Chapter 8

Rockefeller cleared his throat and knocked on the shop’s door before making his way inside.

As he entered, Carter Goldsmith, who was sitting in a chair, looked up to greet the customer and paused,

‘What? It’s a kid’

“What brings you here?” He asked instead,

Carter wondered why a boy that looked to be about 15 had come to see him. Judging from his appearance, it didn’t look like he would have a lot of money – shabby clothes and hollow cheeks.

‘He doesn’t seem to be the son of a noble family either…’

“What are you doing here?” Thinking there was no way this guy was a guest, he naturally let go of any formalities and to such a Carter, Rockefeller greeted him politely,

“It’s nice to meet you. I am stopping by with regards to some work,”

“Work? Are you running an errand?”

“Not an errand sir, it’s my job,”

Although the boy’s clothes wore old and worn, they were not clothes that a serf or slave would wear, Carter thought this boy would be a commoner like him, which is why instead of chasing him out straight away, he decided to hear him out first.

“Okay, what work did you come for then?”

“How do I say this… I want to offer a deal – may I discuss the details with you?”

“A deal?” A frown took over Carter’s face naturally as he asked.

‘It’s not funny, what kind of deal can this little guy offer? You’ve got to be kidding,’

“What deal? You’re not here to play around, are you kid?” He asked out-loud but Rockefeller’s gaze was infinitely serious.

“I’m not playing, although I may be young, but I am the head of my family.”

“What? You’re the Head?” Carter looked slightly alarmed, to think a little one like this was the head of the family already.

“What about your parents?”

“They passed away – my father more recently,”

“Oh dear, what happened?”

“Both of my parents had chronic illnesses,”

“I see…” Carter fiddled with his beard, trying to think if he had heard any news of a commoner who had died recently,

‘I know someone died, but who was it? The name…’ After thinking for a moment, Carter was finally able to recognise Rockefeller’s identity, as there had only been one commoner who had died recently,

“Ah, yes, you were the tax collector’s son. He said he was the head of the family, so you must be the eldest son.” Carter barely managed to recall,

“Yes sir, I am Rockefeller Rothmedici,”

“Right, your family name was Rothmedici, I remember now,”

Rockefeller bowed his head more politely than he had at first and showed him sincere courtesy.

“Yes, you poor thing. But what kind of deal are you coming to me with? I’m a goldsmith, so I wouldn’t have anything to do with you?”

Although a goldsmith was a commoner, their customers were the wealthiest of commoners or nobles, however this young man who came to him boldly did not seem to join the target audience he was normally dealing with.

He looked shabby and insignificant.

Despite facing the doubt on Carter’s face, Rockefeller began to explain his story,

“Well.. since the family situation is not good, I had to find a way to live somehow, so I searched for various methods to see if there was anything I could do,”

Carter didn’t respond, he folded his arms, and decided to quietly listen to his story,

“By chance, I happened to meet someone who had been indebted to my grandfather,”

“Your grandfather?”

He was a goldsmith primarily, but as someone who engaged in the business of money-lending so he roughly knew what kind of people were in this territory – and of course, that included the Rothmedici family.

Carter immediately nodded, as he began to recall some things,

“Yes, I heard the tax collector’s father was originally a doctor – they say he always wore a red cloak so they called him the Red Doctor – but this person said they were indebted to your grandfather? Who was it?”

“As for him, it’s a little difficult for me to say. Although I don’t know him very well, one of the reasons I came here is to do business on his behalf,”

“What, on his behalf?”

“Yes sir,”

Carter couldn’t help but frown, he seemed to have realised where this was going, Rockefeller got straight to the point,

“He said that he would give me a portion of the proceeds if I could do gold trading on his behalf,”

“I was wondering what it could be – smuggling huh?”

It was illegal to trade without paying the appropriate taxes in the territory, but if you were someone who was crazy about making money – then smuggling was the way to go because everything you earned was yours – the profits were that much higher when you didn’t have to pay taxes on them.

“So in exchange for helping him complete the trade, he will give you a commission?”

“Yes sir, although I’m aware this isn’t a good thing, but my situation is quite bad you see… I’ve even starved for several days,”

If it had been a grown adult who had come into his shop and said something like this, Carter would have been suspicious first and foremost because he wouldn’t have any clue if it was him or someone else entirely who was pulling the strings.

But Rockfeller was so young that Carter had no doubt he was not the one in charge.

‘Well, from that guy’s perspective, it’s a good deal. Grandfather’s debt my foot, it was a convenient excuse – the kid is in a bad situation and easy to use and since the kid is desperate, he’ll agree to anything to make a living.’

“That’s right, to think you would get involved with smuggling at such a young age. Listen kid, this isn’t a normal transaction, it’s against the law and if the Lord ever finds out he will be very angry,”

As soon as he heard those words, Rockefeller’s heart relaxed and he felt relief.

‘Good, he’s totally deceived,’

The acting itself was perfect. He faithfully played the pitiful role of the young and unfortunate head of a household.

