The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

The plan the kids had put their heads together and hammered out was almost aggressively simple.

Wearing a ten-years-older body and Chae Junhyeok's face, fight in the Director's place!

And rescue the other Awakened locked up down there!

"Okay, listen up."

Sea-ah stood in the middle of the Sunshine Room, cleared her throat, and set the tone.

"First off, the ones doing the actual fighting will be me, Yul-oppa, and Sihyeok. Just us three."

"Whaaat?! Why?! We wanna go too! We're strong too!"

Hayun sprang up and down in furious protest, but Sea-ah pushed back, calm and logical.

"Even in your ten-years-older forms, your builds would be borderline. And you and Hajun have to keep holding hands to use your ability at all. Suho's a healer, so a one-on-one death match's just wrong for him from the start."

"More than anything — only the Director and Kang Taemin-mister walking into Icarus is what looks natural. A pack of little kids piling in together, we'd get turned away at the door in a heartbeat."

Against the airtight logic, Hayun and Hajun stuck their lips out in a pout.

"Uggh… we wanted to be helpful to the Direektuh too…"

Sea-ah went over to the sulking little ones and gently stroked their heads.

"It's not that you're not strong enough. Just leave the on-the-ground part to Onnie and Oppa for now. What we need from you is to hold in the car and stay ready for anything. Okay?"

"…Yeah. Okay."

The little ones nodded, reluctant, and pulled back; Sea-ah turned to Yul and Sihyeok.

"Right. Then the three of us… let's get down to laying out the plan."

The three pairs of eyes gleamed, steely.

That evening, in front of the derelict building that served as Icarus's entrance.

Packed shoulder-to-shoulder inside the Director's black SUV, the little ones were holding their breath.

"All right. Today's my turn."

Sea-ah declared it, resolute.

"We're not going in swinging today. I'll just get a read on the place, negotiate a few rules with Oh Taejin, and come back — so everyone sit tight and wait here quietly."

The kids nodded, eyes half worried, half trusting.

Sea-ah drew a deep breath and pressed the pocket watch's button.

Fwoosh—!

Light burst, and Sea-ah's body shot up all at once into her ten-years-older frame.

Then she lifted the hand mirror and briefly angled it at the Chae Junhyeok hearing footage playing on the device, then flipped it around to her own face.

Shhhrrp—

As the features rippling like water settled into place, the kids let out muffled gasps.

"Whoaaa…!!!"

"Amazing! It's really the Director!!"

At the kids' fervent oohing and aahing, Sea-ah checked the mirror too and smiled, satisfied.

Chae Junhyeok to the letter.

Sea-ah quickly set the one-hour timer on her smartwatch, then pulled a roomily-cut black cloak down low over her head.

Ten-years-older body or not, her frame was still smaller and finer-lined than Chae Junhyeok's, so a heavy garment to disguise the silhouette was a must.

Once she'd slipped on a pair of height-boosting shoes on top of that, a passably convincing silhouette was complete.

Sea-ah cleared her throat and, to perfection, copied Chae Junhyeok's signature prickly, furrowed brow.

"Shall we go in, Number Three?"

Even the low, dropped voice was Chae Junhyeok, dead-on.

Kang Taemin, who'd watched the entire transformation unfold with his eyes shaking violently in their sockets, soon gave a silent nod.

They climbed to the rooftop, dropped through, and pushed into Icarus; the pounding beat, the reek of alcohol, and the crowd sunk in hedonism hit them all at once.

The little ones — over my dead body do they ever set foot in here.

Just as Sea-ah, brow tight, was picking her way forward, careful —

"Junhyeok!!!"

Someone came sprinting over calling out for the Director, tone frantic.

Rippling ash-grey long hair.

Sea-ah placed him in a heartbeat.

The owner of Icarus — the one Kang Taemin had described for her.

Sea-ah instantly swapped her face over to Chae Junhyeok's signature look — the arrogant, bratty one he wore for outsiders.

"Oh Taejin — he inside?"

"He's inside, yeah… but you're not seriously going through with this, are you? You're non-Awakened and they're Awakened! You keep this up, someone's really going to get killed!"

Dead-white, the owner grabbed Sea-ah's arm to hold her back.

This man… is he actually worried? Genuinely worried about the Director?

