The S-Rank Warden Devours the Academy - Chapter 1

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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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Episode 1

When his eyes opened, darkness surrounded him on all sides.
The only light was a single beam illuminating the man’s head.
“……What the hell.”
The man tried to move his body, then froze.
A cold, heavy sensation against his hands.
Binding Restraints were locked around his limbs.
‘No wonder I felt so weak.’
His abilities had been sealed.
The man clicked his tongue and released the tension from his body, then quickly retraced the events before he’d lost consciousness.
‘That’s right. I was arrested by those Hunter Association bastards.’
Without question, the man had been changed into a Sky Blue Prison Uniform.
He muttered a curse under his breath and tilted his head back.
‘So this is that underground prison.’
The very Hunter Prison that supposedly existed deep beneath the earth.
The story went that every Hunter who’d been imprisoned here was eventually released as docile as a lamb.
Perhaps it was thanks to that.
Even as the number of criminal Hunters steadily increased worldwide, South Korea had maintained an unbroken first-place position in the World Security Ranking released annually by the International Hunter Association for the past five years.
‘Damn it. And my luck too.’
He should never have believed the client’s empty promises that he wouldn’t get caught this time.
Just as the man exhaled a sigh—
“Slept like a log, didn’t you.”
A voice suddenly cut through the darkness.
It sounded distorted, eerie somehow.
The man’s body went rigid.
There was another reason for his shock.
He hadn’t sensed the voice’s owner at all.
‘Even bound by these Restraints, I didn’t catch even a whisper of their presence?’
The panic was brief.
Footsteps echoed from beyond the reach of the light.
A leisurely, unhurried gait.
With each step drawing closer, a strange pressure—like a fist closing around his heart—coiled tighter around the man’s entire body.
“Who the hell are you?!”
The man deliberately raised his voice to mask his tension.
And then at last, a silhouette emerged slowly from the darkness.
Clothes black as shadow from head to toe. And a face completely hidden behind—
“Hello there.”
A Mirror Mask.
The masked figure adjusted the Black Leather Gloves and bowed slightly to meet the man’s eye level.
“…….”
The pupils of the man facing the mask dilated sharply.
His pale face, reflected in the polished mirror-like surface, seemed grotesque as the reflection warped ever so slightly.
The Mirror Mask of Hunter Prison.
It was easy enough to guess who stood before him.
‘So this is….’
The Prison Demon.
The protagonist of those famous Hunter rumors and urban legends.
The man swallowed involuntarily.
“Quite the impressive record. Murdering your partner inside a gate, no less….”
The masked figure spoke in a languid tone.
The Interrogation Room of Hunter Prison. Among Hunters, it was also called the Brain Reformation Chamber.
Because every Hunter who’d passed through this place spouted the same words afterward.

“I was wrong.”
“Violence is bad.”
“I’ll live honestly from now on.”

Men who wouldn’t blink at killing one or two people—no one knew what torture had changed them so completely.
Nobody understood exactly.
Only that someone called Mirror Mask was running the Interrogation Room—that was all the information anyone had.

The truth was, whether the man in front of him was Mirror Mask or not made no difference to him.
The man let out a scoff.
“Don’t waste your strength, why don’t you? It’s all for nothing anyway.”
He was different from those pathetic bastards.
There was no way they could match him anyway.
“Oh? Why’s that?”
Laughter crept into the artificially distorted voice.
At that dismissive tone, the man’s expression twisted into something uglier.
“Your eyes don’t work right? Can’t you see my prisoner number?”
At the man’s coarse words, Mirror Mask slowly lowered his grey gaze.
His eyes fell on the man’s right chest.

[A018]

“A-rank Hunter, ranking eighteen?”
Behind the mask, those eyes traced slowly over the black badge.
The prisoner number marking a hunter’s grade and rank.
Originally meant to indicate a convict’s danger level, but among criminal hunters it had become nothing more than a tool for showing off.
“That’s right.”
The man grinned wickedly.
‘Now you know where I stand.’
Not even one-tenth of one percent of the population were Awakened.
Among the Awakened, A-rank Hunters made up barely one percent.
He was someone ranked in the top eighteen among all Hunters.
“And next ranking cycle, I’ll be in the top ten.”
The man’s chin tilted upward with arrogance.
The Binding Restraint sealed only his skills and traits.
The A-rank Physical Ability he’d developed upon his Awakening remained intact.
There was no way ordinary Awakened could catch up to him.
Even if the masked figure was Awakened, it wouldn’t matter.
No one could know his identity behind that mask, but what higher-ranked Awakened would waste away in some underground prison like this?
‘I was needlessly scared.’
Embarrassing, how he’d tensed up believing the rumors for a moment.
‘If we’d met outside, he wouldn’t have lasted a single exchange.’
He would have beaten that disrespectful attitude right out of him—the casual speech, the arrogance.
But the response that came back was calm.
“Hmm, is that so?”
An apathetic voice emerged from behind the mask, indifferent as ever.
‘You think you’re going to play it cool like that?’
The man’s brow furrowed sharply.
Then he drew a deep breath and let his anger settle.
There was no point getting heated over this.
Once he’d served his time here, he’d be free.
“Keep playing cool like that. You’ll have to let me out soon enough anyway.”
Mirror Mask tilted his head slightly, signaling the man to continue.
The man flashed a bitter smile and went on.
“First Dungeon Break in five years—the outside’s a complete mess.”
“I see. A Dungeon Break?”
“Yeah, they’re gonna need all the manpower they can get—criminal hunters, even hunters in this hellhole, everyone’s being mobilized for this!”
What need to say more about someone like him, A-rank and all?
The man spoke with confidence.
Mirror Mask regarded him silently for a moment, as if thinking, then straightened his upper body and released a small sigh.
“Can’t be helped.”
Had he finally gotten through to him?
That’s when the man’s face bloomed with the smile of a victor.
“Number eighteen—I’ll make sure to wrap you up in two hours, special treatment.”
The masked figure spoke lightly as they removed one black leather glove.
The man let out a hollow laugh.
And that laugh quickly escalated into uncontrolled cackling.
“Ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha! Two hours?”
His arrogance had crossed all bounds.
“Try two days—no, two months. I won’t bat an eye.”
By then, he’d surely be roaming the surface again, or so he believed.
Despite the man’s confident words, the masked figure let out a small, scornful laugh.
Then they extended their ungloved hand toward the man.
“!”
Before the man could so much as react, the masked figure’s hand seized his head in an iron grip.
A force from which there was no escape.
The man’s breath caught in his throat.
His trembling pupils met the eerie gaze beneath the mask.
“This is going to hurt.”
His vision stained crimson.
The world spun dizzily around that fixed point.

