The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

The name that came up on the screen was someone I hadn't expected.

[Han Jewoon]

...What's this about?

The moment of puzzlement didn't last — I wiped my expression clean in an instant.

And onto my face I slapped the mask of the wastrel Chae Junhyeok — one I'd practiced dozens of times over.

"Hoo..."

With a bored look, I hit the answer button.

Chshhh— along with the static, a hologram projected in the air.

Han Jewoon, on the screen, was propping his chin on one hand, looking somehow languid.

[Alive, I see.]

"What does it look like."

[If you're back from Jeju, isn't it courtesy to at least drop a word? Not a single thought for the people waiting on you. Cold.]

He gave a low, mock-hurt click of his tongue.

...!

The intelligence network of the Guild Master of Korea's number-one guild...

But I hid my surprise and, deliberately, tilted my chin up even more arrogantly to fire back.

"I don't know. I hadn't realized post-mission reporting was in the terms of our deal. I'm not one of your subordinates."

[That's a hurtful thing to say. Are we really just a couple of names on a scrap of contract paper?]

Han Jewoon volleyed back, at his leisure.

The pressure that came with being an S-rank Hunter was pulled back, but a boa-constrictor slickness — the veteran's practiced way of wrapping himself around a person — came through.

I nearly snorted in disbelief.

A pair of what, exactly? What are we?

Who was it, again, who had held hundreds of mana swords at my throat, right where I was sitting now?

Just as I was gearing up to fire back with sarcasm, my own situation hit me.

I'd failed to recruit Teacher Kim Sunja.

Now that I knew why she couldn't move, I couldn't drag her along by force.

Which meant... the teacher options left to me... in the end...

...

I uncrossed the leg I'd had slung over the other one and straightened up in the chair.

I wiped the arrogance plastered all over my face clean, and put on a very businesslike, courteous sales smile.

"Now that I think about it... Guild Master Han Jewoon."

[...?]

Han Jewoon's eyebrow twitched, subtly, on the screen.

[...Guild Master?]

He narrowed his eyes and stared through the screen at my face, boring holes in it.

Then he twisted the corner of his mouth up.

[...Failed to bring the old lady in, did you?]

"..."

The man might as well be a ghost...

Embarrassed at being read cover to cover, I cleared my throat.

"Ahem. Failed, no. It's on... strategic hold, for now. And, strictly speaking, this is partly your fault too."

[My fault?]

"Yeah. I put the truth in front of her the way your hint told me to, and Teacher didn't budge."

I added, bitterly:

"Frankly, no matter what proposal I'd offered, Teacher wouldn't have accepted."

Even at the accusation, Han Jewoon didn't look put out — instead, his eyes went wide, as if surprised.

[You figured... out the truth?]

He genuinely looked taken aback.

Was he surprised that Chae Ganghyeon's son had dug up his own father's dirt himself?

Right then, an odd note flickered through my head.

Wait.

Han Jewoon had told me to dig up the truth for myself.

Which is to say — he, too, had already known the inside of the incident eight years ago.

"Come to think of it, that's strange."

[What is?]

"You knew all of it. Who was behind that incident eight years ago. What my father, and Cheonun Group, did."

The questions kept piling on top of one another.

Korea's Rank 1. World Rank 3.

With the muscle and influence Han Jewoon had... he could have exposed that ugly truth at any moment he pleased and flipped the whole board.

"Why didn't you help? Teacher Kim Sunja, and that couple who died unjustly. Why did you sit still until now?"

As I pressed him, Han Jewoon's expression on the other side of the screen shifted, slowly.

The smug smile vanished, and in its place a cold smile hung — one that ran a chill down the spine.

[...Sat still?]

His gray eyes burned bright enough to seem to be about to punch through the screen.

[Kid. A blade doesn't cut just because you swing it whenever. A half-cooked exposé only gives them time to prepare.]

"..."

[To sever those bastards' necks for good... you need an ironclad witness, one that no one can deny.]

"...!"

At the killing pressure carrying over the screen and the weight in those words, I stopped breathing and froze.

It was the kind of pressure that comes from having a cold blade laid against the side of your neck.

[Candy of Calm]...!

Reflexively I patted at my chest pocket, but my hand didn't find it.

Luckily, that ferocious silence didn't last long.

[Pff.]

Han Jewoon let out a short laugh and, as easily as flipping a switch, let the pressure go.

[Nothing much to do with you, really.]

He was back to his usual smug expression, and shrugged.

[And your complaint — I'll grant it, to a point. Truth is, even I didn't think that stubborn old lady would come out willingly.]

"Then..."

[Well... I'll compensate for your condition some other way. And before that...]

"..."

[The A-rank Gate you asked about. I found one.]

"!"

[You haven't forgotten the condition?]

At that cool line, I swallowed hard.

The terms of our deal.

If I restored Bawi Guild's Hunter Choi Juran's destroyed core, he would make the children stronger.

Performing a miracle that not even an S-rank healer could pull off — that was what I'd offered Han Jewoon, and it was the lifeline my own neck hung by.

[Location's decent, conditions match. We're going through administrative procedure with the Bureau right now, so we'll be in there by the end of this month at the latest.]

Han Jewoon narrowed his eyes on the screen.

[Get ready. You'll have to prove it, after all.]

At that weighted warning, I nodded without a word.

Right at that moment.

Behind Han Jewoon on the screen, a familiar bark came from off-frame.

[Guild Master! Why is the door locked?! You're not skipping the meeting again, are you?!]

It was Seo Jihyeok's voice.

[Yikes!]

He gave a playful wink with one eye.

[Playtime's over here. I'm off, then.]

Click.

"Haaah...."

The call cut, and I sank deep into the chair.

"Still... this is a relief."

