Volume 3 Chapter 34 That Step Will Likely Be the Prologue to the Story of the God Killer
"...Master, what are you doing? It looks like you're making... a printing press?"
"It's a long story. You got time?"
"Yes."
Inside Horace's workshop in the Hero's manor.
As Rangella said, something that could be called a "printing press" was being built there.
But it was quite large, and clearly not something that could be sold commercially.
"You remember when I made those portable communicators?"
"Yes. There were about a hundred of them, I believe."
"And do you remember Alvaro? The guild master of the S-rank Adventurers Guild 'Parasite,' the guy who built a market system using 'bonds' with a major merchant guild?"
"Ah. He disappeared from the Treasure Capital some time ago, and I had forgotten about him."
Poor Alvaro.
"Apparently, he made it to the royal capital of the Diamante Kingdom, and then he got in touch."
"It reached you!?"
"I didn't think it would either, but somehow it did. And when I heard the story, it seems that shortly after arriving in the royal capital, he was captured by His Majesty Valzeil and grilled with questions."
"H-huh..."
"A few days later, a 'currency bureau' of some kind was created, and he was told by His Majesty to 'plan the creation of a new currency,' which seems to have caused him a lot of trouble."
"...?"
Rangella was having a hard time understanding, with so much being skipped over.
"Ah. Valzeil's reasoning is something like, 'Using the gold coins created by the wedge created by the gods, we can't truly become independent from the gods,' and so he decided to make a new currency."
"I understand what you're saying, but I don't understand why it came to that, Master."
"When I was nagging Silvio at the Church, I said something similar. It seems it reached the royal capital."
"I see."
"The deal was not with actual gold coins, but with contracts. Because of that, it turned into a talk about 'why not just use paper, no need actual coins?' But technically, there was a big problem."
"A big problem?"
"The printing tech isn't good enough. It's a speed issue. They want to make bills worth 1000 Mon on paper for gold coins, and 100 Mon for silver coins..."
"Well, Diamante Kingdom is the biggest country in the world right now. Of course, its economy needs a huge amount of money. Yes, the printing speed isn't enough."
The current system is: 1 gold coin = 10 silver coins = 1000 copper coins.
In other words, silver is worth 100 times copper, and gold is worth 1000 times copper.
Copper coins are taken as 1 Mon each, so this becomes the standard.
...There's no time to waste talking about that!
The main problem is the printing speed!
Diamante Kingdom's yearly national budget is ten million gold coins.
If they wanted to make non-forgable bills with their tech, they would need a small high-quality printing machine made of rare metals.
To print ten bills on one sheet, about ten seconds per sheet is the minimum.
Well, since they have banks, they don't need to carry all that cash physically. But if they wanted to make ten million bills ── simple math ── it would almost take 100 years. That's impossible.
"What about copper coins? And... what exactly is a Mon?"
"They're planning to make a new currency called Mon for copper coins. Diamante is also a nickname for diamonds, so they want to take the name from that, I hear. Apparently, His Majesty thought it up in 20 seconds while in the bathroom."
"Seriously, they should think this through."
"If they'd actually said that out loud, they'd be locked up in the Money Bureau."
"Ah, so that's how it went?"
You shouldn't make careless remarks.
"Then, when the printing speed was totally inadequate, I remembered the communications device we secretly got from the Treasure City's underworld. I knew my number, so I took a risk and tried it. And... it actually worked, I got the message."
"It arrived... just like that? Wow, the device is super advanced. I never thought that small antenna could do so much communication..."
"I thought my eyes were gonna pop out. This is supposed to be a super-ancient magic tool made by 'Zethya Oracion'. Man, that guy must've been something else."
"So, anyway, there's an order, and Master is making a printing press."
"That's right. There's this thing from the 'Great Summoning Era' 1800 years ago called a 'Wheel Turner'. We're trying to recreate it."
Rangella got the gist of it.
"But... actually, does that paper money work okay, Master?"
"Is it about whether people trust it? They might say we can't use anything but coins, right?"
"Exactly."
"Alvaro was saying that for something to be currency, it's not about being metal. It's whether 'you can tax with it'."
"Tax?"
"In short, if you make everyone pay taxes with this paper money called 'Mons', then they'll need to save it."
"Tell me more."
"Imagine if we made paper money and said, 'You can pay taxes with coins too'. No one would need the paper money. Paying taxes is a duty, and if you skip it, you get caught for tax evasion. But if coins are okay, people would just keep doing what they've been doing."
"But if we say 'only Monds', then... oh, I see, that's the idea, huh?"
It's not about how many things use it, or if there's tech to prevent fakes.
When it's time to pay taxes, only Mons are accepted. So, save Monds and pay with them. That's the deal.
"Then, as currency, what about all the coins we used before, Master..."
"Like Alvaro said, they were more like 'processed fuel for bartering'. You know?"
"Fuel?"
"Yeah. If you want fire, you use wood and flint, right? Using a magic tool and monster coins to make fire is the same thing."
"Yeah, makes sense. Certainly 'fuel'. It's for using magic tools, not for bartering."
"Well, until now, we've been taxing to operate large magic tools, but from now on, if you earn monster coins, you'll receive Mond as a reward based on the amount, and the coins will be funneled to where the large magic tools are located."
"So, what we've been treating as 'currency' will now be seen as 'just fuel'? No, wait, we've been seeing it as both 'fuel' and 'currency,' but now it'll be seen as 'fuel only'?"
Rangella nodded.
"Alvaro. He's a genius."
"I was shocked when I heard it too. How does someone who creates a system like that even think...?"
Using cash for transactions is something anyone visiting town would do. But when you dig deeper, it often goes against human intuition.
"...Well, there's something even more surprising."
"What is it?"
"Ah, remember I said this unique currency idea came from Valzeil?"
"Right."
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