The S-Rank Warden Devours the Academy - Chapter 38

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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 38

Evening had settled into a thick darkness.
Pale moonlight seeped through the closed windows of Sa Hyeon’s Research Laboratory.
The desk lamp was the only source of light.
Beneath it, numerous items lay arranged in orderly rows.
“Quite the collection.”
Sa Hyeon sank deep into his chair and methodically surveyed the belongings.
Everything from High-Grade Potions to Magic Stone-Embedded Weapons.
All of it confiscated from Yu Weol.
He swiped lightly across the tablet screen.
A chart compiled by Hae Seong.
Item name, rank, price—all laid out at a glance.
Sa Hyeon’s gaze lingered over the chart.
Items whose values crossed into the thousands, at minimum.
Far too extravagant for a novice not even half a year past her Awakening to carry around.
“The Geohangja, then….”
Sa Hyeon turned the name of that bizarre organization over in his mind.
An organization willing to supply such expensive goods without reservation.
A group that worshipped the Mirror Mask.
There was no way he’d swallow such an absurd tale at face value.
Even if Yu Weol herself believed it, it was surely just a convenient excuse conjured up to justify hunting down that S-Rank bigwig.
‘The real question is what they’re actually after.’
Among the confiscated items, there was nothing from the Illegal Auction House that he’d seen in Yu Weol’s memories.
It must have already been handed over to her backers.
Sa Hyeon picked up the blue communication stone resting on the corner of the desk.
The note written in the communication stone column of the chart.

[Peculiarity: Modified Communication Stone, transmission only]

