A Gold Coin

"Oh, you don't need to," Tiasha says.

"Please, let me. I don't like to be helped. I have taken enough advantage of your kindness, already," I say.

Tiasha looks at me for a second, and she chuckles. "Well, in that case, sure."

"Thank you."

I look into my pouch. There's quite a large sum, in quantity, at least. I have no concept of the different coins' values. The most expensive-looking one is made of gold, so I take one out and hand it to Tisha.

Her brown eyebrows raise as she looks at it.

"A gold coin!" She exclaims.

That was not the reaction I expected from her.

"Is there anything wrong with it?" I ask.

"Y-Yeah," Tiasha says while holding the coin in both of her hands like it's some sort of fragile gemstone, "I have never seen this much money before."

A gold coin? I had toilets made of gold in my house on Earth.

"Really?"

I look down again, and there are about five or six of them in the pouch. I lean down to Astra and whisper, "How do currencies work in this world?"

"Dummy, how do you not even know that?" Astra says while lifting her hand to demonstrate, "It goes iron, copper, silver, gold, and platinum, with each one worth 100 of the previous one."

"So a gold coin isn't worth that much."

Tiasha overhears me and says, "Maybe not for a city bishop, but for us elves in a remote village like Alventyr, a gold coin can buy the wheat farms!"

What? That is wealth disparity on a level I have never heard of. Okay, maybe I am not the one to talk. I owned the Bahamas.

"Um… that should cover for the inn room, right?" I ask.

Tiasha looks up at me with wide eyes, as if not understanding me correctly.

"Y-You are going to pay for it with this gold coin?" She asks.

"I didn't know it was worth this much. What were you going to ask for?"

"Maybe 10 iron coins? That's about all those clothes are worth."

Ah, is that so?

"Well, I can't go back on my word now," I say.

"Yes, yes you can. I can't take this," Tiasha says.

"Just… call it a donation to the village, alright?"

"Are you really giving this to us?"

I nod firmly.

Tiasha's face brightens up and says, "Oh, I can't thank you enough! With this, the girls like Faye won't have to work so hard anymore!"

This is probably my first donation without an ulterior motive. It's a good feeling.

"Don't worry about it. Speaking of Faye, where is she right now?" I ask.

"Faye? Oh, she is still hunting. Now is around the time when the deers are most active."

"I see. Well, if you don't mind, we will get changed and join the festival."

"Of course," Tiasha says with a wide grin.

I turn to Lohikaarmi and Astra. "Let's go back up upstairs real quick."

"Sure," Astra says, and Lohikaarmi nods.

Hm, it looks like my habit of overspending has followed me here.

I grab the clothes on the counter and head for the stairs. On my way, I see the group of elves from before staring at me with dumbfounded faces. It seems that they have overheard my exchange with Tiasha.

We enter our room once again. It's completely dark now. Only the lights outside the window can be seen. Cisca probably put a night vision feature into the comms lens, but I don't see the need. There is a lamp on the table, and I have a fire dragon.

"Lohikaarmi, light that lamp for me," I say to her.

"Yes, Master." She walks toward the desk and opens up the glass casing.

Lohikaarmi blows bright flames out of her mouth. The lamp catches the embers and lights up.

"Good," I say, "Now get changed, the both of you."

I toss them each a set of clothes. They are more like tablecloths than actual clothes, but seeing that all the other elves are wearing the same thing, there's no problem to it.

Astra catches the clothes and shrugs her shoulders. Her loose "robe" falls right off in front of me.

Oh god. I turn around to avoid my gaze, and they land right on Lohikaarmi, who is in the process of squeezing herself out of the chest plate.

"Hey, can you…"

"What?" Astra asks.

I sigh. "Never mind."

I head to the corner of the room and stare at where the walls meet. At least I have the Exosuit underneath.

Thank God Cisca isn't still here.

Soon, I set the armor pieces on the ground and put on the elven clothes.

"Are you two done?" I ask with my back against them.

"Yep."

"Yes, Master."

I turn back around. Both of them are wearing a one-piece dress. Astra's is way too big for her. The sleeves extend inches past her hands. As for Lohikaarmi, it fits pretty well, just a little… tight around certain parts, revealing curves that not a single elf comes close to possessing.

Mine are perfectly comfortable, just a tunic and pair of trousers.

"Let's head back out," I say.

"To do what?" Astra asks.

"The town is holding a festival."

"For me?"

What? Why would… oh, right. How did I forget that she is the divine being Terradivina worships? Actually, it's not "how did I forget?", it's more like "how is it possible?"

"No, it's for Lohikaarmi," I say.

Astra looks at the redheaded girl.

"The Dragon Queen?" She asks.

"Yeah. How do you know?"

"Well, I was the one who gave her the blessing of intelligence and human transformation."

A blessing? The thing Faye was talking about? Does that apply to dragons?

"I heard blessings are random," I say.

"The minor ones are, but I personally choose the major ones," Astra says.

"Does that mean… there are more like Lohikaarmi?"

"No, stupid, why would I have two dragon queens?" Astra says, "I gave a blessing so she can reign over the other dragons to keep them in check."

That makes sense, I suppose, but I don't like this brat's tone.

"Why does this world need a reign over the dragons?" Lohikaarmi asks.

Astra thinks about it for a second and says, "…You know, this mortal brain doesn't do a good job at holding my infinite wisdom, so there isn't much I remember, but I think it was to stop the dragons from running amok on the humans and elves."

Huh, that clearly didn't work out that well considering what Lohikaarmi was doing when I first saw her.

There is a pause of silence.

"So, my purpose is to protect the people?" Lohikaarmi speaks up.

"I guess you can say that."

Lohikaarmi turns her head and gazes out the window at the elves preparing for her own festival. There are deep thoughts behind her purplish-blue eyes. I wonder what she is feeling right now, for one to be faced with the purpose for which they were created. A faint curve appears at the tip of Lohikaarmi's mouth on her ever-so-blank face.

Is she… smiling?

"Shall we go ahead?" I ask.

"Yes, Master."