The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

Light.

My right side was terrifyingly light.

A red fountain surged up in front of my eyes.

Was that my blood?

Was that coming out of my body?

There was no sense of reality to it. A dream?

Yeah, this had to be a terrible nightmare.

There was no way my arm was cut off and I felt this much of nothing...

Kwajik.

Ah.

Wrong. Not a dream.

My brain, late to the party, started screaming.

Every nerve felt like it was on fire.

Like someone had shoved a red-hot iron rod into my shoulder and was churning it around.

Hot. It hurts.

Someone, put it out.

Put the fire out.

I couldn't tell whether the screaming was coming from my own mouth or ringing in my ears.

The world was flashing white in bursts.

Was I rolling? Or had the world flipped over?

The weight I'd been holding against me was gone.

Who? Who took him away?

"...You... your arm...!"

Somebody was sobbing.

A familiar voice.

A child's voice, seized with terror.

No, no, no. Don't look. A kid shouldn't have to see this.

Something touched me.

A small, shaking hand. And a cold liquid landing on the wound.

Chiiiiik—!

No — kill me.

Please, just kill me.

This isn't treatment. This is torture.

Flesh melting down, the wound sealing shut — I couldn't take this living hell.

I thrashed.

If it would end this horrific pain, I'd have bitten my own tongue off.

That was the moment.

Something rough and metallic-tasting was shoved, hard, into my mouth.

A foreign presence, forcing itself between me and my only escape — that sweet ending.

Let go of me. Leave me alone. I just want it to stop hurting.

I want out. I want to shut the switch off.

If I could just get into that fissure I could see over there, this burning pain would end.

Slap—!

"Wake — up! You're gonna die!"

My ears were ringing.

Who was that shouting? The voice was shaking. Was he angry? Or was he crying?

I didn't care. Anyone would do. Please, somebody, just kill me.

Strangle me, even. Cut my breath off.

I wanted to beg. Wanted to grab someone by the pant leg and plead.

Not to be saved — I was opening my mouth to plead to be killed — when.

"...Nnk... Director..."

"...don't... please don't die..."

......!

Crying.

A choked, wet voice on the verge of breaking cut through my eardrums.

For a moment, the darkness in front of me tore open, and a familiar vision layered itself over the top.

White chrysanthemums. A memorial portrait.

And in front of it, the children wailing.

No.

Don't make them cry.

I can't make those children cry again.

Can't. Not that.

You're their teacher.

I'm their teacher.

The fog lifted.

The metallic stench of blood punched at my nose.

I could see.

Yul's shaking hand — his face gone gray — pressed over my wound.

The crown of Sihyeok's head, buried against my chest, sobbing.

I have to say it.

Why I'm here. What I have to do.

Even in this pain that could drive me insane, the one thing I couldn't forget.

"...Es...cape..."

"...What?"

"The insti...tute... you... have to get them... out..."

Because my work... wasn't done yet.

Tuk.

I fell into deep darkness.

Kwajik—!

The world went red.

Cha Yul saw it, right in front of him, clear.

The Director's right shoulder — the arm that had been wrapped around him — floated up into the air, and...

Tuk.

Dropped, heavy, to the ground — a lump of meat drained of life.

"......Huh?"

The desperate pressure that had been grinding into him hard enough to break bone a moment ago slackened, dead, and just — cut off.

Right after, a hot, metallic-smelling liquid poured down over the boy.

A red rain that ran down his face and covered his sight, whole.

That wasn't a monster's blood.

That was blood from the man who'd tried to shield him — this stupid, weak-as-water man.

"Aaaaaaargh—!!!"

A beast-like scream tore through Cha Yul's eardrums.

Chae Junhyeok was rolling on the ground, thrashing like his mind had come apart.

Out of the severed shoulder, a red fountain was pumping upward.

That horrific blood soaked the ground and drenched his hair as he thrashed in agony.

The blond hair that had always been so unbearably shiny — infuriatingly bright — was soaked through in an instant, dyed dark red.

The contrast in color was so vivid, so hideous, that Cha Yul's vision spun sickeningly.

"You... your arm...!"

The Director was in a hideous state.

Broken by the pain, his eyes had rolled up to the whites, and his whole body was convulsing like a fish out of water.

Cha Yul tore into the hip pack at his waist, frantic, and pulled out an [A-rank Healing Potion].

He ripped the cap off with his teeth and poured it, without a shred of mercy, into the shoulder gushing blood.

Chiiiiik—!

