The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

"Teacher!!!"

The billowing cloud of dust cleared, and Kim Sunja came into view, driven deep into the rubble of the collapsed wall.

And in front of her, two uninvited guests were standing.

One of them had hair a bright, burning red from root to tip.

He wore a sukajan with a lavish tiger embroidered across the back, and he was standing crooked, slowly lowering the right leg he'd just kicked Kim Sunja with.

Hands stuffed in his pockets, chewing gum, he showed no trace of the tension you'd expect from a man who had just sent an S-rank Hunter flying.

"Hey! Fox, you little shit! What the hell is this?"

He spat his gum on the ground with a ptooey and growled.

"Fuck! You said Han Jewoon'd be here! I don't see a single hair of the guy!"

Beside him, the other one.

He was wrapped head to toe in a pitch-black changpao.

His narrow, slitted eyes gave nothing away — smiling or glaring, no way to tell — and he was waving a feather fan in one hand, elegant and unhurried.

An eerie, out-of-place presence — impossibly still and alien for a scene reeking of blood.

He glanced at the partner losing his mind next to him, held the fan up in front of his mouth, and cocked his head, unfazed.

"Oh? That's strange."

His voice was infuriatingly soft.

"According to my sources... this is exactly where he should be, though."

Neither of the two spared a thought for what they'd just done, or for the carnage around them.

They just stood there and bickered at each other like it was nothing.

But that alone was enough.

The vicious pressure rolling off them was more than enough to crush the cold air of the abandoned factory flat.

I instinctively pushed the kids behind me and started backing up.

No... way.

I knew these two.

Actually — there was no way I wouldn't.

The feather fan and the changpao, and that lavish sukajan.

The worst villains in the original — the ones who, one day, would trample and annihilate a prime-of-life Cha Yul and Nest Guild.

Those living disasters were standing in front of me right now.

Why the hell are they already here?

The encounter with them was supposed to come after Cha Yul escaped the institute, met Han Jewoon and trained under him, and built a guild.

At least a decade and a half from now. Later.

So why now? Here, where Cha Yul was still a kid?

My head went white, tangled in confusion and fear.

Between my trembling lips, the epithets the original had given them slipped out on their own.

"...Mad Dog... and Fox..."

He must have caught the tiny mutter, because both men's eyes snapped over to me in unison.

"Ohh? You know us? Well, this is an honor."

The slit-eyed man with the fan let his eyes narrow further, amused.

But that wasn't where the reaction stopped.

Whip—!

Before I could blink, the man in the sukajan was in front of me, seizing my collar and hoisting me up.

"What? Mad Dog? This little bastard... calling me a rabid mutt?"

The growling man's pupils narrowed into vertical slits, like an animal's.

"Guk... khuk..."

"Director!!!"

I was thrashing, unable to breathe, when—

Shweeek—!

Something whistled through the air with a sharp cutting sound and came flying at the redhead's flank.

Kwaang!

A cane came down like a bolt of lightning right where he had been standing.

"Take your hand off."

Kim Sunja walked out of the thick dust cloud.

Her forehead was split and red blood was running down her face, but her eyes didn't waver for an instant — they burned bright.

But Mad Dog was already gone from that spot.

Whip—!

He was already well back, some distance away.

A monster's reaction speed — not even an afterimage left behind.

"Kwahaha! S-rank after all, huh! I hit you pretty damn hard back there!"

Mad Dog licked his lips, mania in his eyes, and fixed them on Kim Sunja.

He was just growling and settling into a stance when the Fox, behind him, brought the fan up to hide his mouth and cut in, soft and syrupy.

"I'm a little tired today, so I was thinking of just watching... you don't need my help, do you?"

"Ha! Help?"

Mad Dog snorted, incredulous.

"Just don't get in the way of my hunt. Pathetic — burn through that much and you're already dragging."

"Well... running around all of Seoul dumping mana out isn't exactly easy, you know."

The Fox shrugged, as if wronged.

"Which is exactly what makes you soft."

In that instant, lightning went off in my head.

Running around all of Seoul... dumping mana out?

That simultaneous disaster that had turned Seoul upside down today.

Don't tell me... he induced the Gate breaches? But how the hell would he even do that—!

Just as the original's material on Gate breaches was about to surface—

"A bit of a shame it's not Han Jewoon, but... you're S-rank at least, so you'll do for a warm-up."

Mad Dog moved before I could finish the thought.

"Try not to die on me too fast!"

Kwaaang—!

At his shout, blood-red mana exploded off him from head to toe like an active volcano.

That's... a warm-up?

I sucked in a breath.

It didn't even look like he was going full-out.

He'd only barely let his pressure leak, and already a sickly-thick mana in a quantity that could swallow the whole factory was churning up.

An overwhelming reserve — his mana pool looked bottomless, like a barrel with no floor.

Inside the sickly-boiling red haze, all ten of his fingertips twisted, grotesque.

Krunch, kwajik!

With a skin-crawling sound of bone shifting out of joint, the skin at his fingertips tore, rough, from the inside out.

And out of the ripped flesh, steel-like claws shot out, long and blade-sharp, gleaming an eerie blue.

"For a rabid dog...."

Kim Sunja slowly pulled the cane, driven deep into the floor, back out and answered, cool.

"...a stick's the cure."

Kuung—.

From that small body, the heavy, overwhelming pressure that only an S-rank could put out rolled through the space and pressed it flat.

"Fuck! I said I'm not a rabid dog!!"

Kwang—!

"Chae boy, take the kids and get back."

At Kim Sunja's words, Mad Dog exploded forward, melting the ground under him.

Krakakang—!

