The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

My head throbbed from the tangle of thoughts.

Whatever. Screw it.

I gave my head a couple of shakes and cleared the mess out.

I'd think about it later. Whether I'd looked like a lunatic or not, the damage was already done.

Since things have already gone this way, I might as well keep playing the lunatic for a while.

My mind raced.

Just from what I'd seen in the control room, it was clear: for all the weight the title "Director" carried, Chae Junhyeok was a figurehead here with no real power.

Everyone found him a nuisance and openly mocked him.

It was only when he'd grabbed a fire extinguisher and gone on a rampage that they'd even pretended to listen.

What if I suddenly went back to being some mild-mannered, normal person?

Obviously, I'd get walked all over even more, treated as even more of a joke.

And a sudden personality shift would only raise suspicion.

For now... keep up the maniac act.

With my mind made up, I followed the researcher in silence, and before I knew it we were at the infirmary.

The researcher stepped inside and pointed to the bed at the very back.

"Director. Please... please lie down over here."

I walked to the bed he'd indicated and carefully laid the child down.

"W-why the toy first? Director, you're the one who's more urgent—!"

Before he could finish, I whipped my head around and glared at him.

"...Toy?"

Under my glare, his shoulders jerked so hard he looked like he was about to have a fit.

"Yes? Ah, that's — y-you always... called the kids toys, Director... so I just—"

Hah. Chae Junhyeok. This guy really is—

"...Fine. Never mind me. The t-toy first — treat him, I mean, fix him."

His shoulders flinched at the cold edge in my voice.

"Ah... yes! S-sorry!"

He all but fled to the medical cabinet and came back with a tube of blue gel and clean clothes for both me and the child.

With trembling hands, he began carefully applying the gel to the child's wounds. Wherever the gel touched, torn and scraped skin knitted shut in an instant, as if time were being rewound.

Only after I'd confirmed that all of the child's injuries were gone did I accept the same healing gel he held out for me.

When I applied the same gel to my own wounds, the torn skin closed up almost instantly.

Once my wounds were more or less closed, I finally noticed the state of my lab coat — soaked through with blood.

The wounds must have been deeper than I'd thought; the once-pristine white coat was drenched red.

Good god... I lost this much blood?

Amazed I hadn't fainted from blood loss, I headed into the small shower stall in the corner of the infirmary.

Only after washing off the sticky blood and changing into fresh clothes did I finally start to feel like myself again.

When I stepped back out, the researcher asked cautiously,

"Um... Director. Should I take this toy... back to the containment room where he was before?"

Containment room?

The words snapped me back to attention.

Right. Cha Yul wasn't the only one here. This place had... the other characters from the novel too.

To see the characters from my favorite novel with my own eyes!

My pulse quickened a little, but I also knew the horrific tragedies they were about to go through, so I couldn't just be excited.

I pushed the pounding in my chest back down and pulled the lunatic-Chae-Junhyeok mask over my face again.

"I'm going to see them myself. Show me the way— I mean, lead on."

I lifted the unconscious Cha Yul back into my arms and jerked my chin at the researcher.

It hurt to look at how peacefully he was sleeping — I wanted to leave him on the infirmary bed to rest, but there was no telling what might be done to him while I was gone.

As we left the infirmary and walked down the corridor, I glanced at the name tag on the researcher's coat.

[Nest Research Institute — Researcher: Lee Jinwoo]

Lee Jinwoo, huh.

I quickly ran through the novel in my head.

An unfamiliar name.

But that was actually a good thing.

In the original — especially in the institute arc — every researcher who got named was human garbage, without exception. Chae Junhyeok included...

Swallowing my relief, I rolled the name around in my mouth a few times.

Lee Jinwoo. Lee Jinwoo...

Once I'd said it enough times to lock it in, I spoke up.

"Mr. Lee Jin— I mean, Lee Jinwoo."

At the sound of his own name from my mouth, he jumped as if he'd been electrocuted.

The look on his face said it had never once crossed his mind that the Director might know his name.

"Y-yes?! D-Director!"

He looked even more skittish than I'd expected, so I softened my voice a little.

"This kid... how old is he?"

"Huh? Ah, you mean the toy? According to the profile... he's ten this year."

Ten.

Cha Yul was eight when he got dragged into the lab. And in the novel, he escapes ten years later — at eighteen.

Which meant there were still eight more years to go before this hell would end.

Eight years.

For a moment my vision blurred and dizziness swept over me.

All those kids I'd sent off from kindergarten into elementary school.

Their little backs — fresh out of kindergarten, backpacks nearly as big as they were, holding their mothers' hands as they headed off to school — overlapped in my mind with the Cha Yul in my arms.

Third grade, at most... an age for whining that you don't want to do your homework, for running to someone crying because you fought with a friend.

And this tiny child was supposed to endure eight more years of this abuse?

My arms tightened around him without my meaning to.

I can't let things play out the way they did in the novel. No way.

But willpower alone wasn't enough.

To flip the board, I couldn't do it alone — I'd need someone to be my hands and feet.

I studied Lee Jinwoo's back as he walked ahead of me.

"You... how long have you been here?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm new — I'm just three months in!"

Three months.

That was shorter than I'd expected, and I felt a rush of relief.

If it's only been three months, he probably hasn't picked a side yet.

Earlier in the control room, when everyone else had openly mocked Chae Junhyeok, he'd been the only one who'd looked away.

He might not be exactly on my side, but at least he wasn't in league with them.

"Good — I mean, good. From now on you're going to help— no, you're going to be at my beck and call."

