The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

"Another Chae Junhyeok…?!"

"No — how the hell are there two identical people…!"

"Crazy, what's that in his hand? He's never used a weapon like that!"

Shocked cries erupted from every corner of the arena.

Another "Chae Junhyeok" with a face identical to the Emperor's — and on top of that, the odd, weathered sword in his hand.

From the panicked crowd, someone shouted, spit flying,

"Wait… is that the Doppelgänger Doll?!"

"What?! The one that just went for a record price at auction? The Emperor bought that?"

"Whoa, insane. That's Emperor class for you!"

Letting the noise wash past me, I hurriedly caught Cha Yul's eye.

An urgent signal: get out of there, now.

Cha Yul glared at me with a face that clearly had a lot to say, but stopped short when he spotted the sword in my hand.

He seemed to catch on at once — biting his lip, jaw set with frustration, he tucked and rolled back into the waiting room.

Once I'd confirmed Cha Yul had gotten safely clear, I readjusted my grip on the sword and squared off with the blind Swordsman.

Vmmm—.

As if it had picked up on my will, the sword in my hand hummed low.

At the same time, the words the sword's real owner — Han Jewoon — had spoken came back sharp and clear in my head.

The night before I came to the arena.

"Good. My condition, see…"

Wearing a satisfied smile, Han Jewoon lightly snapped his fingers and said,

"Turn Oh Taejin over to me."

"Turn him over? Why?"

"He's my guild's, so it's on me to answer for him."

Only then did it click — Oh Taejin was Bawi Guild's number two.

A senior officer of one of Korea's top guilds, sneaking in and out of an underground fight ring.

If the world caught wind of it, it was a scandal big enough to rock the entire guild.

Han Jewoon's angle — wanting Oh Taejin in his own hands so he could clean the whole thing up quietly — snapped into place immediately.

But one question still stood.

"You could just haul Oh Taejin in yourself. Corruption at that level, the guild's own rules should be plenty to purge him."

Han Jewoon let out a short sigh.

"Wish I could cut him off that clean, but… unfortunately, Oh Taejin's the previous guild master's bloodline. There are still some old snakes around who think bloodline matters more than anything."

He settled back deep into the sofa in one languid motion.

"If I openly cut Oh Taejin's head off, there'll be an uproar in the guild… so I want to carve him out as quietly and cleanly as possible."

Catching the weight of my look, he soon burst out laughing.

"Ha ha, it's fine. The guild's already in my grip. I just don't want the smallest scratch on my plans — don't lose sleep over it."

"But… I can't take Oh Taejin down."

Facing the hard fact, I drew the line.

"Say what you want, he's still an A-rank Awakened. Not someone a non-Awakened like me can handle."

At that, the corner of Han Jewoon's mouth curled up, deep and predatory.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of that part."

At the end of that quiet whisper, he unbuckled the weathered sword from his hip — the one he'd wielded like a limb in every fight — and pressed it into my hand.

"When you step out on the sand, no matter what happens, you don't let go of this sword. Grip it tight."

I was just retightening my grip on the hilt, his firm instruction ringing back in my mind, when —

[So you've come at last. The real… Chae Junhyeok.]

A low, weighty voice sounding straight inside my head.

No time even to be shocked.

Paat—!

The Swordsman's form shot down like a bolt of lightning.

A blade too fast for a non-Awakened's eyes to even react to.

Too fa—!

Just as I squeezed my eyes shut —

Kaaaang—!!!!

With an eardrum-shredding crack of air, the two blades collided savagely.

The sword in my hand had surged up on its own and perfectly deflected the Swordsman's blade.

"Hah…!"

The recoil almost tore my grip apart — I nearly dropped the sword.

But I clamped down on the hilt hard enough to turn my fingertips white.

There was no doubt — Han Jewoon, hidden somewhere in the stands, was moving the sword.

