The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

"Director. Is something on your mind? You've had that look on your face for a while now."

I glanced at her.

...Can I trust her?

She'd signed the Deceiver's Contract, so betrayal was impossible.

I looked at her — eyes burning with curiosity behind her glasses.

Besides... she's way smarter than I am. Maybe she'd have some kind of answer.

After a short debate, I decided to open up.

"Ahem. Went to meet Han Jewoon yesterday. Wore me out."

"What?! The Sword Emperor Han Jewoon?"

Han Soeun jolted upright.

"Then that terror incident yesterday... you were caught up in that?"

I nodded, and her eyes lit up with curiosity.

"But — why Han Jewoon...?"

"He's coming to the institute soon. Agreed to help train the kids."

"What?!"

Han Soeun all but shrieked.

"That Han Jewoon?! Four public appearances a year, tops, and even ignores the Bureau Chief's summons — that Sword Emperor... is coming to our institute in person?!"

When I nodded without a word, her eyes... began to gleam with mania.

"My god... just how big does the Director's grand plan go...?!"

She couldn't seem to bring her excitement down for a good while, but seeing that my face was still clouded over, she tilted her head.

"But... why the grim face? Han Jewoon himself is going to work with the kids...!"

"Sure, it's a great thing. But... next month is the public evaluation. Even Han Jewoon isn't pulling off visible growth in the kids in a single month."

And on top of that — was it really okay to introduce a strange adult like Han Jewoon to children who had only just started to open up? Was this... the right call?

If anything, it could turn into more stress for them.

At my words, Han Soeun fell into thought for a moment, then her face went ah!

Her eyes flashed again with that same relentless drive to figure things out.

"If raising the kids' abilities themselves in a short timeframe is hard... then how about controlling the other external variables that affect the results first?"

"External variables?"

"Yes. Based on past data, there's a 95% probability this evaluation will be a real-combat ability assessment using virtual monsters. It's the most efficient format for showing off results, after all."

"Hm... and?"

"Then how about we start by removing the environmental stress the kids feel? First get rid of their psychological aversion to the space of the virtual reality training room itself."

"Virtual reality training room, huh..."

At that name, the hell described in the original novel came back to me.

The place where they'd hurled starving, exhausted kids into a virtual reality crawling with monsters, driving them to the brink of death to squeeze data out of them.

But... it's also a place with unbelievable potential.

This institute.

Fitting for a place with the mad goal of re-awakening Awakened, its facilities and equipment were world-class.

The virtual reality training room was no different.

A cutting-edge facility that could perfectly recreate, in virtual reality, nearly every monster humanity had ever encountered — from E-rank grunts to A-rank named.

And it wasn't just monsters.

The ocean, snowy peaks, volcanic zones with lava boiling in them.

Almost every terrain type in existence could be reproduced there, flawlessly, as data.

Literally a space that could conjure reality itself.

If the existence of this facility ever leaked outside, every guild in the world would come running at it, mouths watering.

Used well... this thing...

Out of nowhere, something I'd always said to the Sunshine class kids came back to me.

Hey, kids. When you've got a problem, don't overthink it. Just start with what you can do right now, one step at a time. Got it?

It was as if the tangle of thoughts in my head had begun to unravel.

Right. Start with what I can do right now, one thing at a time.

I firmed up my resolve and looked at Han Soeun.

"Hey, Number Two."

"Yes, Director!"

"Get One and Three in here. Right now. Starting today, we're in crisis mode."

Han Soeun snapped off a "Yes sir!" salute and, delighted, started tapping away at her handset.

Over a week had gone by since the Director got busy.

For the first few days, he'd shown up in the containment room whenever he had a moment.

But day by day, his face had gone visibly more hollow.

A data pad never left his hand, and he was always in serious discussions about something with the other researchers.

Then, from last evening on... he'd stopped coming at all.

Instead, a researcher in glasses had brought us dinner, an awkward look on his face.

"...What about the Director?"

"...Can the Director not come today either?"

At my younger siblings' questions, the researcher looked slightly troubled and said:

"The Director is too tired right now... he's asleep. So I came in his place."

At that, the little ones' small shoulders slumped visibly.

Pretending to read my book, I kept sneaking glances at my siblings.

The shiny toys, the fluffy stuffed animals — all of it lay abandoned, their owners nowhere near them.

Their owners were huddled together in a corner instead, small heads bent close in grave consultation.

"...Why isn't the Director coming...?"

Suho murmured it, his voice already close to tears.

Then Hayun, playing detective with the gravest of faces, whispered:

"Maybe... like the last time... could he be hurt somewhere again? He got hurt real bad and... that's why he can't come...!"

At that, Hajun, hiding behind her back, sucked in a tiny hic! of a breath.

Ever since the bookshelf accident, this had turned into my siblings' strange little habit — worrying like this every time the Director wasn't around.

...You idiots.

I kept my eyes fixed on the book too, but not a single letter was making it into my head.

Because I was, just a little, worried about that man.

Delinquent. Not to be trusted.

My view of him hadn't changed.

