The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

"That's far enough."

At the man's low command, the adjutant immediately drew back the hand that had been pinning him down.

But as he withdrew, he muttered savagely into Park Wonjin's ear, in a voice so small it was barely there.

"Watch... your mouth."

"Hah, hgk... khh...!"

Park Wonjin clutched his crushed cheek and hastily bobbed his head.

The terror from a moment ago hadn't left him, and his face had gone corpse-white.

The man slowly bent forward, right into the face of the wrecked Park Wonjin.

"Have you ever leaked the 'Project R' test subjects outside the facility?"

The voice was pitched low, but the menace packed into it was chilling.

Park Wonjin clutched the back of his throbbing head and worked his mind desperately.

His lips trembled with terror, but the instinct to survive set off alarm bells in his head.

He watched the man's face for cues and let his words trail off.

"Out... outside? Well... I-I really don't... kn-know..."

Bang!

"Gyaaagh!"

Once again a heavy palm slammed down onto the back of Park Wonjin's head without mercy.

At the pain of his nose being ground into the steel table, Park Wonjin screamed.

"Can't give me a straight answer, you son of a bitch? Testing your luck?"

The bloodthirsty adjutant's threat came across as anything but empty.

"Nnngh...!"

A chill terror crept up Park Wonjin's spine like a snake.

Blood burst from his crushed nose and wet the desk, and a throbbing pain took over his skull.

"Hah, hgk...! W-wait...! St-stop... please, st-stop...!"

"..."

He hunched his body cravenly and trembled, blood on his lips.

When the adjutant eased off a little, Park Wonjin dragged in ragged breaths and looked up at the man above him.

His face, a mess of tears and snot and blood, was a pitiful sight.

"Wh-what is it... you want to know...?"

Instead of answering, the man lightly crooked a single finger.

At that, another adjutant who'd been waiting behind him came forward and opened a laptop in front of Park Wonjin.

A breaking-news bulletin was playing across the screen.

[We have shocking news. A whistleblower has come forward alleging that N Research Institute, a core facility under the government's Awakened Management Bureau, has been carrying out illegal biological experiments on minor Awakened.]

The anchor's tone was grave.

[The institute is even suspected of forcibly mobilizing these minor Awakened for the assault on an A-rank Gate. We will now show you the footage that has come into our hands.]

Next, the source footage was broadcast.

The angle was shaky, as if someone far off had filmed it in secret.

The picture quality was crude, but the subject was clear.

A young girl with navy-blue hair was desperately throwing up a barrier, blocking the attacks pouring down on her.

Beside her, silver-haired twins gripped each other's hands and wrung out their psychokinesis, savagely beating down the monsters that rushed them.

But nowhere on the screen was there any adult helping them.

The footage had been cunningly cut so that only the sight of children struggling alone stood out.

The anchor's voice went on, weighty.

[Under the current 'Special Awakened Protection Act,' minor Awakened must be entrusted to an academy or a guild educational institution under the Bureau, where they are to receive systematic training and education.]

The announcer laid out the legal provision in a firm tone.

[But it has come to light that the institute in question used these children for Gate assaults without ever putting them through any official registration process.]

At the bottom of the screen, a caption reading 'Illegal Use of Minor Awakened' blinked in red.

[The government is treating the gravity of this matter with the utmost seriousness and has announced that it will immediately dispatch a special investigation team to thoroughly uncover the institute's operations. Concern across our society over the safety of minor Awakened left neglected in a regulatory blind spot is running higher than ever. That concludes this news bulletin.]

Even after the broadcast ended, Park Wonjin stared blankly at the flickering screen like a man whose soul had left him.

"What... what in the world is this...?"

It was the first he'd heard of it.

He'd known the subjects had been taken out of the facility, but that they'd tried to clear an A-rank Gate, of all things.

And when in the world had that footage even been shot?

"Anything to say?"

The man's flat, dry question snapped Park Wonjin back to himself, and he shook his head hard.

"I-I don't know anything about that! What even is that?! This is the first I'm hearing of it, I swear!"

Park Wonjin shrieked, eyes rolling white with the injustice of it.