Sea-ah was thrown for a beat, but with the one-hour timer ticking, she couldn't afford to dawdle.

She batted the owner's hand off, cold.

"Enough. Lead the way."

At her firm stance, the owner gave a what-can-you-do shrug and led her through.

Soon the heavy door of the VVIP room swung open, and a man with white-tipped hair, sprawled back on a lavish sofa, came into view.

That man — that's Oh Taejin…!

While Sea-ah observed her opponent sharply, Oh Taejin swirled the wine in his glass and drawled,

"So, Junhyeok. Made up your mind?"

Oh Taejin's easy eye ran over Sea-ah — and stopped abruptly on her right arm.

"Hmm? That scar of yours… you got rid of it?"

Damn it!

Sea-ah's heart dropped.

Right — the Director has a scar on his right arm…!

A cold sweat broke out, but Sea-ah scrubbed every trace of alarm from her face and let out a scornful little snort.

"Ha! How long did you think I'd walk around with that ugly thing on me?"

"Hm, fair enough… for you, wiping a scar like that off is nothing. Called in an S-rank healer?"

Thankfully, Oh Taejin nodded without any real suspicion.

Before the topic could go any further, Sea-ah hurried on to the point.

"I'm here to accept your offer."

"…what?"

Oh Taejin's eyes went wide, then he burst into rolling laughter.

"Bahaha! You really have gone crazy, Junhyeok? You're going to fight an Awakened?"

"In exchange, I have three conditions."

Sea-ah cut through Oh Taejin's laughter, cold, and rattled off the pre-drafted conditions.

"First: no restrictions of any kind on artifact use during the fight."

A groundwork line — so that when Sea-ah, Sihyeok, and Yul used their real abilities in the arena later, it could all be chalked up to artifact power.

"Second: every time an opponent goes down, the jewel is destroyed in front of my eyes, on the spot. And custody of that person is transferred to me."

"Third: before and after each fight, I wait alone in the waiting room and meet no one. Once I confirm the jewel is destroyed, I leave immediately. Cleanup falls to Kang Taemin and the owner."

At the third condition Oh Taejin's brow tightened briefly, but he soon wrote it off as another one of Chae Junhyeok's usual eccentricities and gave an amused laugh.

"Well… no amount of artifact-plating's going to win you a one-on-one, but sure, all three are yours. That everything?"

Instead of answering, Sea-ah drew a sheet of parchment from inside her coat and tossed it onto the table.

The contract artifact Kang Taemin had dug out of the Director's office — the [Deceiver's Contract].

"So there's no going back on your word — sign."

"Ha! Thorough as always. Fine, whatever."

Oh Taejin picked up a quill and was about to sign when his eyes flashed and the pen stopped.

"Hold up. Adding one condition. Only fair I get something out of it too, right?"

Oh Taejin leaned forward and whispered, devilish,

"If you lose… those slaves are mine forever. You don't get a say in what happens to them, and the contracts you've got on them come straight over to me. How's that sound?"

The instant she lost, those lives would pass entirely into Oh Taejin's hands.

At the suddenly heavier terms Sea-ah flinched, and bit down hard on her lip.

But that razor mind of hers stripped the emotion out fast and ran the calculation, cold.

Even if the Director holds the contracts, so long as those red jewels sit in their bellies, they're Oh Taejin's slaves in everything but name.

Her cold judgment made, Sea-ah gave a firm nod.

In that instant, the [Deceiver's Contract] glowed to life, announcing the absolute pact had been struck.

"Bahaha! Yes, excellent! We start tomorrow, first thing!"

Eyes flashing manic, Oh Taejin rounded on the owner beside him and barked,

"Hey! Owner! Get the word out tonight — tomorrow night, Icarus hosts the biggest, most unprecedented event in its history! And the man in the arena is going to be Chae Junhyeok himself! Ha!"

That was when it happened.

The smartwatch on Sea-ah's wrist buzzed — a short, discreet tremor.

Thirty minutes gone already…!

Everything to be won here was won.

"Nothing else, right? I want to look over the waiting room and the arena layout for tomorrow. Show me."

Escorted by the owner, still trying to talk her out of it every step of the way, Sea-ah swept the surroundings with a razor gaze.

Bringing her signature eye and mind to bear, she etched the whole layout of the enormous Colosseum into her head without a hair of error — the blind spots of every security camera, the emergency exits, the shortest path from the entrance to the waiting room.

