The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor - Chapter 41

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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 041
Why would I worry about being dismissed?
Kang Hyun had always been fond of this atmosphere.
That fleeting instant when confronted with an unbelievable situation — when not a single breath could be heard.
Screams, gasps, curses — all still caught somewhere in the throat, suspended in this profound silence.
“Th-the victor is……!”
The assistant instructor, coming to his senses well after the fact, raised the flag.
“Seo Haein!”
That announcement was the spark that ignited it all.
“Waaaahhhhh!”
“Uwaaahhh!”
The cadets’ roars erupted first.
“Insane, did you see that?”
“Song Gichul went flying in one hit? And to the Saejaeggeombup?”
“She just crushed him with sheer strength……. Just pure strength…….”
“Is that kind of brute force even possible from a woman?”
“Seo! You’re not joking, are you?!”
Above the roaring, a rumble of conversation layered over it all.
Several professors shot to their feet, and the scouts busily scribbled something on their tablets.
“Wow, chills.”
Lee Sae-ah rubbed her arms, goosebumps rising on both.
“Is she really the Haein everyone talks about? She looks so timid and frail…….”
“Frail, sure.”
“Pardon?”
“Look all you like — her bones are thicker than anyone else’s here.”
Kang Hyun took a satisfied sip of his drink.
After watching such a satisfying match, the liquor truly tasted good.
‘Teaching that sturdy frame the light and elegant Cheongpungeombup — tsk.’
Of course, having thick bones didn’t mean anyone could produce a result like that.
No matter how excellent a secret manual you handed someone, not everyone would become an absolute master.
If that were the case, those elderly librarians managing the martial world’s archives would have conquered the realm long ago.
‘You built all of this yourself, Seo Haein.’
Climbing rock faces at dawn, wielding a wooden sword even when others rested.
Those beads of sweat shed back then had simply returned as that heavy blow just now.
Even talented ones often refuse when told to work hard.
At that moment, Seo Haein, who had been standing dazed, turned her gaze toward the spectator stands and met Kang Hyun’s eyes.
She immediately bowed her head.
Kang Hyun answered not with words, but by raising his bottle.
‘Enjoy it. It looks like today is your day after all.’
The cheers still showed no sign of stopping.
The perennial last place had just crushed a championship contender in a single strike — of course they wouldn’t.
Crowds, by nature, grew far more excited by dramatic reversals than by predictable victories.
A glance.
He looked toward the adjacent professor’s bench.
He suddenly found himself curious about that professor’s expression — the one who had slapped Seo Haein’s cheek back then.
Sure enough, Professor Kim was also on his feet.
‘He must be in shock.’
He’d have plenty to worry about.
His eye for talent had been exposed to his own students.
And if Seo Haein were to achieve great things later and mention in her autobiography or interviews how she’d been humiliated and struck across the face during her Academy days?
Could Professor Kim truly endure that situation?
‘What was he thinking?’
Kang Hyun let out a quiet laugh.
Breaking the skull of a student who shirked lessons or carried himself with arrogance was discipline that could certainly be justified.
But trampling a child who, however modest in talent, was still striving with all her might — that was a mistake that shouldn’t have been made.
‘The world always reaps what it sows.’
Having inflicted wounds on someone far younger than himself, he would eventually have to bear the consequences of those wounds returning to him.
That’s simply what karma is.

