The Founder of the Great Financial Family

Power, fame, you could have it all if you had money. You could buy everything. 

‘You can even buy safety. Money is the all-around cheat key that makes everything possible.’

It wasn’t until late afternoon that the gold dusting that started like that could be finished. 

“Gather everything and let’s go,”

After returning home, Rockefeller sat down with his siblings at the old table and checked the placer gold they had collected. 

“This is the amount we have earned through our efforts today. It’s the value we earned for our legitimate work,” 

The amount of gold that could be gained through one panning was small, but when the results were out together, it was so large that one’s eyes would go round in shock.

Today, they had gathered enough gold to make one small gold coin. 

“Wow, did we collect that much? There are so many pieces,” 

“I’ve never seen so much gold. Aren’t we going to be rich like this?”

The younger siblings, including Rockefeller, hadn’t spoken at all on the way back because they had been tired from working at the stream all day, but they couldn’t hide their excitement in front of the gold dust that was beyond anything a commoner could typically see. 

“You’ve all worked hard today. If we try hard like this every time, we won’t go hungry anymore – we can even live a richer life than most people,” 

Joshua and Andrew were the most excited to hear that, 

“Really?!”

“Are we really going to be rich?!” 

The younger siblings were getting excited with the idea of getting rich by selling the placer gold straight away, but Rockefeller’s mind was thinking of other things, 

‘The question is how to deal with this….’

In principle, everything produced in the estate was the lord’s property. 

So if you look at it that way, then the placer gold they had collected was not theirs’. 

‘We can’t sell this on the market. There will definitely be problems,’

Still, it would be stupid to report this to the lord. 

‘It would be fortunate if he complimented us. But he would never let this go,’

It was questionable whether the lord would leave them alone after they had collected this gold. 

Whether he punished them or rewarded them, it would be up to his mood. If he didn’t like it, then he could punish them. 

While Rockefeller was considering their options, Joshua’s excitement began to dampen, and his expression fell, 

He had started having similar worries to Rockefeller, 

“But how would we sell this? Wouldn’t it be a problem like Rockefeller-hyung said in the morning if we tried to sell it in the market?”

Andrew’s face fell,

“Right, if we say we got the gold from the stream, then the word will spread. Even for hunting in the forest, we have to have the permission of the lord, though they do tend to look over little things like rabbits and weasels….” Joshua trailed off.

Since everything in the Montefeltro estate was the lord’s property, even hunting beasts living in the forest required the permission of their owner, the lord. 

“Would it be okay to inform the lord of this?” 

Andrew became angry at Joshua’s question, 

“No way! What do we do if the lord punishes us!?”

“That… Well, if we go and say sorry first, then, won’t the lord let us get away with it?”

“How do you know that? If we get punished, will you be able to take responsibility for it?!” 

While the two brothers bickered, Rockefeller also thought about it for a moment.

‘We can either let the lord know or do it ourselves,’

Suppose the lord showed a favourable attitude after we notified him about this. In that case, it might become possible to do placer mining legally without having to worry about other people’s eyes. 

‘If that happened, it would be easier mentally, but we can’t bet on his mood, and we’d have to give that jerk a big portion of the amount we harvest in the form of tax. It’s usually like that.’ 

And that was only if things worked out okay. 

Rockefeller and his younger siblings could be punished if things worked out badly, and there was a possibility that the lord would monopolise the placer gold and put the serfs in his estate to work mining it, and they would be left with nothing. 

‘It’s very much possible. If it’s coming from your land and you’re a greedy guy, you won’t want to share what’s yours with any other. Rather, you would order the serfs and slaves under you and take everything for yourself,’ 

So the conclusion was, 

‘There are too many uncertainties about telling the lord. We can’t do that.’ 

Plus, no matter how badly or well this worked out for them, giving up a portion of the profits to that jerk of a lord was enough to make his stomach hurt. 

‘It’s a saying that the bear does the trick and the trainer makes money. I can’t foolishly become a bear,’ 

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to let the lord know about our work.” 

When Rockefeller spoke, his brothers turned to look at him, the first one who voiced his doubts was Joshua, 

“Then what do we do? There’s no way we won’t be caught every single time, and if we get caught, it could make things worse later on. Wouldn’t it be better to just tell the lord?”

It was Andrew who refuted his question, 

“Idiot! So we just have to go and quietly mine. It’s dangerous near the stream anyway, so people don’t go there,”

“But can we keep doing it without being caught?”

“Sometimes we can catch fish as well. That should be enough to trick people’s eyes and stop them from asking questions – and it’s better if more people are watching when we do. After all, we’re not doing it alone,” 

“Yeah, but…”

Rockefeller stepped in and explained to his brothers why he thought they should not tell the lord about placer mining, and soon, even Joshua seemed convinced to some extent.

“Rockefeller-hyung, you’re right. I might have thought about it too simply. It wouldn’t be good to tell the lord after all,” 

Andrew sighed softly. After all, they didn’t really have an answer to the question yet.

But that wasn’t the case for Rockefeller, 

“But we can’t give up trying to find a way to live because of that, right? So let’s do something else,” 

“Do you have an idea?”

“So what do we do, Rockefeller-hyung?”

To his younger siblings, who were looking up at him with expectant eyes, Rockefeller shared his thoughts.