The precautions taken to prevent backtracking were remarkably meticulous.
‘If the Memory Reading Skill worked on objects too, that’d make things easier.’
While Sa Hyeon frowned with displeasure and rolled the communication stone beneath his fingertips,
Faint rustle—
the curtain trembled ever so slightly.
At the incongruous movement, Sa Hyeon’s eyebrow rose barely perceptibly.
He kept his gaze fixed on the communication stone as his lips parted slowly.
“Skulking around like a rodent—what’s your game?”
Sa Hyeon’s low voice shattered the silence of the laboratory.
Then a small fissure beside the curtain began to ripple and undulate.
Zip—
In a flash, the gap widened and space split open like a zipper.
“Man, no fun in being spotted right away.”
Along with a pouting, youthful voice, a boy in a green hood poked his head through the gap.
The boy landed lightly on the floor.
Sa Hyeon clicked his tongue—what now—as if nursing a headache.
The kid jammed his hands in the hoodie’s front pockets and grinned.
“Your disciples never even noticed me until I said something.”
“Disciples?”
Sa Hyeon’s brow furrowed.
Ah, those chick students.
“Just as I thought—you really do have an incredible eye for sensing presence, Interrogator.”
As Bisoo added with pointed significance, Sa Hyeon’s jaw tilted slightly.
His ash-grey eyes swept slowly across the boy’s entire frame.
He’d assumed the kid was just another novice stumbling around the Academy.
‘So he knew I was an Interrogator and came looking for me….’
Word had spread already, then.
How troublesome.
Sa Hyeon set down the communication stone with a flick of his wrist, exhaling softly.
“So this is what the Interrogator looks like~ The rumors were so dark I half-expected horns, but you look pretty ordinary, don’t you?”
Bisoo circled Sa Hyeon, letting out an exclamation of wonder.
“What do you want.”
Sa Hyeon’s tone made his annoyance plain, his question blunt and direct.
Bisoo, standing across the desk from him, planted his hands on his hips before speaking.
“Man, you’re impatient. Wait—you don’t know who I am?”
“Ah. Did we meet as inmates?”
At Sa Hyeon’s deadpan reply, something cold ran through Bisoo, and he swallowed hard without meaning to.
“…Wow, you tell jokes like a executioner. You’re gonna hurt someone’s feelings like that.”
It didn’t sound like a joke, but let’s pretend it is. Yeah, let’s pretend.
“I’ve got a clean record, no priors or anything, so what are you talking about!”
Bisoo pounded his chest indignantly as he protested.
But Sa Hyeon simply flipped through Yu Weol’s file, unmoved.
“Your face tells me everything. You’ve probably done everything except the ones that got you arrested.”
“…Huh.”
The barb hit home, and Bisoo’s objection turned to air.
He coughed loudly to cover his embarrassment, rushing to change the subject.
“Anyway, you really don’t know me? No internet in the underground, huh… I’m ranked eleventh with my own fan club, but you wound me.”
Bisoo’s eyes drooped with hurt, but suddenly they gleamed with renewed interest.
“Well, you’ll feel the weight of my popularity soon enough!”
He returned with the eager curiosity of a child.
He leaned forward across the desk, closing the distance between them.
“Say, how do you know our guild master?”
Instead of answering, Sa Hyeon picked up Yu Weol’s Magic Pistol.
There was no point in answering this kid sincerely.
Still, to extract the answers he needed, he’d have to play along a little.
Sa Hyeon answered offhandedly.
“How would I know who your guild master is.”
“The Goyo Guild master! Baek I-won!”
Sa Hyeon recalled the disguised figure of Baek I-won he’d seen in an advertisement days ago.
Along with Hae Seong’s explanation about him being a role model for children, doing better than celebrities.
“Oh, that celebrity?”
“…Pfft! Crazy—yeah! A celebrity!”
In all the world, there couldn’t be another hunter who mistook South Korea’s number-one-ranked hunter for an entertainer.
As Bisoo giggled, a strange smile bloomed on Sa Hyeon’s face.
“Did Baek I-won send you?”
“Hmm. From your reaction, it doesn’t seem like you two have no connection…”
Bisoo shook his head, his throat tightening.
“No? The guild master seemed interested when he heard the Interrogator was coming on assignment. It was unlike him, so I got curious~”
Bisoo, who had been speaking freely, suddenly froze.
Why am I answering so obediently?!
“Wait, that’s not it! I asked first! How do you know our guild master?”
Bisoo tapped the desk with his index finger, pressing the question.
“I don’t see why I should answer.”
Sa Hyeon rolled the Magic Pistol deftly in his hand as he spoke.
News of his arrival must have come from Baek I-won.
So who leaked the information to Baek I-won?
‘I’ve played along enough.’
“…Huh?”
The air seemed to shift somehow.
Bisoo felt a chill creep across his skin and instinctively tucked his chin in.
‘Ugh… why does my spine feel cold all of a sudden?’
He laughed awkwardly, waving his hands in denial.
“Hey… are you angry? Relax your face a bit.”
Sa Hyeon’s face had been relaxed all along.
It was the smile on his lips that was terrifyingly ugly.
With a soft sound, Sa Hyeon set down the Magic Pistol he’d been toying with.
“Did you sneak into someone else’s territory just to spout nonsense?”
…….
Bisoo swallowed hard, then launched into a rambling defense.
“Well, you know, I’m pretty mobile and all~ I just can’t help satisfying my curiosity?”
“That so?”
Sa Hyeon smiled languidly and peeled off his right glove.
Bisoo glanced at the zipper standing slightly ajar.
Still open. Still waiting.
‘Time to slip out of here?’
He’d confirmed the Mirror Mask’s face, and he’d confirmed the S-Rank recruit the Mirror Mask had supposedly brought in.
That was enough of a haul.
“…Ahem. Can’t be helped, I suppose. Well then, I’ll be going—”
Bisoo shuffled backward, edging away.
Then he shoved his foot toward the zipper opening behind him.
But in that instant.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Sa Hyeon reached out.
The moment his hand touched him.
“…Huh?”
Why wasn’t he moving?
His body, which should have crumpled through the zipper gap, froze solid.
Bisoo’s neck twisted with a creak.
Only his foot had slipped through the zipper opening; his right leg dangled uselessly in empty space.
And Sa Hyeon’s gloved hand clamped around that ankle like a vice.
Panic flooded through Bisoo as he looked up at him.
The eyes meeting his were drowning in crimson.
‘…What? Is that the famous Mirror Mask’s red eyes everyone talks about?’
Absolutely terrifying.
Bisoo’s pupils trembled.
‘Got to get out of here, fast!’
He gritted his teeth and summoned every ounce of strength, but the captured leg wouldn’t budge an inch.
Why was this guy’s strength so insane?! What kind of broken character was this?!
Bisoo was struggling and flailing when it happened.
“…!”
The red eyes narrowed gently.
“Your ability does look convenient. I’m jealous.”
Sa Hyeon’s other hand pressed against the crown of Bisoo’s head.
…This is dangerous.
The convicts in the Underground Prison had said it.
The moment the Mirror Mask grabbed your head, it was over.
Bisoo’s instincts were screaming a warning siren.
“Ahhh!”
He felt as though caught in a violent vortex, his consciousness reeling.
A sickening sensation of his brain rolling this way and that.
Cold sweat trickled down his jaw.
“―Khhh!”
His eyes snapped open.
Bisoo gasped for breath, his eyes darting frantically.
While Bisoo’s entire body was drenched in sweat, Sa Hyeon’s face remained serene.
“Now then, shall we have a calm conversation?”
He released Bisoo’s leg and casually pulled his leather glove back into place with leisure.
Sparks flew from Bisoo’s eyes.
‘…Damn it, he attacks without warning when I’m being polite and trying to leave?!’
Bisoo clenched his teeth and tried to stand.
Click—
“What?”
His leg still wouldn’t come free.
‘What the hell? The Interrogator definitely let go….’
Bisoo’s sharp gaze whipped backward.
“…?!”
Where the zipper should have been, there was only emptiness.
All he saw was the white wall, and below his ankle, nothing—his right leg hanging grotesquely into void.
“Huh?!”
Realization struck him belatedly.
Had that bastard used his Mental Ability to numb my senses while forcibly sealing my portal?!
That’s even possible?
“Wait, hold on!”
Bisoo braced himself against the floor and tried to activate his skill—
“Why won’t this work either?!”
The skill was dead too.
Don’t tell me he locked down my skills as well?!
‘I’m screwed!!’
Panic seized Bisoo—a feeling he’d never known in all his years as a Hunter.
“My leg! My leg’s stuck! Damn it, my leg’s jammed!”
“Uh… what? I think you just cursed. Don’t use profanity in front of your teacher.”
“I didn’t curse! My leg, my leg’s stuck!”
Bisoo hastily clarified, pulling frantically at his trapped leg with both hands.
But no matter how hard he strained, his leg remained frozen against the white wall as if locked in stone.
Of course it did.
His vanished foot was undoubtedly left behind on the other side of the portal.
If he reactivated his skill to reconnect the space, it would return—but his skill was sealed!
“Wait, Interrogator! Hold on! Let’s talk this through first!”
Bisoo’s screams echoed pitifully through Sa Hyeon’s Research Laboratory.
“You demon! Give me back my leg!”

S-Rank Prison Warden Devours the Academy — Episode 38

Author
Baek Luga
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yun Tae-ri
Cover Design
Tonp

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260512043.0039

© 2026, Baek Luga

※ This e-book is protected under the Republic of Korea’s Copyright Law.
No part of this work may be reproduced or repurposed in any form without the written 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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