The S-Rank Warden Devours the Academy - Chapter 109

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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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Chapter 109

His ears rang with a dull, persistent ache, and his entire body throbbed.
Ha Jin frowned as he slowly opened his eyes.
After blinking several times against the heavy weight of his eyelids, an unfamiliar ceiling gradually came into focus.
A soft touch against his back.
Nothing like the hard, cold floor of the Arena.
His thoughts caught up with a half-beat delay.
“Well, look at you—conscious the moment you arrive.”
Someone grumbled from beside his head.
Ha Jin’s eyes snapped wide.
He jolted upright, spinning to look behind him.
Kim Team Leader straightened from his bent posture, brushing dust from his hands.
……
Ha Jin stared at him with unfocused eyes, still struggling to piece together what had happened—until the last scene before he’d lost consciousness flickered back into view.
‘I was being carried on Lee Ha-je’s shoulder, and then I just… blacked out.’
Ha Jin’s jaw clenched.
“Was it you? Did you knock me out?”
“Me? What did I do?”
Kim Team Leader narrowed his eyes, turning the question back on him.
“You’re the one who knocked me out?”
Confronted with Ha Jin’s direct accusation, Kim Team Leader furrowed his brow and let out an exasperated breath.
“What are you talking about? I’m the one who drove the car and lost those tailing us, and I’m the one who carried you here from downstairs! I didn’t knock you out—”
Kim Team Leader was about to raise his finger in protest at the injustice of it all, but the moment he realized who he was talking to, he quietly lowered it.
Ha Jin’s brow remained creased as he turned his gaze toward the direction Kim Team Leader’s finger had pointed.
His eyes, which had been rigid with tension, widened gradually as he took in the figure before him.
“Saved you the trouble of waking up,” the man said flatly.
Yeom Sa-hyeon’s voice was utterly expressionless.
Ha Jin’s pupils trembled violently.
‘That’s right—I did see him……’
Lee Ha-je, whom he’d spotted during the match.
At first, Ha Jin had thought he was seeing things.
There was no way Lee Ha-je could be there.
Even if, against all odds, he was real, he wouldn’t have simply walked past without acknowledging Ha Jin on that Arena floor.
But when Ha Jin caught sight of that face in the spectator stands again, he was certain.
It really had been Lee Ha-je—using an item.
He’d burned every last ounce of strength left in him, desperate not to lose sight of him, and hurled his opponent across the Arena.
But then——

——Crack-boom!
He’d shattered the Arena barrier with his bare hands.

——Thwack!
And leaping into the Arena, he’d struck Ha Jin’s solar plexus and knocked him unconscious.
……
Ha Jin studied the man in the Hat carefully, his eyes wary.
A black Hat pressed low over his head; beneath it, familiar features.
“Now that you’re awake, stop gawking and get your head straight. I’ve got plenty of questions for you.”
The familiar voice hit his eardrums.
Yet Ha Jin was now certain.
‘This isn’t Lee Ha-je.’
He’d made a mistake in his confusion earlier.
Now that he observed more carefully, the presence before him was someone entirely different.
Unlike the tone that had always carried a hint of playfulness and warmth, this voice was utterly indifferent.
The faint smile that had always graced his face was gone, replaced by an expression so blank it bordered on cold.
Most of all—not the light, warm brown eyes he knew, but eyes of an enigmatic grey.
Same face, same voice, yet a completely different presence.
Subtle enough that it was easy to spot once you paid attention.
“Who are you?”
Ha Jin asked in a low voice.
In a way, it was inevitable.
Lee Ha-je couldn’t possibly be here.
‘Because he’s dead.’
Ha Jin clenched his fists tight.
“What gives you the right to be carrying his things?”
Yeom Sa-hyeon tilted the hat, showing it as he turned the question back.
“And how do you know this face?”
“Answer my question first.”
Ha Jin shouted, eyes wide with fury.
Yeom Sa-hyeon let out a low chuckle and slipped his hand into his pocket.
He’d seen plenty of this type at the Correctional Facility—people who couldn’t read a situation and just threw their weight around.
His indifferent gaze swept slowly over the blood-smeared man.
His eyes burned with defiance as he glared, yet the arms supporting his weight trembled without mercy.
With such a fragile mind in that frame, it was remarkable he’d ever made it into that crude fighting pit at all.
“Nothing I was particularly hiding anyway.”
He’d find out soon enough.
Yeom Sa-hyeon removed the hat without hesitation.
The moment his face was revealed, his true face emerged into the light.
“……!”
Ha Jin’s eyes widened gradually.
Black hair fell in disarray across his forehead, sharp and distinctive features.
The instant Ha Jin saw that face, all color drained from his own.
“You’re…… the Interrogator?”
The man whose name had been on everyone’s lips all day long among the Arena staff and fighters.
The very face that had been constantly broadcast on the news.
Why did the Interrogator have Ha-je’s hat, and why had he kidnapped him in the first place?
Cold sweat trickled down Ha Jin’s spine.
“Your expression answered that well enough. Now you answer me.”
Yeom Sa-hyeon tossed the hat into his Inventory, then looked down at Ha Jin directly.
“What’s your relationship to Lee Ha-je?”
“…….”
Ha Jin swallowed hard.
He bit his lip, then opened his mouth, which had been sealed shut.
“…My foster brother.”
“…What?”
Yeom Sa-hyeon’s eyebrow twitched ever so slightly.
Kim Team Leader, who had been listening from the side with bated breath, also opened his eyes wide and swallowed.
“Wait, the Hunter Lee Ha-je had a foster brother? If someone that famous had a sibling, it would’ve come out by now, wouldn’t it?”
“Well, he’s my foster brother.”
Ha Jin added matter-of-factly, and Kim Team Leader let out a deflated sigh, pressing his forehead.
“Ah, what. Here I thought there was some dramatic secret heritage or something.”
While Kim Team Leader grumbled, Yeom Sa-hyeon narrowed his eyes and fell silent in thought.
He opened his lips abruptly.
“Are you from the Hope Orphanage, by any chance?”
“!”
Ha Jin’s eyes widened as though asking how he could possibly know.
“I know Lee Ha-je sponsors an orphanage.”
Yeom Sa-hyeon raised an eyebrow slightly, offering a vague excuse.
Lee Ha-je’s hometown had been destroyed in a Gate accident, and all the children who lost their parents had ended up at the Hope Orphanage.
After that, Lee Ha-je had consistently donated his income to the Hope Orphanage.
It was a fact all his colleagues knew, and they often went on volunteer work together.

