The S-Rank Warden Devours the Academy - Chapter 69

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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 69

Tae-jun stared blankly down at the Training Ground floor, which had split open with deep cracks.
His gaze drifted slowly upward.
There, completely unfazed, stood Yeom Sa-hyeon—pressing Yoo-kwon’s face against the ground with a single hand.
He knew.
He knew how incomprehensibly, impossibly strong Yoo-kwon’s power had been just moments ago, pinning him down.
A pressure so total he couldn’t move an inch.
It was the first time he’d felt anything like it since his Awakening.
Yet Yeom Sa-hyeon was subduing him with such effortless ease.
‘Where does that strength even come from….’
A crimson haze had begun to settle thick across the Training Ground.
Even as Tae-jun struggled to keep hold of his fraying thoughts,
“…damn it, can’t lose…. can’t lose, I….”
Through Yoo-kwon’s trembling lips, a bestial sound spilled out—something utterly inhuman.
A creature’s mewling, stripped of all reason.
Then his flailing hand suddenly seized Yeom Sa-hyeon’s wrist.
Sizzzzzzle—!
“!”
With a burning sound, the sleeve of Yeom Sa-hyeon’s shirt began scorching a vivid red.
“! Teacher!”
From the lower seats, Yu-wol—who had been holding her breath, watching—shot to her feet in alarm.
“Are you all right!?”
At her cry, Yeom Sa-hyeon didn’t even glance her way, his cold gaze fixed intently on Yoo-kwon.
The burned fabric meant nothing to him.
‘This skill wasn’t listed in Yoon Hae-seong’s briefing on Yoo-kwon’s profile….’
The unease that had nagged at him since the match began suddenly crystallized into understanding.
Dilated pupils. Erratic movements. An unstable pulse. And excessive strength.
At first, he’d taken it for the usual signs of Awakened One drug dependency he’d seen in prisons.
But no. This was different.
‘So it was this item, after all.’
The white Hand Wraps Yoo-kwon was wearing.
From within them seeped an acrid, putrid aura that was poisoning the air around them.
Yeom Sa-hyeon wrenched his captured wrist free.
Then he roughly tore the straps from Yoo-kwon’s hands.
“Aaaaah!”
Yoo-kwon thrashed and shrieked.
And from the item wound tightly around his hands, a dark, blood-red aura oozed out thick and heavy.
‘Yoon Hae-seong was right about this, then.’
Someone had tampered with the gloves.
Looking at this alien, savage pulsation, he could roughly guess what kind of Mana Stone had been embedded inside.
A throb meant to shatter Mental Barriers.
So fierce that even Yeom Sa-hyeon, with his spiritual immunity, felt his skull vibrate.
It resembled the aura he’d encountered at the Research Institute Gate.
‘The reason the effect is milder than then is probably because he’s only absorbing the aura indirectly through the item, not ingesting it directly.’
Yeom Sa-hyeon clicked his tongue sharply.
To risk his life like this just to win a single sparring match—utter madness.
There was neither understanding nor worth in it.
“How am I supposed to dispose of this bastard….”
Yeom Sa-hyeon grabbed the glove’s edge with his teeth and tore it free.
The haze was thickening by the second.
Tae-jun and Tae Eun-o were reaching their limits, their eyes beginning to glaze; even Yu-wol, though S-Rank, was barely clinging to consciousness, cold sweat beading across her forehead.
If he forced the Skill Circuit shut with Restraints in this state, the Contamination would linger and risk triggering a Side Effect.
‘Better to make him withdraw it himself. Cleaner that way.’
Yeom Sa-hyeon immediately pressed his palm against Yoo-kwon’s skull.
Yoo-kwon’s pupils began to glow red.
A sensation boring into his mind.
A sticky, acrid aura crawled up Yeom Sa-hyeon’s nervous system.
His stomach twisted, and a numb sting spread through his body as if all his blood were draining away.
Yeom Sa-hyeon furrowed his brow and began to carefully trace the Magical Power Skill tangled within Yoo-kwon’s body.
‘…This is it.’
The moment he untangled the knot lodged deep in his mind.
“Gasp.”
Yoo-kwon exhaled sharply and lost consciousness for a moment.
At the same instant, the mist that had clouded everything began to thin.
The murky presence that had weighed down on all sides receded like an ebbing tide.
“Ugh….”
Yu-wol was the first to regain focus in her eyes.
“Master….”
Her gaze, always fixed on Yeom Sa-hyeon as ever, faltered at the corner of his mouth.
“…! Master, you’re bleeding!”
Yeom Sa-hyeon wiped his lips roughly with the back of his hand, and blood smeared across it.
It seemed to be recoil from probing the contaminated one’s head.
“Nothing left to come up, so at least it’s just blood.”
Better than vomiting up that revolting liquid the bastard had been spewing.
He wiped the blood on Yoo-kwon’s clothes as the boy began to twitch again, then pushed himself to his feet.
The other two collapsed on the Training Ground were also beginning to regain their senses.
“…How dare this bastard—wait, what…?”
“Ugh….”
Tae Eun-o and Tae-jun furrowed their brows as they lifted their heads.
“…Master? Were we knocked out?”
While Tae Eun-o blinked confusedly, Yoo-kwon’s eyelids slowly rose.
His clouded pupils turned toward Tae Eun-o.
“It’s not over yet….”
A desolate voice poured from between his pale lips.
And seizing the brief moment he’d slipped free from Yeom Sa-hyeon’s restraint, Yoo-kwon lunged at Tae Eun-o.
But before he could even take a step.
“Stay put.”
Yeom Sa-hyeon furrowed his brow and without hesitation swung his leg.
Crack!
“Kugh!”
Yoo-kwon’s body shot through the air like a cannonball.
Boom!
He crashed into the sturdy Metal Pillar of the Training Ground and went limp.
“…Huh.”
Tae-jun watched Yeom Sa-hyeon approach the unconscious Yoo-kwon with perfect calm and let out a hollow breath.
He didn’t know whether to marvel at the tremendous force or sigh at the ruthlessness.
While Tae-jun stood confused and uncertain.
“If you’re awake, stop gawking and help with the evacuation.”
Yeom Sa-hyeon spoke to the three students staring blankly at him.
‘Need to get all these nuisances out and finish this job.’
The moment Yeom Sa-hyeon grabbed Yoo-kwon by the nape of his neck and yanked him up.
“Wow, our master really is—I mean, uh…?”
Tae Eun-o, mid-applause and admiration, suddenly blinked and pointed past Yeom Sa-hyeon’s shoulder.
“Master, that thing’s… falling over?”
The tall, sturdy metal chain-link fence specially crafted for sparring matches.
The massive Metal Pillar that had stood firm since the Academy’s founding, enduring countless matches….
Creak-eeeeak-
…was slowly toppling.
It was the aftermath of Yoo-kwon being sent flying by Yeom Sa-hyeon’s kick and colliding with it.
Yeom Sa-hyeon raised one eyebrow with mild dissatisfaction.
“What’s this so shoddy? Defective construction or something?”
…….
That couldn’t possibly be the case.
Tae-jun let out a quiet sigh at Yeom Sa-hyeon’s casual composure.

