The Next Morning
The next morning.
Today was a rare occasion—Seia woke up before Jeong-woo.
“Ughh...”
Seia stretched both arms high above her head in a big yawn, then looked around with messy bedhead and half-lidded eyes.
Right beside her lay her dad.
For some reason, Jeong-woo looked different from his usual self.
Maybe he was tired from yesterday?
Watching her father with his mouth slightly open and hair sticking out in every direction, Seia broke into a bright, beaming smile.
“Mmm...”
She had no idea what time it was.
But as long as her dad was by her side, that was enough.
She placed the rabbit doll she usually hugged while sleeping onto her father’s stomach, then snuggled deeper into his embrace.
The instinctive way he wrapped his arms around her and gently patted her back almost woke Seia again, but she quickly drifted back into sleep.
By the time the angle of sunlight slipping through the curtains had shifted slightly, Jeong-woo, who had been sleeping like the dead, slowly stirred awake.
“Ugh...”
Mornings were always difficult for him.
At least until he fully woke up.
Still, Jeong-woo had the most reliable method for waking up right beside him.
Whenever he looked at Seia’s peaceful, happy sleeping face, sleep would come when he wanted it to, and slip away when he needed to rise.
“Sleep well, kiddo.”
Today he had to stop by the bank.
It wasn’t really anything that could be called work.
All he had to do was deposit the thirty thousand won he’d received into his account via the ATM. A very simple task.
The restaurant opened at ten.
If he wanted to buy the ingredients they’d need today and visit the bank, he had to leave at least one or two hours early.
“It’s already eight. Better get ready.”
The start of their daily routine together with Seia.
The happy time in itself had ended, and the father and daughter left the house side by side.
I really need to do something about these stairs…
The restaurant’s opening and closing times were a promise to the customers who visited, so he couldn’t keep closing early like yesterday.
He had closed early yesterday because Seia had fallen asleep soon after and he worried she might wake up, come looking for him, and get hurt on the stairs. He hoped such a thing wouldn’t happen again.
Of course, that might be asking too much.
He knew all too well that life rarely let you have everything you wanted.
This was the same.
If he wanted to earn money for Seia, he would inevitably have less time to spend with her.
Finding the right balance between the two.
That would be the best compromise Jeong-woo had to reach.
“Daddy.”
“Yes, my daughter?”
“What’s a eunhaeng?”
“A bank is a place that takes care of money.”
“Is there lots of money there?”
“Of course. A whole lot.”
“Whoa...”
Seia knew that money was a good thing.
Because Jeong-woo had taught her so.
But he always followed it up with the same words.
That money was simply a tool needed to pursue happiness.
Having a lot of money didn’t automatically make you happy.
There were many different tools, and nothing was more important than finding them for yourself.
Of course, these were somewhat difficult concepts for a young child like Seia.
In fact, while she had nodded along, she didn’t seem to fully understand.
That was why he wanted to keep teaching her.
That having a lot of money didn’t make you happy, and having little didn’t make you unhappy.
It was simply a matter of having more or fewer tools for happiness, and there were plenty of other tools out there.
They were just hidden, so you couldn’t see them yet.
“That’s the bank over there.”
“The eunhaeng is so big!”
Banks these days were on a much grander scale.
Since hunters with powers beyond ordinary humans had begun appearing in large numbers, banks had evolved to match.
The security guards were hunters themselves, and since magic stones were used more widely than cash, the range of things ATM machines could handle had greatly expanded.
Functions like automatically depositing the value of a magic stone into an account in real time according to the current market price, minus a small fee.
The world really had gotten better.
Though those weren’t exactly words that suited Jeong-woo.
As they headed toward the ATMs, a security guard stepped in front of the father and daughter.
“How may I help you?”
Even using an ATM required such strict security oversight.
“Ah, I just want to make a deposit.”
“...Understood.”
A hint of suspicion lingered in the guard’s eyes as he looked at Jeong-woo, but once he noticed Seia standing a little lower, the doubt quickly vanished.
When his gaze met the child’s eyes, which were full of pure curiosity looking up at him, the last traces of wariness disappeared completely.
“Hellooo.”
“Uh, uh? Y-yes. Nice to meet you.”
Seia placed both hands over her belly button, bowed politely, and greeted him.
Normally, guards on duty were forbidden from engaging in such casual conversation.
There were rare abilities that activated only when the user spoke with their target, after all.
But how could he ignore a greeting like that?
Seia showed the guard what a real smile looked like as he awkwardly smiled and waved back. Then she was led by her father’s hand toward the machines.
“Just put this in...”
He promptly inserted the bills.
Then he checked the amount.
“...Huh?”
The number was wrong.
The balance that should have been in Jeong-woo’s account was only around three million won.
It was money he had carefully saved for unexpected situations, but now there was an extra three in front of it.
“Three… thirty… three hundred?”
He had definitely inserted three ten-thousand-won bills.
So why had thirty million won been deposited?
