The S-Rank Warden Devours the Academy - Chapter 31

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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 31

In the Isolated Area, monster cries echoed sporadically.
All the townspeople had moved away, leaving the neighborhood dark and silent—but one house cast a faint glow in the gloom.
It had the lavish exterior of a high-end villa.
Beneath curtains dimly lit by red bulbs, a cheetah-form Summon lay curled up in sleep.
“Sleeping all day long, stretched out like that.”
The man who saw this let out a hollow laugh, brushing back his blonde hair.
His gaze shifted back to the work table.
A Rifle with Yellow Mana Stone.
He was meticulously maintaining the weapon when it happened.
Buzz—buzz—
A violent vibration came from his pocket.
The man quickly pulled out a stone flickering with blue light and tapped it twice.
“Yes, Lete.”
-The item?
The modulated voice cut straight to business.
The man set down his finished weapon and answered flatly.
“It’s only been a day. Isn’t this rushing things a bit?”
He sank into the sofa.
Sloth, who’d been asleep on the cushion, crawled slowly up onto his hand.
-Too bad. I really wanted to research that nucleus.
“We’ll have to recover it one way or another.”
There was still business with that person.
The moment of shameful defeat played fresh in his mind.
That Hunter whom Sloth’s skill had failed to touch—the hand that had reached for his head.
And….
‘Eyes stained the color of blood.’
He stared blankly at the red bulb illuminating the work table.
Before his thoughts could deepen, the Communication Stone rang out.

-Have you identified who they are?

Sloth, lying in the palm of his hand, let its limbs dangle and drifted back to sleep.
He stroked its stiff fur with his thumb as he answered, his voice low.
“I’m certain it’s the same Hunter who caught that Creature Falcon recently. There’s no way two people of that caliber would show up out of nowhere like that.”

-Right. And….

A moment of silence on the other end of the Communication Stone.
Then a voice came back, somewhat more animated.

-There’s been talk going around about that Hunter. Do you know what it is?

“Of course.”
The corners of the man’s mouth twisted upward.
-If that’s true, you know what we have to do, don’t you?
“Naturally.”
His voice grew darker, more weighted.
A new light kindled in his eyes.
“Our course of action will change entirely.”
-Right.
The modulated voice spoke in a lighter tone.
-Let me know immediately if anything unusual comes up.
“I will. Oh, and I’m planning to move the hideout soon. A swarm of flies keeps gathering here.”
-Fine, stay in touch.
With that, the light of the Communication Stone faded.
As the man stretched and rose to his feet, the soft sofa rippled beneath him.
The cheetah-shaped Summon’s eyelids fluttered open at the sound of footsteps.
“Time to start packing up, Akinonix. We need to get moving.”
Akinonix exhaled a tired sigh, his tail slapping against the floor with dull thuds.
“I don’t like it either, believe me. But dealing with those intruders who keep showing up periodically? That’s even more of a pain.”
The man furrowed his brow and stuffed the weapons from the workbench into his Inventory.
A low, rumbling growl.
The beast’s throat issued a menacing sound.
“…Temperamental as always.”
He was the Summoner, yet Akinonix carried himself like the master here.
The man was rolling his eyes, about to gather his meager belongings, when—
“Look, I know you liked this place, but…!”
His face went rigid.
Something was wrong. The presence he felt was not ordinary.
It was nothing like the trivial swarm of ants he usually sensed approaching.
An intense, overwhelming pressure drawing rapidly closer.
The Summon bared his fangs toward the outside, skulking backward step by step.
Crash—!
“!”
With a deafening boom, concrete debris exploded in all directions.
The man instinctively shielded his face and hunched down.
When he lowered his arms, the sight before him was devastating.
A gaping hole torn through the wall, with dust swirling thickly around it.
…….
A low growl—Akinonix crouched low, on guard.
The Summon’s racing heartbeat transmitted directly to the Summoner.
“Well, well. Hiding as deep as a little rat, weren’t you?”
A long silhouette emerged through the haze.
A figure stepped casually over the shattered debris, moving further inside.
“…!”
The man recognized the face instantly.
The one who had taken his target from the Parched Dune dungeon.
His gaze snapped to the intruder’s eyes.
‘…Ash-grey?’
Maybe I was mistaken that day after all.
There’s no way it could have been him.
The man released a breath, feeling suddenly lighter.
Now that he’d confirmed it wasn’t him, he could focus on what needed to be done.
‘…Having him show up on his own before I even had to hunt him down—I suppose I should call that lucky.’
But there was a problem.
His Summons, having recognized the intruder’s identity, were flooding his mind with the full weight of their fear.
They must have been reliving that helpless battle from before.
“Sloth, get inside.”
He dismissed Sloth, the Summon who had been trembling behind his shoulder.
He already knew that Psych-type Skills didn’t work on that monster.
Keeping Sloth summoned would just be wasting Mana.
“Akinonix.”
He issued a command to his Summon.
But.
A high-pitched whine.
Akinonix’s ears pinned back, his massive frame pressed flat against the ground, trembling violently.
‘…Damn it. He’s got no will to fight whatsoever.’
With other intruders before, his own power alone had been enough to subdue them.
They’d barely been B-rank level.
But this time was different.
This one was either equal to Akinonix or surpassed him.
He needed the support of an A-rank Summon.
“…Listen to me!”
He furrowed his brow and drew up his Mana.
A crackling surge of electricity.
Only then did Akinonix lift his massive paws, surging forward in a blue torrent of electrical discharge.

