Chapter 1

They say the rich can last three generations even if they go bankrupt.

That’s complete bullshit. If it lasts three generations, I should have been living well up until now.

The subsidiaries that fell to my share were stolen by my older brothers and nephews.

Even the sales proceeds are difficult to recover even a penny due to lawsuits.

“If only there hadn’t been the abuse of power controversy…”

My eldest brother’s abuse of power controversy was the beginning of the catastrophe.

On top of that, my nephew’s personal life problems exploded too.

Father died of high blood pressure after running around trying to resolve the situation despite his old age.

I had nothing to say either.

Honestly, I had lived recklessly.

Father and the family had connections overflowing in political and business circles.

There was nothing to fear, and I looked down on everyone.

But after Father passed away, all the people I thought were reliable backing turned into hyenas.

“Now all that’s left is just one house.”

A massive mansion.

Father loved European style.

He loved it so much that he disassembled a castle in Europe and rebuilt it in Korea.

But…

‘This house won’t last long either.’

Taxes are already piling up.

Collection notices are filling up the entrance.

Naturally, since there’s no money to pay taxes, it will be sold at auction.

“Still, there should be something worth some money, right?”

I need to put food on the table right away.

Father also loved collecting European treasures.

Most had already been sold at auction, but I thought there was a high possibility of treasures hidden in secret spaces.

Bang bang-! I started hammering the walls.

If Father had seen this, he would have grabbed the back of his neck and collapsed.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Father had already passed away, and the tree planted on his grave had already spread its branches in all directions.

“Come on, let something come out!”

Bang bang-! I continued hammering.

All that remained was my body.

For various reasons, I had learned sports instead of studying.

My brothers, who were over 20 years older than me, had to study hard under Father’s pressure, but as the youngest, just growing up healthy was enough to satisfy Father.

Even though I was approaching 40, this was also why my body was full of strength.

“Huh? There’s something here?”

The sensation transmitted from the hammer tip is different.

Whirrrr-! I used an electric drill to make a hole in the wall and then struck again with the hammer.

Crack-! The wall collapsed, revealing a hidden space.

“As expected, Father made a secret space.”

I cleared away the debris and entered the secret space.

I need to find something worth money.

But no matter how much I looked around, there were only books.

“Was it a study? Why did he study in a place like this?!”

They say books can be worth money too.

But the books in the study weren’t even old books, and they didn’t seem valuable enough to be worth money.

“Nothing’s working out. Argh!”

Crash-!

I pushed over the bookshelf.

Books poured out, and another space appeared inside.

“That looks like it might be worth some money?”

A glass tube hidden behind the bookshelf.

Inside it was a jewel shining golden.

I approached the glass tube closely and looked at it.

“What? It’s not a jewel. It looks like a sculpture, or are these blood vessels?”

A golden sculpture with blood vessels embedded in it.

I removed the glass tube and picked up the sculpture.

It’s very heavy. If this is all gold, how much money would it be?

At least it would be enough for escape funds.

“The problem is carrying it. I need to find a place to sell it too. Hmm…”

I placed my hand on the sculpture and pondered.

At that moment, thump!

A distinct sensation felt at my fingertips.

The blood vessels are moving.

Crack crack-!

Every time the blood vessels move, the sculpture develops cracks.

Then at some point, the surface of the sculpture completely split and fell off.

“It’s not actually alive and moving, is it? Is it a toy made with mechanical devices? Then it won’t be worth money.”

“A greedy human. I quite like that.”

A voice suddenly heard.

The voice is coming from the sculpture.

“What? Is it a recording device?”

“It’s not a mere recording. I am the adjuster of the world, the last dragon, and Gartin who rules over all the gold in the world.”

Am I hearing things?

It says it’s a dragon.

A dragon, the fantasy creature that only appears in fantasy movies.

No matter how much I got backstabbed by my brothers, I’m not the type to believe such ridiculous nonsense.

“Who’s playing a prank? It’s those nephews playing tricks. Damn bastards.”

“You’re a suspicious human. I’ll grant you one thing you desire most right now.”

“I said stop with the pranks.”

“Close your eyes. And when you open them again, you’ll believe in me.”

What?

Suddenly my eyelids became heavy.

My head became hazy, and bright light bursts before my eyes.

I was the type who couldn’t sleep well without blackout curtains.

But now the bright light is actually making me fall asleep.

“Snore-!”

I opened my eyes.

My body feels like it’s bound with shackles.

I try to move my hands and feet, but I feel a strong sense of alienation.

“It doesn’t feel like my body. Why is my voice like this?”

My voice had become hoarse from smoking so much.

But now my voice projected as if there was a high-pass filter in my throat.

I forcibly raised my body. Familiar surroundings.

It’s my room where I lived for over 20 years before becoming independent.

The moment I got up and moved toward the mirror, my body froze again.

“What? This is supposed to be me?”

My appearance from my school days is reflected in the mirror.

Middle school student? High school student? It’s my appearance from that time.

How did this happen? While I’m frozen looking at the mirror, a voice is heard from somewhere.

It’s the voice from the sculpture.

But the voice is coming from around my chest area.

“I should have quit drinking when my doctor told me to. Now I’m having hallucinations and hearing voices.”

<It’s not a hallucination or auditory hallucination. I granted what you earnestly desired. Your dream of returning to the past.>

“…It wasn’t a joke? I really came back to the past? Really?!”