Jeong-woo stared at the screen, eyes full of confusion.
To say he wasn’t tempted would be a lie.
Thirty million won wasn’t enough to live off forever without working, but it was enough to remove any discomfort while raising Seia.
If he had been alone, he would have reported it to the bank without hesitation, but with Seia in his life, he actually hesitated for a moment.
Even so, he couldn’t just walk away.
“Seia.”
“Yes?”
“How much did Daddy just put in?”
“Umm… three man won?”
“That’s right. But thirty million won was deposited into the account. So what should we do?”
“Give it back?”
There was no single correct answer to this.
But there were wrong ones.
Seia had neatly avoided the wrong answer, and that alone satisfied Jeong-woo.
“That’s one option, but first we should check with the bank to see what happened. The machine might have made an error.”
“Error?”
“Um… it means it didn’t work properly.”
“Aha! Then should we go ask about it now?”
“Yes. We’ll say the machine seems to have malfunctioned.”
“Can Seia do it?”
“You? Of course you can!”
It was a welcome sight.
Jeong-woo quite liked it when Seia took the initiative like this.
Meeting various people, talking with them.
He wanted her to gain all kinds of experiences with the world that way.
Especially in cases like this.
When it came to the restaurant, people came with their own purposes.
To eat the food, or perhaps someday to see Seia.
But this was the opposite.
This time they were the ones approaching with a purpose.
This was a first for Seia too.
The very act of initiating conversation with a stranger for a clear reason.
When they entered the bank, the security was even stricter than outside, with guards carefully watching the area.
Any behavior that seemed even slightly suspicious would prompt them to approach and conduct a quick investigation.
“This place is intense...”
“How may I help you?”
“Ah, just a moment ago...”
As Jeong-woo began to answer, he felt something tugging at his pants.
It was obviously Seia.
When he looked down, she was staring up at him with sparkling eyes that clearly said she wanted to speak.
“Ah, would it be all right if my daughter explains?”
“......? Yes, that’s fine.”
Just like outside, the guard’s expression subtly changed the moment he saw Seia.
When the guard bent down slightly to match her eye level, Seia waved her hands in the air as she continued her explanation.
“Umm, Seia— I mean, Daddy put money in over there, but instead of three man won, three thousand man won came in!”
“...Is that so?”
He understood what she was trying to say, but she had left out the most important part.
That he had inserted three ten-thousand-won bills.
Since depositing a magic stone could also result in thirty million won, the guard couldn’t figure out what the problem was.
“Ah, what she means is, I put in three ten-thousand-won bills, but instead of thirty thousand won, thirty million won was deposited.”
“Ah, I see.”
“That’s it! Exactly!”
The guard nodded as if he understood and handed them a numbered ticket.
Before long, it was Jeong-woo’s turn. He explained what had happened.
“Ah, is that right? Just a moment. We’ll need to check inside the machine. When did you make the deposit?”
“About five minutes ago.”
“Understood.”
Soon after, someone who appeared to be a supervisor arrived.
A strict-looking expression that somehow inspired trust.
The supervisor, who wore striking horn-rimmed glasses, glanced between Jeong-woo and Seia before heading to the machine where the problem had occurred.
He opened the inside of the machine, located the bills that matched the deposit time, and examined them.
“These are the bills. They look like ordinary notes on the surface.”
“Ah, do they?”
It would be a lie to say he felt no regret at all.
But if he had to choose between right and wrong again, he would make the same decision.
“Yes. First, these bills are...”
However, the supervisor soon noticed the difference between these bills and ordinary ones.
‘S’
The letter S written at the edge of the bills.
And that letter had been processed with a magic stone coating, visible only when one focused their magic power on it.
This…
The shabby-looking father and daughter.
How on earth had they obtained these bills?
And not just one, but three of them.
For a moment, he wondered if he really needed to tell the truth, but knowing exactly whose bills these were, the supervisor shook his head.
“These appear to be special bills. The deposited amount is correct.”
“You mean thirty million won is the right amount?”
“Yes. There is no problem with this money, so you may use it freely. Do you have any other questions?”
“Ah, no. Thank you.”
“Please take care on your way. That will be all.”
Something incomprehensible had happened.
The person who had given him these bills was the customer named Seong Ye-eun.
She must have given them by mistake.
If she had handed them over without realizing, mistaking them for ordinary ten-thousand-won bills, then something Jeong-woo could never accept had occurred.
“Um, excuse me.”
“Yes?”
“Could I have those bills back?”
“No problem at all.”
“Then please do.”
The supervisor handed the bills back with a puzzled look. Jeong-woo placed them in his pocket more carefully than anything else.
“Let’s go, Seia.”
“What happened?”
“The money is correct, but it seems like it was given by mistake. So we’re going to return it. If something like this ever happens to you later, you should do what Daddy did. Understand?”
“Yes! Daddy is the best!”
His heart had been racing, but the moment he stroked Seia’s head, his emotions settled in an instant.
Yes.
As long as he had Seia, that was enough.