The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

A problem no one could possibly answer without having seen Kim Sunja's profile.

At my out-of-nowhere riddle, everyone's face went blank as they sank into thought.

Lee Jinwoo was the first to open his mouth, carefully.

"A blacksmith of that caliber — there's no way there wasn't outside pressure on him. Wouldn't it be that he got caught up in some kind of political trouble?"

Han Soeun pushed her glasses up next.

"Or it could be burnout syndrome! The data actually shows that over sixty percent of geniuses who accomplished great things end up developing social anxiety after retirement—!"

Just then, Lee Sea-ah quietly raised her hand.

"Because it was too perfect a sword. Wouldn't it be that he had no confidence he could ever make its equal again?"

Twin big sister Hayun shouted:

"He hid an amazing treasure in the mountains!"

Even Suho added, carefully:

"Isn't he sick somewhere?"

As I'd expected, the answer I was looking for didn't come from any of them.

"Wrong, all of you, wrong! No one got it, so I'm going alone."

The moment I pretended to be disappointed and tried to blow the whole thing up, complaints broke out on every side.

"No! Director! That's cheating!"

"There's no right answer in the first place, is there? You're just trying to pick someone you like!"

The containment room got noisy and rowdy all over again.

That was the exact moment.

The small hand hanging on to my waist tugged at the hem of my clothes — tug, tug.

At that tiny signal, I bent my head down.

And Sihyeok, who had been burying his face in my chest, went up on tiptoe and brought his lips to my ear.

The child's very small, but perfectly clear whisper landed in my ear.

Having heard everything he had to say, I slowly lifted my head.

Every gaze turned back to me.

I spoke firmly to the child clinging to my waist.

"Let go."

Instead, the child clung to me even tighter, as if he hated the thought of being separated.

Looking at him, I broke into a wide grin.

"I said let go and pack your bags. You're the one who got it right."

"Waaah!"

An endless sea of clouds spread out beyond the airplane window.

Taking in the wondrous view, Sihyeok let out a very small gasp of wonder.

I gave a small laugh watching him.

"You like it that much."

Sihyeok just kept nodding his little head up and down for all he was worth.

Watching him, I thought using my second wish had really been the right call.

The video call with the Bureau Chief flashed through my head.

[All right. I'll give you personnel authority. Then — what's your second wish?]

I hadn't hesitated:

"My dolls. Let them go outside."

Every attempt I'd made up to now to take the kids outside the institute had been blocked, over and over.

The stated reason was always that "we can't expose untrained, dangerous Awakened to the outside world," but I could tell the Bureau Chief's hand was behind it.

[Take the test subjects outside? What on earth for?]

"What do you mean, what for. My dolls have been cooped up in the same cramped rooms — the quality of the data's dropping. They need new stimulus."

[Hmm... fine. Give it a try.]

I turned my eyes back to the child in front of me.

His eyes, sparkling in the sunlight.

One wish for that look on his face — more than worth it.

Looking out the window, I made up my mind that from here on I'd have to get the other kids out for fresh air more often too.

Just then, the captain's polite voice came over the cabin speakers.

[Director. We'll be landing at Jeju Airport in five minutes. Welcome to Jeju.]

The moment I stepped off the private jet and my feet hit the ground, a fresh breeze — different from any on the mainland — rushed at me.

Mixed into it was the briny, salty smell of the sea.

Never left home once in my life because I was too busy pinching pennies — and now, thanks to getting dropped into a novel, here I am all the way out in Jeju... life really is unpredictable.

I shifted the peacefully sleeping Sihyeok in my arms and stepped out through the airport gate.

...How on earth am I supposed to get all the way up to that mountain village where Kim Sunja is.

I was standing there scanning around at a loss, when it happened.

A man in a sharp black suit stepped into my path.

He bowed at a full ninety degrees.

"Director. I've been ordered here to escort you. I'll be seeing to your every convenience during your stay in Jeju. Whatever you need — anything at all — please just call for me."

Just as I was trying to figure out this sudden turn of events—

Bzzt—. The terminal in my chest pocket gave off a short buzz.

A text from the Bureau Chief.

[Junhyeok, my boy. I hear you arrived in Jeju safely. I've sent one of my own men — use him however you need.]

It was the kind of message a warm, attentive father would send to a son who'd gone far from home.

But looking at it, if anything, I felt my heart go cold.

I'd known I was being watched, but I hadn't expected him to make it this obvious...

Without so much as a flicker of expression, I killed the terminal screen and got into the car.

The car glided along for a good while before finally coming to a stop at the entrance to a deep forest leading up into Hallasan.

The driver turned to look back at me and bowed his head.

"This is as far as the car can go up the road. My apologies, Director."

"That's fine."

I stepped out of the car and said:

"Go rest somewhere until I call you again."

"Yes, sir. Understood."

The driver gave a punctilious bow and drove off back down the mountain road.

In the crisp morning air, only I and Sihyeok on my back were left.

I looked at the mouth of the forest and sighed.

The map said this was the right area, but there wasn't a proper path in sight.

Only a faint trail, coiling like a snake between densely-packed trees where hardly anyone had walked.

The chirp, chirp of some unknown mountain bird was the only sound cutting the silence.

She lives... even farther out in the boonies than I thought.

I carefully repositioned Sihyeok — sleeping soundly against my back — so he wouldn't slide down.

