Chapter 4 - Eldest Brother is Back
“Whoever hears it will think that I never do anything unless you order me to.”
“I know you can’t do it because you don’t have time. You do housework when you have time. I’m telling you not to skip breakfast because I know it’s hard to wash the dishes.”
She was choked up because she was caught in the middle of thinking about her eldest brother while eating chicken.
Lee Bobae couldn’t stand it and said.
“Can’t you stop being a porter? Even if you’re the second brother, there’s no need to take such a dangerous work. Our finances aren’t really at a deficit.
I have an installment savings account, and when I get extra income, I put it in little by little. Even if I don’t get a promotion, I’ll still get paid.
Even if you don’t tell me anything, I still hear things from here and there. I heard Hunters don’t even treat you like a porter these days. If you really want to be a porter, I’ll introduce you to our guild.”
“Idiot. Aren’t prices going up? Prices go up more than the salary, and hunters usually become sensitive in a rift since their life is at stake. Doctors become sensitive when they enter the operating room, but Hunters must scared. You know that I don’t take guild jobs for Four Seasons on purpose, right?”
Because if he made a mistake, it might affect Lee Bobae. Lee Haegi deliberately avoided work from Four Seasons Guild.
“More than anything else, I can’t put a burden on you alone. Are you going to live your life like this for the rest of your life? You have to meet a man and get married. This big brother—”
Lee Haegi choked and gulped.
“It is this big brother’s dream to let the Lee family’s princess-like daughter to marry a man who’d treat her like a queen, so that mother and father can close their eyes comfortably.”
Lee Haegi gulped down the Coke instead of tears. He smiled softly as if telling her not to worry.
“Don’t worry too much.”
“How can I not worry?”
“You’ve never been in a rift before. It’s not as dangerous as you think. These days, the system is well established and the Hunters are proficient. We also have more information about rift than before. And I’m not going there only for money. It’s for my dream. My dream is to be a Hunter.”
“You’re lying. Your dream is to be a novelist.”
“That was when I was in middle school.”
As Lee Bobae knew that Lee Haegi’s dream was to be a writer. He especially liked fantasy novels. He recommended his favorite works to his family.
Lee Bobae thought that her eldest brother’s willingness to enter the unfamiliar job of a Hunter must have been influenced to some extent by the novel recommended by Lee Haegi.
“Somehow, I have a good feeling this time. I’m not going to say I’m very confident, but I think I’ll awaken this time.”
“How do you know that?”
“It’s just a feeling. Anyway, I’m in good shape, so I’ll be fine.”
Since he had said this far, Lee Bobae could do nothing more. Lee Bobae took a potion out of her inventory.
Most of the time, she gave her second brother defective products that could not be applied to the company, but it was different this time.
It was a C-class recovery potion she had made by pouring out all of her mental and mana on a few precious holidays.
Don’t make fun of C-class.
Just as C-class Awakened was treated as a high-ranking Awakened, C-class recovery potions were also of high value.
There was no case of successful production of A-class potions, and it was only given from treasure chests in the rift or as a reward from raids. Meanwhile, although this should’ve made B-class potions the highest grade, it had also been monopolized by heavenly Hunters and had not been released on the market.
C-class recovery potions was the highest-grade potion that an individual could obtain on the market. Naturally, the price was high, but Lee Bobae did not make C-class recovery potions often.
Since there was no material in hand, it must be made with only mana and mental power. But Lee Bobae, who was always working hard on herself, could not afford to do so.
This C-class recovery potion was a very rare emergency fund that Lee Bobae had made on a day-off forced by the company.
It should’ve been seen as an exchange of vitality for money.
The C-class potion that Lee Bobae had made by giving up her health was different in color. Lee Haegi’s eyes widened.
“I don’t believe in feelings. The day Eldest Brother disappeared was the same as usual. Rather, I’m scared because you say you have a good feeling, so take this. You have a good feeling and I don’t, so we’re even.”
“Put it away. If you have something like this, you should be the one to use it.”
“Keep it to yourself, Second Brother. Don’t give it to anyone else, it should only be used by you.
I know you’ve given the potion to other people.
What the hell, your younger sister is a potion make, but what are these scars on your body?”
Lee Bobae pointed to the small scars left on Lee Haegi’s body. They were scars that didn’t exist before the Rift Day.
Even if a potion was a defective product, a potion was a potion. A small scratch could be cured. If Lee Haegi had used the potion he had received to take care of himself, there wouldn’t be so many scars.
Lee Bobae’s smart second brother was uselessly good natured. It was okay in the past, but in these days, it was hard to see from the family’s point of view.
Lee Haegi smiled with a caring smile.
“Bobae—”
“I don’t want much. You must come back. You must.”
Lee Haegi stroked Lee Bobae’s forehead. Lee Bobae was fed up and shook her second brother’s hand, which was full of chicken oil.
As she was full, the eyelids she had been holding on to came down.
“Good night.”
Lee Bobae scrambled to her room. Lee Haegi said from behind the open door.
“I can’t make breakfast you because I’m going out early in the morning tomorrow! Just take out the side dishes and make sure to eat them for breakfast!”
“Mm.”