"Aaaaaargh!!!"

That was the moment.

Wuduk.

Chae Junhyeok's jaw was closing with a grotesque sound.

The instinctive spasm of a man about to bite his own tongue off.

"No!"

Without time to think, Cha Yul shoved the index and middle fingers of his left hand, rough, into the man's mouth.

Kwajik—!

Chae Junhyeok's teeth bit down on Cha Yul's fingers hard enough to crush them.

The horrible sound of a child's finger bones cracking rang out, but instead of pulling his hand back, Cha Yul jammed it in deeper.

And with his remaining hand, he swung, rough, at Chae Junhyeok's bloody cheek.

Slap—!

"Get a grip!!!"

Cha Yul shrieked.

"Open your eyes! If you close them now, you actually die!"

That was when—

"Nnk... Director...!"

Beside them, one small figure came in — collapsing more than walking.

Sihyeok dropped where he stood, legs gone from under him.

Then he buried his face against Chae Junhyeok's bloody chest and sobbed openly.

"Don't go... please... hnh... don't die..."

Maybe the wretched sound of that crying got through to him.

Chae Junhyeok's unfocused eyes trembled, very faintly.

He stretched his remaining left hand up into the air, laboring, and groped.

"...Es...cape..."

Through foam-flecked lips, a hoarse, threadbare sound leaked out.

"The insti...tute... you... have to get them... out..."

With those words, Chae Junhyeok's body — that had been convulsing in seizures — went limp, like a puppet with its strings cut.

"...!"

Cha Yul, terrified, pressed his ear to that bloody chest.

Thump. Thump.

Faint, but steady — the rhythm of a heartbeat came through, clear against his eardrum.

"Haah..."

Relief flooded in, and the strength went out of Cha Yul's legs.

With a trembling hand, he carefully pulled his almost-crushed fingers back out of the man's mouth.

On the bloodied fingers, a vivid tooth-mark had been left behind.

"You stupid bastard... who told you to take a hit for me... who..."

But there wasn't even time to be swallowed by grief.

"Kraaaang—!!!"

An eardrum-shredding roar broke out ahead of them.

Kang! Kwajik!

Han Jewoon was blocking the beast's forepaw with his sword and getting driven back.

"Boss! Damn it, its speed... isn't dropping!"

Kang San was circling the beast, throwing sonic booms — but the serpent tail was spraying poison in every direction, and even closing the distance wasn't easy.

The defensive line was falling apart.

The unconscious, bloodied Director behind him, Cha Yul turned his head, slow, to look at the monster.

The maw of it was hideous.

Between savagely bared fangs, wet red blood — unmistakably the Director's — was dripping down, heavy.

"That bastard..."

Cha Yul's red eyes shook, reason gone.

"That bastard... how DARE—!!!"

Kwang—!

Cha Yul kicked off the ground and shot out, mind gone.

No strategy, no calculation — nothing.

A blind charge full of one thing only: the will to kill.

"Die!!!"

Cha Yul drove a fist wrapped in red mana straight into the beast's face.

But.

Suk.

The monster tilted its head aside just slightly — as if mocking him — and dodged Cha Yul's fist.

Too simple.

An attack driven by rage might be devastating in force, but the arc it followed was obvious, easy to read.

The instant the beast dodged, the serpent tail cut in for Cha Yul's flank.

"!"

Cha Yul clenched his teeth and blew a burst of mana into his boots.

Paat—!

Twisting his trajectory in midair to force his way past the serpent's fangs, Cha Yul kicked off empty space and rushed the beast's back.

Puk! Kwang!

Blocked, thrown back, rolling across the dirt — Cha Yul didn't stop.

He used [Mirage of Illusion] to throw a decoy of himself out as bait, and burned the [Ring of Acceleration] until it wore out to push his attack speed higher.

He drew on every artifact the Director had given him and stuck to the beast like an avenging spirit.

The monster's eyes — at first casual, like it was swatting an annoying fly — began to shift.

The child's once-simple attack pattern had, along with the rage, turned unpredictable, and the speed was climbing exponentially. The beast's confusion was unmistakable.

Watching, Kang San's jaw dropped open.

"B — boss! Why does that kid look like he's getting faster? No, he's way stronger than before too!"

Kang San was right.

The red mana wrapping Cha Yul was seething like it had gone into overload.

Not simply because of the artifacts.

Real-time growth pushing past his own ceiling.

"Ha..."

Han Jewoon knew it on instinct — the way an S-rank Hunter would.

