The S-Rank Warden Devours the Academy - Chapter 46

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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 46

Baek Iwon and Sa Hyeon faced each other across the tense standoff.
Between them, an uneasy stillness.
Boom—!
A dull vibration thrummed through the ground.
“…!”
“Damn.”
Cheol Jung’s brow furrowed as his expression darkened.
The Gate’s fissure shook violently.
It looked as though monsters could pour out at any moment.
“Guess I should head in soon.”
Sa Hyeon adjusted the edge of his glove and turned to move forward.
“Not yet, I’m afraid.”
Baek Iwon stepped into his path.
He stood with his back to the Gate, his gaze unflinching as he fixed Sa Hyeon with a steady stare.
“Our Guild’s Gate Appraiser should arrive shortly. Entering rashly would be dangerous.”
“He’s right, you stubborn ass! Think for once!”
As Cheol Jung spoke up from behind, Sa Hyeon exhaled a long sigh and shoved his hand into his pocket.
“When did I ever need an appraisal to go in?”
Back when Awakeners were scarce, when time was a luxury they couldn’t afford, a Gate appraisal had been an indulgence.
Why start now.
Unmoved by Sa Hyeon’s tone, Cheol Jung pressed on.
“But this Gate’s different, damn it! Better safe than sorry!”
“Different how, exactly, sir?”
Baek Iwon’s sharp gaze turned toward Cheol Jung.
“That’s…!”
Cheol Jung’s lips parted to speak.
Then his eyes met Sa Hyeon’s.
One brow rose in a sharp, disapproving arch, lips tightening into a thin line.
“…….”
A silent order.
Cheol Jung cleared his throat loudly and reluctantly changed course.
“…I just meant that red mist pouring out like that isn’t ordinary, that’s all!”
Baek Iwon’s eyes narrowed.
He glanced between Cheol Jung and Sa Hyeon, who had just exchanged that silent look, and probed carefully.
“Do you happen to know something about that Gate?”
“No idea.”
Sa Hyeon shrugged with studied indifference.
There was no point leaking information when he didn’t even know who was behind this.
The furrow between Baek Iwon’s brows did not ease.
A moment when his composed gaze clashed sharply with an undertone of suspicion.
Zip—!
A strange, zippered sound registered clearly in the ear.
Beside Baek Iwon, space tore open vertically.
A head emerged through the crack.
“Alright, alright, everyone this way!”
It was Bi Su. He clapped his hands together cheerfully as he pulled himself through.
A stream of Hunters poured out behind him.
Members of the Goyo Guild.
“We’ll take a small payment from each of you for passage~”
Bi Su spoke with shameless ease, his smile widening pleasantly.
“-Shit! Jesus! You scared me!”
Bi Su jumped back, only now noticing Sa Hyeon.
“What the hell is this guy doing here!!”
Sa Hyeon’s cold gaze shifted toward Bi Su.
“We keep running into each other.”
“Damn it! Boss, you never mentioned this asshole would be here!”
If I’d known that bastard was going to be here, I would’ve tacked on hazard pay—no, wait, I wouldn’t have shown up at all!
I wouldn’t have come anywhere near this place.
The ankle Sa Hyeon had grabbed yesterday throbbed with a dull ache.
“…I didn’t know either.”
Baek Iwon spoke in a voice tinged with resignation.
Terrible threats flickered through Bi Su’s mind as he steadied the back of his neck.
Bi Su took a careful step backward, forcing an awkward smile.
“Since I didn’t sneak in, this doesn’t count, yeah?”
He hastily added formal speech, trying to soften his words.
“Though you did run your mouth pretty freely back there.”
Sa Hyeon tilted his jaw and glanced toward something.
“Huh? Me?”
Bi Su creaked forward, following Sa Hyeon’s gaze.
The Gate Appraiser and the Gate, mid-inspection—
Baek Iwon.
Did he think I was the one who’d told the Guild Master about the Interrogator’s identity?!
“The Guild Master knew before I did! I didn’t rat anyone out!!”
Bi Su pleaded his innocence.
At his desperate cry, the Goyo Guild members controlling the perimeter snapped their attention toward him.
“What’s wrong with Bi Su?”
“Right? He’s like a scared hamster. Who is he?”
They began murmuring at Bi Su’s strange behavior—so different from his usual swagger elsewhere.
‘Damn it! What’s happening to my image!’
Bi Su wept internally, but there was nothing for it.
Survival came before reputation.
One guild member asked.
“Han Bi Su, who is that guy?”
Bi Su’s mouth itched to answer.
‘That’s the man! The Interrogator who cracks Creature Falcon skulls and criminal Hunter skulls alike!’
…….
But those ashen eyes were staring directly at him.
Bi Su squeezed his eyes shut and turned away.
“I don’t know! Don’t ask me, please!”
What’s with him….
The guild members exchanged confused glances.
“Guild Master, the measurement is complete.”
“What’s the verdict?”
“It’s a bit difficult to say with certainty….”
The Gate Appraiser withdrew from the Gate and scratched his cheek.
“It’s all over the place. Both the field and the monsters—they shift constantly, like a roulette wheel spinning.”
“…So it’s a Mutant Gate, like you’d expect from an Anomalous Gate.”
“Exactly that. In any case, it’s definitely A-rank. Just in case, bring the emergency kit, would you?”
A kit containing various elemental defense equipment.
It was something he always carried, but after frequent use, it seemed to need maintenance soon.
“Right, thanks.”
He patted the Gate Appraiser’s shoulder and moved toward where the guild members had gathered.
“Finally done?”
Sa Hyeon asked as if to confirm they were ready.
His eyes, hands thrust into his pockets as he stood at an angle, bore an obvious glaze of boredom.
“Well, that’s so….”
Baek Iwon, who had been watching him silently, spoke in an easy tone.
“I’ll be heading in. We have combat personnel ready to go with me anyway.”
The guild members were already moving with perfect efficiency, controlling the scene.
As always, once Iwon went in with his partner, things would proceed smoothly.
But Sa Hyeon didn’t budge.
“I have something to do in there too. I can’t back down.”
“…This isn’t a matter of backing down.”
Baek Iwon exhaled softly and fixed Sa Hyeon with a steady gaze.
“There’s no need for two S-rankers to go in. For the sake of efficiency, it makes sense for one to remain here in case of emergency.”
“No, you both go in together.”
It was Cheol Jung, unexpectedly, who cut off Baek Iwon’s proposal.
“…Master?”
Cheol Jung gestured at the roiling crimson Gate and continued speaking.
“A Mutant Gate, you say? Then all the more reason we go together. Like you said, there are plenty of guild members here, so cleanup won’t be a problem.”
“…….”
He had a point.
Anomalous Gates always carried unforeseen variables, and Sa Hyeon had brushed shoulders with death more than once because of them.
With two S-rank Awakeners together, the danger would certainly diminish.
Of course, but….
“…Yes, then I’ll head out quickly.”
Baek Iwon nodded reluctantly and made his way toward his guild members to organize his Inventory.
“You’re coming too, right?”
To Baek Iwon’s question, Bi Su shook his head without hesitation.
“Uh, no? Absolutely not. Never.”
Baek Iwon’s eyes widened at the unexpected answer.
“You’re not going into the Gate?”
The old Bi Su would have insisted on coming along too.
After all, he always had his eye on Gate loot.
‘Getting taken down by the Interrogator must’ve shaken him pretty badly.’
In response to Baek Iwon’s confusion, Bi Su flashed a smile and waved his hand dismissively.
“I’ll stay here and help with the evacuation. Have a safe run!”
The gesture clearly conveyed: take the Interrogator and disappear already.
“Got it.”
Besides, with Bi Su staying behind, evacuation would move faster anyway.
Baek Iwon swallowed a hollow laugh and nodded.