* * *

In the Spectator Seats of the Grand Hall.
A student with pink hair, who had been sprawled beneath one of the seats, lifted his head with a groan.
“Uhhh… my head.”
He clutched at his throbbing skull, each pulse threatening to split it open, and looked around.
“Why am I… what am I doing here?”
Before he could even piece together what had happened, something horrifying came into view.
And he wasn’t alone in this.
Every student who had filled the Spectator Seats lay unconscious, sprawled across the benches.
Through the fog of his pounding headache, he groped slowly through his memories.
‘…That’s right.’
During the final match, Yoo-kwon had suddenly gone berserk.
He’d subdued the undefeated Tae-jun in a single breath, and effortlessly shattered Professor Ji Jae-hyeok’s Defensive Skill—the image of Yoo-kwon’s rampage replayed in his mind.
From that point on, his consciousness had grown hazy, and then he’d plunged into a terrible dream.
A moment so vivid and horrific that he’d thought it was the end—his end.
Now, having barely awakened, the simple fact that he was breathing, intact and whole, flooded him with such overwhelming relief that tears pricked his eyes.
‘What in the world was that power?’
As he rubbed his arms, where goosebumps had risen, his gaze fell upon pouches and coins scattered haphazardly across the floor.
…Was he still trapped in the dream?
“-No! This can’t be!”
They were betting pouches—students had wagered money on today’s match.
“I should’ve at least kept a ledger!”
Not that it mattered much; nine out of ten had bet on Ji Jae-hyeok’s class anyway, so there wasn’t much to record…!
While his vision swam, he busily gathered the scattered items.
Groans began to echo from various points in the Spectator Seats.
“Ungh….”
“…What’s going on?”
“Hey, you okay?”
The students were regaining consciousness one by one.
Still unable to make sense of the situation, they checked on each other’s well-being when—
“Wh-wh-what…!”
Someone pointed frantically at the empty space beyond the Spectator Seats and cried out.
Crash.
A tremendous sound erupted from the Training Ground.
What was that? As the students turned their heads—
Screeeeeee—
A Metal Pillar began to tilt, emitting an eerie metallic shriek.
And it was tilting toward the Spectator Seats where they sat.
‘Could… could that actually collapse?’
The students, who had been staring up at it in shock, belatedly snapped awake.
“Gasp…!”
“Get down!”
Though the students desperately tried to throw themselves clear, it was futile.
Still reeling from the hallucination’s aftermath, the ground tilted before their eyes and their legs wouldn’t obey them.
‘It’s too late!’
Dozens of students froze in place.
The shadow of the colossal Metal Pillar fell across them.
From this distance, there was no escape.
No matter how much Awakened Ones they were, none of them could withstand that staggering mass of specialized alloy.
“…….”
“……Mmph.”
They gritted their teeth or squeezed their eyes shut, bracing for the pain that was coming.
Boom—
At last, a heavy collision sounded.
But no pain came.
There was no crushing weight pressing down on their bodies, no sharp fragments of metal.
“……?”
The student clutching the betting pouch cautiously opened one eye.
Beyond his widening vision lay an impossible sight.
“!”
Through the shimmering haze of the lingering hallucination, someone stood there, supporting the massive Metal Pillar with a single hand.
The instructor in charge of Combat Class A was Yeom Sa-hyeon.
With one hand, he effortlessly caught the fallen metal pillar, while his other hand held the unconscious Yoo-kwon by the nape of the neck.
The sleeve of the hand supporting the pillar was blackened with scorch marks, and a faint trace of blood beaded at his lips.
‘He saved us… surely not the new instructor?’
‘Didn’t they say he was a political appointee?’
As the students drew in silent breath, caught between shock and awe, Yeom Sa-hyeon’s eyes narrowed with displeasure.
“When will these kids learn to pull their own weight…”
He exhaled a short, weary sigh and jerked his head dismissively toward the exit.
“Why are you all still here?”

An S-Rank Instructor Devours the Academy Chapter 69

Author
Baek Roo-ga
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yoon Tae-ri
Cover
Tong

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260512043.0069

ⓒ2026, Baek Roo-ga

※ This e-book is a copyrighted work protected under the copyright law of the Republic of Korea.
No part or whole of this work may be reprocessed 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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