I was hanging on to the hilt for dear life, like some poor idiot strapped to a runaway rollercoaster — but the crowd's reaction was the exact opposite of what I was actually feeling.

"Wooaaaah!!! Blocked it! The Emperor parried the Swordsman's strike!"

"Crazy, look at the smooth arc of that blade! If that's not a peerless master, what is?!"

How the hell is this a peerless master?!

Inside, I was screaming loud enough to spit blood.

The crowd, thoroughly mistaking my ridiculous flailing for miraculous martial mastery, was going wild.

Kaang! Kwajik—!

Independent of my will, the sword in my hand began to trace fierce arcs on its own, pushing hard at the Swordsman.

In the split second the blades clashed and thick sparks flew —

[You are not fighting yourself, then… someone is aiding you.]

A low, weighty mental voice ringing straight inside my head.

When I flinched and looked up, the Swordsman was gracefully letting my — well, Han Jewoon's — blade slide off him, his face turned toward me.

[Do not be alarmed. I am sending my voice directly into your mind.]

"!"

[Your voice will be lost in the noise of battle regardless. Answer softly.]

He deflected my attack with ease, going on:

[I know you are the Chae Junhyeok who came to us two weeks ago. The ones who fought in this arena until now must have been different people.]

The words landed square on the mark, and my pupils shook, hard, like an earthquake was running through them.

"How…!"

[Being blind does not mean seeing nothing. At times, closed eyes see far more clearly than open ones.]

The next moment, as the Swordsman's blade split the air, a sharp line came flying — one that froze my heart solid.

[But… you, too, are not the "real" one.]

"……!!"

For an instant, it felt as though my heart had dropped clean to my feet.

As I froze there in shock, unable even to part my lips, the Swordsman's steady voice sounded through my head again.

[Why so surprised. What I would rather ask is this. It was not you who caged us in this hell — so why do you take that sin upon yourself?]

Bang—!!!

With an enormous clash of blades, a fierce sandstorm kicked up.

[You could just as easily have turned your head and looked the other way.]

Panting hard, I forced strength into my arms — trembling at their limit — through sheer will.

Because, again independent of my will, the old sword in my hand was about to surge up in another graceful arc.

In the middle of the dizzying, savage exchange — maybe because I'd been backed to the edge of a cliff — the honest feeling I'd been pushing down deep in my chest slipped out before I could stop it.

"Because I… am a teacher."

[…A teacher?]

For the first time, deep puzzlement crossed the Swordsman's face.

Damn it. Snapping to my senses late at what I'd blurted out, I scrambled to walk it back.

"Forget it. Nothing you need to know about."

[Ha ha ha! That explains it!]

But the Swordsman, as if my sad little excuse were of no interest whatsoever, burst into a broad, unrestrained laugh.

[Every one of those who fought in your place had talent overflowing to the heavens, yet their real combat experience was clearly lacking. So they were all children in your care?]

I flinched.

How on earth had he seen through the whole situation from the single word "teacher"?

[Truly magnificent—!!!]

Along with a booming mental voice that rattled my skull, the sword aura the Swordsman poured out surged explosively, as if to shred the entire underground arena.

The two blades locked ceaselessly, scattering blinding sparks.

[Then what do you intend to do from here?!]

A hair's-breadth distance where the blades kept crossing.

"I want to smash this arena to pieces and set all of you free."

[How? As things stand, Inho and I are being held hostage right now.]

…Inho?

An unfamiliar name, coming through the mental voice.

Without thinking, I followed where the Swordsman's sightless face had turned.

In the corner of the blood-drenched arena, slumped on the sand, watching our duel — the one-armed Fighter.

That's when it hit me — that man's name was Inho.

"For now… let's stall as long as we can."

In the split second the blades met, I threw across the plan running through my head.

"We end this in a draw, any way we can. Then set the terms again as one-on-one — reset the whole thing so we can fight fair, one at a time."

[…Not a bad move. I shall gladly cooperate.]

