# Chapter 33
Dohyun made it clear that he would produce potions one at a time whenever buyers appeared. However, he set the condition that people should be told it takes time to make them and he can’t produce many. This way, people wouldn’t recklessly reduce their gate attack team members counting on the potion’s healing power.
“At least it will reduce the cases of healing Espers running around without rest. They looked extremely exhausted.”
“Is that so?”
Dohyun recalled the Somyeong Guild’s healing Esper with blonde hair and blue eyes who would wait during Dohyun’s training sessions to heal his wounds when he couldn’t properly feel his energy. They were a famous Esper. Since there were so few Espers with healing abilities, and despite being B-rank, they held the highest rank among domestic healing Espers, they reportedly received hundreds of requests daily.
In contrast to normal Espers who might tackle one gate every 3-5 days when on a tight schedule, healing Espers would routinely participate in two gate attacks per day.
“Two attacks per day?”
“Yes.”
“…Is that even possible?”
“It becomes possible when low-rank gate attacks are scheduled~. Like when Esper Baek Dohyun went to the gate, practice sessions for low-rank gates with Espers entering their first attack usually finish in the morning or afternoon, unless you’re unlucky enough to encounter an extreme probability of difficulty increase. Accidents in low-rank gates are rare, but there are always a few students who get injured from excitement during their first attack.”
The staff brightened, saying Dohyun’s potions would somewhat fill that gap.
“Oh, and I heard they deposited your contract payment?”
“…That’s actually why I came.”
It was the first time he’d seen tens of billions of won in his account. Still accustomed to an ordinary citizen’s lifestyle, Dohyun felt he needed to confirm that the amount hadn’t been deposited by mistake. After leaving the lab, Dohyun held his phone to his ear.
-Did you really go?
It was Haegang’s voice calling to check if Dohyun had gone out alone, since he wasn’t at home.
“Yes. I felt I needed to verify.”
-Didn’t I clearly tell you yesterday?
Hearing the sighing voice through the phone, Dohyun was at a loss for words.
Last night. When Dohyun was shocked after checking the contract payment amount from the guild and said something seemed wrong, Haegang shook his head.
‘Haven’t you seen articles about how much high-rank Espers receive as contract payments? There must be plenty of advertorial articles claiming you can achieve the dream of sudden wealth by awakening as an Esper.’
Though he hadn’t read the articles, he’d heard his chatty friends talk about it. Dohyun’s talkative friends would put Dohyun in the middle and recite their account numbers to him along with stories of other Espers receiving tens or hundreds of billions. But Dohyun shook his head.
‘That’s them, though…’
‘Esper Baek Dohyun is an Esper too, so why shouldn’t you receive that much?’
The calmly returned question left Dohyun speechless. You need to have received it before to feel its reality. How could I accept such an amount when I’ve never seen it before?
“What? Aren’t you happy? I worked hard to get that amount approved for you.”
Dohyun ended the call when he suddenly heard someone approaching. Staring with lifeless eyes at the friend who had just opened the conference room door, entered, set down tea in front of him, and was smiling broadly, Dohyun wondered if this person was acting this way despite knowing how Dohyun had lived before.
“The more money, the better, right?”
“That’s true.”
“Then why does your expression look like that?”
“You should give me a contract payment I can reasonably accept and make me happy, not shock me with 7.1 billion that makes me freak out.”
Dohyun’s phone broke yesterday. It was because he dropped it after checking his account. When the deposit confirmation text came, he blinked, wondering if he’d been hacked or received spam, then checked the app just in case. The screen of the phone he’d used for almost 4 years shattered with a cracking sound.
Chan, who guessed the situation from Dohyun’s phone and expression, laughed and suggested:
“Get a new latest model while you’re at it.”
“One should save to live well…”
“Didn’t you hear it’s a contract payment? From the guild’s perspective, it’s money they don’t care about once they receive the first potion properly.”
“…But the guild already has the potion.”
“Exactly. So that’s yours now.”
He meant the money was entirely Dohyun’s. And it was already fully processed including taxes.
“Am I rich…?”
When Dohyun asked in a voice that showed he couldn’t comprehend it at all, Chan shook his head.