Lee Bobae answered dryly and lay down on the bed. Her consciousness faded as soon as her head touched her pillow.
‘… What’s this?’
Lee Bobae’s, who had been sleeping well, nerves sensed something. She woke up still half-asleep feeling disturbed.
She was not a combat type, but she was still Awakened. Lee Bobae’s senses were more sensitive than ordinary people.
She opened her eyes and immediately noticed something bothering her. Her second brother had opened the door and looked inside.
‘Does he want to see me before he heads out…?’
But the atmosphere was strange for that.
It was dawn, but it was still dark and she couldn’t see her second brother’s face. However, even in the eyes that were fully awake, the tightly closed mouth was particularly conspicuous.
In addition, the atmosphere surrounding Lee Haegi was different from usual.
She wanted to know more, but the body suffering from chronic fatigue wanted sleep.
What’s with this unusual spirit? But since it’s second brother, it shouldn’t be dangerous.
As Lee Bobae was sure it was safe, she saw something through her blurry eyes again.
She could see his mouth, which had been tightly closed, babbled through her blurred vision.
“This time, for sure…”
‘For sure…?’
The voice was so low that Lee Bobae couldn’t hear what followed. Lee Bobae greeted the second brother who quietly closed the door while she was sleeping.
“You must come back.”
“…”
“Make sure to come back.”
Lee Haegi’s presence was gradually moving away from the room. He went to the front door, picked up the luggage he had prepared the day before, put on his shoes, and opened the front door.
The sound of the door lock closing was heard. Lee Bobae buried her face in her pillow.
Today would be a day to endure just like yesterday. She had to sleep to survive.
In the end, Lee Bobae went to work without eating breakfast. It wasn’t that she overslept or was too bothered to do the dishes. She felt bloated, wondering if it was wrong to eat chicken before bed. She believed in her awakened body, but it must have been difficult to consume greasy food after overwork.
As soon as Lee Bobae came to work, she checked her materials and equipment. There would have been no one who’d touch them after work anyway, but it was her own pre-work ritual.
There were three major methods of making potions known so far.
The first was a method of creating by consuming mana without any materials.
Potions made in this way could not exceed the skill level of the maker. It also made the producer tired enough to take a break for at least two to three days. Mana, mental power, time, and stamina. It was a wasteful method, so it was rare for a person who had just awakened to try and retry to check their skills.
Lee Bobae, who made potions for emergency funds on holidays, was a special case.
The second was to familiarize yourself with the recipe, then place the materials and equipment necessary for potion production and use a skill.
In this way, you could save a lot of mental power and mana than the first. In the second method, the quality of the recipe and ingredients, the skill level of the person using the skill, and the skill grade affect the potion grade. As with the first one, you could not craft potions higher than your skill level.
This was the most preferred method because it could craft a large amount of potions of stable quality.
The third and final method was the so-called golden spoon or talented person method that only the chosen could do.
An Awakened who had a job capable of crafting potions with materials and equipment created the potions themself. It could be boiled, it could be stir-fried, they basically made potions according to the recipes that people have found out.
The third method produced different results depending on the maker. If the golden spoon trusted only the ingredients but the process was sloppy, a defect would come out. If the talented person put their heart and soul into making it with low-grade materials, middle quality potion would come out.
If you had talent, you could also produce potions that were higher than your skill level.
Every famous alchemist had his or her own workshop. Even if they belonged to a guild, it was possible to make homemade potions if their abilities were recognized.
It was natural that handmade was preferable to industrial products, and custom-made to mass-produced products. Even the Hunters, who were the main consumers of potions, could not escape from that perception.
Any Hunter preferred the third type of potion. But they couldn’t use it often because it was expensive.
Regardless of this or that, in the end, the majority of Hunters would end up with the mass-produced potions made from the second method.
Since Four Seasons Guild was a large guild, there was a lot of demand for potions. While supplying potions from an external workshop, they also had potion teams within the guild.
As the guild grew, one potion team was not enough, so it increased to 2 teams, 3 teams, and 4 teams, but Team 1 had the highest status in the guild. And Lee Bo-ae was the first person who made a breakthrough in raising the status of her team in the guild.
In other words, she was also called a desirable slave.
Lee Bobae, the desirable slave of the Potion Team 1, focused on potion making. No one should touch her, who reacted sensitively during work. This was because it was rumored that some people had had a bad experience from doing so in the beginning.
“Lee Bobae-
ssi
!”
Until today.
“What is it?”
Lee Bobae suffered from chronic lack of stamina, mana, and mental strength. Lee Bobae’s, who had been immersed in her work, eyes were annoyed and fierce.
Lee Bobae stared at the person who had called her. It was the boss, the team leader, but she had called someone who was concentrating, so Lee Bobae thought it was justifiable to stare at her.
“Lee Bobae-
ssi
, over there.”
The team leader, who was scouted from outside, was not on good terms with Lee Bobae. It had been fine in the beginning. However, the relationship deteriorated when Lee Bobae refused to go to a dinner party at her own expense.
Since then, the team leader never looked at Lee Bobae kindly. But today, the look on her face was unusually soft.
Hello, enjoy your visit! Yes, the Ko-fi page is Wook's.