The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

A warm, soft green light was wrapping every inch of me and passing over my injuries.

I stared blankly, my eyes moving between the green light and the sniffling kids — and then, snapping to, sprang up like a coiled spring.

"K-kids! How did you—!"

Before I'd finished, the twins and Suho threw themselves into my arms.

"Director!! Waaaah! Hic — hic — you left us all alone… hic! I thought you weren't ever gonna wake up… hic…!"

"Noona's barrier was so hard, and we couldn't see you at all… and then out of nowhere, two people just came bursting out of thin air—!"

Through the kids' hiccuping, jumbled sobs, I tried to piece the situation together — puzzle-fashion, one shard at a time.

"Sea-ah?! What happened to Sea-ah?!"

"Noona's right over there…!"

I hurried over and pressed my fingers to her pulse.

…normal.

Her face looked peaceful, her breathing even.

She looked as calm as if she'd drifted into a deep sleep.

The tension that had been strung tight snapped clear, and I was just letting relief wash through me — when.

Kwaaang—!!!!

An enormous, eardrum-splitting boom erupted at my back.

"What—!"

I turned my head on reflex, and only then did the scene around me register.

Where we were wasn't the rooftop of the apartment the Fox and I had been on.

It was the rooftop of the next building over.

"The Director's not s'posed to get caught up in the fight, so we brought you over here!"

…a fight?

At the unexpected word, I whipped my eyes toward the rooftop I'd been on — and just then.

Kwaang—!!!

Once more, a rupture that shook the whole building rang out, and the thick concrete dust hanging in the air was swept clear in an instant.

Through the settled dust, three silhouettes drove sharply into my sight.

Yul, Sihyeok, and… Kang Taemin?!

"Why is Number Three there?!"

Remembering how strange his state had been just before I'd been pulled into the barrier, I cried out, aghast.

At my words, Hayun — pressed tight against my side — puffed out her lips and grumbled.

"We wanted to tell the oppas that ahjussi was dangerous, but…! The oppas just went ahead an' started fighting right away, so there wasn't time to say!"

While Hajun nodded fiercely in agreement, Suho cut in.

"Getting you out came first. But don't worry. We've been watching everything from over here."

"Yah! If he does anything weird we'll blast him away!"

While the kids pounded their tiny chests, shouting bold, up on the rooftop across the way a suffocating fight was underway.

Kang Taemin kicked off the ground, closed the gap in a single bound, and drove a lean, weighty fist forward.

At the end of that fist stood the Fox, in a changpao now stained red.

Even with blood streaming down his pale face, he looked disgustingly languid and at ease.

Kwaaang—!!!

The instant Kang Taemin's fist was about to connect —

The Fox's red fan sliced through the air, light as a feather.

That thin fan caught Kang Taemin's threatening blow effortlessly, and gently redirected the destructive force clean away.

Crick-crack! The rooftop floor where the misdirected fist landed shattered in a cobweb pattern.

Sihyeok didn't miss the opening — silently, he stretched out a hand.

The shadows cast by the shattered concrete rubble surged up like snakes.

Dozens of razor-sharp shadow spears drove savagely into the Fox's blind side.

But the Fox spun, gracefully as if dancing, and swept the fan through in a fluid stroke — and Sihyeok's shadow spears shattered to nothing in a single beat.

But that had been the decoy all along — bait for his eyes.

Beyond the scattering shards of shadow.

Yul had already used Sihyeok's back as a springboard and, riding the artifact's power, shot himself up impossibly high into the air.

Pulling gravity and potential energy up to their limits, Yul dropped straight down and drove his heel mercilessly toward the crown of the Fox's head.

Kwaaaaang—!!!

A blast that rocked the whole rooftop.

But out of the thick cloud of dust, the Fox emerged, having deflected even that plunging impact lightly, with his fan.

Then, twisting up the corner of his mouth, he drove a fist toward Yul's stomach — and in that instant.

Snap—!

Yul's hand caught the Fox's fist and clamped down on it hard.

Absorbing the energy through the seized fist, Yul, without a beat of delay, loaded the stolen energy into his other fist and drove it at the Fox's face.

Kwaaang—!

