The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 39

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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 039
Claws Revealed
A few days before the opening ceremony.
Waaaaaah!
The roar erupting from the Open-air Theater beyond the window carried all the way to the Professor Building.
It was the sound of the Martial Arts Tournament Preliminaries underway.
But.
Swish, swoosh!
Kang Hyun moved his brush across the paper without sparing a glance at the commotion outside.
“Um, Professor?”
Lee Se-ah, unable to bear the silence any longer, glanced toward the window and spoke.
“Wouldn’t you like to go watch? The preliminaries should be in full swing by now.”
“They’re going to fight me eventually anyway. Should I go clap for them?”
Kang Hyun replied without even lifting his gaze.
“Once they step on that stage, they’re alone. My watching them won’t make their wooden swords any sharper.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Lee Se-ah pouted, her frustration evident.
“Just making it past the preliminaries means placing in the top 16. I heard that’s incredibly difficult. If even one of them stumbles, you’ll be dismissed on the spot.”
The Main Tournament of the midterm Martial Arts competition begins at the Round of 16.
Only 16 cadets—out of hundreds—who survive the grueling preliminaries earn their place on the main stage, and passing the preliminaries immediately guarantees a ranking within the top 16 of their year.
The Main Tournament follows a bracket format: Round of 16, Quarterfinals, and Semifinals.
What’s unusual is that there are no separate placement matches for third and fourth place.
Instead, the full professors evaluate the day’s matches directly and assign detailed rankings.
That meant if the Five-Person Group failed to advance past the Semifinals, they’d be pushed down to eighth place; if they couldn’t pass the Quarterfinals, they’d drop to sixteenth.
There was no chance those full professors, who had always viewed them as thorns in their sides, would give them favorable scores.
“You know it. To stay under the radar and make it into the top five, all five of us have to place in the Semifinals or higher.”
“Then couldn’t you just go watch the Quarterfinals?”
“Pardon?”
“Stop wasting your breath and grind the ink properly.”
Lee Se-ah didn’t know.
What kind of training those five had been doing over the past two months.
Climbing and descending steep rock faces every dawn, piercing their energy meridians while listening to incantations through the pain.
Swallowing a 200-million-won Blue Treasure Pill and throwing themselves into personal training with the determination of someone coughing up blood.
‘Those guys failing the preliminaries?’
It was as absurd as a grown man getting beaten up by a toddler and coming back crying.
‘No, their seeding in the preliminaries matters more than just passing.’
The bracket would be drawn accordingly.
If they advanced with mediocre scores, they could end up facing each other in the Round of 16.
It would be frustrating, but Kang Hyun considered even that a matter of skill.
‘I set the standard.’
It was the cadets’ job to surpass that standard by whatever means necessary.
“Oh, right. What should we work on next?”
“Next, sir?”
“After the Gale Step.”
“Oh!”
Lee Se-ah, who had already done her research, answered immediately.
“The Pure Heart Method would be excellent. I think it would be a good choice.”
“The Pure Heart Method?”
“If the Gale Step is the national footwork, then the Pure Heart Method is the national meditation technique. Market demand might actually exceed that of the Gale Step. Non-hunters study it too.”
“Good, let’s go with that.”
The corners of Kang Hyun’s mouth lifted slightly.
“Work hard. Your five percent is accumulating in real time.”
“Ah…….”
Lee Se-ah cradled her cheeks in both hands.
“Is this what saving for retirement feels like?”
“If you want to become a tycoon on that pension, you’ll need to move faster.”
“Yes, sir! I’m a human mixer!”
Swish-swish-swish-swish!
Lee Se-ah began grinding the ink with such ferocity it seemed the stone would wear away entirely.

