episode_0017

#4

After an unknown witch left me a nugget of gold.

I tried to interpret the message she left.

Actually, it wasn’t that difficult of a topic.

Because the content was something like a gift…

Why on earth?

I quickly searched through my memories, wondering if she was a witch I knew, and looked for a woman with a similar appearance, but I was able to confirm that there was no one.

But why?

Didn’t the teacher tell you?

Witches are said to be extremely individualistic beings. How can such a being with such a weak sense of community readily give a gift to another witch whose face they don’t even know?

The first assumption that came to mind was that this might be a trap.

Witches, too, were bound by the great social contract of capitalism, and money was a very important value.

So, it could be that they are trying to catch and eat this witch who is blinded by gold.

At least the gold wasn’t fake.

As an alchemist, I have worked with every element on earth, including gold.

So at least the gold in front of my eyes was real.

So, what we’re left with is this message:

There is a possibility that there is a problem with the message content itself. I think this is more likely.

As the amount of money grows, it becomes a task to prove where it came from.

Well, the world hasn’t collapsed as miserably as an apocalypse, and the country is still functioning as a nation, so how can we possibly reveal the source of these gold bars?

Most likely, you will have no choice but to go through a dark dealer.

Perhaps the pawn shop mentioned in this note is of that type.

The question is, can we trust this dark pawnshop?

Is there a chance that she’ll join hands with that witch to lure me and eat me?

It might not be the case.

But, I couldn’t help but wonder at this point.

Why bother with this hassle?

If she was going to target me, it would have been better to just pounce on me and subdue her right then and there.

At the moment, I don’t have a proper workshop, and it’s hard to imagine a mature witch losing to me, a new witch.

“Ugh… Are you really giving it to me?”

What if she was a witch who was close to the master and, upon hearing that she had taken in a disciple, she left behind gold and disappeared to do a favor for her cute disciple friend!?

I tried to talk to you, but you were so introverted that you just left a note and ran away!?

This isn’t it.

There’s no way that eccentric witch who eats rice in Sol’s eyes would have any friends.

I felt like I was getting my hopes up too much, so I decided to try to think as negatively as possible.

In fact, the pawn shop is that witch’s workshop, and she invited me here so she could eat me up like a cake in her workshop!

Although several hypotheses were made, no clear answer was reached.

So, I decided to scout out the address written on the note myself.

There is no need to go into the pawn shop yourself.

If we create a simple servant horse and operate it, we can quickly find the answer by exploring its interior.

However, there was one problem… Contrary to its appearance, the gold bars were very heavy.

This small gold vine weighs 1kg?

How did you get 10 of them?

If I put it in my bag, this weak stamina would quickly disappear… . I had no choice but to put it in my carrier and drag it around.

In the first place, it was inevitable that I would have to prepare the materials for the service horse.

Anyway, I’m afraid it would be too boring to describe the journey to Gaeseong in detail, so I’ll just skip over it briefly.

#5

Wow. This is Gaeseong.

There are so many Hanok houses… .

I think there are many more than Bukchon, Jeonju Hanok Village, or Andong Hahoe Village.

Since it is close to Seoul, it is likely to be developed here as well, so I thought for a moment about why they preserved these hanoks.

Seeing people freely moving around in North Korea, a region where people would normally not be able to set foot, made me realize once again that this is definitely not the world I know.

Who would have guessed that in North Korea you would be able to find your way by street address?

Anyway, it wasn’t that difficult to find the address 14 Seonjuk-ro 2-gil.

Perhaps in order to maintain its identity as a city that preserves tradition, most of the buildings in Gaeseong are shaped like Hanok (traditional Korean houses).

The pawn shop was no exception.

‘A witch living in a Hanok?’

Something feels good?

I wonder if I could live in a place like that.

With such pointless thoughts, I started the service horse.

The caterpillar-shaped servant horse crawled, wriggling, toward its destination, the pawn shop.

It looks trivial, but there’s nothing I can do about it! If I make it with big ones, the materials will be expensive… .

Instead, isn’t it because the function is simple and powerful?

If there is a mystery in the place where it enters, the larva will immediately swell up like a balloon and burst.

And then a signal magic will be shot at me too.

Then what should I do?

Of course you have to run away without looking back!

I stared at the entrance of the pawn shop with the cute little cub inside, my eyes tense.

Thump thump… .

The little one didn’t burst…!!

That place was a real, legitimate pawn shop!

