The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 3

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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 Absolute Professor Episode 003
Everyone, move aside.
“You just handed over a Secret Technique?”
The reaction from Management Bureau Director Kim Hyeong-seok was explosive.
“Truly impressive in every way…. All right, you’ve dealt with the Leviathan and even given away a Secret Technique—I can’t let this slide. This agent.”
“Yes, sir!”
“I’ll arrange the budget. Go and bring back the finest whiskey we have. All of it. Fill the entire safe house.”
“Understood!”
Rattle, rattle!
Lee Se-ah arrived at the safe house, pushing a cart loaded with bottles of liquor.
Click.
As she opened the door and stepped inside, Kang Hyeon was sprawled across the sofa as always.
“I’ve brought the whiskey. I thought I’d do some cleaning while I’m at it.”
“Cleaning’s not necessary. Just leave it.”
“Pardon? But there are so many empty bottles and dust….”
As Lee Se-ah’s eyes swept across the living room, her expression hardened.
‘What?’
On her first visit, she’d been so overwhelmed by his presence that she could barely breathe.
She hadn’t had time to look around properly then….
‘What are these marks?’
The corner of the coffee table had rotted away grotesquely.
The leather sofa was melted in patches, exposing the stuffing beneath, and the walls were blackened and dead.
As if something viciously corrosive—a deadly poison or concentrated acid—had splattered everywhere.
“Um, Kang Hyeon. The furniture is completely ruined….”
“Don’t ask questions. Just leave it.”
“What?”
The moment Lee Se-ah started to protest.
Kang Hyeon’s fingers, buried in the sofa, twitched lazily.
Whoosh!
“Eek!”
A faint, deflated cry escaped Lee Se-ah’s lips.
Dozens of bottles of premium whiskey from the cart rose into the air on their own, crossed the empty space, and settled beside Kang Hyeon.
He picked one up, then waved his hand through the air with obvious irritation.
“Wh-what?”
Her body lifted off the ground.
Then she was pushed backward, sliding toward the entrance.
Bang!
The door slammed shut.
“…!”
Lee Se-ah stared at the door in bewilderment.
‘So that’s what it was.’
The dismissal order her seniors had experienced before her arrival.
But seeing the devastation inside the room just now, a different thought crossed her mind.
‘Could it be… he was worried we’d get hurt?’
She remembered how he’d let out pained groans intermittently during the drive to the East Sea.
Could that have been why?
Was that why he wouldn’t let anyone inside?
Lee Se-ah stood there in silence for a long time, then belatedly pulled out her notebook and began writing quickly.
– Appears to be enduring severe pain while suppressing something.
– Damage to living space is severe. Consider replacing furniture with specialized materials.

* * *
A week later.
Kang Hyeon’s safe house.
Lee Se-ah had been stationed there since morning.
‘This is my lot, I suppose.’
She exhaled a long, weary sigh.
The Director had assigned her as Kang Hyeon’s dedicated manager precisely because she was said to be the best at communication among recent recruits.
She was to oversee his every move and keep him content.
And today.
Now I need to clean up this beast, get him dressed, and bring him to the Academy.
“Kang Hyeon. Come out.”
“Already?”
The door creaked open.
Out stumbled what looked like a derelict.
“Didn’t you say noon?”
The Management Bureau director had considerable pull.
However he’d managed to convince the Dean, he’d secured a contract professorship position.
The existing faculty had objected so fiercely, though, that they’d agreed to at least a minimal verification process—and that was happening today at noon.
“It’s only nine.”
“You can’t go out looking like that.”
“What’s wrong with how I look?”
……
Lee Se-ah was flabbergasted.
Was he seriously asking?
His hair looked like a magpie’s nest—worse, like an actual bird’s nest—and his training clothes were stained with what might have been kimchi juice or whiskey, impossible to tell.
“Does appearance matter when you’re teaching kids? Skill matters.”
It wasn’t wrong, exactly, but Black’s condition was pushing the limits of credibility.
“The Academy has traditions and prestige. If you walk out there like that, all hell breaks loose.”
“What prestige? Not with skills like that.”
She couldn’t argue the point.
He was the only being on Earth—no, the only being anywhere—who could say such a thing and have it be true.
Finally, Lee Se-ah played her trump card.
“Mizusaki 55 Years.”
“What?”
Black’s eyes snapped open.
Lee Se-ah nearly cheered aloud.
‘It works every time!’
That Japanese whiskey aged in Mizunara oak barrels, known for its distinctive bouquet—truly exceptional!
The very whiskey that had become nearly impossible to find due to the shortage!
A 55-year vintage fetched over twenty million won at auction, and bottles were rare as jewels, but the Management Bureau’s resources were more than adequate to source one.
“I’ll procure a bottle for you, if you cooperate without fuss.”
He exhaled.
Black rose reluctantly and walked out.
“Where do we go?”