But the Fox curved his eyes lazily, as if he'd seen it all coming.

From Yul's blow on, a savage brawl too fast to follow with the eye swept the rooftop, on and on.

Whack-thud-thwack! Boom! Crack—!

Dozens, hundreds of destructive exchanges flew back and forth, and the whole building shook as if it might come down.

Now with Kang Taemin and Sihyeok in the mix, the three of them wrung the last of their fading stamina out and rained attacks without pause — but through the thick roar of the exchanges, the Fox didn't let out so much as a groan.

If anything, from the center of the dust cloud came a leisurely little snort.

"Hm. Fun as this is, shall we wrap it up?"

The moment the words left him, the Fox's movements blurred, grotesquely.

Thwack! Whack! Crack—!

"Ngh!"

"Guh…!"

Under the back-to-back, punishing blows, the three of them were flung through the air in a single motion and slammed into the walls.

In a blink he'd sent the three of them tumbling to the ground, and the Fox leapt back light as a feather.

Unlike our side — wheezing hard — his breathing wasn't stirred in the least; he half-covered his mouth with the fan and murmured, languid.

"Strange. I sent someone to hold you back — and here you are, all of you. There's no way those two could have been taken down."

Just as he tilted his head, questioning —

Kwaaaaang—!!!

Far off in the distance, a boom on a scale the fight here couldn't even compare to cracked out and shook the earth to its core.

My eyes shot on reflex to the middle of the distant downtown, and there — a blood-red mana and a black mana like an abyss were tangling and clashing, vicious.

Watching that brute collision, the Fox snapped his fan shut and pressed it to his temple as if a headache had just landed on him.

"Haaah… I send them out to hold the line and instead they're brawling with each other. Looks like the Mad Dog's picking a fight again."

He let out a short sigh and gave a small shrug.

"Well — one of us has to keep their head on, right? I did come here with a purpose to accomplish."

Whoosh—!

The instant the Fox's soft voice trailed off, his figure vanished from midair.

Or, more precisely — he'd leapt in a single bound to the rooftop I was on.

"…!"

"Director. Been a little while, hasn't it? Good to see you again."

Somehow already right at my nose, the Fox curved his eyes into a smile and greeted me, soft.

"Did you have a nice time in there?"

At the suffocating pressure rolling off him, I flinched and moved to step back — but my legs gave out completely and wouldn't answer, and I ended up dropping to the floor in a heap.

"Get away! Don't hurt our Director!"

"Bad man! Get lost!"

Right then, Suho and the twins flung their small arms wide and planted themselves between me and him.

But the Fox brushed past the children's sharp cries and looked down at me.

His eyes moved from my face, over to Sea-ah asleep beside me, and then over the small children blocking his way, slow and thorough.

"To tell the truth, up until yesterday I hadn't given you much thought, Director. Nice to have, a pity to miss out on — about that much, and no more."

"…"

"…but now."

His snake eyes flashed with a strange, dense greed.

"I'm going to have you. Whatever it takes."

The corner of the Fox's mouth curled up into a nasty arc.

"Shall we go together, then?"

Whoosh—!

Once again, my vision flickered.

Before the kids could even scream, I came back to myself in the Fox's arms, being carried through the air.

"I really should've just abducted you long ago and saved myself all the trouble."

"Let go of me!"

Forgetting the sickening drop below entirely, I thrashed hard, trying to get out of his hold.

But the Fox let out a low laugh, as if amused.

"Struggle like that and you'll fall. Best to come along quietly — but if you insist, I could knock you out for you."

Cool killing intent grazed the back of my neck, and I had no choice but to bite down on my lip and stop moving.

Getting dropped to the ground and dying like a dog wasn't an option right now.

Once my resistance stopped, the Fox murmured, satisfied.

"No need to worry so much. You'll be treated with the utmost care where we're going—"

That was the moment.

Whooosh—!

A translucent water-barrier wrapped around me in a sphere, then in an instant morphed into sharp thorns — like a hedgehog's spines — and lashed out in every direction, mercilessly.

"What—!"

Startled, the Fox let go on reflex, and my body — support gone — plunged into empty air.

"Whoaaaaah—!"

