The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

At that one line, my thoughts locked up cold.

"A — Ari?"

[Looks like they were after Teacher Kim Sunja. She was buried so completely off the map for eight years, I have no idea how they suddenly pinned down her location, but...]

The instant Han Jewoon's voice trailed off into puzzlement, my heart dropped through the floor.

Me.

A recluse no one had been able to find in eight years.

And the second I paid her a visit, her location was blown and her granddaughter was kidnapped?

"Ah..."

My mouth went dry.

I'd been unforgivably careless.

I'd overlooked that every move I made could be a set of coordinates for someone else.

[I called just in case you had anything for me. If not, forget it. I'm hanging up.]

"Wait!"

I called out, urgent.

"I... I just got hit myself."

[What?]

"It was an assassin. And on the inside of the mask he was wearing — the Awakened Liberation Front's logo."

[...Awakened Liberation Front?]

Puzzlement crept into Han Jewoon's voice.

[But there's no reason those terrorists would specifically go after Teacher Kim Sunja...]

Kwaaang—!

Right then, on his end, a boom like a building coming down.

[Guild Master! They're saying monsters are breaching the third sector defensive line! You have to come in now!]

Frantic, near-screaming reports. At this rate the call was going to drop.

Before it did, I asked him, fast.

"The Teacher... where is Teacher Kim Sunja right now?"

[The only intel we've got is that she landed at the airport an hour ago. The kidnappers probably lured her up to Seoul.]

"I'll... I'll help."

[You will?]

Blunt puzzlement rode Han Jewoon's voice.

"Looks like... it's on me. My movements got exposed, and that's how the bastards got her scent, most likely."

[Ha. And so you'll help?]

He let out a small, disbelieving laugh, and drove in, needle-sharp.

[What do you get out of helping? Recruiting the old lady is off the table already. And you're going to stick your neck out anyway?]

He paused, then muttered, low.

[Don't tell me... is it guilt?]

At the question hitting dead center, my heart dropped.

Oops.

Guilt was not a word that fit a wastrel.

I quickly pulled my expression back into shape and, deliberately brazen, shot back:

"Guilt, my ass. Do I look like the type to grow something like that?"

I dropped my voice into the register of a mercenary running the numbers.

"Who knows? Bring the granddaughter back safe... maybe she'd reconsider my offer."

[......]

A long silence stretched across the line.

Han Jewoon held perfectly still, not even breathing, as if trying to read what I really meant.

Then, after a while, he let out a deep sigh and spoke.

[...Fine. Do just one thing, then.]

"..."

[I'm pinned down here, I can't leave right now. Until I wrap this up and get there, just hold the old lady in place. Don't let her do anything stupid.]

"What?"

[With that personality of hers, the second her eyes go red she'll charge in alone, guaranteed. Get there, stall. Understood?]

"No, wait — how are you going to make it in time—"

[Click.]

With that, the call cut without ceremony.

First things first — find out where Teacher Kim Sunja is!

I had no time to sit there in a daze.

Without even registering the anxious looks from the Chief Researchers, I hit her number right away.

Tuu— tuu—.

The ring drew out, long.

An eternity in which each second felt like a year.

Suffocating impatience was clenching around my throat when — right in that instant.

[Click.]

The tone cut and someone picked up.

"Teacher!"

[...That Chae kid. I'm busy.]

"Where are you right now!"

Even at my shout, only a heavy silence came from the other end for a moment.

Then, a deep, weary sigh.

[...Han Jewoon ran his mouth, then.]

Kim Sunja clicked her tongue and cut in, cold and flat.

[Butt out. This isn't a table you get a seat at.]

"It — it's because of me!"

I shouted, urgent.

"Because of me... my movements got exposed and that's how those bastards got wind! Because of me, Ari—!"

[Don't get it wrong.]

Her voice was firm.

[It isn't because of you. This was something I'd braced for from eight years ago. I don't know what set them off, but if what they wanted was to draw me out, it worked.]

She kept going, flat, but so cold it went into the bone.

[This is my fight. You stay out of it.]

"Wait — wait, hold on! Together, we could—"

[Click.]

The call ended.

"Damn it!"

I clenched the terminal in my fist and swore.

An ominous premonition dragged at my ankles.

The reason the Soul Blacksmith, Kim Sunja, never once appeared in the original novel.

What if it was because she'd walked into a trap and been killed — that's why she never showed up in the original?

"No...!"

I couldn't sit still. I'd just kicked myself out of my chair to bolt when—

"Director! Where are you going!"

Lee Jinwoo planted himself in my way.

"You heard the call just now! That person — she's the Teacher I was trying to bring in! I need to go, now!"

"Do you even know where she is!"

Han Soeun grabbed my arm and shouted.

"You said she was somewhere near the airport, so if we hurry—!"

"Calm down!"

Right then Lee Jinwoo, in my way, pushed his glasses up and said, grave:

"I... I think I have her location."

"What?"

Lee Jinwoo held up his terminal.

"Just now, while you were on the call — just in case, I back-traced the signal in real time."

On the screen, a complex map, and a single red dot blinking.

"Location, confirmed."^※TL Nah these 3 researchers. Actual goats.

I threw open the display case on the wall of the Director's office, rough.

Inside were all the artifacts I'd been buying up until then, laid out on the shelves.

Taking all of it.

Offensive, defensive, support.

No time to sort by use or rank.

I pulled out the [Subspace Pouch] and, quite literally, swept the case clean into it.

"D — Director! You're going out there alone?!"

"That's too dangerous! At least take the security team with you—!"

