The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

"Whew..."

I swept the mess of papers on the desk off to one side.

In the clear space that opened up, only two things remained: the antique teapot, and the crystal stone giving off its ominous black aura.

"Right. Let's try this."

Clink.

I popped the teapot's lid open, cheerful, and — with great care, as if transferring precious tea leaves into a tea set — picked up the mana stone.

Plop, roll.

The black stone slid inside the white porcelain.

Burble, burble.

The instant the stone settled inside the teapot, an unbelievable sound rose up from it.

I hadn't poured in any water. I hadn't switched on any heat source.

I'd just dropped a stone inside a piece of cold porcelain, and yet the pot was burbling away as if it were at a hard boil.

"..."

I propped my chin on my hand and watched the strange sight.

The original didn't spell out the crafting process in detail... but I doubt any special catalyst is needed.

At the time in the original, Cha Yul had been on the run, drifting from place to place with no proper base.

If the process had required elaborate alchemy equipment or a special kind of fire, there was no way he'd have pulled it off to begin with.

I leaned back into the chair and waited for it to finish, unhurried.

Ten minutes.

Burble, burble.

Thirty minutes.

Burble, burble, burble.

And one hour.

The teapot was still doing nothing but pouring out that furious burbling — no sign whatsoever that the lid was going to open.

"Hmm..."

I furrowed my brow and glanced up at the clock on the wall.

The original didn't say how long it took... maybe the processing just takes a while?

Since it wasn't a plain mana stone but a Chaos Mana Stone, maybe cooking it did take more time.

Forcing the lid off wouldn't do me any good, so all I could do was settle in and wait.

"...Haah."

Maybe because the tension had let go — sitting there listening blankly to the burble, an unstoppable wave of drowsiness rolled over me.

Now that I thought about it, today had been a long day.

The stare-down with Oh Taejin, the visit to Bawi Guild's treasure vault, and the trip through that terrifying training hall on top of it.

"Today... was too much..."

My eyelids went heavy as lead.

In the end, I left the teapot right there on the desk and staggered to the bed set up in one corner of the office.

The instant I collapsed into bed, consciousness cut out.

A deep, sweet sleep.

A few days passed.

To the kids' dismay, the Director really did not so much as show his nose.

The children silently worked through Kim Sunja's training, but the air in the Sunshine Room grew heavier by the day.

"Haah..."

Every lunchtime, Hayun grew glummer watching the sausage she'd secretly set aside dry out and shrivel. Suho perked his ears at every creak of the door like a puppy.

But the person they were waiting for so hard didn't show his face.

By the time the kids' patience was scraping bottom from all the waiting, Ari finally snapped.

"Aaargh! I really, really can't take it anymore!"

Ari flung her magic wand onto the bed.

"How long are we supposed to just wait? At this rate, we'll all be little old grandmas and grandpas! What's the point of meeting him if we're leaning on canes by then!"

Ari, past her limit, ordered an emergency assembly.

Setting aside Cha Yul and Sea-ah — who'd never been interested to begin with — five little heads huddled together in secret.

"We're going straight to the third operation!" Ari whispered, grave.

"See if he comes looking for us wherever we are!"

The kids' eyes went round.

"We hide, well and truly. And we check whether the ajusshi comes to find us or just leaves us there!"

At Ari's plan, Suho tilted his head, looking put on the spot.

"Hide? But..."

Suho pointed at the camera mounted in the corner of the ceiling.

"There's CCTV in here, and the teachers are watching us all the time."

The kids' shoulders were just starting to sag under that practical point when—

"Krrhem, hm!"

Ari let out a big, exaggerated throat-clear, cheeks going pink, and stole a sidelong glance at Sihyeok next to her.

"W-we... we've got Sihyeok's amazing power!"

"Power?"

"Yeah! We hide in Sihyeok's shadow! Then the cameras and the teachers can't find us, right?"

At Ari's brainwave, every eye in the room swung to Sihyeok.

But Sihyeok himself slowly shook his head.

"Why? Just hide in your shadow like last time!"

Ari asked, flustered, and Sihyeok cut it off flat, expressionless.

"Ten minutes."

"...Huh?"

"That's the limit."

At Sihyeok's word, the kids sank back into deep despair.

Ten minutes.

Nowhere near enough time to hide.

"Nnnngh..."

The kids clutched their heads and groaned.

That was when Suho broke the silence, cautious.

"...How about this?"

"What?"

"During those ten minutes, we hide in a different teacher's shadow and use them to move."

"A different teacher?"

When Ari echoed him, Suho's eyes lit up and he pressed on.

"Yeah. The teachers we see every day have predictable routes. If we hide with them, we'll get caught right away."

Suho was making a surprisingly airtight case.

"But someone we've never seen before — no way to know where they'll go. So we ride their shadow for ten minutes, and once we're somewhere far away, we slip out and hide!"

The kids' faces brightened instantly under Suho's clever plan.

"Whoa... Suho-oppa, your brain's the best!"

"That way we can get far away without getting caught!"

"But... how do we run into a stranger?"

The kids' faces darkened again.

During activity hours, they were always with their assigned researchers — zero chance to encounter anyone new.

That was when Sihyeok, in the corner, spoke up, quiet.

"Robot."

"...Robot?"

"The meal-service robot that brings us food."

"Ah! Right, there's the robot!"

The kids slapped their knees.

But Suho shook his head straight after.

"But at mealtimes the teachers watch us extra closely. If we disappear then, alarms are going off in seconds."

The room was about to sink back into silence under that practical wrinkle when—

"...Noona."

