The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

Seo Jihyeok couldn't believe what he'd just seen. Not a bit of it.

A virtual monster with physical force had attacked the Director of the institute.

At the sight of that, an eight-year-old Awakened had gone into an overloaded state.

The Director, swept up in that overload, had reappeared — and, as a non-Awakened, weathered a B-rank monster's attacks.

The Director had gone back into the shadow, quieted the test subject's overload, and used that same power to destroy the monster.

Does any of this make any sense?

Of course, that shadow-wielding eight-year-old Awakened made just as little sense.

With that kind of destructive power and versatility, you could rate him A-rank without stretching a thing.

But the real monster was someone else entirely.

Chae Junhyeok — that guy is completely insane, isn't he?

People in this line of work knew, right down to the bone, just how dangerous an overloaded Awakened was.

A horrific incident from ten years ago flashed through Seo Jihyeok's mind.

The Daegu Hunter Overload Incident.

Trying to stop one single B-rank Hunter who'd gone into an overloaded state, three A-rank Hunters had been torn to shreds. After that incident, there was only one recognized response to an overload.

Evacuate immediately. Neutralize from range.

But Chae Junhyeok was different.

He'd walked straight into the middle of an overload on his own two feet.

And a non-Awakened — no powers, no weapon — had put a B-rank's overload to rest with nothing but his bare body.

He risked his life over one test subject?

No way. There was no way the man Chae Junhyeok was that sentimental.

Which left one of two answers.

Either he's completely out of his mind.

Seo Jihyeok swallowed dryly without meaning to.

Or he had every bit of this situation calculated from the very start.

No matter how he turned it over, the first felt unlikely.

Every move that man made, in the end, ran in whatever direction served him best.

That wasn't the kind of coincidence madness could produce.

So then — from where... how far is any of this his plan?

Letting himself be attacked? The test subject's overload too?

And... how the hell did he calm a B-rank Awakened's overload with his bare body?

When it came to using his head, Seo Jihyeok had the confidence that he took a back seat to no one.

But this man Chae Junhyeok — he couldn't understand him, and he couldn't predict him.

The helplessness of coming up against an overwhelming genius.

It was crushing his pride, mercilessly.

And Seo Jihyeok wasn't the only one feeling it.

He turned his head and looked around.

Every researcher in the control room was staring at the training-room screen, hollowed-out, as if the soul had gone out of them.

The entire central control room — a place where only the country's most celebrated geniuses gathered — was wrapped in an eerie silence, as if time itself had stopped.

Right then, that heavy silence was cut open by a burst of unhinged laughter.

"Kwahahahaha—!"

Seo Jihyeok looked up.

On the monitor, Bureau Chief Chae Ganghyeon was laughing hard enough to split his face.

He gave an order to Park Wonjin, who was standing there in a daze.

"What are you standing around for! Call the medical team! We need to treat our precious test subject!"

And he shouted at the other researchers too:

"Back up every last bit of data from just now! Not a second missed!"

At the Bureau Chief's order, the frozen control room lurched back into frantic motion.

The sound of hands fumbling at terminals and urgent shouts filled the room.

Cries of disbelief began breaking out from every direction.

"Energy readings — highest on record!"

"The mana waveform... comparable to A-rank! From a B-rank Awakened, no less...!"

At the report, Chae Ganghyeon gave a satisfied laugh.

"Whose work do you think he is. Naturally."

But watching that face, so full of laughter, chills ran down Seo Jihyeok's spine.

That was not the face of a father delighting in his son's success.

It was the ecstasy of a scientist who was, at last, seeing with his own eyes the results of an experiment he'd devoted his whole life to.

As of today, Seo Jihyeok decided, his read on Chae Ganghyeon — the man everyone had taken for a decent sort — was going to need a total overhaul.

...I need to report this.

Everything unfolding here, right now, to the Guild Master. As fast as possible.

He quietly turned.

He tried to slip out of the control room, blending into the flustered researchers like a shadow.

That was the exact moment.

The Bureau Chief's head — which had been fixed only on the monitor — whipped around.

Past dozens of researchers. Past all of them.

And landed directly on his eyes — the eyes of a man whose face was perfectly disguised as someone else's by an artifact. Dead-on.

Seo Jihyeok's expression went stone-hard before he could stop it.

But he snapped right back into the face of a bumbling junior researcher and bowed his head fumblingly.

Chae Ganghyeon gave him a chillingly kind smile.

The moment that smile turned back to the monitor, Seo Jihyeok hurried out of the control room.

Click.

Only after the door closed did he realize his whole body was already drenched in cold sweat.

He saw through it...!

He hurried into the darkness at the far end of the corridor and hid himself.

He had to get all of this to the Guild Master as fast as humanly possible.

A week had passed since the public evaluation had been held.

The children left behind in the containment room had to sit trembling in deep unease.

They'd definitely heard the evaluation ended well — but the Director was nowhere to be seen.

Even the three researchers who had been the only ones looking out for them had, ever since that day, been busy running somewhere, saying they were cleaning up the aftermath.

Even when the kids asked with anxious faces, "What about the Director?" "Is Sihyeok okay?", all the researchers left them with was "He's fine," "He's recovering," before disappearing again in a hurry.

With the Director gone, the special training and playtimes for the kids all came to a stop.

And with the three researchers who had been the only ones taking them outside nowhere to be seen, the kids couldn't even go to the training room.

The children were left alone in the cold containment room, just like before.

And on top of it all, the strange rumors blanketing the entire institute were ratcheting up the shut-in kids' anxiety even further.