“No? Now you’re middle class?”
“…Having billions makes me middle class? Even working at a major corporation wouldn’t earn this much?”
“You’re not an ordinary person, you’re an Esper. Since you can’t even enter gate attacks together, you won’t receive byproduct settlements, so this amount is actually cheap.”
“So all other Espers earn like this?”
“Can’t you tell by looking at me?”
Dohyun looked at Chan and nodded in agreement. His mother was an S-rank Esper, and moreover, a Guild Master. Chan was the kind of guy who naturally wore all kinds of luxury clothes as casual wear in high school and carelessly tossed coats with prices that made Dohyun feel guilty to touch onto Dohyun’s floor.
“Hey.”
“…?”
“You can do it too.”
Dohyun’s expression froze coldly as Chan winked at him. If I beat up that disgusting friend with my own hands, would the news report that an Esper attacked an ordinary person?
After leaving the guild and changing his phone, Dohyun sent messages to Jaewon and Haesu. Sa Gongchan looked really bored, he told them.
❖ ❖ ❖
Although Dohyun now had money, he had no idea what to do first. Of course, Dohyun had vaguely imagined, ‘If I become rich, I’ll go to a fine dining restaurant or place with lots of menu items and say, “I’ll have everything from here to here,” take just one bite of each, and leave.’ He’d also had childish thoughts of walking into any restaurant and paying for everyone’s meals, or making purchases that others would envy. Since he thought it would never happen, it was easier to imagine.
The vague notion that becoming an Esper meant becoming rich hadn’t resonated with Dohyun. After awakening as an Esper, he’d wondered if he could easily spend the income he’d earn from entering gates, thinking it would feel wasteful. He had no idea he would be hit with such a contract payment.
First, I should find a place to live. With this much money, I could even buy one outright. Wouldn’t it be good to find a place with decent security in a location convenient for commuting to the association and guild? And then…
“I should get my driver’s license first.”
Dohyun thought that perhaps he could now hope for a future beyond the stifling reality he’d always felt.
Suddenly, the corners of his mouth that had been faintly rising with each step returned to their original position as if that wasn’t where they belonged. His pace also gradually slowed.
Someone with blue hair stood watching Dohyun. Instinctively, Dohyun thought about how far he was from home.
“Hello, Han Seonwoo. Or should I call you Esper Baek Dohyun?”
Dohyun’s eyes shook violently at the sight of the smiling man.
“……”
Dohyun didn’t trust people easily. It wasn’t always this way, but rather because he’d seen all kinds of human behaviors in the collective living environments he’d experienced since childhood. There were plenty of examples of people whose outside and inside didn’t match, but no one like the person before him, whose exterior, interior, front, and back were all different.
“Aren’t you going to greet me?”
He’s like an old-fashioned authoritarian, Dohyun thought, yet he couldn’t easily ignore him. More than that, he wondered why this person was here, whether this person shouldn’t be able to exist here.
“Seonwoo. You should answer your big brother properly.”
Dohyun knew well what it meant to feel suffocated. It was a sensation he felt every time he saw this man, a sensation he thought he’d never have to feel again.
“Why…”
Why is this person here? Dohyun’s eyes shook violently.
“If I’d known it would be like this, I should have just left you as you were. Isn’t that right, Seonwoo? If your big brother had kept you with him, our Seonwoo wouldn’t be ignoring me like this.”
The corner of the man’s mouth rose menacingly. Dohyun stepped back. Cold sweat ran down his back. This was dangerous. That man definitely didn’t have blue hair before.
Big brother.
Before him stood someone Dohyun once called “big brother.” He was just as Dohyun remembered him—very tall. The way he looked down at Dohyun still felt oppressive.
It was clearly a memory from long ago. Dohyun no longer used the name Seonwoo and had made diligent efforts to erase that name. But those efforts had come to nothing. At the appearance of his brother before him, memories he thought he’d buried resurfaced one by one and choked Dohyun’s throat.
“I guess I’ll have to teach you greetings again. Right?”
“Ah, ah…”
A suppressed sound escaped between his lips.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
