Once the thought of making automobiles crossed my mind, suddenly, a flood of things I needed to do came rushing in.
Hold on, so first I need to make a 1-cylinder engine. That's the internal combustion engine made by Otto from Germany, right? Can I make a car with a 1-cylinder engine? Ah, come to think of it, there were 1-cylinder engine cars initially. Well, I can't be full from the first spoonful, so should I make a 1-cylinder engine car first, then a 2-cylinder car with a steering wheel, and then challenge myself with a proper 4-cylinder engine?
How do I raise the funds? No matter how rich Dad is, if a six-year-old asks for money, getting 5 cents would be considered a lot. Eventually, I have to earn it myself, but what can a six-year-old do to make money? Should I unleash my genius talents and make Dad invest in me? Better yet, should I make Uncle Jack invest too? No, no matter what, that's not right. At least for a few years, I should stop at just revealing my genius talents; if I act up too much, things that could work out might fail.
The timing was a bit ambiguous. I wasn't an engineer with grand technical skills; my hands-on experience with machines was just some car maintenance and handling air conditioners. The rest was purely theoretical knowledge read from books.
Of course, I know that if I refine these theoretical parts a little, they can become new breakthroughs, but that's only possible after getting on track to some extent; it's not at a level where I can do something right now to fit this era. I know nothing about casting techniques, which are essential for making cars immediately.
My situation is like this, but timing-wise, all kinds of cars are about to pour out from Europe and America right now. If I miss this period, catching up will take several times more effort, and it might even be impossible.
"Duke, Duke."
While I was deep in thought about cars, someone pulled my sleeve. Wondering who was calling me, I turned my head and saw Junius Morgan, Jack Morgan's son.
"Duke? Did you call me?"
"Dad said Henry is a Duke. That's why I called you Duke."
It seemed my exact identity was known only among the adults, and to others or kids who might spread rumors, I was introduced as a Duke from some Asian country.
"Just call me Henry."
"Okay, Henry, look at that. There's a balloon over there."
Following where Junius pointed with his small finger, I saw the stable where the horses pulling the carriages were kept. A yellow balloon was stuck on the stable door.
What's with that balloon? Did it fly there and get stuck?
As Junius and I talked about the balloon, the little kids who discovered it only then started shouting "Balloon, balloon" all at once.
"It's a balloon, a balloon."
"Get me the balloon."
"I want the balloon."
"Sigh, alright, I'll get it for you."
Approaching the stable to check, the balloon was stuck in the stable door as if someone had deliberately wedged it there. I opened the stable door to retrieve the balloon, and instantly got doused with a bucket of water.
"Kyahahaha, how, how could you get soaked so perfectly?"
"Puhakaka, they said he was a smart Duke, but he falls for something like this so easily."
Wiping my wet eyes with my hand and looking towards the laughter, two girls who looked exactly alike and seemed about twelve years old were pointing at me and laughing their heads off.
"It's the witches! Alice and Elena! The twin witches are here! Everyone run!"
Junius Morgan shouted first, and the little kids who were waiting for me to get the balloon scattered in all directions.
"It's the witches."
"It's the twins."
"It's Alice and Elena."
This reaction is no joke. Just looking at the kids' reactions, I could tell how terrible pranksters those twins were. Besides, no matter if I'm a newly adopted child in this family, I couldn't tolerate this. With the mindset that I wouldn't be the only one suffering, I ran towards the girls while still wet. If we get wet and roll around together, they'll realize they made a mistake too.
But the girls were much bigger and faster than me. My strength had increased as a perk, but my running speed hadn't improved much.
What the heck, wasn't the strength increased for escaping crises? Then running speed should have increased too!
Dodging me, the two girls shouted.
"Hey, there's horse poop in there."
"Since he got doused with horse poop, is he the Horse Poop Duke now?"
Only then did I bring my hand to the top of my head, and something squishy was caught in my hand. Terrified, I threw it away immediately and ran to Mom.
Seeing me running towards her completely soaked, the adults shouted.
"The twins again?"
"Didn't you say the twins weren't here?"
"If I knew the twins were here, I wouldn't have come."
Jack Morgan shouted as if he didn't know either.
"They definitely said they were staying in the dormitory. If I knew they were here, I wouldn't have invited everyone here."
When I ran to Mom, she hurriedly wiped me with a towel and said,
"We definitely need to wash this off. Jessie, I'll borrow your bathroom."