"The Director must have taken them out! Like I said, I had no real authority—!"

Thwack!

"Gurk!"

Before the excuse was even out, the adjutant's fist flew in without mercy.

Park Wonjin coughed the blood pooled in his mouth out onto the floor.

The man drew another device from inside his coat and thrust it right under Park Wonjin's nose.

"You mean to keep playing dumb even after seeing this?"

His vision was still swimming from the blow, and at first he couldn't focus.

Park Wonjin squinted his swollen eyes and pored over the screen desperately.

As the letters slowly sharpened, his eyes shook as though an earthquake had hit.

[Project R Gate Assault and External Operation Authorization]

And there, stamped clear in the final approval box at the very bottom of the document, a red seal.

'Park Wonjin.'

It was, beyond any denying, his own name.

"Th-this is a forgery! I swear I've never signed off on any document like this!"

Park Wonjin knocked at the screen with his hand and screamed.

"I've never seen this document before! Someone must have stolen my seal and stamped it! I'm innocent! I'm telling you I'm innocent!"

In that instant, the man's emotionless eyes glinted. They took on a strange gleam, like a beast that had spotted the prey it had been waiting for.

"So you didn't stamp it..."

The man leaned forward as if genuinely intrigued and asked in a coaxing voice.

"In that case — is it possible that Director Chae Junhyeok stole your seal and stamped it?"

His tone was that of a man desperately hoping for one particular answer.

To Park Wonjin, those words were nothing short of a lifeline lowered from heaven. Without a second thought, he nodded like a madman.

"Th-that's right! It's very likely! That bastard was always a high-handed sort to begin with——! I truly know nothing about it! It's all something he cooked up!"

Spit flying, Park Wonjin desperately sank his teeth into Chae Junhyeok and wouldn't let go.

The man gazed down quietly at Park Wonjin's craven face, then drummed the desk with a long finger, tap, tap.

"Understood."

A smile crossed his lips, its meaning impossible to read.

"That testimony's enough."

Rising from his seat, the man added coldly, aimed at Park Wonjin.

"Before long there'll be an occasion for you to testify officially about Project R. You'd do well to polish that flimsy logic into something a good deal more convincing by then."

"Wh-what? Wh-what do you mean by...?"

"Throw him back in the cell."

Almost before the man finished speaking, the adjutant grabbed Park Wonjin roughly by the collar and hauled him up.

"W-wait! Just a moment! I'm not done talking! Hey! Let go of me?!"

"Walk! You son of a bitch!"

Park Wonjin was dragged off like a piece of freight, screaming and craning back over his shoulder to the last, but the heavy iron door shut without mercy.

Slam—.

"Hah... just how far ahead did you set all this up?"

Han Jewoon watched the announcer, still going strong, and went on.

"The camera work was a real work of art. Maybe you should make your debut as a director while you're at it?"

The Bawi Guild conference room, by now fairly familiar to me.

I took in the panorama of Seoul spread out below beyond the floor-to-ceiling glass and answered indifferently.

"Well... I didn't film it for this. Just figured I'd keep some training data on the kids."

"Come on, no need to hide anything between the two of us."

Han Jewoon said with a snort of a laugh.

"You think I don't know you were already several moves ahead in that head of yours, taking out 'insurance'?"

I really wasn't, though...

It rankled, but I decided not to wear out my mouth explaining.

Better to be mistaken for a 'meticulous strategist' than for a clumsy fluke — it'd work in my favor for raising my worth.

The truth was, the source of that footage was simple.

Last time, when I'd cleared an A-rank Gate with Bawi Guild, I'd fitted a subminiature body cam onto the chest of the [Doppelgänger Doll] that had stood in for me.

This isn't what I fitted it for, but... good thing I recorded it.

That was when it happened.

Han Jewoon, still holding that smile at the corner of his mouth, tossed out a pointed remark.

"By the way... don't tell me you don't know Hunters' combat footage is 'classified'?"

I flinched for a second and my shoulders stiffened.

Of course he wasn't going to just let it slide.

