The Academy’s Unrivaled Professor [Novel] Chapter 24

Chapter 024

Don’t Make Me Laugh

In front of the faculty building connected to the new wing, a fleet of large trucks rolled in one after another.

“What is all that?”

“Is someone moving in? Why are there so many trucks?”

The passing cadets stared in confusion.

Screeeech! Clack!

The rear doors of the trucks swung open, and a group of burly workers began carefully unloading the cargo. Inside the sturdy crates were bottles upon bottles of mid-to-high-end whiskey, packed tightly together.

“Are you kidding me? There’s that much booze?”

“Wow. Aren’t those bottles worth hundreds of thousands of won each?”

“Which professor is all this for?”

“Who else drinks whiskey like that?”

“The contract professor?”

“…This is insane. Don’t tell me he’s actually a chaebol heir. Maybe he’s just a trust-fund hire who got parachuted in because he has money to burn.”

The cadets weren’t the only ones bewildered. Kang Hyeon, approaching from a distance, stared at the scene in confusion. He had just finished putting the cadets through their morning training, so what was all this commotion?

And why was Lee Seah standing at the front, waving a baton and ordering the workers around?

“Oh, Mr. Kang Hyeon! You’re here?”

“Rookie, what’s all this?”

“What else? It’s your lifeblood!”

Lee Seah proudly pointed toward the trucks.

“I made quite a scene at the Management Bureau yesterday. I told them to stop being so stingy and use the budget properly!”

“You did?”

“Of course! Do you have any idea how much money the country saved because of what you handled, Mr. Kang Hyeon?”

“So they’re paying me in whiskey?”

Someone else had offered him half a company, yet this was what he got? When Kang Hyeon looked utterly unimpressed, a cold sweat broke out on Lee Seah’s forehead.

“Haha… Of course we’re preparing more. It’s just that the faculty office is a little cramped right now. We’ll restock as you drink through it.”

“That’s enough. There’s already more than enough here.”

“Pardon?”

“You don’t need to buy me alcohol anymore.”

There was no reason to keep wasting the national budget on his drinking habits. Once Taejeong Corporation was back on its feet, he planned to transcribe a few secret manuals from memory and sell them. Wouldn’t that be enough to keep him supplied with whiskey for the rest of his life?

“Then is there anything else you want?” Lee Seah hesitated. “To be honest, the reward budget allocated to you this time is quite generous.”

“Use it for the people who died.” Kang Hyeon’s expression turned serious. “Take better care of their families.”

Mercenaries might have chosen to risk their lives for money, but what had their families done to deserve losing them? Park Dongcheol was the one who had caused this tragedy, and he had been a core executive of Taejeong Corporation. Soon, Kang Hyeon would become one of the company’s major shareholders. He couldn’t simply ignore the fact that innocent people had bled because of the company’s internal power struggle.

‘If I’m going to take responsibility for something, I should start here.’

A wave of emotion crossed Lee Seah’s face, entirely unaware of his connection to Taejeong Corporation.

“I thought you were completely cold-blooded,” she looked at him with newfound respect, “but you were actually thinking about things like this.”

“What exactly is that supposed to mean?” Kang Hyeon narrowed his eyes. “Is that an insult or a compliment?”

“Absolute respect!”

Lee Seah hurriedly stepped away, pulled out her notebook, and scribbled something down.

– Prioritized compensation for the victims’ families over his own reward. Surprisingly considerate.

It was an observation log that would later be included in Code Name: Black’s report.

* * *

When Kang Hyeon entered his office, Yoon Hyeonjong was waiting for him.

“What do you want?”

“I heard everything from my father.”

“You can stop thanking me.” Kang Hyeon waved a hand. “I’ve already received more than enough. And that mountain of whiskey outside is giving me a headache.”

“Even if I bowed a thousand times, ten thousand times, it wouldn’t be enough.”

“Did you hear that I’m partners with your father now?”

“I did.”

“Aren’t you upset?” Kang Hyeon looked at him. “Those shares could have been yours someday.”

“Quite the opposite.” Hyeonjong smiled. “It’s reassuring. You know what my father told me? He said that even if I had to miss every regular class at the Academy, I must never miss yours. It’s the first time in my life I’ve seen my father trust someone that completely.”

“You’ve got a silver tongue.” Kang Hyeon waved him toward the door. “If you’ve got enough time to flatter me, go outside and do more horse-riding stances.”

“Yes, sir! I’ll remember that!”

