Chapter 16

Chapter 16 – Journey to the Capital (3)

"Haha, I brought him because he was sitting outside in the rain."

"Oppa? This isn't our home. It was okay before because our house had plenty of rooms, but we're going to the capital right now. We should be thinking about our finances!”

In contrast to her brother, Alice seemed a bit wiser. She reprimanded Lisbon, then directed her attention at me.

"Hey, you can't just follow people because they tell you to."

Her words made such perfect sense that I was at a loss for a response.

"Haha, don't be mad at him Alice. I brought him over by force. This is Den Mark."

I could tell Alice was close to getting mad as she grabbed Lisbon by his collar.

"Are you kidding me? How many times have you done this? Huh??"

It was regrettable that there was no popcorn as I watched the brother and sister grab each other by their collars. It was always fun to watch a fight as it was very thrilling and always felt like a new experience.

"Oh, hahaha, that's....”

That sucker was trying to count with his hand.

"Whatever!"

Alice loosened her grip and headed straight for the stairs.

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know! I'm going to sleep!"

Alice angrily went up to her room.

"Haha, she's not usually like that. I think she's just tired from the long journey."

I think she's tired of you, not the trip.

"Come sit down for now. What would you like to eat?"

I became really determined not to turn out like him as I watched Lisbon smile and hand me the menu. I could really learn from watching his behaviour. Moreover, it was rude to refuse when someone was offering a favour. I looked at the menu and placed an order.

"Chicken stew and rye bread please."

I actually wanted to eat wheat bread with beef stew, but it was three times more expensive than the chicken stew and rye bread. It was also rude to buy something expensive when someone else was paying for me.

"How is that enough to make you full? Hello? I would like to place an order."

"Yes~~"

"I'd like to order two chicken stews, three rye loaves of bread, stir-fried potatoes, and an omelette, please."

"Yes, please wait a moment."

The waitress received the order and went into the kitchen. The food came out quickly afterwards. It made sense since the food I ordered didn’t take long to cook.

By the way, having the name von in between your name meant that you were a noble. Considering that Lisbon was a noble, he didn’t really spend a lot of money.

As if he had noticed my gaze, Lisbon responded with an awkward smile.

"Haha, actually, I had to spend a lot of money on the way here....”

In short, he had spent too much money trying to help people on the way here.

It was no wonder his sister was mad at him. But let's be thankful since he was buying me food.

I decided to use this opportunity to expand my limited knowledge of the world. "I had something I was curious about."

"What is it?"

"What are the prices in the market like nowadays?"

"What?" Lisbon looked surprised by the unexpected question.

Usually, people would have asked, "Why are you so nice to me?" However, since I already knew it was because he was a sucker, I thought that it would be better to use this relationship to accumulate some knowledge.

"I come from a rural village so we mainly trade through bartering."

It wasn’t just rural, but really really rural. The nearest city from my hometown was at least 1,000km away. A "currency" still existed, but it was mainly by-products from demons or items like dragon's scales. Thanks to this, my pocket space was filled with all kinds of demon and dragon by-products. Of course, I had caught them all myself.

Come to think of it, if I were to sell demon by-products in the market, wouldn't I be able to get my hands on some gold and silver?

I should visit the market again tomorrow to look around. Additionally, if I could find some banks, I could deposit my platinum coins and withdraw them as change.

"I see. It is convenient to know the prices in the market. You know that there are eight kinds of coins: iron, refined iron, bronze, refined bronze, silver, refined silver, gold, and platinum, right?"

Wow, this man’s looking down on me so much!

"Of course!"

"We use a unit called pelk as the base unit. It's an ancient word for shellfish. One iron coin is equivalent to one pelk."

I already knew this information from a book I’d read. I wanted to know more about the prices of daily items, but he was treating me like I knew absolutely nothing.

"A refined iron coin is equivalent to five iron coins, so it’s basically worth five pelks. A bronze coin is worth twice as much as a refined iron coin, so it’s ten pelks. A refined bronze coin is worth five times as much as a refined iron coin, that’s twenty-five pelks."

Lisbon quenched his thirst with water and then continued explaining.

A simple schematic of Lisbon's explanation went like this.

Iron coin = 1 pelk, refined iron coin = 5 pelks, bronze coin = 10 pelks, refined bronze coin = 25 pelks, sliver coin = 2,500 pelks, refined silver coin = 25,000 pelks, gold coin = 250,000 pelks, platinum coin = 25,000,000 pelks.

"Six or seven gold coins are enough to maintain a small territory, so it’s a lot of money.”

Oh, I see. You could maintain a small estate with six or seven gold coins. But I had asked the jewelry shop owner to give me change for a platinum coin.

I'm sorry, jewelry store owner!

"Then what about platinum coins?"

"At least a month's budget for a large territory owned by a count?"

I'm sorry, jewelry store owner!

"Well, a platinum coin is an item of fantasy that a minor noble like me will never encounter. Even for gold coins, there’s only been a handful of times I’ve actually seen one—”

Stop!