Before Aunt Jane Morgan could say anything, the twin girls' shouts were heard.
"Since there's horse poop, you have to scrub him hard."
"Since he got doused with water mixed with horse poop, we'll call him the Horse Poop Duke from now on."
Mom hurriedly took me to the bathroom, and Aunt Jane's voice could be heard.
"Alice, Elena, what is this behavior towards your cousin whom you're meeting for the first time!"
"We heard he was a Duke and a very smart kid, so we tested him. But I don't think he's smart. He fell for such a clumsy trick right away."
Listening to the voice of either Alice or Elena—I didn't know who was who—I entered the building.
With the help of the Morgan family's maid, Mom washed me clean and said,
"Those twins are Jack's late sister's children. Their parents both died, so Jack and Jessie are raising them now. They are turning 12 soon, and their pranks really know no bounds. Adults or kids, there's no one among the Morgan family and relatives who hasn't fallen victim to them. But they aren't bad kids, so try to get along."
Damn it, so they saw me as an easy target and played a prank. No matter how much you mess around, dare you, mere 12-year-olds, try to beat me armed with future knowledge.
Burning with a desire for revenge against the twins, I declared war. And from that day on, I ran to the Morgan house and waged war against the twins. However, sadly, perhaps prank intelligence and future knowledge are unrelated, my war log with the twins was stained with my unilateral defeats.
Aunt Jessie's house was close, and since there were cousins Junius (4) and Henrietta (2), no one thought it strange for me to go play there, and Junius and Henrietta liked playing with me too.
Naturally, the twins Alice and Elena also played with us, and whenever an opportunity arose, I dug various traps to retaliate against the twins.
Of course, except for the fact that they challenged me with pranks, they weren't bad kids. They made cookies for us to eat, saved me when I was almost kicked by the hind legs of a donkey the kids rode at the Morgan house, and warned me not to approach horses or donkeys from behind.
However, since they committed the grave sin of challenging me with pranks and mocking me, they deserved to fall into the traps I dug and learn who the true strong one was.
But while the twins rarely fell into my traps, I had to suffer all kinds of ordeals since then, such as being doused with horse urine, getting soaked in water as if I peed my pants, falling into traps, getting covered in goose feathers, etc. Unfortunately, most of the time, I fell into the traps I dug myself.
Finally, I devised a plan to prepare plenty of oil and goose feathers to dump on the twins' heads. It was a scene imitating a comedy movie I saw somewhere in my future knowledge, but this too didn't work on the twins, the specialists of pranks, and I ended up covered in it instead.
When I got covered in oil and goose feathers, Aunt Jessie offered to wash me, but I was embarrassed to have my aunt undress and wash me, so I just ran home.
As I stepped out onto the street to return home covered sticky oil and goose feathers, people who saw me started holding their bellies and laughing. This neighborhood was a wealthy area, so people walking on the streets were all gentle and cultured, but upon seeing my state, they were all surprised at first, then started laughing loudly on the street without any class.
Dogs walking on leashes with their owners started barking in fear upon seeing me, and the owners, while calming their dogs, couldn't hold back their laughter and didn't know what to do.
A young lady walking her baby in a stroller, whom I had seen on the street several times and who usually walked past without caring when I passed by, this time moved the stroller far away from me, worried that feathers stuck to my body might fall on her child, yet she giggled as she passed me.
When I returned looking like that, Mom and Dorothy looked down at me and said,
"Why don't you stop the war now and make up with the twins?"
I was so resentful and sad that I covered my face with my hands, lay face down on the floor, and cried out loud.
My fight with the twins ended when summer vacation was over and the twins returned to boarding school, and I went to work at Dad's bank.
Even when the fight with the twins was at its peak, I pondered for a long time how a 6-year-old could make money, and finally found a way.
Seeing Dad worrying over a pile of documents he brought from the bank, I approached him, looked at the documents, found parts where the calculations were wrong, and pointed them out. Dad looked at me with surprised eyes.
"You can calculate all this?"
"Of course. Things like this are very easy. Shall I do more?"
Dad showed me all the other documents, and I found and fixed all the calculation errors in them, solving Dad's work immediately.
I fully utilized the calculation ability received as the second perk. Just by reading the documents, the spreadsheet program in my head operated immediately, automatically creating tables, performing calculations, and finding errors instantly without the slightest mistake.
