The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor [Novel] Chapter 16

The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor – Chapter 016

Do Not Let That Choice Break You

Since when was he up there?

The middle-aged man, Song Cheolho’s pupils trembled slightly.

Even with the keen senses of an A-rank Hunter, he hadn’t sensed a thing?

How on earth?

“Who are you?”

“Why.”

Thud.

Landing on the ground, Kang Hyeon languidly cracked his neck.

The phone was still held in his right hand.

“If you know who I am, are you going to trample my life, too?”

The corners of Song Cheolho’s mouth stiffened imperceptibly.

Kang Hyeon looked down at the phone screen and casually held it out toward Baek Yuyeon.

“Cadet over there.”

“Y-Yes?”

“This is recording properly, right?”

Red letters were clearly blinking on the screen.

[REC – 06:15]

Song Cheolho’s heart sank.

‘He was recording everything from the start!’

If that video leaked, it would be difficult to clean up the mess.

He had to recover the phone no matter what, but it was awkward to openly use violence.

If a Supreme King executive beat someone up on the Academy grounds, it would become a much bigger incident than the Disciplinary Committee.

“Y-Yes, it is, Professor!”

Baek Yuyeon had been stunned this whole time.

‘It’s this professor again!’

The first time, when he poured whiskey on the contract, she thought it was truly a coincidence.

The second time, when he cleanly ripped the contract in half, she only slightly suspected it.

But now that it was the third time, she had no choice but to be certain.

‘It wasn’t a coincidence!’

He had been helping her from the very beginning.

But then, why?

Someone like her, who he had never met and had no connection with?

Beep!

Ending the recording, Kang Hyeon slipped the phone into his pocket.

Song Cheolho’s gaze naturally followed the movement.

‘A professor? What kind of professor drinks booze on top of an alley wall?’

Of course, he didn’t voice his inner thoughts.

If the opponent was a professor, he actually had to approach more carefully.

“It is our first time meeting. I am Song Cheolho, a Director of the Supreme King Guild. Excuse me, but may I ask with what intention you recorded that video?”

“There’s an outsider threatening a cadet inside the Academy, so naturally, evidence must be left.”

“I-I see. Haha. Rather than a threat, it was a conversation tangled in a private internal relationship, but there seems to have been a slight misunderstanding.”

Forcing a smile, Song Cheolho continued smoothly.

“However, it puts me in a difficult position that you possess a video with my face in it without my consent. I do not wish to cause unnecessary trouble, so could I briefly check that phone?”

His words were polite, but his true intention was *hand over the phone*.

Gulp, gulp!

Swallowing the liquor, making his Adam’s apple bob, Kang Hyeon smiled thinly.

“I said it’s evidence. What kind of idiot obediently hands over evidence to the culprit?”

“Hah.”

Song Cheolho let out a short sigh as if it couldn’t be helped.

He was a type of person words wouldn’t work on.

Then there was only one answer.

Song Cheolho pulled out a luxurious long leather wallet from his inner pocket.

Slide.

A crisp wad of checks was pulled out from the wallet.

They were all 1-million-won checks.

He counted out ten checks and lightly waved them.

“Then, let’s do this. Ten million won. Can I buy that video with this money? I imagine it should be more than enough to cover your liquor expenses.”

He knew exactly what a professor’s salary was like, so he thought the man would bow down gratefully to receive ten million won just for deleting a single video.

It was right at that moment.

Swish!

Kang Hyeon’s figure blurred, and before he knew it, the ten checks in his hand were snatched away.

“…!”

Song Cheolho’s eyes went wide in shock.

‘I couldn’t even react.’

He had no presence earlier either; it seemed he was no ordinary professor.

Leaving the bewildered Song Cheolho be, Kang Hyeon counted the snatched checks and glanced back at Baek Yuyeon.

“Cadet.”

“…Yes.”

“That broken phone of yours earlier, how much was it?”

“…Pardon?”

Baek Yuyeon answered, stuttering with a dazed expression.

“Probably, it should be… around 1.4 million won.”

“Is that so?”

Kang Hyeon casually pulled three checks from the wad.

