Getting Stronger By Marrying And Investing In Abandoned Villainesses

Theo found it quite strange, really. The person who had been speaking to him like it was a chore just moments ago now seemed to have undergone character development in about three minutes.

The clerk gave Theo a respectful bow and spoke in a careful tone.

"I apologize about the other time. Can we ask you to wait for our branch director? He’ll be here in a few minutes."

Theo gave him a slightly confused look as the man spoke.

’I guess this is a big deal. It wasn’t like that last time, and it’s been a week and three days.’

Theo, of course, knew what to attribute the change to. But in his own mind it was still hard to grasp. Did simply going through that body reconstruction cause this much change? Was the system really a boon?

’It feels surreal. Too surreal... the past few days have all been like this.’

He flexed one hand, half expecting it to belong to someone else. It didn’t.

Either way, he followed the man into a private lounge, where he sat comfortably and was served refreshments. An agent in a black suit stood on standby in case he needed anything.

And every available Association agent in the building was filing toward him. As if that weren’t enough, the moment word reached headquarters, the aide of the Association President moved. It was no secret that the president himself mostly lived in the Tower, but his aide making a move was the same as the president making one. Not many people knew that, though.

The refreshments were good. That was the first thing Theo noticed, sitting in a lounge that smelled of new carpet and cold recycled air, a glass of something citrus and expensive sweating a ring onto the little table beside him.

He noticed the agent by the door next. The man in the black suit stood with his hands folded in front of him, not quite looking at Theo and not quite looking away, the careful non-stare of someone told to keep an eye on a thing without letting the thing feel watched.

His plan had simply been to go and collect the Hero License, firstly to keep himself from being questioned about his funds, and also to get himself into the Tower. That was the whole errand.

Somewhere in the last twenty minutes the errand had grown a branch director, a lounge, a suited minder, and, he was fairly sure, a phone call to a Tower he had only ever seen from very far away and never once wanted to see closer.

Then the branch director arrived, and did not stop bowing.

He was a wide, soft man in a suit a size too generous, and he came through the door already smiling, already sweating a little at the hairline in a way the air conditioning could not explain. Two more agents came in behind him and arranged themselves along the wall like furniture.

"Sir. Thank you for waiting. I’m the director of this branch." He gave his name. Theo forgot it immediately. "I want to apologize, first, for any — for how you were received earlier. Our staff didn’t know. We had no way of knowing."

’Knowing what,’ Theo thought, and then, ’oh. Right. That.’

"It’s fine," Theo responded kindly. "I just came for my Hero License. From the awakening a week and three days ago. I think it got processed late."

The director’s smile did something complicated. It stayed on his face but it stopped meaning the thing a smile usually means, and behind it a man was recalculating very quickly.

"Of course. The license. Of course we can — of course."

He sat down across from Theo without being asked, leaned in, and laced his fingers.

"It’s only that a reading like the one we saw today is, ah. It’s not something a branch office can just process and file. There are protocols. The Hero research division prefers to confirm anomalous results in person, with proper instruments, and —"

"Anomalous?"

The branch director sighed and loosened his tie a bit.

"I guess it is only reasonable that I speak this to you in clear terms. You know about Hero Ranks, right?"

Theo nodded.

"Indeed, I graduated from the Branschild Hero University."

The man looked at Theo and nodded subtly.

"I see..." The man sounded slightly disappointed.

Which didn’t surprise Theo, since Branschild was the average of the average.

"Then at the very least you have an idea that every Hero awakens with a potential rank between F and S, largely determined by the number of abilities they awaken and the size of their mana heart."

Theo paid careful attention to the man.

"That is merely what is used to control the public’s awareness of the true horrors that lurk in the Tower. The truth is... the concept of rank is not fixed like we make it seem here, outside the Tower. This has only been the way for the Association to control certain things."

Theo leaned back, a small frown forming on his face.

"Uhm, Branch Director, I can’t help but feel like I shouldn’t be hearing this right now."

The branch director smiled, and tried to hide the nervousness in his voice with it.

"I’m saying this to help you, Mr. Theolyne... For a while, we will be able to keep your identity a secret, but it will be left to you from there... it is to your advantage that you be better informed."

The man leaned forward and folded his hands.

"In truth, the F-to-S rank is a scale of potential, used to measure how far your mana heart can grow. In the Tower, this simply means what circulation realm you can attain. S-rank potentials are prioritized because they have been the greatest ever produced outside the Tower..."

He paused, really looking at Theo now.

"Until you."

’There it is,’ Theo thought, keeping his face carefully blank. ’The exact thing I came here to avoid.’

The director’s phone buzzed against the table. He glanced down at it, and the last of the color he had left went with the glance.

He looked back up at Theo with a new and more careful expression, the expression of a man who has just been told that the thing sitting on his good couch has become somebody else’s problem, and a much larger somebody’s.

He dropped the call and focused on Theo.

"The President’s office has asked that you be made comfortable. Someone is coming to meet you. Personally."

Theo continued to silently look at the man, then he glanced down, picked up the citrus drink, and had a sip.

It really was very good.