The S-Rank Warden Devours the Academy - Chapter 57

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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 57

“……How did the Director end up here……?”
Behind his glasses, Kim Seong’s pupils trembled as if an earthquake had struck.
“That’s not your concern.”
Yeom Sa-hyeon took a slow step forward.
The streetlight overhead cast his shadow long and sharp against the ground.
“Why don’t you finish what you were saying?”
Half-shrouded in shadow, Yeom Sa-hyeon’s face looked far colder than usual.
“How do you know the owner of that hat? Enough to come all the way here?”
Kim Seong swallowed hard.
Yeom Sa-hyeon’s voice barely registered.
His mind felt fogged, as if a piercing alarm were wailing in his ears.
‘Why—why is he here?! And at the Academy, no less!!’
Images from the underground interrogation chambers over the past few years flashed through his mind in rapid succession.
Violent criminals dragged away by the Mirror-Faced One’s hand, reduced to bestial creatures howling and pleading within mere minutes—that unspeakable hell.
“…….”
Kim Seong gripped the hilt of his sword tightly.
‘I have to run! If he catches me, it’s over!’
He couldn’t let that happen to himself.
His mind held too many secrets that couldn’t be exposed.
Kim Seong assessed the situation in an instant.
He looked up sharply.
Then he hurled his blade at the light overhead.
Snap, crackle!
The streetlight shattered, plunging the surroundings into darkness.
In that moment when his vision was cut off, he tried to hurl himself toward the bushes on the opposite side.
Crash!
Yeom Sa-hyeon kicked the streetlight aside.
“!”
Right in front of Kim Seong’s escape route.
Screech—thud!
The lamppost shattered like a chopstick, blocking his path.
“You get people curious, then try to leave? That’s rude.”
“…….”
Such overwhelming speed. Such overwhelming power.
Kim Seong froze mid-stride, his face drained of all color.
Should he run? Or would fleeing only provoke him further, inviting more pain?
Then—
Whoosh—thud!
His vision met the ground.
Kim Seong slammed face-first into the earth.
Both his arms were wrenched behind his back.
And then—
Click.
“……!”
Cold metal encircled Kim Seong’s wrists.
The Mana Stone embedded in the Shackles activated at once.
Power drained from his body as if all his blood had been drawn out.
The same Shackles he’d fastened on countless others, now locked around his own wrists.
Simultaneously, crushing pressure bore down on his back.
Kim Seong trembled as he managed to turn his head.
“The fact that you tried to run makes me even more curious.”
Cold eyes fixed on the back of his head.
“I’m beginning to want to take you apart.”
“Aagh……!”
Kim Seong’s face went deathly pale as he cried out desperately.
“Wait—even an Interrogator must follow procedure! You can’t just shackle a civilian without cause! Can you?!”
“What’s the justification?”
Yeom Sa-hyeon turned to look at Hae-seong, raising one eyebrow slightly.
Hae-seong was startled for a moment, but he quickly grasped the other man’s intent.
“Ah, yes!”
He narrowed his eyes and fell silent for a moment, then spoke again.
“Academy Security Regulations, Article 12: unauthorized entry by an outsider. And you just damaged that streetlight, so we can add destruction of public property. Violation of the Academy Facilities Management Act as well…”
“Hey! That bastard broke it—I mean, the director broke it!”
“I don’t recall that.”
Yeom Sa-hyeon shrugged indifferently.
“Ugh…”
“If you feel wronged, file a formal objection. Of course, that would be after you’re designated as a suspect and the investigation is concluded.”
When Hae-seong finished speaking in his businesslike tone, Yeom Sa-hyeon’s lips curled up in satisfaction.
“That’s how it is. If you’re unhappy about it, hire a lawyer or something.”
“…Damn it.”
There was no reasoning with these two at all.
Kim Seong hung his head in despair.
“…But Sa-hyeon.”
Hae-seong’s gaze suddenly shifted.
The murmur of voices grew louder.
“With all that noise, people will probably start gathering soon. What should we do?”
“We’re handling it for now.”
Yeom Sa-hyeon grabbed the collar of Kim Seong’s limp form as if seizing him by the scruff of the neck.
“I want to have a quiet conversation with an old colleague.”
His voice was languid.
Kim Seong exhaled shakily, sensing what was to come.
Someone help me…

