The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

Screeech—

Kicking up a swirl of coarse sand, the car pulled to a stop at the entrance of District Eight.

Beyond the window, I could see the sign — old and rusted, [Hazard Zone: No Unauthorized Entry].

The instant the engine died I turned to look back.

Sea-ah was hunched over, brow furrowed, breath coming heavy.

"Lee Sea-ah, you're staying in the car today."

At the firm ruling, Sea-ah tried to force herself upright.

"… No. I can… I can go too. If I drop out the formation…."

"No."

"Look at yourself. You can barely walk — how are you going to protect anyone?"

"But…."

Just as Sea-ah moved to dig her heels in, the younger ones beside her chimed in.

"Noona, just rest. We'll be back soon."

"Yeah! Unnie. You're hurting! We'll come wight back!"

Sihyeok, too, took her hand tight, worry in his eyes.

The one who drove the last nail in was Cha Yul.

"Lee Sea-ah. Come with us like this, and you're not help — you're a burden."

"……!"

At Yul's cut-to-the-bone bluntness, Sea-ah bit down hard on her lip.

Bitter and stung, no doubt — but a fact she couldn't argue with.

In the end, Sea-ah dropped her head and gave in.

"……Got it. I'm sorry."

Just as the mood threatened to sink heavy, Kang Taemin, sitting in the driver's seat, spoke up quietly.

"Director. I'll stay behind and look after Sea-ah."

"Number Three? You will?"

I looked at him, caught off guard — but I ran the math in my head right after.

Kang Taemin. Ex-military, a hulking researcher well over one-ninety.

Anything unexpected came up, he'd react far faster than any of the other researchers.

On top of that, he could drive — so in an emergency he could grab Sea-ah and pull out immediately.

"Good. Please."

I pulled out one of the bags I'd packed in advance and handed it to Kang Taemin.

"Healing potions and any artifacts that might come in handy are in here. Don't hold back on using them."

"Understood."

"And…."

I took a red cylindrical object from inside my coat and pressed it into his hand.

"This is a flare."

"……"

"If anything happens, don't hesitate — send it up. I'll come straight back."

"Understood."

Kang Taemin answered with a heavy, steady face — every inch the ex-soldier — and tucked the flare inside his coat.

I led Lee Jinwoo, Han Soeun, and the other children out of the car.

Last, holding the open door, I walked over to Sea-ah, sitting there listless.

"I'm leaving Kang Taemin with you, so if anything comes up, tell him to fire the flare right away."

At my low aside, Sea-ah slitted her eyes open and gave me a small smile.

"Yes…. You be careful too, Director. And…."

"……."

"Don't let anyone catch you being sweet, either."

Even hurting the way she was, the tease pricked at something in my chest.

I mussed her hair and turned away.

Leaving the sound of the car door shutting behind me, I walked over to the waiting children.

"Right, listen up. Before we go in, a quick rundown of the plan."

I jerked my chin at Lee Jinwoo beside me.

Catching my intent, he tapped at his wrist device, and with a soft hum a blue three-dimensional map bloomed in the air.

"Where we're standing is District Eight."

Lee Jinwoo pointed at a spot on the map and began the briefing, calm.

"And exactly two years ago, an A-rank Gate opened here."

"A-rank? That's suuuper strong!"

At Hayun's wide-eyed astonishment, Lee Jinwoo nodded.

"That's right. A very dangerous grade. The trouble is, a Gate opened in 'District Two' at the same time."

He pointed at a flashy sector of the map.

"The Bureau poured ninety percent of the hunter forces into District Two. As a result…."

His finger moved to District Eight, drawn in dead black.

"Here, in District Eight, defensive forces ran short and — in the end — a 'Gate breach' went off."

"So… the monsters… all of them came out?"

At Suho's frightened question, Lee Jinwoo shook his head, mouth bitter.

"Thankfully the boss monster was put down… but the door that couldn't be closed in time stayed open, locked into reality, and the mana bleeding out of it contaminated the whole city. That's what District Eight is now."

Lee Jinwoo was softening it as best he could, but the truth hidden underneath was far more sickening.

The reason ninety percent of the hunters had been sent to District Two.

It wasn't that District Two had been in greater danger than District Eight.

The lives of the people living there just cost a lot more.

After the Gate incident, the government had sliced the capital region into 'Districts' and ranked them.

District One, District Two…. The lower the number and the closer to the heart of Seoul, the more it was an iron-clad fortress of guilds and troops, kept locked down for the vested interests.

The higher the number ran, the more it became a quarantine zone of the underclass — people who could be swallowed up as monster food any day and nobody would find it strange.

On the surface it was dressed up prettily as 'efficient defense and administration,' but the real motive was plain enough.

Just then, Cha Yul — who'd been keeping quiet — asked.

"So. What are we here to do, then?"

At the pointed question, Lee Jinwoo nodded and picked up the briefing.

"Guilds' official work breaks down into two main types. First is the [Gate Clear] mission — when the Awakened Management Bureau spots an active Gate, guilds get dispatched to clear it. Mostly the big guilds handle these."

He held up one more finger.

"And the second is exactly what we're going to do today. The [Purification] mission."

"Purification?"

"Cleaning up 'closed zones' like this one, where contaminated mana is still hanging around."

Done explaining, he pulled from his coat a hexagonal crystal that glowed clear.

"This is a D-rank artifact — [Purification Crystal]."

The children's eyes locked onto the crystal, glinting brilliantly in the sunlight.

"Usually new guilds or smaller outfits make 'purification' their main line of work. You take out the leftover monsters and lock down the area, then pull the contaminated mana in the air into this artifact."

As the children peered at the crystal, curious, Lee Jinwoo added on.

