The Lord had thought that Carter would have maybe 1000 Talents at most and had wanted to quickly borrow that amount to help with the heavy burden that he would have to shoulder.
But he had been quoted an amount that was five times more than his expectations.
“You must have made a lot of money without me knowing hm? I thought you would have about a thousand, who would have thought you would have five thousand in your hands.”
Carter, who was just as surprised as the Lord to hear that number, waved his hands around, flustered and decided he would try to ask for some time.
“My-My lord. Would it be possible for me to have a quick chat with my assistant for a moment?”
“Why? Were you going to scold your assistant for being too honest just now?”
“Ah no. There is absolutely no way I would do that. I just wanted to talk to him about any other way that we could lend our help to the Lord.”
The Lord, who watched him with narrowed eyes, had no choice but to eventually nod and agree.
After all, even if they talked a little more, what could they do? He had already heard about the existence of 5000 Talents so he was absolutely not leaving here until he managed to borrow all 5000 Talents.
“Alright, but make it quick.”
“Thank you, we will be right back.”
In that way, Carter went behind the curtains that separated the front and back of the store, and conscious of the Lord stood not too far away from them, pressed Rockefeller about the matter in a sharp but quiet voice.
“What were you thinking! Why did you say that?! 5000 Talents? Dear God! We don’t even have that kind of money in our hands!”
“What do you mean? I’ve already told you before, how we can lend out money we don’t have.”
Rockefeller continued on to say,
“And that rare chance to be able to lend that amount of money has come to find us. Didn’t Ajusshi say so before? That there wasn’t anyone around here who would want to borrow more money that we had? Well now there is. So of course we should lend that money out.”
Rockefeller eagerly added on,
“This is a great opportunity!”
“But still, how on earth can we have the nerve to lend money we don’t even have?!” Carter still whined pathetically about the same issue.
Rockefeller looked at him with tired expression.
“I think I’ve already explained it plenty of times, have you already forgotten?”
Carter of course, had carefully listened to Rocekfeller’s explanation and remembered it well.
But.
“I did listen to what you had to say that time but-”
“Ajusshi, tell me honestly, have you actually stopped to think about what I told you?”
Lending out his own money and even lending out his customer’s money were both things that were still within the scope of Carter’s knowledge.
But making up and lending out gold coins that he didn’t have was a concept that Carter only understood but he had never thought he would have to actually apply the idea with his own money and business.
Why? Because it was a theoretical concept that was completely outside of the realm of common sense that Carter resided in.
“To be honest, there was nothing to think about. Wasn’t it just a dusty theory from some corner of a library? I thought it was smart but nonsensical to actually do. They don’t even lend like that in Lyon. You’re going to make up money and lend it out? You’re overconfident.”
“Do you really think it’s so ridiculous Ajusshi?” Rockefeller asked him without pretence this time, his eyes clear and his face expressionless.
“It’s not like you’ve ever done this before, do you really think it would work in the real world?” Carter asked sarcastically.
“Ajusshi, out of all the time I’ve been here, have I ever done business that has caused a loss?”
“Well you… haven’t.”
“There wasn’t right? But your income has increased a lot, hasn’t it?”
“Well that’s…”
“Do you know why that is?”
“Well, I wouldn’t know – it could have been luck.”
“Well. I could be lucky. But this was my talent.”
“Your talent?”
(T/N – Not to be confused with ‘Talents’ the currency lmao – was this purpose? I like to think it was.)
“Yes talent. In this world, there are people who have talent with the sword, or magical talent. People who have talent for making things or talent for running too, some people are born with a talent for a specific thing. And of course, my talent is my ability to make money.”
“Ajusshi, I, who was born with that talent can guarantee this method. In order to really make a huge amount of profits, you have to lend out money you don’t have as well.”
“…”
“I can definitely guarantee that Ajusshi will make a lot of money through this method and if it doesn’t work then I’ll quit my job here. After all, what’s the point of a kind without any kind of talent being assistant next you in this kind of place. It would be meaningless.”
Just because he was struggling with reconciling with the idea of lending out money he didn’t have did not mean he was willing to lose as assistant as good as this.