Click

Watching Yoon Hyeonjong close the door briskly and leave, the corners of Kang Hyeon’s mouth lifted slightly.

‘Old men… are you watching?’

Those old monsters had always told him the same thing. Humans were selfish beasts by nature. They cared only about themselves, which was why they had to be ruled and tamed through fear and violence.

‘Don’t make me laugh.’

Since they only saw selfishness in themselves, they naturally assumed everyone else was the same. But even if humans were selfish… so what?

Feed the starving. Give those who thirst for recognition a higher mountain to climb. Let them walk the path because they desire it themselves. Why on earth did they have to beat him so mercilessly just to prove a point?

‘I still can’t understand you all. So keep watching. I’ll clearly prove right here that you were wrong.’

Glug

Out of habit, Kang Hyeon poured whiskey into his glass.

* * *

Pacing back and forth in front of the Martial Medical Arts building, Baek Yuyeon looked exactly like a newborn foal trying to find its footing.

“Uuuugh…”

Her trembling legs refused to cooperate, and her face contorted in pain with every step. Watching her miserable state through the laboratory window, Professor Hwang Yerim frowned.

‘She’s going to ruin her body if she keeps that up.’

It was obvious at a glance that she wasn’t injured. That was the unmistakable gait of severe muscle soreness—the kind caused by microscopic tears in the lower-body muscle fibers when lactic acid reaches its absolute limit.

‘Why on earth is a Martial Medical Arts major doing that kind of ignorant lower-body training?’

Hwang Yerim couldn’t understand it, especially since Baek Yuyeon had always kept her distance from physical conditioning.

‘There must be a reason.’

In the past, Baek Yuyeon had been a student who visited the laboratory almost daily, her passion for learning burning bright. Her questions were always sharp enough that Hwang Yerim had already marked her as a future head researcher. Yet for the past few days, she hadn’t shown up at all.

Slide

Rising from her seat, Hwang Yerim went downstairs and blocked Baek Yuyeon’s path.

“Baek Yuyeon.”

“Oh, Professor! Hello!”

“Take these.” She handed her several thick medical patches.

“What are they?”

“They’re patches made with a Spirit Herb base. They’ll be highly effective for muscle recovery.”

“Gasp… Thank you.”

Baek Yuyeon was touched, realizing that the professor had been genuinely worried about her.

“But why the sudden lower-body training?” Hwang Yerim looked at her. “Are you practicing some kind of martial art?”

“It’s not exactly that…”

“I’m not scolding you.” Hwang Yerim’s tone softened. “Learning martial arts firsthand for the sake of Martial Medical Arts is excellent. However, I hope you haven’t forgotten that your true calling is a physician.”

“Yes, Professor. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“And you’re still preparing properly for the lab selection exam, right?”

“Of course!”

There wasn’t a hint of hesitation in her answer, and the slight disappointment Hwang Yerim had been secretly harboring immediately melted away. Right, stamina was important for studying too.

“Then, Yuyeon, since we ran into each other…” Hwang Yerim raised the tablet in her hand. “Do you want to take a look at this too?”

A complex diagram of the human meridians filled the screen.

“This is…” Baek Yuyeon’s eyes widened.

Nine major acupoints had been marked, where an unnatural, freezing energy had pooled, constricting the meridians connected to the heart.

“Right.” Hwang Yerim nodded. “It’s a meridian map I structured based on your brother’s symptoms.”

“You kept working on this even while you’re so busy…”

“Of course I have to look into it.” Hwang Yerim smiled faintly. “I actually dug quite deep this time. I’ve precisely mapped the locations of the blood vessels causing the issue.”

“Really?”

“But the problem is…” She pointed at the diagram. “If we inject Yang energy, the blood vessels around the heart won’t be able to withstand it.”

“Ah…”

“Honestly, I’ve hit a complete dead end here.” Hwang Yerim looked at her. “I’d like to hear your thoughts on it too.”

Baek Yuyeon was touched once again. She was grateful the professor was looking into her brother’s condition, and equally grateful she was asking for her opinion. After all, the professor was the absolute best in the country in this field.

“Thank you, Professor.” Baek Yuyeon nodded firmly. “I’ll review this data and analyze it. I will give you my thoughts by next week.”

“Alright, just don’t push yourself too hard.”

* * *

That evening.

In a secluded corner of the old building’s training ground, Cha Yusik remained alone, holding a horse-riding stance.

