else.
"So I really have to stay inside Black Cell from now on…."
"And they took our phones too! Senior Maxwell, isn’t that inconvenient for you?"
"It can’t be helped."
The information about the awakening factor Black Cell had discovered could leak elsewhere because of an inside whistleblower.
For me, that wasn’t much of a problem, since I was basically living here anyway because of the kids.
But the other researchers had to be wary of outside enemies to the point that it was practically forced confinement.
Of course, strong repression like that tends to breed resentment.
"Everyone all right?"
"................"
There wasn’t a single fool here reckless enough to talk back to the director after she came back from a surprise inspection.
After that, everyone kept silent as time continued to pass.
Scrabble, scrabble, scrabble!
Thud! Thud-thud!
"Eeeek!"
"Grrrrrrrr!!!"
"K-kids?"
I had the children keep doing their little three-way standoff.
Liberty and Victory, still perched on my body, kept kicking at each other.
Gloria watched the two of them with a look of pure disgust.
But it looked like they’d finally grown used to one another.
When I told the director that, she was delighted and made a proposal.
"You already knew this, but I’m planning to make a sponsorship donation to coincide with this academy summer break. How about taking Victory with you then?"
"Victory?"
The director had always wanted to make use of the children, so was she planning to test the one who communicated best first?
Besides, mental shackles can be far stronger than physical ones.
The director seemed convinced that, because I was her leash, Victory wouldn’t run away.
Though there were probably plenty of other unknown reasons mixed in there, too.
Still, if we were going to live together, the children needed to see the outside world at some point.
The real issue was how Victory herself would take it.
She even had multiple personalities, so there were far too many variables.
"Ninety-nine percent of worries never happen, so don’t stress."
"…Director, you’ve been placing a great deal of trust in me lately."
"That just means you’re competent. So? What do you think?"
"Let’s hear Victory’s wishes before making a decision."
And just like that, no matter how sudden it was, a little outing with Victory had been arranged.
I wondered how she would feel about it.
With the academy closing ceremony not far off, I asked Victory about it right away.
But instead of being happy, she looked terribly flustered.
"V-Victory is… Vic-Victory…."
Fear had already taken root in Victory’s red eyes.
I didn’t know the details, but as a mutant, she must have had a rotten past.
Maybe to the children… Black Cell was more like a shelter protecting them from the threats outside.
Gloria had also suffered through painful experiments here.
And yet, even when a chance to escape came, she had never tried to run.
Even a girl with the intellect of an adult—why would she make that choice?
Most likely because she had judged that this place was better than the outside.
But now it was time for that to change.
If the world was still too harsh for these children…
Then until the waves calmed, I’d just have to stand in front of them and block the tide.
So I left the confused Victory alone for the moment and stepped out of the detention room.
Instead, I left the door open, said nothing, and simply held out my arm to her.
Had she understood what I meant?
Victory kept looking back and forth between the inside of the room and me.
Behind her lay the empty, dark detention room, with its lonely bed abandoned in the shadows.
In front of her, by contrast, was the soft hallway light and my outstretched hand.
As pitiful as the bewildered Victory looked, this was something she had to choose for herself.
And so, in the silence and stillness, time slowly passed.
By then countless personalities must have been colliding inside her, because Victory was sweating coldly and even clutching at her head as she sank to the floor.
But perhaps because of all the time she had spent with me until now, she found a little courage after all.
Victory shut her eyes tight, got unsteadily to her feet, and at last, the little white rabbit, battered and scarred, stepped out from the nest.
Then she hurled her small body into my arms.