While Baek Iwon was away momentarily,
Cheol Jung called Sa Hyeon over and whispered discreetly to him.
“If you happen to find that stone we discovered in the core—”
And glancing around, he carefully withdrew something from his Inventory.
“Keep it in this pouch. Don’t touch it with your bare hands, understand?”
A Leather Pouch the size of a fist.
It looked ordinary on the surface, but coming from Cheol Jung, it had to possess special properties.
“I’m not entirely convinced, but….”
When Sa Hyeon replied flatly, Cheol Jung’s voice suddenly boomed.
“What’s this brat saying?!”
“…My eardrums are about to burst.”
At the thunderous command that pierced his ears, Sa Hyeon furrowed his brow and accepted the pouch.
“Anyway, there’s no explaining it all at once, you understand.”
Cheol Jung clicked his tongue and withdrew a small stone from his Inventory.
“If something feels off, get out with this immediately. Baek Iwon will have one too.”
The Mana Stone handed to Sa Hyeon.
A Return Stone gleaming with deep blue light.
“Carrying one around isn’t a bad idea anyway.”
Sa Hyeon rolled the Return Stone across his palm, then tossed it into his Inventory along with the pouch.
“Handle it carefully, damn it! Do you know how much that costs?!”
Sa Hyeon let Cheol Jung’s reproach go in one ear and out the other.
His gaze swept broadly across the surroundings.
“Yoon Hae Sung.”
“Ah, yes! Sa Hyeon!”
Yoon Hae Sung, who had been tidying the wrecked workshop alongside the Goyo Guild members, set down the debris he was holding and rushed over.
“Take the weapons I had the Master appraise and finish evaluating them.”
Cheol Jung rubbed his chin as he stared at the collapsed cavity.
“Hmm…. They’re buried somewhere in that rubble, though.”
“Yes, I’ll locate them and complete the appraisal.”
Yoon Hae Sung nodded faithfully.
Only then did Sa Hyeon move forward.
He approached the Gate with long strides, offering no particular greeting.
Baek Iwon fell into step beside him and joined.
“…In any case, I’m counting on you.”
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s just do what we need to do.”
“…….”
Iwon narrowed his eyes and exhaled a thin sigh.
‘Can we really clear a Gate with someone like this?’
The two of them stepped through the Gate entrance simultaneously.

