Just Sit Back and Watch
Public opinion on Akanet had completely flipped.
Even the cadets who had been eyeing him with half-doubtful suspicion now had no choice but to acknowledge Kang Hyun’s teaching ability.
Just look at the results.
Cha Yu-sik — 1st place
Kwak Do-jin — 2nd place
Seo Hae-in — 1st place
Yoon Hyun-jong — 2nd place
Han Tae-ho — still pending
Aside from Han Tae-ho, weren’t they all the top of their respective years?
Professor Kang Hyun’s class was no longer the problem-child class. It was practically an elite class now.
From there, the rumor mill about Han Tae-ho’s ranking kept rolling without pause.
And behind it all—
“Posts are regenerating too slow. Come on, guys, keep uploading.”
“Yes, sir. We’re hammering comments on the anonymous board nonstop.”
The five of them had gathered in one place and were waging a full-scale public opinion war. Even Yoon Hyun-jong, one hand still wrapped in bandages, was hammering the keyboard with eagle-claw typing.
“……Seniors.”
Han Tae-ho pressed his palms together with an apologetic look.
“You really don’t have to go this far just for me.”
“Shut up. You think this is for you? This is for us.”
Kwak Do-jin scolded him while uploading a fresh post to the anonymous board.
“Honestly, that’s just facts, right? In this situation, shoving you outside the top six is basically advertising to the entire academy that their own evaluation is unfair.”
“But…… every cadet already knows the professors are unfair.”
When Seo Hae-in asked worriedly, Cha Yu-sik, who had been leaning against the window, finally spoke.
“That’s why I just finished visiting every single professor one by one.”
“……!”
“For real?”
“What did you say to them?”
Every gaze locked onto Cha Yu-sik at once. If the second son of Cheonrang had applied pressure, this was an entirely different game.
“Nothing special. I just said I would trust in the professors’ fairness. That they should evaluate exactly what they saw and felt.”
The words were polite, but in reality it was a soft threat. How he would remember his academy teachers once he stepped into society under the name of Cheonrang would depend entirely on the outcome—an unspoken pressure.
“Hah.”
Kwak Do-jin sucked in a sharp breath.
“As expected of Junior Cha. Gotta respect the sheer balls on this guy…….”
Well, this was the same madman who had swung a blade at a professor before.
“With this, we might actually have a shot, right? There are plenty of professors who never joined the anti-Kang Hyun faction.”
Han Tae-ho felt as if a halo was glowing behind Cha Yu-sik’s back.
As expected of Senior Cha……! He’s so reliable!
Overwhelmed with emotion, Han Tae-ho clenched both fists.
Back when he was a freshman, he had impulsively signed up for some contract professor’s class just because the man said he would make him stronger. Only now was he feeling it with his entire body—that impulsive choice had been an enormous stroke of fortune that would change his entire life.
Knock knock.
At the sound of knocking, Dean Seo Il-hyun rose from his seat.
“Who is it? Come in.”
The door opened, and Kang Hyun stood there.
“Oh, it’s you! I was just about to call for you!”
In truth, even the Dean had been greatly surprised by the results this time. When he first established the Special Guidance Studies course and handed the problem children over to Kang Hyun, he had never expected results of this magnitude.
“Have a seat first. Shall I have some tea brought in?”
“No need.”
Kang Hyun settled onto the sofa and pulled a whiskey bottle from his coat.
Slosh.
“This is enough for me.”
“Haha, truly consistent as ever.”
Seo Il-hyun did not know the real reason Kang Hyun constantly downed hard liquor at every opportunity—that he was periodically dulling the pain brought on by Asura’s toxic energy.
“Would the Dean care for a glass as well?”
“Ahaha, why not?”
A glass was produced, and as Seo Il-hyun accepted it he spoke abruptly.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Thanks to you, raw gems like Seo Hae-in, Han Tae-ho, and Yoon Hyun-jong finally got to shine. Not to mention Cha Yu-sik and Kwak Do-jin.”
Without Kang Hyun, the odds that those talents would never have blossomed were high.
“Embarrassing as it is to admit, the current level of our domestic academy lags far behind the global standard. Every year at the summer exchange tournament we have drunk the bitter cup of defeat. But watching the cadets you raised this time, I saw hope for our academy.”
Clink.
Glass met glass. A strange light flickered in Kang Hyun’s eyes as he held the whiskey in his mouth.
“What’s this summer exchange tournament?”
“You don’t know? I’m talking about the Global Hunter Academy Exchange Tournament held every July.”
July…… right after final exams ended, just before summer break began.
“It’s a world-class event where the representative cadets of the top-tier academies gather in one place to compete in martial strength.”