Seeing me find errors in the documents and solve problems he had been agonizing over all day in a single breath, Dad lifted me up in delight.
"Oh, my genius son, Henry! Dad really received huge help from you today. How about it? Don't you want to spare 30 minutes a day to help Dad with his work?"
Hearing that from the side, Mom got angry.
"You're going to make a child who hasn't even entered school work?"
"I'm saying he just needs to help for exactly 30 minutes. Honestly, the most painful thing in bank work is doing the final verification of the day, but if Henry helps, it will be done instantly."
"Still, you can't make the child suffer."
"I'll be watching right next to him, what suffering would it be? You just saw it. He glanced once at what I struggled all day to find and found it immediately. 30 minutes? No, maybe it will be done in 10 minutes. If he helps just a little bit at the end like that, father and son can leave work early together pleasantly. It's not a bad thing for you either."
Mom seemed tempted by the story of Dad coming home early and remained silent. She thought for a moment and said,
"Okay. Instead, you must pay Henry the exact price. Giving a little pocket money won't do. Pay Henry exactly for the work he does."
"Alright, I'll calculate and pay exactly. Since that amount of work would require hiring several verifiers, I'll calculate that and pay."
For me, who was wondering what to do to earn money anyway, it was something I wouldn't dare ask for but earnestly desired.
Like that, around the time Dad's bank was closing, I went to Dad's company and helped with the final calculation adjustments of Dad's bank.
When I appeared at the company and did the final verification work, the employees of Dad's bank would crowd around to watch my calculations.
"Dad, this part is wrong here."
"The result over there says this, but here it's entered differently."
Every time I discovered and pointed out an error in the document's calculation, the watching bankers gasped in surprise and admiration.
"You remember that? You were remembering all these many numbers in your head?"
"No, you even remember numbers from a few days ago?"
"All that gets calculated at once?"
"Vice President, Henry is really a genius, a genius."
Whenever the bankers praised and admired me, Dad shrugged his shoulders with a truly proud expression.
A few days later, I was called to John Pierpont Morgan's office with Dad.
John Pierpont Morgan was a man with a much bulkier build and scarier appearance than I thought. His nose was especially huge, and since it was already big and covered with blisters and scars, he looked even scarier. Dad and others warned me that John Pierpont Morgan had a huge complex about that nose, so I should never mention it.
"Hello, Grandfather. I'm Henry Ford, Aunt Jessie's nephew."
"Hmm, are you that Horse Poop Duke?"
Argh, even the famous J.P. Morgan knows that nickname. Alice, Elena, I will never forget this grudge.
"That was Alice and Elena starting a fight first."
I couldn't dare badmouth his granddaughters in front of John Pierpont Morgan, the greatest financial emperor in human history, so the broad-minded me had to swallow my anger and endure.
As a dignified old man, Mr. Morgan didn't bring up that story anymore and asked about my calculation ability.
"Is it true you have such fast calculation ability?"
"Yes, I didn't know it before, but looking at Dad's documents, I realized I calculate fast."
"You didn't learn anything separately?"
"I learned how to count with twigs when I was in Joseon, but I don't think that has much to do with me being fast at calculation."
"Hmm, listening to your dad and others, it seems you are indeed a genius."
"I don't know about that, but I guess my calculation is faster than others."
"Then, could you help with my work too from now on?"
"Excuse me? I am helping with Dad's work."
"Your dad's bank and our bank are very close. So, couldn't you come to our bank right after finishing work at your dad's bank and help out?"
"I have to get permission from Dad and Mom first. Mom opposed it at first even when I worked at Dad's bank."
John Pierpont Morgan looked at Dad steadily, and although Dad couldn't dare express a negative opinion, he seemed unable to give an immediate affirmative answer without Mom's permission.
"Haha, Pierpont, I also have to get permission from my wife. If I say yes without even asking my wife, she might try to kill me. Of course, I don't oppose it."
"So, it means we just need Laura's permission."
"You should ask for my opinion too."
At my bold remark, Mr. Morgan pushed up his glasses, looked at me, and said,
"Indeed, I should ask the opinion of the most important party first. I apologize, young Ford. So, may I ask your opinion?"
"If Mom doesn't oppose, I'm fine with it too. But you have to pay me a higher salary than Dad. Since it's family service for Dad, I'm receiving less."