So the real gold bars were also gifts?

What the heck?

Was it the teacher’s friend?

You gave me a gift as your friend’s disciple?

Eugene.

What the hell are you….

Even your friends treat me this well, what have you done for me?

Make Sol eat rice in his eyes?

Make them cook, clean, and wash the dishes?

This is the worst… .

After carefully conducting my reconnaissance, I headed to the pawn shop, dragging my carrier containing ten precious gold bars.

Anyway, this means that my life as a homeless person is over.

Thank you, Unknown Witch!

The witch society is still warm!

The owner of the pawn shop was a neat-looking woman.

Age: Looks like late 30s to early 40s?

With his round Kim Gu glasses and neatly tied hair, he looked more like a bank teller than a pawn shop owner.

“Welcome.”

She didn’t even blink an eye when I showed up at the pawn shop looking like a little kid. She just treated me politely as a customer.

It was a new and exciting feeling I was experiencing for the first time.

“I want to exchange gold for cash… .”

“Okay, I see. Oh. Do you have any documents to prove it?”

“Documents?”

“Yes. Documents that guarantee where this gold bar was made and what its purity is.”

“… There is no such thing.”

“I see. It’s something from the other world.”

“Huh?”

“We will handle it well so that there is no problem. Don’t worry.”

Something brought from the other world?

I don’t know exactly what that means, but I get the nuance.

The reason we decided to have people come to pawn shops instead of professional exchanges is because we took this issue into consideration.

“Do I need ID or something like that?”

“No, I don’t need it.”

“Oh, yes… .”

“Instead, you need a bankbook.”

“Huh? Your bankbook? Can’t you give me cash?”

“I can give you cash, but isn’t that inconvenient to use? You might be better off getting a perfectly washed payment.”

“Ah… .”

Laundry? I’m not sure what’s going on.

As I looked puzzled, the pawn shop owner briefly added some additional explanation.

So the content was like this.

It turned out that our country was better at tracking money than we thought, and if we used a large sum of money, such as 10kg of gold, it was inevitable that an investigation would be conducted by the National Tax Service or something like that.

It’s okay to use cash for small transactions, but when buying a large item like a house, it’s inevitable.

Taking this into account, the pawn shop said that it would deposit clean, laundered funds into the account so that they would not be caught on the National Tax Service’s radar.

But what should I do? I don’t have a bankbook.

No. To be exact, I’m at my mom and dad’s house, but I can’t go there.

I hesitated, not knowing what to say, so she kindly added to my question.

“If you don’t have a bank account, we can create one for you.”

“Yes, yes? Could that be possible?”

“Of course. Could you show me your ID for a moment?”

“Okay. Here you go… .”

She took my ID and started doing some stuff on the computer.

Can you even open a bank account for me here?

I don’t know what a capable person like this is doing here.

At that moment, her eyes, which had been expressionlessly staring at the monitor, opened wide.

It was the first facial expression I had seen since I came here.

“Is there a problem?”

“It will be difficult in your current situation.”

“Yes? Why?”

“A missing person report has been processed.”

“Ah… .”

“If you would like, I can make you a new ID. Would you like to do so?”

Well… It’s already been two years since I disappeared.

Of course a missing person report would have been filed.

But, isn’t living with a new identity a sin against my family?

Unorganized thoughts were still swirling around in my head.

“Even if you have a new identity, you can always sort it out. So don’t take it too seriously.”

“Then… . Yes. Please do.”

“What would you like your name to be?”

“… Please do the same.”

“Yes.”

Anyway… I can’t give up on the name.

“How old are you?”

“Uh… Please leave my age as is.”

“Yes.”

Actually, if you just look at her appearance, she doesn’t seem like she’d be okay even if she were 12 years old… .

This is my pride!

Anyway, my new identity was created on the spot (same date of birth and name) and I was soon able to receive a bankbook with 500 million won deposited into it.

The original amount was around 1 billion won, but 50% was taken as commission.

But if not here, how could I have handled this money?

You should be grateful.

“All work is done.”

“Thank you.”

“Yes. Then please take a look.”

From a mysterious witch whose identity is unknown to a mysterious pawn shop that freely accesses the national computer network and even launders money…

It was a day as if I was possessed by a ghost.

Still, the huge amount of money that had come into my hands lovingly reminded me that this was reality.

‘Let’s start by finding a house! We need to build a workshop!!’

But I didn’t know.

I am.

Is it really that difficult to make a workshop?