* * *
In the best-positioned seats of the Arena’s main viewing section, the professors sat in a neat row.
The preliminaries were a tedious succession of matches meant to winnow down the field to the Round of 16.
“Tsk. Really.”
One of the professors clicked his tongue.
“Professor Kang still hasn’t shown his face.”
“Well, of course not.”
Park Gwang-woo added, his voice laced with mockery.
“He must feel the sting of it. His cadets are bound to drop out of the preliminaries one after another, so why would he sit here and suffer the embarrassment? It’s better to stay hidden.”
“Ha, well, after today he’ll be packing his things anyway. Might as well get a head start organizing his office.”
Subdued laughter rippled through the gathered professors.
Seo Il-hyun, seated in the center, kept his gaze fixed on the Arena floor.
In truth, the dean himself felt uneasy.
He knew Kang’s martial prowess was absolute, but lifting cadets into the top rank in merely two months was an altogether different matter.
‘Professor Kang, are you truly certain of this?’
Then it happened.
Boom!
Amid countless matches, a thunderous crack echoed as someone was hurled from the stage.
“Ahhhhh!”
The airborne cadet hit the ground hard, rolling roughly before clutching his wrist and screaming.
Every professor’s attention snapped toward the commotion.
“Winner! 20th cohort, Seo Hae-in! Three points!”
At the same moment, an assistant rushed toward the fallen cadet, shouting urgently.
“Injury! Fracture! Medical team! Professor Hwang!”
The waiting medical team and Hwang Ye-rim bolted forward in alarm.
The professors’ expressions grew strange.
‘That one…’
‘Seo Hae-in?’
‘Wasn’t he dead last in practical skills?’
On the stage, Seo Hae-in stood impassively, wooden sword in hand.
The bewildered professors tried their best to ignore what they were seeing.
“…His opponent must have been careless.”
Park Gwang-woo muttered with a forced cough.
“We’re only in the early rounds. One lucky win isn’t something to get excited about…”
But Park’s words never finished.
Crack!
“Winner! 21st cohort, Han Tae-ho! Three points!”
A dull boom erupted from another stage.
Before anyone could even turn their head.
Snap!
“Ugh!”
“Winner! 20th cohort, Yun Hyun-jong! Three points!”
This time it was the sound of a wooden sword splitting in two.
Yun Hyun-jong had pierced through his opponent’s flashy combination with a single thrust.
Notably, matches concluded within one minute of the opening were counted as Overwhelming Victories and awarded three points.
Accumulating such scores and placing within the top sixteen was the condition for advancing to the main tournament.
Meanwhile.
“Draw! 18th cohort, Gwak Do-jin! 19th cohort, Cha Yu-sik! One point each!”
As a retained student matched against the 19th cohort, Gwak Do-jin met Cha Yu-sik on the stage and the two lightly traded blows for five minutes before settling on a draw.
It was a cunning, strategic decision to avoid pointless exhaustion.
“……”
Conversation among the professors died entirely.
On the scoreboard before them, the live rankings were updating, and all five members of Kang’s group were comfortably seated in the safe zone.
“Heh, he-hehe…”
Park Gwang-woo let out an incredulous, hollow laugh.
Seo Hae-in in particular was… wasn’t he the cadet they’d dismissed and scorned?
The one they’d treated as garbage?
‘And those ones right now…’
They were using only the Three Swords Technique.
Strike down, hold, and pierce.
The cadets of the academy had been thoroughly dispatched by a technique even neighborhood children could master.
The full professors felt cold sweat trickling down their spines.
From the preliminaries onward, something had gone profoundly wrong.

* * *
[Wow, insane lol]
[This is crazy]
[Five-Person Group of contract professors confirmed for main tournament advancement!]
└ They pulled this off with the Three Swords Technique?
└ It’s real though
└ I nearly fractured my wrist trying it; did the professor secretly slip them Healing Potion or something?
└ If that were the case I’d seriously need to enroll lol Healing Potion’s expensive
└ That’s a fair point;
[It’s impressive, sure, but no need to hype it up. The main tournament’s full of monsters anyway. The Three Swords Technique has its limits.]
└ The hype isn’t the problem — the fact that they advanced to the main tournament WITH the Three Swords Technique is already legendary?
└ Exactly
└ Top five isn’t the issue; doesn’t being in the top 16 of your year make taking classes with a contract professor worth it? Student got in the top 16?
└ Who here made top 16? Raise your hand?
└ Honestly, even Seo Hae-in making it was pretty surprising
└ At this point that contract professor’s definitely a hidden genius
└ The dean is S-rank, so there was a reason he stayed cheap
└ Yeah seriously considering enrolling next semester
Public sentiment, which had wavered between doubt and belief, now tipped entirely toward astonishment.
And the next morning.
The Main Gate of the National Hunter Academy teemed with crowds that had gathered since early dawn.
[Midterm Martial Arts Tournament of the First Semester — Opening!]
The academy’s midterm practical evaluations took different forms each semester.
The first-semester midterm was one-on-one combat — the so-called Martial Arts Tournament.
The second-semester midterm was conducted through live dungeon conquests.
Naturally, dungeon conquest — the true calling of a hunter — carried greater weight, but no stage existed quite like the Martial Arts Tournament for assessing the individual capacity of hunters.
As a result, the area around the competition grounds was packed with parents and journalists eager for coverage.
Most conspicuous among them were the scouts from major guilds, all sharply dressed for the occasion.
“The bracket this year is quite entertaining.”
“Gwak Do-jin? Isn’t that the cadet who was disciplined and held back a year?”
“His nickname’s Mad Dog.”
“And of course Cha Yu-sik of Sky Wolf is in there too.”
For the scouts, today’s tournament was a sort of massive showcase.
The conditions that would eventually apply to these cadets could shift from heaven and earth depending on the glimpse of their ability they showed on that stage.

