I Became an Unknown Professor at the Academy

[Second Floor of the Training Room]

In a spacious room that could accommodate several dozen people, a group of over a dozen freshmen were divided into two.

Among them, in the back of the group with a slightly higher proportion of male students, a sharp-looking boy twitched his finger.

“Hey, Mu-seok.”

Kang Mu-seok.

The eldest son of the ‘Black Lion’ guild, which had secured the last spot among the top 10 guilds last year.

Kang Mu-seok asked the large male student, Baek Jung-gil, who had approached him.

“Are you sure you called him correctly?”
“I checked again this morning. And I even received the down payment, so how could he possibly break his promise?”

At Baek Jung-gil’s response, Kang Mu-seok nodded with a slightly dissatisfied expression.

There was still some time until the promised time, and he thought it was unlikely that the other party would back out of the promise, as they had already received the money.

‘It’s not like either of us will benefit from this becoming known.’

Kang Mu-seok glared at his classmate, Park Mi-na, who stood across from him, leisurely looking at her smartphone and chuckling.

Park Mi-na was the daughter of the ‘Fantasia’ guild, which, like his own guild, had made it into the top 10 guilds last year.

The only difference was that while the Black Lion guild had barely secured the last spot, Fantasia had proudly claimed the seventh spot.

While their power and influence were relatively equal, the rankings were determined by social contribution, public recognition, and reputation.

‘That useless girl…’

Both were awakened enhancers, and both wielded swords.

And in every category of the entrance exam, he had outperformed her.

Of course, since the entrance exam scores were not made public, the only people who would know this were the few supervisors who oversaw the exam at the time.

That’s why, upon enrollment, Kang Mu-seok challenged Park Mi-na to a duel and proudly claimed victory.

However, despite Park Mi-na’s defeat, numerous children of small and medium-sized guilds flocked to her side, trying to curry favor with her rather than Kang Mu-seok.

As time passed, Park Mi-na’s influence grew rapidly, and she began to push out the students who had sided with Kang Mu-seok, restricting their access to the training room and other facilities.

With the year-end evaluation just two months away, being restricted from using the training room was a significant disadvantage.

Once the gap widened, it would be difficult to close it, and it would be a relief if it didn’t widen further.

Moreover, these disadvantages would only become more severe as the school year progressed, ultimately leading to complete exclusion from the Arena Academy.

In other words, it was a death sentence.

Faced with this crisis, the students who had sided with Kang Mu-seok rushed to Park Mi-na, hoping to extinguish the fire. Park Mi-na, in turn, readily welcomed them into her fold.

Those who had been waiting for an opportunity to switch sides, fearing they would be left out if Park Mi-na refused, immediately cut ties with Kang Mu-seok and joined her.

Kang Mu-seok, who had been waiting for the traitors to leave, challenged Park Mi-na to another duel.

The condition was that whichever side won three out of five matches first would have priority access to all facilities until the year-end evaluation.

And now, the candidates had been decided, and they were waiting for the arrival of an apprentice priest who would act as a witness and ensure that this matter remained confidential through healing.

“Hey, Mu-seok.”
“What?”

Kang Mu-seok replied without taking his eyes off Park Mi-na.

“About the candidates on her side…”
“You said they were nobodies.”

They weren’t affiliated with any guild, nor were they children of influential figures; they were just ordinary students.

“…Right.”

Baek Jung-gil nodded and continued.

“Don’t you find it strange?”
“Strange, indeed.”

It was a widely accepted theory in the academic community that ordinary students could never surpass those with backgrounds unless they possessed extraordinary talent or unique awakened abilities.

“Don’t overthink it. It’s too late to turn back now.”

Kang Mu-seok said, resting his hand on the sword at his waist.

“And we’ll win.”
“Who doesn’t know that?”

Baek Jung-gil gave Kang Mu-seok a brief look of disbelief before letting out a snort.

“Looks like they’ve arrived.”

As the footsteps drew closer, Kang Mu-seok turned his head first, and the students who had been glaring at each other also shifted their gaze to the stairs leading to the first floor.

And finally, the owners of the footsteps—

No, the owners of the footsteps revealed themselves.

“Ice Queen…?”

Kang Mu-seok had a bad feeling about this.

.

.

.

“Hey, Ji-eun.”
“…”

Just a moment ago, the students were looking at us with envious eyes, giggling.

