The frontier of the Empire. 

Once upon a time, it had been called Azrak, the largest gold mine on the continent, but now, it was simply dead land that did not have even a single gold vein remaining. 

One might question if there would ever be someone who might need huge amounts of money here.

‘There will be.’ Rockefeller thought so anyway. 

‘Even if it’s not right now, the ones who need that kind of gold will soon come crawling out of the shadows – thought I’m not telling Carter who.’ 

Places like the Montefeltro estate, which were situated at the boarder lands and fell in the path of power struggles often became riddled with disputes and conflicts when things went wrong. 

‘The Montefeltro estate might be quieter than some of those other places, but that doesn’t mean that peace will be maintained forever because the Dwarves and Orcs would soon go to war and wars required money.’

That meant that places which could lend out money would make a killing on the interest – namely the Goblin Bank. 

Within the Empire – no – within the entire continent, the place that made the most money from conflict was the Goblin Bank. 

‘I think it’s about time the goblin guys to wrap up with their plans.’

Right now, the Montefeltro estate was a quiet territory that went pretty much ignored. Even before gold mines had been discovered and it was named the Great Azrak Goldmine, it had been an underprivileged place that went ignored by both the Empire and the Dwarves.

‘But if a large conflict was to break out around the territory it wasn’t as though they could ignore it.’

 And the key to that conflict would be the Totem of the Orcs. 

Orcs lived in a tribal society and the Totem was considered the most sacred thing to an Orc, looked after by the shaman of the tribe, an elder orc that often had more power within the tribe than even the tribal chief. 

The Totem was made of animal and monster bones and the goblins and destroyed it,  then spread the rumour that it had been the work of dwarves – who had historically had a good relationship with the orcs. 

‘Did they end up calling it the Totem War? Anyway when the war begins, the orcs will be in trouble, and with conflict happening all around them, there would be someone who was more anxious than anyone else.’ 

A shrimp caught in the middle of whale fights would come running and Rockefeller expected he would want to take a lot of loans. And Rocekfeller would give him as much as possible. 

—

A few days later rumours began to circulate that the Hound Mercenaries that had been hired by the Lord had managed to drive out a group of wandering orcs near the territory. 

It was said that the mages that had been hired by the Hound Mercenaries had shown exceptional abilities and as a result the whole village was in a celebratory mood for a while. 

Of course they would love it. The orcs that had been on everyone’s mind had been driven away. 

However when Rockefeller heard the news he wasn’t completely relieved. He hadn’t thought that the mission to subjugate the orcs would end so simply. 

‘If I’m right about the timing, then things should slowly start getting worse.’ 

And he was right, because while everyone was celebrating the relatively easy way the orc subjugation had taken place, other rumours began to spread from outside the territory, that a large scale orc army gathering near the territory.

Of course it wasn’t a matter directly related to the Monterfeltro estate because the army was gathering outside of the Empire’s boarders but the very existence of a large orc army near the territory was enough to make people anxious. 

The Lord had been just as surprised to hear the news and when he came to visit the Banco, his face looked thinner than it had been. 

“Carter, are you here?!” the Lord asked, he had deep shadows under his eyes as though he had not slept in a few days. 

“What can I do for you, My Lord?” 

The Lord glanced at Rockefeller, who served instead of Carter and frowned. 

“Hurry and call Carter, I need to have a chat with him.” He demanded. 

As though already familiar with the situation, Rockefeller called Carter out with great calmness and as soon as the Lord saw him, he did not beat around the bush, 

“Tell me directly, how much can you lend me right now?” 

“This is sudden, is something wrong, my lord?” Carter asked.

“I need money urgently. It’s incredibly important for the estate and I hope you will help.” 

“Possibly… is that rumour true?” Carter asked. 

The lord ran a had through his hair and pulled at it, a nervous habit. 

“It’s become a headache. It looks like things are going to get messy right outside the territory. The Seer’s when to scout and said that things were escalating quickly on both sides, at this rate it’ll become an all-out war between two great powers.”

“Even so, shouldn’t this be something unrelated to us?” 

“If you’re going to be technical about it, then the entire matter is someone else’s business, but that doesn’t exactly make one feel safe does it? If things get even slightly twisted, it won’t take long for things to spill over here as well.” The Lord explained. 

“Has the Imperial Palace said anything? Is this not a situation where you should ask for support from the Empire?” 

The Lord’s expression grew darker at those words. 

“Maybe it’s because this estate is out of the spotlight, but his Majesty is following formality when it comes to support. To the point that it is disappointing.” 

“Even so, we are the Empire’s people. Would they throw us away like this?” 

The Lord sighed, then decided to save his words, this wasn’t something to discuss at the Banco after all.