The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

At some point, the old folks from the neighboring houses had started dropping by, one after another, to nag her.

"Old woman. I don't know the ins and outs of it, but that young fellow's been at this for a whole month now. Would you just hear him out."

The old woman next door chimed in as she sucked at a pouch of red ginseng juice.

"That's right. Look at him — the boy seems good-hearted too. Don't be so cold about it."

Every time, Kim Sunja would bark "Don't stick your noses in when you don't know the whole of it!" and slam the door — but inside, she was tangled up.

She let out another long trail of pale gray smoke from her pipe.

Hoo... if I just hold out, he'll head back eventually.

With that thought, she cut across the yard and headed out to bar the front gate.

But standing there in the dark just outside the gate was that Chae boy's spawn.

Kim Sunja clicked her tongue.

Same as always, she ignored him as if he weren't there and moved to slide the bolt across the gate.

That was the exact moment.

"Ma'am."

An address she would normally have ignored.

But something about the weight in his voice made Kim Sunja's hand freeze mid-motion.

The boy stepped out of the darkness and into the moonlight.

The instant the moonlight fell across his face —

Kim Sunja narrowed her eyes.

The brat who'd been forever smiling awkwardly and reading her mood was gone.

He said, in a very quiet, very cold voice:

"Eight years ago, that day. Your daughter and son-in-law did not die in an accident."

Everything inside Kim Sunja's head went white.

Having said the line, I had to strain every muscle just to keep my expression steady.

The horrifying truth of "that day, eight years ago" that Lee Jinwoo had dug up.

Holding all of that in my head while facing her and acting like none of it fazed me was harder than I'd expected.

"...This isn't a place for that conversation. Follow me."

Kim Sunja turned, planted her cane, and set off without hesitation toward the dark mountainside.

With my heart pounding — thump, thump — I followed her.

We had gone deep enough that the lights of the village were no longer in sight when—

She stopped short.

And turned, very slowly, to look back at me.

Under the moonlight, her old eyes glinted like a beast's.

Something about it set off an ugly premonition, and I swallowed hard.

"Ma'am. This doesn't really look like a great place for this conversation eith—"

Before I could finish—

The cane in her hand vanished from in front of my eyes.

No. It hadn't vanished.

Moving too fast for the eye to track, her cane had driven straight into my solar plexus.

"Kuk—!"

Every last bit of air in my lungs was forced out.

My vision flashed white, and a sharp ring— tore through my eardrums.

Just as I was, I collapsed against the trunk of a tree and slid down to the ground.

"I struck a vital point. It landed clean. You won't be able to move for a while."

Her voice was chillingly calm.

"That was your punishment for daring to put my daughter and son-in-law's names in your mouth."

"..."

"If I'd gone by what I really wanted, I'd have run that heart of yours through on the spot. But it seems there's still something left to hear out of that fine mouth of yours."

But her chilling words weren't fully reaching my ears.

Kuh...!

I couldn't breathe.

The blow had landed square in my solar plexus — my lungs felt shriveled, and my breath was heaving out on its own.

The spot where the cane had gone in burned like fire.

Kuh... khhk...

Right then, Kim Sunja pressed the tip of her cane — poke, poke — at spots along my body.

And astonishingly, my blocked airway opened up.

"You should be able to talk now. All right — everything you know. Talk."

Panting, I barely managed to lift my head and meet her eyes.

"Let's make a deal, ma'am... You can't be the only one who gets what she wants. I've got something I need to walk away with too."

At that one line, Kim Sunja's face went ice-cold.

"Fine. So you really do want to die here, boy."

She raised her cane high again.

I didn't have the strength to dodge or the means to block.

That was the exact moment.

Fwip!

From behind me — no, out of my own shadow — dozens of black shadows shot up like living spears and lunged at Kim Sunja.

"!"

But where the shadow spears drove home, there was nothing.

At some point, she had pulled back well out of range.

Kim Sunja clicked her tongue.

"...I'd been feeling something odd for a while now. Shadows, was it."

What on earth—?

At the exact moment I was thinking it, something stirred in the shadow the moonlight had cast on the ground — and a small figure rose smoothly out of it.

"Sihyeok!"

I shouted, too shocked at the child's sudden appearance to hold it in — but Sihyeok didn't answer, only planted himself in front of me.

"..."

How on earth—!

I couldn't hide my shock — the child had come out of my own shadow.

But before I could pull free of it, the fight between the two of them had already started.

From behind Sihyeok, black shadows carrying killing intent poured out like a storm and swept toward Kim Sunja.

Shhhk—!

But she didn't dodge.

She only took a single step sideways.

Thk, thk—!

Where she had been standing, dozens of shadow spikes drove into the ground.

That was only the beginning.

Sihyeok drew more spikes out of the shadow and hurled attack after ferocious attack, and Kim Sunja evaded every last one of them as if she were performing a choreographed dance.

I held my breath.

Sihyeok's assault was ferocious in the extreme — but Kim Sunja's movements as she slipped through it were something close to superhuman.

Was that really... the way a non-combat-class Hunter moved?

"Playtime ends here."

Kim Sunja, having taken his attacks for a good while, spoke quietly.

"Close your eyes for a moment, and it'll all be over when you open them. Rest well."

As if she had no intention of playing along any longer, she was behind Kim Sihyeok in the blink of an eye.

Just as she was about to bring the cane down on the child's neck —

"Grandma—!!!"

Ari's tearing shriek carried through the trees.

"Ari?"

The child came running full-tilt, and stopped short at the scene laid out in front of her.

Me, sprawled on the ground bleeding, and, planted desperately in front of me, her friend, trembling head to toe.