* * *

Pitter-patter, pitter-patter-patter.
Damp, tacky droplets against his skin.
Sa Hyeon’s eyes opened slowly.
A hazy sky filling his entire vision.
He raised his upper body gradually.
Rain streamed down in sheets, leaving his clothes soaked and clinging.
Sa Hyeon held up his palm.
Raindrops fell onto it.
No—this wasn’t ordinary rain.
The moment it touched his skin, crimson mana scattered with a faint hiss.
The wave persistently drumming against the walls of his mind carried considerable weight.
The rain was inducing Mental Contamination.
‘A Field Debuff, then.’
It had to be A-rank level at least.
For an ordinary hunter, consciousness would have already collapsed, foam flecking their lips—such was its potency.
Of course, for Sa Hyeon, a psychic-type Awakener of higher rank, it amounted to little more than a slight fatigue.
He rose to his feet and surveyed his surroundings.
Thick crimson mist blocking his vision. A rooftop, ringed by gray fencing.
‘A building rooftop.’
As he absently brushed the wet hair from his face—
Ding.
A Gate notification chimed.
And a Quest window materialized.
Seeing the contents, Sa Hyeon’s brow furrowed sharply.

[You have entered Gate OOOO.]
[Quest OOOO]
[OOOO]
[Debuff OOOO]
[Time Limit OO:OO:OO]

Nothing but blanks.
As though someone had forcibly erased them.
Red noise crackled and flickered along the window’s border.
Sa Hyeon leaned his weight to one side and let out a low growl.
“What the hell is this nonsense?”

S-Rank Instructor Devours the Academy – Episode 46

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

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260512043.0047

ⓒ2026, Baek Ruga

※ This e-book is protected under the copyright law of the Republic of Korea.
No part of this work may be reproduced or adapted 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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