All right. If I keep a good pace, I'll get there before lunch.

I gave myself a little "Hup!" and took my first step onto the mountain path.

And thirty minutes later, I regretted that decision down to the bone.

"Huff, hah, huff...!"

Panting hard, I braced myself against a tree to catch my breath.

Every joint in my body was screaming, and my legs were shaking like they weren't mine.

I'd forgotten.

That however fit and springy a twenty-something Chae Junhyeok might be, the man's stamina was trash.

The moment I get back... I'm starting to exercise, immediately...!

Just as I gritted my teeth, paused, and pulled out my terminal to check the map — that was when it happened.

From somewhere, a tok of a sound.

Huh? What was that?

I turned my head toward the sound. There stood a girl.

A little girl about Sea-ah's age, with black bobbed hair.

Under it, a pair of bright, sharp eyes like a squirrel's were staring straight at me.

The girl stared at me, quietly rolling a pebble around under the tip of her toe.

Saved!

I lit up like I'd run into a savior and was about to call out to her.

"Hey — is there a village around here somewhere..."

But before I could finish, the girl turned and, in the blink of an eye, went tearing up the mountain.

At the sheer unreal speed of it, I let my outstretched hand drop, defeated.

...Was she a squirrel?

I stared blankly at her retreating back for a moment, then dragged my exhausted feet forward again.

I have no idea how much longer I climbed.

The view was just starting to open up when, finally, houses began to appear between the trees.

Five houses or so. A very small mountain village, all clustered together.

Found it.

No mistaking it — this was the village from the profile Han Jewoon had sent.

I wrung out the last of my strength and hurried on.

"Kim Sunja's house... blue roof... blue roof."

Muttering it like a mantra, I stepped into the village and made my way toward the house with the blue roof.

Thump, thump—.

"Hello? Anyone home?"

But no answer came from inside.

...She's not back yet, maybe.

Just as I was about to knock again — that was when it happened.

Clack.

Behind me, along with the sound of a cane striking the packed earth, an unfamiliar voice called out.

"Young fellow. Who're you supposed to be?"

I turned. A stooped old man stood there, staring at me hard.

I bowed as deeply and politely as I could manage.

"Ah, hello, sir. I'm here to see Kim Sunja."

At my words, the old man's wrinkled eyes narrowed into blades.

"Kim Sunja? What's a mainlander want with that old woman? She doesn't take mainland folk."

His sharp wariness threw me, but I couldn't back down.

"I have important business. I really must see her."

"Enough. This isn't a place for mainlanders. I don't know how you found this place, but do yourself a favor and go quietly back. Poking that old woman's temper doesn't end well for anyone."

Just as I was about to push back and say something more —

The old man's eyes shifted past my face, to my back.

"...?"

His gaze landed on Sihyeok, sleeping curled against my back.

"...That little one on your back — that your boy?"

Careful not to wake Sihyeok, I shifted him a little on my back.

"He isn't my son, no... but I am his guardian."

Instead of answering, the old man just stared silently for a long while down at Sihyeok's gaunt, peacefully sleeping face.

The stiffness in his own face seemed to ease, very faintly.

"...Aigoo, tsk, tsk. Hauled a little thing like that all the way up this mountain, did you."

He jerked his chin toward the fields down below.

"That old woman — this time of day, she'll be down in the tangerine grove. Go on down there, take your beating or beg a meal off her, that's your business now."

"Thank you, sir!"

I bowed my head to the old man and set off again toward the field he'd pointed to.

I hadn't walked far when a wide field opened up in front of me.

A tangerine grove in early June.

Every branch was hung with green tangerines, and here and there among the trees, old people were pruning.

And picking out Kim Sunja among them wasn't hard.

Because one of them stood out from all the rest.

While the others struggled with their pruning shears, this one was swinging a sickle at something close to superhuman speed.

Her work looked less like pruning and more like surgery.

She cut precisely at the vital point of each rotting branch, and as if by magic only that one branch dropped to the ground — while the tree itself actually seemed to breathe out fresh life.

I watched the astonishing sight without breathing.

So that's Kim Sunja, the Soul Blacksmith.

Careful not to disturb her work, I quietly muffled my footsteps as I approached.

And the moment she finally finished pruning one tree, climbed down, and took a breath, I asked in the most polite voice I could manage.

"Excuse me... would you happen to be Ms. Kim Sunja?"

A small old woman, barely half my height, turned her head slowly, very slowly.

A face deeply carved with the marks of time.

But the eyes inside it shone sharp as tempered steel.

"What."

I was so thrown by the sudden drop into blunt speech that I stammered without meaning to.

"Y-yes? Ah, I'm—"

Just as I was fumbling to get the words out, her sharp eyes ran up and down my face.

"...That face. I've seen it somewhere before."

She muttered it low.

"Boy. What's your name."

"...Ch-Chae Junhyeok."

The instant she heard my name —

"...Chae?"

The look in her eyes changed.

"One look at that face and I know exactly."

She ground her teeth, growling.

"That damned Chae Ganghyeon's... spawn."

She leveled the sickle in her hand at my heart.

Wait, hold on. What on earth is this—!

Flustered, I opened my mouth to say something — to explain, to excuse — anything.

But before my words could come, her sickle was faster.

Whoosh! — the blade cut the air, a killing intent riding on it.

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