And her own grandmother behind him, cane leveled at his back.

The moment the child understood what she was seeing, her face crumpled with betrayal and grief.

"How could you do this to my friend?!"

At the icy edge in her granddaughter's accusation, the aura of an S-rank Hunter that had been shaking the mountain a second ago vanished like smoke.

"A-Ari! It's not what you—!"

"Enough! I don't want to hear it!"

Ari stamped her feet as she shouted.

"I hate you, Grandma! I'm not sleeping at your house tonight! I'm going with the mister and Sihyeok to the village head's house!"

At that raw, wounded protest from her granddaughter, Kim Sunja froze on the spot, cane still in her hand.

How I made it down the mountain, I could barely remember.

When I came to, I was lying on the warm floor of the village head's back room, and two pairs of huge round eyes were staring down at me from either side.

"Director!!"

The two children's voices burst out in perfect unison, as though by prearrangement.

"Uhhh...."

Groaning, I barely managed to prop myself up.

I was just reaching to pat Sihyeok's head — as he charged into my chest, to reassure him — when—

A lightning-bolt of agony from my solar plexus shot straight through my body.

"Uk!"

I winced and pulled out a healing factor, downed it, and the awful pain began, slowly, to fade.

Right then, Sihyeok — still buried in my chest — lifted his head to look up at me.

"Director. Are you okay?"

Those small eyes were full of worry.

"Of course I'm okay. You think something like this could hurt me? I'm tough — don't worry."

I put on the swagger deliberately, not wanting to worry the child, and only then did he seem a little relieved.

"More to the point — you. Just now, were you hiding in my shadow? How on earth?"

At my question, Sihyeok nodded and answered in a small voice.

"I couldn't before... but since the evaluation... it feels like I can...."

What's this? A side effect of the overload? Or is something wrong with his core? Maybe I should have him checked out...

Right as my head was going into a spin, Ari cut in.

"Mister. Did you tell my grandma about my mom and dad?"

"...How did you know?"

"Grandma only gets that mad about..."

The child's voice dropped smaller.

"About Mom and Dad."

"..."

"Grandma still lives like it's eight years ago."

She said it evenly, but the trembling at the end of her voice was thick with tears.

For a moment, the shadow in her — impossibly deep and dark for a child — knocked the breath out of me.

Ari slowly lifted her head.

Huge eyes brimming to the edge, the tears trembling precariously, ready to spill if you so much as touched her.

"Mister. Eight years ago — what on earth happened? I want to know too."

At the desperate question, my mouth clamped shut like it was full of honey.

The truth was already up to the top of my throat — but it was so sharp, so cruel, that handing it to a mere eight-year-old was like handing her a live blade.

"...That's not something I can tell you."

"Why not? It's about my mom and dad! Why aren't I allowed to know?"

"...You're still too young—"

"No!"

The child cut me off, sharp.

"I'm all grown up too! It's worse when you all pretend it's nothing, act like everything's fine, and leave just me out of it!"

I ran a dry hand down my own face and let out a long sigh. Every muscle in it, under my palm, was stiff.

...Yeah. Maybe I'm the one being arrogant here.

Burying everything, no matter what, isn't always the answer.

Even if the truth cuts like a knife shearing off flesh, sometimes it's only when you face it that healing can even begin.

I was still scared this decision might become another wound for the child — but I decided to trust, just once, the steady gaze she'd fixed on me.

"All right. I'll tell you. But—"

Watching her face brighten, I quickly tacked on my condition.

"On one condition: your guardian has to allow it. So — you convince your grandma. You're the one who has to arrange it so I can talk to her."

"...!"

"If she agrees — then everything I know, I'll tell you too."

At my offer, Ari's eyes lit up again, and her small fist clenched tight.

"...Understood. I'll convince Grandma."

She left just that one line behind and turned and shot off toward home like the wind.

Ari. Weren't you the one who said, just now, that you were running away from home?

But my belated question didn't reach the child, already gone into the dark.

And the next day.

I was, as always, out in the tangerine grove pulling weeds.

Right then, Ari came running toward me with her chest thrown out like a general returning in triumph.

"Mister! Grandma says come! She says let's talk!"

And now.

I was, at last, sitting on the porch of Kim Sunja's house.

Four of us, seated around a small tea table.

The ma'am, ice-faced. Ari beside her, thoroughly enjoying herself.

And Sihyeok, pressed close against my side, watching Kim Sunja on his guard.

I was the one who broke the heavy silence first.

"Thank you, ma'am, for making the time."

But Kim Sunja's answer came back like the edge of a blade.

"Loathing the sight of your face — that hasn't changed."

She glared at me with a cold eye.

"But my granddaughter begged, and there wasn't much to be done about it. And I suppose there's something I need to hear too."

She turned her gaze onto Ari, pressed close to her side.

"As promised — the mister and grandma'll talk first. You go on out and play with the boy."

I picked up on the cue and gave Sihyeok, pressed against me, a light nudge on the back.

"You go play outside for a bit too. It won't take long."

Ari puffed her lip out a little, unhappy about being pushed out — but she quickly grabbed Sihyeok's hand.

"Let's go!"

Once the two children left the room, the door shut — tak.

Only heavy silence filled the room.

"What I'm about to tell you may be difficult to hear."

At my words, Kim Sunja gave a "hmph!" of a scoff and tapped her pipe against the ashtray.

"If I were afraid of that sort of thing, I wouldn't have gone chasing the truth like a woman gone mad eight years ago. Enough — talk."

Please... let this story not hurt too much.

Clinging to that useless hope, I opened my mouth.

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