Return of the 10th Circle Archmage

Chapter 8 4. Liquidation of Eul (乙)’s life (2)

“Junhyuk. What is this?”

“Is this really gold?”

Mom and Hye-eun looked blankly at the gold bars in my hand.

A 99.9% pure gold ingot weighing 10 kg the size of the palm of your hand.

“Uh, Mom.”

I grabbed her mother’s shoulder and nodded her head. The mother looks like she is about to burst into tears at any moment. I am a mother who has never made a worried expression on her face so far in case I am worried.

“Hey Eun-ah. Hurry up, turn on your computer and find out the price of a 10kg gold bar.”

“okay. brother. However······.”

“Why?”

Without answering, Hye-eun took something of hers out of her pocket.

“I have a smartphone these days, so I don’t have to turn on my computer.”

“…Uh, yes.”

I was amazed as I watched Hye-eun next to her search with her smartphone.

‘Wow, there is no inconvenience at all in using a mobile phone the size of the palm of your hand…’

It is as if the computer screen was simplified and built to fit the phone screen.

Although I didn’t learn programming, I could clearly see how hard the developers must have gone through.

“brother. As of today, August 20, 2022, the price of 10 kg gold is 480 million…”

“Really?”

When the number 400 million popped out, her mother was surprised and Hye-eun grabbed her body and shook her.

“Seven hundred and thirty . . .”

After she meticulously sang the rest of the back seats, she looked at me.

It’s like, ‘Oppa, is this really true? Isn’t that a lie?"

I nodded her head proudly.

If this is fake, it’s like the 100 years I’ve spent in another world are fake.

Besides.

‘I checked it thoroughly with magic power, so I’m sure it’s back-to-back.’

I believed in myself more than anything else. My magical powers, my magical knowledge.

There was a firm confidence based on it.

Magic is the greatest ability that humans can use, and nothing is impossible with magic.

It was possible to see through to the atomic level of matter, and through the magic of vision adjustment, it was possible to observe more precisely than a microscope with a power of billions of times.

It is said that nothing is impossible.

“But my brother must still be missing…”

“Oh, I see.”

It’s been 15 years since I disappeared, so there’s really nothing to say if I’m treated as dead.

I’m glad my family put it off with a glimmer of hope, otherwise I would have been a human dead alive.

“But how long will it take to recover?”

Hye-eun started searching for my worries.

“It took about two weeks.”

“It takes a long time…”

I struggled with stroking my shaggy beard. 2 weeks? Are you going to get your resident registration card as well?

“Hey Eun-ah. Let’s get the deposit under your name.”

“okay.”

Hye-eun nodded her head indifferently. There might be a desire in front of money, but there was no such thing.

‘thank God······.’

She felt very fortunate that her younger brother had not lost her pure heart.

First of all, it was late, so I decided to sleep today and exchange money tomorrow.

her sister, me and my mom.

The three of us spread out the blankets and lay down in the living room.

‘It’s narrow…’

Hye-eun Lee.

While she has her own room, she’s a grown-up wife and long idiot.It’s nice to sleep with my family after a long time…

‘dad······.’

It hurts my heart to think of my father lying alone in the hospital room. He had rectal cancer, so he didn’t have much trouble moving, but he was still a cancer patient.

She needed a caregiver or guardian, but that was thwarted because her mother became her only child.

She took care of her father while Hye-eun was attending school, but there was a limit to that as well.

“Hey Eun-ah.”

“Huh?”

She couldn’t sleep, so I called her sister, who was wriggling next to her.

“Are you doing well in school?”

“I am doing well.”

I was embarrassed by my question that came in at a hook, but Hye-eun had a delay of about a second.

“But there aren’t any major books on the bookshelf, and if you’re a creator or a BJ…”

“Miss, brother! When did you enter my room?”

“Well, my room is yours… we shared it when you were young.”

“still!”

Hye-eun turned her body around with a pouty expression.

