The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

A single line of cold sweat trickled down my spine.

Instinct was blaring alarms like mad, but I wiped every trace of consternation off my face.

Instead, I let out a snort, as if it were the most ridiculous thing in the world.

"Oh, come on. Dad, are you losing it?"

I snorted through my nose and waved a hand, dismissive.

"You think I'm crazy? Getting attached to toys like that?"

I shrugged.

"You know I'm a decent actor. Camera's shoved right in my face, so I hammed it up a bit. Only way to get the shot I had in mind."

I flicked my hand as if it were nothing.

"What? Was it so real Dad got fooled too? Wow, I really have got a knack for this."

[……Acting?]

Chae Ganghyeon knit his brow and asked back.

He hadn't quite let go of the suspicion yet.

"Don't get any weird ideas. I only keep them around because I've got uses for them."

I gave a smirking sneer.

"I'm not dumb enough to get swept up by my feelings. Like I said before, they're just… high-efficiency toys."

Only at that cold jab did Chae Ganghyeon seem to fully relax, and he nodded.

[Of course! Right! No son of mine is going to get attached to test subjects like that!]

"Ah, whatever! I'm busy!"

Any longer and it got dangerous. I hurried the topic along.

"I'll get the guild application papers together and send them over right away, so get the Bureau's approval stamp ready! Got it?!"

[Sure, sure! All right—]

Click.

Without waiting for the rest of his answer, I stabbed the end-call button.

Silence settled back over the director's office.

"Haaaaah…."

I slid down over the desk like melted jelly. Every muscle in my body was screaming.

"Seriously… that was more nerve-wracking than the hearing. Crazy old geezer."

My shirt, soaked with cold sweat, clung to my back.

Still… it looks like I pulled it off.

The guild setup hadn't been on the plan. But the more I turned it over, the more it looked like a blessing in disguise.

A legal guild, in my name, with the trainees under it.

Now the children wouldn't be 'test subjects' anymore — they'd have the proper standing of 'guild members.'

A completely different world from being caged in the institute.

With 'guild activity' as cover, taking the children outside was going to get a whole lot easier, too.

"Not bad. Better than not bad — great."

I sank deep into the chair and curled the corner of my mouth up. Perfect.

Couldn't get better than this.

I need to get the stamp on it before Chae Ganghyeon changes his mind.

I headed straight out of the director's office and to the room where Teacher Kim Sunja was staying, where without a word of preamble I dropped to the floor and folded into a full formal bow.

"Teacher! Please, save this worthless fool!"

"……What?"

Kim Sunja blinked at me, caught completely off guard by the sudden bow.

I gave her a quick briefing on the call with my father and the plan going forward.

That I was going to create a guild under her name and bring the children under it for protection — and that she'd have to be the face of that guild.

I'd expected her to blow her top, but the teacher was surprisingly calm.

"If I'm only lending my name, that's fine."

Her face was plastered across the country now anyway — safer to step out openly under a proper title than to keep skulking around like a mouse. That was her read, no doubt.

"But."

She raised her index finger and jabbed it right up to my nose.

"Don't pester me about being guild master or any of that. I'm lending you a name, that's all. Paperwork, running the place, management — all the guild business, you handle yourself."

"Of course. All you have to do, Teacher, is be the guild master in name."

Only after she'd nailed down the promise firmly could I leave the guest room.

Trudge, trudge.

I dragged my weary body back to my room.

The bed was calling, but I gritted my teeth and looked away.

I'd set too many things in motion today.

Scrape.

I pulled the chair out and sat down at the desk.

The second I turned the device on, holograms of the work waiting for me came pouring down like a waterfall.

"Uggghhhh…."

I clutched my head and let out a groan.

"Mountain of stuff to do, seriously…."

Guild founding application, drafting the charter, funding plan, a report to send to my father, and so on and so on…. Every single one of them was the kind of work that made you want to tear your hair out.

I fired up the device at once and hauled the senior researchers into a group chat.

Even the time to look each of them in the face and explain in person felt like too much to spare.

I posted the transition plan to 'Nest Guild' in the chat window fast, and without a breath to spare I doled out the tasks.

The moment my razor-edged instructions dropped, the reactions on the other side were a sight to see.

Lee Jinwoo's and Han Soeun's cries of shock came flooding in fit to blow the chat window up.

And, in the middle of it all, one lone, calm line.

[Kang Taemin: Understood.]

I flipped the device face-down without mercy, cutting off its noisy wailing.

Sleeves rolled up, I dropped into the chair with a grim look.

Tack, tack-tack-tack….

Outside the window the sun was slipping low, and even as darkness came down, the sound of typing didn't stop. It was the beginning of a long, long night for the children's freedom.

The institute was, quite literally, a madhouse day after day.

Two weeks had already gone by since the hearing ended, but its massive shockwaves were still sweeping through the institute's corridors.

In the middle of all that, the intake-mates gathering — 'M.A.D.E,' a group of notorious loose lips — was huddled in a corner of the break room, sipping coffee and gossiping.

"Who could've guessed the Director was a 'secret auditor' dispatched by the Bureau?"

M rubbed his arms as if just thinking about it still gave him gooseflesh.

"I was watching the hearing live over instant noodles, and I nearly blew a noodle right out my nose. It's not even a plot-twist movie."

At that, D — who'd been listening beside him — went red around the eyes, the memory coming back.

"I cried…. When he was clutching Cha Yul and shouting, honest to god, the tears came."

"Aw, you crybaby!"

M clicked his tongue and gave D's shoulder a light shove.

"With tear ducts that weak, how are you gonna hack it in this brutal researcher life?"

