The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 15

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Academy’s Absolute Professor Episode 15
So he really did get drunk.
[That madman’s done it again!]
└ What’d he do?
└ Knocked out Hwang Min-woo and dumped him in the Infirmary. The funny part? He carried the guy in himself and announced he’d done it—just waltzed out like it was nothing;
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ This guy’s actually insane. Why’d he hit him?
└ Said his face was shit.
└ Don’t bullshit us
└ I’m serious; he told Professor Hwang Ye-rim straight up. Everyone in the Old Training Ground saw it.
└ Wow, this isn’t right, is it? The national Academy’s reputation is tanking.
└ Why hasn’t he been expelled yet? He’s been disciplined over twenty times.
└ Seriously, I don’t get it.
└ A disgrace to the Academy.
AcaNet caught fire, and the sparks began scattering in unexpected directions.
└ There’s another disgrace, though.
└ Who?
└ You know, that contract professor who walks around with a whiskey bottle all the time.
└ Oh.
└ That madman takes his classes, right? I heard they have sessions in the Old Training Ground every dawn?
└ 100%. That professor’s the reason the madman’s even crazier.
└ Someone told me they saw the two of them in an alley, both guzzling whiskey straight from the bottle.
└ The Academy’s really going places.
The faster the buzz spread, the faster the referral to the Disciplinary Committee came.
└ Just dropped—official announcement! Disciplinary Committee meets two days from now at 2 p.m.
└ Is expulsion a done deal this time?
└ Probably? Up till now you could argue the disciplinary actions were minor, but he beat Hwang Min-woo like that
└ The Taewang Guild’s probably losing their minds too
└ Wait, Baek Yu-yeon is listed as a witness—what’s that about?
└ Baek Yu-yeon?
└ That walking encyclopedia? What’s she doing involved?
└ She was standing right there when the madman beat Hwang Min-woo, I guess. Eyewitness.
* * *
That night.
Kang Hyeon’s quarters in the Professor’s Building.
Kang Hyeon was reviewing the Disciplinary Committee roster with Lee Se-a.
Committee Chair: Choi Byung-gil (Dean of Academic Affairs)
Committee Member 1: Oh Sung-hun (Residential Guidance Professor)
Committee Member 2: Park Tae-su (Major Professor)
Medical Officer: Hwang Ye-rim (Martial Medicine Professor)
Accused Party: Gwak Do-jin (18th Cohort)
Injured Party: Hwang Min-woo (19th Cohort)
Witness: Baek Yu-yeon (19th Cohort)
“This is just a roster designed to expel Gwak Do-jin.”
“Is it?”
“Yes. Oh Sung-hun and Park Tae-su—they’re both connected to the Taewang Guild. I reviewed the records from previous disciplinary hearings; both of them led the charge every time.”
“What’s your evidence they’re connected to the guild?”
“They’re funneling tens of millions every month to the professors under the guise of guild consulting fees.”
“Hmm.”
Kang Hyeon sat on the sofa with his eyes closed, savoring the whiskey on his tongue.
“Is it legally problematic for a guild to pay consulting fees to a professor?”
“No, it’s carefully structured as legal sponsorship—they’ve even paid all their taxes. It’s airtight.”
Lee Se-a exhaled deeply.
A guild like Taewang wouldn’t be so careless.
“The consulting fees are the cover story. They’re taking something else under the table. Cash, gold bars, potions—something.”
“So you’re saying you have no evidence.”
“Not yet.”
“Aren’t you the senior at the Management Bureau?”
“I, well… no matter what, I can’t get a search warrant and raid the Taewang Guild vault in a week.”
“I figured you’d have the pull. Thought you’d come through.”
“I’ll report to the Director right now and coordinate with the Bureau of Investigation.”
“That’s enough. There’s no need to go that far.”
Glug, glug, glug.
Kang Hyeon poured amber liquid into an on-the-rocks glass.
‘An investigation into children’s games. How absurd.’
The way people tangled together and power rotted from within looked the same whether here or there.
If anything, the Martial World was worse.
Here, at least they hid behind the law’s framework, masking bribes as legality. There, when things went wrong, they’d simply don a mask and pay you a visit to slit your throat—it was business as usual.