"Turn this in to the Bureau and they pay out based on how much mana you've purified. For a fresh guild, it's essential work."

"And! It counts as community-service hours!"

Pulling the kids' focus, I hammered it in.

"Today's target is one thing: fill this artifact as full as we possibly can. All of that is money and record for us."

I jerked my chin toward Han Soeun.

"How you do it, one demonstration beats a hundred explanations. Number Two! Show them!"

"Right!"

At my call Han Soeun stepped forward, eyes bright.

She pulled the 'Purification Crystal' from her coat along with a chunky-looking black machine.

Vwm—

The machine's power came on, and above a small display a needle trembled and swung.

"All right, everyone, look here."

She showed the kids the machine's gauge.

The needle had crept past the 'green' band and was hovering unsteadily at the edge of the 'orange' one.

"This machine measures 'mana contamination levels' in the air. As you can see, the zones are marked out by color."

She kept the briefing crisp.

"Green is safe, orange is caution, red is danger. Anywhere orange or above is where we work. The denser it is, the faster the crystal fills."

"Wouldn't red be better? That's where it fills fastest."

Han Soeun shook her head firmly, pushing back against Cha Yul.

"In theory, sure — but red zones are out."

"Why?"

"The contamination's too heavy. Breathe in there and the contaminated mana seeps into your body — we'd be poisoned before we could even start purifying."

"…!"

"So we're going to stick to orange zones. Safety first."

She hooked the machine at her hip and gripped the clear crystal tight in her right hand.

"Since this is a demonstration, I'll show you right here. Watch closely."

She lifted the crystal to chest height and, in a small but clear voice, murmured the activation word.

"Purify."

Woong—

The moment the word left her, the faint black haze drifting through the air began to swirl and get pulled into the crystal.

A moment later, at the bottom of the once-clear crystal, a very pale, ink-like liquid slopped and pooled.

"This is near the entrance, so the density's low — this is about all it fills."

She gave the crystal a shake, a note of disappointment in her voice.

Clearly, for serious collection we'd need to head deeper in.

"Once we go further in, there'll be monsters, but most of them are just leftover stragglers, so they won't be strong."

I looked around at the kids and drove the caution in.

"Still — better safe than sorry. No dropping your guard."

Just like on the A-rank Gate run before, I strapped each of the kids into a bag loaded with healing potions and defensive artifacts, one at a time, careful.

Cinching the shoulder straps tight, I laid out the team assignments.

"Purification work — a big pack tripping over one another just slows everyone down, so for efficiency we split into three teams."

I pointed to each of the kids as I called it.

"Team One: me, Seo Hayun, Seo Hajun."

"Team Two: Lee Jinwoo, Kim Sihyeok."

"Team Three: Han Soeun, Cha Yul, Park Suho."

To each team leader I handed out a bag stuffed with artifacts, a machine for measuring density, and flares in different colors.

"Anything goes wrong, straight up into the sky. Got it?"

"Yes!"

Last, I brought out the breathing-support artifacts I'd prepared.

Much lighter than an ordinary gas mask, covering only the nose and mouth so it wouldn't block sight — a half-face type.

Lee Jinwoo, Han Soeun and I put ours on first, then fitted each of the children with one.

"Ughhh… Director. Do we hafta wear this? It's suffocating…."

Hayun whined through her mask.

But I shook my head, firm.

"No. Absolutely do not take it off."

"Aww…."

"Adult hunters can circulate their mana internally to shield their organs from contaminated mana, but you're not skilled enough for that yet."

I tightened Hayun's mask strap once more and said, sternly.

"Breathing that contaminated mana in directly is bad for your body. So bear with it, stuffy or not. Got it?"

At the firm explanation, Hayun finally gave a small, obedient "yes…."

Preparations, all set.

"Right. Everyone, move to your assigned area. Operation start!"

I took the twins along and stepped past the old chain-link fence marked [No Unauthorized Entry].

"Huh…? Director! Somethin' changed!"

I'd only crossed one sign, and the feel of the air on my skin was different.

The black haze wavering at the edge of vision was noticeably thicker, my sight blurred as though through noisy film.

I flipped the meter at my belt on.

Vzz—

The needle trembled and, drifting off green, hovered at the middle of the orange band, twitching uneasily.

Hmm. Little further in and it'll be solid.

"Follow me carefully. Eyes forward."

The stretch of District Eight in front of me was a wreck.

Shattered glass covered the road, crunching under every step, and finding an intact building was next to impossible.

Deep claw marks were gouged into concrete walls, as if some massive beast had raked past.

Whole walls had been torn off some buildings, exposing the ugly insides of homes frozen in place two years earlier. Cars on the road had been crushed like sheets of paper, left lying about as scrap.

No bodies, at least.

Over the two years, apparently, the Bureau and the guilds had kept steadily hauling them away.

But if bone and flesh had been cleared, the scars carved into the city hadn't. Dark red bloodstains, dried on every surface, bore silent witness to the horror of that day.

Just in case the awful sight scared the kids, I threw glances sideways to check the twins.

But contrary to my worry, the children weren't just calm — they looked bored.

"You two… okay? Not scared?"

At my careful question, Hayun blinked those big eyes and tilted her head.

"By what?"

The answer sounded like she was genuinely curious, and I ended up clearing my throat, sheepish.

"Uh… right. If you're okay, that's fine. Anything hurts or feels off, tell me right away."

That was when.

"Uh…!"

Ahead of me, Hajun's small foot caught on a jutting stone.

He staggered.

"Hah!"

Reflexively I shot my hand out and snatched Hajun as he pitched forward.

Whoosh.

Hajun's eyes went round in an instant, hoisted through the air and into my arms.

"……!"

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