"H-hey, but everyone who watched it live cried, I'll bet! Look online — there's tons of them!"

D sniffled indignantly and shoved a tablet PC across at M.

"Look at this! Everyone's praising the Director like crazy."

On the screen, the moment of Chae Junhyeok clutching Cha Yul and shouting was screencapped huge, and lined up under it were the top comments.

[Mapo District Honeyfist: Everyone who talked shit about Chae Junhyeok, step up. Starting with me. Bowing my head to the ground. (thud)]

[D-rank Hunter Gwak Cheolsu: Took the fluorescent bulb out of my room today. Gonna live off Chae Junhyeok's aura. Saint Junhyeok! Saint Junhyeok!]

[YigasSlave: Whoa, look at that face. That's a parent-who-lost-their-kid face for real, right? My own mom doesn't even look at me like that… mom ㅠ.ㅜ]

[HunterHopeful: King-Junhyeok… Saint-Junhyeok… sorry we misjudged you!! You're the real deal, sir]

"Well… it's a good thing the misunderstanding got cleared up, but…."

M scratched the back of his head and let the sentence trail off.

The same people who'd been cursing him fit to kill only recently, flipping like this…

The whiplash was almost creepy in itself.

But E, oblivious as ever, chattered on cheerfully.

"Of course! Think how wronged the Director must've felt! And from our angle it's good news too, right? Image is up — that ought to mean more budget, right?"

E chimed in with a bright grin.

At which A, who'd been listening with arms folded, clicked her tongue.

"Ugh, listen to this brainless optimist…. Didn't you see the notice? Government's saying wind up the institute. We're basically unemployed. Unemployed."

E, not the least bit fazed by A's jab, kept beaming and shot back.

"Even if it winds down! It's just the institute turning into a guild! We stop being researchers and become guild members, that's all!"

That was true. By government order, the 'Nest Research Institute' had officially been shut down.

But thanks to Chae Junhyeok's quick thinking, in its place stood the 'Nest Guild,' with Kim Sunja out front as guild master.

Only the nameplate had been swapped out; the reality was untouched.

A let out a deep sigh.

"Ha…. If this isn't smoke and mirrors, I don't know what is. Swap the sign and suddenly a lab's a guild?"

D, who'd been quietly listening, opened his mouth carefully.

"E-even so… the Director did say anyone who wanted to leave was free to leave, right? And that he'd take care of severance generously too."

D looked at each of his intake mates in turn and asked.

"What are you all going to do? …Are you leaving?"

At D's question, every one of 'M.A.D.E' fell silent.

After a moment M let out a deep sigh and spoke.

"Haaah…. Me, I… honestly, I have no idea."

M fiddled with the now-cold paper cup.

"Spent my whole life buried in research, and now, all of a sudden, I'm supposed to be a guild member?… Sure, they say we can keep researching, but honestly, isn't this going to wreck our careers? Later, when it's time to move on, who's going to give a damn about a 'guild-affiliated researcher' on your résumé?"

At that, A, listening in, let out a cold snort.

"Wake up. Technically speaking, the moment we got branded 'former Nest Research Institute,' our careers were wrecked already."

At A's sharp, brutal dose of reality, M shut his mouth.

"What research lab in the Republic of Korea is going to pick up someone from an institute shut down over inhumane experiments? Not landing on a blacklist is the best we can hope for."

A glanced around and dropped her voice.

"Just be grateful we even got the offer to transfer to guild-member status. You know all the researchers on Park Wonjin's line got purged, right? Not even time to pack — turfed out on the spot."

"Eek…."

D shrank his shoulders in at the grim story.

Just as the mood threatened to sink into something heavy, E flashed a bright grin and clapped his hands together.

"Hahaha! I'm fine with it!"

"What's fine with you now?"

"Since I was a kid, being a hunter was my dream! Sure, I never Awakened, but researching for hunters and supporting them as a guild member — that's plenty cool too! Feels like I got one step closer to the dream!"

E's eyes sparkled.

A shook her head and clicked her tongue, but thanks to him the suffocating air had lightened a fair bit.

"Nnngh…!"

M got up from his seat and stretched hard. His joints popped, cracking back into place.

"Ah, screw it. I'll just be a guild member."

"Huh? Really?"

"You know how much I borrowed to buy the place last time — at my age, who else is gonna take me on if not here? Gotta stick around if I want to pay off the debt."

M tossed it out with studied indifference.

"Besides, the Director promised we can keep doing the research we were on. Not like the paycheck's about to dry up."

At those practical words, A and D nodded too.

"Right. Our 'M.A.D.E' has to shine wherever we go! Intake mates gotta stick together to survive, don't we?"

"Right, right! We're not strangers, are we?"

As the mood ripened into something warm, E broke into that trademark bright laugh of his and stuck a hand out.

"Hahaha! That's my intake mates for you! All right, then, how about we do a cheer together? For the guild life to come!"

"You're on!"

M and D grinned and stacked their hands on top.

A grimaced and grumbled, "Grown adults, honestly…," but stealthily slid her own hand onto the top of the pile.

"Okay! On three, we go 'Nest Guild, fighting!' Got it?"

At E's cue everyone drew a steadying breath.

"One, two—!"

Bang!

At that instant the break room door flew open.

"B-big trouble!!"

A researcher, gone ashen, came stumbling in, out of breath.

"……What's this? This familiar, ominous déjà vu?"

The words had barely left M's mouth when the researcher, gasping, all but screamed.

"P-Park Wonjin—!"

"Park Wonjin what? Dropped dead?"

"Park Wonjin broke out of detention!!"

"……What?!"

The four stacked hands dropped away, weightless.

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