The Founder of the Great Financial Family
Chapter 38 (1)

Monopolizing Goods (2)

The horse, panting heavily, must have been running in a hurry.

The girl sitting on the horse, wearing a black belt, looked like a beautiful female knight with her hair fluttering in the wind.

Her elegance and dignity were incomparable to the two brothers sitting in the donkey cart, a noble young lady who was captivating to anyone who looked at her.

Joshua got off the donkey cart and bowed his head politely to her.

"Hello, Miss Stella."

Unlike the courteous Joshua, Andrew was busy trying to avoid Stella's gaze.

He had treated her quite casually when they first met without knowing anything about her, but now that he knew who she was, he could no longer do that.

"Right, nice to see you. Your name was Joshua, right?"

"Yes! But where does this lovely scent come from? It's not the smell of wildflowers, what is it?"

"A lovely scent? Oh, I changed the perfume I was using. My father bought me a better one."

"The scent is really nice!"

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

"Andrew, what are you doing? You should greet the young lady quickly!"

Stella tilted her head toward Andrew, who was uncharacteristically quiet.

She felt it was strange that he had become so quiet, erasing the memory of their previous meeting when they had easily exchanged conversations.

"Andrew, was it? Hello, Andrew?"

"Uh... Yeah..."

"What's wrong? Is something bothering you?"

"No, it's not that..."

Seeing him unable to even make eye contact, she quickly understood the reason for his change in attitude.

There were quite a few people like Andrew subtly around her.

"Can't you treat me casually like before? Back then, you didn't even know who I was and treated me well."

"It's just..."

"I don't care if you're a noble or a commoner because I graduated from a military academy. I even try to make friends with commoners there."

Joshua was puzzled by her words.

"Why, Miss? You're a noble, aren't you? Shouldn't you only hang out with nobles?"

"That's a misconception. In this world, commoners can become nobles depending on their efforts."

"Really?"

"Yes, you'll find out later. The world is changing fast."

But saying so didn't change anything.

Becoming a noble from a commoner was as difficult as picking a star from the sky.

Andrew held back what he wanted to say, and she kept shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

Seeing her like this, Joshua tilted his head.

"Are you uncomfortable somewhere?"

"Well... My father bought me a horse to celebrate me becoming a squire, but the saddle doesn't seem to fit me well. It's a bit uncomfortable."

"Then why not change it? Your father, the lord, must have a lot of money."

"I guess... but it's not easy to just change it to anything. I think I need a custom saddle that fits me, but as you know, people are very busy these days. I feel bad for bothering people around me because of it. I plan to get a new saddle when I go back to the military academy. They make good saddles there, tailored to each person's style."

"Oh, is that so?"

"Yep."

Stella looked at Andrew again.

"Are you going to keep quiet?"

"......"

Disappointed with Andrew's continued silence, she gestured to Joshua and left.

"See you next time, Joshua."

"Yes, and you too, Miss Stella!"

"And you too, Andrew."

Even after the lord's daughter left, Joshua was puzzled by Andrew's silence.

'Is there something wrong with Andrew?'

It was only after Stella had gone a considerable distance that Andrew finally lifted his head and stared at her as she left.

'......'

One thing was clear.

Feelings that had not been there before were slowly emerging without him even realizing it.

That evening.

Rockefeller learned a very interesting fact after hearing Joshua's story.

"Did something like that happen today?"

"Yes! It's wrong for Andrew to be so quiet, even if Miss Stella is kind. Andrew is the one who did wrong."

At that, Andrew growled softly at Joshua.

If Rockefeller had not been there, he would have been hit by a fist.

"It's not that! It's just uncomfortable because she's the lord's daughter. It's completely different from when we first met. I didn't know who she was back then, and now I do."

The lord's daughter, whom the two brothers had met by chance today, was not someone Rockefeller paid much attention to.

'Lord's daughter...'

The lord had only one child, and influenced by her father, who loved war and sword fighting, she was raised as a knight at the royal road since an early age.

Recently, she had become a squire, one step below a knight, and was taking a short break in the territory.

'She's a squire at that age... not too fast, but not too slow either.'

Stella de Montefeltro.

She must have had some talent as a knight due to the influence of her war-loving lord father, but she didn't seem to have the strong impact of the protagonists or their heroines in the novels.

Was she just a female knight who briefly appeared in the novel?

'I don't need to worry too much. She's said to have a good personality, unlike the somewhat irritable lord.'

As Rockefeller was thinking about this, Andrew, who had been thinking about something else since meeting Stella, called out to his older brother Rockefeller.

"Hey, Rockefeller hyung."

As Rockefeller naturally looked at him, Andrew began to speak.

"Um, you know... I was just thinking. If I go to a military academy, will that be alright?"

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