Swinging the Three Calamities Swordsmanship thousands of times at dawn under Kang Hyeon’s command, and voluntarily staying behind in the evening to train his lower body—this had somehow become his new routine.

‘Strike down. Hold. Thrust.’

It was a simple principle, yet it formed the foundation of all martial arts. Ever since he had been utterly crushed by Kang Hyeon, Cha Yusik had been silently rebuilding his fundamentals from the ground up.

Buzz

Just then, his smartphone, lying nearby, vibrated.

[Return to the main estate. This is a top-secret matter.]

The sender was his father, the Guild Master of the Heavenly Wolf Guild, S-rank Hunter Cha Harang.

* * *

“You’re here.”

“You called for me, Father.”

Standing before Cha Harang, a man with a sharp impression, was his eldest son, Cha Dusik, who had already arrived.

“Both of you, sit.”

Cha Harang gestured for his sons to sit at the desk in his office. An old, worn-out text lay on the desk, alongside two thick volumes of translated interpretations.

“I will get straight to the point.” He tapped the old book. “We secured a new secret manual from the dungeon we recently entered.”

Both brothers’ eyes widened simultaneously.

“We mobilized all the guild’s interpreters to translate it,” Cha Harang’s expression was solemn. “And we discovered that this secret manual is a swordsmanship technique vastly superior to the Wolf Fang Swordsmanship we currently use as our core.”

Gulp

Cha Yusik swallowed hard.

The Wolf Fang Swordsmanship alone was considered one of the top three swordsmanship techniques in modern South Korea, simply because it was the technique that had built the Heavenly Wolf Guild. But this new technique was vastly superior to that?

“From now on, we will master this.” Cha Harang looked at his two sons. “If the Wolf Fang Swordsmanship is the martial art of Heavenly Wolf, this martial art will become the exclusive, singular technique of our Cha family.”

At those words, the eldest son Cha Dusik’s face hardened. Publicly, the atmosphere had already solidified him as the successor of Heavenly Wolf. Yet his father had called Yusik, the second son, to the very place where he was passing down the martial art that would become the pillar of the family?

‘Father hasn’t given up on Yusik yet.’

Regardless of his conduct at the Academy, this was a declaration that their father would weigh them solely on their swordsmanship skills.

“Take it.”

“Thank you, Father.”

The two brothers picked up the translated copies with tense hands. Then, Cha Yusik saw the title on the cover of the original text.

Thump!

His heart pounded.

[Emperor’s Sword Form]

He didn’t even know what kind of martial art it was, yet merely looking at it sent a shiver down his spine.

“I will watch to see who grasps the true essence of this Emperor’s Sword Form first. You may leave.”

“We will keep that in mind.”

While walking down the hallway after leaving the office, Cha Dusik stopped him.

“Yusik.”

“Yes, Brother.”

Cha Dusik, who hadn’t bothered to hide his displeasure the entire time, narrowed his eyes.

“I heard you got suspended recently and now you’re taking some weird contract professor’s class? The rumors are everywhere.”

Cha Yusik’s eyes narrowed as well. He had suspected he was being watched, but it was more blatant than he had thought.

“I don’t care what you do at the Academy, but…” Cha Dusik tapped the translated copy of the Emperor’s Sword Form in his hand, issuing a cold warning. “Don’t smear mud on the name of Heavenly Wolf. How can the one who might inherit the family’s secret arts be rolling around with low-class trash?”

The old Cha Yusik would have flared up at those words. He would have felt compelled to fight back, convinced that not losing the battle of nerves was the only answer.

But the current Cha Yusik remained completely calm.

‘Low-class?’

Don’t make me laugh. Even if you gathered all the arrogant professors at the Academy, they couldn’t hold a candle to Professor Kang Hyeon alone. Cha Yusik was actually grateful that his brother remained ignorant of that fact.

“I will keep that in mind, Brother.”

Bowing his head and turning away, Cha Yusik’s gaze fell on the cover of the Emperor’s Sword Form. It was definitely a tremendous swordsmanship technique, and he wanted to learn it right this instant. But if he returned to the Academy, it was obvious Professor Kang Hyeon would consistently force him to practice only the Three Calamities Swordsmanship.

He knew this full well because he had instinctively used a different swordsmanship technique in the past, only to have his soul beaten out of him.

‘What should I do? What if I end up mastering it later than my brother at this rate?’

He trusted Professor Kang Hyeon. He truly did.

Yet the thought continued to gnaw at him, and a cold sense of urgency had already begun to take root in his heart.