My view spun madly, and the cold asphalt rushed up to my face; just as I squeezed my eyes shut —

"Diirector!!!"

Woong—!

A familiar telekinesis caught my falling body in a plush cushion.

The terrifying acceleration was cancelled out as if it had never happened, and, only a hand's breadth from the ground, I settled down light as a feather.

"…hah!"

The instant my toes touched, the breath I'd been holding — face gone pale — burst out of me.

Legs gone slack, I dropped where I stood, and the kids came sprinting to me, shouting "Director!" desperately.

And right in the middle of them —

Sea-ah!

At some point Sea-ah had woken up, and, pale, both hands stretched out, was pouring out a suffocatingly dense flood of mana.

…

"Well now. I laid out the whole stage for an overload, and instead she goes and pulls a second awakening. This has gotten inconvenient."

Up on the far rooftop.

He gave me a light wave, and murmured — softly enough to raise the hairs on my neck.

"Doesn't seem to be my day. Sadly, I'll take my leave for now. I'll be back for you before long — please look after yourself, Director."

Leaving that saccharine parting behind, the Fox's form dispersed into the air like a mirage.

The moment his presence vanished completely from the whole area —

"Director!"

"Diirector — waaaaah!!"

Suho and the twins came running, sobbing their eyes out, and Sea-ah, pale, walking over too.

The instant I had all of them in my sight, whole, the wire of tension that had been strung to its limit gave a snap and broke.

Aah… thank god. Everyone's safe.

The frantic voices calling my name became a lullaby, and I dropped like a light switching off, deep into the dark.

The golden-haired man dropped to the floor like a doll with its strings cut.

"Direeector!!!"

"Waaaah! Director! Director, open your eyes!!"

The children, spotting the Director face-down on the floor, sprinted over, faces gone ashen with shock.

Those tiny bodies dropped down beside the fallen man and were on the verge of bursting into wailing sobs — that was when.

Thud, thud.

Along with clipped, deliberate footsteps, a huge shadow fell over him.

Kang Taemin.

He bent a knee and reached out a rough hand to press two fingers to the unconscious man's neck.

"…he's just fainted for now."

Kang Taemin, in that dry voice of his, gave the situation briefly.

But to the little ones — who remembered perfectly well how he'd tormented the Director and Sea-ah earlier — Kang Taemin was nothing more than an enemy to be driven off.

"Get away! Don't touch our Director!!"

Kwaaang—!!!

Along with the twins' sharp cries, an ominous telekinetic force lashed out like a storm.

Kang Taemin's massive frame, defenseless, was flung up into the air like a piece of luggage and slammed mercilessly into the wall.

Debris rained down the wall as it cracked wide.

Soldier to the marrow as he was, no surprise attack on this scale should have caught him unbraced.

But not only did he not counter — he didn't so much as put up a basic guard.

Taking every ounce of the children's rage bare, Kang Taemin rolled onto the floor and coughed up a mouthful of red blood.

"Bad man! Don't come near da Director!"

The twins, faces smeared with tears and snot, were pulling in another wave of terrifying mana — that was when.

"No — kids! Stop!"

At some point Sea-ah had staggered over, and she stepped in urgently in front of her siblings.

The twins — still radiating killing intent — cried out in protest.

"But that bad ahjussi attacked unnie an' the Director first!"

"I know. But his punishment — the Director's the one who'll hand it down himself, when he wakes up. If we killed him now and the Director found out later, what do you think he'd say?"

Sea-ah calmed the worked-up children and added, firm,

"The Director's always told us. To be careful with our abilities. Especially against people."

At that, the kids — bristling with venom, on the edge of lunging — deflated.

The two of them, who loved the Director more than anything in the world and would have rather died than disappoint him, sniffled and, reluctantly, nodded.

"Okay… we don' wanna be hated by da Director…"

Once the children were settled, Sea-ah turned an icy gaze on Kang Taemin, still coughing up blood.

"You carry the Director. And don't even think about pulling anything."

"…"

"One step out of line… and I really will kill you."

Even at the little girl's savage warning, Kang Taemin didn't make excuses; he only pushed himself up in silence.

Then, with rough but careful hands, he lifted the fallen Director up.

That was the moment.

"Kids!!!!"

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!