Rockefeller and Joshua, guided by Leo, were able to meet Priest Peter without much difficulty.
As always, Priest Peter greeted them with a smile.
"Please, have a seat."
That's when Rockefeller could quickly notice that Priest Peter's expression was not as it had been before.
The reason was obvious without asking.
The beer business was not the same as before.
"Have you had any bad experiences lately?"
"Bad experiences? No, nothing like that."
"You don't look happy."
When Rockefeller broached the subject, Priest Peter let out a deep sigh as if he had been waiting for it.
"Whew... As you know, the beer business is no longer profitable. The dwarves no longer want to trade with us. They don't seem to have any regrets about leaving."
"Well, it can't be helped. The war is coming to an end, after all. The dwarves will no longer be interested in our beer. They can get beer anywhere once they return to their homeland."
"It was good when we were doing business with confidence back then. It was all thanks to you at that time."
"I miss those days too. It was a great time for both me and the church here."
Rockefeller made an unexpected proposal to Priest Peter.
"Excuse me, Priest Peter."
As he caught his eye, Rockefeller began to speak.
"If you're suffering from the church's financial problems, I'd like to make a proposal that could help the church... What do you think?"
"You have a proposal that could help us?"
At those words, Priest Peter immediately brightened up.
"Do you have another good business item? Is there something like that?"
The expectations of Priest Peter, who had only good experiences with Rockefeller, were higher than expected.
To Priest Peter, Rockefeller continued with a subtle smile.
"I can't call it a good business item, but seeing your recent deepening troubles, my heart aches too much. So I thought about what could be helpful for the church."
"I'm really grateful that you even say that. So what's your proposal?"
Rockefeller began to tell him what he had thought about in response to the question.
"It's not a big deal. I just feel a little sorry for the gold coins sitting idle in the church."
"Do you feel sorry for the gold coins here?"
The profits from the beer business related to the dwarves were divided equally between Rockefeller and the church.
With the gold coins and the church's donations received so far, Rockefeller was talking about the gold coins.
"Yes, I'm not sure if it's because of my occupational disease. I can't stand seeing a large sum of money sitting idle."
"Hmm..."
Even if he was the benefactor of the church, the priest could not look kindly on someone coveting the church's gold coins.
"I'm already worried about what you're going to say. It's better not to make unnecessary noise here."
As the priest's expression hardened, Rockefeller laughed and tried to break the tense atmosphere.
"Ha ha, I don't mean it that way. How could someone like me covet the heavenly church's property? I just want the gold coins here to be used for more meaningful things."
"Exactly what do you want to say? No matter how much I listen, I don't understand your intention."
The priest cut him off.
"Why are you talking about the gold coins here if you're not trying to covet them? It's obviously the church's property that should be left alone."
"The church's property is, of course, the church's property. But if you entrust that property to our Carter Bank, we will give you a 3% interest every month."
As he said that, Priest Peter's face changed dramatically.
"What, what did you just say? You'll give us 3% interest?"
Rockefeller's face was still smiling.
"Yes, if you leave the church's gold coins in our Carter Bank, we will give you 3% interest on the deposited gold coins every month. This is a very good thing for the church."
The priest's face was still doubtful.
"Usually... don't they charge a fee for storing gold coins?"
"Yes, that's correct. But that's a thing of the past. Our Carter Bank is growing by the day. It's all thanks to the church."
Rockefeller hoped that the priest would not know the details of this matter.
Anyway, even if the deposit interest was 3%, if you calculate the loan interest at 6%, it was definitely a 3% profit for Carter Bank.
However, this was a very radical proposal that completely broke the previous conventions, so Priest Peter could not even think about the detailed inside story.
He was just excited about the fact that he could earn interest like a bank.
"Then, isn't it our duty to repay the church's grace?"
"Really, really. If we deposit our gold coins in the bank, will they give us 3% interest? Then if we deposit 1,000 dalants, we'll get 30 dalants every month. And in 12 months, that's 360 dalants."
In response to his question, Rockefeller smiled even more deeply.
"Yes, that's exactly what you think. You just take 3% of the gold coins you entrusted to us as interest income every month without doing anything, Priest. Then you don't have to work hard, and you don't have to worry too much about the church's financial problems in the future."
"Hehe... you. You're really an amazing person. You're doing all this for our church. It's unheard of in the world to not charge a gold coin storage fee and even give interest. Will St. John leave you alone? A benefactor like you should definitely go to heaven."
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