A world where kill and silence happened as naturally as breathing.
“Lee Se-a. Think for a moment.”
“Yes?”
“Of everyone on that list, who do you think they’d want most to silence?”
Lee Se-a considered the question.
They’d probably bought off most of the professors already, and Gwak Do-jin had already resigned himself to expulsion.
So then?
“Baek Yu-yeon, wouldn’t it be?”
“Exactly.”
The only witness, the one who knew the full truth of what happened.
“If you were the Taewang Guild, what would you do first?”
“Um… wouldn’t you try to coerce or threaten Baek Yu-yeon?”
“Right, you’ve got it. The evidence is sitting right there—why dig through the heavy stuff?”
“B-but still.”
Lee Se-a didn’t understand.
Even if it was Baek Yu-yeon, how would she know how much bribe money the professors had pocketed?
“If you want to catch a rat, you don’t dig at its hole. You sit beside the rice barrel.”
“…!”
“If you leave it alone, it’ll crawl out on its own legs and try to bite you. Why bother hunting?”
* * *
Behind the Female Student Dormitory.
Standing before Baek Yu-yeon was a middle-aged man with a Taewang Guild badge pinned to his chest.
“Have you given it any thought?”
“…”
“Our terms are simple. Just go in as a witness and say nothing.”
The man bent his waist to meet Baek Yu-yeon’s eyes.
“Gwak Do-jin’s getting expelled no matter what happens. You know that, right?”
“Yes.”
When Baek Yu-yeon nodded, the man smiled with satisfaction.
“Right, so he’s being expelled anyway—there’s no point in you running your mouth and making things worse for yourself. Especially for Gwak Do-jin. He’ll only suffer more. Our Min-woo was threatening him with an exclusive contract, wasn’t he? We’ll take care of that annoying bit from the company’s end.”
The man was an executive of the Taewang Guild and Hwang Min-woo’s uncle by marriage.
That fact made Baek Yu-yeon waver.
‘If I just keep my mouth shut…’
Hwang Min-woo wouldn’t be able to stalk her anymore, and Gwak Do-jin wouldn’t face retaliation after his expulsion.
Everything would be over.
And besides, wasn’t her senior saying he’d be leaving anyway?
Gwak Do-jin had made her promise earnestly.
To go in as a witness and say nothing at all.
To help him get through his expulsion without incident.
“So please, just think about yourself. Don’t use me as an excuse and ruin your own life.”
Gwak Do-jin’s voice echoed in her ears.
‘Think about myself?’
That meant choosing for my own sake—but which path was truly mine?
Was burying the truth and surrendering to these people really the right choice for me?
She felt it then, a flash of clarity.
‘If I give in now, I’ll be destroying my own life.’
It would be stamping herself a coward for all her days.
It would mean carrying a debt to Gwak Do-jin for the rest of her life.
Baek Yu-yeon didn’t want that.
“I’m sorry, but…”
Baek Yu-yeon lowered her head.
“I’ll have to refuse.”
“…What?”
The affable middle-aged man’s eyes turned cold in an instant.
“I’ll tell the committee tomorrow exactly what I saw and heard—that Hwang Min-woo threatened me first with a fifteen-year contract, and that Gwak tried to stop him and ended up hitting him.”
“Ha, this student still doesn’t know how the world works.”
The man let out a dry laugh.
“Fine, let’s say you go around saying all that. You think the committee will believe you? Do you know who the members are?”
“Professor Oh Sung-hun and Professor Park Tae-su.”
A year ago.
The same men who buried the truth during the dungeon practicum and handed down sanctions against Gwak Do-jin.
At Baek Yu-yeon’s clear response, the man’s eyebrows twitched.
“The professors the Taewang Guild bought off.”
“What? Do you understand how dangerous that kind of talk is?”
“Did I say something wrong?”
“Pu-hahaha!”
The man laughed again, as if in disbelief.
“Listen, student. It’s good to have imagination, but if you go around saying things like that, you’ll be in real trouble. You could end up being sued for defamation.”
“Not if I have proof.”
“Proof?”
