“Anyway, what is the maximum amount you can lend me? I need as much money as possible.” 

It seemed the situation was quite urgent. 

While Carter thought about it, counting up in his head the amount of gold coins he could lend right away, he saw Rocekfeller trying to catch his eye and look at him meaningfully, trying to give him a hint. 

‘Right now? We don’t even know how the territory might end up, but you’re focused on making money right now?’ 

To the point that it was an addiction, he was a person truly obsessed with money. 

Even compared to someone like Carter, who had spent most of his life working with gold coins. Maybe he was even worse than Goblins, who were said to care more about money than any other creature in the world.

‘He’s a really scary guy.’ 

What would he become when he grew up? 

The Lord, who hadn’t seen the look Rocekfeller was giving Carter, was looking at Carter, waiting for an answer. He truly looked desperate. 

“I’d like to borrow as much as possible.” He urged. 

“Along with keeping hold of the Hound Mercenaries, we need to hire additional mercenaries to protect the territory. I’ll need even more money to keep hold of the mages who participated in the orc subjugation as well. Although I had no idea that I would end up needed this much money so suddenly, with the situation being how it is, I ask that you cooperate as well.” 

“What about villages near the boarder?” 

“Well, we’ve evacuated as much as possible into the fortress. Since I can’t protect them from within their villages, the plan is to create two bases on both sides to keep an eye on the situation. Until His Majesty sends reinforcements, we must endure as much as we can.” 

“The situation is urgent indeed. Then it is only right for me to do my best to help you.” 

“If you don’t want the territory to be destroyed and lose your ability to do your business then you should help with all your heart.”

“Of course, my lord.” 

Nodding, Carter pulled out the shop’s log and bought some time pretending to look through it. 

“Let’s see…” 

Carter even pretended to seriously study the log, as his thoughts drifted back to Rockefeller’s silent urging. 

‘Maybe this is an opportunity. Situations like this don’t come around often.’ 

A goldsmiths main income was more from the interest earned through loans rather than actually making gold coins. In other words, the more one lended out, the more they earned.

‘As long as you pay me back the gold I lend, I can end up making a lot of money from these loans this time.’ 

The Lord was the person with the best credit in the entire territory. If he could lend out just to the limit of what he could repay back with his amount of credit then that would be a great thing for Carter. 

‘If you think about the amount of taxes he collected from the territory last year…’ 

The maximum amount of money that could be given to the Lord right away was about 2500 Talents. 

(T/N – That’s the annual income of about 208 rural farmers put together)

That was the sum of his own 1000 Talents and the 1500 Talents left by the customers at the Banco for safe keeping. 

‘If I really pushed it, I could lend up to 2500 Talents but if I do that then the risk is too large.’ 

As he had mentioned to Rockfeller previously, but Carter was extremely wary of what would happen if the Lord decided to use his authority as the owner of the territory to refuse to pay back the money he borrowed. 

The Lord was the owner of the land. 

And though Carter was putting his trust in him while running his Banco, he didn’t trust how the Lord’s attitude would change later, when he was the one who ended up owning more money than he wanted to pay. 

That was why Carter decided that instead of saying he could lend the full 2500 Talents, he would tell the Lord he could only lend 1500 Talents. 

Originally he wouldn’t even be willing to lend that much, but the situation in the territory was getting urgent that this was the result of taking as much risk as possible because he truly did agree that he had to try and help. 

“Looking at the books, the total amount of money I can lend my Lord is about…” 

“5000 Talents.” 

Before Carter could finish his sentence, Rockefeller burst out with an absurd figure. 

Upon hearing a ridiculous number spoken out-loud, Carter’s eyes opened wide as he forgot to control his expression for a moment. 

‘Even though I only have 2500 Talents in the safe, why would you even talk about lending twice the amount?!’ 

Carter thought Rockefeller had lost his mind. 

Rockefeller only nodded toward Carter, who was staring at him, without a single shift in his expression. 

The time for explanations had passed. 

It was simply that Carter didn’t have the guts to do the things he did. 

Rockefeller turned to the Lord and smiled slightly. 

“That is of course, if my Lord wants to borrow the maximum amount.” 

“Did you just say 5000 Talents?” The lord looked quite flustered at being quoted an amount that far exceeded his expectations.

“You…. are far richer than I thought.” 

No matter how good a goldsmith was at making money, he never dreamed that Carter would have such wealth. 

Would a Lord ever be happy if there was something of his magnitude that he didn’t know about his own territory. His gaze when he looked at Carter was quite unconformable.