* * *
……
The eyes of the salon staff lined up at the entrance all widened in unison.
They’d been tensed in anticipation of a South Korean Management Bureau VIP appointment, so the sudden arrival of what looked like a street vagrant naturally threw them into confusion.
“Uh, Ms. Lee Se-ah? Is this really the person?”
The salon director leaned toward her with an uncomfortable expression.
Making this wreck look human was nothing short of Mission Impossible.
“Please, Director. This is a matter of national importance.”
Lee Se-ah was nearly pleading, her voice trembling.
“Just… just get him to look like a person.”
“Ah, very well. This way, sir.”
The staff seated Kang Hyeon in the chair with visible hesitation.
“What style would you like?”
“Whatever’s fastest.”
Kang Hyeon spoke with his eyes shut, his tone curt.
“No, Director!”
Lee Se-ah certainly wasn’t about to let that slide.
“Make it as classic as possible, but with an unmistakable aura of strength! Slick it back with pomade, and tidy up the beard—”
At Lee Se-ah’s torrent of instructions, the director’s hands moved with urgency.
Snip, snip.
The rhythmic sound of scissors echoed through the salon.
As the thick hair obscuring his face fell away, his hidden forehead and sharp nose line began to emerge.
Once the rough, unshaven stubble was trimmed, a severe jawline caught the light.
‘Hm?’
The Dean’s hand faltered.
The man reflected in the mirror was far from ordinary.
“Wow.”
The assistants hovering nearby began to let their jaws drop.
But the man himself was nodding off, chin dipping toward his chest.
The smell of alcohol clung to him still.
“All done. Time to change into your clothes.”
Kang Hyeon staggered into the curtained changing room.
Lee Se-ah gnawed at her fingernails, anxiety coiling in her chest.
Would this work?
Too flashy and it would backfire; too provincial and it would fall flat.
That’s when it happened.
Whoosh!
The changing room curtain swept open.
“Come on, does this necktie really have to stay? It’s choking me.”
Kang Hyeon emerged, grumbling as he walked.
In that moment.
A sharp intake of breath.
Lee Se-ah swallowed air she hadn’t known she was holding.
The suit, tailored to fit him perfectly, embraced his frame like a second skin.
His pomaded hair swept back cleanly shed an icy aura, and the line of his neck, visible where his shirt collar lay slightly open, was devastating.
But the crowning touch was his eyes.
Drowsy as they were, paired with that groomed exterior, they held an aristocratic aloofness.
……
Every woman in the salon had stopped what she was doing, staring at him in a daze.
Even the Dean, notorious for her exacting standards, was clapping her hands in rapture.
“Sir, perfect! Absolutely perfect!”
Lee Se-ah’s heart hammered against her ribs.
This is supposed to be a national secret weapon?
This is a visual that should be disseminated in the interest of public welfare.
“Hey, chick.”
“…Pardon?”
Chick?
‘How did I become a chick?’
“Want me to call you rookie instead?”
“Oh, no. Chick works better, actually.”
“Stop standing there slack-jawed. Get the whiskey.”
As Black extended his hand, Lee Se-ah snapped to attention.
“Ah, yes! It’s in the car, in the car!”
She turned her head away quickly.
Anything to hide the flush creeping up her face.
‘Dangerous.’
That was close. Too close.
She’d almost forgotten that he was an alcoholic with a personality in tatters.
“We, we need to get going. The interview starts soon.”
The stage and the actor were ready.
Lee Se-ah was beginning to worry.
This man.
What if he went in there and caused a scene?