"Huh? What? What?!"

I'm sorry. You must not want to be an errand boy for a Chae Junhyeok with no power and a foul temper. But you're all I've got.

Lee Jinwoo practically screamed, but I forced myself to ignore his reaction.

"It's not hard. Just do what I say and it'll be fi— it'll be fine."

I gave his shoulder a shove and added one more thing.

"And... you'd do well to forget who I was up till now. Everything's about to change."

I'll still be playing the lunatic, but I'll try to be a little better to you, Mr. Lee Jinwoo...

While I was making apologies and promises that couldn't possibly reach him, Lee Jinwoo swallowed dryly and nodded.

"Ah... yes! Understood!"

"Good. Counting on— don't let me down."

After walking for a good while, we finally reached the [Containment Room] at the very end of the hall.

I was looking at Lee Jinwoo to have him open the door when—

"D-Director! One moment, please!"

Lee Jinwoo hurriedly stepped in front of me.

"The... toys... they're basically ticking time bombs. Every one of them except Subject 04, the healer, has a power-suppression collar on, but please be careful, just in case."

My brow furrowed without my meaning to.

Treating kids like ticking time bombs isn't enough — they've got restraints on their necks too?

I bit my lip without realizing.

"So what, I'm supposed to hide behind you and just watch?"

"N-no! Director! It's just protocol—"

"Enough."

I cut him off.

"I'll handle it. Just open the doo— just open it."

He couldn't say another word; he placed his hand on the panel beside the door.

[Researcher Lee Jinwoo — authenticated.]

Shhwsssh—

The heavy door parted to either side.

Okay... this is it. I'm finally meeting them.

My heart was pounding. I swallowed dryly and stepped through the doorway.

The first thing to greet me was a massive glass wall filling my view.

Through it, the inside of the containment room where the children were kept was fully visible.

The whole place was cold, sterile white on every side, like some heartless laboratory out of a movie.

The artificial lights on the ceiling poured out a sickly, pure-white glare, as if refusing to permit a single shadow.

Not a single book, not one toy — nothing but a toilet in the corner and hard metal cots bolted to the walls.

And scattered helplessly through that lifeless space were five children, like faded dolls.

The moment I faced that devastating sight, ice water was thrown over the giddy fanboy in me.

These weren't the heroes I'd loved, the heroes I'd cheered on.

This... is where the protagonist... where these kids live?

It was worlds away from the Sunshine class, always noisy with the sound of children's laughter.

As if in a trance, I approached the huge pane of reinforced glass.

The scattered children came into sharper focus.

On the cot at the very back, two identical silver-haired children were leaning into each other for warmth, sleeping fitfully; on the cot next to theirs, a brown-haired child had turned to face the wall, murmuring quietly to himself.

On another cot, a girl with deep navy-blue hair sat with her arms wrapped around her knees. Her empty eyes were fixed on nothing, but strangely, they were pointed toward where the other children were.

And last, an ash-haired boy was curled in the shadow beside a cot in the darkest corner of the room, not moving at all.

There was no trace of life in any of them. It looked less like rest than like robots with their power cut.

In the novel, their suffering had been a single line — but the horror in front of me was worse than anything I'd dared to imagine.

Hah...

Looking at these children, the past-me who'd gotten a little thrilled at the thought of meeting the stars of his favorite novel now made me sick with shame.

I had no idea by what strange twist of fate I'd ended up inside this novel.

But now that it had happened, what I had to do was clear.

When you think about it, nothing's changed. My goal here is exactly the same as when I was a kindergarten teacher.

To teach these children to grow strong enough to protect themselves, and — above all — to grow up right. And when the appointed time came...

To graduate them safely out of this hellhole.

And that was also the road to saving myself.

Chae Junhyeok, in the novel, met a miserable end at Cha Yul's hands.

There was only one way to avoid that horrific bad ending.

If I raise them right and help them escape, they won't kill Chae Junhyeok — I mean, won't kill me — the way they did in the novel.

I shifted Cha Yul in my arms once more, resolved: I would raise them, for my own survival.

"Newbie."

"Y-yes? Yes!"

I jerked my chin toward the boy curled in the shadow beside the cot.

"That one — the ash-haired kid, start there. Tell me his name, age, ability, and intake date, in that order — no, rattle it off."

"Huh?"

Lee Jinwoo hesitated for a beat.

"Um... Director. Do you mean Subject 03?"

"Yes. I don't have time — right now."

His shoulders jumped at my urging, and he immediately fired off:

"Subject 03, Kim Sihyeok! Age eight, ability is B-rank shadow manipulation. He can use shadows to conceal himself or shape them at will to attack or bind a target! Intake was six months ago!"

I silently turned my head and looked over the other children in turn.

Lee Jinwoo picked up on what I wanted with uncanny speed and started reading off the children's profiles in the order my gaze landed.

"Subject 02, Lee Sea-ah! Age nine, B-rank barrier user! Generates a shield that can completely block physical impact! Intake, ten months ago!"

"The one lying over there is Subject 04, Park Suho! Age six, B-rank life-force transfer! A rare healing-type ability — he burns his own life force to rapidly regenerate someone else's injuries! Intake, five months ago!"

"Last, the silver-haired twins — Subjects 05 and 06, Seo Hajun and Seo Hayun! Age five, conditional A-rank vector-control users — the ability only activates when they're holding hands! Both entered three months ago! They can directly act on vector values like the direction or speed of any object in sight—"

Huh...?

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