That kid, right now, in this life-or-death fight, was breaking his own vessel open and expanding it, on his own.

"Talent like that... it's a monster in its own right."

While Han Jewoon was clicking his tongue in disbelief—

"Die!!!"

Cha Yul, thrown back, kicked off empty air before he even hit the ground and came shooting back in.

A red flash that didn't leave an afterimage.

Puburburuk—!

Dozens of impacts erupted across the beast's golden hide at once.

So fast it felt like dozens of people were beating on it from every direction all at the same time.

"Kraaaang—!!!"

Enraged at the humiliation of being pummeled by mere food, the beast let out a genuine roar.

Golden mana exploded off its whole body.

Kuguguguung!

There was nowhere to run.

Its enormous forepaw came down on Cha Yul's head like a lightning bolt.

Cha Yul didn't dodge. No — he had no intention of dodging.

If anything, the boy threw both arms wide and lunged straight at the incoming paw.

Kwaaang—!

Chaang-grang—!

Amid the roar of the world splitting apart, a clear, mournful shattering sound rang out.

The last [Warding Jade Talisman] the Director had given him broke into pieces, absorbing the monster's strike.

"Kh-uk...!"

The absolute barrier canceled the shock, but even it couldn't erase that monstrous pressure.

Cha Yul's knees drove into the dirt, and his bones screamed.

But the split-second of time the Director's talisman had bought him.

"Gotcha."

Cha Yul's red eyes flashed, savage.

Wuuuuung—!!!

The astronomical destructive force the beast had brought down poured, whole, down Cha Yul's arms and into his body.

By rights, it was more than his vessel could handle.

But because the talisman had filtered the damage, the monster's attack energy came rushing straight into Cha Yul's core.

"No... more..."

Cha Yul spat blood-mixed saliva and growled like an animal.

"I'm sick of losing anything else!!!"

Cha Yul, eyes bloodshot, layered every last drop of his own mana on top of the S-rank power he'd absorbed and compressed it all down into his right fist.

"What you took... I'm giving it back double!!!"

Kwaaaaang—!!!

The small fist launched, and slammed clean up into the beast's undefended jaw.

Wuduk — Kwang!

An unbelievable sight.

The house-sized bulk of an S-rank boss monster was, by a single punch from a child, hoisted up against gravity into the air.

Cha Yul didn't stop there.

Refusing to let the airborne boss get away, the boy pumped mana into his boots.

Paat—!

Blue light burst, and Cha Yul's body shot upward like an arrow.

Catching up to the boss's height in an instant, he twisted his body in midair.

"Die!!!"

Cha Yul loaded every scrap of remaining mana onto the potential energy of his fall and drove his foot down at the crown of the beast's head.

Kwaaaang—!!!

Not a simple collision. A disaster like a huge meteor coming down in the middle of the plain.

The earth screamed and flipped over, and out of the splitting cracks, columns of dirt erupted upward.

"Huff... huff..."

Inside the thick dust cloud, Cha Yul landed, staggering.

"Kulk...!"

At the limit. Every muscle in his body was tearing, and his core burned like it was about to combust.

Dead? Was it done?

But...

"Krrrrr..."

Through the dust cloud — its head half caved in, its whole body drenched in blood — the monster staggered back to its feet.

Full of killing intent, it slowly raised an enormous forepaw over the Cha Yul who couldn't move a finger.

Cha Yul, sensing the end, was just about to squeeze his eyes shut — the exact moment.

Sreung—.

A clear, cold sound of steel cut across the battlefield.

"Nicely done, kid."

Chiiik—!

Empty air screamed and tore open.

A rift in dimension, splitting as if paper were being torn.

Out of that pitch-black abyss, dozens of blades laden with S-rank mana lifted their heads, savage.

The king had returned.

Not the flashy legion of hundreds, thousands of blades he could field with a full mana pool — but the dozens he had now carried the seasoned edge of an S-rank Hunter.

"Let's finish this."

Han Jewoon stretched out a hand, and the airborne blades came down like a meteor shower.

Suseusuk—!

That wasn't an assault.

It was precise dismantling.

Each time the deep-blue blades of ki crossed, the beast's serpent tail and limbs were sliced like tofu.

Without so much as a scream, the once-massive monster was carved into thousands of small pieces in a heartbeat — nothing left of its form.

Paseuseu...

The disaster that had been on the verge of evolving into an S-rank, unable to even manage a final death-cry, dissolved into a handful of ash and scattered into the air.

A perfect victory.

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