* * *

Some twenty minutes later.
“—Aaaaaagh! Cough, cough!”
The man sprawled on the floor, gasping for breath.
Pain came endlessly.
His limbs torn asunder, his flesh slashed and pierced—agony ravaged every inch of his body.
And finally, a horrific sensation as though his entire frame were melting in molten lava.
‘Hell. This is hell.’
Death would have been preferable.
In truth, it was an unending sequence of torment as though he’d died a thousand times over.
Unable to endure the pain, the man clawed at his own arms and screamed.
“No, noooo. Please, please stop!!”
His forearms, gouged by his own fingernails, were already soaked with blood.
Yet he felt none of it.
Already he was consumed by the inexplicable agony.
And then.
“Tsk, noisy little thing, squawking away.”
The man’s ears caught a faint, modulated voice.
The pain vanished in an instant.
“Haaah!”
The man expelled the breath he’d been holding.
He breathed harshly, like someone who’d held their breath to the absolute limit.
Once he’d recovered some semblance of breathing, he felt frantically across his own body.
‘It’s intact!!’
Only self-inflicted wounds on his arms and neck.
The limbs that seemed to have been severed were still attached, and his torso—which felt as though dozens of blades had pierced it—bore no marks.
“That’s… that’s impossible.”
The pain had felt so vivid, so real—yet it hadn’t been?
In its aftermath, his entire body still tingled, and his hands and feet trembled beyond his control.
“So this is the whimpering of an eighteenth-ranked Hunter… I see the standard of hunters these days clearly enough.”
The masked figure clicked their tongue, gazing down at him with disdain.
It was a look that trampled his pride, but none of that mattered now.
If only he could escape this hell.
The man crawled forward on his knees and grabbed at the masked figure’s legs.
“P-please, spare me! I was wrong about everything. Please, please stop, I’m begging you!”
He had felt the vast chasm in their strength.
In that moment, he understood why the masked figure was called a “demon” among hunters.
The masked figure didn’t even flinch at the man’s desperate plea.
“Already? How disappointing.”
They merely cupped their chin and muttered, as though bored.
“We haven’t even been at this for thirty minutes yet.”
“Ahhhhh!!”
What felt like a week had passed, yet only thirty minutes had elapsed.
It meant he hadn’t even reached the halfway point of the time the masked figure had set.
“I’m truly sorry. From now on, I’ll live right and never burden society again….”
The man dropped to his knees, palms burning as he begged frantically.
If he had to endure this nightmare for two straight hours, he might actually lose his mind.
The masked figure’s voice rumbled in response.
“Really?”
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!”
The man nodded his head rapidly.
His vision swam and reeled; bile threatened to rise in his throat—but none of that mattered now.
“Hmm….”
The masked figure looked down at those desperate eyes, a low sound emanating from behind the glass.
Perhaps mercy would be granted.
As the man’s hope swelled with each passing second of silence—
The eyes behind the mask widened.
“No good. No sincerity in your voice.”
“Ugh……!”
You devil bastard! What do you know! I’ve never been this desperate in my entire life!!
The man choked back the words, screaming silently inside, and made another desperate plea.
“I swear I’ll live right now, truly right. I promise! I’ll use my abilities to help others, to put them to good use. I give you my word!”
Despite his anguished appeal, the figure uttered only one brief sentence.
“No.”
“Nooooo—nooooooooo, I hate this too, I hate this!!”
And just as the masked figure casually dismissed his words and gripped the man’s head forcefully again—
Knock, knock—
The metal door of the Interrogation Room rang out.
A crisp knock that introduced a crack in the masked figure’s chaotic routine.
“Hm….”
The masked figure’s eyes narrowed with displeasure.
In the Interrogation Room of Hunter Prison, there was no one who could interfere with him.
Or rather, no one would dare to try.
“Hngh!”
The screaming man fell silent abruptly, as if he’d met a savior, holding his breath.
“Who is it?”
Beneath the Mirror Mask, red eyes narrowed to slits.
Click—
The door to the Interrogation Room swung open, as if the masked figure’s mutter had been understood as permission to enter.
“Interrogation Officer.”
The mysterious visitor appeared.
A young man dressed in a neat suit.
He glanced at the prisoner in the sky blue prison uniform sitting on the floor in a pathetic state, and his expression tightened slightly.
The visitor, returning to his original businesslike demeanor, parted his lips.
“The Association Director is requesting your presence.”

S-rank Prison Guard Devours the Academy — Episode 1

Author
Baek Ruga
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yun Taeri
Cover Design
Thong

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260512043.0002

ⓒ2026, Baek Ruga

※ This e-book is protected under the copyright law of South Korea.
No part or whole of this work may be reproduced or modified in any form without permission from the author and publisher.

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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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