* * *
The Round of 16 concluded without incident.
Cha Yu-sik advanced with grace; Gwak Do-jin brutalized his opponents with the tenacity of a madman.
In fact, the very reason he’d earned that epithet was because he possessed real skill to back it up.
Without fundamental ability, he’d have been dismissed as nothing but a barking mutt.
In any case, all five members of O In Bang—the center of attention—had breezed through the Round of 16.
[Contract Professor O In Bang, All Five Advance to Quarterfinals!]
└ And all of them using Saejaeggeombup
└ It’s insane lol
└ So it really comes down to this?
[Waiting for next semester’s Professor Kang’s class. Don’t even try to talk me out of it. I’m taking it no matter what.]
└ When does next semester start?
└ We’re only halfway through this one…
└ But we don’t know yet; they have to place in the Top Five, and Yun Hyun-jong’s arm is broken
└ Oh right
└ But what happens with that? Can he even compete?
└ Probably not. My arm broke once and I literally couldn’t move it; even walking hurt
Just as Acaenet worried, O In Bang found themselves in the same predicament.
– Cha Yu-sik: Everyone report to the Medical Office.
– Cha Yu-sik: We need to address the situation with Hyun-jong and hold a strategy meeting for tomorrow’s matches.
Following the directive posted to their group chat by the senior, Seo Haein made her way out of the Dormitory after her shower.
Despite being dressed in casual clothes with a hood pulled low, as was her habit….
“Huh?”
“Wow, it’s Seo Haein…!”
“Shh, hey! Watch what you say! She’s a senior.”
The way people looked at her had changed entirely.
Ordinarily, cadets would click their tongues openly or send her mocking glances as she passed.
But now.
Flinch, shuffle.
Juniors coming her way started in surprise and hastily stepped aside.
“Hey, it’s Haein! Haein! Your match today was really incredible!”
Even a classmate who’d never so much as exchanged words with her before approached awkwardly to offer a greeting, then fled like a coward.
‘So that was it.’
What the professor had said.
– Unfair? Then get stronger.
For Seo Haein, this moment itself felt strange and marvelous.
‘I’ve only become slightly stronger, yet people treat me so differently….’
Only now did she understand how foolish and childish she’d been when she’d challenged Professor Kim, insisting she’d been wronged.
The cries of the powerless are heard only as excuses.
And.
If she hadn’t met the professor, she’d still be grinding away, her dignity eroding by the day.
‘I want to be stronger.’
Seo Haein clenched both fists inside the hood’s pockets.
She understood.
That she hadn’t clawed her way to where she stood now.
That the professor had grabbed her by the collar and forcibly hoisted her up to let her taste this moment.
So she couldn’t stop here.
She wanted to show the professor.
Her true self, truly grown strong.