Oh.
Kang Hyun marveled inwardly. If something like that existed, then the finest talents from around the entire world would gather in one spot.
This is an unexpected windfall.
Originally, if he failed to find every member of the Chilyojin within the academy, Kang Hyun had planned to expand overseas or tour the academies of other nations. But if there was a tournament where the geniuses of the entire world came to one place of their own free will?
There was no need to go through the hassle of traveling around himself.
“Interesting. Can I participate as well?”
“Oh, so you’re interested too?”
Delight flashed across Seo Il-hyun’s face, only to be replaced by a deep sigh a moment later.
“Haa, still, the bigger problem right now is tomorrow’s meeting. Pour me one more.”
“Here you are.”
Glug glug.
Kang Hyun refilled the glass, and Seo Il-hyun drained it in one go. Even as the harsh liquor burned down his throat, his expression refused to brighten.
“You’re far too calm. You can already see how tomorrow’s meeting will go, yet you’re just sitting there like that? Those people will do everything they can to push Cadet Han Tae-ho outside the top five. And once they do, they’ll naturally push your dismissal as well.”
“Doesn’t matter. If I get dismissed, I get dismissed.”
What?
For an instant Seo Il-hyun’s heart plummeted.
That’s exactly why I’m worried!
He reflexively opened his mouth, then found himself speechless. The man before him truly looked as if he had no lingering attachment whatsoever.
“More importantly.”
Kang Hyun shifted the topic with a languid gaze.
“Last time you said you successfully broke through the Triple Gate of the Cheongheo Mind Method.”
“Ah, yes! All thanks to the formula you taught me. I’m always grateful.”
“But these days, doesn’t the area around your heart meridians feel tight and heavy every night?”
“……!”
It was exact. In the joy of the gate opening, his internal energy had exploded, and he had been forcibly circulating it in an attempt to drag it up to a higher realm. Kang Hyun had pierced through a pain he had told no one about in a single stroke.
Kang Hyun continued calmly.
“You got excited that the energy had broken through and recklessly hauled it up into the Upper Dantian, didn’t you? Never forget that the essence of Cheongheo is emptiness—emptying.”
“Ah……!”
Seo Il-hyun’s face looked as if he had been struck over the head with a blunt weapon. Just as the man said, he had been completely intoxicated by his own internal energy. If he had forced the training for even a few more days like this, his heart meridians might have ruptured and he could have fallen into Qi deviation.
“……I nearly made a grave mistake.”
“It wouldn’t have been that grave. We have the highly skilled Professor Hwang Ye-rim, don’t we?”
“Don’t joke. Even Professor Hwang wouldn’t be able to do anything if I fell into Qi deviation. I mean it—thank you.”
“Just saying. Even if I hadn’t spoken, the Dean would have found the path himself.”
Kang Hyun rose from the sofa.
“Leaving already?”
Seo Il-hyun felt regret. No matter what conversation he had with Kang Hyun, he always gained something. That was why he wanted to grow closer.
“Yes. I’ve drunk and given advice, so now I’ll just drop the real business and go.”
“The real business?”
“Tomorrow’s meeting.”
Kang Hyun turned his head slowly, hand still on the doorknob.
“Just sit back and watch. Watch carefully who strains themselves trying to push Han Tae-ho outside the top five.”
“……?”
“That person will be the one rotting this academy from within.”
Click.
Leaving only those words, Kang Hyun stepped out of the Dean’s office. Seo Il-hyun quietly closed his eyes as he watched him go. There was no way he could miss the meaning of those words.
The martial prowess Cadet Han Tae-ho displayed in this tournament left no room for doubt.
Even though he had been eliminated in the quarterfinals, the one who had clashed most fiercely against the overwhelming champion Do Jeong-hyeok had been none other than Han Tae-ho. Looking purely at objective skill, placing him in the top five—no, even second place—would not have been strange at all.
And yet, if there was a professor who would try to shove that child outside the top five simply because he was Kang Hyun’s student, or out of personal feelings?
That would mean they had abandoned their conscience as educators and sunk into self-interest.
Kang Hyun had not come to ask him to block his dismissal. Rather, he had handed Dean Seo Il-hyun a standard by which he could identify and cut out the rotten flesh of the academy with his own hands—advising that for the academy to leap into the global ranks and truly grow, those people had to be excised.
“Heh heh.”
A deep smile spread across Seo Il-hyun’s lips. Gazing quietly at the empty whiskey glass Kang Hyun had left behind, he murmured with gentle eyes.
“You needn’t worry about that, Professor Kang.”
As for the will to prune the rotten branches and firmly protect this academy—
“I yield to no one either.”