Even though I hadn't managed to bring Teacher Kim Sunja in, Han Jewoon said he'd work out another way, so it would come together somehow.

And....

I need to start getting ready in advance. One slip and my neck goes.

I ran back through the original's contents in my head, checking off the plan going forward.

By the time I'd worked through the last of the kids' ability reports, the darkness outside the window had already settled in thick.

"Yaaawn.... Let's call it here for today..."

Now that the tension had eased, an unstoppable exhaustion crashed in.

I dragged my heavy body into the bedroom set up behind the Director's office.

The moment I threw myself onto the plush bed, my consciousness sank away as if into a swamp.

That night, moonlight settled over a quiet bedroom.

At the foot of the sleeping Chae Junhyeok, in the pitch-black shadow that stretched out long, two eyes blinked, silent.

It was Kim Sihyeok.

Since the public evaluation, Sihyeok had picked up a secret little routine.

Slipping into the Director's shadow.

Whenever they were apart, or when everyone else was asleep, he'd unfailingly ride his own shadow into the Director's.

The reason was simple.

I have to protect him.

The one who had thrown himself at a monster unarmored to save him.

The one who had taken his overload head-on and held him through it.

The second person in his life who had shown up like that — and Sihyeok couldn't rest for a moment, afraid the man might get hurt again.

Back in Jeju, when that scary grandma had attacked the Director, the reason he'd been able to burst out and block it was that he'd been hidden in this shadow.

"Mm..."

Up on the bed, the Director stirred and let out a comfortable breath.

At the sound of that breathing carrying down into the shadow, a wave of relief came over Sihyeok's heart too.

Today too... I'm glad nothing happened.

Sihyeok pulled the shadow up to his chin like a blanket and, with the Director's breathing for a lullaby, slowly closed his eyes.

Just when it seemed the peaceful night would go on this way—

...?

There wasn't even a sound. Just a strange, minute torque in the flow of the air.

Sihyeok's closing eyes snapped open.

He peered out through a very small crack in the shadow.

The room was still quiet, and the window and the door were both firmly shut.

Sihyeok curled up again.

Just as he was closing his eyes tight one more time.

His body reacted before his thoughts did.

Chang—!

A sharp metallic sound tore through the silent room.

Tuk.

What had dropped to the floor was an assassin's dagger, giving off a cold gleam.

A blade that had burst out, without warning, from empty air where nothing had been.

A dagger...?

Without a second's hesitation, Sihyeok burst up out of the Director's shadow.

Right at that moment.

From the air that he'd thought was empty, along with a cold current, a low, sunken voice came.

"...A child, is it."

There was no figure to see.

But the voice was, unmistakably, right in front of his face — no, right at his ear.

"So this is the mighty Director's bodyguard."

A voice full of contempt popped out of thin air and scraped at Sihyeok's nerves.

"Fallen as far as a man can fall. Putting up a mere baby as a shield for his own safety — well, of course, he is the son of that revolting Bureau Chief."

The position of the voice shifted in an instant.

Left? No, right?

Confused, Sihyeok whipped his head around, but all he could see was the room, sunk in darkness.

Whack—!

"Ugh!"

An invisible kick slammed into Sihyeok's side.

His small body went rolling clumsily across the floor.

"Out of the way. My blade is aimed only at that filthy bloodline."

There wasn't even a footfall.

But the cold killing intent was gradually moving toward the bed where the Director lay sleeping — like a shadow of death drawing near.

Sihyeok bit down hard on his lip.

He couldn't see it with his eyes. In that case...

Sihyeok pressed a palm to the floor.

At that, the shadow that had lain flat against the floor of the room spread out through the entire room in an instant, like black ink.

In that one moment, every inch of floor in the room became Sihyeok's sensory organ.

At that moment.

Tuk.

Sihyeok's fingertips picked up a subtle but definite weight.

The alien sensation, for a split second, of an invisible foot stepping onto the shadow.

The instant Sihyeok clenched his fist, the shadow on the floor shot up like the jaws of a starving beast and bit down, precisely, on that spot.

Krunch!

"Krrgh—!!! You little shit!"

A scream burst out of the transparent air.

Rattled, the assassin lashed out roughly with his foot and pulled away, but he couldn't hide the blood spurting from the ankle torn open by the shadow's teeth.

Splash—!

Red arterial blood scattered across the air.

Red dots stamped onto an invisible space.

They were an all-too-clear target, marked out on a white sheet of paper.

Sihyeok's eyes flashed.

He fired a shadow whip at full force toward the empty air where the red blood had smeared onto the floor.

Thwack!

"Krrk!"

Along with the heavy sound of impact, an invisible shape went flying backward through the air.

Struck square by Sihyeok's attack, the assassin lost control and slammed into the wall.

Kwang—! Krak!

The assassin's back and elbow slammed into the wall.

By sheer bad luck for him, that was where the fire alarm was.

[Weeeeng—! Weeeeng—! Weeeeng—!]

Tearing through the institute's silence, a piercing siren burst out.

"Damn — damn it...!"

At the unexpected blast of noise, the assassin froze in surprise, and — in that split-second gap —

Sihyeok didn't miss the opening.

The child swung a small hand up into the empty air with all his strength.

At that, a heavy shadow — like all the darkness in the room compressed into one — surged up and shaped itself into a huge war hammer.

"Hup!"

With the boy's shout, the compressed shadow-hammer came down, straight down, onto the bloody patch of air.

Whack—!

"Kh... ak!"

Thump.

A sound of something heavy going down.

Maybe from being knocked out.

The empty air rippled unsteadily, and then, as if a clear film were being peeled off, revealed what was really there.

Slumped there, in a horrifying state, was an assassin in a black mask — whites of his eyes showing, foam at the corners of his mouth — knocked cold.

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