Chapter 15
Looks Like You’re Really Drunk
[That Mad Dog Caused Trouble Again!]
└ What happened this time?
└ He beat Hwang Minwoo unconscious and dumped him in the infirmary. The funniest part? He carried the guy there himself, proudly announced, “I beat him up,” and then walked out.
└ LOL He’s seriously insane. Why’d he beat him?
└ Because his face pissed him off.
└ Stop making things up.
└ I’m serious. He even told Professor Hwang Yerim directly. Everyone there saw it.
└ Wow… isn’t this too much? The National Academy’s standards are really falling.
└ Why hasn’t he been expelled yet? He’s already had over twenty disciplinary actions.
└ Seriously, I don’t get it.
└ The Academy’s disgrace.
The Academy’s online forum exploded with discussion.
Before long, however, the criticism shifted elsewhere.
└ There’s another disgrace too.
└ Who?
└ You know… that contract professor who’s always carrying around a whiskey bottle.
└ Ah.
└ Mad Dog takes his class too. I heard they train every dawn at the old practice grounds.
└ Then that’s definitely it. That professor made Mad Dog even crazier.
└ Someone said they saw the two of them in an alley chugging bottles of whiskey together.
└ This academy is completely falling apart.
As public opinion intensified, the disciplinary committee was assembled with remarkable speed.
└ Official announcement just dropped! The disciplinary hearing is in two days at 2 PM.
└ Is this finally a guaranteed expulsion?
└ Probably. His previous punishments were one thing, but after beating Hwang Minwoo like that…
└ The Taewang Guild must be making a huge fuss.
└ Huh? Why is Baek Yuyeon listed as a witness?
└ Baek Yuyeon?
└ You mean “the encyclopedia”? What’s she doing there?
└ She was apparently there when Mad Dog beat up Hwang Minwoo. She must be the eyewitness.
That Night
Kang Hyun’s quarters in the faculty building.
Kang Hyun and Lee Se-ah were examining the list of participants for the disciplinary hearing.
Chairman: Choi Byung-gil (Dean of Academic Affairs)
Committee Member 1: Oh Sung-hoon (Student Guidance Professor)
Committee Member 2: Park Tae-soo (Professor of the accused student’s department)
Medical Officer: Hwang Yerim (Professor of Martial Medicine)
Accused: Kwak Dojin (18th Class)
Victim: Hwang Minwoo (19th Class)
Witness: Baek Yuyeon (19th Class)
“They’re clearly planning to expel Cadet Kwak Dojin.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Oh Sung-hoon and Park Tae-soo are both on Taewang Guild’s payroll. I looked into previous disciplinary hearings, and those two led every one of them.”
“What proof do you have they’re connected to Taewang?”
“They receive tens of millions of won every month under the guise of guild consulting fees.”
“Hmm.”
Leaning back on the sofa with his eyes closed, Kang Hyun savored the whiskey in his mouth before asking,
“Is it illegal for a guild to pay professors consulting fees?”
“No. They’ve carefully structured it as perfectly legal sponsorship. They even pay taxes on it.”
Lee Se-ah let out a deep sigh.
A guild as large as Taewang wouldn’t leave obvious loopholes.
“The consulting fees are probably just a cover. The real payments are probably in cash, gold bars, or rare elixirs.”
“So there’s no evidence.”
“Not yet.”
“I thought you were the Bureau’s top investigator.”
“W-Well… even if I am, I can’t just obtain a search warrant within a week and raid Taewang Guild’s vault.”
“I expected more.”
“I-I’ll report this to the Director immediately and coordinate an investigation with the National Intelligence Service!”
“No need.”
Glug.
Kang Hyun poured more amber liquid into his rocks glass.
“Launching an official investigation over children’s games…”
Whether here or in the Murim world, people and power always rotted the same way.
If anything, Murim had been even worse.
Here, bribes were disguised as legal sponsorships.
There…
If someone got in your way, masked assassins simply showed up and cut off your head.
A world where silencing people through murder was as common as breathing.
“Little chick. Use your head.”
“Huh?”
“Looking at that list… who do you think is Taewang’s biggest problem?”
Lee Se-ah thought about it.
The professors were already bought.
Kwak Dojin had already decided to accept expulsion.
That meant…
“Baek Yuyeon?”
“Exactly.”
The only eyewitness who knew what had truly happened.
“If you were Taewang Guild, what would you do first?”
“Um… I’d probably try to bribe or threaten Baek Yuyeon.”
“Good. Then why waste time digging around elsewhere when the evidence is standing right in front of you?”
“B-But…”
She still didn’t understand.
Even if it was Baek Yuyeon, she couldn’t possibly know how much the professors had been bribed.
“If you want to catch a rat, don’t dig up the rat hole.”
“…!”
“Just sit beside the rice barrel.”
“Leave it alone, and it’ll crawl out on its own looking for food. Why go searching for it?”
Behind the Women’s Dormitory
A middle-aged man stood before Baek Yuyeon.
A Taewang Guild badge gleamed on his chest.
“Have you thought it over?”
“…”
“Our request is simple.”
“When you appear as a witness, say nothing.”
He bent down until they were eye level.
“Kwak Dojin is definitely being expelled tomorrow. You know that too, don’t you?”
“…Yes.”
Baek Yuyeon nodded.
The man smiled warmly.
“Exactly. Since he’s getting expelled anyway, speaking up won’t help you.”
“And especially…”
“It won’t help Kwak Dojin either.”
“Our Minwoo supposedly threatened you with an exclusive contract, right? The company will make sure that nuisance disappears.”
The man was one of Taewang Guild’s executives.
He was also Hwang Minwoo’s uncle.
Because of that…
Baek Yuyeon hesitated.
If I just stay silent…
Hwang Minwoo would stop stalking her.