“No, but Hye Eun-ah. Pouting is pouting, and why?”

When I asked her by holding Hyein’s shoulder, she flinched.

“Phew······.”

She even sighed.

Why is he doing this? Right?

Hye-eun turned her body again and spoke gloomy.

“Because BJ makes a lot of money…”

“money······.”

Fortunately, the mother was in a deep sleep. She talked a little about how hard work was, and she fell asleep.

“Yeah, how about the broadcast? Did you make good money?”

“…we haven’t even started yet.”

“Then are you ready?”

“Huh······.”

2007 was right before I moved to another world.

Even then, when she was in her second year of high school, Internet broadcasting was a bit of a fad. Rather than Internet broadcasting, several video platforms competed without distinction.

‘Africa TV was the least Internet broadcasting platform out of all of them.’

That was probably the beginning of internet broadcasting.

Among the female cams, Kim Liv, Sashum, Gwandaeng, and Rim Jinjae were famous because they were the 4 Heavenly Kings.

‘Who wants to be famous now?

To be honest, when I heard that my younger brother was doing something like that, I was a little stunned and didn’t realize it.

“If it’s for the money, I don’t have to do that anymore.”

“really?”

Hye-eun lit up her eyes. It must have been that she suffered a lot because of the difficult family circumstances. I stroked Hye-eun’s hair like that.

“okay. From now on, her brother will give her a lot of pocket money and take care of all the worries in her house.”

“Wow, brother is the best!!!”

Hye-eun was so moved that she suddenly felt a sense of relief.

*

Crackle, clack.

There was a loud noise from early in the morning.

Even if I didn’t sleep, there was no damage to my body.

So, wondering what the noise was, I opened the blanket and got up.

“mom.”

“uh? son. Get some more sleep, you woke up because of your mother……”

Her mother’s expression darkened with her pitiful expression on her face. I even rolled out the blanket with a brave face.

“I slept a lot, huh? It’s normal to wake up around this time.”

I sat in her chair and watched her mother cook. Her mother was busy going back and forth in the kitchen without taking a break.

“Ahhh…”

When the morning came, Hye-eun noticed like a ghost and woke up.

“I’m hungry······.”

“·················ogue.”

It is normal to skip breakfast at that age, but Hye-eun noticed that she was hungry in the morning.

“Hang in there. The food will be ready soon.”

“Hey hey….”

“Heh heh.”

Like a puppy waiting for lunch, Hye-eun stretched out on the table.

“Thanks to my brother, I will eat a lot of meat dishes from now on~”

“Chicken, pizza, sweet and sour pork, jajangmyeon, ribs, pork belly…”

“Aaaah. Stop it, brother!”

Hye-eun’s intense reaction caused a burst of laughter.

When I was in another world, it was a sight my colleagues would pluck out of their eyes in disbelief if they saw it.

I was famous in that world for being blunt and talkative.

In a nutshell, was it called the Archmage of Cheolmyeon?

“Okay, that’s it. Princess, Prince.”

“Wow, that would be delicious…”

“Thank you, Mom.”

As Hye-eun and I raised the spoon, her mother smiled happily. Breakfast was served with spicy pork kimchi stew, anchovies and fried tofu.

Yesterday, while shopping at the mart, I took a lot out due to lack of balance, so it was a simple table, but it was okay.

All you need is taste

“Hey, it’s delicious.”

I scooped out the kimchi stew in the pot and put it in my mouth. The spicy kimchi stew took away the fishy smell of the pork. Me and Hye-eun emptied two bowls of rice each morning because they were devouring.

While the mother was eating her children, she was busily preparing to go outside.

“mom. Where are you going without eating?”

“Huh. If you eat all of them, I’ll get a drink and go to work.”

“Is it work?”

At her mother’s words, I was stunned and speechless. It felt like my whole body was stiffened just like the spoon I was holding.

Hye-eun represented my feelings.

“mom! Crazy? My brother is going to make a lot of money in the future, so does it make sense to go out to a street stall?”

