“I don’t know if you heard, but these days, the orcs are causing havoc. I don’t know why but the frequency with which they appear has been increasing quite a bit. In the past, I would have just let it go, but I don’t think it’s at that level anymore. A few days ago, one of the villagers was attacked and recently it happened again – two strong young men at that,”

“Really?”

“So sooner or later, I may have something to ask of you. I’m thinking of hiring a squad of well known mercenaries with good skills to clean up these orcs,”

“Mercenaries are a good idea, there is no need for the Lord to oversee something like this,”

[Translation By Tani Andris – taniandris.co.uk]

“I thought, wouldn’t it be a waste to use my own people for that kind of work? If it can be easily solved with money, then it’s not only me who would choose to solve it with money,”

When the Lord who had visited him spoke like that, the goldsmith Carter smiled secretly. There was only one reason the Lord had to visit a goldsmith – it was because he needed an urgent supply of money.

“If money is needed for this work, then I would unhesitatingly lend it to you. It’s all for the Lord and the Lord’s work, so why should money be a problem?”

In cases like this, the Lord was the most trustworthy of all the customers Carter had dealt with.

He was proud of being a nobleman, so he had little fear when borrowing money and he was the best customer because he was able to secure a stable income through the tax revenue collected within the territory.

“Yes well, if it’s money, it’s enough to just borrow it from you,”

The Lord, who slowly worked up to trying his luck, looked at the goldsmith.

It was said that those who did business with interest were the scum of the world that would go to hell. If he could help it, he didn’t want to do business with him, but he had no choice.

“The problem is interest; it’s not like you’ll just be lending me the money right?” The Lord asked, stroking the beard on his chin.

“My Lord, in a world where one needs money to survive, I cannot live by simply lending money; I hope you’ll consider my situation,”

“It is said that if you lend money to others and live on interest, you will go to hell… you don’t seem to be too concerned about that?”

When he heard those words, the goldsmith laughed at the lord internally.

‘How many hundreds and thousands of times does he think I’ve heard those very same words?’

“My Lord, that is why we make donations to the church. Even though I may be hated by God for being in the business of money, won’t the priests pray for me more than others if I donate a lot? People like us lessen God’s dissatisfaction in that way,”

The Lord openly shook his head at that.

“But donations aren’t everything,”

“Even so, faith is not everything either,”

“You… you seem to be getting cheekier with your words,”

“Oh my, I apologise if my words were a little off-putting to you, my lord. It is simply because we were talking about the church – there is no deeper meaning to my words. I was just saying it in the sense that, if I donated a lot, wouldn’t God look at me with more pity?”

Money was power.

No matter how much of a lowly commoner he was, even the Lord had no choice but to swallow his pride in front of money.

‘That’s why you shouldn’t play with money… I want to find a way to put him in his place but…’

As the undisputed ruler of this territory, he had his own reasons for not liking the goldsmith but he was not able to do anything to him easily.

‘Well, I should be patient with him. After all, these are the kind of people who are abandoned by god.’

No matter how much he disliked these guys who played with money, there were times, when running an estate that he urgently needed a large amount of money.

At that time, the only place where he could borrow a large amount of money easily was at the Banco run by the goldsmith.

And since there were only goldsmiths like this one operating the banco, no matter how much the Lord hated them, he couldn’t just let them go.

‘It’s urgent… I need it from time to time.’

Also, goldsmiths were strongly connected to the Imperial Family and since they were a profession that was pretty much hated by everyone, they had formed a strong solidarity among themselves and jointly dealt with any unsavory affairs related to themselves.

So no matter how much he hated the goldsmiths, the Lord could not treat them badly.

‘Money is the problem.’

Money was an essential element for the Lord to run his estate, so he had no choice but to carefully navigate the goldsmiths mood in order to manage his estate, lest problems arise when borrowing money in the future.

“Even if I hate you, I shouldn’t hate the money,”

The Lord’s words immediately put a smile on the goldsmiths lips,

“Thank you for thinking that way, my lord,”

“I’m just saying this because I hate you, but can you give me a discount on the interest for the money I’m borrowing this time?”

“Our interest rate is always the same. No matter how much you borrow, a monthly interest rate of 6% applies. This is true for the Lord and for any other customer. There are no exceptions,”

After all, it was borrowed money and it was enough to return with the tax collected from the people.