But over the last two months, the way he'd carried himself, day in and day out, was mocking that firm conviction daily.

When he'd first announced we were playing house, I'd taken it as nothing but a pretext for even more twisted abuse.

But he'd been strangely, unerringly consistent.

Under the arrogant excuse that "my dolls being in ragged condition is beneath me," he'd started by overhauling our food, clothes, and space.

The ash-gray patient gowns became soft new clothes; the horrible gray gruel, calibrated to nothing but the bare minimum calories, became warm, real food.

And he didn't stop there — he watched each of us, one by one, with real attention.

For me, books. For Yul-oppa, exercise equipment. For the little ones, a huge play space. And for Sihyeok, a cozy tepee just for him.

As though he'd looked straight into each of our hearts, he'd given each of us exactly what we most needed.

I lifted my eyes from the book and slowly took in the space we lived in.

Just two months ago, a gray prison with nothing but cold iron beds.

But now this place... was a home, full of soft carpet, books, toys, and warmth.

And it wasn't only the containment room that had changed.

I shifted my gaze to my siblings, still whispering among themselves.

The skin-and-bones faces of my siblings had filled out, soft and healthy now.

Thanks to him.

The reason my siblings — whose faces had been hollow, like dolls with dead batteries — were smiling again.

It was as if someone had taken the jewels left buried in the ash, carefully polished them, and brought back their original dazzling light.

A scene I couldn't even have imagined before he came.

For me, and for us, I had to admit — this place had really started to feel like a home.

Of course, the researchers he'd hauled in as his flunkies still grated on me.

Sure, they'd helped us out a few times in the past, but they were also adults who had treated us as test subjects.

To figure out what the man who'd brought them in was really after, I'd sounded out Han Soeun — the one I knew best of them — several times, and gotten nothing.

Far from uncovering a scheme, all I'd learned was that they hardly knew anything about the Director themselves.

If anything, it seemed they understood him even less than I did.

Maybe that was why.

As the time added up, I found myself — without realizing it — trusting him, very slowly, a little.

Not because of the new clothes he'd bought, or the lavish meals, or the flood of toys, of course.

That kind of favor could flip on a whim at any moment.

What I'd really started to trust was the look in his eyes, and his actions.

Whenever he talked to us, he'd always drop to one knee to meet us at eye level.

When the little ones ran around, worried they'd fall, he wouldn't take his eyes off them for a single second.

And the way his eyes landed on us.

That, above all else, didn't look like acting.

Because it was completely different from the empty, savage look of the delinquent who'd once shoved us into hell.

As if the shell was the same... but the soul inside it had been swapped out for a completely different person.

So I'd trusted him.

But.

That my trust would end up as just another deception... that he'd betray us like that... I never dreamed it.

The first to burst into tears was Hayun.

"Y-you said... hnngh... you said it was a playground! Why... why'd you bring us to a scary place like this again! Waaaahhh!"

Her sobs lit the fuse, and beside her, Suho broke down too with a loud wail.

He grabbed at the leg of my pants and, tears pouring down his face in fat drops, begged:

"Waaaah... Director... I'm sorry... I'll be good from now on, I'll be even better at listening... I don't wanna be hurt... waaaahh...!"

Hajun, too, could only cling to his sister's back and sob his heart out.

Sea-ah quickly hid her frightened siblings behind her and glared at me.

And in front of the kids, Cha Yul stepped forward and planted himself in my path.

His face was a mix of betrayal and hot fury.

"So playing house is over now?"

He ground his teeth and growled at me like a beast.

"You were just playing with us all along! I knew it! Filthy hypocrite bastard...!"

Even Kim Sihyeok, who I'd only just managed to coax here, had already slipped out of my arms and disappeared into a corner.

In an instant, the training room had turned into complete chaos — sobs, distrust, and hostility tangled together.

Looking at the wreck in front of me, I pressed my throbbing temples.

They were kids who'd trusted my word that it was a new place to play and followed me all the way here.

I'd expected they wouldn't like it, but I hadn't thought they'd collapse this badly just from setting foot in an empty room — no monsters, nothing yet.

Foolish. Clearly my fault.

And you called yourself a teacher.

Repeating the self-directed rebuke, I dropped to one knee in front of the kids.

"Aigh, seriously... your faces are all going to end up ugly at this rate. Enough."

I said it curtly, but I couldn't quite keep the apology out of my voice.

"Yeah. I'm sorry. What this place means to you — I didn't stop and think. My bad."

At that, the kids' crying quieted a little, but their eyes were still full of distrust as they looked at me.

"You're always stuck in that chicken-coop of a room, must feel stifling. So all I was trying to do was show you a new place. That's all."

I flashed the sniffling kids a playful grin.

"Something pretty impressive, too."

With that, I clapped my hands — crack!

In an instant, everything in the bleak gray space broke into square pixels and shivered apart.

And in its place, the scene the kids had loved that one day began to reassemble itself, piece by piece, like data.

Warm sunlight, soft grass, and a huge cherry tree — a peaceful garden.

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