Baek Yu-yeon’s jade-green eyes gleamed for a moment.
“March 15th of last year. Three hundred million won deposited into an account under the name Kim Duk-su—a dummy account belonging to Professor Oh Sung-hun. April 2nd of the same year, a box of premium Jasodhan delivered to Professor Park Tae-su’s office. And in July, two percent of the shares in a research institute under the Taewang Guild transferred to accounts in the names of both professors’ families. Isn’t that right?”
……
The man tried to maintain his smile, but he couldn’t stop the muscles in his cheeks from trembling.
‘How could she possibly know that?’
The process of delivering bribes was classified information shared only with a handful of top executives within the guild.
And she didn’t just know vaguely.
Dates, stated purposes, items, quantities, and even the name on the dummy account.
‘She knows it all exactly, without a single detail out of place?’
It was information that absolutely could not be known without having direct access to the guild’s internal ledgers.
“……Could it be that fool Min-woo?”
The man’s instinct crystallized.
‘That stupid bastard Hwang Min-woo did this!’
Probably spilled his hand while he was waving the contract around as leverage.
Boasting that all the Academy professors were in his pocket.
That she had nowhere to run.
‘That idiot!’
The man wanted to tear his nephew to pieces.
Rattling off lobby ledger details trying to seduce a girl?
Cold sweat trickled down his spine, but the man was an A-rank Hunter who’d been through every trial the Taewang Guild had to offer.
“Tsk, tsk. Fine, let’s say Min-woo did blurt out some nonsense like that. But what does it change?”
“What do you mean?”
“When Min-woo wakes up, he’ll just deny ever saying any such thing. That’s all. Don’t be naive, kid. Memories in your head aren’t evidence. You need actual video or an audio recording or something like that—wait.”
The man’s eyes flashed like a serpent’s as he spoke.
His gaze fixed on Baek Yu-yeon’s coat pocket.
Her right hand, awkwardly tucked inside the pocket throughout the conversation.
“No way.”
Whoosh!
An A-rank Hunter’s speed was something a student couldn’t possibly react to.
“Ah!”
The man’s rough hand plunged into Baek Yu-yeon’s pocket and forcibly snatched out her mobile phone.
The screen displayed clearly: [Recording in Progress – 05:12]
“Ha, unbelievable.”
The man’s face twisted like a demon’s.
He suddenly understood why she’d gone through all those details about the corruption in front of him.
She was trying to make his reaction the definitive evidence.
“I’ve never seen such a brazen girl.”
He hurled the mobile phone straight at the ground.
Shattered fragments scattered across the dirt.
“Ah……”
Baek Yu-yeon’s face turned pale.
The only lifeline she’d thought she had—the evidence—was destroyed before her eyes.
“I was trying to sort this out nicely with words, but it looks like that won’t work.”
An oppressive aura radiated from the middle-aged man’s frame.
Baek Yu-yeon trembled and stumbled backward, the killing intent tightening around her throat.
“Listen well. If the Taewang Guild felt like it, crushing your lives would be nothing. You’re a scholarship student, aren’t you? We could pressure your sponsoring foundation, cut off your stipend. Could you manage your tuition then? And that Gwak Do-jin—if he gets expelled, it’s all over, isn’t it? We could bury him in this world so thoroughly he can’t even work as a porter. Understand?”
“……Huhhh.”
“That’s reality.”
The middle-aged man ground the shattered mobile phone beneath his heel.
“So tomorrow at the committee hearing, keep your mouth shut. Otherwise…….”
That was when it happened.
A languid voice drifted down from atop the wall.
“My goodness.”
“……?!”
The startled middle-aged man’s head snapped upward like a whip.
Baek Yu-yeon’s eyes widened.
Upon the wall.
A man crouched there, silhouetted against the moonlight.
Disheveled hair, an unbuttoned shirt collar.
A bottle of Whiskey hung from his left hand, a mobile phone from the other.
Anyone could see he was recording.
‘When did he……?’
Kang Hyeon spoke toward the gaping middle-aged man, reeking of alcohol.
“Looks like you’re drunk all right. Intimidating a Student in the middle of the Academy—I’ve seen it all now.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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