At Ari's words, Hayun — who'd had her nose buried in a pillow, sniffling — lifted her head slightly.
She'd cried so hard the tip of her nose had gone strawberry-red.
"...How?"
"Hehe, don't worry, I've got a method!"
Ari rummaged in a corner of the room and dug out some familiar items.
The chalkboard and the pink magic wand she'd used not long ago.
Tak, tak!
Ari rapped the chalkboard crisply with the wand, and the kids' eyes drifted to it as if hypnotized.
"The standard is my grandma. The things grandma did that made me feel loved! We check whether the ajusshi does those things!"
Ari wrote on the chalkboard in shaky, uneven letters.
"These are things you absolutely cannot do if there's no love."
Give up the good side dishes
"First! Giving up the sausages and meat side dishes!"
Ari swallowed hard.
"No matter how hungry grandma was, she always gave me the drumstick. So when we try to snatch the tastiest thing at mealtime, we watch whether the ajusshi hands it over without a fuss!"
Falling down in front of them
"Second! We take a tumble in front of the ajusshi and check his reaction!"
Ari did an extremely realistic pantomime of tripping and crashing to the floor.
"Whenever I fell while I was running around playing, grandma would drop the spatula and come running out barefoot."
Ari's eyes went solemn, and she clenched a fist.
"So when the ajusshi is walking past, we act like our legs get tangled and — smack! — down we go. And we watch how he reacts!"
Coming to find you no matter where you are
"And finally, number three! This is the most important!"
Ari clenched her fist, solemn, and her eyes lit up.
"No matter how well I'm hidden, he doesn't give up and comes looking."
"Comes... looking?"
"Yeah! Grandma did too. When I was in the mountains playing my head off and the sun went down, come evening she'd always come find me. To tell me it was time to eat!"
Ari added, in a certain voice:
"A tool, if you lose it, you just buy another one and that's that, right? But if he comes looking for us when we go missing... that's proof we're not disposable tools — we're precious to him, someone he can't do without!"
Explanation done, Ari looked around the room and grinned.
"How about it? If he passes all three of these... it means the ajusshi is a nice person who just talks mean!"
At Ari's bold declaration, the mood in the room split, subtle.
"..."
Cha Yul and Lee Sea-ah didn't look like they put much stock in what Ari was saying.
But unlike those two's cynical reaction, the rest of the kids had a different light in their eyes.
A tangled look — the maybe of hope mixed with the no way of doubt.
"Does... does that really work?"
Hayun, tears-and-all a moment ago, spoke up cautiously.
"Of course! Grandma said so. In times like these... nothing... nothing ventured... ven..."
Ari tapped her finger against her lip and tilted her head.
"Ven... what was it? Nothing ventured, nothing gain-ed? Nothing ventured, nothing grain?"
"..."
"Ugh, forget it! Anyway, it means it's better to try than to regret not trying! We've got nothing to lose, right?"
Ari drew her own conclusion, breezy, and rapped the chalkboard.
"Then the operation starts first thing tomorrow morning! Steel yourselves, everyone!"
From that day on, the kids started lying in wait, hawk-eyed, for a chance to run Ari's grandma verification method.
Lunchtime, the big dining table in the Sunshine Room.
"Mnf...!"
Hayun, holding back tears, carefully wrapped the crisp-skinned sausage from her tray in a napkin.
Next to her, Hajun was also setting the biggest piece of meat aside, hands trembling.
"...Noona."
Hajun whispered into Hayun's ear, small.
"What if the Director doeshn't come today? I really like this... can't I just eat it?"
Hayun clamped a hand over her rumbling stomach, but shook her head, firm.
"No! He's coming! When he comes we have to test him!"
Meanwhile, on the mattress behind the table, a nonstop thud, thud kept going.
"Suho! No, not like that! It's way too obvious!"
Ari clicked her tongue and waved the wand around like a conductor's baton, and next to her Suho stood in an awkward half-crouch, looking miserable.
"Noona... my butt hurts..."
"Quit whining! Ha... ha... come on! Don't you know how to act? You're walking by, and it's like your feet just tangle up, super natural — smack! Do it again!"
"O-okay... I'll... I'll try again."
Suho, with a solemn expression, hurled himself at the floor one more time.
Whoosh—
But before Suho's body could hit the floor, a black shadow rose up like a soft cushion and caught him, gentle.
"Who is it! Who's messing with practice!"
Ari whipped around and shouted.
But the moment her eyes met Sihyeok's through a crack in the tent, her voice dropped fast.
"Si-Sihyeok..."
Ari's face went red as a ripe tomato, and she poked at her palm with the wand for no reason.
"W-we laid a soft mattress down! It doesn't really hurt!"
Ari stammered, pretending to bluster.
"You've got to practice like it's the real thing — if you keep... catching him like that..."
The moment she met Sihyeok's dark eyes, her sentence trailed off.
Sihyeok moved the shadow and carefully set Suho down on the floor.
"...It hurts. Go easy."
At Sihyeok's low voice, Ari's face got even redder, and Suho said "O-okay! Got it!" and giggled.
Sea-ah and Cha Yul didn't bother stopping them, but watched from a distance with a look that said these two, honestly.
The kids had prepared for every angle, each in their own way.
But then an unexpected — and biggest — problem came up.
"...Wait, why isn't he showing his face at all?"
The target of their test — the Director — refused to appear.
Not just in the Sunshine Room where the kids lived, but in the virtual training room too, they didn't so much as catch the hem of his coat.
Finally, unable to take it anymore, Suho carefully caught the hem of his assigned researcher's coat.
"Um... Teacher."
Suho bowed his head, polite but with worry in his eyes.
"Um, do you know where the Director is? He hasn't been around for days..."