But now, her face has turned pale, and she’s tugging at my sleeves.

I wanted to tell her to be quiet, but I’m not the type to say everything on my mind, and the atmosphere wasn’t right for it. So, I held her hand and signaled her to be quiet, which was the best help I could offer at the moment.

Fortunately, she seemed to understand my signal, as she stopped making any noise. Instead, she squeezed my hand a little tighter.

‘At least she’s not completely clueless…’

The problem was that it was too late, way too late.

Yeon-ju felt a slight sense of terror in this situation where not even a single breath could be heard among the dozens of students.

To be precise, it was toward Baek Hana, who had created this situation.

“Ji-eun.”

And as expected, the one who broke the silence was Baek Hana.

“Yes?!”

Ji-eun, who had been holding Yeon-ju’s hand tightly, answered with a startled expression at Baek Hana’s call.

“Do you want to point out who the client is?”
“Um, that, that is…”

Ji-eun’s brown eyes began to shake left and right as if an earthquake had occurred.

“I, that, I just… if you go here, you’ll get there… …”

Ji-eun, looking up at Baek Hana with tearful eyes as if she was about to cry, struggled to answer with her small lips trembling.

“B-But I know who introduced me to this friend…”

Ji-eun quickly took out her smartphone from her pocket and showed Baek Hana the conversation she had had with her friend until this morning.

“I made the request.”

At the male voice coming from the front, Baek Hana turned her head.

And glared at the male student who was walking out from the middle of the group.

Kang Mu-seok, who was desperately acting as if everything was fine, turned his head towards Baek Hana as he walked forward.

But he couldn’t help but lower his gaze.

Because if he didn’t, he felt like his legs would give way and he would collapse right there.

“Your name.”
“I’m Kang Mu-seok.”

Baek Hana took out her smartphone and wrote down the name.

“I’ll report this to the professor, so I need the reason.”

Kang Mu-seok quickly shook his head.

Although it wasn’t known to the public, Kang Min-ho, the master of the Iron Knights Guild, and his father had become sworn brothers long ago.

Thanks to this, Kang Seok-ho, one of Kang Min-ho’s sons who had enrolled a year earlier, shared some high-quality information with him, and one of them was about the background of the person standing in front of him.

“Okay, then call out your names one by one.”
“Yes.”

Kang Mu-seok nodded without hesitation and turned to Baek Jung-gil, who was looking at him.

“Baek Jung-gil.”
“Kim Ji-seok.”
“First year…”

Starting with Baek Jung-gil, Kang Mu-seok’s group called out their names, not missing a single person.

Baek Hana, who had confirmed the exact number of people, nodded once with a cold gaze and then shifted her gaze to the other group.

“Call out your names too.”

“…”

However, unlike Kang Mu-seok’s group, they only looked at each other.

“Your names.”

Yeon-ju unconsciously took a step back at Baek Hana’s even colder tone.

At the same time, the silent group split into two, and four male students and one female student stepped forward.

“I’m Park Mi-na.”

Baek Hana quietly wrote down the name on her smartphone.

“Next.”
“I’m sorry, but…”

The female student who introduced herself as Park Mi-na took a step forward and continued.

“Can you just count me? I forced the guys behind me to come.”
“The professor will decide that.”

At Baek Hana’s firm answer, Park Mi-na bit her lip.

“Is there any way? I’ll definitely repay you for this—”
“Let’s have a duel.”

One of the four guys behind Park Mi-na stepped forward, interrupting her.

“Wait a minute—”
“We’ll handle it, so stay quiet.”

As the guy stepped forward, Park Mi-na tried to stop him, but was restrained by another guy who approached from behind.

Their behavior was disrespectful, not showing any deference.

However, given the situation, no one could stop them.

“A student can challenge another student to a duel at any time… isn’t that the school rule?”

As Park Mi-na’s words were cut off, the male student tilted his head and said,

“Why aren’t you answering? Are you—”

Burr!

A chilling sound rang out in everyone’s ears.

Burr, purr, burr!

Such sounds followed one after another.

“Ahhhh!”
“My, my leg, my, my leg?!”

The four male students, who had been standing just fine a moment ago, suddenly fell to the ground with their legs bent in a strange shape, screaming in pain.

“Uh, what…?”

Neither Park Mi-na nor anyone else in the room could understand this phenomenon.

Except for one person.

‘A ghost?’

Anyone except Baek Hana.