I shouted with complex emotions.

Someone must have heard that sound as there was a knock.

Knock, knock, knock!

“Young master, are you alright? I’ll come in for a moment.”

“Huh? Butler Kim.”

“Yes, young master. It’s me. You woke up early today. There isn’t much time left for breakfast. If you’re late again today, the chairman will give you a scolding.”

“Is it really Butler Kim?”

“…Please change your clothes quickly. Then I’ll go downstairs.”

Butler Kim who devoted his whole life.

He was buried next to Father’s grave 15 years ago.

I thought he disliked me because of his strict personality, but he was a grateful person who stayed by my side even when everyone else left.

“How is this possible? Going back to the past. Are you some kind of god?”

Now I have no choice but to believe.

The scale is too big for my nephews to be playing a prank.

And all my senses are saying this is reality, not a joke.

“Then, when did I come back to?”

<You’ve returned to a time when you can start from the beginning. In human dates, it’s 1996.>

“If it’s ’96, that’s when I was in middle school 3rd grade…”

<Yes, now is the right time to change your life.>

Come to think of it, my life did change drastically after I happened to enter a sports high school during high school admission. Everyone made me do only sports so I couldn’t take interest in management.

Well, I also lived recklessly thinking I’d just receive inheritance and live comfortably rather than fight with brothers who were over 20 years older than me.

Thinking about it now, I should have somehow devoured the group and kicked out my brothers then.

“Why are you giving me this opportunity?”

Greed.

Come to think of it, entering sports high school to just receive inheritance and live comfortably, and belatedly jumping into the succession struggle after seeing my brothers mess up management – it was all because of my greed and desire.

“…I am greedy. But what are you trying to do?”

You’ll keep watching?

Even if you’re a dragon, having someone share all time with me feels uncomfortable.

Still, since you sent me back to the past, I should tolerate that much.

“You can watch my life as you please. But it probably won’t be much fun.”

<There’s no way it won’t be fun. I replaced your heart with a dragon heart. There are some restrictions, but if you just put in effort, you can even use magic.>

“…Magic?”

What complete nonsense.

Magic. Magic in an era of space travel.

I should normally snort at this, but since it’s the word of a dragon who sent me back to the past, I had to believe it.

“Then, can I use magic now? How do I use it?”

<First, make money. You have the heart of a Gold Dragon. The Gold Dragon is the master of gold. The more wealth you accumulate, the more the Dragon Heart will allow your mana.>

If I make money, I can use magic.

I was already planning to make money to my heart’s content anyway.

Being bullied by my brothers and ignored by my nephews was all because I had no money.

‘But now I have magic and memories of the future in my hands.’

It’s also the perfect time to make money.

The day of national bankruptcy is next year.

IMF explodes along with the foreign exchange crisis.

Father also said he made the most money during this time.

I was entering high school and doing sports so I didn’t know how the world was turning.

“But by any chance… is there anything that helps with studying?”

Money is money, but.

Among the decisive reasons I was ignored was also academic background.

Since I deliberately stayed away from studying to live comfortably, my academic background was considerably lower compared to my siblings and nephews.

“Memorize? What’s that?”

<It’s the ability to memorize the contents of magic spellbooks.>

“The ability to memorize books? I could memorize any kind of book, not just magic books.”

Short-term memorization ability, memorize.

There’s no better ability than this for a student.

If I use the memorize ability before taking exams!

This life is different.

The businesses that failed due to my brothers’ interference.

I’ll make enough money to make past failures meaningless.

And I’ll devour the entire group that went bankrupt.

I’ll perfectly control the group that was torn apart by my brothers and nephews and make it mine.

“Young master, please come down for your meal.”

While I was running my happiness circuit at full speed, the butler came up again and knocked on the door.

Sewoon Group Chairman Jo Munhong.

His morning starts from 5 AM.

He goes for a morning walk and exercise, washes up, and has breakfast at 6 o’clock.

“Dogyeom is late again today. Maybe because he’s still young, he sleeps a lot in the morning.”

“Father, I’ll go drag Dogyeom down.”

“Haha, he’ll come down on his own.”

Old tiger.

That was the nickname the media gave him.

No matter how old, he was someone whose teeth and claws were still alive.

But only to his youngest son born after age 50, he was not a tiger but a cat.

He’s bad at studying and causes many accidents.

But he’s still his son.

“Father, I’m sorry for being late.”

“Come sit down. Then everyone, let’s start eating.”

“Wait, Father. I have something to tell you.”

The youngest who was always quiet at the dinner table.

When he suddenly made a serious expression, Chairman Jo Munhong put down his spoon.

“What accident did you cause again? Sigh, it’s not just a day or two, what is it this time?”

“Father, I want to study now.”

“Study? You?”

He had given up on studying before.

He was quite smart, but always lacked concentration.

Even expensive tutoring was useless, and he was a child who would fidget if he sat in a chair for more than 10 minutes.

“Father, don’t be fooled. He’s doing this because he doesn’t want to go to sports high school. What studying does Dogyeom have? He’s making excuses because he doesn’t want to exercise.”

“No, Father. I’ll really study now. Please judge me by looking at my final exam grades.”

Chairman Jo Munhong looked into his youngest son’s eyes.

A person’s eyes don’t lie.

Now the youngest’s eyes are sincere and resolute.

And,

‘Tears?’

The youngest son’s eyes are full of tears.