Meanwhile, Sahyeon stood motionless, his gaze fixed intently on the scene unfolding before him.
The creature’s foreleg came sweeping toward him.
“Judging by the size of its paw, it’s not fully grown yet.”
Sahyeon murmured the observation under his breath, then twisted his body in a fraction of an instant.
The attack missed by the thinnest of margins.
Crack!
The foreleg, having lost its target, struck the pillar dead-on instead.
The stone column shattered and crumbled.
The moment Akinonix landed, Sahyeon extended his long arm.
His hand closed around the creature’s scruff.
The Summon thrashed desperately, but the instant Sahyeon’s grip tightened, it went limp as a cut puppet string.
An unmistakable gesture of surrender.
“The Summon’s physical specs aren’t half bad, actually.”
Sahyeon examined the drooping creature from various angles.
Then he let out a soft chuckle and released it.
“The one controlling it, though—hopelessly green.”
Akinonix vanished in a shower of sparks, as if it had been waiting for permission.
“Damn it.”
It had dismissed itself from the summoning and retreated.
Yuweol’s eyes went sharp at the mockery.
“Who the hell are you calling green?”
The man kicked off the ground and rushed toward Sahyeon.
Being a Summoner with exceptional traits and high-tier skills didn’t mean his other abilities suffered.
The punch tore through the air with a whistle, driven forward with force.
It aimed straight for Sahyeon’s face.
He clicked his tongue.
Sahyeon tilted his head at an angle, sidestepping the blow.
Then, evading it cleanly, he seized Yuweol’s wrist and wrenched it.
A grinding sound echoed.
“Ugh!”
The grip strength was overwhelming. Yuweol tried to attack again, but Sahyeon slipped free from the hold in an instant and came at him once more.
The outcome was identical.
His movements read Yuweol’s patterns like they were written in the air.
When Yuweol threw a kick, Sahyeon’s arm was already raised to block it; when he drove for a weak point, Sahyeon’s elbow was suddenly flying toward his solar plexus.
“Hgh…”
He clutched at his throbbing chest.
While Yuweol’s breath came ragged, Sahyeon remained utterly composed.
“This isn’t even kid stuff.”
Sahyeon hooked his hands into his pockets, smirking with ease.
“You’re a rookie too, huh? That hair color screams fresh out of the egg.”
“……”
This bastard.
Yuweol clenched his teeth hard, the muscles of his jaw working.
“Time to get serious.”
Sahyeon peeled off his leather gloves.
Taking that moment, the man swallowed and quietly reached into his Inventory.
At this rate, he was going to lose without landing a single blow.
Click. He drew out a Small Mana Pistol and racked the slide.
The Mana Stone embedded in the gun finished warming up, flooding it with blue light.
At that instant, Sahyeon picked up a fragment of stone pillar from the ground.
The shard flew toward him.
‘What’s he going to do with a chunk of concrete?’
Against an S-rank body, it wouldn’t even leave a scratch.
Dismissing it, Yuweol aimed at his head and began to squeeze the trigger.
“…!”
Something caught his gaze.
Sahyeon’s eyes had shifted—swallowed whole by a deep, viscous crimson.
His heart began to hammer wildly in his chest.

It was not the trembling that had rippled through his Summons.
It was entirely his own.
In that instant.
Boom—!
“!”
The man’s vision went dark.
A fragment Sahyeon had hurled transformed into a thin wall, blocking his sight.
He tried to track Sahyeon’s movement immediately, but already that presence had closed the distance behind him in a heartbeat.
Crash!
His body slammed into the ground.
Cold, rigid metal touched both his wrists.
Click—! A metallic sound that made his heart lurch.
He twisted to look behind him.
An arm bent and wrenched backward. And fastened around both wrists….
“…Shackles?”
Whirrrr—!
In that moment, the Mana Stone embedded in the shackles blazed with crimson light.
“Gah!”
Every ounce of strength drained from his body like an ebbing tide.
The power of the Mana Stone coursed through his wrists, forcibly crushing and sealing away his Mana.
“Works pretty well. Looks like the old man’s got some skill after all.”
Thud—
A heavy weight settled across his back.
……
The man gazed up at Lete with trembling eyes, perched astride him.
Above an upturned smile, those cold, crimson eyes flickered like ice.
“Ha.”
A short breath escaped between his slack lips.
His heart thundered wildly.
It was real. Impossible as it seemed.
He spoke in a voice that quavered.
“…How are you here, Interrogator?”
“You’re not in a position to ask questions.”
Sahyeon seized the blond head in his large grip.
“From now on, I’m the only one asking.”

S-rank Warden Devours the Academy | Chapter 31

Author
Baek Ruga
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yun Taeri
Cover Art
Thop

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260512043.0031

ⓒ2026, Baek Ruga

※ This e-book is protected under the Copyright Law of the Republic of Korea.
No part or all 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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