The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

At the desperate shout, Lee Jinwoo and Han Soeun — and, a beat behind them, Kim Sihyeok and Cha Yul — came sprinting over, breathless.

"What in the world is going on here…?! Director! Director!"

"We have to get back, quick. We need to check on the Director right away."

At Sea-ah's urgent push, just as Han Soeun was hurriedly nodding —

Thud—

"Noona!"

"Sea-ah!"

Before she could even finish, Sea-ah pitched forward, all her strength gone.

Yul, already at her side, caught the collapsing child in his arms in a single motion.

"Haaah…"

"Hff…"

The corridor outside the infirmary.

Two deep sighs filled the hall.

"How many days now?"

"…as of today, a full week."

At Han Soeun's answer, glum to the marrow, Lee Jinwoo raked his hands roughly through his hair, at his wits' end.

"I mean, why won't he wake up? He hasn't caught some serious illness or something, has he? Ugh…"

"They already treated all the external wounds with an A-rank healing potion — apparently there isn't a single injury left."

With no answer in sight, as if on cue, another heavy sigh escaped both of them.

"…is our Director just cursed or something? He's already weak enough as a non-Awakened, and he keeps getting dragged into worse trouble than most A-rank Awakened."

"Tell me about it… coughing up blood, coming home hurt every other day — and this time he almost got abducted outright. Is any of this what a research institute director is supposed to be going through? Our Director isn't built to get knocked around — he's the brains, he's supposed to be treasured and protected…."

Just then, as though something had struck her, Han Soeun's eyes lit up.

"How about we just tie the Director down somewhere? Lock him up nice and safe! He gets hurt every single time he goes out."

"…that might actually be better."

It was flat-out nonsense, but Lee Jinwoo — a little unhinged with worry — nodded, genuinely tempted.

Normally Kang Taemin would have been the one to anchor them at a moment like this, shutting down the idea for the absurdity it was — but he wasn't here.

The moment they'd gotten back from District Eight, he'd announced that he was in a dangerous state and, of his own accord, walked into the isolation cell in the institute's basement — hardly ever used — and locked himself in cuffs with his own hands.

They'd pressed him urgently for an explanation of the incomprehensible behavior, but he'd sealed his mouth shut, saying he had nothing to say until the Director woke up.

"Sigh… still, at least Sea-ah's all right — that's a relief. That's what Ms. Kim Sunja was saying earlier."

Her second awakening blew her mana capacity out all at once, so she just crashed for a bit. Let her sleep it off.

"Honestly, isn't it just incredible? A second awakening. It's happened maybe a handful of times in the entire history of Awakened people, and our kid pulled it off."

"Sea-ah's amazing, sure, but honestly the Director scares me more. What kind of magic did he pull in there to make her hit a second awakening? Over a hundred researchers couldn't crack it in years."

"Right? I mean, I already knew he was a genius from the start… but at this point isn't he just an off-the-charts monster?"

The two of them clicked their tongues, marveling at the Director's abilities — whose bottom no one could seem to find — their faces thick with awe.

"Anyway — let's keep Sea-ah's second awakening a strict secret. If word gets out, the fallout won't be a joke."

"Obviously. I won't breathe a word of it, so you be careful too."

Having thoroughly pledged each other to silence, the two moved off with a short sigh down the corridor.

But neither of them had the faintest idea.

That around the bend of the quiet hallway, someone had been holding their breath and listening to every word of the conversation.

This place… was that old, chilling laboratory I'd once seen in a dream.

The hellish shard of a past where the blond child had cried out for his parents while being put through brutal experiments.

Why in the world did I forget this place existed?

I'd clearly witnessed the horrific scene once before, and yet at some point it had been wiped clean from my mind.

Looking around, disoriented, my eyes soon caught on a single spot.

A small child strapped to a cold metal chair.

The blond child I'd seen before.

Unlike last time, when he'd been thrashing and howling, he was drained — face bloodless, slumped as if he had nothing left to give.

Even his shallow breathing looked like it was more than he could manage.

I lunged on reflex to save him.

Kwang!