* * *
While preparations for the opening were still underway.
Kang Hyun and Lee Se-ah claimed a spot in the center of the faculty section, carrying a bottle of whiskey between them.
It was a spot with reasonably good sightlines to the stage.
The moment he sat down with a thud, the movements of the professors nearby grew frantic.
“Ahem.”
“The view isn’t great from here. Let’s move over that way.”
The professors, having caught wind that Kang Hyun was there, quietly began to shift their seats.
In moments, several empty rows had formed around him.
“Wow, what are they doing?”
Lee Se-ah pursed her lips in exasperation.
“These so-called professors of a national academy — you won’t even see elementary school kids playing like this. It’s embarrassing.”
“Why? I think it’s great, actually.”
Kang Hyun draped his legs over the seat in front of him and answered languidly.
“Plenty of legroom, no stale breath, and no reason to watch their faces close up. The whiskey tastes better this way.”
Gulp.
He was savoring the whiskey with evident satisfaction when—
“Would it be alright if I sat here for a moment?”
Someone approached the empty seat directly beside Kang Hyun.
When he raised his head, a woman in neat business attire stood before him.
‘Professor Hwang Ye-rim?’
What brings her here?
“As you can see, all these seats are empty.”
Kang Hyun gestured with his chin at the vacant rows around him, and Hwang Ye-rim settled into the seat directly beside him with an unflinching expression.
“If you don’t mind, might I ask you one thing?”
“Go ahead.”
“I’m speaking of Baek Yu-yeon, a cadet in our department.”
Complex emotions flickered across Hwang Ye-rim’s eyes.
“I hear she’s been attending your lectures lately—not just my major courses, but skipping all the required general education classes too. Is that true?”
“Yes, it is.”
A bittersweet shadow crossed Hwang Ye-rim’s face at his answer.
She’d known it already, but why did it sting more hearing it directly?
Her heart felt heavier for it.
Baek Yu-yeon was the most exceptional talent she’d encountered since taking up teaching.
Hwang Ye-rim had wanted to cultivate her as her own protégée, to raise her into a pillar of Korea’s martial medical field one day.
‘Sigh.’
But what could she do?
Whatever that girl had seen in him, she’d chosen to follow him instead.
“The dean mentioned it to me.”
“Mentioned what?”
“That you were the one who saved Yun Hyun-jong.”
“He’s being too generous with his words.”
“So it was true.”
That admission brought her some relief.
At least he had fundamental medical knowledge then.
A brief silence fell, and then Hwang Ye-rim spoke bluntly.
“The professors here want to see you dismissed.”
“The world doesn’t work according to anyone’s wishes.”
“……What I mean is, not all professors think that way. If half the faculty went to the dean’s office, that means the other half didn’t. Someone might be watching, and someone else might even be rooting for you.”
“And you?”
Kang Hyun’s question about her stance made Hwang Ye-rim pause for a moment before she answered.
“I’m simply observing. But for some reason, I have a feeling you’ll win.”
The corner of Kang Hyun’s mouth twisted slightly as he held the Whiskey in his lips.
“Why do you think that?”
“I couldn’t say.”
Hwang Ye-rim rose quietly from her seat.
She was supposed to be waiting in the medical station, not in the faculty section.
“Because a sharp girl like Yu-yeon wouldn’t choose someone who deals in lies.”

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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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