* * *
Thwack!
Senior Professor Jin Myeong-hun hurled the file folder onto his desk.
“Dean, this makes no sense.”
His voice grew louder with each word.
“Unknown educational background, unregistered Hunter rank, zero prior experience, and the recommender is the Management Bureau Director?”
“Now, look here.”
“Since when does the National Academy accept personnel requests from the Management Bureau? And look at this, for heaven’s sake.”
Jin Myeong-hun pointed to where Kang Hyeon sat dozing in the interview room.
“What kind of applicant walks into an interview reeking of alcohol? This is an insult to the Academy’s dignity.”
“Professor Jin, please calm yourself for a moment.”
The Dean, his hair streaked with gray, pressed his lips thin.
He understood.
The Bureau Director had used this meeting to persuade him, revealing classified information about the operative codenamed Black.
But that was precisely the problem.
He couldn’t tell them that the man before them was the one who’d captured Leviathan.
“Still, the Management Bureau wouldn’t have placed him without reason. And he’s only a contract instructor, not a tenured professor.”
The Dean mopped his brow as he tried to mediate, but the other professors’ reactions remained cold.
“Dean, Professor Jin is right. We’re educating cadets who will bear responsibility for the nation’s future. We can’t entrust them to someone unvetted.”
“Agreed. And we shouldn’t set a precedent for the Bureau interfering in academic operations. This is parachuting in talent, plain and simple.”
The air in the conference room froze.
All eyes turned to Kang Hyeon, who was still dozing.
Was he not reading the room?
Just as Jin Myeong-hun was about to make his move—
Crash!
A deafening boom shook the entire building, and the windows rattled wildly.
“What—what is that?”
“What’s happening?”
As the professors scrambled in confusion, the conference room door burst open and a teaching assistant ran in.
“Emergency! Qi Deviation—Runaway Qi!”
“What?”
Jin Myeong-hun shot to his feet.
“A student’s lost control—they’re tearing the place apart!”
“Show us the way. Now.”
The Dean and faculty rushed from the conference room, while Kang Hyeon, eyes opening lazily, raked a hand through his hair and followed at a leisurely pace.

* * *
The Training Ground had become absolute chaos.
“Ahhhhh!”
A male student stood in the center, tears streaming down his face as he thrashed about.
Around him, rampaging Qi whipped through the air like a storm.
“This is bad.”
One of the professors pressed his hand to his chest and called out.
“It looks like a Dan Tian problem!”
“Where’s Professor Hwang?”
“She’s returning from a business trip, but it’ll take some time!”
Professor Hwang Ye-rim, the faculty’s most accomplished expert in martial medicine, wasn’t there.
“Then what do we do?”
“Let’s deploy a Qi Network and suppress it!”
Professor Jin and the others hastily extended their hands, pouring forth True Qi in an attempt to contain the crisis.
But—
“Noooo!”
The student’s screams grew more agonized as blood, dark as wine, began to pour from his mouth.
The more the professors suppressed from outside, the more violently the Qi raged within the student’s body, tearing at his skin and trying to burst free.
“No, this won’t work! What do we do?”
“Damn it! His Qi channels won’t hold!”
The professors were in a panic, running about in confusion.
Then Kang Hyeon, who had been watching their efforts with disdain, stepped forward.
‘This isn’t even Qi Deviation yet.’
It was just a basic symptom—the student had recklessly drawn Qi upward and his channels had twisted slightly.
If they kept handling it the way they were, it would become genuine Qi Deviation.
“All of you—step back.”
“What? What are you—you’re not the one to handle this right now—”
One of the professors moved to shove him aside dismissively, then hesitated.
Kang Hyeon’s eyes, which had seemed so drowsy, had turned cold and piercing.
He’d seen much in his life, but never eyes like those.
Eyes you simply did not touch.
“Move. Unless you want to stop his heart with your own hands.”

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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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