Rockefeller found himself facing two mysterious customers who had visited his shop.
One was a distinctively featured, tall man, and the other, a young girl who looked young enough to be his sister.
The girl had her face mostly hidden under a hooded robe, but the man had taken off his hood, fully revealing his presence.
"What kind of people are they?"
There were no ordinary folks among those who visited the bank.
Most were either nobles or merchants who handled significant amounts of money.
Their identities were unknown, but Rockefeller, true to his businessman nature, naturally smiled and engaged with them.
"What brings you here?"
As Rockefeller broke the ice, the man surveyed the inside of the store and spoke up.
"Where's the owner?"
"The owner, sir? Why are you looking for him?"
The man hadn't expected that Rockefeller, busy working in the store, would be just a kid.
It was because Rockefeller was too young for that.
"I have some business with the owner."
When the man replied with an expressionless face, Rockefeller first suspected the reason for his visit.
'It's probably nothing serious, right?'
"If it's about the store, you can just tell me. I'm in charge of the store matters."
At that, the man looked quite surprised.
To think that such a young boy was handling adult responsibilities at the bank.
'A kid is managing bank affairs?'
Then, a girl who had shown no interest in their conversation until now began to pay attention to Rockefeller.
'Did the bank employ young people too?'
He was young himself, but he was somewhat curious that a boy, who seemed only a few years older than him, was managing the business at the bank in place of the owner.
"How curious."
The man, initially taken aback, soon stared intently into Rockefeller's eyes.
He was a magician.
He was not so incompetent as to be unable to read the murky and dishonest aura hidden within those who lie, determining the truthfulness of their words by simply looking into their eyes.
The same was true for the girl who had come along with him.
"It's not a lie. But it doesn’t seem entirely pure either…"
As the girl pondered this and that, the man spoke.
"I don’t think you would dare tell a lie. Alright, I'll tell you why I came."
The man took a promissory note out of his pocket and showed it to Rockefeller.
"To be blunt, I came because of this. I want to exchange it for dalant. Is that possible?"
Despite his expression, the reason for his visit was quite straightforward.
‘What's with these people?’
Wondering if they were trying to scam him, Rockefeller naturally took out a special artifact for authenticity verification.
The object resembling a magnifying glass was a magical tool created by the Sinclair family.
As they observed this, subtle changes appeared on the faces of the man and the girl.
They had recognized the magical tool Rockefeller had used.
After a moment, Rockefeller, having finished his inspection, responded with a bright smile.
"Would you like to exchange everything for dalant? Or do you need some shillings here as well?"
Hearing this, the man couldn't help but let out an incredulous laugh.
He was astounded that the bizarre promissory note could be exchanged for gold without any issue.
"Is there really no problem exchanging it for dalant?"
"Problem? What kind of problem are you referring to?"
At that moment, Rockefeller realized why their expressions had been so grim when they first arrived.
There were indeed people like them around.
'Maybe that was the reason? Of course, not everyone is the same. There will definitely be those who are skeptical.'
"If you are asking about this promissory note, there's no problem at all?"
Rockefeller confidently waved the special artifact for detecting authenticity, which he was holding in one hand.
"This is a magical tool made by the Sinclair family, and we used it to appraise. There is no problem with the promissory note."
"There is no problem, you say…"
The man elongated his words, seemingly unsatisfied with something.
'It's strange that there's supposedly no problem.'
The girl who had come along with him seemed to share the same thought.
'No problem? How can that be?'
In fact, from their perspective, if they could exchange the brought promissory note for dalant without any issues, there was no need to unnecessarily doubt even a strange promissory note.
It was neither their business nor worth the hassle and meddling.
"Exchange part of it for shillings and give the rest in dalant."
"Yes, please wait a moment."
As Rockefeller disappeared into the back of the store to fetch the dalant to exchange for the promissory note, the man politely asked the girl.
"Miss, what would you like to do?"
The decision had to be made by her, not him.
She was his superior and a member of the most prominent family on the continent.
Isabella still had an unconvinced expression on her face.
"How can there be nothing wrong with this shoddy promissory note? Are all the people here fools? Or do they think that the lord or the domain will never fall?"
For most residents of the domain, the lord was akin to a heavenly being, inconceivable to ever fall.
However, from her perspective, who found such lords laughable, the existence of a lord was not an all-powerful and immortal entity.
A lord, after all, was merely a human being and could lose their position if entangled in political strife or other misdeeds.
Hence, her strong skepticism.
"This promissory note isn’t even guaranteed by the royal family, nor is it solidly backed by any other house. If the lord here collapses, this note will become nothing but trash. And they exchange it for dalant?"
The man shared her thoughts but wasn’t entirely unaware of the residents' beliefs.
"Typically, the residents of a domain believe in the absolute power of their lord. Most of them think that their lord will never fall. That's why the people here seem to think differently from us."
"Impossible, right? How many domains have our family abandoned recently, and yet people here haven't even heard such rumors?"
"That's true, but... This place, being on the fringe of the empire, is relatively more stable than other domains where various interests are entangled. Hence, as long as the lord here doesn't cause any major trouble, this domain is unlikely to fail."
After speaking, the man began to understand why the local residents here trusted such promissory notes.
It's because they believe the empire, like the lord, will not fall.
Moreover, since these promissory notes can be exchanged for dalant without any issue, why bother doubting?
"I still don't get it. It's funny to trust such promissory notes backed only by the credit of a mere lord, not even the Emperor."
"It seems possible here."
"Have you ever seen such promissory notes before?"
"No. I, too, have seen such promissory notes for the first time here. But what's more, the merchants here strangely use these promissory notes almost like money. Each domain has its own situation, but this place seems somewhat special, like Lyon."
Lyon was one of the wealthiest cities in the empire, known for its advanced trade and finance.
But to think that a remote territory like this could be comparable to such a place.
"Isn't this a frontier area? How can it be compared to the wealthiest places in the empire?"
"Well, the system here has something... It feels a lot like Lyon. I don't know why."
"Jason, you don't know much about money-related matters, do you?"
"If you're talking about finance, it's certainly not an area of interest for a noble magician."
"Then who is interested in it? Money issues are pretty important, aren't they?"
"They are important, but such matters are typically handled by priests who have been granted indulgences, or by fearless commoners who know a bit about numbers and aren't afraid of hell. It's definitely not something a noble magician would be concerned with."
"Is that so?"
The girl murmured quietly as she pondered over various thoughts.
"Have those people chosen money over heaven?"
In the meantime,
Rockefeller came out from the back of the store with the dalants and shillings they wanted.
"Count them. They should all be correct."
Once the man had finished checking and informed the girl that there was no issue, the girl, instead of leaving the store, began to ask about something that was puzzling her.
"You work at the bank, so you must be a commoner. I have something I want to ask you."