‘It would be unreasonable to think that I was in charge of this since I’m so young.’

Being young can sometimes be a great weapon to get others to drop their vigilance.

Carter pondered for a moment as he considered Rockfeller’s suggestion;

‘Smuggling is risky but as long as we keep discreet about it, it won’t be a big problem – and how would the Lord know anything anyway? He’s a bastard with blackened eyes that can’t even read the store ledger,’

Although Carter was a timid merchant who wasn’t good at making sales – the risk he had to take this time was small.

‘It’s safer than trying to do it on Lyon since it’s less noticeable’

“By the way, do you understand how dangerous this is, kid?” he asked,

Rockfeller showed a bit of fear on his face and faithfully carried out his performance,

“Yes sir, I know for sure that this isn’t a good thing…it is smuggling after all… if we are caught by the Lord, something bad will happen right?”

“If – on the small chance that this is discovered, I will tell the Lord that this is something I know nothing about. No matter what, it’s you who brought this deal to me so don’t drag me into your hardship.”

“Yes, I am aware of that sir. So that person also said he would give me money while entrusting me with this job,”

“Yeah, you seem to understand that very well,” Carter acted as if he was truly understanding and sympathetic to Rockefeller’s situation as he tried to satisfy his own greed.

‘It would be nice if work like this came in more – why do I have so little luck with money?’

“Although I don’t like things like this either, because it’ll be painful if we get caught – your circumstances are pitiful so I’ll close my eyes to this just once,”

Carter, like the fictional smuggler he had scoffed at earlier, tried to win Rockefeller’s goodwill with a blatant lie.

“As a matter of fact, I didn’t say anything before, but I have also received help from your father previously,”

In reality, as a tax collector, Rockefeller’s father had been an object of hatred, especially among the poorer villages – so what Carter had just said was an obvious lie.

But he thought that the person he was speaking to was young and could be easily deceived.

“If such a thing had not happened, I probably would have either just rejected your offer, or I would have reported this to the Lord, since that’s the natural thing to do,”

Rockefeller didn’t show his reaction on his face but Carter’s blatant lies were too heinous. ‘If you’re going to lie, at least make it a little believable, who is going to be deceived by that?’

Carter had no idea what Rockefeller was thinking, and continued to say what he had to say,

“This is something that no matter what happens, the Lord can never know about. It’s smuggling after all – the Lord may be generous with other things, but when it comes to money matters, he can be quite sharp.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he put a smile on his face and asked,

“Okay let’s have a look at the item first, shall we? How much did you bring with you?”

The amount of Placer Gold that Rockefeller had brought was really quite small so he decided to add some packing around it,

“He said that it was unreasonable to trade in large quantities from the very beginning – as this is the first trade I didn’t bring much,”

“I’ll have a look anyways,”

Although the amount Rockfeller bought out was indeed small, Carter was quite satisfied.

‘At first glance it looks like the highest quality among placer gold. I think it should be quite pure. In terms of quantity, there isn’t enough to make a gold coin but even so – this is better than nothing.’

Carter shook his head to himself and wondered if there was any continent where such high quality gold placer could be found?

“By the way, where did you say this Placer Gold came from? Did you hear anything?”

Rockefeller just replied with a look of ignorance,

“I’ve not heard of anything about that. He seems to be quite careful when talking – even when he was talking to me…wouldn’t he have brought it from somewhere far away to make sure no one noticed?”

“Is that so? Hmm…. rather than that, the item is rather….”

“He said that if you don’t like the item, he would deal with another goldsmith instead,”

Carter was taken aback.

He was so caught up with the idea of smuggling and getting the best prince of the gold that he hadn’t realised he wasn’t the one who had the initiative for the deal.

‘I can’t let go of this opportunity.’

“I think you misunderstood something, but this item is very good. If you keep trading, just tell me, I’ll keep paying a good price for it.”

“Is it really such good placer?” Rockefeller asked again, just to confirm.

“Yes it’s great. It’s top-notch quality. The purity also looks good. Amazing,”

Why did the Gold Vein War break out?

If it was an awkward gold vein, the dwarves wouldn’t have fought so desperately with the empire in the name of reclaiming their old land.

‘Okay, just as I thought, this land is still alive.’

It was located on the outskirts of the empire and no one paid any attention to this place.

‘Yeah, that would be my next goal’

Rockefeller, who was able to solve the immediate problem of making a living by engaging in smuggling placer gold with the goldsmith, was able to set a new goal now.

‘A reasonable person should always have a big goal because even if you can’t achieve the goal, the half-way point was still okay.’

Although he came to be the eldest son of a poor commoner family, Rockefeller had no intention of being complacent with his life.

‘You can’t die as a commoner in the playing field where you know about every major future event,’

It wasn’t just goldsmiths who ran after money, Rockefeller too, thought money was the best.

‘If I can earn a lot, I can buy that land,’

His new goal to resolve his hunger was to own the land of Montefeltro – the most undervalued land on the continent.

‘This is where the Rothmedici Clan will be founded – the richest family in the world.’