Sparks flew in midair.

Mad Dog had already closed to nose-length in front of Kim Sunja, and his claws came whipping in for her throat.

But Kim Sunja didn't dodge.

Tak!

Her cane traced the shortest possible line and clipped his wrist, precise.

The trajectory of the claws twisted off and cut nothing but air.

"Ha! Not bad for an old lady!"

But he didn't stop.

If anything, he used the rebound to spin his body, his other hand slashing in for her flank, meant to tear her open.

Kwaaang!

Kim Sunja spun the cane in turn to block, and the shockwave burst outward, blowing every window in the factory to pieces at once.

Chang—!

"Hahaha! More! More!"

Mad Dog laughed like a madman as he pressed the assault.

Once, twice, ten times.

In a blink, dozens of exchanges flew back and forth.

Mad Dog ran the walls, kicked off the ceiling, rolled across the floor — like a beast that ignored gravity — coming at Kim Sunja from every direction, trying to tear her open.

Krakang! Kwang!

A downpour of red claws.

Kim Sunja's cane moved faster than the eye could follow, striking and jabbing at his vitals, but—

She's losing ground...!

Under Mad Dog's ferocious, all-out onslaught of overwhelming power and speed, Kim Sunja's feet were being driven back, little by little — but definitely.

"The Great Teacher really is something else! Running out of juice, though?"

Mad Dog sneered and brought both hands down in a crossing strike.

Kwaaang—!

Kim Sunja blocked with her cane, but her knees nearly buckled under the monstrous impact, and she staggered.

At the same time, the enormous windforce and killing intent from their clash washed over me.

"Hurk...!"

My breath caught.

It wasn't just terror.

The vicious pressure rolling off the S-rank monsters was physically crushing my ordinary heart.

Calm... I have to calm down.

With trembling hands, I fumbled inside my jacket, pulled out a [Candy of Calm], and tossed it into my mouth.

Only when its sweetness spread across my tongue did I even register that my whole body had been shaking like a leaf.

This wasn't... a fight between humans.

This was a disaster.

That was when—

"Have some of this too!"

Mad Dog seized the opening and exploded his red mana, driving in close.

Kwajik!

Even that sturdy cane couldn't hold up under his monstrous grip strength — with a horrible crack, it snapped in two, worthless.

Kim Sunja's midsection, wide open.

With his freed hand, he drove those hideous claws in a straight line for her heart.

"All right — let's end this! It was fun, old hag!"

The instant his claws were about to punch through Kim Sunja's heart—

Whip—!

I threw myself in front of her, blocking the strike.

"Director!!!"

"Nooo!!!"

Something close to a scream tore out of the kids behind me.

But I had a backup plan.

Chaang-grang—!

With a sharp shattering sound, a jade ornament that had been giving off a beautiful light inside my coat broke into pieces.

[B-rank Artifact: Warding Jade Talisman]

A one-use defensive item that perfectly blocked a single fatal attack aimed at the wearer.

An item worth tens of millions of won, gone to nothing in a single swipe of his claws.

"What the—!"

Even he seemed slightly thrown that his killing blow had been stopped.

I didn't waste the opening — whipped a [Mana Pistol] out of my coat and squeezed the trigger straight at his face.

Pang—!

A blue mana bullet ripped out, but he was already gone from that spot.

A speed that left no afterimage.

Somehow he was already well back, scratching his head like this was an inconvenience.

"Ah, shit... I was told not to kill you, though."

Mad Dog grumbled, put out.

"That crazy bitch would put god-knows-what kind of curse on me later. Tch."

"Crazy... bitch?"

While I was echoing the phrase back, the Fox — who'd been watching from the sidelines — snapped his fan shut and cut in, low.

"She did say arms and legs were fair game, didn't she?"

His voice was skin-crawlingly soft.

"There's a lot we'd need to ask him anyway — for one, how he knew who we were. Just don't kill him. Bring the torso."

"What...?"

A chill went down my spine.

The [Candy of Calm] was melting in my mouth, forcibly holding my heart rate down, but even it couldn't block the raw animal fear.

"Okay! Just chop off the arms and legs — that it?"

Mad Dog grinned and dropped into stance.

"You're dead."

Whip—!

My vision blinked out again.

Chaang-grang—!

A second warding talisman shattered into pieces.

"Ha! You had another one? Burning cash like a real jackass."

Mad Dog clicked his tongue and gave a bloody little smirk.

"All right — let's go. See which runs out first. Your pockets, or my claws."

His claws heated up red again.

Damn it...!

My hand, damp with cold sweat, groped for my pocket.

The cold jade of a talisman against my fingertips.

Only one left.

His claws came screaming in for my heart.

I stretched a hand out to pull the talisman free.

But there was something faster.

Kwang—!

Along with an eardrum-splitting boom, a huge transparent barrier went up in front of me.

And a familiar small back was standing there, blocking the way.

"Se — Sea-ah...?"

The child didn't turn around — just shouted, voice near breaking.

"Get the Director out of here!!!"

"What?!"

No time to react.

Shwook—!

From under my feet, and from under the fallen Kim Sunja's feet, black shadows shot up like tentacles.

The shadows wrapped gently around our waists and, in a single motion, yanked us back to safety behind the line.

At the same time.

"Kids! Now!"

Sea-ah's shout rang through the factory.

Wuuung—

The dozens of pieces of rebar and H-beams strewn across the factory floor lifted up like missiles and came pouring down on the spot where Mad Dog was standing.

Dudududu—!

Kwaaang!

A merciless mass bombardment.

Dust bloomed up thick.

"Did we... did we get him?"

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