Chapter 13

“The priests of the parish came to visit?”

Rockefeller, who had got a job at Banco, thought about delivering the news to his siblings over dinner but he got distracted.

It was none other than Leo, who was the first of his brothers to report the day’s events to Rockefeller.

“Mm,” Since it was Leo, who was always passive, who brought up the event, Rockefeller couldn’t help but question the priests’ visit.

‘Why did the priests come? It doesn’t happen often,’

“So, did something happen?” At his elder brother’s worried question, Leo shook his head, and after a moment, took out something he had received from the young priest and quietly set it on the table,

“What’s that?!”

“It’s silver!”

There was no one who was not surprised to see the silver coin – Rockefeller and his brothers looked at the silver coin in shock.

“Did the priests even give you a silver coin? What happened?”

The second child, who had come back after hearing many stories outside, raised his voice,

“It’s weird, I heard that the priests came to collect donations for the expansion of the chapel.” However it wasn’t like their timid brother would dare to take the priests donations so their doubts were bound to increase,

“Leo, can you tell me more about what happened during the day?” At Rockefeller’s request, Leo recounted what had happened during the day in detail and soon, everyone was in a sea of laughter.

Hearing about the self-inflicted loss, Rockefeller thought with a grin,

‘They came to take what they could – but emptied their own pockets instead,’

“Not bad,” Rockefeller said, and his brothers soon followed,

“We should always pretend to have nothing! If we do that, the church would give us more right?”

“Right, we should just act like we have nothing . That’s how you get silver coins, just for being miserable,”

Rockefeller began speaking to his younger siblings who were excited by a small silver coin,

“Well, what you’re saying isn’t wrong. If we pretended like we had more than we do, or if we had lashed out in pride because we are commoners then there would never have been small mercies like today. You did a good job, Leo. In our current situation, not even a single silver coin is waste,”

Since they had started their placer gold mining, they had always taken care to eat dinner, like today,

“Come on, let’s have dinner,” As soon as Rockefeller had finished speaking, the brothers who had also finished telling him about the day’s events, began to chime in with their agreement and devour the modest dinner set before them.

It was truly a simple meal with the main ingredients being vegetables and whole wheat flour – but it was the best dinner for the young boys who had come home hungry.

Joshua, who was enthusiastically digging into the food at the table exclaimed in a pleasant voice,

“It seems like we get to eat everyday now! So good!”

At those words, Andrew’s expression darkened, he hadn’t told Rockefeller yet, but he had heard some bad news during the day,

“Andrew, what’s wrong? Did something bad happen?” At Rockfeller’s question, Andrew felt like he had been caught and began to open his mouth carefully,

“Hyung, did you hear that story?”

“Hm, what are you talking about?”

“That… suddenly the orcs appeared. There’s a riot in the next town and they’re making a fuss here too. The adults say to never go to those dangerous places… what if we can’t mine placer gold because it’s like that?”

Rockefeller had been worried about what he would say, but to think it was a story he had already heard through the goldsmith.

“There’s something I forgot to tell you guys before, but Hyung got a job,”

“Really? Where?”

“At Banco. The conversation went well with the goldsmith, so don’t worry about starving in the future. Hyung will earn enough money to feed you all somehow,”

“Is that for real? Wow! Did you really get a job at Banco?”

The sincere look on Rockefeller’s face gave his brothers more confidence than ever before.

“Yes, starting tomorrow, I’ll be working for the goldsmith. Of course, even if the income I get is modest, at least we won’t go hungry like before,”

Then Joshua, who was full of anticipating, began to spit out words filled with idealism,

“Hey, now we’re really going to be rich! If Rockefeller hyung works at Banco, and Andrew and I do the mining, won’t we get rich soon? Right?”

It seemed like he was so excited that he would start singing soon, but Andrew immediately scolded him with a frown,

“Hey you idiot! Orcs are roaming around so how are we supposed to do the placer mining!?”

“Well, isn’t it fine as long as we’re careful and Leo and Lucia are here as well to be lookouts so what are you all worried about?”

“Lucia is too young!”

“She can still at least be a lookout!”

As the second and third child began to bicker once again, Rockefeller who was watching, began to speak,

“Well, I have something to tell you about that,” Instantly, their attention was focused solely on him, and Rockefeller looked at these young siblings who only seemed to see him,

“I would like to avoid placer mining in the future,”

It was Joshua who was most disappointed at those words.

“Why not? Since Rockefeller hyung got a job, wouldn’t it be better if Andrew hyung and I dig up gold dust? That way income would be doubled right?”

At those words, Rockefeller calmly shook his head,

“No, I think the rumours circulating these days are too bad for that. If you guys run into an orc, it would be a big deal after all. And since I have a job now, there is no need to hang about doing something risky like that,”

“But isn’t it a waste if we just stop like that?” At Joshua’s reluctance to stop placer mining, Rockefeller began to explain the reasons why,

“The most important thing is your safety. We have a way to eat and not starve to death right now so there is no need to go out of your way to gather the placer gold,”

“Well….yeah,”

“And right now, even though we’ve done it for a while and not got caught, I think it’s important to keep the fact that you can get placer gold at the Montefeltro estate a secret,”

At his vague words, both Andrew and Joshua looked up at him with curious eyes and asked,

“Why though?”

“Of course, there is a reason,” Rockefeller struggled internally on whether or not to tell his younger brothers, since it was a groundless dream that could come to nothing.

‘Well, it should be alright to tell them,’

“Hyung wants to buy this estate after earning a lot of money, since this land is so good that you can even get gold from it,”

At that, his brothers looked surprised,

“Really?”

“For real?”

“But is that possible?”

Although there were some doubts, Rockefeller’s answer was simple,

“Of course it is possible. The right to buy and sell their land is the right of a Lord. So, if you have enough money, you can buy the estate. Whether the Lord here sells the land to wealthy commoners or not is a matter for a later date, but even that’s just a matter of adding more money until he can’t refuse,”

All you really needed was money.

A lot of money.

Although his younger brothers didn’t deny Rockefeller’s logic, they also couldn’t deny that it truly seemed like an impossible dream.

“But you have to be really rich to do that…”

“I don’t think the Lord would hand this land over for a small amount,”

“Right, so you’d have to be really extremely rich,”

“Is that possible?”

“I don’t know either,”

Rockefeller smiled, and to his doubtful little brothers, began to explain his luck,

“We will never be able to make enough money to buy this estate if we spend our whole lives plowing the fields or doing other labor. Because that’s impossible in the first place. But didn’t hyung explain how to make a lot of money to you guys the other day? How do you make big money?”

To that question, the younger brothers answered in unison,

“By sitting around!”

“Exactly right, big money is never made from direct labour. Either through business or some other form of unearned income – in that sense, hyung has already taken the first step by getting a job at Banco,”

It would be difficult for the younger siblings to understand or accept the meaning of Rockefeller’s words right now, but Rockefeller made his point firm and clear on his occasion.

“You and I and the people in our family might have been born without any particular great talent, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be poor for the rest of our lives. If we put in the effort and have the will, it’s quite possible to change our boring lives. So you guys just have to watch hyung from now on. I’m going to show you how to get rich first hand,”