But the Lord wasn’t as ignorant as first thought; his father had left some wisdom for him.

‘He told me not to borrow too much money while doing my work here. It’s okay to borrow some, but if you borrow beyond your means, you can’t afford to pay it back later.’

“Can something not be done about that? After all, this work would benefit you too. Imagine fi things went wrong and the orcs managed to break into the estate, it wouldn’t do you any good either,”

The Seers who followed the lord were quiet, but whether they were doing it on purpose or not, their gazes were fixed, glaring at the goldsmith, pressuring him.

They too thought badly of goldsmiths but they also thought that the Lord’s words were correct. The goldsmith scratched his cheek and decided he would take a step back here.

After all, he was doing business with this lands Lord – even he had to watch out for his mood a little.

“Ahem! Well, just this time I will make it especially cheap. We will lower it to 4% interest per month. After all, it’s for the sake of the estate so I can make this much of a concession – that is the way people should live after all,”

The Lord had to think about his own pride so he didn’t push to cut the interest down any further – he would look too cheap if he demanded to cut the interest further when the goldsmith had already given him way.

“Okay, let’s do that then,”

With the deal settled, the goldsmith began to draw up some documents.

“Will you be signing the contract then, my Lord?”

“I guess so, would you lend me the money without it?” The lord asked sarcastically,

“The Lord is the best, after all,” despite the goldsmith’s bright smile, the Lord’s expression was not very bright.

He had borrowed money because he needed it in an emergency, it’s not like there was any reason for him to be particularly happy.

‘These money-grubbing people…’

Regardless of what the Lord thought of him, there were some things he had to make sure was conveyed; it was related to the loan’s contract.

“I will just clarify some things in advance for the Lord. You should know that this contract to recover the borrowed money from the lord can be sold to other places. There’s not need to concern yourself too much about this, but it’s just so you know that the person you may pay the money back to might not be me directly as I may sell that right to someone else,”

“Would that change the interest rate?”

“The interest would remain the same,”

“Well, the interest rate would not be changing so do whatever you want. It’s not like I’m someone who would run away with the money so why would I care? At the end of the day, whether it’s to you or someone else, I just need to pay back the appropriate amount of money,”

“Then that’s great. First let me finish off this contract and I will immediately prepare the amount of gold needed,”

The Lord signed the contract, received the loan and left the shop.

Banco was located near the markets and so the area was crowded with the locals,

‘I feel it every time but visiting this place always leaves a bad taste in my mouth.’

It was then that the Lord found a familiar face; it was the commoner child he had seen a few days ago.

‘That kid is…’

While the Lord was still trying to remember his name, Rockefeller happened to meet the Lord in front of Banco and greeted him politely,

“Greetings to the Lord, I am Rockefeller Rothmedici,”

“Yeah, you’re Hans’ son right? Did the funeral wrap up well then?”

At those words, Rockefeller bowed his head more deeply than before,

“Yes, my lord, thanks to your help, my father’s funeral was completed well,”

“And have you given any thought about what I said? I told you about keeping your manners and knowing your place, correct?”

“I am still thinking about it, my lord,”

Looking at him, the Lord didn’t see much difference to Rockefeler than what he had seen before and he wasn’t so leasuitely that he could spend a long time chatting with the children of commoners that he met by chance.

“Anyway, the answer is fixed, so don’t agonise over it too much,” With these final words, the Lord lost interest in Rockefeller and left.

Rockefeller simply bowed his head to the Lord and shifted his gaze away to Banco, from where he had come out.

‘Did he borrow money?’

As Rockefeller entered the store, Carter, who had been delighted with his loan to the Lord, looked started. He carefully looked outside of the store before looking to Rockefeller with a relieved expression,

“Right, have you come about the business from last time?”

“Yes sir,”

[Translation By Tani Andris – taniandris.co.uk]

“Then let’s have a look at the item,” as Carter lead him into the back of the shop, Rockefeller asked,

“I think the Lord just came by, did something happen?”

“It’s no big deal, just ignore it,”

“In that case, can’t you just tell me?”

“You’re a curious one – because of the orcs appearing near the estate, the Lord came to borrow some money to hire mercenaries,”

“Orcs?”

“A person encountered one and more recently, two more people got caught,”

This situation with the orcs; Rockefeller couldn’t act like it was someone else’s business.