Catching on late, Han Soeun and the researchers rushed in front of me in panic.

The Director — not even Awakened — throwing himself into a death trap alone. Of course they'd try to stop me.

But right now my head was full of one thing only — Ari's face, alone in an unfamiliar place, shaking with fear.

"Move!!"

"Director!!!"

Ignoring the shouting behind me, I sprinted, full speed, for the garage.

Down in the underground lot, five top-of-the-line cars this wastrel had collected sat parked in a row, all under a layer of dust.

I always wrote this off as pure money-burning excess... turns out it pays off for once.

I swept the parked cars with my eyes, quick.

The sleek sports cars caught my eye, but I shook my head.

No way the kidnappers are hiding out in the middle of chaotic downtown. They'll have to be on a back-country road or somewhere up in the mountains.

A sports car riding low to the ground wouldn't cut it.

I threw open the door of the heaviest, sturdiest-looking black off-roader and climbed into the driver's seat.

Vrrrmm—!

With a low, heavy engine note that rattled the eardrums, the car woke up.

I flung Lee Jinwoo's terminal — I'd swiped it from him — into the passenger seat and pulled up the hologram map.

The red dot blinking on it was already cutting hard across the city center, tearing east, toward District 5.

Are the kidnappers in the mountains, then?

By some small mercy in all this, the Nest Research Institute sat on the north side of Seoul.

If I hit the outer ring road and cut diagonally, I could actually get out ahead of them.

"Wait for me, Teacher."

I gripped the wheel tight.

"On my way."

Skreeeeee—!

Along with the smell of burning rubber, the black off-roader shot out of the garage.

About five minutes after clearing the institute and hitting the empty pre-dawn highway.

I felt the shadow under the foot on the accelerator writhe, oddly.

"Huh?"

I was just tilting my head down to look when—

The shadow bloomed huge in an instant and started dumping something out, thing after thing.

"Ow!"

"Ugh, you're heavy!"

"Oppa! My foot! Ow! Ouch!"

"What the—?!"

At the familiar screaming, I slammed the brakes in shock.

Skreeeeeee—!

The tires screamed and the car bucked.

Luckily it was pre-dawn and there was nothing behind us, but the back seat was chaos in an instant.

I checked the rearview mirror and my jaw dropped clean open.

In that tiny space, six children were packed like Tetris blocks, tangled up in each other.

Cha Yul, Lee Sea-ah, Kim Sihyeok, Park Suho — and the twins on top of that.

"You... you kids..."

When I couldn't get another word out from disbelief, the little ones in the back seat sidled their eyes away, sneaking looks at me.

"Do you have any idea where I'm going right now — you came along with no fear at all?! Are all of you out of your minds?"

At my roar, every kid's shoulders flinched in unison.

But nobody said a word, so I ended up pointing at the oldest of the pack.

"No answer? Cha Yul! Lee Sea-ah!"

Even at the shot, Cha Yul kept his mouth clamped shut and stared, sulky, out the window.

I was about to clutch the back of my neck and lose it when Lee Sea-ah, beside him, let out a sigh deep enough to sink the floor and cut in first.

"The kids were bawling and throwing a fit about coming after you, Director... I had no choice, I came along as their guardian."

"Guardian?"

I couldn't believe my ears.

A nine-year-old who should be the one being looked after, playing guardian!

I pressed at a throbbing temple and looked at the one clearly behind this whole mess.

The ash-haired kid, wedged into the corner.

"Kim Sihyeok. You went back to your room earlier — how on earth did you know to come along?"

At the pressing, Sihyeok answered, low.

"...I lay down to sleep and I felt you leaving...."

"That doesn't mean you sneak—!"

I was just about to push him harder when—

The kids, who'd been dead-quiet, rose up in a swarm like they'd rehearsed it and closed around Sihyeok, protecting him.

"Director, don't yell at Sihyeok-oppa!"

"Right! Hyung didn't do anything wrong!"

While I was still standing there stunned, the whole situation flipped on me.

"Oppa told us everything! Some bad person came to kill you, Director!"

"It's dangerous! How can you go alone! Director, you dummy!"

Suho started to sniffle, and the twins started to well up right along with him.

While I was flapping my mouth open and closed, unable to say anything, Lee Sea-ah — who'd been standing there with her arms folded watching — delivered the finishing blow.

"What are we supposed to do if you die, Director? You said you were going to take responsibility for us. Please treat your own life with a little respect."

Behind them, Cha Yul was silent — but he was glaring at me, harder than any of them.

Ha....

I swallowed a strangled laugh.

Hang on — am I really the one getting scolded here?

Right then the terminal on the passenger seat caught my eye.

The red dot wasn't stopping — it was moving, fast.

Should I turn back?

I hesitated a moment, but turning around and heading back to the institute now would cost us our shot at saving Ari, no question.

"Hooo..."

In the end I let out a deep sigh and put my hands up.

"Fine, fine. You win."

The kids' faces lit up in an instant.

"But on a condition."

I glared at them, hard, through the rearview mirror.

"No matter what happens, do not — do not — get out of this car. Don't use your abilities without my say-so. Just sit there, quiet, and breathe. Got it?"

"Yes!"

"Cha Yul, Lee Sea-ah — you especially. You look out for the little ones."

"...Got it."

Cha Yul answered curt and turned his head away, but a faint, relieved smile spread at the corner of his mouth.

I gripped the wheel again and hit the accelerator.

The car cut through the dark and shot forward once more.

The rowdiest, most dependable backup in the world crammed into the back seat.

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