The Founder of the Great Financial Family

After they had finished speaking to Rockefeller, the two headed back to the mercenary camp.

Their heads were whirring with more confusion now, than they had before they consulted Rockefeller.

For Andrew, though he understood that it wasn’t necessary to live too honestly, he was more worried that he might lose this hard-won job due to a small mistake – so that was the only thought he focused on.

On the other hand, Joshua’s mind was filled with Rockefeller’s words as he followed after Andrew in a daze. 

‘He said that if we were too honest, we wouldn’t be able to make money. I think he’s right. People aren’t fools, and if we behave too honestly, we can’t take their money.’ 

‘How can we do what Rockefeller hyung said? A way to make money without getting caught by those Ajusshi…’ 

He couldn’t think of a brilliant idea right away. So Joshua called out to Andrew who was leading further ahead than before. 

“Hey Andrew hyung,” 

At the sound, Andrew, turned to quietly look at him. 

“What?” 

“Well… what did we do wrong?”

Rockefeller had clearly pointed out their mistake, but it was up to them to really reflect on that and move forwards in a better direction. 

“Weren’t you listening? Rockfeller hyung told you – you were too direct about scamming them. You shouldn’t cheat people like that. What if the mercenaries come to the market to check what we’ve bought?” 

“I know that, but if we want to make money, we have to do something more here, don’t you think so?” 

“That’s… that’s true. I don’t mean to blame you – but I was more worried that we might lose this hard-to-find job by putting our hands on the ingredients here. But not anymore.” 

Andrew’s eyes looked up, sparkling. 

“Becasue it seems stupid to be so honest.” 

“Then Andrew hyung, do you agree that we should be a little dishonest?” 

“Well, for me, as long as we can carry on making money, I don’t care. In any case, money is the best. But we can’t do it your way, it’s too direct.” 

“That’s true. What I suggested at the beginning was too much.  If, like you said, we got caught, then we would have been fired straight away for betraying the Ajusshi’s trust.” 

“In the end, I guess we were both mistaken,” 

So Joshua asked again, 

“Then, what is a way that you’ll agree with – where we can deceive them?” 

“Something that’s not too direct, like Rockfeller hyung said,” 

“So, what is it?” 

The two brothers, forgetting they were in the middle of running their errands for a moment, stood and put their heads together. 

“What’s the difference between scamming them directly and scamming them without anyone knowing? Is it just a matter of whether it’s legal or not?” 

“Probably?” 

“Then, it’s a bad thing to directly take the ingredients here, so besides that, what else can we do to make money on a legal basis?” 

At that moment, there was an idea that crossed Joshua’s mind. 

The problem with the first idea he had proposed was – what would happen if it was revealed? 

But what if couldn’t be revealed? 

“Andrew hyung! I just thought of a good idea!” 

“What is it? What did you think of?” 

“Well, we can’t sneak away ingredients from here because the mercenary ajusshi might come all the way to the market and ask around about how much we bought for what – so if they found out we could be in big trouble,” 

“Right,” 

“So how about this? We’re not the only ones who hide it, but we’ll be in league with the ajumma and ajusshi who sell the food in the market! We scam them together!” 

“Do you mean you want to get everyone in the market involved? By increasing the price of the ingredients?” 

“Right! For example, say it costs twenty potatoes for one shilling – we talk to the ajumma who sells them and change the amount so it costs 1 shilling for 18 potatoes. Then there are two potatoes left over right?”

“So then we share the remaining potatoes with the person who sold them?” 

“Yeah! What do you think? Isn’t it great?”

Andrew considered Joshua’s idea for a moment. 

“I think it’s possible but…” 

As soon as Andrew said it was possible, Joshua’s face brightened up even more.

“Right? You think it’s possible too right?” 

“But what about the people in the market? Do you think they’ll agree?” 

“I mean, no one will dislike getting a potato for free right?” 

“But there might be people who don’t like it because it’s a scam right?” 

“That’s true but.. How about this? We only do the deal with people who say it’s okay – we won’t do it with those who don’t like it – wouldn’t there be no problem then?” 

Joshua continued to speak, 

“Either way, we’ll just take whatever is left, whether its potatoes or carrots. And since we’re doing this with the ajumma and ajusshi from the market, even if the mercenaries come all the way here, there’s no way to find out our secret since that’s just the price of the ingredients anyway. It’s set by the ajumma at the market. We only bought the ingredients at the price they told us, right?”

‘Did Rockefeller want something like this? To deceive others more meticulously? If we just do it the way Joshua said, we probably won’t get caught.’ 

They couldn’t know whether the idea Joshua came up with was the answer Rockefeller wanted, but it seemed clear that it was atleast better than his first idea. 

“Let’s do it, we probably won’t get caught, but we did get caught, it’s not like we’re the only ones who cheated, are we?”