The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

A "what the hell is this bastard on about?" look of bewilderment crossed Hwang Dushik's face.

Ignoring his expression, I went on.

"It's been less than a year since I came to this institute and became Director, and you've been here more than ten, you said. So then, you're my senior. Right?"

"Th-that's...!"

"But you know, senior. There's one thing I'm curious about."

I tilted my head, as if genuinely, purely curious.

"Why is it that you don't act up with me?"

"...Excuse me?"

"By your own logic, you're my senior. So how come you snarl at those three, but you can't so much as squeak in front of me?"

Hwang Dushik, flustered, answered almost stammering:

"H-how could I dare, in front of the Director...! The Director's rank is higher than mine!"

"Aha!"

I clapped once — clap! — at his words.

"So you did know after all. I thought you didn't. In this institute, it's not years served that come first — it's rank."

"...!"

"I wasn't going to bother pulling rank — was going to let it slide quietly. But since you insist on splitting hairs, I don't have much choice, do I. Senior Researcher, you said?"

I walked straight past Hwang Dushik and turned to the three standing behind me.

"You three, as of today, are Chief Researchers."

"...What?!"

Lee Jinwoo and Han Soeun's eyes went so wide they were about to pop out.

From ordinary researcher — skipping past Senior and Lead entirely — straight to Chief.

An unprecedented promotion in the institute's history.

"All thanks to my senior over here. I'd been wanting to promote these three anyway, but with the other researchers watching, I was just waiting for the right moment."

"..."

"And then my senior went and raised his formal complaint — gave me the perfect excuse. Sincerely, thank you."

At the words, Hwang Dushik's face flared, going red and purple by turns.

The other researchers around him, too, were glaring at him with a mix of resentment and contempt for having caused this whole scene.

Not sparing him another glance, I called out to the remaining thirty-two researchers.

"All right! Orientation ends here!"

I held up three fingers and declared:

"Never forget the rules I laid out — and absolute obedience to the three Chief Researchers who, as of today, are your superiors. Understood?"

"Yes!"

"Oh, and one more thing."

At that, an "there's more?" look crossed the faces of the researchers who'd thought it was over.

"If my dolls get in a bad mood, my game of house stops being fun. So whenever possible, give them whatever they want."

"..."

"Answer."

"Yes, sir!"

"Then — dismissed!"

At my order, the researchers murmured for a moment, then began to scatter with grim faces.

Only Hwang Dushik stayed rooted to the spot, biting his lip.

After that day, no one else raised so much as an objection to me.

I sat in a chair in the control room and looked at the hologram screen in front of me with a satisfied smile.

Since the new researchers had come on, Project R had begun running at a startlingly steady pace.

Sure enough, with more people, the quality of the education itself was on a different level.

The thirty new elite researchers, under the command of the three who had become their perfect superiors, had started drawing up a systematic curriculum for the kids.

Central control room.

The thirty new researchers stood in front of the enormous main screen, breath held.

Playing on the screen was a recording from a training session a week ago.

In the video, the six children were not test subjects.

They were one perfect team.

The instant the virtual monster in the video roared and charged, Lee Sea-ah's orders came down.

"Guys, pin its feet! Sihyeok, ready the shadow spear!"

"Got it!"

The twins clasped their hands, and countless pieces of scrap floated up, forming a huge golem that coiled around the monster's ankles — and at the same instant, Sea-ah shouted:

"Sihyeok! Now — behind the golem!"

The moment Sea-ah's shout ended, Sihyeok's shadow spear shot up and pierced the monster's core dead-on.

"Kwaaah!"

Just before it collapsed, its core skewered, the monster — burning with vengeance — swung its razor tail down at Sihyeok. But faster by a hair, Cha Yul stepped between them.

Kagang!

The tail struck Cha Yul's arm, but he absorbed every bit of the impact as his own energy. Only, the shockwave from that huge impact sent a piece of shattered golem grazing Sihyeok's shoulder.

"Ugh...!"

Without hesitation, Suho ran to the fallen Sihyeok.

Using emergency first aid he had learned as knowledge instead of life-force, he calmly stopped the bleeding and wrapped a bandage.

"Grrrrr...!"

While everyone was focused on Sihyeok, the monster wrung out the last of its strength and rose again.

"Oppa, let's finish it!"

Cha Yul condensed every bit of the energy he had just absorbed into his right arm and drove it straight down onto the beast's head.

Kwaaang—!

With a tremendous roar, the monster turned into black data fragments and dissipated, light gone.

"...My god. That's really... from someone who only just started training?"

"The teamwork's better than most raid parties."

Cries of amazement and disbelief broke from the new researchers.

Han Soeun, too, couldn't hold back her admiration as she looked at the growth graphs on the monitor.

"So this is how far talented kids can grow when they're properly trained..."

"All part of the Director's grand design, I'd say."

Lee Jinwoo pushed up his glasses as he glanced over at me.

They were right.

The children, who had already been prodigies to begin with, had started growing by the day the moment proper instruction began.

And their growth wasn't limited to combat ability either.

Korean, English, math — and philosophy, history, science on top of it.

Their store of knowledge, too, was deepening and broadening past anything you could compare to where they'd started.

And of them all, the one showing overwhelming talent was Sea-ah.

On one monitor, what had by now become an everyday scene was playing out.

The most recent addition — a physics PhD — sweating buckets in front of a nine-year-old girl.