* * *
“Cadet Yun Hyun-jong.”
Professor Hwang Ye-rim spoke as she closed the chart.
“Forfeit tomorrow’s match. No point taking another impact here—if the bone shifts wrong, you might never hold a sword again.”
“No, I can’t do that…!”
“Can’t? You’ve already qualified for the Quarterfinals. That’s more than enough.”
“That’s not it—if I don’t compete, the professor gets terminated!”
Professor Hwang sighed softly. “I admire your resolve, but think about it. Will that professor take responsibility for your arm?”
Hwang Ye-rim left the ward with a brief exhale.
The moment the door closed, Han Tae-ho and Gwak Do-jin, standing around the bed, both opened their mouths.
“What do we do, Senior?”
“You’re going to forfeit?”
The rest of them.
Cha Yu-sik and Seo Haein seemed to be speaking with their eyes as well.
Are you really going to give up?
Is that all you amount to?
‘Ah.’
Suddenly, Yun Hyun-jong felt a pang of sorrow.
Even Professor Kang Hyun was like that……!
“So the only person here worried about me is Professor Hwang Ye-rim.”
“If that’s how you felt, I’m sorry.”
Cha Yu-sik answered immediately.
“But that’s also the reality. If you don’t fight, then as you said, Professor Kang Hyun will be dismissed, and we won’t be able to take classes anymore.”
“I know. I do.”
That was precisely what Yun Hyun-jong had been wrestling with.
It would be one thing if only he suffered the consequences, but the problem was that others would be harmed by his choice.
‘If I’d only been a little stronger, I could have won without breaking my arm.’
“Yun.”
Cha Yu-sik spoke gently.
He truly felt sorry toward him, but Cha Yu-sik needed the Jaewaonggeomhyung desperately.
Only by continuing to learn it from Professor Kang Hyun could he become the successor to Cheon Lang.
“What we won today wasn’t just because of the Saejaeggeombup.”
His earnest voice drew the trainees’ full attention.
“You all felt it, didn’t you? The incantations the professor recited up on the Peak—they weren’t ordinary.”
Everyone agreed on this point.
The level was different from ordinary Heart Methods.
The internal energy that accumulated in the dantian during energy circulation was so pure.
“So here’s the thing.”
Cha Yu-sik lowered his voice sharply.
“What I’m about to tell you—keep it as a secret known only among us.”
In fact, when Kang Hyun had previously demonstrated the Jaewaonggeomhyung to Cha Yu-sik, they hadn’t known what martial art it was, and they still didn’t.
They’d simply assumed it must be an extraordinary technique.
Only Gwak Do-jin had subtly asked about it, but Cha Yu-sik hadn’t answered.
It was only natural.
It was a family secret.
“The martial art I’ve been learning from the professor—it’s actually the Jaewaonggeomhyung.”
“……!”
The trainees’ mouths fell open.
“The Jaewaonggeomhyung?”
“……That!”
“Is it really a 2nd Grade martial art on the Manbaenja?”
The Jaewaonggeomhyung was fairly well-known.
As one of the fourteen 2nd Grade martial arts selected by the Manbaenja.
“Shush, shush, shush.”
Cha Yu-sik raised his index finger to quiet the trainees’ voices.
“Don’t go blabbing about it anywhere. If you do, I might be able to handle it, but my father certainly won’t.”
Gulp.
The trainees swallowed.
“Wait, so you’re saying the professor knows the Jaewaonggeomhyung?”
Gwak Do-jin asked.
“He doesn’t just know it, senior. He seems to know even the Heart Method that goes with it. I was quite shocked myself.”
“And the reason you’re telling us this is?”
“Because the martial art we’ll be taught is also going to be equivalent to 2nd Grade.”
Cha Yu-sik knew from having sparred with them.
Just how pure their internal energy was.
It was certainly similar to his own internal energy, accumulated while memorizing the incantations the professor had taught him.
Cha Yu-sik looked back at Yun Hyun-jong.
“What I’m trying to say is…… that simply being able to take classes this semester is an extraordinary stroke of fortune.”
“In the end, you’re telling me to fight.”
“Someone’s going to teach you a 2nd Grade martial art. Why wouldn’t you fight? Even if my legs break, I won’t forfeit.”
“You’re right about that, at least.”
Yun Hyun-jong agreed as well.
So the counterfeit Oho Danmun Sword that caused all that chaos this time sold for thirty billion, didn’t it?
Who wouldn’t take thirty billion? A broken arm’s nothing compared to that.
Might as well give it a shot.
“You don’t even need to talk me into it. I was planning to fight anyway. Don’t worry. I’ll make it to the semifinals on one arm.”
“Thanks.”
Cha Yu-sik nodded heavily.
“And starting tomorrow, we change tactics.”
“Tactics?”
“In the Round of 16, we all played it safe—pretended we got lucky, conserved energy. But starting with the Quarterfinals tomorrow, drop all that. They won’t be careless about us anymore anyway.”
“So?”
“Go like Haein does. When the starting bell rings, go all out and finish it. Let’s just rewrite history right here, right now.”
A record: fastest championship victory using the Saejaeggeombup.

* * *
At that moment, in the Professor’s Office.
“Aren’t you worried about Kang Hyun?”
“Worried about what?”
“If Cadet Yun Hyun-jong loses tomorrow, what happens? You’ll be dismissed.”
“Why would I worry about my own dismissal?”
“I’m sorry?”
In truth, Kang Hyun had already gotten everything worthwhile from the Academy.
To find a disciple capable of learning the Chilyojin, he’d have to venture abroad by now.
Or comb through the entire nation searching.
“If I get kicked out, it’s their loss, not mine.”
……!
Lee Sae-ah’s eyes widened.
When she thought about it, he was right.
‘Why was I worried about Black?’
The ones who should be worried were the Academy and the state.
Black was an asymmetrical asset that needed to be held onto, and Kang Hyun himself was simply choosing to stay put—he could leave whenever he pleased.
It was that simple.
‘This is serious.’
Lee Sae-ah’s expression turned grave.
If he really did get dismissed, what would she report to the director?
Should she pressure the Academy?
Or should she try to win over some of Jin Myung-hun’s faction?
“Chick.”
“Yes?”
“Stop overthinking and go sharpen the brush.”
Swish, swish.
Kang Hyun tossed the comment over his shoulder as he continued painting.
“And looking at the matchups, I’m more worried about Han Tae-ho than Yun Hyun-jong.”
Han Tae-ho.
His next opponent was that aristocratic fellow she’d seen before—Do Jung-hyuk.
“I can predict the other matches fine, but that one’s harder to read.”
Kang Hyun’s lips curved upward with intrigue.
That match would likely be tomorrow’s turning point.

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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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