The Founder of the Great Financial Family

"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. I would have just let it go in the past, 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," 

"I thought, wouldn't it be a waste to use my 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. He was the best customer because he could 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 try 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 the 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 God may hate me 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 could not do anything to him easily. 

‘Well, I should be patient with him. After all, these are the kind of people who God abandons.' 

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

At that time, the only place where he could easily borrow a large amount of money 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. Since they were a profession that everyone pretty much hated, they had formed strong solidarity among themselves and jointly dealt with any unsavoury affairs related to themselves. 

So no matter how much he hated the goldsmiths, the lord could not mistreat them.

‘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 goldsmith's mood to manage his estate, lest problems arise when borrowing money in the future.