The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

Behind Oh Taejin stood Gu Sangmin — the man in the same gaudy leopard-print shirt he'd worn in the lobby.

"Come on, now. Last time you played it so lofty, like you'd never set foot in this place again. Would've been nice to get a heads-up. I'd have come along."

The tone was smooth, but the eyes running over me flickered with a dank, sunken killing intent.

His gaze slid to the gladiators sprawled on the floor.

"Ungrateful little shits, aren't they? Who got you back to work? Where do you get off baring your teeth at anyone?"

The air in the dungeon froze in an instant.

Eyes that had been blazing with ferocious hatred a moment ago went pale with sheer terror at a single word from him.

Terror…?

Not simple loathing — something else was mixed in — and my eyes narrowed.

Oh Taejin extended one hand with a graceful flick, and the red jewel embedded in the Fighter's stomach flared with an uncanny blood-red glow.

"Krrgh — aaaagh—!!"

The Fighter's color drained visibly, and an agonized scream tore out of him.

That jewel…!

That vile jewel embedded in the gladiators' navels.

It came to me — it was the same blood-red jewel that had been drifting around Oh Taejin when we'd first crossed paths in the lobby.

I'd taken it for a simple bludgeon — but here it was, drawing mana out of them on top of that.

I understood it in my gut.

Just getting the gladiators out from behind these bars wouldn't be enough to make them truly free.

Not until those hideous jewels were destroyed would they ever be out of Oh Taejin's grip.

"So, what brings you all the way down here? Our great and mighty Director?"

At Oh Taejin's sneering question, I answered in a cold, quiet voice.

"Release them."

"What?"

"Every last one of these people — let them go, now."

The damp, acrid air of the dungeon went strangely still.

The gladiators, trembling in terror a moment ago, had eyes gone round as saucers, and the owner behind me had his mouth open, as if he didn't trust his ears.

Oh Taejin's brow twisted grotesquely.

"Let them go? What kind of bullshit is that? You're the one who put collars on these bastards and set them on each other in the first place."

"It stopped being fun."

I put on a bored look and answered him.

"Play with a toy long enough, you get sick of it. Just let them go."

A heavy silence settled over the basement.

Oh Taejin stared at me without a word, and I met that stare in kind, silent.

The suffocating stillness stretched on.

"…pfhaha!"

Then, splitting the silence, Oh Taejin doubled over and burst into a fit of manic laughter.

The grotesque sound of it rang around the basement walls for what felt like forever.

"Ha… haaah… Junhyeok. You for real? You gone completely crazy?"

Wiping a tear from the corner of his eye, Oh Taejin took a chilling step forward, right up to my face, killing intent flashing off him.

Behind me, I caught Kang Taemin flinch.

"That vicious little shit Chae Junhyeok, granting mercy to some slaves out of the blue? Deeply moving. The press keeps yapping about the SSS-Rank Kindergarten Teacher, so you actually want to be one now? Or are you pivoting straight into sainthood while you're at it?"

"Whether I go saint on a whim or not is none of your business. Cut the crap and let them go."

The tension between us crackled in the air, throwing sparks.

Just as the standoff was drawn taut to its snapping point, Oh Taejin let out a scoff and gave a small shrug.

"Well… technically you're the one who signed the contracts with them, so I guess your word's the one that stands. But, you know…"

The corner of Oh Taejin's mouth curled up into a demon's grin.

"I don't feel like letting them go. And embedding the jewels in their stomachs? You signed off on that too, back when we did it."

"Kurrrgh!"

"Aaaaagh!!"

All twelve gladiators locked inside the cell coughed up blood in unison and crumpled to the floor.

The red jewels embedded in their stomachs pulsed with a grotesque, vivid blood-red, on the verge of bursting.

"While you were staying away from Icarus and playing the saint, I'm the one who fed them, clothed them, kept them running. Perfect little mana batteries who hand over their strength just by sitting there — why the hell would I go and let them go?"