The place was, quite literally, boiling.

The voices of researchers passing through the corridors were flushed with excitement, and their footsteps were much faster and louder than usual.

That commotion seeped through the crack of the tightly-shut containment room door and through the cold ventilation grate.

Overload.

...A-rank.

The Director, bare-handed...

It was actually all an act...

The Deputy Director, deliberately...

Those ominous words landed clearly enough to stick in the ears of children who only ever moved between the containment room and the training room.

"Sihyeok oppa... did he really go into overload?"

Inside the containment room.

Except for Cha Yul, who was training as usual, all the kids were huddled together around the desk in the middle of the room.

"The Director was protecting him and... he — he died, right? That's why he's not coming back...!"

At Hayun's words, her little brother Hajun's eyes went red on the spot and welled up.

"N-no...!"

Park Suho blocked Hayun's words, his face gone pale, choking on tears.

"There's no way the Director's dead... he's just hurt... I — I have to go and heal him..."

The boy stared restlessly at the door, as if he might smash through it and run out any second.

Then Lee Sea-ah calmly steadied the little ones.

"Everyone, don't worry. The Director... will be okay."

She pulled the crying Hajun and the frantic Suho into her arms and worked to find a rational reason.

"If... if the Director had really passed away... they wouldn't have left us alone like this."

At her words, the crying quieted.

The kids knew.

That the warm food, the soft beds, and the comfortable environment they'd been given had all been possible thanks to one person — the Director, Chae Junhyeok.

Without him, they'd go right back to being test subjects, not children.

Why... why isn't he coming.

She thought she was starting to understand a little now.

That even if his mouth called them toys and said they were playing house, at the very least, he wasn't a person who would hurt them.

Which was why the anxiety of this moment was even more unbearable.

If you made us believe you... you have to take responsibility for it. Why aren't you coming back...!

That was the exact moment.

Pshhh—.

The heads of the children clustered on the bed turned toward the door as one.

Standing there was Researcher Lee Jinwoo — they hadn't seen him in days — and behind him...

"Sihyeok!"

Sea-ah and the kids cried out — nearly screaming — and ran to him.

Returning after a week, Sihyeok looked utterly exhausted, but thankfully he didn't seem hurt anywhere.

"Sihyeok, are you okay? How are you feeling?"

Sea-ah checked the boy's pale face, urgent.

Sihyeok only shook his head vacantly.

"He just came out of the regeneration tank — he's still out of it."

Standing behind Sihyeok, Lee Jinwoo answered in his place, his own face gaunt.

"What about the Director?"

Suho's voice trembled desperately.

"Where is the Director?"

"The Director is still... in the regeneration tank. His injuries are severe — he still hasn't come to."

At that one line, every trace of color drained from the children's faces.

"...I... I'll go!"

Suho clung to Lee Jinwoo's leg.

"I can heal the Director...! Please, take me to him! Please?"

Lee Jinwoo couldn't bring himself to peel the boy off, and couldn't take him either — he just stood there, at a loss.

Watching Suho cling like that, even the twins — who had been still — burst out with "We want to go too! We're going to see the Director!", tears rolling as they started clinging on themselves.

Suho pushed harder, crying openly now.

"If — if I go, he'll recover right away! I can make the Director not hurt anymore!"

Right then, Cha Yul — who had been wiping sweat off in the corner of the containment room — spoke, his voice cold.

"Park Suho. Stop."

At those two words, the air in the containment room froze on the spot.

Cha Yul was usually gentle with his little siblings, but right now his voice carried a sharp, unfamiliar edge of anxiety.

"Yeah, he'd just love that."

Without even turning to face Suho, he ground the words out.

"The guy who kept telling you not to use your ability — finds out you're shaving years off your own life for him... yeah. He'd wake up thrilled."

At the cruelly blunt words, Suho bit his lip hard and swallowed his tears.

Cha Yul avoided his eyes and added, desperately, as though speaking to himself:

"...So you need to stop."

His voice dropped small.

"...How long are you planning to lean on that guy. ...You need to stop."

"..."

The one flustered by the increasingly awful atmosphere was Lee Jinwoo.

"Okay, okay — everyone, calm down."

He awkwardly patted the trembling Suho's shoulder.

"The Director's already being treated in the regeneration tank, so don't worry too much. He'll wake up soon."

He glanced at his watch, then let out a deep sigh.

"I want to explain more to you, but the situation at the institute right now... I barely got away to come here."

He was opening the door when, as though his feet wouldn't quite leave, he turned back to look at the kids.

"If anything happens — anything at all — call me right away. Got it?"

The moment Lee Jinwoo was gone, the air in the containment room sank even colder.

Cha Yul turned sharply and walked to the small training mat in the corner of the containment room.

And without a word, sweat pouring off him, he started doing push-ups.

A young beast with nowhere to put his rage.

The children left behind, stuck between an anger-radiating Cha Yul and a wounded-looking Suho, didn't know what to do — they only watched the room warily, then edged carefully over to Sihyeok.

"Sihyeok. Are you okay now? What in the world happened?!"

"Oppa, did you really go into overload?"

Sihyeok, still staring vacantly into empty air, murmured a single line in a very small voice.

"The Director... came inside my shadow..."

"...?"

"and hugged me... tight..."

With that as his last word, Sihyeok staggered to his own bed and collapsed into sleep.

The kids, unable to make heads or tails of it, could only look at each other's faces.

But even in that strange sentence, one fact was unmistakable.

The Director had saved Sihyeok.

The same way as always.

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