Then, he forced them into Baek Yuyeon’s hand.

“Here, 3 million won.”

“Why are you giving this to me…?”

“I generously included compensation for psychological distress on top of the device’s price. Go buy a new one.”

Leaving the dumbfounded Baek Yuyeon behind, Kang Hyeon turned around.

Then, he held out the remaining seven checks to Song Cheolho.

“Here, the remaining 7 million.”

“Wh-What are you doing?”

It was absurd.

By whose authority was he snatching someone else’s money and forcing a settlement?

Kang Hyeon snapped back with coldly sunken eyes.

“You try to appease a professor with money, yet you try to silence a powerless cadet with threats?”

“This guy, seriously. I was trying to speak nicely…!”

“Stop here and leave. If you don’t want to see a harsher sight.”

“Ugh, this madman!”

In the end, right as Song Cheolho, resolving himself to forcefully steal the phone by any means, was about to put strength into his feet.

Kang Hyeon finally revealed his true momentum.

A momentum directed solely at Song Cheolho, so perfectly controlled that Baek Yuyeon couldn’t feel it at all.

‘Gasp?’

Facing the momentum head-on, Song Cheolho’s breath caught.

‘Wh-What is this?’

It felt as though an invisible, massive mountain was crushing him.

The pressure was so horrifying his lungs shrank, making him unable to even breathe.

Primal fear dominated his entire body.

Crushing an A-rank Hunter like him, making him unable to move an inch, using nothing but his gaze and the momentum he exuded?

It felt like a nightmare, but this sensation of every joint in his body screaming was a clear reality.

Soon, as the suffocating energy was withdrawn, Kang Hyeon spat out indifferently.

“What are you doing not leaving?”

“I-I will step back for now.”

Pale-faced, Song Cheolho disappeared into the darkness, no longer having the leeway to maintain his dignity.

A brief silence descended upon the alleyway.

Baek Yuyeon still wore a dazed face.

She, too, knew of this drunkard professor.

The man Aca-Net was buzzing about, calling him the shame of the Academy.

‘They were baseless rumors.’

How could someone capable of chasing away a Supreme King executive—someone even most full professors found burdensome—with just words be a shame!

She was curious.

Why did Kang Hyeon help her?

Why he blocked the contract, and why he secured evidence for her.

She thought so all the more because she believed goodwill without reason was rare in this world.

However.

“Thank you.”

She offered her gratitude first.

“For this matter, and for blocking me from making that contract last time, thank you for everything.”

Suspicion is an easy and quick defense mechanism, but it sometimes makes humans forget the most basic decencies.

No matter how grim the world is, there are words that must be spoken before calculations and questions.

Namely, gratitude toward the person who saved you!

Kang Hyeon liked that.

‘Constitution is important, but a person’s nature is a crucial element as well.’

He needed the Seven Luminaries Formation, but did that mean anyone should learn it?

If he wasn’t careful, those terrifying old monsters could be reborn.

“It’s nothing.”

Tilting his whiskey bottle, Kang Hyeon spoke nonchalantly.

“I just liked your choice.”

She did not yield to Supreme King’s threats, nor did she hide behind Kwak Dojin’s foolish consideration.

She had her own standards, and no matter how much the surroundings barked, she chose a path she could bear herself.

Baek Yuyeon was solid.

That is why she would not be swayed by others.

“Do not let that choice break you.”

Just look straight ahead and walk the path you believe is right.

Because I’ll take care of the trash grabbing at your ankles around you.

There was no need for a long speech.

She would have understood enough with this much.

Turning his body without lingering regret, Kang Hyeon chugged straight from the bottle.

“The whiskey tastes especially good today.”

And then.

“Ah.”

He turned his head as if he had just remembered something.

“What is your dream?”

“My dream?”

“Yeah.”

“Why do you ask?”

“Can a professor not ask about a cadet’s dream?”

She rolled her eyes, hesitating for a moment.

She did have a dream.

To restore the body of her younger sister, who was congenitally ill.

But it was not a story to carelessly bring up to someone she had just met.

“I don’t really have a particularly grandiose dream or anything.”