"…If it's money you need, I'll pay whatever you want."

"Ha! Junhyeok, what do you take me for? You think I'm doing this because I'm short on cash?"

Oh Taejin snorted, mouth curled in disdain, and crooked a finger.

He strolled leisurely up to the bars and looked down at the gladiators, coughing blood and curled on the floor, with greedy eyes.

"Sure, I know how loaded you are. But money's a bore in this scene, isn't it? The high of watching Awakened fight each other with their lives on the line — that kind of raw entertainment, you can't buy at any price. So why the hell would I give it up because you said so?"

He tapped the bars lightly, then spun around to face me.

"But…"

Then, as if bestowing an enormous favor, he continued in a sly voice.

"Still, we were friends once. For your face, Junhyeok, I'll give you a shot. Entertain me more than they do… and I might reconsider letting them go."

"…entertain?"

Oh Taejin's eyes glittered with keen, thrilled madness.

"Right. Say… you fight one of those Awakened one-on-one down there. And win. That kind of entertainment?"

That was when it happened.

Zzzzt—!

The old fluorescent tubes overhead crackled and flickered, and the long shadows thrown across the walls churned as if they were alive.

"…what the hell?"

At the sudden anomaly, Oh Taejin, Gu Sangmin — everyone — flinched and looked around.

A suffocating hush fell — but the churning shadows soon settled, as if nothing had happened.

Just a flicker from the basement's unstable voltage, then.

Shaking off the uneasy feeling, I let out an incredulous scoff.

"You kidding me? Talk sense. I'm a non-Awakened without a scrap of mana. They're Awakened."

The gap between Awakened and non-Awakened wasn't a matter of simple fighting ability.

It was closer to a fundamental difference of species.

To an Awakened, cradling mana in a transcendent body, a non-Awakened was just an ant underfoot.

Even at my protest, Oh Taejin merely shrugged, unruffled.

"Hey, I'm not forcing you. Don't feel like it, walk away. Doesn't cost me a thing."

At the taunt, I bit down hard on my lip and shifted my eyes back to the cell.

Maybe because they'd just had a big chunk of their mana drained, the gladiators looked even more haggard than a moment ago, and their breathing had gone ragged.

"…Give me time to think about it."

"Bahaha! You serious? Chae Junhyeok, going toe-to-toe with an Awakened?"

Oh Taejin doubled over laughing, holding his stomach, until he had to wipe away tears.

"Fine. Take all the time you want. Blow all that filthy money of yours on S-rank artifacts, pack in weapons, whatever you want. I'll be here every day, so come back when you've made up your mind."

I gave a silent nod, and without wasting any more time, walked out of Icarus and returned to the institute.

Under normal circumstances the kids would come tumbling out shouting "Direektuh!" like puppies, but there was no sign of them.

The interior was still as a tomb — odd, but for once, actually convenient.

I sent Kang Taemin off too and shut myself alone in the Director's office.

I dropped into the chair, scrubbed my face dry with both hands, and let out a deep sigh.

A one-on-one death match against an Awakened.

Could I win a fight like that with this body?

…no. Impossible.

I didn't know the exact rank, but either way the opponent was an Awakened.

Meanwhile the current Chae Junhyeok was a zero-muscle wet noodle whose only exercise was breathing — didn't even come up to the average grown man's baseline strength.

Damn it. If I'd known this was coming, I'd have thrown in a few squats along the way!

Ugh… what to do.

Should I just take Oh Taejin's advice and load up on artifacts?

Some kind of trick I could pull to eke out a win?

Grasping at straws, I logged into the online auction site I knew.

At that same hour, in the Sunshine Room.

"Sihyeok!"

"How'd it go?!"

The moment the door opened, the kids came flying at him like lightning.

But at Sihyeok's side, there was an unexpected guest in tow.

"Huh? …why'd you bring this uncle?"

