Becoming the Eldest Son of a Commoner Family (3)
"I thought all the gold veins here had been completely depleted, but wasn't another major vein discovered? That's what I remember."
This area, once a territory of the dwarf kingdom, became part of the empire as the dwarves, unable to find more gold veins, withdrew.
But now, another gold vein was discovered here.
And it was the largest on the continent.
"I'm the only one who knows about this. No one else does, for sure. How could they? The vein hasn't been discovered yet."
With that thought, Rockefeller unexpectedly came up with a way to make money.
"Yes, if there's still a gold vein here, that might be feasible. If it's possible, then I can make money from it."
As Rockefeller was pondering this, one of his younger siblings, the third, began to speak, his voice quivering.
"Brother, what do we do now? Are we really going to live as the lord said, tilling the fields?"
Commoners usually didn't till the fields.
That was a job for serfs, who were even lower in status than commoners.
"Idiot! Why would we till the fields? We're commoners. That's something for serfs to do."
As the third child cried out, Andrew Rothsmedici, who was beside him, suddenly burst out in anger.
For Andrew, the thought of becoming a serf from a commoner was truly horrifying.
"I will never till the fields. What are we, serfs? Why should commoners till the fields!"
"What else can we do then? You heard what the lord said. If we don't till the fields, how are we supposed to live? Otherwise, we'll starve to death……."
Joshua, the third sibling, seemed to be a character who was more willing to compromise with reality.
He thought it was better to swallow his pride and till the fields, given the urgency of their situation.
But the second child, who valued pride more, seemed absolutely unwilling to accept this.
Andrew, while scolding the third, hurriedly sought out his elder brother, Rockefeller.
"Rockefeller, we're not going to till the fields, right? Right?"
Though he acted like the boss among his peers, he couldn't ignore the decision of the household's true leader, Rockefeller.
No matter how much they disliked it, when Rockefeller, the eldest and head of the family, decided on something, the others had no choice but to follow.
As the desperate gaze of the second sibling grew more intense, Rockefeller, having made up his mind, slowly began to speak.
"Joshua is right. If we don't enter under the lord's service now, we'll struggle to make a living. However, if we join the lord immediately out of fear of starving, we might be happy for the moment, but the future will be problematic."
Rockefeller asked his younger siblings, looking at them.
"You all have dreams, don't you?"
At this question, all the younger siblings, except for the youngest sister, quietly started nodding their heads.
"If we go under the lord now, you'll never be able to fulfill those dreams. The lord probably won't allow it."
The freedom to do what one wants.
That freedom was what commoners had, and the lack of it was precisely what serfs were.
"And you don't want to spend your whole life plowing fields, do you?"
At these words, the second sibling, whose face had brightened up, chimed in as if he had been waiting for this.
"You heard it too! Rockefeller is right! If we become like serfs, we'll end up just doing menial tasks for the lord all our lives. That's not living. That's just like being a nameless slave."
Joshua, the third, couldn't say he didn't sympathize, but his immediate concern was his rumbling stomach.
"So what do we do? How are we going to eat and live......"
Whatever was done in the domain was taxed, and under the jurisdiction of the lord.
In such a situation, it was really difficult for young children without any skills or talents to suddenly earn money.
"That is......"
As the second child struggled to find a proper answer, Rockefeller, who had been quietly observing them, stepped in.
"We can find a way to make money somehow. So let's not give up too easily."
Just then, their youngest sister, unable to bear her hunger, started crying again.
Leo Rothsmedici, the fourth child, said with difficulty while trying to soothe his sister, "Brother, I think Lucia is hungry. She's been crying since the day before yesterday."
Hunger wasn't just a problem for the youngest sister.
Rockefeller had also been starving for days, and except for the second child, who had been roaming outside trying to fill his stomach somehow, both the third and the fourth had been starving for days.
"I'm going crazy."
How did it come to this?
Though the reason was unclear, if Rockefeller didn't solve this hunger immediately, there would be no future.
Rockefeller, entangled in various emotions as he looked at his hungry siblings, spoke up again.
"We have some money left from what the lord gave us for the funeral. I didn’t spend it all, so let’s use that to get by today."
"Really? Is that true?"
Upon hearing Rockefeller's words, all the siblings except for the youngest, who was crying, brightened up.
"Does that mean we get to eat today?"
"Rockefeller hyung is the best!"
The young siblings, momentarily elated, began to chatter noisily, but Rockefeller still had a face full of worries.
"We can manage for a few days with that money. The problem is what comes after..."
If the plan he had in mind failed or turned out to be completely impractical, Rockefeller was even considering the worst-case scenario of working under the lord.
"If we fail, there's nothing we can do. I’d rather till the fields and survive than starve to death trying to save face, right?"
After the funeral, Rockefeller returned home and visited the market to buy some vegetables for soup and a few simple side dishes.
It wasn't too difficult for him to prepare a meal for his younger siblings in a world that was entirely unfamiliar, as memories from his past life were gradually resurfacing.
After all, it was a common occurrence for the pre-possession Rockefeller to take care of his younger siblings.
"Wow, this is really delicious!"
"Eat moderately! Your big brother needs to eat too!"
"But isn't Rockefeller hyung eating?"
For the first time in a while, the younger siblings, who had been crying up until now, devoured even the unappetizing meal prepared by Rockefeller in a frenzy.
Even the youngest sister, who had done nothing but cry until now, was busy filling her hungry stomach, using both hands. Yet, strangely, Rockefeller felt no appetite at all.
'I should be able to, though…'
Right now, more important to Rockefeller than his appetite was the sense of responsibility of a head of the family who had to survive with these young ones.
'I can't just ignore these young ones.'