My conscience's hp is already zero!

"Since coins more valuable than silver aren't commonly used in real life, I'll just explain the coins that are common."

Lisbon, my pocket space is currently overflowing with platinum coins which you call an item of fantasy.

It seemed that giving away a platinum coin as a gift was more of a nuisance than I thought. I guess I could just pay him back next time if I encountered him by chance.

"This is an iron coin, this is a refined iron coin, and this is a bronze coin."

Lisbon did not carelessly take out coins worth more than a bronze coin. Fortunately, he seemed to have at least that much common sense.

"I would also show you refined bronze coins and silver coins, but my sister keeps all the big money."

Oh my god, are you stupid?

It wasn't that he didn't want to show, but that he couldn't! I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up dying somewhere without his little sister.

"But for ordinary needs, refined iron coins and bronze coins are sufficient."

Lisbon pointed at the spread on the table and said, "It usually takes one or two refined iron coins to have a meal. Five pelks per serving for the chicken stew, one for the rye bread, two for the stir-fried potatoes, and three for the omelettes. In total it is 18 pelks."

It turned out to be 18pelks. How did I end up with this hopeless sucker? Did I really look that pitiful?

"Then how much does it cost to stay at an inn?"

"This inn is maintained quite well, so it takes around ten refined iron coins. Usually, it's about five refined iron coins and I've also seen some places that go for less."

Places that cost less than that probably had substandard quality.

By the way, if you are aware of this, does it mean you've stayed in those places before? That's pretty impressive for a nobleman!

"If we include extra fees such as showers and tips, it'll cost around six refined iron coins and 2 bronze coins for the three of us.

Around six refined iron coins for all three of us. But three? This guy somehow naturally included me in the group.

It was a wise decision for his sister to return to her room first. If she hadn't, she would have probably erupted by now and slapped her brother.

"It’s hard to specify a price for other items since it varies village by village, but in general, one silver coin is the monthly budget for an ordinary family of four."

The monthly budget for a common household was probably a bit lower than what he said since he was from a noble background. Still, if I were calculating this correctly, he said that one silver coin was worth 2,500 pelks, and six gold coins were the monthly maintenance fee for a small territory. This meant that a small territory could hold around 600 to 700 households assuming they were all a family of four.

For a count who had a monthly maintenance fee of one platinum coin, his territory was equivalent to around 10 to 20 smaller territories combined.

"I see. If you don't mind… may I take a look at your identification card?"

I knew that this was a rude question. Asking for his identification card all of a sudden meant that I was suspicious of his identity. But I was helpless in this matter.

I was unable to freely show my identification card since anyone who saw it (although I only showed it to two people so far) would be intimidated and simply lower their heads.

What I wanted was a status that would prevent people from looking down upon me rather than making people bow.

To be honest, I thought Lisbon would get mad at me over this. Instead, he still took out his ID card without showing any signs of anger, which I couldn't phantom no matter how gullible he was.

"Here you go."

He went as far as to just hand it over to me.

What was this situation? Did this guy not know how to be suspicious? Didn’t it occur to him that I could just run away with his ID? Or was he just confident that he could catch me if I tried to run away?

I could understand this guy’s actions if that were the case.

"Thank you."

I got the identification card from him and examined it closely. It was definitely different from my own. It was in the same format, but the size was two times larger. Besides, in contrast to the 15 different magic spells that had been cast on my card to prevent forgery, this card had 10 less than mine.

Still, looking at the address or name written on the ID, it did not seem that much different from other identification cards. It looked as if the material for this card was made out of some ivory or bone.

"The texture of the card feels peculiar, what is it made out of?"

"Well, as far as I know, it's made from ogre-bones. Of course, it's nothing compared to identification cards made out of demon bones reserved for nobles with the rank of count or higher, but it's still ogre-bones.

Lisbon made an exaggerated gesture and continued on explaining.

"It’s still pretty impressive compared to identification cards made out of elephant ivory for nobles at or below the rank of baron, or common identification cards made out of wood.

"Yes, that's pretty impressive."

Ogres... I thought they were so common that you didn’t even need to go hunting for them intentionally.

Wasn’t it harder to cut down a tree near my hometown?

It was hard to cut down those trees even with axes made out of adamantium unless you were imbuing sword aura into your sword.

"Thank you for letting me look at it."

I handed the ID back to Lisbon. I used magic to memorize the form, size, and weight of the card though. I would look through my pocket space later to see if there were any ogre-bones to forge an ID.

While I had been examining the ID, the food on the table had disappeared. All I ate was chicken stew, half a rye bread, half an omelette, and a few stir-fried potatoes.

The guy in front of me had polished off two and a half rye breads as big as his face, as well as chicken stew, and the rest of the stir-fried potatoes. He ate it so cleanly that there didn't seem to be any need to wash the dishes.

He had such a cheap sense of taste, that it made me question whether he was actually a noble.