Kwak Dojin wouldn’t face retaliation after being expelled.
Everything would end peacefully.
Besides…
His senior had already decided to leave on his own.
Kwak Dojin had repeatedly told her:
“When you testify… please don’t say anything.”
“Just help me get expelled without trouble.”
“So please… think only about yourself.”
“Don’t ruin your life using me as an excuse.”
His words echoed in her ears.
“Think only about myself…”
If that’s what he wants…
Then which choice is truly for my own sake?
Is burying the truth and surrendering to these people really what’s best for me?
At that moment—
She realized.
No.
Giving in here… that’s what would ruin my life.
She would spend the rest of her life branded as a coward.
She would forever carry guilt toward Kwak Dojin.
She didn’t want that.
“I’m sorry.”
She lowered her head.
“But I refuse.”
“…What?”
The warmth vanished from the middle-aged man’s eyes.
“I’ll tell the committee exactly what I saw and heard.”
“Hwang Minwoo threatened me first with a fifteen-year contract.”
“And Senior Kwak only hit him to stop him.”
“Haha.”
The man laughed mockingly.
“You really don’t know how the world works.”
“Let’s say you tell them all that.”
“Do you think anyone on that committee will believe you?”
“Do you even know who’s sitting on it?”
“Professor Oh Sung-hoon and Professor Park Tae-soo.”
One year earlier.
During dungeon training.
Those same men had buried the truth and punished Kwak Dojin instead.
Her clear answer made the man’s eyebrows twitch.
“They’re professors bought by Taewang Guild.”
“What?”
“Do you realize how dangerous those words are?”
“Am I wrong?”
“Hahaha!”
The man burst into laughter.
“Kid, having a vivid imagination is one thing.”
“But if you spread accusations like that…”
“You could end up being sued for defamation.”
“Not if I have evidence.”
“…Evidence?”
Baek Yuyeon’s pale blue eyes sparkled.
“March 15th last year.”
“Thirty million won transferred into Professor Oh Sung-hoon’s borrowed-name account under Kim Deok-su.”
“April 2nd.”
“A premium box of Jasodan elixirs delivered to Professor Park Tae-soo’s laboratory.”
“And in July…”
“Two percent ownership in a Taewang-affiliated research institute was transferred into each professor’s family members’ names.”
“Am I wrong?”
“…”
The man desperately tried to keep smiling.
But he couldn’t stop the muscles in his cheeks from trembling.
How does she know that?
Only a handful of senior executives knew the details of those bribes.
And she wasn’t speaking vaguely.
Dates.
Amounts.
Items.
Quantities.
Even the name on the borrowed account.
Every single detail… perfectly accurate.
There was no way anyone could know this without seeing the guild’s internal financial records.
“…Was it Minwoo?”
He suddenly realized.
That idiot Hwang Minwoo did this!
He must have bragged while threatening her.
Telling her that the academy professors were already under their control…
That she had nowhere to run.
You brainless fool!
The executive wanted to tear his own nephew apart.
You exposed confidential bribery records just to impress a girl?
Cold sweat ran down his back.
Still…
He had survived countless hardships as an A-Rank Hunter in Taewang Guild.
“Tsk.”
“Fine.”
“Let’s say Minwoo really did tell you all that nonsense.”
“So what?”
“…What?”
“If Minwoo wakes up tomorrow and simply says he never said any of it…”
“That’s the end of it.”
“Don’t misunderstand, little girl.”
“Your memories aren’t evidence.”
“Unless you have an actual recording or video…”
“…Wait.”
His eyes suddenly narrowed like a snake’s.
His gaze dropped to Baek Yuyeon’s coat pocket.
Her right hand had remained awkwardly inside it throughout the conversation.
“…Don’t tell me.”
Whoosh!
An A-Rank Hunter moved far faster than a student could react.
“Ah!”
His rough hand shot into her pocket.
He snatched out her phone.
The screen clearly displayed:
[Voice Recording – 05:12]
“…Ha.”
His face twisted into something demonic.
So that’s why she deliberately listed every detail.
She had been trying to capture his reaction as proof.
“What a cunning little bitch.”
He slammed the phone onto the ground.
CRASH!
The device shattered into pieces.
“Ah…”
Baek Yuyeon’s face turned deathly pale.
The only evidence she had counted on…
Had been destroyed before her eyes.
“I tried settling this peacefully.”
“But I guess that’s impossible.”
A crushing pressure erupted from the man’s body.
Baek Yuyeon trembled as she staggered backward.
“Listen carefully.”
“If Taewang Guild really wants to…”
“Ruining your life is effortless.”
“You’re on a scholarship, aren’t you?”
“What if we pressure your sponsoring foundation and cut off your funding?”
“Can you afford tuition then?”
“And Kwak Dojin?”
“You think expulsion is the end?”
“We can make sure he never even finds work as a porter.”
“We can erase him from this industry.”
“Understand?”
“…Hk…”
“This…”
He crushed the shattered phone beneath his shoe.
“…is reality.”
“So tomorrow…”
“Keep your mouth shut.”
“Otherwise—”
At that moment—
A lazy voice drifted down from the top of the wall.
“Oh my.”
“…?!”
Startled, the middle-aged man jerked his head upward.
Baek Yuyeon’s eyes widened as well.
Perched atop the wall…
Silhouetted against the moonlight…
Was a man crouching casually.
His hair was messy.
His shirt hung open carelessly.
A whiskey bottle rested in his left hand.
A smartphone was in the other.
Clearly recording everything.
W-When did he…?!
The executive stared in horror.
Kang Hyun looked down at him, reeking of alcohol, and said,
“Looks like you’re really drunk.”
“Imagine threatening one of the Academy’s students right in the middle of campus… and letting me witness the whole thing.”