Every gaze in the room swung to a single point.

Bound head to foot in Sihyeok's inky shadow — Kang Taemin.

Though tied up, Kang Taemin himself didn't seem to have any intention of resisting; he just stood there quietly.

Sihyeok's face was somber as he spoke, short.

"Today's all I could get… so I brought him."

That quiet, weighted little sentence — nothing like his usual self.

The kids knew instantly.

Something too enormous for Sihyeok to explain had happened.

Tense, the kids' eyes all swung to Kang Taemin.

Looking down at the little ones ringed around him like a pack of predators, Kang Taemin let out a small sigh.

"I cannot speak freely about the Director's affairs."

"Ehhh?! What's that supposed to mean! Talk right now!"

"Something happened to the Director, didn't it?!"

Just as the kids started snapping at him in a wave of protest, Sea-ah stepped forward and cut through the noise at a stroke.

"You want to protect the Director too, sir."

Kang Taemin's shoulders stiffened.

"You know as well as we do that if things keep going the way they are, the Director's going to get hurt. If you can't protect him, we will. We'll keep it a secret — just tell us what happened, right now."

Kang Taemin was torn.

A request from the kids the master prized above his own life.

If the Director found out, there was no question he'd fly off the handle, refusing to drag the kids into anything dangerous.

But…

"…"

His own need not to lose his master was just as raw.

In the end, he broke, with a small sigh.

"I can tell you… but it may be an unpleasant story, hard to hear."

Even at the careful warning, the kids scoffed and shook their heads, firm.

"It's fine! We already know how much of a bad guy the Direektuh used to be back in the day."

"That's right! It's not the past that matters, it's the present, we were told! So hurry up and tell us!"

Under the steady weight of their eyes, Kang Taemin finally gave a nod and slowly began.

The horrific atrocities being carried out at Icarus. Oh Taejin's vicious hostage-taking. And the absurd condition that the Director fight the Awakened one-on-one.

He softened it as much as he could, but the kids' faces churned through one emotion after another as they listened.

Shock left them pale, then anger burned them red, and by the end they were biting down hard on their lips in sorrow and pity.

"…so, to sum it up."

When the story ended, Sea-ah bit out coldly,

"The Director's about to throw himself on the fire again to answer for the past."

Kang Taemin gave a heavy nod.

In that instant, the patience Hayun had been forcing down blew like a burnt fuse.

"That Direektuh — I swear!!"

Hayun bolted, seething, for the door.

Panicked, Hajun and Suho went white and flung themselves at her arms, clinging on for dear life.

"Noona! No!"

"Don't get mad, Hayun! If you storm in there now, he'll see through the whole plan!"

"Let go! He's gonna go get himself hurt alone again! Stupid Direektuh!!"

While Hayun thrashed against Hajun and Suho, Yul was coolly working the situation through.

"Knowing that guy, he'll take the deal for sure. Trying to win somehow — probably eyeing artifacts. He's shopping right now, guaranteed."

"Yul's right."

Sea-ah nodded firmly.

"We have to figure out our own way to protect the Director. And get those people locked up in there out too."

"But… how?"

At Suho's hesitant question, every kid in the room sank into deep thought.

However strong they'd gotten, safely slipping twelve people off the leash Oh Taejin was holding was another problem entirely.

That was when Hayun — still thrashing in Hajun and Suho's grip — sprang up.

"Let's ashk the Guild Mashter!"

"Guild Master…?"

"Yeah! He helped ush before, sho he'll totally help us again!"

While the kids stood there, thrown, Hayun scampered over to Sea-ah and dug the device out of her pocket.

Without a moment's hesitation, she jabbed at the familiar number and set the connection ringing.

Beep — beep — beep —

The dial tone rang a few times, and then a man's voice came through — sly, and at the same time carrying the overwhelming ease of a mountain.

[Hmm? Why are my little ones calling me instead of coming back?]

It was Han Jewoon.

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