By the time she'd finished her recon and threw herself back into the SUV, Sea-ah's timer had exactly three minutes left.

An infiltration in which every step and every second had been perfectly controlled.

Pop—!

With a light burst of air, Sea-ah was back to her own young self, and she turned to the kids, flapping around inside her now-baggy grown-up clothes.

"Here's the plan. Going in, we use Sihyeok's ability to hide inside Kang Taemin-mister's shadow. Then, in the waiting room, right before it starts, we switch forms with the artifacts. Within the hour we fight, we win, we confirm the jewel is destroyed, and we get out — immediately."

Sea-ah's eyes were sharper and firmer than they'd ever been.

"Any delay at all and the identity's blown — the whole plan collapses. Not a second wasted. Understood?"

At the fierce briefing, the kids swallowed hard and nodded firmly.

"We can do it! We'll protect the Director!"

"We'll protect him!!"

The kids piled their little fists together in the middle for a fighting! cheer, and on the drive back to the institute, the tension had eased enough that curious looks began creeping onto their faces.

"Come to think of it… what do you think the Direektuh's up to right now?"

"The Guild Master said he'd make him rest properly while he had the chance… hope he's really taking it easy, hehe."

The kids' innocent laughter warmed the inside of the car as it ran through the night streets.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Oh for god's sake!!!!"

Blood boiling, I slammed the heavy mahogany chair I'd been swinging straight to the floor.

The sound of my own heavy breathing filled the silent suite.

Whatever had been rigged into it, ramming a solid chair through the panoramic window hadn't put so much as a hairline crack in the glass.

I'd been locked in this gilded cage for two days now.

Top-shelf meals rolled in on schedule, but with the blood boiling in me, no way any of it was going down my throat.

This is no time for this! I have to get out!

Every second my hands and feet were tied here, those gladiators were being bled in real time.

The picture in my head made sitting still impossible.

I pounded on the sealed door and kicked it, hard enough to raise blood on my knuckles.

If I'd known this was coming, I'd have at least brought artifacts.

That my head had gone red at something happened to Teacher — that I'd bolted out empty-handed in a panic — was a stupidity I regretted down to the marrow.

"Ha, ha…"

How long had I been thrashing around like that.

In the end, out of stamina, drenched in sweat, I collapsed onto the king-size bed.

Staring up at the ceiling, dragging in rough breaths — that was when it came.

[My poor Junhyeok. Got it all out of your system now?]

Han Jewoon's easy, indolent voice from beyond the door.

I sprang up like a released spring and bolted for it.

"Han Jewoon! Open this door right now! You want to keep on wearing that friend label you love throwing around — you open this thing, right now!!"

At my snarl, animal, an exaggerated sigh came from beyond the sealed door.

[Scaaary~ Our Junhyeok's really got his hackles up. I don't want to lock my precious friend up either, but what can I do? Your little ones begged me so earnestly. My hands were tied.]

"You son of a…!"

[Instead —!]

Just as I was winding up to kick the door apart again, Han Jewoon's bright voice cut me off.

[On the condition that you eat every meal we send in like a good boy and rest up properly — I'll throw in a very special VIP viewing seat.]

"What are you talking about?! VIP viewing seat, what."

[The place you're so desperately worried about right now is running a very entertaining show. Meaning: I'll let you watch it, live.]

Ping—!

His words had barely finished when an enormous screen filling one wall came on by itself, blazing white.

Brow tight, I glared at the image forming on the display.

And the moment the noise cleared and the focus sharpened.

"Huh…?"

A dumbfounded sound slipped out of my mouth.

The place being live-streamed on the screen was, of all things, Icarus's Colosseum.

As the crowd's frenzied howls — loud enough to blow the speakers apart — flooded the room, my eyes locked onto the single figure standing at the center of the blood-red sand.

A silhouette wrapped tight in an oversized coat.

Under the pin-spot lighting of the arena, that unmistakable dazzling blond, catching the light.

And when the broadcast camera finally zoomed in on that person's face, filling the screen, I had to doubt my own eyes.

The person standing there was, unmistakably, me.

No — more precisely, someone wearing Chae Junhyeok's face stood there at ease, a cynical little smile at the corner of his mouth.

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