“Did calling it a dream make it too grandiose? I mean your career path, your career path. What were you thinking of doing after graduation?”

It was a question of where she intended to go, now that she hadn’t signed the contract.

Catching onto the meaning, Baek Yuyeon replied.

“I think there’s a high probability I’ll end up working under Professor Hwang Yerim.”

“Why?”

“Well…”

She paused for a moment before answering.

“Because the Professor is the highest authority in the field of Martial Medical Arts in the nation? I have the most to learn from her.”

“Well, no other reasons?”

“Other reasons?”

“For example, meaning the professor’s character is impressively excellent, or that there’s a special story making it absolutely necessary to be that professor.”

“No, there isn’t really anything like that.”

“Is that so?”

Kang Hyeon turned his head again.

‘It will be easier to bring her in than I thought.’

So I just need to teach her Martial Medical Arts well, is that it?

‘I’ll have to tell Chick.’

To go buy some materials to make secret manuals.

The corners of Kang Hyeon’s mouth curled up faintly.

‘Should I start by writing the Muscle Tendon Change Classic? Or the Heavenly Medical Treasury?’

The legendary medical texts of Murim were still flawlessly preserved in his head.

* * *

The top floor of the Supreme King Guild headquarters.

“So… you’re saying you had the video threatening Baek Yuyeon snatched by a mere contract professor and just came back?”

Deep wrinkles furrowed on the forehead of Hwang Taegwang, the Master of the Supreme King Guild and Hwang Minwoo’s father.

“That’s, Brother-in-law. It might sound like an excuse, but that professor was no ordinary guy.”

Wiping away his cold sweat, Song Cheolho continued.

“Leaving aside the fact that he appeared behind my back without a single presence, the momentum he exuded was no joke, I’m telling you.”

“Shall I read this to you?”

Hwang Taegwang nervously shook a document sent up by the intelligence department.

“Professor Kang Hyeon, an alcoholic who always carries a whiskey bottle. Known among cadets as a drunkard and a parachute hire. This is that incredible guy?”

“I think the drunkard part is correct, but he’s not a parachute, absolutely not.”

“Hoo.”

He felt like he was going to die of stress because of his idiot son, but now even his normally reliable brother-in-law was spouting nonsense, making his stomach churn.

“Hold on. I’ll verify it myself.”

Pulling out his phone, he skillfully pressed a speed dial number.

After a short ring, a heavy voice came through.

– CEO Hwang? What brings you to call this late at night?

“Director Choi. I apologize for the late hour. It’s nothing else, but could I ask you for a background check on a certain rat?”

Supreme King had connections with high-ranking police intelligence lines as well.

– Haha, who offended Supreme King this time? Who is it?

“His name is Kang Hyeon. A guy who recently entered as a contract professor—what kind of guy is he?”

– Contract professor? Well, it should come up right away. Hold on a moment.

The sound of clack, clack-clack typing on a keyboard could be heard over the phone.

And then.

– Hmm?

The keyboard sounds suddenly stopped.

– Wait, CEO Hwang.

“Yes.”

– This is quite a bit strange?

“What do you mean?”

– I’ve checked all sorts of guys, but this is my first time seeing the entire screen turn red like this… Wait, what the hell is this!

“…Director?”

– Ah, fuck! This is fucked. I just got a reverse-tracking warning from the Management Bureau’s Special Task Force. What? A Management Bureau Security Clearance Level Zero target?

“Security Clearance Level Zero?”

It was a code Hwang Taegwang had never heard in his life.

– Ah, shit, I’m going to sweat buckets trying to explain this. CEO Hwang, what on earth did you mess with? You’re not deliberately trying to get me fired, are you?

“W-Why would I do that?”

– Hah, seriously. The call is coming right now. CEO Hwang, do not contact me for the time being.

Click.

The call was unilaterally cut off.

Sensing an unusual atmosphere, Song Cheolho asked cautiously.

“Brother-in-law? What happened?”

“Hmm.”

He had merely requested a simple background check, yet the Management Bureau’s top-secret code appeared, and a reverse track from the Special Task Force came through immediately?

Goosebumps erupted down his spine.

“It seems we’ve messed with the wrong person.”