Chapter 34

Chapter 34

‘A boy this young was doing an adults work in the Banco?’

The man was too surprised to speak for a moment, and the little girl, who hadn’t been interested in the conversation previously, began to pay attention to Rockefeller.

‘Did Bancos’ hire young people too?’

She was young too, but seeing a boy that could only be a few years older than her working in place of the owner made her curious.

‘How interesting,’

The man, who had become flustered for a moment, stared into Rockefeller’s eyes.

He was a mage.

It meant he had enough skill to be able to determine truth from lie from one’s gaze and recognise any unclean or turbulent energy within people.

And that was the same for the the little girl with him.

‘He’s not lying. But I don’t think he’s completely honest either.’

While the girl was lost in thought, the man said,

“I don’t think you would dare like about something like that so I’ll tell you why we’re here,”

The man took out the promissory note that the merchant had given him and showed it to Rockefeller.

“To get straight to the point, I came here because I want to exchange this for a Talent, it should be possible right?”

Compared to the way they behaved, their reason for coming turned out to be very simple.

‘What’s with these people?’

Rockefeller, who worried they might be trying to cheat him, naturally took out the special artefact that allowed him to separate real documents from fake.

It looked like magnifying glass, but rather, it was a magic tool produced by the Sinclair family.

When he took it out, there was a subtle shift in expression on both the man and the girl’s faces, they seemed to have recognised the artefact.

After a moment of checking the promissory notes, Rockefeller looked back at the man with a bright smile.

“Would you like to exchange them all for Talents or would you like some Shillings from this territory as well?”

At those words, the man couldn’t help but let out a slight smile,

He was amazed by the fact that those strange promissory notes could be exchanged for gold without any problems.

“Is there no problem with exchanging them for Talents?”

“Problem? What kind of problem do you mean?”

It was then that Rockefeller realised why their expressions had been grim when they first came.

It wasn’t like there weren’t people like them after all.

‘Was it because of that? Well I suppose not everyone is the same, I’m sure some of them were pretty suspicious at first.’

“If you’re asking about this promissory note, then there’s no problem at all,”

Rockefeller shook the magic artefact in his hand,

“This is a magic took made by the Sinclair family and I checked the promissory notes with this. There’s nothing wrong with them at all.”

“No problem…”

Perhaps he wasn’t convinced because the stretched out his words slowly.

‘It’s weird that there isn’t a problem.’

The same hesitation was true for the girl who followed the man.

‘There’s no problem? Was that possible?’

In fact, from the standpoint of these two, there was no need to question the strange promissory note as long as it could be exchanged to Talents without any problems.

No only was it not their job – it was tedious and nosy.

“Please change a portion to shillings and the remainder into Talents,”

“Of course, please wait a moment,”

When Rockefeller disappeared inside the shop to bring the coins in exchange for the promissory notes, the man politely asked the girl,

“My lady, what shall we do?”

All the decisions were not made by him, but rather her. She was his superior and a member of the largest family on the continent.

Isabella still looked unconvinced.

“How can there be no problem with that false promissory note? Are all the people here fools? It can’t be that they think this territory or that the territory Lord will never fall?”

From the perspective of the majority of citizens, it was the most common line of thinking to believe that the Lord could never fall from grace. To the people of the land, that was their common sense.

However, from her point of view, where the position of such a territory Lord was laughably low, the existence of such a Lord was by no means an unbreakable power or an eternal being.

In the end, a territory Lord was another human being, and were people who could lose their status when they became wrongly involved in politically struggles or committed wrongs.

Which is why she had such strong doubts.

“It’s not like the imperial family is guaranteeing that promissory not directly, nor does it say that any other family will guarantee it for sure either. It’s a promissory notes that will become a scrap of tissue if the Lord here goes bankrupt – and he’s saying he’ll exchange it for Talents?”

The man felt the same way, but it he understood the commoner’s thoughts to an extent.

“In general, people of such territories often believe that the power of the Lord is absolute. So most commoners do believe that their territory Lord will never fall. The people here probably think a little differently from us,”

“That can’t be true. How many Lords from our own territories were pushed away recently? But the people here haven’t heard of that?”

“That’s true… even so, this place is located on the very outskirts of the Empire, so it’s relatively more stable than the other territories that have various political interest. So if the Lord doesn’t cause any trouble, I don’t think the land should face any issues,”

Speaking of which, the man had a rough feeling of why the people of this territory trusted that strange promissory note.

Just as they believed the Empire would last forever, they believed the Lord would not perish.

Furthermore, if the promissory note was being exchanged for Talents without issues, then was there a reason to tiringly continue doubting it?

“I still don’t get it. It’s not even his Majesty – isn’t it funny to trust a promissory note that holds the territory Lord’s credit as collateral?”

“I think it’s possible because it’s here,”

“Have you already seen it before?”

“No, I’ve never seen such a promissory note before. But it’s the truth that merchants here are using this strange promissory note as if it were money itself. Every land has different circumstances, but I think this place is rather special, similar to Lyon,”

Lyon was one of the richest cities in the Empire – a place where trade and finance were well-developed.

But to think this kind of land, that was out in the periphery of the Empire could be called similar?

“This is the outskirts right? So how can you compare it to the richest place in the Empire?”

“Hm, it just feels like the system itself is somewhat familiar… it just feels like Lyon, I don’t know why,”

“Jason, you don’t know much about money, do you?”

“If you’re taking about the field of finance, then that’s not a field that a noble mage takes interest in at all,”

“Then who would take interest? Isn’t it quite important if it’s a matter of money?”

“It is important, but generally something that an indulgent priest, or a fearless commoner who knows how to count and isn’t afraid of hell takes charge of. It’s not something that a noble mage would be interested in,”

“Really?” The girl who had many thoughts in her head muttered.