Agreeing with me, the Swordsman subtly twisted the sword's trajectory.

From that point on, up on the sands of the arena, we launched into the flashiest, most sluggish dance the world had ever seen.

Flashing sword aura, arcs crashing head-on. A grand-scale exchange with the sand whipping up in whirls!

But in truth, it was a perfect fake duel — neither of us so much as brushing the other's collar.

Lucky for us, Han Jewoon — controlling the sword — read my intent exactly.

He was putting just the right power into the sword, an exquisite, knife-edge balance where I neither dominated nor got pushed back.

Chang! Kaang—!!

As the all-show, no-substance fight dragged on, murmurs started rising even out of the frenzied stands.

"What's going on, why is this taking so long?"

"These two are dead even. This could actually end in a draw."

That was the very moment I was thinking the plan was working perfectly.

"Hey, you sons of bitches!!! Are you fucking with me?!"

Oh Taejin's snarling roar tore out from the VVIP terrace.

Trash of a human being he might have been, but apparently the A-rank Awakened title wasn't just for show.

He'd already seen straight through the fact that we were coordinating loosely and just stalling for time.

"Ha! Stall for time? You think I'll fall for a cheap trick like that? If you want to plot together, I'll just end it myself!"

That was the moment.

"Aaargh!!!"

The Fighter, slumped in the corner of the arena, threw up dark red blood and rolled on the ground.

The Swordsman, whose blade had been meeting mine, buckled at the knees with a pained groan of "Kkgh…!" and collapsed.

"…!"

I flung down the weathered sword in my hand and ran to the Swordsman.

His face, drained of blood, was already sheet-white, and his jaw was trembling under the crushing pain.

"Stop!!"

Even my shout — closer to a scream — went right past Oh Taejin.

If anything, he only kept smiling as he hauled in mana at terrifying speed.

"Hahaha! It's a thrill down to the bone! Power this thick — should've done this a long time ago!"

I dropped down beside the Swordsman thrashing on the dirt, and roughly tore his shirt open.

And I couldn't help sucking in a breath at the horrific sight it revealed.

The red jewel embedded in the Swordsman's stomach.

Around the jewel, thick blood vessels writhed grotesquely, sucking the Swordsman's mana down mercilessly, like a vacuum.

At this rate, every drop of mana would be pulled out and he'd be left a husk to wither and die.

Without stopping to think, I stretched out both hands and gripped the red jewel tight.

The only thought in my head was that I had to pry this awful thing off, one way or another.

Watching from up on the terrace, Oh Taejin let out a rancid sneer.

"Junhyeok, don't be an idiot. You think that comes off by force? I sank it into the nerve fibers with my ability — without my say-so, there's no way—"

Pop.

"…huh?"

Oh Taejin's voice — mid-madness-fueled lecture — cut off dead.

At the same moment, the Swordsman who'd been groaning in horrific pain cut off, too — like a machine with its plug yanked.

Wh-what?

Even I was thrown by how absurdly easily the jewel had come off, but there was no time to stand around wondering.

Because a little way off, I could see the Fighter — still screaming in horrific pain.

I bolted over to him and dropped to my knees.

Then gripped the red jewel embedded in his stomach and yanked.

Pop.

Along with a crisp little sound, this jewel too came right out — absurdly clean.

The Fighter, who'd been screaming for dear life and rolling on the ground, blinked, stunned, looking back and forth between his suddenly fine stomach and me.

Inside the arena, wrapped in silence —

On my two palms sat the red jewels that until moments ago had been stubbornly rooted in two men's stomachs — plucked out clean and easy, unbelievably so.

"……"

"……"

Me, the Swordsman, the Fighter, Oh Taejin on the VVIP terrace.

Even the stands went silent — an incredible stillness.

I stared blankly down at the red jewels rolling on my palms, then awkwardly lifted my head and looked at Oh Taejin.

"They… come off pretty easy, huh?"

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