Hajun tugged at Hayun's sleeve with a tiny, fern-frond of a hand.

"Hm? Wash up, Hajuna?"

"This..."

When Hayun leaned in with her ear, Hajun's little mouth worked, and he whispered his secret plan.

Hayun's round eyes went wide as steamed buns.

"Hup! Oh! That's how we do it!"

"What? What is it?"

Under every eye in the room, Hayun called out, triumphant.

"Late-night snacks!"

"Late-night snacks...?"

"Yeah! That button on the wall over there!"

"Right! That one!"

The wall Hayun was pointing at had the food-order pad the Director had installed.

His oddly particular kind of consideration — telling them never to put up with hunger while they were still growing.

"That'sright! Remember when we got in trouble for secretly ordering ice cream over and over!"

Suho murmured.

"He said our teeth would rot, so only a little at night..."

At the memory of the Director being that soft with them, a shadow passed across the kids' faces.

But Hayun forced her head up and pressed on, brave.

"Anyway! We pretend to sleep and call the robot at night! And if we ride the robot's shadow... we can vanish into thin air!"

"Ooh... perfect!"

The kids clapped hands over their mouths and pattered their small palms together in silent, seal-clap glee.

"All right, then — tonight!"

That night.

The kids kept the plan strictly under wraps from Cha Yul and Sea-ah.

If those two knew, they'd shut it down as too dangerous — obvious.

After lights-out, the room lay steeped in dark.

"Huff... huff..."

Cha Yul, working through push-ups in silence in one corner, stopped and wiped away sweat.

The kids, who ordinarily chattered or bickered right up until bedtime, had — tonight, without anyone telling them to — slipped under the covers early.

"You lot going to sleep already?"

At Cha Yul's suspicious question, the tension inside the blankets shot to its peak.

The kids pulled the covers up over their heads and made a show of being dead to the world.

Suho even threw in a slightly overdone, clumsy snoring routine, in case they got caught — "Kuh... pyuu... ku..."

Sea-ah, propped against the headboard reading, closed her book with a fond smile, as if she thought her poor little siblings must have been really wiped out.

"Training must have been rough today. Let's let them sleep."

"...Right. You should turn in too."

Click.

The lamp went out, and complete darkness filled the room.

Not long after, once the steady breathing of Cha Yul and Sea-ah could be heard, sighs of relief puffed out from under the covers.

Eventually, at three in the morning — with everyone deep asleep.

Suho crawled out from under the covers and tapped at the pad, practiced.

[Request: 1 plate of cookies. Please leave at the door.]

Ding.

The order-confirmation window popped up, and Suho let out a small whistle.

As if they'd been waiting for it, Sihyeok and the twins sat up, and the four of them slipped out into the corridor, holding their breath.

Out in the dark hallway, Ari was already there, arms folded, waiting for them.

Thump, thump, thump.

Their hearts felt ready to burst. Only the kids' rough breathing eddied through the quiet corridor.

A little later.

Wiii-ng—

From far off, a faint motor sound reached them.

The meal-service robot was pushing its wheeled cart down the corridor, right on cue.

"Here it comes...!"

The instant the robot pulled up to stop in front of the Sunshine Room, Sihyeok's eyes flashed.

"Now."

At Sihyeok's feet, a black shadow slithered out and, in an instant, joined with the robot's shadow as one.

"On!"

At Sihyeok's signal, the kids threw themselves onto the shadow.

Five small bodies were sucked into the black shadow as if into a swamp.

A moment later, the robot set down the food, gave a wiing, and turned around.

Oblivious, the robot began cruising serenely down the institute corridor with five uninvited passengers riding inside its shadow.

Inside the shadow, everything was dark and undulating, like water swirled with ink.

"...Where do you think we're heading right now?"

Ari whispered, wound tight with nerves.

"Dunno. Maybe to the robot's house?"

"Robots have a house?"

"Shh. Quiet down. We'll get caught."

The kids clung to each other's arms, holding their breath.

Overhead, the robot's motor kept up its steady hum.

Wiing— wiing—

Thud, thud, thud.

The kids' heartbeats sped up in time with the motor.

A little later, along with a ka-chunk, they felt a sense of floating — as if their bodies were sinking downward.

Sihyeok cracked the shadow open just a hair and peeked out.

"...Underground."

"Underground? There's an underground here?"

While the kids' eyes went wide, the elevator stopped and the robot started moving again.

How much further did it go?

Creeeak—

The robot came to a stop somewhere.

And in the same instant, Sihyeok's face twisted with dismay.

"...Time's up."

"Huh?"

"We're getting out."

Almost before he finished, the shadow surged.

Pyung!

"Uwaaah!"

"Kyaak!"

Like a champagne cork popping, all five kids were flung out of the robot's shadow.

The kids rolled across the cold floor and landed hard on their bottoms.

"Ow, ow... my butt's gonna crack..."

Ari rubbed her rear and lifted her head — but only pitch-black darkness met her eyes. She couldn't see a thing.

"Noona! Sh-scary!"

Timid Hajun's voice quavered.

"Somebody turn on the lights!"

At Suho's shout into the dark, the motion-sensor lights picked up on the kids' voices and kicked on.

Tk-tk— tk—

Fluorescents flickered on in sequence, driving the darkness back.

And the scene that revealed itself made the kids suck in their breath.

"...Eek."

The place looked like a giant robot graveyard.

Dozens — no, hundreds — of meal-service and cleaning robots stood in rank and file like a dead army, stretching on with no end in sight.

The air of the place carried a cold chill, and on the wall, marked in what looked like red paint, letters stood out sharp and clear.

[ B3 ]

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