"Hm? The Director?"
The researcher scratched the back of her head, looking troubled at Suho's wide, earnest eyes.
"You know, I haven't seen him myself. I've got no idea where he's been either."
"Oh... okay..."
Suho let go of the researcher's coat, visibly deflated.
The kids trudged back with nothing to show for it and gathered in a circle in the middle of the Sunshine Room, letting out sighs deep enough to sink the earth.
"Haah......"
Hayun poked at the now-cold sausage with her fork and made a miserable face.
"The sausage... I even shaved it on purpose..."
"Ugh, come on! Why isn't he coming! He used to show up so much it was annoying!"
The kids stared at the firmly closed door and stamped their feet.
"Noona... the giving-up-side-dishes one and the falling-down one both need the Director to be right there..."
Faced with the Director's ironclad disappearing act, the kids' ambitious little operation stalled before it even started.
Same time.
I walked into the by-now-fairly-familiar Bawi Guild headquarters lobby.
"Haah......"
I let out a sigh deep enough to sink the earth.
I knew avoiding a problem instead of facing it was a bad habit — but I couldn't work up the nerve to see the kids, and this was the sad little place I'd ended up running to.
Head and body were moving in completely different directions.
"Welcome, Director!"
At the reception desk, that same woman from last time greeted me with the same warm smile as before.
"I'll show you straight to the Guild Master today as well."
"Please."
I gave a light nod, then poked the guy next to me — the one standing there completely out of it — in the ribs.
"..."
Beside me, Lee Jinwoo stood with his mouth hanging open like his jaw was about to unhinge, head whipping around the lobby.
The scale of the guild interior had him totally slack-jawed.
"Number One. Wipe your drool."
"Ah! Ahem, ahem... i-is this really Bawi Guild headquarters? Wow..."
"Close your mouth, would you? A fly's going to get in."
Honestly, I'd never intended to bring Lee Jinwoo here.
There was a risk of Bawi Guild secrets leaking out, and I still couldn't fully trust Lee Jinwoo as a person.
But I'd brought him along in the end, because I had something to fall back on.
[Deceiver's Contract]
The absolute contract I'd made with the senior researchers some time back.
Truth be told, up until now I'd had no reason to actually invoke a contract to compel them, so I'd left it sitting — but now the situation was different.
Better to lock it in.
As long as something was forcing him to put my orders above everything else, he couldn't pull anything.
I gave Lee Jinwoo — who was still standing there gaping — a low warning.
"By the [Deceiver's Contract], I command you. What you see and hear here today, you take to the grave."
The moment I said it.
Wuuung—.
Along with a low humming resonance, Lee Jinwoo's body stiffened with a jolt.
Around his throat, red mana circuits sprouted like blood vessels, then took the shape of a shackle around his neck and glowed with a fierce light.
The contract's coercion had triggered.
"Ugh...!"
Lee Jinwoo, momentarily choking, clutched at his own throat.
But the shape quickly dissolved as if seeping down under his skin.
An ordinary person would have been terrified.
But of course, Lee Jinwoo was a researcher too.
Instead of fear, he stroked the throat that had just been shackled and let out a fascinated exclamation.
"So that's how it activates...!"
Lee Jinwoo's eyes trembled with excitement.
"You never once used it, so honestly I thought you'd forgotten about it. The mana structure faded too fast for me to get a real look, but I think it's the binding type."
He leaned in toward me and let the words spill out, rapid-fire.
"Director. Later — could you let the artifact team scan it just once? Just once. It's possible we could use it in other ways."
I'd thought Han Soeun was the only mad scientist. This guy was no slouch either.
"Quiet, and just follow me."
I hit the elevator button, practiced.
Ding-dong—.
Just as I was about to step in, a light voice landed on me from behind.
"Huh? Director, is that you?"
I turned to find, as always, Kang San of unmistakably one-of-a-kind style.
An eye-searing neon oversized hoodie strung with kitschy accessories.
Around his neck, a huge pair of headphones the size of his own head slung casually — standing with his weight cocked on one leg, he was a walking definition of hipster.
For a moment I wondered how I was supposed to deal with him.
We had, name notwithstanding, crossed a life-and-death line together, and the human thing was probably to be warm with him — but I steadied myself.
I had to be Chae Junhyeok, as always.
"Been a while. Body all right?"
I lifted my chin, arrogant, but with the question quietly there.
"Ah, me? Perfectly fine. Fresh as a daisy, as you can see."
Kang San hopped lightly on the spot to show off how sound he was.
Then his teasing eyes came to a stop on my right arm.
"Hmm... as for the Director..."
He looked hard at my arm, his lips shifting as if he were picking his words, and then he nodded and grinned.
"More manly and cooler than before. Kind of like... a rough man's medal? Real look on you."
To an Awakened's eyes it had to look ugly and ominous.
The consideration in phrasing it that way — I was quietly grateful.
I let out a small snort and shot back, arrogant on purpose.
"Right. Well, you've got an eye for these things."
"I do have my share of taste, don't I."
Meanwhile, next to me, Lee Jinwoo had question marks stacked over his head.
To a non-Awakened, the arm looked completely normal — there was no way he could follow the context of the exchange.
Kang San glanced toward the elevator and asked.
"Anyway, are you here to see the Guild Master?"
"Yes."
"Ah, good timing! Then once you're done, just give me a call. Juran-noona's been going on and on about wanting to see you."
"All right. I'll swing by after I'm done with the Guild Master. Tell her that."
I nodded, indifferent.
"Oh! Really? Noona's going to flip when she hears. Got it! I'll be on standby!"
Right at that moment.
"Ai, come on, you! Keep it down! What, this corridor your bedroom?"
A gruff shout came from behind us.
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