* * *

Deep within the Academy’s Research Building, in Gwak Cheol-jung’s makeshift workshop.
Clang! Ching—
While the sound of hammering rang out repeatedly, the automatic door suddenly opened.
Gwak Cheol-jung kept his eyes fixed on his work as he spoke.
“Where did you go without saying anything?”
He’d recognized that it was Yeom Sa-hyeon who had just left the workshop.
“Well, outside there was—”
Crash-thud-thud!
“Aaaaagh!”
Something large came flying into the workshop with a grotesque sound.
“Ugh!”
Gwak Cheol-jung instinctively wrapped his arms around his equipment to shield it, gasping in shock.
“What the hell is this?!”
Before he could even identify what had been thrown at him so abruptly,
Yeom Sa-hyeon followed in through the door.
“A person.”
“…A person?!”
Gwak Cheol-jung stared down in alarm at the figure squirming on the floor.
Right—a person. And a thoroughly battered one at that.
Despite having just hurled someone through the air, Yeom Sa-hyeon seemed perfectly at ease; Gwak Cheol-jung pointed his hammer at him accusingly.
“You absolute maniac! Are you throwing people around like they’re garbage bags?!”
“I needed a quiet place to talk. I’m just borrowing it for a bit.”
“You throw him in here and then casually tell me after the fact? What kind of behavior is that?”
Gwak Cheol-jung let out an incredulous laugh and looked down at the ragged figure.
“Wait—isn’t that handcuffs on his wrist?”
Suddenly his eyes gleamed with interest.
Gwak Cheol-jung knelt down to examine the shackles more closely.
“Huh. They’re working perfectly.”
“…Mmph.”
Kim Seong’s consciousness, which had momentarily slipped away from sheer terror, began slowly returning.
His head, pressed against the floor, gradually lifted upward.
Gwak Cheol-jung’s legs, arms, and face came into view.
“…Hah.”
The man’s eyes widened sharply.
“This face—could it be…!”
Kim Seong’s expression brightened as though he’d discovered a savior.
“Master Gwak!! This monster forcibly subdued a civilian and abducted him!!”
Gwak Cheol-jung had no idea why the Artisan was here, but right now he was Kim Seong’s only lifeline.
The Interrogator always wore a mask.
Given his nature, he’d never go around revealing his true identity.
Kim Seong deliberately averted his gaze from Yeom Sa-hyeon’s silhouette visible in his peripheral vision as he cried out.
“At this rate, he’s going to kill me!! Please help me!!”
An innocent victim and a heinous criminal.
On the surface, that’s precisely what it would appear to be.
Sa-hyeon’s expression was so fierce that he looked like the type who wouldn’t think twice about cutting down a man or two.
Just as Kim Seong began bowing desperately.
“Hmm, a monster, you say… That bastard does have a vicious streak?”
Cheol-jung stroked his rough beard as he spoke.
“But surely he wouldn’t actually kill you?”
“…What?”
Kim Seong’s breath caught short.
What kind of response was that?
The moment Kim Seong opened his mouth with a dazed expression.
Crack!
Sa-hyeon struck the back of Kim Seong’s head without mercy.
“Stop spouting nonsense and stay quiet.”
“…??”
Kim Seong’s face went blank as he raised his shackled hands to cradle the back of his head.
Cheol-jung clicked his tongue and pushed himself to his feet.
“So who’s this?”
“A junior I used to work with at the Correctional Facility. Goes by Kim Seong here.”
“M-my name isn’t Kim Seong, it’s Kim—”
Sa-hyeon didn’t so much as glance his way, casually settling into a chair beside the workbench.
“Haven’t seen him since he quit sometime last year, but now he shows up bearing interesting intel.”
Sa-hyeon’s lips curved into a menacing smile.
“Well, well… another sacrificial lamb.”
Cheol-jung grimaced and returned to the workbench, picking up a hammer.
“Don’t overdo it, will you?”
“S-shouldn’t you be worried about me?!”
Kim Seong cried out, his face drained of all color.
“Shall we get started?”
Sa-hyeon slowly drew the edge of his black leather gloves between his teeth and pulled.
“H-help…!”
The moment he saw that, Kim Seong’s complexion turned ashen.
“P-please, Director… Anything but those gloves…!”
Kim Seong knew all too well.
What it meant when Sa-hyeon removed those gloves.
What happened to the inmates the moment his hands touched them.

“Man, the screaming never stops, does it?”
“No joke. I’d rather bite my own tongue and die than fall into those hands.”
“I’d take a few broken bones instead. If it were me, I’d confess everything.”

The colleagues’ words—spoken as dark humor in passing—now flashed through his mind like a lantern show.
Back then, he’d thought it was someone else’s problem… but now that someone was him.
“This might take a while.”
As the gloves were slowly peeled away, pale knuckles emerged beneath them.
Against skin devoid of all color, faint blue veins showed in stark relief.
“Ah… ah…”
Kim Seong’s breathing became rapid and ragged.
Cold sweat trickled down his spine.
I had to run.
My mind screamed the command, but my body had turned to stone, refusing to move.
“Since I don’t know what you’re hiding, I plan to look into every corner.”
Yeom Sa-hyeon’s bare hand stretched slowly toward Kim Seong’s head.
The instant before his fingertips made contact.
Bang!
“I’ll tell you everything!”
Kim Seong slammed his forehead against the floor.
“I’ll confess it all with my own mouth! Please… please don’t use that Skill on me!!”
His voice broke into a pitiful wail.

S-rank Correctional Officer Devours the Academy Episode 57

Author
Baek Ru-ga
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yoon Tae-ri
Cover Design
Thorpe

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260512043.0057

©2026, Baek Ru-ga

※ This e-book is protected by the copyright law of the Republic of Korea.
Without permission from the author and publisher, this work may not be reproduced, modified, or distributed in any form, in whole or in part.

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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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