Chapter 5

His grandfather had once told him that anyone who had worked in a single profession for forty years, regardless of how ordinary they might have been at the beginning, would eventually surpass the level of a mere master and reach something close to sainthood in that particular field.

“Thanks to you.”

That was why Dong-in treated Butler Kang with the respect he deserved, just as his grandfather did.

Putting everything else aside, there was no denying that the butler was an exceptionally capable man. It was hardly an exaggeration to say that Butler Kang was in charge of the entire household of this mansion, which covered approximately 3,000 square meters, including the front and rear gardens and three swimming pools.

“Your meal is ready.”

Following Butler Kang’s guidance into the dining room, Dong-in found a lavish table laid out with a twenty-course meal containing every necessary nutrient—far exceeding even the twelve-course royal table once served to eighteenth-century kings.

And that was just breakfast.

Sigh.

It was already late afternoon, but this was Dong-in’s first meal of the day.

Unfortunately, more than ninety percent of the food on the table was destined to be thrown away.

How many children in Africa are starving to death right now? Tsk.

Still, donating food after someone had already eaten from it would also be considered rude.

Some people apparently packed up the leftovers into lunch containers and took them home, which made him feel somewhat uncomfortable. However, he didn’t bother voicing his thoughts.

The owner of this mansion was, of course, Dong-in.

Yet when it came to his health, absurd as it was, Dong-in had lost control even within his own territory.

His grandfather had personally flown all the way to Dubai to bring Kang Hyun-seok here, specifically so that someone could look after Dong-in’s well-being both inside and outside the house.

Even aside from that, from their perspective, the Taesanghwang—the retired patriarch—stood firmly behind Dong-in, so they sometimes seemed to forget who was actually paying their salaries.

This wasn’t an eighteenth-century palace, but when Dong-in was born, he was practically a crown prince—second only to one and above ten thousand.

His paternal family held a firm grip on politics, while his maternal family controlled enormous financial power in South Korea.

And, for some reason, among the third generation of both sides of the family, Dong-in was the only male.

Because of that, he’d been treated like royalty from a young age, receiving far more precious treatment than he deserved.

The rule at this table was simple: Dong-in had to put at least one bite of the dazzling, perfectly balanced food—fit for an eighteenth-century crown prince—into his mouth, and then cleanse his palate with the disgusting green juice.

Dong-in never rebelled against this rule.

He couldn’t afford to risk his grandfather’s position over something so trivial.

Anyway, with that, Dong-in had completed all the little routines necessary before heading to work.

When he emerged into the foyer, Butler Kang had already taken out a pair of shoes from the long row neatly arranged in the shoe cabinet. They perfectly matched Dong-in’s dress code for the day.

The butler had probably already scanned him from head to toe the moment Dong-in came downstairs.

Tsk. I’m not a three-year-old.

Even while clicking his tongue, Dong-in slipped on the shoes without complaint.

At 4:15 p.m., he lifted his chin arrogantly and gave himself a quick once-over.

Only then was he finally able to leave the house.

And that marked the first step of the daily life of Dong-in, whom the public knew as a useless playboy who did nothing but live extravagantly off an endless fountain of family money.

Dong-in had unintentionally begun traveling around various parts of the world from the age of ten or so.

As a result, he inevitably came to know local circumstances and conditions as though they had been laid out on the palm of his hand.

Taking advantage of that knowledge, Dong-in developed an acquired talent for investing in the international market, particularly in futures.

Unless a natural disaster occurred—

No, even natural disasters were somewhat predictable to him.

In reality, Dong-in had reached a point where he practically didn’t know how to lose money.

Nevertheless, from an outsider’s perspective, it simply looked as though he’d been lucky enough to be born into a wealthy family and was nothing more than a playboy who spent money like water, endlessly drawing from a bottomless treasure chest.

But was Dong-in easy for ordinary people to approach?

Not at all.

From other people’s perspective, he was unbearably blunt and arrogant, making him even more difficult to approach.

At 4:45 p.m., after driving through the city, the midsize sedan came to a stop.

Dong-in stepped out, his long legs emerging first in polished dress shoes.

Then his tall, 187-centimeter frame entered the building.

Some people in the lobby recognized Dong-in and hurriedly greeted him.

He merely nodded in acknowledgment.

“Oh my gosh, he’s so handsome.”

“Oh my, my. He really is.”

“Who is he? Is he a celebrity?”

As Dong-in strode toward the gate equipped with turnstiles, he couldn’t help noticing that even the gazes of those who didn’t recognize him remained fixed on him.

“A celebrity? I don’t know. Does it matter? I’m going to fall for him.”

“If he were a celebrity with that face, there’s no way I wouldn’t know him.”

He often heard people mistake him for a celebrity.

Sometimes he wondered whether being born with such a perfectly sculpted face was a blessing from God or a curse.

“Ah, now that I think about it, I think I saw him on the twenty-eighth floor.”

“Miracle Investment Finance?”

“Yeah, Miracle. I think I saw him there.”

“Not a celebrity?”

“Oh, right. I saw him too. And I didn’t just see him—I vaguely heard that he’s the CEO.”

“The CEO of Miracle Investment Finance?”

“Come to think of it, he definitely has the aura of someone who has to be a CEO.”

“If that’s true, doesn’t that mean he owns all the buildings within a hundred meters in every direction around Miracle Tower?”

“Why wouldn’t he? Miracle Investment Finance is the financial company that turned the investment industry upside down and made an enormous amount of money just one year after it was founded.”

“No way, no way, no way. Are we actually looking at one of South Korea’s biggest tycoons, practically a walking Bank of Korea? Wow!”

“Anyway, I guess money really does follow people selectively these days.”

“Exactly. He’s so handsome I’m practically going to faint.”

Whisper, whisper.

No matter how many times Dong-in experienced people whispering about him, he never really got used to it.

When people whispered behind his back—or even openly within earshot—he simply wanted to disappear.

He had lived in the world for twenty-nine years, and because of his unusual circumstances, one might think he should have become accustomed to the attention.

Perhaps it could even be called interference or meddling rather than genuine interest.

Yet no matter how much time passed, he never wanted to get used to it.

That didn’t mean he needed to show his discomfort, either.

On the contrary, it was easier for him to completely block unnecessary approaches by giving off an impression that was arrogant, indifferent, blunt, aloof, and prickly.

I have absolutely no intention of living alongside ordinary human beings.

There was a reason Dong-in had developed the belief that living isolated from the world was safer.

When he was around seven years old, his parents died prematurely right before his eyes.

Around the age of ten, he himself was kidnapped.

Watching his parents die in an accident and later being kidnapped himself were, from Dong-in’s perspective, merely two major events within the broader scope of everything he had experienced in his lifetime.