‘Want to go see my foster siblings?’

Ha-je had often suggested it, but Yeom Sa-hyeon had flatly refused.
He’d always hated such conspicuous public activities, but worn down by his colleagues’ protests, he’d gone along just once.
That memory had come back to him now.
“Ah…….”
Only then did Ha Jin’s eyes soften slightly, and he nodded deeply.
“You’re right—I remember now. My foster brother mentioned it in an interview before.”
I hadn’t known that.
While Sa-hyeon arched one eyebrow with a dubious expression, Ha Jin continued with a troubled look.
“I was already living at Hope Orphanage before he started sponsoring me. So I’ve known him since I was very small. He’s like a real brother to me.”
“Known him since you were small, you say…….”
Sa-hyeon tilted his head at an angle and went on.
“But with that temperament, he wouldn’t have gone around showing every little disguise detail to a younger child under his care.”
“…….”
“So how did you come to know that face?”
When Sa-hyeon pressed him with a relentless stare, Ha Jin averted his gaze and replied reluctantly, his voice dropping to barely a whisper.
“……A year ago, I was tricked by a part-time job posting and dragged to a place like an underground warehouse. My foster brother came to rescue me when I went missing… and he was wearing that hat then.”
Kim Team Leader, who had been listening silently, snapped his fingers and interjected.
“Ah, so you fell for one of those high-paying part-time job scams and nearly became a trafficking victim, and Lee Ha-je came to help you!”
“…….”
Hit squarely with the truth, Ha Jin’s mouth twisted awkwardly to one side.
Sa-hyeon folded his arms and let out a low chuckle.
‘I see.’
Lee Ha-je’s face was too well-known, so he’d have had no choice but to disguise himself.
‘Turns out it’s less complicated than I thought.’
Sa-hyeon decided to verify one last thing.
“So what were you doing working street fights in a place like that?”
“…….”
Again, Ha Jin worked his lips anxiously for a moment before hesitantly opening his mouth.
“I don’t know.”
A plain and concise answer.
“You don’t know?”
Sa-hyeon’s eyes narrowed to slits, and he arched one eyebrow at an angle.
Ha Jin felt the weight of that gaze and, unable to bear the pressure, suddenly raised his voice.
“I really don’t know! I can’t remember how I even ended up there!”
Lee Yu-wol, standing silently behind Sa-hyeon, felt a chill settle into her eyes.
“Mind your tone.”
Just as she took a threatening step forward.
Sa-hyeon raised a hand lightly and held her back.
“You don’t know, you say…….”
Sa-hyeon quietly turned Ha Jin’s answer over in his mind.
Though Ha Jin’s fingertips trembled with unease, his voice and eyes remained steady.
It wasn’t a lie.
And besides…….
“I’ve heard a similar answer before.”
Sa-hyeon’s mouth curved up as he turned to look at Yu-wol.
“……!”
Yu-wol’s eyes widened as she belatedly grasped what he meant.

‘…And that was my last memory before the Awakening.’

Because those were the very words he himself had spoken.
“Could it be the work of the same one…….”
Sa-hyeon’s eyes gleamed with subtle intensity.
As he removed his gloves, Yu-wol hurriedly stopped him.
“Master, but if you touch him carelessly and your body is harmed again like last time…! It’s dangerous.”
“Me? My body getting hurt?”
Kim Team Leader muttered in confusion, utterly unable to pair the two words together.
“Over something trivial like that.”
Sa-hyeon brushed his bare hands lightly and walked toward Ha Jin at an unhurried pace.
“What—what are you going to do?”
As Sa-hyeon drew closer, the mounting pressure made Ha Jin instinctively shuffle backward while still seated.
Sa-hyeon stopped in front of Ha Jin.
He knelt down and brought their eyes level.
“You’ll feel dizzy for a moment.”
“What on earth—”
Ha Jin’s question hadn’t finished forming.
“!”
A sharp crack.
Sa-hyeon’s hand shot toward Ha Jin’s head like a snare springing shut.

S-Rank Instructor Devours the Academy 109

Author
Baek Ruga
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yoon Tae-ri
Cover Design
Tholp

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260512043.0109

ⓒ2026, Baek Ruga

※ This e-book is a work protected under the Copyright Act of the Republic of Korea.
No part or all of the contents of this work may be reprocessed in any form without the permission of 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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