The footage didn't just have the kids in it — it had captured Seo Jihyeok using magic with a book in hand, and even the healer Cheon Sarang using her ability, all in full.

I'd essentially filmed and kept the data of what amounted to the guild's core assets without permission, so if he wanted to pick a bone, he could pick as many as he liked.

"Ahem, which is exactly why, when I sent it to the press, I edited out every last frame of your guild members fighting."

I cleared my throat and went on, putting on an injured air.

"I even handed you the original file. I'm not hiding anything more. Honest."

I said it, but I knew perfectly well how brazen a claim it was.

After all, I'd secretly filmed another guild's skill data — the deputy guild master's and the main healer's, no less — without so much as a word to them beforehand.

Han Jewoon gazed at me steadily.

A strange silence flowed for a moment, and then he let out an exaggerated, heavy sigh and shook his head.

"Haah, nothing to be done. Looks like I've got no choice but to let you win this one again."

He threw both hands up as if giving in and made a show of backing off.

"But in exchange, this means the Director owes me one now. Got it?"

The tone was sly, but the bone buried in it was solid. Nothing came free.

Inwardly, I marveled.

Thorough bastard...

Say what you would, Korea's number-one spot wasn't something he'd come by for nothing.

"That aside. I got you your press connection, just like you wanted — so what's the next step?"

Han Jewoon set the teasing aside and asked, sharp.

"Blowing things up this big won't do you any good either, will it, Director? Even granting you put Park Wonjin forward as the authorizer on paper, the fact is you were the project's overall lead at the time."

"..."

"On top of that, there's a record of you taking a trip to Jeju with only young Kim Sihyeok in tow. If an investigation gets going, that'll be a real headache to explain away."

I didn't deny it and gave a calm nod.

He wasn't wrong.

In fact, if things ran along the original's flow, the target of this 'government audit' was Chae Junhyeok.

When I was reading the original I skimmed right past it without a thought...

Now that I was the one on the hook and had picked the situation apart, I could feel just how aggressive the government's stance in the original had been.

The government had almost certainly been trying to use the institute and Chae Junhyeok to pressure Chae Ganghyeon.

Right now is the point where the Bureau and the government are locked in a taut tug-of-war, each going for the other's throat.

In this mudslinging brawl where each side was itching to devour the other, a 'Chae Junhyeok' was a perfect pretext and leash for pressuring Chae Ganghyeon.

They won't be satisfied with cutting loose just one tail in Park Wonjin.

Unlike in the original, Park Wonjin had been caught, but the government wouldn't stop — it would keep its teeth in me, relentless.

And Chae Ganghyeon would fight tooth and nail to bury the whole affair.

That's exactly the point I'll use.

I'd decided to turn the collision of the two great powers back on them, to my own ends.

Right now, while Chae Ganghyeon hadn't yet fully seized the government — this very moment, with the two beasts snarling at each other and letting their guard slip — was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for me.

I'll take advantage of this chaos to tear out, root and all, the system of this institute that has the children in its grip.

That was when it happened. The device in my pocket buzzed briefly.

The caller was Lee Jinwoo. The moment I hit the answer button, a frantic voice slammed into my eardrum.

D-Director! We've got a huge problem! Right now, you have to—!

The report came through the receiver closer to a scream.

But unlike the thoroughly terrified Lee Jinwoo, the corners of my mouth curled upward instead.

Because it was the very news I'd been waiting for all this time.

"Yeah, got it."

I gave a short answer, as if there were no need to hear more, and ended the call.

Bzzt— bzzt— bzz—!!

The instant the call ended, the device started buzzing as if in a fit.

Missed calls, texts, messenger alerts came pouring in like a waterfall, the screen flashing without pause.

Without a shred of regret, I held down the power button.

Click.

The clamoring world was cut off in an instant, and stillness set in.

Watching me set the device down with a careless toss, Han Jewoon raised one eyebrow as if intrigued.

"Quite the hot response. Some big disaster blow up?"

"A disaster? You wound me."

I looked down at the device's black screen and murmured, low.

"That's the flare I sent up — the signal for a very spectacular beginning."

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