"Sea-ah. What I'm saying is, the theory of relativity isn't a concept that can be explained that simply..."

"Why not?"

Lee Sea-ah looked up at him with clear, bright eyes.

"It's just that time and space change relatively depending on the observer. And mass curves space. Which part of my explanation is logically wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong, it's just—"

On another monitor, another remarkable scene was unfolding.

Park Suho's treatment practice.

The use of his ability — which cost the child his own life-force — was still forbidden, so instead, Suho was learning medical knowledge from a former-doctor researcher.

On the monitor, Suho was moving his small hands to wrap a pressure bandage on Kang Taemin in a simulated disaster scene.

"You can't move! The wound has to stay higher than the heart!"

On the face of the child who had learned a new way to help someone, the shadow from before was gone — only a bright, clear confidence overflowing in its place.

"...And Sihyeok."

At the familiar weight I could feel against my back, I let out a small sigh.

"You need to head off to training too."

Ever since that horrific evaluation, Sihyeok had picked up a new habit.

Whenever I was in the training room or the containment room, the child was always stuck to my back or my waist.

He didn't want anything, either.

Just clung there, quiet and unmoving, like a koala clinging to a tree.

At my words, Sihyeok dragged his feet a little as if reluctant, then went off to his training booth without complaint.

I sat quietly and watched the astonishing growth the children were showing.

And at last, I thought, the time has come.

Time to move on to the next stage — one that would grow them in the real world, not this fake one boxed in by pentagonal concrete.

I pulled the terminal out of my pocket and dialed the number Han Jewoon had given me.

After a few rings, a voice came through from the other side.

"That teacher you mentioned before. I'd like to hear the details now."

"You're leaving?!"

At my one sentence, the previously peaceful containment room was flipped upside down.

"Where to? Why? All of a sudden like this?"

"Director! What are we supposed to do?!"

Lee Jinwoo and Han Soeun clung to me, faces on the verge of tears.

"The kids' data has only just started to stabilize...! Don't tell me the whole reason you brought on new researchers was to ditch us and leave!"

Han Soeun didn't stop there — practically ready to grab me by the collar, she wailed.

"We still can't trust those new hires! And what if Hwang Dushik starts acting up again?! If you're gone, Director, we — we—!"

On the other side of their desperate cries, the kids were in an uproar.

"Wahhh. Director, don't go!"

"Did we do something wrong? We'll listen from now on!"

The little ones burst into wailing sobs and grabbed my legs, and even Cha Yul and Lee Sea-ah were staring at me openly.

Sihyeok said nothing, but held on to my waist, and I could feel the shadow under his feet rippling in a way that felt dangerous.

W-wait, this much...?

I'd expected them to be surprised, but the children's reaction was so much more intense than I'd bargained for that I was genuinely thrown.

To calm them down, I answered quickly:

"What are you all on about. It's just a few days away."

"Just for a bit? Where are you going?"

"To pick up your teacher. How about that? Good news, right?"

I thought my answer would make the kids happy.

However well I treated them, in the end I was still trash who'd been abusing them.

If a real teacher — one who wouldn't hurt them — was coming to replace a man like me, surely they'd be more than glad.

But contrary to my expectations, what came back was a brief, ice-cold silence.

What broke that silence was a cry from Hayun, almost a scream.

"Noooo!!!"

That set it off — the room, which had just settled, turned into pandemonium all over again.

The children's pushback was on a whole other level from before.

"No! Director is our teacher!"

"Don't want a different teacher! I want to be with the Director and no one else!"

Worse, Cha Yul and Sea-ah — who were supposed to be the ones defusing this — were now glaring at me with even scarier eyes. And under Sihyeok, still clinging to my waist, the shadow began rippling dangerously again.

Standing in the middle of all of it, I sincerely could not understand.

But — why?

My mind went blank.

But in this pandemonium, there was no room for deep thought.

I finally gave up on rational persuasion and decided on another approach.

Clap!

A sharp report cut through every scrap of noise in the loud containment room, and every crying voice in the room stopped as if by magic.

"Quiet! In that case — one comes with me. I'll pick just one!"

The first to react to my shout were the twins.

"Me! Me!"

Hayun and Hajun shot their hands up in unison, shouting — almost screaming.

Right after, Suho called out, "M-me too!" and started jumping up and down on the spot.

And out of the shadow beneath Sihyeok, who had been quietly holding on to my waist, a single shadow-hand shot straight up.

"Director! Me! Take me! Where are you going? Could I do research there?"

"I'll be at your side twenty-four/seven!"

The researchers, seeing it, piled in too, and the containment room was in chaos in an instant.

Everyone but Kang Taemin, Cha Yul, and Lee Sea-ah — quietly watching the uproar from one wall — had crowded around me, insisting they were obviously the one who should be picked.

Aigoo... I was planning to go alone.

There was no telling what might happen, and I didn't want to drag the kids or the researchers into it. On top of that, the destination was...

Since it's come to this, I'll just have to use a method that leaves all of them with no choice but to give up.

Laughing to myself inside, I said:

"Quiet. Whoever answers my riddle correctly — that person, and only that person, comes with me."

I posed a riddle I'd made up myself, drawing on Kim Sunja's situation.

"There was a blacksmith who forged swords. But when the greatest sword he had ever made snapped, he threw down his hammer and disappeared into the mountains. Why did he do that?"

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