I thought I only used kind words, but when the reaction is intense, I know how to swear… Our Hye-eun.

“Mom is fine. And Junhyeok’s money should be spent on Junhyeok, how am I going to take care of it?”

At her mother’s words, I stopped eating and stood up. And, she forced her mother to put down her luggage.

“mom. This makes me more uncomfortable. I have a lot of money, Mom.”

And I looked back at Hye-eun.

“Hey Eun-ah. What was the gold bullion price yesterday?”

“Uh, um… 48,475 million.”

I remember exactly.

I hid a slightly startled look and grabbed her mother’s hands.

“mom. did you hear If we sell just one of those, we will pay off all our debts. Everything up to interest. I can pay for my father’s hospital bills with just one…”

I pulled out a handful of gold bars from my arms.

“There are still so many left. I have earned so much money while on the boat, so you don’t have to worry about money.”

“Junhyuk-ah…”

My mother shed tears again at my words. Her sorry expression was evident.

What the hell are you sorry for?

The one who gave birth to me and raised me like this…

I can see my son.

“Oppa, but can you earn that much on a boat?”

At the moment when a touching tsunami came, Hye-eun went into fact-checking. I lightly ignored Hye-eun’s words and patted her mother’s back.

“From now on, I will rest at home, Mom. You go on a trip with other aunts. You only live once, but you can’t just work for the rest of your life, right?”

“···I’m fine.”

Mom patted my face and smiled happily.

“Mom, am I?”As Hye-eun approached her freshly, she stroked Hye-eun’s cheek with her remaining empty hands.

She managed to calm her mother like that, and she headed to the gold and silver room with Hye-eun.

*

“If possible, wouldn’t it be better to go to Seoul and sell it?”

“Once my father’s hospital is near here, let’s go to the local gold and silver shop and sell it quickly.”

I was impatient because I wanted to see my father as soon as possible. Yesterday, I even thought about using some magic to see my father. But first, I had to solve the money problem neatly and see my father, or else I couldn’t because I was anxious.

Hye-eun and I decided to go to the Korean bail room in Gunpo city to exchange gold bars.

According to Hye-eun, she said that it was the largest gold and silver room in Gunpo.

“Hey, that’s really big……”

When I went, the scale seemed different from the 15-pyeong jewelry stores. Were there so many rich people buying precious metals in Gunpo? I was about to think.

“Is it really that big? It may not be as big as the Cheongdam-dong Jewelery Market, but it is the largest in Gunpo at 50 pyeong.”

“Consistency is more important than size.”

I replied that way and opened the door to the gold and silver room.

“Come here.”

Even though we went early in the morning, the owner welcomed us warmly.

Well.

‘I have a little impression…’

The old man, who appeared to be in his mid-50s, was a man in a checkered vest over a neat white shirt.

“What are you going to give me?”

A half-stripped, shiny forehead with shabby-looking eyebrows. There were two eyeballs pierced beneath them.

The owner looked at me and Hye-eun up and down as if scanning with those eyes.

A mere disappointment passed through the owner’s face. It seemed like a business that didn’t manage his facial expressions well.

“I’ve been selling some gold.”

“Gold?”

you?

You dare to have gold?

It was definitely like that.

“Is it jewelry?”

I was surprised for a while.

How many at most? It was the expression

“Yes. It is a gold ingot weighing about 10 kg.”

“iced coffee······.”

The gold bars I brought were, of course, bare gold bars. I was afraid that the craftsman from another world might write strange characters, so I deliberately did not display anything.

‘Did I do well…?’

When I saw the expression on the jeweler’s face, I felt a bit anxious. He looked me in the eye and tried different emotions, but I’m not an expert and I didn’t know what that was.

‘Is it nitric acid…?’

Once I activated my sense of smell with magic, I found out what the president used to distinguish gold.

But it was just there.

The president looked at him with an anxious expression until now, and then shook his head as if convinced.

“This is fake.”