But my body never reached the child — I bounced uselessly off, as if I'd slammed into a solid invisible wall.

In that instant, along with a crackling of static, an iron-cold voice came through the speakers and rang out inside the lab.

[Experiment 257 commencing. Beginning injection.]

The words had barely finished when a huge syringe descended from the ceiling and, without a shred of mercy, drove itself deep into the child's fragile body.

Shk—!

"Aaaaaaaaaaghhhh—!!!"

The small body bowed, and a horrific scream tore out of him.

Foam at the mouth, trembling violently, the child thrashed in extreme agony.

"Hhkk… please… save me… it hurts so much… Daddy… Mommyyy…."

"No…! Stop, stop it!"

I had to save that pitiful child, whatever it took.

My right arm screamed in pain as if it might tear off at any moment, but I ignored the agony completely and hammered on the wall like an animal.

But the cruel wall didn't so much as tremble, and only a horrific helplessness and rage rose up to my chin.

At that exact moment.

The child, thrashing in his agony, must have caught something — his head snapped up.

The unfocused, cloudy pupils drifted through the air, and, as if by miracle, met mine through the wall.

…!

In that instant, an eerie sensation swept through my whole body — as if my soul were being sucked whole into those hollow eyes.

My mind boiled off white, and a spine-crawling familiarity flooded through me.

I know those eyes.

Those eyes drained of light, filled only with a horrific despair — I'd seen them somewhere before, no question.

"You…."

Just as I moved to part my trembling lips, my heart dropped through the floor, and my whole body began plummeting toward an abyss at a terrifying speed.

And once again, an endless dark closed over me.

How much time had passed.

I forced my heavy eyelids open, and the sharp reek of disinfectant hit my nose.

I think I had some kind of bad dream….

But the unpleasant afterimage scattered fast from the back of my mind, and soon there wasn't a scrap of it left in my head.

Well… it was probably nothing.

Brushing it off casually, looking around, the sharp reek of disinfectant tipped me off in an instant to where I was.

"Haaah…… I really do want to stop coming to the infirmary."

I stared up quietly at the pure-white infirmary ceiling — by now more familiar to me than my own bedroom's.

That was the very moment.

Slam—!

The door was thrown open like it was going to blow off its hinges.

Obviously, I figured, it'd be the kids, faces smeared with tears and snot.

"Kids, I told you not to run in the hall—"

Just as I moved to greet them the same way I always did —

"Chae Junhyeok!!"

"There he is!!"

The crowd pouring in bore no resemblance whatsoever to what I'd expected.

It was a mob of strange reporters, wielding huge cameras and microphones.

…reporters?

Before I could even work out the situation, they descended on me and ringed the bed, thrusting microphones in my face.

Click-click-click-click—!

The flashes going off like lunatics washed my vision white.

"Director — no, Vice Guild Master!! Is it true that your Hunter's second awakening was entirely thanks to Vice Guild Master's perfect calculations and theory!!!"

"Word is you've completely decoded the mechanism of second awakening with a training method that's uniquely your own genius — what in the world is that miracle secret!"

"The U.S. government has apparently offered Nest Guild as a whole a blank-check naturalization deal — do you plan to leave Korea just like that!"

"There are rumors flying that you intend to force a second awakening on all the other guild members and completely overturn the entire global Hunter ecosystem! Any word on how it feels to have pioneered the realm of the gods while non-Awakened yourself!"

Under the ear-splitting shouts and the blinding flashes, my head felt like it was about to split open.

"Uh, no, hang on. What on earth are you even—"

Inside the pandemonium that didn't give me a second to breathe, I could only sit there, dumbstruck, mouth gaping, stammering nothing.

That was when.

Whoosh—

From under my feet, a pitch-black, dense shadow rose up like an enormous snake and, in a single motion, surged over me as if to swallow me whole.

"……!"

"An Awakened! He used an ability!"

"Chae Junhyeok's gone!"

The reporters' excited shouts hit my ears just for a beat, and then my vision flipped to solid black and the market-riot noise vanished, as if it had never been.

A quiet, cozy space steeped in darkness.

Inside that shadow, I came face to face with an achingly familiar face.

"Sihyeok!"

At my call, Sihyeok came pattering over and buried himself in my arms.

"Are you okay? You were in a fight before! You aren't hurt anywhere, are you?"

Tucked against me, he shook his head without a word, then looked up at me and asked, careful.

"And you, Director…?"

"Yeah — I'm all right. Perfectly fine."

I patted him to reassure him, then, wearing a look that said I had no idea what was going on, asked,

"By the way — what on earth is all of this? Why the sudden mob of reporters…?"

"I don't really know. Just… it seemed like you were in danger, Director…."

Hang on… that means—.

I pressed a hand to my forehead and let out a deep, deep sigh.

"Kim Sihyeok. Don't tell me you've been hiding in my shadow this whole time again lately?"

At the sharp accusation, Sihyeok's shoulders stiffened up.

He pretended not to hear me, quietly looked away, and fidgeted at his innocent fingers.

"You…!"

Just as I was about to say something, exasperated, he — clearly trying to head off the lecture about to pour out — quietly peeled the curtain of shadow open a hair to show me the view outside.

Through the small crack, the infirmary was still a full-on market, packed with reporters hunting for a scoop.

Right then, Han Soeun's ringing shout rang out.

"Security, over here! There's more over here too!!!"

At her cry, heavily armed guild security barged in and began hooking the trespassing reporters under the arms and hauling them out without mercy.

"They're not roaches, are they, the way they keep crawling out. Ugh……!"

Once every last leech-like reporter had been evicted and the situation was more or less under control, Han Soeun swept her eyes around the empty infirmary and called out into the air.

"Sihyeok, are you there? They're all cleared out, you can come out now!"

At the call, Sihyeok — still holding my hand tight — slowly drew the shadow back.

The view brightened, and I was standing once again in the middle of the chaotic infirmary.

"Director!!!"

Han Soeun spotted me, eyes brimming with tears, and made to throw herself at me.

But Sihyeok, without a word, drove the floor's shadow up like a wall and cut her off, resolute.

"…huh?"

At the flatly impenetrable defense, Han Soeun blinked in surprise — and just as she did, I waved a hand to calm Sihyeok and turned to her.

"Someone explain to me what the hell happened here. There's security on-site — how did the reporters get in? And how do reporters even know about the second awakening in the first place?"

Under my questioning Han Soeun shrank like a convict caught in the act, and answered in a voice that all but crawled into her throat.

"Th-that's, um…"

Wavering, Han Soeun suddenly dropped to her knees on the floor.

"I-I'm so sorry, Director! Waaaah……!"

To summarize the explanation she poured out through her bawling: while I'd been out, she and Lee Jinwoo had, without thinking, talked about Sea-ah's second awakening in the corridor, and the conversation had leaked and been splashed across the news in a huge headline.

"We had no idea the rumor would spread this fast! We really didn't think reporters from all over the world would come piling in like this…."

"Wait — what has security been doing this whole time?"

"That's… reporters are actually sneaking in using expensive stealth artifacts. When people are dead set on getting in unseen, catching every single one is basically impossible…."

"What? Stealth artifacts?!"

My eyes flew wide, aghast.

Those things were expensive enough that even I'd hesitated before pulling the trigger — and now common reporters were using them?

At my reaction, Han Soeun snuck a wary glance at me and added, in a voice fading into a whisper,

"B-but it is a huge scoop… I mean, a second awakening… and word is she pulled it off without any near-death crisis or major hardship… so of course the reporters lost their minds."

"Haaaaaah……."

I let out a bottomless sigh and dragged both hands down my face.

A second awakening is a massive event, no question. Add up every second-awakened Awakened in the entire world and you get a bit over ten people — every single one of them a top-of-the-global-rankings monster. Which was exactly why I was trying so hard to hide it….

"Ngh!"

Just as I moved, wincing at a sudden rush of pain, to grip my throbbing right arm —

Pat-pat-pat-pat—!

From the far end of the hallway, short, urgent footsteps — the kind I knew all too well — began ringing out one after another.

"Diirector!!!!"

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